Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 25, 2014

Better and better! Any complaints?

How old would you all say Dick Tracy is? He looks to be in his 50’s wouldn’t you say even though in reality he should be well over 100 years old!

Obligatory Jay Ferguson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEKZJp-x-Dc

None by me, cpalm -Like you said – better and better! What’ll he find there?-Yeah, I know, I’m wrong again. I should have realized, Washington Island was in the real world – not the one where Tracy lives. Guess I’ll have to send back my Little Orphan Annie Decoder Ring. (Just as well – I hate Ovaltine!)

I was rather fond of the Washington Island theory, but it does make sense that the island should be a fictitious one. We don’t really want to pinpoint Tracy in a location of the real world. The only thing I really wonder is how an island can be “privately owned by the U.S. government.” Isn’t anything owned by the government publicly owned by definition?

THUNDER ISLAND eh? And the scene of a nuclear accident….very interesting…..

Maybe the Philadelphia Experiment was conducted in a Lake Michigan island? Makes sense – the Manhattan Project didn’t have anything to do with Manhattan…

Well, as an entity it could be private……I think the idea is it is like a lot of government property “we, the public” own….but can’t visit or have anything to do with. Now, enough of that or “we’ll” have to send a drone after you….

I heard we might have an upcoming story where Dick rescues Zebra from the Crocs? Any truth to that, lol?

Let’s list Jay Ferguson’s greatest hits. Thunder Island, uh, well, uh, there’s Thunder Island. You may recognize a few guitar licks by Joe Walsh on the tune…

So, now we know Tracy’s residence is 18 miles away from those coordinates!

Mr Tracy, who are you talking to?

Little Orphan Mutant?

So, the island is christened Thunder Island in the Tracyverse, and was the site, it is rumored, of some sort of nuclear accident in 1944. Hmmm…. Of greater interest in coming to terms with the differences between my universe and Tracy’s is that his city is only 18 miles from Thunder Island. In my universe, the nearest city of any size to the Town of Washington is Green Bay (pop. ca. 105000 city, 306000 metro area), around 100 miles away….

As Tracy doesn’t have a private airstrip outside his house, I’m assuming this means an 18 mile flight from the nearest mainland airstrip, since there won’t be any scheduled (or charter) flights anyway. So I don’t think it tells us anything about Tracy’s home or home city.

With all the comments yesterday, we’re all stymied by the fact that Tracy lives in a different universe than ours. Still, it’s a great story, and I, for one, am lovin’ it!

Happily for fans of the fantastic, the strip need not concern itself too much with “reality.” Thunder Island can be an approximation of Washington Island, just as Tracyville can be an approximation of Chicagoland. What is of the essence is that if mischief is afoot on Thunder Island, Tracy will no doubt wish to stick his beak in. Annie is in trouble and she may be there. What is a detective likely to do?

Thunder Island? I think the Dharma Project owns that place, don’t they?

GWEEDO! Don’t you know i’m the only one who has to worry about “disappearing”? Jim’s Dandy! LOL!

No complaints here at all, cpalmeresq. I agree with everyone; we should have guessed that the location was a fictitious one. However, kudos to those who figured that the letter had the coordinates to Annie’s location. Still reading, still waiting for the next leg in the journey.

Good morning guys

So … Tess is on an all-nighter somewhere? It was mentioned earlier that she was with her “pardner” on a case. Not complaining, just wondering?

I was ALMOST * tempted to say that since Tracy and the ENTIRE MCU is working on “Daddy’s Buck” for the next several months 9God help us) that it’s probably TESS that’s gonna be bringing home the bacon.. but i forgot how deep Dear Ol’ Daddy’s pockets run.

On a more positive note tho…since Tess and Adonis are apparently the ONLY remaining detectives in town, maybe Pat is throwing some work their way.. ya know, like the REAL CRIMES committed in the city that the mcu SHOULD be handling!

Good morning DT and Annie fans. Are they creating monsters on Thunder Island? Maybe a UFO base? Or the latest trend in fashion or fast food?

If only there were a magnetic air car handy. On the other hand, that could be risky in the event of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) on Thunder Island.

The questions all this has raised!Was there a nuclear incident there? What re they doing there now? Who is leasing it?Is Axel involved?(And if you think I’m going to guess, you’re crazy!)

Hmmm, wonder if Thunder Island was a part of this??? LOL!! ZZzzzzzzz……

“That guy was way otta line !!!”

HAHAHA!! The honest truth, when I first read this I thought you said “That guy was way otto line”! LOL!!!!!

I need stronger glasses!

Feel free to use LOL as much as you want, especially since I know it irks some posters! LOL!!!

Privately owned by the US government? How does that work out? Uncle Sam wanted a little investment property? He needed a tax break? Odd.

Will I be able to get free parking in the big crapple ?

.

Sure but I can’t promise your rig will be there when you get back! LOL!!

email me off line so we’s can see’s if we’s can grab a coffee somewhere. morrow and timmy are welcome to join us!

It’s in Lake Michigan. Just a bunch of water.

Dick Tracy’s the best…ever..

I did a quick search for “Thunder Island” last night, in case there was anything relevant to our story. I did find something completely irrelevant concerning a story from the pulp fiction series Doc Savage set on a Thunder Island off the coast of New Zealand. It involved a liquid that could dissolve [almost] anything. Also, there were dinosaurs on the island. (Call in Mr. Am.)

The interesting thing about that plot was that the dissolving power of this mythical substance was thought to be connected to nuclear fission. The blog post points out

It would not be until later in the decade that it was known that heavy atoms of certain Uranium isotopes spontaneously broke down and released thermal neutrons which could catalyse the fission of other uranium atoms releasing further neutrons. This did not require the input of any energy and opened the possibility of creating a spontaneous chain reaction within the Uranium that could propagate fast enough to release an almost inconceivable amount of energy. It was this theoretical possibility that led US Physicists to prompt Albert Einstein to write a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt warning that Germany could develop an atomic bomb. This letter eventually led to the Manhattan Project.

Islands seem to be good places to carry out bizarre experiments. It seems to me that there’s a connection between these nuclear experiments and the Philadelphia Experiment.

Good morning everyone. I’ve decide to complete and post the Annie/Tracy crossover story I began 4 years ago.It can be found at the Annie comments board.Some quick explanations regarding this story. .1.It’s a continuation of the Annie story I wrote which can be viewed in June 23 Annie comments.

2.I originally wrote this one as two separate stories from two different perspectives. I’ve somewhat combined them here.

3.The story came out of the sadness of losing the Annie comic strip and of the state of the Tracy strip.

4.This Tracy is based on the one we knew from 4 years ago. He’s different now.

5.I plan on posting only a chapter or 2 a week.

6.All comments are appreciated, I’m always willing to learn and improve.

Peace

BB

ZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! Not today’s strip that’s putting me to sleep! LOL!!!

Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie….I remember years ago, in 1960, MAD Magazine did a story called THE MAD “COMIC” OPERA which featured just about every comic strip character….past and present. While helping Tarzan find a new mate (because Jane ran off with Mark Trail), Tracy found out that his true love Orphan Annie had been kidnapped by the evil Rex Morgan, MD. I had read and re-read that story for years and this Tracy/Annie cross-over is making me wish I could re-read that story once again.

gweedo, if he gets flaccid comeback, shouldnt he use Tums? wait.. what, thats ACID REFLUX?!?! oh sorry! lol :)

To seanyj your query “How old would you all say Dick Tracy is?”The strip debuted on October 12, 1931 with Tracy and Tess Trueheart their his early 20’s.Doug

“Thunder Island,” I like the name. The story is headed in a very interesting direction.

If we estimate Tracy being in his mid twenties early in the strip and Junior was about 9, Junior may be about 30, having married still in his teens, and Honeymoon probable not much past 10. That would make Tracy about 45.

Sure JPuzzleWhiz, I can post the story on the Dick Tracy comments board also. Not wanting anyone to feel obligated to read it or come across as self-serving I felt more comfortable posting it on the Annie board which is viewed by only a few posters. Thank you for your interest.

Peace

BB

The Mysterious Dr. Magpie Adventures!.

CHAPTER 1.

At Warbucks Headquarters;.

“WHAT IN BLAZES DO YOU MEAN SHE’S GONE”? Santiago was prepared for Warbucks outburst so she didn’t flinch when he angrily screamed his question at her. “I mean she left. She went away. She flew the coop”. Warbucks felt his knees wanting to buckle under him. He accepted that he was still recovering from his wounds which were extremely grave. That didn’t mean he had to like it. Moving to the chair behind his desk he proceeded to sit down while taking a deep, long breath before leaning back. “Alright, read me the note again”. Santiago put the note that she found in Annie’s room back in front of her and proceeded to read it to Warbucks for the third time. “Daddy, I need some time by myself to figure some things out. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I just need to find myself again. I’ll contact you soon.” Santiago took a long pause and then spoke to Warbucks.“Oliver, there is another sentence I’ve left out”. Warbucks arched his left eyebrow; “Really, and what might that sentence say”? Santiago took a deep breath then went ahead and continued reading. “Tell Amelia she was right. I’m going on an adventure to find myself”. Warbucks growled as he started to rise from his chair; “Right about what”?.Meanwhile, over at the Tracy household;.“Ye Gads! Who is that old man in the mirror”? Tracy was stunned at how bad the reflection that stared back at him looked. Could he really have aged so much? Wasn’t it just yesterday he was a raw rookie, eager to serve the people on the only job he ever knew? Ever wanted? “Dick, come to bed”! Closing the bathroom door behind him Tracy slowly walked toward the bedroom, sighing softly as he entered. “Tess looks just as beautiful as the day I first met her”, He thought to himself as a slight smile crossed his face. “Wonder why she has aged so well and I look and feel like Methuselah”? Tess could tell something was bothering him. She usually could. “What’s wrong Dick”? “I don’t know Tess. I guess I’m just feeling like some sort of comic strip character whose readership has dwindled to almost nothing and whose glory days are behind him”. Tess just smiled and gave him a hug, knowing that when he got into these “woe is me” moods there was nothing she could say to encourage him. “No, he’ll just have to work things out on his own, like he usually did”. She knew this was just the way it had to be. Dick continued; “I guess I just feel like a shell of myself these days. It feels like everyone at headquarters views me as some sort of dinosaur who can’t solve the simplest problem. It almost seems like every case I’ve been on the past few years has been some foolish situation that I managed to make a complete buffoon of myself. I feel that somewhere along the way I lost the man I was”. Tess paused for a moment then replied; “Well Dick, I guess you’ll just have to figure out a way to find yourself again, won’t you”? Tess said as she purposely leaned over him to turn out the lights.In the dark, Dick smiled..

To Be Continued……

http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/25/samsung-unveils-gear-live/?ncid=rss_truncated&cps=gravity

So the rumors were true: Samsung has revealed its first Android Wear-powered smartwatch, the Gear Live. The device mates a familiar, squared-off design (much like the Tizen-powered Gear 2) with Google’s wrist-worn interface. It includes the Gear 2’s 1.63-inch Super AMOLED screen, 300mAh battery and 4GB of storage; fitness gurus will be glad to hear that the heart rate monitor has also carried over. You’ll get to pre-order both Gear Live and its LG-made counterpart, the G Watch, later today; Samsung’s hardware will sell for $200 and ship on July 7th through Amazon, Best Buy and Google Play.

Well it was a hypothesis, not a theory.

Yes, “hypothesis” is a much better description. I’ve made many hypotheses on this strip lately, many of which I had little confidence in them being correct. It’s always fun for me to speculate.

If Annie is on the island – how did she get a letter in the mail?

Wastewaste our timewith your uselessattempt to make a rhymesee you’re putting us to sleepand the piles become a heapso zzzzzzzzz!!! LOL!

Its Okay, its the funny pages, remember….