Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 20, 2022

Vitamin so uninformed. He did not have a clue

About the past of Tonsils. The evil he did do.

Bonehead sap caught in a trap set out by Mr. Crime

Sang a song. Dot View done wrong. Could not clean off the grime.

Blackmailed was he. Soon did he see through telescopic scope

His target was Dick Tracy so soon Tonsils lost all hope.

Mr. Crime was not sublime, just violent, crass and rude

Took offense that Tracy lived. Made Tonsils fresh fish food.

End was grim. No chance to swim away from barracuda

As he was being torn apart tossed up a prayer to Buddha.

That was then and this is now. See Tracy is offended

Likes to say, “Crime does not pay,” yet hates how Tonsils ended.

Good morning™, everyone!

Evidently, Tracy doesn’t appreciate being reminded of the guy who tried to kill him. Clearly, Vitamin didn’t do nearly enough research for taking on this new act. I wonder what his next step will be.

Year number four

Since Morrow walked out the door

And bid us all adieu

And though time marches on

We developed a bond

Greater than the mightiest glue

The laughs and the tears

The smiles and the sneers

The people of Tracyville would bring

Day in and day out

Said softly or with a shout

Our comments a song we would all sing

I miss you my friend

From morning till day’s end

Your presence over here has been missed

I’ll always try

To be like a Morrow guy

Who causes others to cheer or to hiss

Thinking of you my friend

I am really tired of Mr. 6 arms. WE GET THE POINT! HE MOVES HIS ARMS FAST!!

There are people who still say “high-powered rifle” unironically? Stick around, Tracy, the next act is based on a guy who tried to kill you with a “fully semi-automatic weapon” loaded with high-capacity “clips.”

Good for you, Tracy! Vitamin’s been an annoying character for I don’t know how long. He was long overdue for something like this.

“To be fair Tracy, almost everyone has tried to shoot you at one time or another.”

Wow, Tracy’s caught such a hissy fit the knobs fell off his wrist radio. LOL!

What an ingrate!

Vitamin treats him to a show and Tracy starts freaking out.

What a crybaby.

I would think a portion of the readership here agrees with Tracy. Offended and ready to leave.

For all we know, the Tonsils knock-off might yet be the villain, even though we have yet another blast from the past, Coffeyhead. Or something like that.

For all the weakness of the Yeti story, it was still better than what appears to be around the corner for us.

To be fair, the Yeti story wasn’t all that bad, either. Its worst points were:

Yeti didn’t get caught, so he can conveniently (inconveniently for Wichita) be recalled in future

And that Yeti, like Tonsils and Coffeyhead, are villains that either can’t stay dead or find someone to take their places in the present.

In the end, the last few years, Dick Tracy has been little more than a trip down memory lane.

Is that what it’s supposed to be?

Good morning™, disgusted detectives !

I think today’s is a good one and Shelley came through with an excellent rendering of an angry Tracy. :-)

Now you do Vitamin…

Maybe the band name is the Baristacudas, to tie this in with the Coffyhead story.

Tracy got triggered, and now he’s off like a shot, barreling out of the room. Too many beers, he’s hammered.

Shelley’s illustrations here are clearly standouts. Shane Fisher’s colors are quite good, too.

No problem with this storyline, so far.

Tonsils vas very briefly in vogue decades ago. Why VItamin should think his clone would bea hit in the present time is beyond me.

I do not think I saw Tracy offended before! Finding out the backstory was good, though.!

Eaten by a barracuda, huh? Well, this ain’t the end. Tracy saw him again, and today, he had to turn his heart away.

It isn’t often Tracy gets mad. Poor Vitamin.

Tracy obviously is not happy.

This is sort of refreshing, having Tracy get irritated, rather than just going along with Vitamin’s latest silliness.

If “Dick” is such a thin-skinned whiner about a guy who is IMITATING one of the thousands(?) of people who have wanted him dead it is time to get out the business and take his Cancel Culture hissy fit with him.

Phone scammers can be undone by voice mail. Don’t answer the phone…

Tracy’s pouty face in panel 3 is great.

I have never seen Tracy that upset.

You don’t often see this side of Dick Tracy’s temper, especially toward an old acquaintance.

Tracy, living up to his first name

I’ma thinking…being a producer/director, and having a friend in law enforcement, Vitamin should have done some research on who was being portrayed in his stage production. After all, I gather this multi-armed Tonsils was a known criminal, correct? So run-ins with Tracy would be documented or….how about asking Tracy, Vitamin?

I’m with Tracy here. Even if Vitamin didn’t knows that has to be too much for him. He’s a human being after all.

1-DRUMMER DUDE: After years of playing for drinks with this stiff, we’re finally gonna GET PAID!

2-VITAMIN: Good heavens, Richard…er, Diiii…I CAN’T SAY IT. Anyway, why the pouty face, Sugar?

DT: That song was a hit and it made a fortune.

3-VITAMIN: Yes, and… DT: I WROTE IT AND NEVER GOT A DIME! WORSE, when I tried to insist that I be paid, Tonsils tried to KILL ME!

4-DT: After that, I never again played my kazoo! And when speaking, I always take the time to make sure no two words rhyme – like a lyric! That’s how badly this all affected me!

5-VITAMIN: “Time” and “Rhyme”…well, they rhy…

DT: SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP! YEARS OF THERAPY WASTED BECAUSE OF YOU!!!

♫ GROOM YOUR POODLE! GROOM YOUR POODLE! ♫

It’s hard to believe Vitamin didn’t know who shot Tracy. He was not found for days and presumed dead. It would be all over the news. Vitamin would ask his friend, what happened. Dementia came for Vitamin, maybe he needs some minerals too

Here’s hoping the singer can afford some new lyrics next week!

I still haven’t figure out if Tonsils has six arms, or a bad case of Parkinson’s…….

And yet Diet Smith can send a drone back into time to when the real Flattop first got off the train in Chicag – er, I mean, Tracytown, and he’s like, “meh…”

Wow, Tracy shows real emotion…..a side we rarely see!

Dick Tracy provides his own exposition for all those sad folks who follow his comic but don’t read the Tracy comments section here at the goComics funny pages. What a guy!

Lunch with Morrow revisited.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/gweedo_murray/16017073483/in/album-72157648695462093/

Uh-oh. Vitamin has raised Richard’s hackles, and that’s not good for either of them. Vitamin really should have known about the Bad Blood between Tracy and Tonsils, and I am shocked, shocked I tell you, that he didn’t, resulting in today’s huge faux pas.

Meanwhile, Given that the Tonsils impersonator is not given a name after so many days of facetime in the strip, I am more inclined than ever to see him as a prop, cannon fodder for the real villain (Coffyhead?) of the piece, and without real import to the story except as an oddity who is likelly to become a victim, dead fish dead.

On one last note: while in general I applaud Shelley’s mostly excellent art work, I am still perturbed that Tracy’s fedora so often seems too small for him; today is IMO particularly egregious in that matter, the burr under my saddle….

I miss Vista Bill

Vitamin knows this guy is imitating Tonsils, so he knows about Tonsils, but he doesn’t know about Tonsil’s history with Tracy? Explain, please.

Have Ape and Ferret chase down and rob a bakery truck and steal all the cupcakes! (I know too silly)!