Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 11, 2024

ARRRRRRRGGGHHH!

Good morning™, everyone!

I like Dee Fish’s art here. It has personality, but it’s not so weird that it would look out of place in the Dick Tracy strip. Eric Costello is back yet again and I have some hope that he has learned more about how to write a good Minit Mysteries story, but we will see.

Dee’s blog: https://deefishcartoonist.blogspot.Com/

“You fool! Corned beef without mustard? No wonder it went down funny. This’ll take care of it.”

As a trained police officer, Sam knows that in case of poisoning, induce upchucking. Hopefully that detail will take place off screen. Happy Super Sunday, everyone!

well I’ll be back in 2 weeks

Wow….that’s the most animated I’ve ever seen Sam get.

Good morning™, Friends of Sam !

Wow !  Sam gets his solo debut and he is already knockin’ it out of the park. Granted Sam looks different here than usual but he exudes a strong persona. Love the wide angle shots in P.1. & P.2.. The detail and coloring is pretty darned good too. Thumbs up for the ‘glows’ in P.4. & P.5.

Sam’s an observant Jew. What’s he doing with milk and brisket? Something’s not kosher here.

Meat and milk which were not cooked together may be eaten together “You should not boil a kid/lamb in it’s mother’s milk” is what is written, so I guess it’s up to interpretation!

What? Whoa. Whoa. Whoas. The earlier so called story is wents nowhere and suddenly now this next theeng?

Who is Bosco and why he want to kill only Mrs. Tracy and not her partner?

Why was Bosco under radar? What crime he was up to adwhat info on him only Mrs. Tracy exclusively had and why?

Why on earth Fatty goes as herself to Mrs. Tracy’s office for killing while she was such maaaster of disguising? Why expose herself like a maroon walking into office on official visit when she coulda gone in disguise?

And still theenk she coulda continues on publicly as a popular magician “until theengs cooled off” if not for Adonis getting poisoned accidentally?

Why nobody found anything odd with Baxter who is really Fatty or his movements awkward with all the padding?

Why Bosco theenk Baxter was killer for hire too? Why he after Baxter in particular? Is it that hard in Tracyville to finds contract killer?

Why was Tracy and cops hunting down Baxter with guns drawn and all when he was no suspect that person?

How on earth Fatty is knews of so many tunnels down there through Vitamin’s room while that character never even seen before in this town? And while nobody else who was in town or theatre seems to knows about em.

How on earth she goes as Baxter until theengs cool off and then again goes public as herself on stage? Does police and law forgets about wanted creeminals after some time?

How did Fatty escape Blue Skin girl (me forget name) from prison and why nobody was looking for escaped convict?

Was Bosco arrested only for assault on Baxter or he got charged with whatever crimes we was not told about in first place for which he wanted to kill Mrs. Tracy?

Which two years old was really ghost writing that story?

There many more plot holes to leest if one has more time.

I like Dee art she is talented I’m glad American original art styles survived in comics it is so annoying that new American animation no longer look American, I do not like anime influenced art styles.

Good ol Tracy make a cameo in Working Daze today.

https://www.gocomics.Com/working-daze/2024/02/11

So that actually WAS the whole story before; there is a murder and Tracy’s too dumb to solve it….

Just when the current story arc was getting good.

Reading through some older strips in the 70’s and 80’s…my goodness, how the writing has fallen. Too long to explain mediocre plots and then to have these inane “minit mysteries!” What a wate of time. Please: GET BETTER!!!

You put the lime in the coconut—but the Mustard in the Milk?

When Mike was first hired, he said in an interview that he was a big fan of the 50s era Dick Tracy. I thought that was a very good sign.

Then he turned around and said somewhere that he did not like to write chase scenarios, even though chases were a huge part of the Tracy strip throughout Chester Gould’s run, and especially in the 50s.

And Gould never let a villain disappear into the sunset like Mike has done more than once. They were captured or killed, with one or two rare exceptions where Gould apparently had plans to weave them into a follow-up story.

The “ending” of this last story was extremely disappointing to me.

WHY ? ! ? ! ? !

Already more action than the whole X. Libris story.

Is that Vitamin Flintheart gagging on his food ?

I LOVE Sam’s face in the last panel! This guest artist is great, I am looking forward to this story!! :3

Mustard and water will make you throw up. But why? Is he choking? That’s not going to help.

Swallow something when he’s already choking? Nuh uh.

Oh, That’ll make it ALL better. How about following it up with a Butterscotch and mayo sundae?

The following day, the newspapers (duly hawked on the treet corner by young Billy Batson) screamed: MAN DIES FROM MUSTARD ALLERGY!

MYSTERY ASSASSIN SOUGHT!

POLICE ON TRAIL OF MUSTARD FIEND!

KILLER DUBBED ‘MEAN MR. MUSTARD’!

Sam subsequently took a little *protracted R&R over at BLOOM COUNTY. Coincidence? HMMMMMMMM???-————————————————————————————————————————-

For the next six weeks, the part of Sam will alternately be played by Jo Jitsu and Funky Winkerbean

Ah-HAA! Now we see Sam for the ravening fiend he truly is! Orrrrr, is this our last baddie, testing her NEW disguise while poisoning yet again?

And you thought Laverne’s milk and Pepsi was noxious.

Sam would never drink milk with a brisket sandwich.

This is what happens when one eats at the Apparatus Deli.

I wonder if in two weeks we’ll see a few strips finishing up the Rikki/Fata storyline, as was done with the last Minit Mystery (coincidentally, with another escapee – Sprocket in that case). I also think the last Art Dekko case was handled that way as well.

I missed the ending of the previous story……wow……now this minute mystery….holy crap!

Drinking water won’t open a clogged windpipe…

1-POOPSKI: You alone keep me in business, my friend! Well, you would if you ever paid, you cheap…

2-VICTIMSKI: ACCCCK! I do my Bill The Cat impression because…

3-…this food cannot be eaten!

4-…the dumpster in the back has better quality food!

5-SAM: YOU JUST ORDERED WRONG! EVERYONE KNOWS YOU NEVER GET MAYO ON CORNED BEEF! Here – rinse your mouth out and shut up. I’m tryna eat here!

VICTIMSKI: Fine. Fine. Can’t a man express an opinion anymore??? When did I get back to Russia?!? Such a thing I have not seen in years! This country! Oy veh!

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Aw, looks like Sam’s gone back to visit his old popski at the family diner. And just in time to keep his dad from poisoning yet another one of his customers!

Who exactly does Eric have compromising photos of? His last story was dreadful yet he gets another shot at it? To quote Mr Catchem… OY VEY!!

Profile looks like Tracy’s dad…or a genetic relative

Oh, by the way…my laptop seems to have lost the link to my tracy stories message board…anybody have a copy of it by chance? I’m just itching to get Mayor Armstrong’s nephew in the mix…and I have plans for deadeye too!!

Has same been going to medical school on the side? Their is only one Doctor that I know of who could diagnose a malady,and compound an administer a cure so quickly. >

What is that concoction Sam is giving to that guy, and how is it supposed to help?

Milk and mustard as help for a suspected poisioning?

Meat with milk?

Now appearing in The Inept And Rude Bartender – Sam as you’ve never seen him before! Well, you’ve seen him be inept – BUT not as a bartender! Reserve your tickets now. This production closes in two weeks!

Milk with brisket? That ain’t kosher!

The artwork has improved!

So, how come sometimes Sam’s eyes are brown and other times blue? Pick a color, already!

Comment on Yelp: “Brisket was okay, but stay away from the mustard milk shake!”

Minit Mystery – Ugh.

On the other hand, at least Eric knows how to finish a story – whether it’s the most satisfying finish or not, and whether the story was dragged out. I did appreciate him coming into the comments to interact with those of us in the peanut gallery and answer questions.

I get the feeling that Mike was in the middle of writing a story, something happened, and he said, “Well, I guess I just need to end it here.”

I mean, it’s like Frodo and the gang got to Lothlorien, left out on the boats, and sailed into the sunset. The End.

If that was IT, I don’t like the idea that those two ladies are riding off into the sunset. Special punishment used to be reserved for hired killers.

Wonder what he swallowed that mustard would save you from?

Did I miss something? Has anyone heard from Sisyphos?

So, how many people here are gentiles confused about a Jew eating meat and milk together, and how many are Jews who don’t want to but desperately have to now explain all of Judaism? Let’s try for some Jewish denominations: The Orthodox are the most traditional, with strict adherence to Biblical and Talmudic law. Reform is basically Protestant Judaism, removing everything not strictly “religious” and otherwise focusing on the ethical and moral messages of the Bible and Talmud. Conservative falls in between, most practice-oriented than Reform but not as much as the Orthodox. This is besides smaller denominations and unaffiliated “traditional” Jews who live their own way. Let’s use dietary laws as a case study. From an Orthodox perspective, they are divine laws, that might have health benefits or contain ethical and moral ideas, but they are also immutable facts. From a Reform perspective, the health/ethical/moral benefits are what’s important and should guide one’s eating but the laws themselves are not necessarily relevant. Finally, the Conservative perspective is that this is the way Jews always ate and it has benefits so why change unless you have to (such as, no available kosher food)? Sam is not Orthodox; his upbringing in the early 1900s (he became a cop in 1924) would indicate Reform, since the Conservative and Orthodox didn’t really split until the fifties, and, again, nothing has ever indicated that he is an Orthodox Jew. (Look, it’s hard to draw strict denominations without a full-on hierarchical establishment like Catholicism). The delicatessen he frequents is not kosher, it is “kosher-style,” which serves tradition American-Jewish food without regard for Jewish law. Like Hebrew National.