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

it appears Crys is growing up a bit from kid into young woman…i

Good morning™, all!

There’s Crystal. I don’t like the colour of her hair on weekdays, but I’m impressed that the weekday colorizer knows not to make it blonde or something. I guess they’re on vacation out of town? Otherwise, they might have come to see Susan.

Good morning™, family reunion members !

There has to be tragedy just around the corner to counter all the syrup we are sucking down today. Laffy looks so gosh dog ooshy gooshy sweet. Aaaawww.

Have they aged her again?

I want to criticise the face/head sizes, including yesterday, but then I realised that the depictions are over the shoulder of Adam looking at a screen where the individuals are magnified on the screen. So I’ll give it a pass today.

Crystal is looking rather creepy in today’s installment of; “How to destroy a legendary comic strip!”.

I have seen some traces of gray hair on Tracy and Sam. Liz probably uses Miss Clairol. Only her hairdresser knows for sure.

Uncle Adam, was her mother married to someone within this family?

I noticed. I noticed a lot.

While Im usually not a big fan of kids in the strip, Crystal is a fun, entertaining character, one of Mike’s better additions to the Tracy canon (although I’m assuming, based on what Wichita has said, that another writer is scripting the story at this point). It’ll be interesting to see if she plays a larger role in this ever-expanding completely unpredictable plot, or this is just a cameo appearance.

Hi Crystal! Glad you are enjoying your vacation!

I was confused until I reread it thinking that Crystal was taking a break from PI work in P2 until I realised it was one voice balloon belonging to Lafayette.

Which means, if correct, Dick isn’t looking for Lafayette as some have surmised but another character altogether.

Two of the most irritatingly annoying characters in this strip

Story’s gotten kind of slow here. I want to compliment the colorist again. This time, I notice that they are using a kind of gradient on the computer screen to emulate the change in angle of the LED screen from the camera angle. It’s representative rather than precise, but it’s a nice detail.

The only piece of information that might be relevant to the story here is that Lafayette is taking a break from PI work, and that only makes sense so far if he was who Tracy was looking for. A meaningful trajectory hasn’t necessarily been set up. So it’s kind of a throw-away day except for seeing Ugly Crystal. Shelley’s drawn her kind of cute for being Ugly.

1-UGLY CRYSTAL: PEACE UNK! AUSTINPOWERS: Umm. I don’t really identify as your uncle since your mom and dad were never married so DON’T CALL ME THAT!

2-LAFFY ET: Don’t be that way, bro! It was the swinging 80’s. 90’s? Whatever – she already has to deal with being ugly. Don’t put the baZtard tag on her too, man!

AUSTINPOWERS: TOO BAD! I always knew that you banging uggoz would have consequences and there she is! LAFFY: Like Sprocket is a cover model?

AUSTINPOWERS: HEY! WE’VE MADE CELIBAZY VOWS! When one of my books breaks through, we’ll get married and then maybe, do it. LAFFY: Like you’ll be able to at that age.

AUSTINPOWERS: OH YEAH? UGLY CHRYSAL: Wait. Mom was ugly. LAFFY: Uh…little bit. Don’t worry – you favor me more than her. UGLY CRYSTAL: What? WAHHHHHHH!

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“I’m a married man now. I’ve got to buy a mink coat!”

James Stewart—-ICE FOLLIES OF 1939——-IN 1939

Over the weekend, Tylenol poisoning suspect James Lewis died a free man at age 72—-they could only convict him of extortion against Johnson&Johnson.

The case inspired Max COllins’ Pruneface epic with poisoned coffeeand Pruneface’s Ninja Army.

Okay,a slight update—-Lafayette has apparently graduated from Police Informant to Private Detective.Will he be joining Tess and Johnny Adonis at THE TRACY AGENCY?

2.)Looks like the duo is out of town on vacation,which may kill the idea of either of them recognizing Sprocketon the street.

3.)GREEN HAIR??Either the mad colorist is on a tequila bender, or Crystal’s real father is Dean Stockwell.

Is Crystal the daughter of Ugly Christine?

Crystal, growing up, is looking good (kinda reminds me with that toothy smile of Jane March, whose Beauty and the Beast I recently viewed). This family interlude doesn’t seem to do much to advance our constantly sidetracking story, but maybe Laffy and/or Crystal will turn out to have a part to play (e.g., if Lafayette is the CI for whom Tracy was looking)….