Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 24, 2013

What a look on his face!

And another evil doer gets his just desserts.

Good riddance, Sweaty, you won’t be missed!

Good morning all…

Bye, Sweatbox!

Great artwork and a particularly gruesome panel.

Wow.- The ‘reverse shilouette’ of Sweatbox’s upraised hands behind the wheel.- Sweaty’s bloodied face illuminated by the train’s headlamp.- The fiery wreck.- The whole Alfred Hitchcock look and feel to the sequence.I’d read this strip just for Joe’s (and Shelley and Shane’s) art, even if I didn’t enjoy the stories (which I do).And another interesting Hall of Fame – I remember the Coffin Ed Johnson and Gravedigger Jones stories! (Jim – you must have a lot of fun researching these!)Thanks, Team Tracy!

Fantastic work today by Joe Staton. I’m very impressed!And Sweaty learns too late that crime doesn’t pay.

A car dropping onto the boiler may very well cause a boiler explosion when the boiler casing ruptures from the impact.

Sure hope that Mercedes was insured.

I rolled a car once back in my youth, end over end, and it seemed just like today’s strip, and for me it took forever before it was over. Fortunately for me only the car was hurt. I really miss that ’67 mustang…..

It’s so Gould Nice job

When you see that headlight coming, and it’s but a split-second away, you may repent your evil ways— TOO LATE! TOO LATE! Rot in Gehenna, Simon! I just hope there is enough evidence surviving for Tracy and the MCU to clean up the cold case[s].

The Weed of Crime bears BITTER FRUIT…….

I sometimes get a little wistful at the death of Tracy villains. Not with this creep.

THERE’S the expression I’ve been waiting for. Does NOT disappoint! Also love it being inverted. Just adds to the “gravity” of the situation. Kudos again, Team Tracy.

Nice job on the sound effect mimicking a diesel horn………even though it looks like a streamliner.Good-bye Baux, now we’ll never know…….

Classic DICK TRACY end to a bad guy! Good Job on the Art to Joe S! and the layout to Mike C!

Fantastic art! As for whether or not Sweaty is dead, don’t count your chickens, folks… DT villains have live through worse than this!

lived even

What a waste….. of a beautiful classic Mercedes

Everybody’s assuming that’s a Mercedes, but if you look at the way the horizontal bars on the grille are swept upwards toward the outside ends, I think you’ll agree that’s not exactly how a real Mercedes looks; its horizontal grille bars would be much closer to being perfectly horizontal.

This isn’t a Mercedes; it’s the Mercedes equivalent that exists in Dick Tracy’s alternate universe, just as George Tawara is George Takei, yet also not completely 100% George Takei.

I love seeing the various cars in this series, especially the police cars, which all look like big, boxy, 1970 era Dodge Monacos or Ford LTDs or whatever. Anyway, this is a very exciting installment of a fun story arc.

A fantastic Sunday. This is the kind of stuff that made Dick Tracy great. Thanks to the Tracy team for their great work.

Black Ice. Ah, yes. Wonderful stuff.

Amazing death scene.

Hey. Remember the “War Comics” of the 1950s. This panel reminded me of them. Great art work. Very graphic. These artists on the new Dick Tracy are outstanding.

And the score is, as always, train 1, car 0.

Much improved coloring…beautiful strip

(sob) That poor Mercedes 108…(cries)

I guess it will be the Stephen and Simon Baux Memorial Little League program now…the police will be asked to keep Mr Baux’ s name out of this, since the murder is so old and he had so much pull in the community…

My god. Wonderful panels today.

Yikes! The train crew is going to have nightmares of this.

Sweat Box exits this world in a fiery crashMole and little Toad helped to take out the trash.Sweaty had good reason to unceasingly perspireDark deeds weigh heavy on the mind of a liar.Victims of murder stashed away in a cryptAvenged when Sweaty’s car on the back ice it slippedTumbling down to the train tracks belowPulverized and incinerated in the flames vibrant glow.A brutal end is fitting: he laid hands on a childHis horrific death is justice; his suffering not mild.So long, Sweat Box, you shall not be missedAnother vile criminal is crossed off Tracy’s list.

Uh oh. Now ya gone and dunnit. Wile E is mad now, checking to see if copyright violations occurred. Falling off of a cliff and getting hit by a train is HIS schtick.

I bet Sweatbox is feeling really run down now.

The art is beautiful today. Like it is every day, but especially so today. And Pequod77, great poem!

Wow! That is going to leave a mark!

Note: Beenthere 240 mentioned (in yesterday’s comments) that Sweatbox wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and would deservedly die. Hmmm… Do you think wearing a seatbelt would make a difference when falling over a ridge, at least a 25 foot drop and then being hit by a train that’s trying to make time? I think he’s toast whether he wears a belt or not.

I had to increase my estimation of the falling height. The train is at least 12 feet high, add a couple of feet clearance in the tunnel— let’s say fifteen feet overall for the tunnel—- then another fifteen feet to the road if the picture is any indication. Mercedes in those years were built pretty solid, but a thirty-foot drop which lands the car on the roof is a killer even without the train.

As I read the last few panels, I was hearin’ Flatt & Scruggs in the background singing “The Wreck of the Old 97”……

Well, well, well it looks like old SB is not going to cost the tax payers anything and especially Toad will not have to see him anymore. I watched the tail end (last few laps) of the Nationwide race from Daytona yesterday. There was a wreck so bad that one of the race cars was ripped in half. The Driver got out and walked away. In his after the infield care center TV interview he praised NASCAR for the safety device research and emplacement. None of that stuff could help SB to walk away from a train wreck.

Sweatbox meets his fiery end. Awesome. Great job all around today by Team Tracy.

Many fine panels today, though I especially liked the more Eisner than Gould “Black Ice” panel.

Good Morning Detectives, and cue the music! “Anticipation………Antici-pay-yay-tion…..it’s making me wait……”

Anyone else think that it might be warm enough for Sweatbox now?

Yes.

I wish I had a printer, this Sunday’s artwork, properly framed and matted would look amazing on any wall! Hey Team Tracy, how about it?

great artwork all around ….really liked the illustration of the mercedes crashing thru the guardrail and flipping over onto the tracks below…..you guys certainly have the talent…way to go

The Union Pacific still has some. They’re not in daily operation, but they are working units. I saw one a couple of years ago here in the Chicago area, it had steam up and was preparing to pull a train.

Magnificent ending, sirs. Nightshade09’s comments was spot on here. I think Gould would have smiled at that ending. You surpassed the best he ever came up with, aside from the Brow’s ending.

Very well done…

Unless….. he was thrown from the care before the fireball..

wow!! this sequence is beyond classic…

Brilliant!

Joe Staton is the master!

I was trying to figure out what that is in the lower left corner of panel #4 crashing through the windshield and heading for Sweatbox’s eye. I think it is the Mercedes emblem/ornament from off of the hood. Sort of symbolic in a strange sort of way.I say it is panel #4 because I use different names for the first three panels of the strip. The Title/Logo Panel, the Hall of Fame/Crimestoppers Textbook, and the one with “Black Ice” is the Drop Panel. You can call the Drop Panel panel #1 if it is used, like in all of the strips here on GoComics, but it is sometimes pulled to make space, thus the name. Anyway, panel #1, for me, is the first panel on the second row.

…….well, Sweatie’s gone now, but that’s not necessarily a good thing…..lots of questions remain that need answering….

As I recall the Union Pacific has two steam engines operating, a 4-8-4 Northern and a 4-6-6-4 Challenger.

Glorifying a rogue cop? Come on! Cops who shoot first and ask questions later are why people are afraid of them. Witness the recent shootout with two unarmed women delivering newspapers and an unarmed man just driving by on the streets of Torrance. Didn’t look anything like Christopher Dorner. Lucky for LAPD and TPD none were killed.

Not that I’m sad to see the creep go, but I woulda liked to see him actually PAY for whatever his crimes were… as of right now, I think the only one who knows is his assistant Jonah or whatever his name was.

March 7th tommygunner

Artwork today is just stunning!!!

Anyone who doesn’t call this excellence of the art is out of his (or her) mind. Bravo! Mike and Joe took ink and made it vibrate with feeling. That’s a hard act to follow, even with a cat on a spaceship!

MAN!!!At the rate these bad guys keep getting bumped off, they’ll be no crime in Tracy Town in less than a year!!!

What’s the last thing that went through Sweat Baux’s head?THAT FREAKIN’ TRAIN!!!

Today’s art is quite awesome! Wow!

I was browsing over at “Comics Curmudgeon”, and they brought up an interesting point: I wonder if Mike consulted with Jim Doherty, of the Railroad Police, when he was writing the bit about the train crew deciding on their own to speed up in order to “Make up time”?

I have actually seen a RR cop in an unmarked car, hide in the bushes and spy on a local switching crew, to make sure they were doing everything “by the book” – this was several years ago. (Correction – there was a tiny RR logo on the door of the otherwise all white car.)

@ SCOTTtheBADGER – Looks to me as though the car landed in front of the train, not on top of it.

Hmm, no Sweat!

Interesting Hall Of Fame panel .. I grew up in Chicago (West Side), but even I heard of ‘Two Gun Pete’ and ‘Indian Joe’. They were tough guys, but fair.

Looks like he’s “sweatin’ it!!”

Nice artwork!

LOVE the gratifyingly horrific artwork!

Sweat Box exits this world in a fiery crash

Mole and little Toad helped to take out the trash.

Sweaty had good reason to unceasingly perspire

Dark deeds weigh heavy on the mind of a liar.

Victims of murder stashed away in a crypt

Avenged when Sweaty’s car on the back ice it slipped

Tumbling down to the train tracks below

Pulverized and incinerated in the flames vibrant glow.

A brutal end is fitting: he laid hands on a child

His horrific death is justice; his suffering not mild.

So long, Sweat Box, you shall not be missed

Another vile criminal is crossed off Tracy’s list.