Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 10, 2014

Clues upon clues!

Aha!

Figured one or the other knew what day it was….

It’s not really 1944 and the Radio is subliminalizing people to believe it is. “Mr. Tracy Believes it All” – Mike has thrown Misdirection (the “Alley Oop” reference, Diet’s Experiments).

Looking forward to answers when this all comes together. But, happy to be along for the ride in the meantime.

Good morning fellow DT and Annie fans!

So it is an elaborate hoax and Tracy’s drinking the kool-aid.

Good morning, all!It’s only me or Dick Tracy is made to play the part of the damsel in distress a bit too often? He should be the hero, not the hapless victim! Haven’t we seen a similar situation with Stiletta Jones, by the way?

Yes, but who IS Little Orphan Annie?

So, Tracy believes. Or DOES he???

A comic d’antan who no one minus forty knows zilch about. A comic glorifying the 1%. Acomic whose characters are humanoid aliens without pupils.

So, Tracy was fooled by the fake calendar? Or maybe he wasn’t and he’s just playing along trying to make people think he was fooled. That’s probably the best thing he could do because then he’s “undercover” and can investigate more easily.

Annie, on the other hand, thinks Tracy really does believe it’s 1944, even if he doesn’t. She’s playing the game, pretending it’s 1944, so it’s very possible that neither of them knows that the other knows it’s fake.

My guess is Tracy is playing along.

I think Tracy is trying to see if Annie really believes it. Or perhaps to see if it’s really Annie.

I’m with you all on the “they both know the truth” view. However we still have a lot to find out. First and foremost, WHY is this being staged? Is someone selling snake-oil time-travel to Diet and trying to provide fake evidence? Or trying a “mission impossible” illusion to reveal something that Tracy remembers? Or is it a plot against Warbucks in some way? They are burning a LOT of assets to do this, so it must be something huge.

Tomorrow morning he’ll turn on the radio and hear a British-accented woman’s voice: “Good morning, good morning, good morning, and what a lovely day it is. Rise and shine, rise and shine.”

AHA! It is as I have suspected and suggested! —An elaborate Potemkin Village, fortified by the mind-bending Belinda broadcasts. It appears to me that Tracy has been listening to the radiocasts and is under their spell (and Axel’s control, if Axel really is the Evil Mastermind behind this all). Annie, somehow, has remained unaffected: either assiduously avoiding the Belinda messages (but how would she have known to do that right from the start?) or finding some kind of psychotropic blocker, possibly (as I suggested before) administered in cookie dosages, which she tried unsuccessfully to get to Tracy. Tracy will be of no use in the rescuing of Annie for some while, until he can be freed from the Belinda spell. It’s up to the rest of the MCU and the Warbucks team to reach that point!

I, personally, think this whole thing is tied to the Philadelphia Experiment reference made by Diet Smith. Tracy has somehow gotten caught up in this.

Today there’s still a war on, but now we need to conserve gas instead of tires.

Leapin Lizards! Tell Tracy what’s really going on Annie! And if you was able to send a letter to him, send one to Daddy Warbucks!

I’m as confused as everybody else, but I do like the way Joe draws Little Orphan Annie. He imitates the Gray/Starr Annie just close enough, but adds enough of his own to make it unique. For example, the teeth. I don’t think either Gray or Starr rendered Annie’s teeth quite like this.

Good golly miss Molly I do hope at some point we’ll find out why Tracy went shopping at Boat Bed and Beyond!

Okay..So the time travel so far IS A HOAX..Somehow, Annie is currently immune to the hoax..Tracy may or may not have succumbed to the hoax. But, as I read it, it looks like he has..I agree with above posters – right now, Richard is not going to be a hero. Doesn’t mean he won’t be, later, but for now, he appears useless – and Annie knows it..So the overdue postage was a clue – a letter mailed in 1944 but delivered in 2014 ought not to have had postage due. But a letter mailed in 2014 with 1944 postage would..While the calendar may have been a clue, now that we know that this is not really 1944, the calendar may have outlived its usefulness. Should be interesting to see whether we see it again..As for Tracy being a “victim” – once again – it kind of brings to mind a recurring complaint that tsull2121 often has – that of late, Tracy seems to be rescued by others an awful lot..And right now, it looks as if it’s going to be Annie to the rescue!

Oh, yeah – Annie’s still unexplained remark a couple weeks ago – “It’s 1944!” So, clearly, she knew it was a lie, so why did she say it? And she knows she’s the one who summoned Tracy, even if it was a fan letter to Sparkle that she knew would conveniently land in Tracy’s hand..So, she knew it was possible, if Tracy did show up, that whatever “spell” they are under, he would fall under it, as well..Which makes her remark even more remarkable – NOT wanting Tracy to fall under the “spell,” yet she provided the first “clue” to do just that!

Really stupid thought..We now know that it’s not really 1944. Mike has said in an interview that Flattop is gonna stay dead. So, we’re not likely to run into him here..Another (several) poster(s) said that perhaps this is an elaborate hoax to swindle Dietrich – again. Especially since, at the moment, Smith is into time travel, just as he was once into moon travel..Perhaps the conspirator that we will run into is mister clone himself. Someone who has a history of trying to swindle Diet Smith Industries..No doubt Axel is involved – Annie has already said as much, and Warbucks, Asp, and Punjab have already intimated as much, as well..But the real tie-in between the Tracyverse and the Annieverse may be:

(Drumroll, please)

Mumbles!

Good morning DT and Annie fans. Annie and Tracy are both pretending? Maybe!

I’m lovin’ this!!!

You all have put up some really interesting and thought provoking comments already today! (I guess I should have gotten up earlier)I’m leaning toward the idea that Tracy spotted the calendar and suspects a hoax, and his comments to Annie are a way of feeling his way through this, trying to see just what it is that she knows and doesn’t know.On the other hand, if this is an elaborate, Mission: Impossible style set-up, those that are putting it over went to a lot of trouble and expense. It seems unlikely that they would have botched up the calendar, which was situated to be the first thing Tracy would see when he woke up. That wrong date is a loose end I cannot yet explain.Another mystery: if the whole island is an elaborate Truman Show, you would think that who ever is doing this would want to make sure it is self contained. In that case, why did they allow Annie to mail any sort of letter out? Even if it appeared to be an innocent fan letter, letting anything in or out of the “bubble” has the potential to break the illusion.

This is easily reckoned out: look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a modern airplane and it’s leaving contrails. They did not have modern jets in 1944 and if this location is anywhere near NYC in NY state there are going to many, many modern airplanes flying overhead.

I get the sense here that Tracy is not playing along. The Belinda program seems to be the key, as listening to it seems to have a brainwashing effect. What I’m wondering is how Annie was able to avoid having her mind altered, and what she’ll do to snap Tracy out of it. Should be fun!

They shouldn’t have put the ZIP code on the calendar!

He’ll find Capt. American buried in ice before this arc’s done

Contrails are not unique to jets, but air traffic in general would be a giveaway. However, there are “holes” in air traffic patterns that could be rationalized for the sake of the story. It would not be hard to have an occasional multi-engine prop job cruise by at a distance to help sell the situation though.

What does he think when airliners fly over at 40k feet leaving big contrails impossibly high in the sky?

I’m more confused about the comments than the strip.Everyone seems willing to accept that Diet Smith is working on a time travel device, yet everyone also feels this town is an incredibly detailed recreation, and no time travel is involved.-————I’m still thinking they are in 1944.Professor Kenyon (who’s house is on the map of Simmons Corners) may have invented a time machine. Axel was talking about him, remember.If ‘the Butcher’ is looking for a safe haven, how about in a town (and era) when no one is looking for him.The “Belinda” broadcasts carry a simple enough code to convince everyone not to ask questions – if ‘the Butcher’ shows up, claiming to be the 2nd cousin of Mayor Hangnail, everyone accepts him.Annie knows not to listen to the broadcasts because she was with ‘Butch’ when he was briefed by Axel upon arrival. (And It wouldn’t be the first time Annie has traveled in time.)

I think the calendar angle is over. It was in Tracy’s hospital room to “sell” Tracy he was in 1944.

The look on Tracy’s face in panel two tells me he’s trying to end Annie a signal. I don’t think he’s fooled.

My question is, are they being made (supposedly) to believe that they are in 1944 before or after D-Day?

They have to be very close to D-Day. Tracy fought in Anzio, which battle ended the day before D-Day. So, he was supposedly injured on or before June 5. According to the calendar, it’s now on or after June 1.

The suggestion is that after Tracy sustained what looked to us like a fairly minor head injury, he was promptly flown back from Italy to the United States and brought to a hospital in Simmons Corners. I’m not sure that’s a realistic scenario at all, even if his injuries were more serious than we could see. He’s up walking around now, so it couldn’t have been too bad.

OH MY GOODNESS. STOP THE PRESSES!!!! Yesterday Tracy’s hat was tilted towards his left side and today it’s tilted towards his right! Can’t these people show any consistency?? The whole story is ruined because of it. I mean really!! LOL!!!!

S.I.T.O.A.M.N.O.T.T.O.N.M.I.

When Annie disappeared she was a teenager and her hair no longer looked like like this; so, either this is really time travel or another special effort to make it appear so and Annie is playing along.Was there an actual Simmons Corner in either Annie or Dick Tracy strips? I would guess this was before Annie met Daddy Warbucks.A letter to Daddy Warbucks would be much more suspicious and looked at more carefully than a letter to a young female country singer.Whoever is behind this and set up this recreation of a 1944 village, kidnapped Annie in order to somehow defraud Daddy Warbucks and perhaps Diet Smith also. Annie resisted the brainwash and sent the letter hoping it would end up with DT and he’d figure out the clues and rescue her. They both seem to be playing along (who knows who may be listening) but are also sending out feelers and will drip very careful clues.I’m sure there are many holes in this theory as there are in the others that have been proposed.

Sorry about the typo – that should read “some of the other posters here”

Re: Contrails.Fascinating thought. Where the sam hill could this make-believe Simmons Corners BE that there would not be some kind of visual clues in the sky?.Certainly not New York, as one poster noted. And certainly not over Lake Michigan (inasmuch as classic Dick Tracy was more or less supposed to be Chicago)..Heck, even here in Colorado, people FLY from Denver to Colorado Springs, and it’s only a two hour drive from here!.The fact is, commercial air traffic is ridiculously commonplace these days; commercial air traffic was yet in its infancy in the real 1944. I’m thinking perhaps commercial air traffic didn’t really get off the ground until after the war..And a jet sounds nothing like a prop job in the sky..Unless they built a true BUBBLE for this make believe town! In which case, it doesn’t necessarily have to be an island in Lake Michigan!

Hmmm… interesting…

Of course, with satellite imagery and near constant flights over nearly all parts of the U.S., how the sam hill could they HIDE a BUBBLE in the first place?.I dunno. Maybe Annie’s the one who’s wrong this time.

It’s possible that he could have adjusted his hat between yesterday and today.

Of course, he adjusts it all the time. Mainly, I think it’s just that we’re looking at him from the other side, nothing more than that.

It’s interesting how she calls him “Officer Tracy” to his face, when she’s acting in character, but then switches to “Mr. Tracy” in her aside in Panel 3, because she knows that he’s not actually the village police officer.

JPW, I really was just kidding! LOL! Thanks for your defense of me yesterday.

I don’t know how many people read these comments so late in the day, but does anyone who’s read more Annie than I have know if asides are a frequent literary device in Little Orphan Annie because we’ve had at least two in a week.

Leapin’ Lizards!!!