Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 08, 2023

Good morning™, all!

This can’t be the favourite part of once-cheerful Brad’s job (he almost got smacked in the face accidentally by the gun), but he had only to look at the last story to know that robberies at the Federal Bank have been going on for decades.

It only seems to be the boss who has the “snake eyes” dice on his mask, but he can’t use that as a name — it’s been taken already. So, I guess that we are fairly safe to assume that the snake eyes guy is the main bad guy for this story.

(They are keeping us in suspense with what the street sign thing is all about.)

Brad: “Umm, thanks for the gun mister!”

Why isn’t the boss clad in the Diabolik costume?

Good morning™, malicious masked marauders !

These swaggerts got a good game going. Do you think they’ll ever get caught ?  Is that some Edward G. going on in the second panel ?

ok, kiddies, here’s the latest as to what’s going on with me… on Friday, I was released from the hospital with them telling me that they can’t determine what the problem is with the sciatic pain that I’ve been experiencing for the past 3-4 months now… all the tests they did were all negative and everything is where it should be… this was an ultrasound, MRI and x-rays… everything is good in that regard… they have tried various combinations of painkillers and whatnot to ease or relieve the pain… some of it worked for a short bit of time before it wore off and sent me into severe pain, one being only an hour and a half… the longest break from the pain was about 7 hours before the pain kicked into high gear again… no matter what was tried with the painkillers, everything wore off and the intensity of the pain was overwhelming… the pain is in several places, they being my lower back, my right buttcheek, the entire outer side of my right thigh, the entire top of my right thigh, specifically my quad muscle… just a light touch across it brings some pain… the pain is also in my knee and a few inches past it… and sometimes there’s pain near my groing where the leg joins your torso… I don’t feel them in certain areas at certain times… I get pain in all those locations at the same time, so when it hits, it feels like my pain sensors are overloading and I end up twisting and turning and moaning and groaning because of the overwhelming intensity of pain… and today for the first time when I stood up in an effort to to find some position to somehow ease the pain, my right leg weakened almost to the point where my leg couldn’t support me for long and the inside of my thigh just seemed to burn hot, so I quickly had to sit… so the hospital could do no more for me…to be continued in my next post shortly… now I know what boboscar goes through…

I like the perspective and angle of panel three…

Gee, “Boss” while you’re at it, why not identify yourself by name in front of witnesses as well?

‘Tis an evil omen when a henchman confesses early in the arc, "It don’t make any sense."

So…did he just simply put a supposedly loaded gun into his pants pocket between panel 2 and 3?

Panel 2 reminds me of the 3 stooges: “Enie, meanie, miney moe. We need gold! Com’on, lets go!” Curley Howard

Panel 3: Cue the getaway music

And the street sign thing doesn’t make sense to us, either, since they don’t SHOW it…

Sooo, a second guy in a full-body suit ski mask was standing by and nobody picked up on this being…unusual or concerning? I get it! It’s like noh drama where people in black ‘invisibly’ move props around to simulate ghostly manifestations.

The die on the mask clues us in. This is Little Joe from Kokomo. An arch fiend.

The boss wears a simple mask that covers his nose and mouth, while the underling wears one that covers his entire head? And, is that the same bank The Jones brothers tried to roob, back when?

BANK MANAGER: sigh…Okay, reset the clock on how long it’s been since our last robbery.

The dice remind me of a casino. Hey…don’t they also play BLACKJACK in casinos? :)

Wow, what a pair of robbers?

Pleasant Brad should’ve grabbed that gun in P2. He could have “pulled a Nero.”

About to hit the road for Easter weekend with relatives; back in a couple of days. Ta, y’all!

Today’s episode has me feeling like I am watching a reboot of Woody Allen’s movie, “Take the money and run”.

Hmm…could this be another branch of Federal Bank? These guys seem to have the streets all to themselves.

Unless the other fellow was a burn victim, he is going stand out attired in black like that. Maybe it is made out of breathable fabric.

I’m getting Apparatus vibes. No cards, but dice. Maybe a 52 Gang / Apparatus copycat? Imma guess a name: the Boss is Top Roller and his gang is The Pipps.

So….took a 325mg percocet this morning around 10:30 (the first time taking them since my last bout with kidney stones in ’07) and pretty much all it did was make me dizzy…just took another about 5 minutes ago (after the 6 hour limit) to see if it does anything

Looks like The Casino Gang has hit Tracy’s city.

Tracy just had to open his fat mouth and tell Sam they had time to finish their paperwork.

These two bickering baddies give bank robbers a bad name! And what’s with “taking care of” the street sign? Is it replaced with a different one? Or is it turned around? Of is it tagged with some graffito? Why?

Big Bad Bossman One Die and Ninja Flunky just did a number on Federal Bank, apparently the same one that the Jones Boys Gang hit long ago when Tracy was still just beginning to acquire a reputation. I suppose there is some latent irony in this. Luckily, poor Brad the teller didn’t get shot or pistol-whipped, though the Bossman came close to hitting him with his gun inadvertently. I guess the blondie in the background of panel 1 is another teller or a bank clerk, whose only function in this serio-comedy is to become another witness once the cops show up. Will Tracy be on hand, dredging up old memories?

Turns out, the henchman parked in a no-parking zone. Tracy is out there writing a ticket, ensuring their clean getaway.

I was wrong.

It’s not The Casino Gang.

It’s The Pennybags Mob.

And now they’ll blend in with the Marathon Runners and make a clean getaway.

Brad and his partner,Inky Black.