Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 04, 2015

Well now, THIS is an interesting turn of events!

From Stagger Lee, last night:“From:Mike Curtis at THE ‎DICK TRACY FAN CLUBNo one seems to have noticed, and I can’t post on GOCOMICS so I’ll post here. I didn’t write today’s DICK TRACY. A couple of years ago, Joe and I knew that the Mole would need a real name and background, and I could not imagine one better than the one MAX ALLEN COLLINS gave him in DICK TRACY GOES TO WAR. So we had Jim Doherty ask him for permission to use it, and that’s it in today’s TRACY. That’s why the pipe at the end of the strip says COLLINS in big print. Thanks, Max!” And Thank You, Stagger Lee, for YOUR contribution. Doesn’t seem like you are on this board as often as you used to be. You ARE missed.

Good morning Tracy fans especially ‘The World Famous Gweedo’. Is the drilling rig a cover for retrieving the gold? Be happy and healthy my friends.

The house is basically Frank Lloyd Wright’s architectural masterpiece Fallingwater. Fallingwater, located in rural south-western Pennsylvania has been cited by members of the American Institute of Architects as the “best all-time work of American architecture.” It is widely praised for its integration with its striking natural surroundings and its strong emphasis on harmony between man and nature (paraphrased from Wikipedia).

Obviously, the last thing you’d want in such a beautiful setting is an ugly drilling rig.

Maybe I’ve gotten too used to it, but I should have made mention of the beautiful Joe Starton artwork in today’s strip. Thank You, as always, Sir!

Isn’t that what a log cabin does ? ? ?

I suppose a log cabin blends in but this is much more that a log cabin and it isn’t only integrated visually. The sound of the water can supposedly be heard in the house all the time because the waterfall is under the house. A rick ledge protrudes up into the living room. The house has four bedrooms and was designed for entertaining large groups of visitors. The colours of the house are designed to bland in the the rocks.

So, our new character is apparently called “Ted Tellum” (presumably like “tell them”) and he is a broadcaster. I suppose he is rich, since it says that few can afford to live there, but his influence as a broadcaster was not strong enough to stop the drilling rig. (By the way, Fallingwater was built for the owner of a chain of department stores, located in four states and based in Pittsburgh.)

That sounds more like a visitor’s center than a home …

Nowadays it actually is more like a visitors’ centre. I’m going to have to get down there and see it in person sometime. It’s been open to the public for (rather pricey) tours for some years now. I expect that Mr. Kaufmann had a lot of big fancy parties there in the many years that he used it as a vacation home.

From what I recall, Ted Tellum was based on Arthur Godfrey.

I think Ted may have some folks drilling for gold here.

Great 2-Panel strip today.

And I think Starman1948 is spot-on about the rig being used as a cover for the gold smuggling operation.

Ted Tellum had previously gotten himself mixed up in Morning Gloria’s plot to sell explosive fertilizer to terrorists …

Which led to a frame-up …

And some stress-induced pill-popping …

Lake “Pratchett” is presumably in honor of the recently deceased Sir Terry, author of the Discworld series.

Well, somebody’s going to be up the creek without a pot of gold….Ted Tellum looks to be in for yet another career low—maybe even below water level….

Why do I have the strange feeling the gold’s about to be found?

If ted tellum’s house actually overlooks the ENTIRE lake, then that’s one might tiny lake indeed! Perhaps it should be a POND instead

Good morning guys!

Good morning Gweedo. We’re fine.

Never seen a big rig around here (IL). But there are lots of little stripper wells. Make certain farmers lots of money.

@Gweedo: thank you, my friend.________@AnyFace: thanks for posting the background comics. ________I remember an oil rig was used by the U.S. govt. as a cover for raising a sunken Russian sub. It was partly successful. Some of the grappling hooks broke while raising the sub causing it to break into several pieces. Some years ago there was a TV special about it. Anyone else remember this event?________Be well my friends.

“Fallingwater” (aka “Rising Mildew”) occupies the one spot on the property from which you cannot see the waterfall. Which is OK, I guess, if the purpose of the house is to impress visitors (which it probably was). And those dramatic cantilevers were under-designed because FLW insisted upon being his own structural engineer. Reinforcing them before they collapsed cost more than building the house in the first place. Aside from that, it’s fine…

When I see the drill rig in the lake I think about that huge and growing sinkhole in Louisiana, formed when a solution-salt-mining operation breached and collapsed an underground salt dome…http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayou_Corne_sinkhole

LAKE PRATCHETT !

And given the Mole’s information from yesterday, with a train tunnel end ‘left open’ there, a silent indicator that’s where the stolen Gold went.

So one assumes Tracy is on his way there ?Perhaps via the same tunnel the Mole said led here, to in part, verify - that the train car with the Gold had moved in that directionConfirming, he’s on the right trail ! Guess, we’ll find out tomorrow or by Wednesday ?

Our friend Ted Tellum is back, seems he lives there, and as Any Face kindly reminded us Tellum had appeared in the Morning Gloria tale in August/September of 2011.

He is of course, a Chet Gould ‘creation’, in part based on Arthur Godfrey, (a 1950’s TV Entertainer CBS) - and as some might recall, Ted Tellum played a central role in that 1950 Wormy Marrons storyline.Indeed, he was apprehended (shot in the back) escaping, speeding away - across the very same Lake.But Wormy survived, made a short appearance in a 1981 Max Collins Tracy tale along with several other past charactersHe remains alive today but it’s unlikely he will show up now.

Pssst! Hey Ted; don’t get all up in a huff quite yet. Don’t you know there is something odd about a drilling rig with no drill pipe on site? I don’t think mineral ownership matters too much here!

@SYDNEY PHILLIPS:He remains alive today but it’s unlikely he will show up now.Syd, I think that Wormy was mentioned right at the start of Mike and Joe’s run on the strip. The main characters were discussing him at HQ, and said that he had been reported dead.

More background on Ted Tellum:His house over the creek was originally set up as a broadcasting studio, as well as living quarters. He had a rather bland radio show, in the days when lots of women were home during the day, and the show was directed at them. He used Wormy, who was ugly but had a warm, seductive voice, to boost his radio ratings, all the while planning to trap Wormy in to confessing over the air. He got his studio pretty well shot to pieces, but Tracy and Sam helped him survive.He was later shown to have graduated to TV, and had a variety show that featured Sparkle Plenty for a short time.The creek is “Hail Creek at the Bay” (DT 2-26-1950) “The bay” implies a rather large body of water, so Mike may be retconning a little bit here with the lake.

Perhaps Ted has graduated from Arthur Godfrey to Brian Williams. He seems just about as credible…

ha ha ha i love it ha ha ha great comment JPuzzleWhiz thanks friend!

Hmm….. come to think about it, Ted, see that second pond in the rear? The one with the transfer pipe? Does it have an unusual bouquet downwind? Umm…. thought so! You can call that pond a “settling pond”, or “clarifier”. You get the picture!

Regarding comments made yesterday:.Gweedo, the two “live-action” Superman movies that co-starred Noel Neill as Lois Lane (the part she would play in the TV series from the second season on), were the two Columbia movie serials, SUPERMAN (1948) and ATOM MAN VS. SUPERMAN (1950)..They may have been re-released after being condensed down to feature-length (Republic Studios did this for many of their serials)..Also, re Batman villains who might have been inspired by the Mole, the one who has the closest connection is a character called the Gopher. Like the Mole having a hideout in the abandoned sewers of the City, the Gopher is a operates a criminal business out of the abandoned sewers and subway tunnels of Gotham. He never appeared in the comic books, but was featured in a Sunday story in the McClure Syndicate’s BATMAN comic strip. The story ran from 6 May 1945 through 17 July 1945, while a different story ran during the daily strips..The fact that this story ran just four years after the Mole story was featured in TRACY, and, moreover, ran in Batman’s newspaper strip rather than either BATMAN or DETECTIVE COMICS, suggests that the similarities between the characters is not coincidental.

May the 4th B with U … HAPPY STAR WARS DAY!!!

The little house over the creek. We haven’t seen this since1950 when Wormy went berserk inside against Tellum and Tracy. Didn’t end too well for Wormy. Thanks, Mike and Joe for the reminder.

Lake Prachett, very cool. Good for you guys!

@ Ken in Ohio

Re: Wormy . . .“right at the start” (by M&J) " … the main characters were discussing him at HQ, and said that he had been reported dead"-———————————————————————-

Thanks Ken,Must have missed that, and can’t recall it ?Will go back and check it out . . .

@John Russell: thanks for the nod. Be well my friend.

Did you know that the very first “off-shore” oil wells were drilled in Caddo Lake, a lake that straddles the Texas-Louisiana border above Shreveport, and is the only natural lake in the whole state of Texas.

Where are we going now, Ted?? TBC..

Underground oil extraction can run awry…-————————————————————————————Thanks for your concern Gweedo!

Yes ! Wormy and Thistle Dew are both gone, dead (3-21-11)

And it was the first item, on that new Death List - posted here a few Days ago by BOBOSCAR

Truly helpful ! My Thanks !

March 21 2011

@Sydney Phillips: thanks for posting the Wormy and Thistle Dew comic. Be well my friend.