Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 11, 2023

Anybody reported on this yet?

https://www.darkhorizons.com/beatty-returns-as-dick-tracy-in-tcm-special/

Good morning™, everyone!

Apparently, Blaze is the permanent family cook now.

Good morning™, stacked screen pages !

Nuthin’ else exciting going on here but the way Shelley has the stacked pages on the comp screen gets my motor runnin’. LOL ! Raaaarrr.

Maybe these panels today have the making of a spin-off comic strip. It could titled “The Roommates”.

Golly, Lee sure has been absent minded lately…first the oversight with the slippers…now lunch. Must be stressful working in MCU. Maybe she needs a vacation to Florida.

Yup, Mike is definitely determined to push this budding romance on us, even at the cost of plot. Today is a toss away strip that does nothing to advance or establish anything other than the relationship between these two.

Yes I was right. Back to see her girlfriend. Maybe Art the Monkey will see her there.

I recently read the Tribune Syndicate is going to start a new spin-off strip featuring a minor supporting character from its current strip, “The Loves of Lee Ebony.” The new strip will be called “Dick Tracy.” Can’t wait to see it!

“Back in the kitchen, woman!” xoxo

I would like to remind those who are griping they need to look at the last year Locher did this comic strip and remember how much better off they are.

It will be tasty, I’ll bet1

She’ll probably prepare something simple like spaghetti and meatballs or stir fry chicken.

In the 1946 movie ’Dick Tracy meets Cueball" Vitamin Flintheart looks pretty old, that was 76 years ago. seeing him in the newer strips, did he find the fountain of youth?!

Why can I hear tense 80’s horror music?

Paul Decker staggers in, zombie style, points at Art Dekko and mumbles “J’accuse!”

Some people might want want Blaze to at least imply something like that Lee is dinner. Glad Mike, and, Shelly didn’t go there. Not that there is anything wrong with that conservation between people in a “relationship” Just don’t necessarily need to see it here.

“Hey, cut me some SLACK! I’m too busy cheating on you. Er…you ever think of growing a goatee?”

Girl who look like boy, girl who has moustache, what next, the bearded lady from the carnival?

As long as we’ve had two days of strips that frankly aren’t worth commenting on, I thought I would reminisce a little on the storyline that got me hooked as a daily Dick Tracy reader, one that I, at least, consider one of the best post- Gould stories. I’m talking about the Dr. Freezedrei/ Pruneface story that ran from August- Dec. 1983. I was 12 years old, and my family would always pick up the Sunday Chicago Tribune, Always liking the comics, I was familiar with Dick Tracy, but it never really clicked with me til this point. I even got my grandmother, who took the daily Tribune, to save the comics for me every day so I could follow along with the Pruneface story. A couple months back, I used my newspapers.com subscription to revisit the entire story for the first time in 40 years to see if it was as good as I remembered it. I’d say it was. (A few spoilers may lie ahead for anyone who isn’t already familiar with the story.)

The story starts with a logical setup: vain Vitamin Flintheart is distraught when thinking about his own mortality, and seeks out Dr. Freezedrei, who for $100,000 will “cryonically” freeze a patient “when the time comes” until such time that future science can cure that patient’s ailment. Excited about true immortality, Vitamin tells the news to Tracy. Obviously, Tracy believes it’s a scam, so he encourages Vitamin to get a refund. Freezedrei does refund the money, but assures Vitamin that the process is possible and will prove it by bringing back a famous patient. Thus begins a couple day’s suspense of “Who is the cryonic man??” From there, we learn it is Pruneface, but Tracy wonders if he’s the genuine article. Turns out it is, and it also turns out that Freezedrei was a fellow Nazi agent during WWII. We then get a little humor when Pruneface finds out that Ronald Reagan is president, and later when he stumbles across some punk rockers. (continued)

I’ll probably “catch bull at four” (title one of Cat Steven’s albums), as I like to describe “catch holy hell, sh*t, etc. etc.”, for saying this….but I’ll say it anyway!!: Looks like a simple case of “drop the hankie”……..btw, how ya like Lee’s moony-joonie-saaahhh-woonie eyes in P2

Indeed, get on it girl!

today’s installment rates three words… well, the same ONE word, actually, repeated three times…

yadda. yadda. yadda…

“and don’t forget to lay out the TWISTER board on the rumpus room floor……we’ll be wanting that……”

Blaze will make a fine wife someday.

Today’s strip was so great that I accidentally took the scissors to my laptop screen to cut it out … oh no. I said “scissors” Firestrike will be lost in his fervent imagination for an hour or so now. Or 2 minutes. I don’t know how fervent his imagination is.

1-LEE: OH MYGAWD! WHO LET FLATTOP IN THE BUILDING?!? HELP!!!

BLAZER: CALM DOWN! IT’S JUST ME!

2-LEE: DAG! Don’t scare a girl like that!

3-BLAZER: Well, I brought your lunch. What the heck is it? It leaked all over my only jacket!

LEE: Chocolate Volcano cake with a can of Hershey syrup on top. Leave your jacket and I’ll lick…clean it for you.

BLAZER: You know that if you gain weight, we’re finished.

LEE: Same goes if you’re not able to grow a mustache. I’m kinda into them lately. I’m not quite sure why…

Can anyone tell me if this is the start of a new story. I don’t feel like the last one was truly wrapped up but Mike certainly isn’t in a hurry to do so if it’s not.

I thought about going back through the strips to enumerate the open plot lines but got tired of it after 3. Funny thing though – Tracy said while stuffing Art in the cruiser “What makes you think THEY were shooting at you?” Is that Kripto’s preferred pronoun or was there more than one shooter or did Tracy never see a body to identify the gender for sure?

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN!

Has Blaze used the watch to signal Superman yet? “Zee, zee, zee —”

Pseudo dinosaurs walk among us. They fail to see they’re going the way of the real dinosaurs, extinct. Poor fragile beings

which story is this again? diet smith?

Strange coincidence, tomorrow’s Shortcuts comic strip is on Da Vinci.

I don’t like this comic strip much anymore. I was delighted when the Syndicate did not cancel it when DL retired. Now, I don’t think it would bother me much. I’d be happy if instead reruns of the old strips were shown instead. Half the time I can’t even follow the storyline. It isn’t just DT, several other fine old comics have gone the same route.

Reply to Neil Wick

No “bedroom antics” have been mentioned in this strip

No one is saying that (other than Firebug1 and he’s a lunatic so it’s easy to ignore him)

But there’s no denying Lee and Blaze are gay and Mike has recently spent a decent amount of time developing their relationship which is separate from the story.

Some people think that time should be spent developing the story.

That is all.

As the Chef Squirms, our soap opera, will continue after this brief commentary about Dick Tracy.

With two days of essentially “no content” strips in a row, one wonders if we are expected to dismiss all the loose ends and gaps in the Art art fraud and Paul Chandler murder cases and expect a new misadventure to begin tomorrow/Sunday? IMO, these two days of strips would havae been much better spent trying to complete the story rather than meandering off the case(s)….

Called it. I hope we get a good arc tomorrow, but I’m not holding my breath.

Okay, so Lee and Blaze are gay. That was well established a long time ago, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But how would Lee’s comment of “get on it, girl!” have been received if they were traditional heterosexual, with Lee being the ‘male’? I’m sure the feminists would have been up in arms regarding Lee’s misogynistic attitude about Blaze needing to get back to her place in the kitchen.. But since Lee is a female and not a male, that comment gets a pass…

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix

Chapter 3

Tracy was quite pleased with how everything turned out.“Piece of cake!”, he chuckled as he finalized the list of performers. “Sam will tell lame jokes, Lizz will do a belly dance, Pat will do impressions, Lee and special guest Baze will do a Honeymooners skit, Vitamin will sing a melody of boring show tunes and I even got Mysta to do some magic tricks in her burlesque costume!”Tracy was relieved that Bleeder agreed to give him an extension at low interest. “Thank goodness after all these years I collected enough dirt on everyone that it was easy to convince them either agree to the show or I’ll rat them out” Tracy thought while rolling his eyes.

He was wrapping up the details when he heard a creaking sound behind him, causing to look up from the paper he was writing on.

“What the,,,”

Stay tuned to this Bat channel

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix

Tracy smiled smugly as he surveyed the full house that was waiting for the show to begin.“This is fantastic! I’ll get enough to pay off my gambling debt and even have enough left over to head over to Vegas for a week!”

Tracy thought everything through to a tee. Nothing could go wrong. Insisting that the tickets be paid for only in cash ensured the maximum profit. After the show, he would insist that he take the money to the safety of his office, only to get robbed on the way.

“As long as Bleeder is at the right location to complete the robbery this is the perfect caper!” he gleefully thought to himself.

“Well Richard, this was a wonderful, thoughtful idea of yours. I couldn’t be prouder to call you my friend!”

“Geez, I wish he’d stop spitting every time he said something!”“Vitamin, You’re the one who put everything together, no go out there and start the show!”

Tracy couldn’t wait for Hambone to get away from him. He really despised the old crab.

“Time to sit back and relax until the shows over. What could go wrong!”

No sooner had Tracy sat in his seat when a loud explosion suddenly knocked him on his butt. Standing up, he heard a voice come over the loudspeaker!

“Everyone evacuate the playhouse, a bomb just went off!”

To be continued(Yeah Yeah, I know, finish it already!)

Tracy Meets Doctor FixChapter six

Tracy smiled smugly as he surveyed the full house that was waiting for the show to begin.

“This is fantastic! I’ll get enough to pay off my gambling debt and even have enough left over to head over to Vegas for a week!”

Tracy thought everything through to a tee. Nothing could go wrong. Insisting that the tickets be paid for only in cash ensured the maximum profit. After the show, he would demand that he take the money to the safety of his office, only to get robbed on the way.

“As long as Bleeder is at the right location to complete the robbery this will be the perfect caper!” he gleefully thought to himself.

“Well Richard, this was a wonderful, thoughtful idea of yours. I couldn’t be prouder to call you my friend!”

“Geez, I wish he’d stop spitting every time he said something!” Tracy thought while resisting the urge to wipe his face.

“Vitamin, You’re the one who put everything together, now go out there and break a neck!” said Tracy sarcastically.

Tracy couldn’t wait for Hambone to get away from him. He really despised the old crab.

“Time to sit back and relax until the show is over. What could go wrong!”

No sooner had Tracy sat in his seat when a loud explosion suddenly knocked him on his butt. Standing up, he heard a voice come over the loudspeaker!

“Everyone evacuate the playhouse, a bomb just went off!”

To be continued(Yeah Yeah, I know, finish it already!)