Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 23, 2023

Always barefooted I guess.

Mike loves trips down me.or lane.

Since I like the Nitrates I’ll let it sly, for a little bit more

Who’s Silver talking to, his cell mate Mammy???

Lol!

Good morning™, everyone!

Silver is off to get more lollipops, I see. He must like candy. It’s nice to have a big sister to defend you when a bully steals your stuff, but Silver seems to have acquired his trademark sunglasses after the bully dropped his.

It does seem that Sprocket was always barefoot and was a mechanic from way back, starting on bikes before going on to cars, like the Flattop Jr. car that she restored.

Good morning™, bang up jobbers !

This would have more bite if we saw the bully bop Silver and then Sprocket’s “silver wrench” come down on his head.

Three Tootsie Roll Pops, one classic Hershey Bar, and… maybe… a box of SweeTarts?

Let me see if I get this…sister Sprocket grew up to be a criminal mastermind. I was in the workforce when her and brother first appeared. So, I missed a lot of these characters.

I guess it’s appropriate that Silver’s favorite treat as a kid was suckers.

Girl’s got the courage

She may be a bad girl, but I’ve always had a soft spot for Sprocket. I see quite a lot of my wife in her :-).

Even as a child that lady was very rude, my, my!

Oh, I remember those comic turnstiles! Mine had ‘Hey kids, comics!’ on metal plates on top. I found my first Elfquest comics there (Marvel reprints, however) Elquest #8. I was so smitten by Leetah on the front cover, and led me down a rabbit hole of the land of Two Moons, and such incredible writing. I now have the complete series and even some of the fan fanzines. I can easily see how Elfquest influenced my own writings.

Weren’t silver (who is probably relating his backstory to some prison interviewer on a tabloid TV show, or a documentary he made whilst in the pokey) and sprocket revealed as not ACTUALLY being blood related?

of course sprocket will see this, come out of hiding, and try to “spring” her “brother” from the big house

That was a criminal in training. Hopefully he will never forget that lesson !

When SUDDENLY, the tale takes an unexpected turn, turning everyone into anthro animals and ushering in the mostly-nefarious VLAD THE IMPALA!

Sam becomes a squat beaver in a bow tie, who nearly loses his job when he demolishes the Chief’s desk in making an endless supply of fresh toothpicks…and a dam.

Patton becomes Wally Walrus, and Tracy Shylock Fox.

Or is this the one in which Sm turns out to b a covert Master assassin, spitting lethal stainless steel toothpicks at his hapless victims?

I forget…

Lil’ Sprocket is adorable! Look at her swing that wrench!! An awesome little fireball!

Where’s Charlie Brown ?

Sprocket is shown as the older one here, consistent with previous continuity.

Note Silver likes the bully’s sunglasses – hence the origin of the of the ones he wears as an adult.

Too bad Sprocket turned to a life of crime. It looks as if she would have had a great career on the NASCAR circuit.

1-HIYO: _OK. In Paper Moon, they worked a scam where I give the guy a $5 and then claim I gave him a twenty. And I “prove” it by telling him the twenty has my name on it but the twenty was actually give to him by my accomplice – Butch – BEFORE I gave him the… Uh oh…

2-BUTCH: YOU IDIOT! YOU WENT FIRST SO THE TWENTY ISN’T IN THE TILL! SKEETER: A twenty?

3-SKEETER: GIMME THAT TWENTY!

HIYO: I bet these are X-Ray glasses! I’ll sell ’em back to Butch for the twenty and then everything will be copacetic! If he survives a beating with a wrench…

Sprocket was a scrappy little one from the get go.

sock it to ‘em… a contemporary late ’60’s hippie girl from the gitgo… and no shoes even back then… that’s my Sprocket…

MOVIE QUOTE—-"The only Japanese I need to know is “All You Can Eat!”TEEN TITANS IN TOKYO—2006

Silver’s the one with the big mouth

Sprocket’s tougher than him and she’s his “protector”.Sometimesreluctantly,They never met a kid who was talented enough to makeethem more legit money than con games?

Sprocket Nitrate as a youth is a zealous crusader against bullies (as is Lio in his eponymous comic strip here on GC), with her trusty wrench (I was drawn to saying “trusty monkey wrench” in homage to Mike Clancy, chauffeur/muscle/right-hand man to Mr. Keen, Tracer of Lost Persons on old-time radio https://tinyurl.com/bdz6njct ), and as a result of this episode, Silver acquires his first set of shades, due to become a trademark. Betimes, he continues his commitment to sweets, including lollipops, chocolate bars, and [? —something in a small box].

The autobiographical narrative by Silver Nitrate continues, though it is still not clear to whom or why it is addressed….