Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 25, 2016

Airtomb? Sounds cool!

.Good morning guys!.We wondered what that contraption Abner had tucked away was. I hope it’s safe!

Tracy definitely deserves a vacation. Something tells me it won’t go as planned.

.Airtomb in disguise?.

The Airtomb? A variant model of the Airbus?The old cartoon show Mummies Alive had an aircraft made to look like a winged sarcophagus.One thing about Abner – he has style!

Not sure, but I think “The Airtomb” is a reference to a specific villain in the 1940’s AIRBOY comic books.

Here we go …

The Airtomb was associated with a macabre Airboy villain named Misery

Yesterday, BREXIT, Asterix, a hypothetical Lunarian presence in Iceland, and Bill’s vintage 3" 1949 Pilot TV were among the wide variety of topics which drove the comment count over 100.

Wonder what today will bring.

I like the juxtaposition of Tracy in panel 1 and Abner in panel 3. Both wearing hats, both looking away from camera and away from each other. Cool bookends to today’s strip.

Hmmm….the “AIRTOMB”….sounds both campy and menacing…..

State of the World of DT

June 25, 2016

Here is the final “plot map” for the story just completed. I’m giving a shortened version of it just below this paragraph, but I recommend you check out the fuller version at my site http://dt.canadatoyou.com/nottafallarmove/.I still haven’t got the legend all written up, but quickly, red is for bad guys, blue is for good guys, grey is both together and the circled numbers can be clicked to see each strip on GoComics.

I have decided to end this story in the middle of the June 22 strip since the following frame and the following days are more of a setup for the upcoming story than a resolution of the one that just finished. What do you think? You can see the beginning of the new storyline map at http://dt.canadatoyou.com/faceoffwithabner/. We know it’s about to be interrupted by a mini-story with Fearless Fosdick, but I think it’s better to start the story like this.

Notta Fallar Makes Her Move

April 7, 2016 to June 22, 2016 (81 days)

Prolog (recap from earlier)

INCITING ACTIONThe inciting action for this storyline actually took place during a sequence in the previous storyline, which is repeated here. February 17 to 20, 2016 (4 days)

Act 1: Notta Makes a Scandalous Video

EXPOSITION/INTRODUCTIONNotta Fallar has used the time while Tracy is in Cuba to prepare her scheme to smear his good name. April 7 to 19, 2016 (13 days)

Act 2: The conflict begins

Tensions rise on the side of the villains and on the side of the police. Mayor Arstrong suspends Tracy without pay and Notta sends Screwball to kill Putty Puss. Meanwhile, Lee (disguised as T-Bolt) meets with Sam and then Blaze spots her at the laundromat but doesn’t speak to her. April 20 to May 3, 2016 (14 days)

Act 3: The hunt for Putty Puss

Sam, Tracy, and The Asp try to hunt down the location of Putty Puss. Meanwhile, Screwball hunts him to kill him. The act ends with both Putty Puss and Screwball in police custody. May 4 to 22, 2016 (19 days)PUTTY PUSS CLIMAX

Act 4: Blaze Rize Gets Turned

Tracy goes after Notta, while Blaze is more unhappy than ever. A chance meeting at the laundromat sees Blaze turn to the good side at T-Bolt’s suggestion. The second member of our criminal trio is dealt with. May 23 to June 4, 2016 (13 days)BLAZE RIZE CLIMAX

Act 5: Notta Fallar is Going Down

Notta makes hasty plans to clear out as Blaze tries to set things up so that the police can move in and arrest Notta. In a surprise climactic scene, Purdy awkens from his vegetative state to stop Notta from killing his caretaker, Blaze. June 5 to June 22, 2014 (18 days)NOTTA FALLAR CLIMAX

FALLING ACTION/DENOUEMENTThe three inhabitants of Notta’s house are sorted to their respective fates.

RESOLUTIONTracy has definitively cleared his name and found a witness to testify against Mr. Bribery.

I don’t suppose I need to explain to anyone here the significance of 221B Baker Street, but it is, of course, the address in London of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes and the location (more or less, see Wikipedia article) of the Sherlock Holmes Museum.

Alley Oop met the great consulting detective after he retired and was raising bees.____________________

Alley Oop retired and raised bees?

( j/k, there was a recent movie portraying Holmes doing precisely such. It starred Master Thespian Ian McKellen.)

Since I live in Europe, I’ll be sure to report any Tracy sightings on this side of the pond…

What a coincidence, Tracy and Abner will be in Europe at the same time…

Why do I get the feeling that Abner Cadaver voice is like late Boris Karloff? (1887-1969)

I expect we’ll soon hear of a service that lets regular people rent graveyard facilities from other regular people, and call it Airtomb.

You’ll get good rates in England now DT.

Dick & Abner’s European Tour begins..

As long as it’s not the Wand of Wa-tomb! (See “Amazing Spider-Man” over at Comics Kingdom.)-——————————Whoa! Deja vu!Spidey and Doctor Strange fought Xandu when they met for the first time, (gasp!) 51 years ago! Written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko, “The Wondrous Worlds of Doctor Strange,” appeared in Spider-Man King-Sized Special #2, 1965. Oh yeah. Good times…

The real 221 Baker Street is a bank. There is, however a 221B that has special permission from the city to use that address. And yes, it is a Sherlock Holmes museum. It’s a very narrow multi-story home with the “loo” in the attic and a gift shop on the top floor. And right next door is Mrs. Hudson’s restaurant.

Since this is the Notta Faller story is the second story in a row this year to have no deaths, it’s time to take a look back at all the stories Curtis & Staton have done where no one died. That is, where no death was confirmed or even implied. By “implied”, I mean where a death may not have been fully confirmed, but where in the absence of any further evidence, it’s the conclusion you’d naturally come to, where the only reason to doubt they died is the lack of final confirmation. If there’s any reason to doubt it besides the lack of confirmation, then to my mind, it’s not an implied death.The first such story was in their first year on the strip in 2011, with the initial return of B-B Eyes. He tried to kill Honeymoon, but thankfully failed.The next time this happened was in 2012, their most “squeamish” year, the only one with multiple stories where no one died. In both of the first two stories introduced that year, Thunderchild and Blackjack, the villains weren’t killed and didn’t kill anybody. In between these two stories, however, was a weeklong subplot of the Second Mr. Crime, where it was implied Abner Kadaver killed Doubleup’s henchman, destroying the prosecution’s case against Doubleup and resulting in his acquittal. The next deathless story was the debut of Mrs. Flattop. She only tried to kill one person, but if she’s succeeded, the strip would be over. The year closed with the return of Broadway Bates, and while he had his moll Belle shot, the last we saw of her she was getting medical attention, making her death uncertain, and by my standard, unimplied.A few months later, in early 2013, we had the Jumbler who wasn’t killed and didn’t kill anybody. And that was the last story we had with no confirmed or implied deaths for the next three years.Which leads us to this year with the Specs/Spicy story. While people may have been killed in the safe explosion at the climax of the story, no deaths were mentioned. The safecracker could have been killed in the blast, but since he saw the dynamite before it went off, it’s at least as likely that he turned and ran and managed to get far enough away from the blast that it didn’t kill him. The facts that Specs was injured in the blast but was still well enough to travel soon afterwards while Spicy appears to have survived unscathed add to the possibility that the blast wasn’t as deadly as it looked and that no one was killed. And now, the following story with Notta Faller and Blaze Rize. Although we did get a confirmed death in this story, it was from several years ago, readers’ time, with the confirmation of Flakey Biscuit’s death. Her death at the time had been so heavily implied that I’d included her on the Death List right from the start, but it had not been confirmed until now. Aside from this confirmed deaths, no one who was alive at the start of this story was dead by the end of it.

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Oh please, no one go read that horrible, horrible strip. The only good thing about that one is the hilarious comments from the readers.

And if the Pound keeps falling, Tracy’s vacation could be extended for an extra week at no additional charge. Heard last night that the Wimbledon tennis championship prize just lost $300,000 in one day due to it plummeting. If it keeps falling, it might be a return to an amateur competition.

Can you imagine TSA when Abner shows up to go through their procedure? Possibly, the agents will all be huddled over a 6-tube bong to notice him going through. Either that, or too busy divvying up loot out of people’s carry-on luggage.

2011The Fifth & Flyface III (March 14-April 30)Hot Rize (May 1-June 2)Doubleup (June 3-25)B-B Eyes II (June 26-July 30)Morning Gloria (July 31-September 17)The Retelling of Tracy’s First Case (September 18-October 23)The Second Mr. Crime, B-B Eyes, Blaze Rize, Mumbles, Doubleup, & Abner Kadaver (October 24-December 2)Abner Kadaver is in a unique position among Tracy villains. As a profession hitman, he’s always taking orders from somebody, and they’ve always been main villains in their own right. So technically, Abner is never the “main” villain. But there are stories where he is the main focus, and whenever that is, I boldface his name.Putty Puss III (December 3, 2011-February 2,2012)Thunderchild (February 3-March 7)Blackjack (March 8-April 24)The Second Mr. Crime, B-B Eyes, Blaze Rize, Mumbles, Doubleup, & Abner Kadaver II (April 25-July 20)Mrs. Flattop (July 21-August 20)Phishface (August 21-September 28)Measles II (September 29-November 16)Broadway Bates II (November 17, 2012-January 5, 2013)Sweat Box (January 6-March 3)The Jumbler (March 4-April 16)The Return of Moon Maid (April 17-October 19)The Blackhearts, Mrs. Flattop, Abner Kadaver, & Blackjack (Octobr 20, 2013-January 4,2014)Silver & Sprocket Nitrate (January 5-March 19)Tabby Angus (March 20-May 31)The Search for Annie (June 1-October 12)Gruesome (October 13, 2014-January 18, 2015)Silver & Sprocket Nitrate and Mrs. Flattop (January 19-March 21)The Great Train Robbery (March 22-June 13)The Downfall of the Blackhearts and the Return and Rise of Mr. Bribery (June 14-October 11)Where it’s revealed that Mr. Bribery was the secret leader of the Blackhearts, making him the unseen main villain behind the Return of Moon Maid, Abner Kadaver’s second “solo” story, and the Great Train Robbery.Midnight Mirror Mystery (October 12-December 25)Specs & Spicy and the Return of the Ace of Spades (December 26, 2015-April 6,2016)Mrs. Notta Faller Chin Chiller, Blaze Rize, and Putty Puss (April 7-June 21)

Are we going to get back to Mysta soon? She is my favorite character by far, as if you couldn’t tell from my avatar ha! How long has it been since we last saw her??

Gweedo told Willy997,…I forgot to mention how very fetching Rikki is today.-———————————————————————-.“hubba, hubba!”

“And it’s raining all over the world… tonight, the longest night.”

What you say is true about villains with a powerful presence, but that doesn’t make The Wizard of Oz “the story of the Wicked Witch of the West.” I think that anyone would conclude that the movie is a story about Dorothy. Dorothy is the one who is in almost every scene and is the protagonist who has a goal at the beginning that she needs to pursue and ends up with a transformed attitude by the end of the movie. The witch is merely the biggest obstacle to Dorothy’s pursuit of her quest. The witch is important, but she is in no way the main character.

.I hope Abner’s Airtomb is nothing like the Japanese one-man submarines used in WW2!.

Just when I was thinking Tracy and Tess would would have a nice, peaceful vacation while Fosdick cavorted across the comics-pages….