Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 23, 2021

Good morning™, witnesses of wrath!

Tiger Lilly is just lucky that it was only the arm of the chair and not his own arm! Where is Aquarius having him brought for two or three days?

Good morning™, solitary confinement inmates !

Looks to me he could be going into a dank confined situation with no food or drink. In the old Tracy he would have at least gotten a knot on his bean.

Next panel: “I’m gonna test your reflexes. I don’t have a little rubber hammer, just this one, so it may hurt a little…”

Interesting that the censors have allowed a bit of violence to return to the once rock-em sock-em world of Dick Tracy.

“You don’t know who you’re dealing with!”

Hmm…I wonder what kind of organization is waiting for the info in that blue balloon? Do we have a possible gang war brewing?

I really enjoying this arc!

! WOW ! This is getting really good . And great images again today . And when are we going to find out what is in the BLUE Balloon ? And in panel three what is the shade on his face ? Yesterday it was al black , strange what is going on here .

To the basement, by the spiders and boogeyman.

This arc is finally picking up steam again, but meanwhile Tracy and Auntie Bellum have run off to Vegas together….

Finally, a story line that seems to have some mystery to it.

Love the dialogue. 1) “Who do you work for?” 2) “I’ll never tell.” 1) “Who do you work for?” 2) Then the threat…. “You don’t know who you’re dealing with.” 1) Well, isn’t that what he keeps asking about?

1-NARKY MARK: SPIDER! GOT IT!

2-FRENCHY: There twern’t no spider! NARKY: Was too! See? There’s its guts…

3-…I probably saved your life from deadly spider venom. That means you owe me a life.

MOTORHEAD MOE: YOU BETTER JUST AGREE WITH HIM, BUDDY, OR THE NEXT SPIDER HE SEES WILL BE IN THE MIDDLE OF YOUR FOREHEAD. I LEARNT THAT THE HARD WAY AND NOW I DON’T HEAR SO GOOD. OR SEE SO GOOD. OR THINK SO GOOD. A-YUP.

May I take it he doesn’t shut him up with a giant spider? ;)

I’m betting he’s going to get to meet Auntie Bellum…

Downstairs in the basement….everyone else sleeping through all of this action…oh well…it’s not like they can hear anything.

Hopefully Dick will return to celebrate his 90th anniversary this October.

Will the “cavalry” arrive in time? No, not Tracy and company but those figures in the after-hours club where Pouch was making his phone calls.

Maybe Pouch will learn a lesson from this… Pouch: " I need to change my base of operations from the park. Did I need the money that bad to sell the balloons to the hippie guy"? Then I would have had to explain to those police officers why I wouldn’t sell them to him. Then the hippie guy can charge me with discriminating against him on the account of how he was dressed. I just can’t catch a break. Now the customer for the blue balloon is ticked off at me. Let me pack a suitcase…I need to catch a Greyhound bus out of this city.

Not the grimoire I half-expected (I had been thinking back to when I saw The Hustler, and how they only broke his thumbs). But I guess the syndicate has its limits on how much a guy with a hammer can do on screen.

Now, “Bring him!” where? Will he be fed to Auntie Bellum (hey, for all we know, she could be a Hannibal Lector wannabe)? Will he be taken down to the sub-sub-basement torture chamber? Will he be taken for a ride and left trussed up out in the frigid park? What? And why is “who” so important, while the Blue Balloon just slowly fizzles….

Today’s artwork is the best! Joe’s intense characterizations, Shelley’s powerful yet refined inking, even the spiked outline of the word balloon in panel 2. Bravo!

Don’t let him get away! He stole Dick’s old nose!

Tiger Lily, meet Clyde. Clyde, meet Tiger Lily. I am sure you two will get to know each other. Bye!

“Cardinal Biggles! Bring the comfy chair!”

I guess for Aquarius every problem is a nail

This is one cat that needs to be put to sleep. Tough talk that goes nowhere unless Pouch knows where to start looking and better be doing it real soon.