Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 06, 2014

Progressing nicely!

Good morning guys from Vista Bill

Sam doesn’t look right without being surrounded by smoke!

A *very close" friend! LOL

I kind of knew the Chief knew something about Thunder Island. Enter Sam’s “friend,” Fritz Ann!

“A friend of yours?”LOL! Good one, Mr. Warbucks!

Good thing the camera panned away from the chief. No telling where that nervous Nellie’s finger was heading to. LOL! Goodnight Irene. ZZZzzz,,,

So I’m a zombie now?

“As am I, until Annie and Dick break the spell !”Slick, Gweedo!

So, if the island is a “no trespass area,” as the chief says, they would probably be patrol boats around it to make sure no-one comes near. Did one of those conk Tracy on the head and bring him in?

Daddy, you don’t know the half of it!

Courageous of Sam to make that call out of a sense of duty….

I’m surprised they haven’t found Tracy’s car parked at the dock. We already know why Tess doesn’t read e-mails from him; she has him listed as spam. Now e-mails and texts from Johnny – well, that’s another “thang!”

I sure hope this doesn’t turn into “Desperate housewives of Tracyville”. Where’s fake MM when you need her!

Good morning fans. Progress! It is good. Fritz Ann to the rescue! I’ll bet Sam really hates to call on her for help!

I can see Fritz Ann wanting to extract a favour in return …

Why even bother with Fritz Ann? Warbucks could call in his FBI buddy, Agent Shuter!

From late yesterday – Thunder Island could not have been destroyed in 1944. Tracy was looking at it on Google Earth (or some such program). Furthermore, his research showed that the island is currently being leased to the private sector by the US Government.

Sam’s sporting a toothpick now. I miss the cigarettes.

Others have complained that there are too many subplots in this story..On the other hand, the main plot seems to be getting way too easy. Everybody now knows Thunder Island is where the action is. And, while we can hope for an alternate reality, from all appearances, the time travel thing was a hoax..So, all that’s left is to assemble the rest of the cast of characters on Thunder Island..And keep them from listening to Belinda or looking at secret decoder rings..Maybe we need to borrow some old tires from Gasoline Alley – this story may be running out of steam!

@tsull2121if it IS a no trespass zone, and the government conducted tests back there in 44, and the island was evacuated.. WHO is enforcing the no trespass? The government? Are THEY on axel’s payroll as well?

We don’t know everything about the island yet. Dick found that it was (confusingly) “privately owned by the U.S. government” and “leased to the private sector.” It doesn’t seem reasonable that it would be off-limits to all human beings, otherwise who would lease it and why? I can’t see that there would be any point in leasing it if no-one could go there.

I suspect that “privately owned by the U.S. government” might mean that it’s off limits to the general public, even though it actually belongs to the government. I would doubt that the government would be enforcing the no trespass, actually. If they’ve leased it to someone and it’s not limits to the people they leased it to, I would then expect that the lessee would be responsible for keeping the general public out.

By the way, looking back to see Tracy’s exact words about the island, I see that it was “the site of a nuclear accident in 1944.” I had said before that the accident may have been any time during the development of the atomic bomb, but I see now that the accident was explicitly said to have occurred in 1944.

in Sam’s view, she is more of a stalker than a friend.

I like how Mike has been bringing in characters from the past of the MCU, as well as from Annie’s past. Last week, it was Chief Patton’s old enemy, Influence, and now Sam’s, uh friend, Fritz Ann.

Imagine if the doctor has advised you to stop smoking…but all your fans encourage you to keep up the image..Well, Sam is still my hero after all these years…we used to be such happy smokers..

Wasn’t an agent named Jim Traylor Tracy’s contact at the FBI?Yes, but I believe it was spelled “Trailer”, playing on the idea of trailing a suspect, much as Sam’s name “Catchem” is playing on the idea of catching the crooks.

RE: Sam’s new toothpick:In Columbia Falls, MT there is an excellent weekly newspaper called the Hungry Horse News. For many years, there has been a columnist named G. George Ostrom. His column is accompanied by a caricature of him. The cartoon used to show him holding a big smoking cigar, but several years ago they changed it. Now he is holding a fountain pen. I don’t know if he quit smoking, or if the editors just wanted a better image, but it hasn’t changed the effectiveness of his writing. Maybe they just wanted a more modern look.Maybe Mike and Joe should have incorporated a few lines of dialog (maybe they will at some point) but it seems they wanted to modernize Sam’s look. Even if he still smokes, it makes it much more realistic in this day and age if he does not light up inside public buildings.Blondie used to sit by Dagwood and knit. Now, she does crossword puzzles. I read somewhere that they did that to make her appear more relevant to a younger generation.Just some random ideas on the subject. Personally, I hope Mike and Joe make it a sub-story that Sam is quitting smoking.

i MEANT in the mess hall gweedo! lol

and for the record… i hope sam CONTINUES to smoke and tat team tracy doesnt “cave” to the “P.C. Brigade” that constantly complain about a fictional character’s habit that had been established WAAAAY back in, what.. the 1960’s at least?

" . . . although readers do know that Sam is fictional, he has become “real” in the sense that any well written character is “real”, and readers care about him. What’s wrong with that, and how is that PC. Read my comment a few notches up – maybe Mike and Joe just realized that it was unrealistic to have Sam smoking in public buildings. Or maybe they just wanted to give him a slightly more modern edge.-——————————————————————————In the same vein readers care about Tracy and realize it’s not realistic to have a ‘chisel’ nose like that. Perhaps, in like manner, the Authors may wish to give him a slightly more normal appearance ?

I realize that might sound banal, but this is a ‘comic strip’ - where the Creator’s established, character ‘IMAGES’ are important, and preferably, should be maintained, unlike the deviation in the recent past, when ‘liberties’ were taken with the ‘looks’ of another regular character (since – restored early – 2011)

Think Shaky – without the ‘shakes’ . . .The Brow – without a brow . . .Shoulders – etc . . .or Dick Tracy without the ‘hatchet’ nose ?The point, extremes - have been the distinguishing hallmark of it’s ‘memorable’ characters !.

I agree with all you said.It’s more out of place to see Sam smoking in the office than to see him with a toothpick.

Remember when actor Telly Sevalas quit? His hit TV character Kojak switched from cigarettes to lollipops, which made him even more distinctive. (And lollipops became macho.)The only ones complaining about PC are probably smokers who feel the heat to quit.

“Right at”, Gweedo…Either way, I stick by my “That’s Funny!”