Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 11, 2021

All is swell that ends so well. Now justice shall be served

Embezzler. Dealer. Trafficker. Most got what they deserved.

No Bogota for Oscar, who skimmed up so much cream

In a spartan prison cell. His life now a bad dream.

Age of Aquarius at an end. Farewell distinctive threads

Auntie gave away her digs. She eases off her meds.

Tiger gets no mulligan. Manslaughter involuntary

Has time to contemplate his deed locked up in solitary.

Ty receives a lighter touch. Penalty for that lid

Pouch now limps away unscathed. Few know what he did.

Harsh punishment was meted out for blue balloon delayed

Pouch walks the earth in gratitude that he was spared, not slayed.

I wonderful end to this case!

Then the charity sold the property to Stephan and it all worked out.

So this case is finally over. I hope they don’t give us one of those Minute Mysteries for the next two weeks.

Ah, how sweet

The story is complete

The end has arrived

Is anyone really surprised

Sure we had more weeks

Hills, valleys and peaks

Characters that were new

And balloons the color blue

But after all was done and said

And this story was put to bed

The train it sprung a leak

The ending again was weak

And off the rails it went

Despite the noblest intent

A six is the final score

It wasn’t a total bore

By the way, in case anyone is interested I compose my poems starting at 1:05 am est when the strip first appears in the East coast. I don’t cheat like others who prepare it an hour in advance by going to other sites and getting a head start. LOL!

This was the best case in a long time. Hope this is the start of a trend.

Kinda sad to see it end. For me the best case in years.

Good morning, reunited friends and incarcerated villains !

I knew since a ways back that Tim and Peggy would wind up friending again. They all look like they are where they should be except that dirty dog Pouch who slips through the wire yet again.

Good morning™, summationists!

For now, a few impressions of today’s concluding strip:

It’s good that they wrapped up some loose threads, but they actually seem to have introduced a couple of new ones. Pouch’s client was “invisible” but his shooter wasn’t. What does that mean? Does it mean that the guy who took the hand-off of the balloon wasn’t the actual client? Maybe he was a go-between hired specifically to shoot Pouch. I would have liked a clearer explanation as to what that line actually means.

Oscar: “… but he won’t walk for assault and attempted murder.” I find that a little confusing. Does that mean he won’t be prosecuted for embezzling, but only for assault and attempted murder. If so, I wonder why. I suppose the remark that he was a serial embezzler means that he was embezzling from more than just Auntie Bellum.

I’m actually a little surprised that all the residents of the house are charged with drug possession or trafficking. Mr. Wildman said (February 3) that he suspected that most of the new people at the house were users, so I figured there were probably still some of the old people there and that not all of the new people were necessarily users. The police, apparently, think otherwise.

It’s nice to see Peggy with Tim Wildman, but I don’t remember every seeing that woman behind Peggy before. It seems a bit strange to me to be introducing a new character in the last frame of the story. I wonder who she is. Tim’s wife, maybe?

Overall, I have to say that I’ve really liked this story. There were no crossover characters from other comics, the characters were a little more three-dimensional in personality than the ones in really short stories, and I think that Tracy did a fair amount of investigating, even if some readers wish he would have done more. I will have to verify, but I believe that this is the third longest story that the current Team Tracy has done. I hope they do more like it, and there’s no reason they can’t do even better.

Does anyone know the significance of the first panel, the peace symbol over a hill of grass? Or is it just a case of the artist being artistic?

I agree, this has been an entertaining and involving story, with many twists and turns- and some comic relief with B.O. and Gertie! Glad to see wrap-up details, too. But I still want to know more about Pouch’s activities.

A regular rogue’s gallery of “who’s who.” Now, can anyone tell us what’s what, and what’s when?

What about Cheesecake? For that matter, it seems like it would be hard to charge any resident for possession when they weren’t there when the cops showed up.

Called it. Sweatbox ending.

Not that the story wasn’t engaging and all the other stuff Neil said.

But the core of the story was problematic, as demonstrated by the summary, that all the residents of the Timothy Leary house were charged as druggies. Indeed, that was my complaint from the beginning: All druggies are bad and all hippies are druggies.

Also unsatisfying: Peggy donates the house to charity. I can’t think of a better way to hand the house and property over to developers – the very thing I thought she and Alex were trying to avoid.

But now, with 20/20 hindsight, “I give up” was indeed the train wreck ending this story, and it is time for moving on.

I promised artsyguy65 that I would try to hunt down a sample strip that Mike posted showing his pencil layout. Someone asked him if he could post a sneak peek of his (at the time, upcoming) new character, Morning Gloria.

He replied, “I can post my pencil versions of her, but she might look different when Joe gets to her,” and then “Remember, these are MY pencils, not Joe’s. Joe may change her look before we get to print.” This is Mike’s pencil of the strip with the final published strip below it for comparison.

http://worldofdt.info/img/20110808stages.png

You can learn quite a lot by just comparing the two, but I’d like to make note of a few things. Some comics writer’s type their dialogue, but Mike seems to write it by hand, storyboard style.

There were a few minor changes in the dialogue, but there is one thing that is quite interesting. Sometimes, Shelley misreads Mike’s handwriting. The greenhouse owner was supposed to be George Decopolis (corrected from Decapolis here), but it ended up being printed as “Decopolus” because the “LI” was misread as a “U”.

The first panel was mirrored to improve the sequential placement of the word balloons, but the composition is otherwise essentially the same as Mike wrote it. Joe’s pencils are much more detailed and precise than Mike’s storyboard sketch, but Joe’s pencil art for this strip was not posted (and hadn’t even been drawn yet at the time).

A bit abrupt in my opinion, at least one if not two days to go before this. Being that the we should’ve got an extra day at the hotel and or questioning and charging.

Happy end for Mr. Bellum. But just for her.

Not the usual Shoot ‘Em Up but good policing none the less. The story dragged in places; but I’m gad to see things resolved.

Great wrap-up! Can’t believe we actually got a full-length story with violent bad guys, real crimes, sub-plots and all the loose ends tied up (except for who shot Pouch, which can be answered later in another story). I really enjoyed the story, even though I didn’t expect to.

Well a fine ending to the case.

Mammy and Pappy Yokum?

A very good story, but I wish it didn’t wrap up so quickly. Some dialogue between Tracy and Aquarius, or Auntie Bellum and Aquarius would have given it more closure.

and she couldn’t be any happier.

Oh, come on Dick. It’s just you and your old partner. Stop using last names, and, titles. When it’s just the two of you, it should be Dick, and, Pat.

1-DT: With online Sport Betting sites such a hit, it was just a matter of time before a “GUILTY OR NOT” website showed up.

CHIEF: Yeah, yeah. Just give me the craic, boy-o. Me wee one needs a new pair-o-shoes!

DT: OK. We got Frenchy with a dead body on tape. Go with GUILTY. AND for a better pay-off, go with FIRST DEGREE MURDER. I think I can “convince” Mel T. Face to testify to that…

2-…Now this moron – I’d definitely lay big money on a GUILTY for embezzling. And maybe make a long shot bet on 20 to Life due to extenuating circumstances.

3-CHIEF: But what about Attempted Murder? DT: That’s a SUCKERS BET. The best witness for that is a drug dealer. I’d be surprised if the prosecutor even brought those charges but if he does – NOT GUILTY.

4-DT: Speaking of, a GUILTY verdict is guaranteed for drug dealing for Narky with me testifying against him But because of that, it won’t pay off much. As for Moe, I suspect the prosecutor won’t charge him for anything more than Visiting A Public Nuisance. No money in that.

CHIEF: Tis a grand lot of tips, me boy but they better not go arseways. I ain’t had a win in donkey years.

5-DT: Well, instead of gambling, you could instead make a legitimate investment in Oklahoma Tex’s new Elder Care Facility which was formerly an organic farm. He only has one client but he’s charging her a fortune.

CHIEF: Don’t care. But keep an eye on it. I think we’ll be seeing him on GUILTY OR NOT on a swindling charge soon.

Instead of trashing Mike’s balloon gimmick, give it some respect: Mike needed a code only an over-the-hill hippie with UV lights might stumble over without Pouch realizing it. So we have loads of material for another story: who passed the code to Pouch to sell; who shot Pouch; what crime was the code key to; and will Alex try to sell his knowledge about the operation?

Cool

This storyline ran on a bit too long – how many weeks was it?

I think this is the first time since I started following on Go Comics, where a Dick Trace case (excluding “Minit Mysteries” which I think of as comic relief (no pun intended)) had a clean wrap up, with out a reference to the next case hidden in the action.

After a long, long story line, with a flood of characters, it is all wrapped up in just 5 panels! Hmmmmmmmm?

I’m still wondering about the story involving the notorious “blue balloon.” What was that all about?

So Pouch goes back to selling balloons and continues to be an information broker

What happened to the balloon that was getting all kind of arrows pointed to it? Story got so long artists got lost. Maybe next arc will have some fresh freaky like characters and something that might put Dicko and friends in Jeopardy. Please, no Minit Mystery, crossover or retreads.

I wonder where the usual display screens, with the unusual curved sides, have disappeared to. Up to now, they have always been the means of projecting an enlarged image of whoever the cops are currently talking about.

Great wrap-up by Nick & some other commentators. I generally agree that overall this was one of Mike & Joe’s better narrative efforts in the past few years, although it could have been tightened up a bit. I’m still wondering why so much narrative time was spent on Pouch & the blue balloon, maybe it was just a plot device to get Auntie Bellum out of the commune & into the hotel room where Oscar could try to off her, but that Oscar plot line could have taken place back at the commune, seems to me. Will we ever see a resolution of Pouch & his shooter? Honestly, when it comes to resolving dangling plot lines down the road Joe & Mike do not have a great track record. Still, tis was an enjoyable Tracy tale.

That’s a wrap!

Thanks to Tracy and Chief Patton (and Mike and Joe and all Team Tracy) for taking this Sunday to tidy up the dangling bits of this excellent story!

I’m glad that Miss Bellum ended up with good company!