Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 28, 2015

Stiletta selects a trusty blade, she won’t be disrespectedSprocket rains on her parade, deserves to be dissected.Few would guess at hidden scruples behind those jet-black shadesStiletta’s world is all revenge, her weapons sharpened blades.Should little Trey be taken away, the Flattops are rebornSprocket whimpers at the thought, earning contempt, ire and scorn.Like Blowtop, she rejects the plan to abduct a helpless childStiletta shall not be denied, dissention drives her wild.Thus, she reaches for a blade to silence all debateFailing to consider that there’s no future in hate.

Do my ears hear correctly?Please tell me that it isn’t trueMrs Flatop can’t you seeTo steal the baby’s so uncoolI wouldn’t dream to lend a handto such a diobolical planThere has to be another wayTo make detective Tracy pay

Foolish girl you waste my timeThat little baby will be mineto live his life the Flattop wayIt’s fascinating as Spock would sayYou’ve babbled on for much longIt’s time to end your pathetic songThe only question that remainsIs where to stick my pointy blades.

LIVE LONG AND PROSPER!

HMM, INDEED!

Dueling poets! Pequod, aren’t you a day early? (Not complaining, just asking.)

Ruht-Roh.

We’ve heard that “Hm” before …

Uh-Oh, isnt that the exact same thing Stilletta said before she cut BlowTop? Is this the end of Sprocket? Where’s Silver been during this conversation?

Good morning guys hither and yon!*

It’s official….Stiletta Flattop is a pyscho.

Time for Silver to let Lena out!

and… Stiletta is well armed! I wonder if she uses her own knives when she goes out for dinner?

That third panel is awesome, by the way.

Alas, poor Sprocket, we knew you well.

Knife/Canister fight tomorrow?

Goodbye, Sprocket, it was nice knowing you.

“Hmm,” this doesn’t look good for our villains, especially Sprocket. Something dramatic is about to happen.

Thanks for the poems again, Pequod and Avenger.

Actually Jonah, Mrs. Flattop is a psychopath. She’s not psychotic, (she doesn’t have audio or visual hallucinations, delusions, feelings of being controlled by outside forces, disorganized thoughts) rather she’s razor sharp (ouch!) in her thinking, very much in touch with the real world, but extremely self-centered, and without a conscience. That’s a psychopath in a nutshell.

Can you say “third Harvey” ?____________________

Jimmy Stewart certainly could …

(from last night)Even if Mr. Nimoy had filled it up with intricate complexities it would still come to a concrete conclusion.

Some people are more concerned with the complexities and have never even considered whether it ought to have a point or not. I am often amazed that people are impressed by a photo-realistic painting, even if there is no real point to it, but they think that abstract “modern art” is trash, because it’s essentially all point and no much technique.

Rikki is working underground tonight, Gweedo. She is buried in her work.

Oh, LEEENNAAAAA…..!!

There is a talk today at 2 pm in Clarendon Hill, Illinois that might interest some here: “The Sunday Funnies: Inside the Cartoonist’s World.” Details are at http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/hinsdale/lifestyles/ct-dch-clarkson-cartoonist-tl-0219-20150211-column.html I don’t know if it’s too late to register if any of you are in the area, but the announcement is interesting.

Clarendon Hills resident Richard Pietrzyk, who is giving the presentation, apparently wrote to Chester Gould long ago and then had a chance to do some lettering and drawing with him. According to the newspaper, Pietrzyk’s career “included Dick Tracy” among other well-known strips.

Vista Bill will rescue Sprocket, I mean the canister!

Hey, Violent Sunday coming up! Sprocket Nitrate going down! Let your stilettos do the talking, Mrs. Flattop! Where’s Lena when you need a hyena? Wonder Woman used to play “bullets and bracelets”; will Sprocket survive by playing “canisters and stilettos”?

Good Morning Vista Bill and all. I don’t know if Sprocket is going down—or if she can grab a canister or not. Even if she could, momentum and physics indicates Sprocket gets cut up pretty badly BEFORE the canister does its work.Stiletta’s comment about the Flattops being reborn with Trey is interesting—She’s not planning on killing him—just Tracy. I never knew her to be the mothering type.

And I wouldn’t mourn too much for the Nitrates. They’ve been known ti kill as well. It’s just that there are differing levels in “bad” just as thre are differing levels of “good”.

Morning, Tracyville!

Pequod and Avenger – Great job, thanks!

My prediction, FWIW, is that Silver will come bursting out from his room and save Sprockett from Stiletta. He’s been following this conversation with electronic monitoring systems from the beginning.

Excellent poem PQ77, very intense with a wonderful carousel of words!

I wouldn’t worry about Sprocket. While Stiletta has her knives, Sprocket has those 70lb film cans, and she is strong enough to lift them, and perhaps even throw them.

I’ve changed about Sprocket! If you all remember, I was down on her for being shabby. But her good side emerged, and now I am praying she either conks Stiletta on the noggin or gets to Lena’s cage door. Lena ain’t gonna take a liking to Stiletta unless she is in Lena’s dish. And what the heck is Silver doing in the back room again? Throw down that toke and get out and save your sister!

Stiletta Jones, Mistress of Knives, had plenty of practice when touring with the International Circus. Is this the end of Sprocket? Her goose would appear to be cooked, yet she is a dodgy character. The tension is so thick you could cut it with a… Well, you know what. More of the good stuff from Team Tracy.

A fond farewell to Leonard Nemoy. Mr. Spock was one of my two favorite characters of half-human/half-“alien” origin. LLaP..Thanks to VistaBill, cpalmeresq, Neil Wick, Gweedo, John Russell, davidf42, ave09 (well done, yourself), and Nun’Ya Bidness for the kind words. Very much appreciated!

I agree with those who think Sprocket will survive.

I wonder if Stiletta plans to flatten Trey’s head in order to raise him as her own.

I think Sprocket is about to get one in the sprocket.

To Be Continued…

When Stiletta says “Hmm…”, people have a way of getting hurt. Sprocket will be lucky if she just ends up in the hospital, like Blowtop. It’s not a good idea to challenge Stiletta and her knives!

Stiletta can throw her knives faster than Sprocket can heave that canister.____________________

True.

But a canister is a better shield against a knife than a knife is against a 70-pound canister, eh wot?

I must admit, in that second panel, I gained quite a bit of respect for Sprocket. It will be a pity if she was cut down in the prime of her life. (Sorry.)

Excellent poetry today, Pequod and Avenger!

Other surviving members of the Jones clan include …

Sharptop …

… and Hightop!

Why Max Allan Collins didn’t take the logical next step and create the computer-savvy Laptop remains a mystery.

Stiletta is amazing! To be able to blow smoke out of her left ear; fabulous!

Thanks to everyone for your kind words regarding my poem. I’d like to take the time to thank each of you by name but i’m still a little shaky from yesterday’s mind meld with Morrow. Oh the horror of it all, goats everywhere!

All that detective work really makes a guy hungry …

That’s what happens when you look for “Peanut Butter!”

Might as well wash that “Peanut Butter” down with some Maxwell House Coffee, specifically at the 16-second mark …

Of course she won’t kill Sprocket…….her brother, probably armed, is in the other room and coming out any minute. And if she kills both, she’ll have a dragnet out for her, and NEVER be able to sneak up on Tracy. Of course, I’m just using logic here……and the truth of the matter is, in real life they would have staked out Blowtop’s place from the beginning and caught Stilletta early on anyways, lol.

What would the odds be that a curious Kandikane comes back to the drive-in tomorrow… long after Stiletta makes her move on both Nitrates and leaves with the car (and a hostage Lena)?

If Stiletta takes out Sprocket, she’ll take out Silver as well. There’s no way she’s going to leave one of them alive or in any condition to say anything.

I late today. Wow! All the good poems and the Dick Tracy nostalgia! Everyone has really gone the extra mile today! Have a great weekend my friends.

Stiletta has gone off the deep end. I believe at the end of this story she’ll be reunited with her family in Hell.

PQ, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery! Obviously, you must feel pretty good!

Pequod and Avenger: great poems, thank you!(Thought it was Sunday—nope, it’s Saturday)

Sprocket must know Stilletta’s notoriety precedes her, and she’s sweating. Yesterday, she was crouched, as if ready to leap, and the film canisters, which she said earlier can lug them around effortlessly, are in easy reach.

Probably developing that conscience, Sprocket refuses to help Stilletta, and is ready to either leap and throw cansiters……or who would be faster at the draw? Sprocket with the canisters, or Stilleta with her knives?

Sunday is gonna be exciting!

Apparently, Mrs. F ain’t gonna take “no” for an answer.

After flirting with high numbers since “VistaMania,” we’re over 100+ posts again.

Is it that we’re fearful for Sprocket?

Or eager to witness a knife/canister/hyena melee?

Straight off the net, no mention of hyenas …____________________

Examples from the web for melee

At some point a fight erupted between several party-goers and knives were used in the melee.

At least one person was hurt in the melee.

As Stiletta would say, “Hmm.”

he killed her children because she loved her children and wanted to have grandchildren.

Stiletta selects a trusty blade, she won’t be disrespected

Sprocket rains on her parade, deserves to be dissected.

Few would guess at hidden scruples behind those jet-black shades

Stiletta’s world is all revenge, her weapons sharpened blades.

Should little Trey be taken away, the Flattops are reborn

Sprocket whimpers at the thought, earning contempt, ire and scorn.

Like Blowtop, she rejects the plan to abduct a helpless child

Stiletta shall not be denied, dissension drives her wild.

Thus, she reaches for a blade to silence all debate

Failing to consider that there’s no future in hate.