Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 08, 2021

“Hey, I paid for that microphone out of my own pocket. Now you gonna get it!!”

Good morning™, everyone!

It’s an interesting new arrangement of panels. Congratulations to Team Tracy for originality. The question is, who is the “Auggh!” from? It doesn’t look good for Aquarius.

“Don’t worry folks, it’s just a flesh wound!”

Alex: “Paper cut! Paper cut!”

Good morning™, accidental self wounders !

I’m gonna go with the knife deflecting off the metal tray back at Oscar. The flying mic only has one person’s prints on it. Is this the door to the bedroom or the whole suite that shadows Dick and Sam ?  If they are in the hallway they’ll need a key or some raw brute force to get in by which time we will have a victor. Peggy and Kelly may be starting to stir.

Love the use of the horizontal panels to really accentuate that Oscar is going all-in on the knife-through-the-heart kill shot. Kudos, Joe — very cinematic with the close-up, too!!

Huh! How’d they manage to put a Wilhelm Scream into a comic strip?

Great ink work on that close-up of the hand holding the knife. it almost looks real.

Did Oscar land his knife thrust, past Aquarius’s improvised shield? Or did Cheesecake’s drug habit, allow her to wake up in time to hit Oscar from behind?

I do like the way today’s strip was laid out — very cinematic, and a good use of suspense.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Wow, dramatic and exciting, who will win the fight?

Tracy is about to bring a gun to a knife fight!

Oscar’s not gonna make that flight to Bogota…

The last two days of strips have occurred during the time that it took Tracy and Sam to ride the elevator from the lobby to the penthouse.

Cmon, if you DON’T know by now that Oscar somehow managed to “fall on the knife” then I got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you…and it’s cheap too

Those figure shadows look like Tracy and Ketchum…too late for whoever is at the receiving end of the knife!

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Say what you will about Dick Tracy, but if you want to see a guy in a suit stabbing a hippie in major newspapers, this comic strip is your only option.

What will tomorrow bring? Tracy or Sam on their two-way wrist radio " Send an EMS unit to Executive Suite"…what’s name of this hotel? One of the combatants will be placed under arrest. When Mr.Bellum gets word of what happened….“Oscar….you’re fired”!

1-NARKY MARK: LET ME HIT YOU WITH SOME FLOWER POWER

2-OSCAR: I BOUGHT THOSE FLOWERS YOU FIEND!

3-KNIFE: I hate it when I’m used in a crime instead of my intended use as a peaceful cheese cutter…

4-SAM: YOU HEAR THAT? CALL FOR BACKUP!

DT: NO WAY! In fact, why don’t you wait in the lobby lest someone think I’ve gone soft. Now move away while I KICK IT IN!

SAM: But you have a key…

DT: I SAID I DON’T WANT ANYONE TO THINK I’VE GONE SOFT, DAMIT!!!

….I’ve got it narrowed down to one of two sources…..orrrrrr…….one of ’em stepped on a cockroach that got underfoot…..

Alex about to go all “El Kabong” with a room service tray on our boy Oscar.

Tracy WILL NOT save the day, he never does. Someone else will intervene.

in a no holds barred fight like this, NOTHING is off the table. go for the family jewels Aquarius!

In seeing the shadows of Dick and Sam reminded me of Ray Stevens’ song :“Along Came Jones” 8>DIt is hilarious !

On the serious side… I have been enjoying the story line and the artwork… The art is more serious and sober and less “cartoonish” and it’s great that there are no “over the top” villains in this story… Just normal crooks and killers and a great storyline !

Let’s have more of them !

I don’t see Oscar’s motivation here. In Saturday’s strip, he was anticipating Mr. Bellum getting the family fortune, Alex going to prison, and he, himself, going to Bogota. Now, I can’t imagine why he would want to go to Bogota anyway, but if Peggy’s demise causes her brother to get all of the money, then what does Oscar get out of it besides a murder rap?

Oscar did show up late in the story to function as the “prime villain,” but this week proves that when Joe & Mike decide to do a straight-out action sequence they can still deliver thew goods. Kudos to the team,

Whoever survives, they’re not getting past Tracy and Sam.

Great combat! Art that carries the almost-textless scene. And as the portentous shadows of Tracy and Sam fall on the suite’s door, a cry from within, AUGGH!, leaves us all on tenterhooks, wondering what has happened to whom.

Who’s up, who’s down in the fight for the family jewels and/or honor? —Stay tuned to this Tracy channel!

If there’s justice, somehow Aquarius managed to fend off Oscar’s attack and Oscar fell, imbedding the knife deep in his chest…..