Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 10, 2022

Escaped the bad game. Now feeling love’s flame. Sponge away the blot

Youthful ambition. Newfound contrition. “Tonsils” takes his shot.

A memorable dance. A second chance? Dot now dares to dream

Dreams may come true. Yet trouble brews. What is this evil scheme?

Danger not far when the door’s ajar. Fools dare to rush in

Offer of work. Dangers lurk. To be hasty such a sin.

Famous last words take flight like birds. “I can handle this”

Sordid blackmail. The threat of jail. Thoughts of Dot’s last kiss.

“He thinks you could get in on the ground floor.” Or be part of it.

The Ajax on Eighth Street is where Shaky ambushed Snowflake and Vitamin.

I do not think Matt can handle what Coffyhead is going to throw at him

Why does Vitamin call him Tonsils? I am sure Vitamin knows Matt’s the name.

Vitamin adores Mysta… has her magazine cover framed.

Anything life throws at him. Hmmmm… He’s never dealt with a mad Coffyhead before.

Good morning™, everyone!

The posters are all from productions that we’ve seen in the strip in recent years, The Tempest, Arsenic and Old Lace (on the left above the red couch), and Metropolis (behind Vitamin’s desk).

Also behind him (seemingly with it very own desk lamp) is a picture of Vitamin’s baby boy, little Kane Flintheart, who we haven’t seen any sign of since he was born.

The other two pictures on the wall seem to be Vitamin in his younger days. In one of them, I think he’s holding an award which the woman may have just presented to him.

Seems like an extremely elaborate scheme just to ground up your former employee. Coffiedude will regret it.

In other news Mattie got so excited he took his shirt off in the last panel! LOL!

Good morning™, I called it !!!

…The slip of paper with an address being passed in P. 3. :-)  This kid only sampled what he thinks he can handle. He aint seen nuthin yet.

One of the things I like best about this story is its simplicity and the multitude of narrative perspectives Mike Curtis has allowed his readers to have. Each of his characters inclusion in this story is neither excessive or under-used. And they all perform their narrative roles to the t. Curtis has given us a very good display of seeing Dick

He can handle anything, that’s a bold statement and he’s about to find that out!

…Tracy characters do what they do best..commit crime and fight crime…squabbling and struggling with themselves along the way. Maybe Mr. Curtis has given these characters an extra dimension of believability, consequently. These characters are not profound, nor were they meant to be. But they are human, even though some are set to implausible extremes. I say this because how many of us know people in our life that do ridiculously irrational or foolish things and then repeat their seemingly self-destructive patterns without consideration, despite falling flat on their faces? Tonsils 2 and Dot View’s romance is utterly inane. But for many people who engage in romantic relationships, logic is not an essential thing for them, good or bad. Mike is forcing us to decide if his characters’ sense of self is worth more than the date or destiny awaiting them. And he depicts them so in such plain and comical terms. But the tragic consequences that Tracy’s characters here are involved with are not funny necessarily, but are gothically and almost brutish rendered. If Dot and Tonsils 2’s love affair fails, it will fail by Coffeehead’s evil and violent hands. This l think is in line with the Dick Tracy mythology.

“…fate or destiny…” it should read. This Word program needs some improvement. Night.

“…brutishly rendered…” it should read. That one is my fault. Apologies.

PS- If Dot and Pseudo-Tonsils’ courtship does work out, then maybe we’re inane…LOL. Or maybe fate, destiny and love are simply too complex and powerful for us to grasp? But this is just a comic strip after all.

It’s a trap!

The famous last words!

Vitamin hands Matt a business for the MOKA nightclub… A: Coffyhead’s cover story is too elaborate to believe – printing fake cards! B. Coffyhead really has nightclub connections in addition to coffee and drugs. C. The card belongs to a client (of the drug trade?) and Java face is using it. D: Other. (please explain) _______________________________________________

Vitamin has a really nice office!

I wonder if Vitamin will get his “Tonsils” out?! Agreed good story so far!

lets test that theory. (evilly laughs) :D

Wanna BET? I sense that ‘strain’ bit foretells issues ahead.

Ad, hey, clandestine meetings in places under reconstruction/refurbishment ALWAYS go so well. I remember this episode of THE UNTOUCHABLES…

I like all the details of Vitamin’s office and on his desk. Thanks for taking the time.

Famous last words

cue the ominous music

….except lead pipes, blackjacks, brass knuckles, machetes, bullets, stuff like that…..

1-VITAMIN DEFICIENCY: Ticket please. ASTRO: No boss. This is your office. You wanted to see me?

2-VITAMIN: OH YES! I have a bonus for you…

3-…A TICKET TO MY NEXT SHOW!

ASTRO: FOR OPENING NIGHT! So, I’ll get to see it before it closes! That’s great!

4-VITAMIN: Stick with me, lad! I’ll give you the moon and the stars! See?

ASTRO: Wow…I can actually see them for some reason. What the hell…?

5-ASTRO: I’m thinking about toning down the arm twirls in my act. I’m just gonna wiggle my thumb. Suggestively of course.

VITAMIN: You know better than I what gets the young girls excited, my boy. Now, don’t let me catch you scalping that ticket for big money – ha ha!

ASTRO: There goes my chance for getting the money I need to fix one of my eyes! BOTH: HAR HAR HAR!!!

VITAMIN: Wait…what’s so funny…?

More great renderings by Shelley Pleger. Vitamin’s office is so full of detail, yet when you focus on the individual pieces of furniture and decor, you will notice that they are drawn using a minimal amount of line. The same with the motorcycle in the “Crimestoppers Textbook” panel.

So the basic idea here is to regard him as the actual Tonsils, right? I thought the copy thing was gonna be a plot point, but at this point it’s just their way of reusing a dead character, right? (Which is fine, BTW; this is comics, after all.)

Best thing about today’s strip: Nobody died in Crimestoppers

I wonder if Kandilame knows that Vitamin is a thespian ;)

Notice that Matt’s cowlick is on our right no matter which way he’s facing. It’s a classic comics trope. The location of Popeye’s pipe was always on the opposite side of his mouth whether he was facing left or right. The part in Lil Abner’s hair was always on his left when he was facing left and on his right when he was facing right and he was never drawn facing the readers. I’m sure there are other examples out there in comics land.

I can’t help it, I can’t stand Tonsils. I hope Coffeehead does a number on him.

I hate Vitamin as a character. Mike overuses him and he’s annoying as heck. Vitamin should be banned from all Tracy stories for the next ten years.

Why do I think Matt/“Tonsils” is about to receive his new red shirt @ the Ajax? (Trekkies will get the red shirt reference)

Man I just read the Dick Tracy Wiki (which is quite thorough) about the original Tonsils- what a classic “everything and another thing happening” Tracy tale- they all seem to involve the crooks going on the run or going into hiding, and something bad happening to the people who were helping them hide, lol. And poor Tonsils did what he was told (nearly killing Tracy!) under duress, and was STILL killed for it!

Shelley can design furniture. I like Vitamin’s curved desk.

If that last, over-confidant remark by Matt McCullar wasn’t meant to sound ominous, I’ve learned nothing from watching countless suspenseful TV shows and movies.

Nothing like a club undergoing renovation (and, hence, closed to the inquisitive public) for a deadly ambush, hmm? —Unless maybe the other staple of lazy writers, an abandoned warehouse….

How long, O fake Tonsils, fake eyeball, fake innocent man, will you last now?

The Rat Pack could shoot a movie during the day, & perform at nite. Just saying.

I likeVitamin.he wasn’t portrayed as “fiscally responsible” untilCollins brought him back in 1978.

Then he’s a California millionaire and everything he touches turns to platinum.

“I am wealthy,eccentric,and old.These three things give me the freedom to do whatever pleases me”.

Vitamin—in Bony/Claudine/Joe Tracy born story