Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 11, 2015

How cordial! So nice to see a pleasant exchange in the strip! Kind of like in the posts, every day………

(Can anyone help? My tongue is stuck in my cheek!)

Why do I think a con is going down, that will result in two dead Nitrate’s?

Just wondering…If Mrs. Flattop just gave Silver a check, where is he going to be able to cash it?

Good morning DT fans! It’ s only me or all this pleasantries are covering purposes not very pleasant? Absotively Posilutely, as Silver said! :)

Good morning guys!

Where am I? Where have I been?

They “… tested” its new submersible feature. Haha!

They are always hard up for money. They like the idea of Mrs. Flattop’s offer (which may or may not be a cheque — maybe it’s just a written offer). Anyway, Stilleta seems to have plans for the car, aside from just family sentimentality. She can’t just drive it around town — it’s too conspicuous — so i’m sure she has something in mind. The offer must be good because Silver won’t have the income from exhibiting it anymore.

Clearly Silver didn’t know about the submersible feature that his sister either found or added to the car, since we now know she did all the work on it. Hence his terror when they went under. I think she got some revenge on him there.

Is there really a submersible feature? Silver’s hesitation in referring to it (panel 1) suggests that maybe the car was not equipped for underwater use and that the Nitrates got out of the drink more by luck than by technology. The needed “refinishing” may be far more extensive than he allows to Stiletta. But Mrs. Flattop’s apparently very generous offer and check seems far too easy-going for her. Something is fishy, and I don’t mean just the car!

Wow! What a Lady she’s being, that Stiletta! She could so have just demanded the car, NOW. I’m betting that they either 1) left the car at the bottom of the lake all this time or2) They will try to take the $ and the car (if they have it) and run and that will be the last thing they ever try to pull. EVER.

I bet they dont have the car.

It is logical the Silver does not want to reveal that they used the submersible feature to elude Tracy. It may well need a going over after the adventure at the bottom of the frozen lake. Will this unexpected payday alter plans to scam Aggie? Unlikely, as greed often gets the better of criminals in Tracyville.

Sprocket will want to sell, Silver will want to keep the money AND car while trying to feed Lena some FLATjacks!

Is there truly honor among thieves (and killers, kidnappers, etc.)?

Silver seems pleased with whatever amount Stiletta wrote down.

Wonder if someone else will end up with Stiletta’s number before everything shakes out.

I’ve travelled where no man has gone before, Neil.

Would there be any motivation for the Nitrates to give Stilletta a car with an extra feature of their own…like a bomb?

Good morning my friends. Excellent comments all. Y’all have an adventurous day.

The whole key to Silver’s “Lost Footage” scams is that the mark will be too embarrassed to go to the police if they ever find out they’ve been ripped off and therefore powerless to retalliate. Stiletta isn’t that kind of a mark.

I think Sprockett is smart enought to think of that. Her brother, I’m not so sure. I think he’s a habitual scammer who is so used to fooling people that it doesn’t occur to him that things could go bad. Even though, last time, they did.

Ya know, the way she’s been acting, I might ask Stiletta out on a double date with Vista Bill and Rikki.

You take a check ? Sure – I though you wanted money!

Ms. Jones thinks the Nitrates are cute…the underwater feature seemed to work just fine…

I think I agree with mzkdad. I can’t believe Stilleta would give them a check without even seeing the car…unless she has some really diabolical scheme.

Are the Nitrate’s and Mrs. FT dumb enough to use checks? Both could be traced and nabbed if they did that. I suspect that cash will be the medium of exchange, not a check, unless a double cross is in the making.

Next time on “Voyage to the Bottom of the Lake…”

The car is not at the bottom of the lake or the police would have found it, but it may not be so easy to fix it up. I suspect, as others have said, that it’s a stalling tactic. Silver’s M.O. is to sell things that he can’t deliver for cash. Stilleta has fallen right into his trap, even though a trap was not set for her.

A ‘regular’ girl wouldn’t want me, Gweedo. I think Rikki is cool. We’re going to the morgue tonight.

I’m still trying to figure out what a personal assistant is, Gweedo.

I’m 80. You can’t be older than me, can you?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that Silver never calls Stiletta.

while the first impulse is to think one or the other will be scamming here, Stilletta seems kind of above that particular sort of thing, not to mention the check would clear by then, and based on the Nitrates reaction of fear at first, doubt they would choose to mess with her. Hmmm….if someone were to steal the car though, and Stilletta not believe it, it could end up fun….

We didn’t stay at the morgue very long. Things were really dead there. Rikki wanted to show me her reanimation trick, but that was not what I wanted to see.

Personally, I prefer this song …

When dealing with criminals, always demand cash.

When dealing with Stiletta, say “Thank you ma’am.”, unless you want her to make it ‘knife to meet you’.