Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 05, 2024

“It’s very confusing. We so rarely have a perp killed by someone else!”

Things are very “rotten” with Totten.

Good morning™, everyone!

On your neck is the worst place to have a homicide (not that there’s a good place to have one).

I guess Totten had him killed. Not sure why. Were they afraid he was going to talk about some nefarious plan? Like, if he had talked, anybody would have understood what he was saying.

is that Officer Beidebook who was Thor’s keeper in the can?…

it doesn’t look like the same cop…

and if it IS him, what does he expect?!?… his actions were negligent resulting in a fatality of his prisoner…

he fvcked up badly…

IA will be on his-ass about it…

Now he’s got a Thor neck.

This story could use a guest appearance by Scooby and the gang to bring some excitement!

Time to pays a visit to Rotten Organisation eh.

Like panel 1’s view from above!

Maybe you should have been watching the bathroom door, like your job description says, instead of watching cat videos on your cell phone.

Is the TA cop on the take? How could the killer know he’d have his back turned to the bathroom door? For that matter, how would the killer know the crazy guy had asked to go to the bathroom – and know he could find him there? Was the killer just roaming at random through the TA station hoping to find crazy guy and than no one would notice him?

Good morning™, Nervous Breakdowns !

I think this guy is going to age a few years, with the sleepless nights to come. That must be a strong hand or a weak neck that one hand did the job.

Now whose the scourge of the turnstile jumpers?

Noooo. I think that’s a boil. Nasty one, though.

TRACY: Ye GADS! This folded paper is a CRIB SHEET for the highly technical Remedial Car Repair Shop class! Worth its weight in gold or Malomars! NO WONDER he was in such a hurry!"

SAM (aghast): Ya’ mean we’ve stumbled upon…?

TRACY: Yes, the GREATEST coup of our long careers! A class cheating scheme!!!!!

And so, armed with greasy rags and tastefully applied false pimples, Our Heroes set out to infiltrate this nefarious morass of eeevil, posing as 9th. graders, Tune in tomorrow for 13 JUMP START STREET!

The art in that first panel is very impressive. It can’t be easy to draw a scene from that perspective and still keep the proportions right. But Sir Charles has done it! Also, Lizz looks especially good today.

In Ed McBain’s 87th Precinct books, there was a separate Homicide Squad, but they rarely did anything. Two guys would show up at the scene of a new murder, but almost always bounce the case back down to the local precinct. It was a running gag throughout the series. But this Homicide Squad seems to have pushed this case further up the chain of command.

But wait….here comes help….Dick Tracy………and Liz!

@Charles – A subtle way of bringing in Tracy…….

It’s 20 years later. Tracy and Liz are called before Chief Pornstache, formerly Turnstyle Guard Pornstache…

1- CHIEF PORNSTACHE: I had the chairs removed from my otherwise well appointed office because YOU DON’T DESERVE TO SIT!

2-: …20 years ago you were supposed to solve the murder of The Trippy Turnstyle Topper AND YOU FAILED! That murder is the only stain on my illustrious career. Well, I’m reopening it and demanding that you solve it before I retire!

3-: …You don’t know what a burden on my conscience that’s been. The TTT tricked me into looking away for an instant and then… sniff, snuffle…

LEE: Didn’t we prove that Pornstache was complicit in the murder and that the powers that be ultimately made him Chief as his reward? DT: Yes – the senile old fool. No worries – he’ll forget all this the moment the door closes behind us. click

CHIEF PORNSTACHE: HEY! SOMEBODY STOLE MY SIDECHAIRS! SOMEONE CALL THE POLICE!

Why is Tracyville homicide seeming on the neck of the transit detail? Because some fare evader escaped and is now suspected of homicide? How is that the Transit detail’s fault?

Well, he WAS killed inside a secure facility while under guard, so there’s that!

There’s obviously more to this than a drunken turnstile jumper with a fake ID. That’s a nice bit of intrigue. While Eric’s dailies can creep by slowly, his basic plot tends to be fairly sound. The intrigue he’s setting up actually speaks to what may end up being a good arc.

Can this story PLEASE be the next homicide victim? #DEADFISHDEAD

They should have just hired Bugsy Bugoff to spray him with insecticide