It time to comment on the previous story but I wasted time trying to get my old computer going so I haven’t written anything yet (besides whatever daily comments I already wrote).
With everything about the 3 Margies seemingly wrapped up the story changes completely, which I feel marks the end of the last story and the start of the next one. When that happens I do a list of every Tracy story on GoComics. Unfortunately, soon after I started doing this GC imposed a stupid, asinine character limit of only 2000 characters which includes every letter, space, punctuation, & html, which means I have to do this over several posts. I’ll do my initial introduction in this post and start the list in the next one, because otherwise, I can’t even get past the second year.
My notes are fairly simple. Just my name for the story (usually the name of the main villain or villains, unless they just aren’t the emphasis) followed by the dates the story began and ended. If someone was the main villain for more than one story, I add a “II” and so on to emphasize this. If more than one villain from a past story are in the same story committing major crimes, I include them altogether. Finally, for the two cases of more than one villain with the same name (Chameleon, Mr. Crime) I add, “The Second” in front of their names.
At the start of the GoComics archive, the writer was the late Mike Kilian. Personally, I like his work on Tracy and think he’s very underrated. At the very least, he knew how to tell a story in the daily strip format where every day, something happens that moves the story along, a quality his successor sorely lacked. I recommend anyone here who hasn’t read these stories to check them out.
The earliest strip on GoComics is Sunday, April 8, 2001. GC then skips a week to the next Sunday, April 15, then skips the next couple of days to Wednesday, April 18. Sadly, this means GC doesn’t have every strip from this first story. Happily, GC has every strip from Tracy from 4/18/01 to the present.
The Mistress of Death (June 21-September 13)
Snails (September 14-December 5)
A Detective, 2 Gunmen, and a Kitty (December 6, 2001-January 13,
2002)
G. R. Eed (January 14-February 24)
Pinhead (February 25-April 26)
Percy Brillig (April 27-June 27)
Heartless Mahoney II (June 28-August 23)
Hawk (August 24-October 16)
The Abduction of Tracy’s Granddaughter (October 17-December 15)
I believe this is where Junior and Sparkle’s daughter (initially named Sparkle Plenty Junior) was renamed Jewel.
The Second Chameleon (December 16, 2002-February 7,
2003)
The Revenge of Hard Case Harry? (February 8-May 3)
Hard Case Harry was a bitter ex-con who served a harsher sentence than even Tracy felt he deserved. In an earlier story, he initially sought revenge on Tracy, but got a chance to reform. Here, he and a family go missing, and Tracy’s left to wonder if he’s decided to return to crime after all. This leads to reprinting the entire original Hard Case Harry story that ran from December 13, 1993-January 23, 1994, before this second HCH case is solved.
Dr. Beau Tox, Heartless, Mahoney, Prune Hilda, Dab Stract, & No Face (September 29-December 18)
All of the above villains were recurring villains except for Dr. Tox, the main villain. By the end, Prune Hilda is killed, Mahoney and Stract testify against Tox in exchange for freedom, but despite their testimony, Tox is acquitted. So Tox, Mahoney, and Stract were all legally freed (and Locher later confirmed that Stract reformed). No Face, as always, escaped without getting caught, and is still at large. ARGH!
Sal Monella II (December 19, 2003-March 10,
2004)
Mousse (March 11-May 30)
Piggy Bank VI (May 31-August 27)
Yes, this was Piggy Bank’s sixth story as a main villain. And he escapes and remains at large. ARGH!
Flunke (August 28-December 22)
Airport Sabotage (December 23,2004-March 14,
2005)
The Manipulation of Moonrock (March 15-May 27)
Dick Tracy in the Southwest (May 28-August 11)
Cellphone (August 12-November 3)
This is the last story Kilian lived to complete.
Oily II (November 4, 2005-March 22,
2006)
Oily was a villain who debuted in a pre-2001 Kilian story. Sadly, Kilian died in late 2005. The last Sunday strip with his signature on it was January 15, 2006. The last Daily strip with his signature on it was over a week earlier on January 7. Up to that point the story had been moving along at Kilian’s usual brisk pace. He’d even had the story largely wrapped up. Too bad his successor, Kilian’s friend and longtime Tracy artist Dick Locher, stretched out the ending for over two months, that feel like over two months just reading it. A sad omen of things to come.
TBC cuz GC sez 2001 characters is “very, very disruptive on the small screen” so it must be true.
And now, here’s my coverage of Dick Locher’s run as writer. In fairness to Locher, he’d been a good, regular artist for decades. And stepping in at the crisis of Mike Kilian’s unexpected death probably saved the strip and kept it afloat. And earlier, when Max Allan Collins left, Locher wrote and drew one story before Kilian stepped in (which sadly, isn’t on here) that’s actually pretty good. That said, his writing here from 2006 to 2011 is Bad. Really, really Bad. Excruciatingly Bad. I list the stories here, where you can find them, but I really wouldn’t recommend reading them. Although halfway through, the experience starts to become worthwhile on this site, but not for anything Locher is doing (at least not intentionally).
2006
Al Kinda (March 23-August 24)
Dr. Figment Froid (August 25, 2006-January 21,
2007)
Queenie (January 22-May 19)
The Brainwashed Baron (May 20-October 14)
The Haunted House (October 15, 2007-January 22,
2008)
Cole Lector (January 23-May 15)
TBC cuz we’ve reached the halfway point of Locher’s run, it’s about to become (sorta) worthwhile, but I need to explain why and my explanation can’t fit this post. Ain’t character limits wonderful
And this is where it (sorta) becomes worthwhile. When Tracy first found the Internet, TMS published its own Tracy website, complete with a forum. In early August, 2008, the site and forum were completely shut down. Which is when GoComics took off. On August 3, fans began to post here, and with nothing good going on in the strip, the fans resumed what they’d done on the old forum, mocking and making fun of just how awful the strip had become. If you like Riff Trax or Mystery Science Theater 3000, you might get a kick out of these comments, many of which are clever, witty, even hilarious at times.
There’s one caveat however. There were a couple of ugly flame wars started here by Locher’s friend and supporter, Matthew P. Hansel. He would rudely insult anyone who didn’t appreciate Locher’s “genius”, namely just about everyone else posting. It got so bad several times, that the GoComics administrator would have to step in and put a halt to it. Eventually all of Matty’s posts would be deleted, which was no big loss, but several fun commentators would get deleted, too, which was a big loss. Going over these old comments now, while still often amusing, can be a bit odd, because the remaining posts include reactions to comments that are no longer there.
Be that as it may, there’s some entertainment value in the comments section of the following strips, even if there’s none in the strips themselves.
Braces (August 28-December 10)
Angelorious (December 11, 2008-March 2,
2009)
Big Ace & One-Eyed Jack (March 3-July 10)
Murder at the Circus (July 11-November 24)
The Maestro and His Son (November 25, 2009-April 6,
2010)
Johnny Nothing (April 7-July 21)
D’Buckworth (July 22-November 13)
Dr. Mordred (November 14, 2010-March 13,
2011)
And after five years of darkness, there was light.
And now my listing of Curtis’ stories. I have the least to say here, but’s all good and often great. Anyone looking for past good stories can find them here. Highly recommended.
2011
The 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 professional 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)
The Fall 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 (the one I start by listing “The Blackhearts”), 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,
Mr. Bribery & Abner Kadaver (June 22-September 24)
Selfy (September 25-December 17)
This story also marks the return of Gould villain Posie Ermine. He’s served his time, and no one tries to arrest him, but he’s definitely still a villain. He knows Selfy is a wanted fugitive but doesn’t alert the authorities, he rear ends Mysta’s car, and tries to forcibly take her with him. I expect we’ll see more of him and some more outright villainy from him in the future.
Dick Tracy Meets The Spirit (December 18, 2016-April 6,
If Mike still wants to do a Plenty Brothers reunion, I’m down w/ that. Although getting to know the clan throughout the decades parlays into their “mystique”.
Boboscar, I really appreciate your story index. However, the tricky thing about it, aside from the need to split it up in many posts, is the need to search for the beginning of a new storyline to find it, creating a sort of chicken and egg problem. I can’t find your index without knowing where the beginning of the storyline is, but it’s hard to find the beginning of the storyline without your index.
Would it be possible to put the index up on the web somewhere? That would free you from the constraints of the GoComics comment section. Each entry could have an actual HTML link to the storyline it refers to, maybe starting with an overall index of eras like the Kilian/Locher run, the solo Locher run, and the current Curtis/Staton run. You could then limit the GoComics post to the last storyline or two, and whatever changes you might have made, and then a link to the complete list, which would fit a single GoComics comment. Those of us who would like to keep this list as a reference, could then make a bookmark in our browsers.
I didn’t think that was the end of the last story, but I guess it was. I feel like it ended rather abruptly. I sort of want to know what made Big Margie what she is, whether Little Margie went to jail, etc. The whole graveyard vandalism anti-Semitism thing seemed to come out of nowhere, and not have any relationship to the rest of the story.
And I wonder how much “Grecian Formula #9” B.O. uses on his hair and beard?! Not a speck of grey showing, while Gertie has been snow-white for some time!
And just what would Gertie consider to be “scary noises”? —Probably more than mice, wind rattling window-panes, or heavy traffic on the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t overpass. What harm could an exorcism (exercise) do, though? Ahem.
Neil Wick over 7 years ago
Brother Freddie Mark is their pastor? Let’s see if he’s an exorcist.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
"What is the Secret of Sunny Dell Acres …?”
Neil Wick over 7 years ago
It time to comment on the previous story but I wasted time trying to get my old computer going so I haven’t written anything yet (besides whatever daily comments I already wrote).
boboscar over 7 years ago
“And now for something completely different.”
With everything about the 3 Margies seemingly wrapped up the story changes completely, which I feel marks the end of the last story and the start of the next one. When that happens I do a list of every Tracy story on GoComics. Unfortunately, soon after I started doing this GC imposed a stupid, asinine character limit of only 2000 characters which includes every letter, space, punctuation, & html, which means I have to do this over several posts. I’ll do my initial introduction in this post and start the list in the next one, because otherwise, I can’t even get past the second year.
My notes are fairly simple. Just my name for the story (usually the name of the main villain or villains, unless they just aren’t the emphasis) followed by the dates the story began and ended. If someone was the main villain for more than one story, I add a “II” and so on to emphasize this. If more than one villain from a past story are in the same story committing major crimes, I include them altogether. Finally, for the two cases of more than one villain with the same name (Chameleon, Mr. Crime) I add, “The Second” in front of their names.
At the start of the GoComics archive, the writer was the late Mike Kilian. Personally, I like his work on Tracy and think he’s very underrated. At the very least, he knew how to tell a story in the daily strip format where every day, something happens that moves the story along, a quality his successor sorely lacked. I recommend anyone here who hasn’t read these stories to check them out.
TBC cuz GC decided to suck now
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 7 years ago
Just write more in the next box and so on. I do.
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
2001
The Airplane Murder Mystery (March 29-June 20)
The earliest strip on GoComics is Sunday, April 8, 2001. GC then skips a week to the next Sunday, April 15, then skips the next couple of days to Wednesday, April 18. Sadly, this means GC doesn’t have every strip from this first story. Happily, GC has every strip from Tracy from 4/18/01 to the present.
The Mistress of Death (June 21-September 13)
Snails (September 14-December 5)
A Detective, 2 Gunmen, and a Kitty (December 6, 2001-January 13,
2002)
G. R. Eed (January 14-February 24)
Pinhead (February 25-April 26)
Percy Brillig (April 27-June 27)
Heartless Mahoney II (June 28-August 23)
Hawk (August 24-October 16)
The Abduction of Tracy’s Granddaughter (October 17-December 15)
I believe this is where Junior and Sparkle’s daughter (initially named Sparkle Plenty Junior) was renamed Jewel.
The Second Chameleon (December 16, 2002-February 7,
2003)
The Revenge of Hard Case Harry? (February 8-May 3)
Hard Case Harry was a bitter ex-con who served a harsher sentence than even Tracy felt he deserved. In an earlier story, he initially sought revenge on Tracy, but got a chance to reform. Here, he and a family go missing, and Tracy’s left to wonder if he’s decided to return to crime after all. This leads to reprinting the entire original Hard Case Harry story that ran from December 13, 1993-January 23, 1994, before this second HCH case is solved.
Hawk II (May 4-July 2)
The Filligree Murder Case (July 3-September 22)
TBC for no good reason
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
2003
Dr. Beau Tox, Heartless, Mahoney, Prune Hilda, Dab Stract, & No Face (September 29-December 18)
All of the above villains were recurring villains except for Dr. Tox, the main villain. By the end, Prune Hilda is killed, Mahoney and Stract testify against Tox in exchange for freedom, but despite their testimony, Tox is acquitted. So Tox, Mahoney, and Stract were all legally freed (and Locher later confirmed that Stract reformed). No Face, as always, escaped without getting caught, and is still at large. ARGH!
Sal Monella II (December 19, 2003-March 10,
2004)
Mousse (March 11-May 30)
Piggy Bank VI (May 31-August 27)
Yes, this was Piggy Bank’s sixth story as a main villain. And he escapes and remains at large. ARGH!
Flunke (August 28-December 22)
Airport Sabotage (December 23,2004-March 14,
2005)
The Manipulation of Moonrock (March 15-May 27)
Dick Tracy in the Southwest (May 28-August 11)
Cellphone (August 12-November 3)
This is the last story Kilian lived to complete.
Oily II (November 4, 2005-March 22,
2006)
Oily was a villain who debuted in a pre-2001 Kilian story. Sadly, Kilian died in late 2005. The last Sunday strip with his signature on it was January 15, 2006. The last Daily strip with his signature on it was over a week earlier on January 7. Up to that point the story had been moving along at Kilian’s usual brisk pace. He’d even had the story largely wrapped up. Too bad his successor, Kilian’s friend and longtime Tracy artist Dick Locher, stretched out the ending for over two months, that feel like over two months just reading it. A sad omen of things to come.
TBC cuz GC sez 2001 characters is “very, very disruptive on the small screen” so it must be true.
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
And now, here’s my coverage of Dick Locher’s run as writer. In fairness to Locher, he’d been a good, regular artist for decades. And stepping in at the crisis of Mike Kilian’s unexpected death probably saved the strip and kept it afloat. And earlier, when Max Allan Collins left, Locher wrote and drew one story before Kilian stepped in (which sadly, isn’t on here) that’s actually pretty good. That said, his writing here from 2006 to 2011 is Bad. Really, really Bad. Excruciatingly Bad. I list the stories here, where you can find them, but I really wouldn’t recommend reading them. Although halfway through, the experience starts to become worthwhile on this site, but not for anything Locher is doing (at least not intentionally).
2006
Al Kinda (March 23-August 24)
Dr. Figment Froid (August 25, 2006-January 21,
2007)
Queenie (January 22-May 19)
The Brainwashed Baron (May 20-October 14)
The Haunted House (October 15, 2007-January 22,
2008)
Cole Lector (January 23-May 15)
TBC cuz we’ve reached the halfway point of Locher’s run, it’s about to become (sorta) worthwhile, but I need to explain why and my explanation can’t fit this post. Ain’t character limits wonderful
Gweedo -it's legal here- Murray over 7 years ago
Dad gummit, woman !!! Can’cha see ahm tryna get some sleep here ?!
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
2008
Baskerville & Shirl Locke (May 16-August 27)
And this is where it (sorta) becomes worthwhile. When Tracy first found the Internet, TMS published its own Tracy website, complete with a forum. In early August, 2008, the site and forum were completely shut down. Which is when GoComics took off. On August 3, fans began to post here, and with nothing good going on in the strip, the fans resumed what they’d done on the old forum, mocking and making fun of just how awful the strip had become. If you like Riff Trax or Mystery Science Theater 3000, you might get a kick out of these comments, many of which are clever, witty, even hilarious at times.
There’s one caveat however. There were a couple of ugly flame wars started here by Locher’s friend and supporter, Matthew P. Hansel. He would rudely insult anyone who didn’t appreciate Locher’s “genius”, namely just about everyone else posting. It got so bad several times, that the GoComics administrator would have to step in and put a halt to it. Eventually all of Matty’s posts would be deleted, which was no big loss, but several fun commentators would get deleted, too, which was a big loss. Going over these old comments now, while still often amusing, can be a bit odd, because the remaining posts include reactions to comments that are no longer there.
Be that as it may, there’s some entertainment value in the comments section of the following strips, even if there’s none in the strips themselves.
Braces (August 28-December 10)
Angelorious (December 11, 2008-March 2,
2009)
Big Ace & One-Eyed Jack (March 3-July 10)
Murder at the Circus (July 11-November 24)
The Maestro and His Son (November 25, 2009-April 6,
2010)
Johnny Nothing (April 7-July 21)
D’Buckworth (July 22-November 13)
Dr. Mordred (November 14, 2010-March 13,
2011)
And after five years of darkness, there was light.
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
And now my listing of Curtis’ stories. I have the least to say here, but’s all good and often great. Anyone looking for past good stories can find them here. Highly recommended.
2011
The 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 professional 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)
TBC cuz GC hates free advertising
boboscar over 7 years ago
Tracy in GoComics
2015
The Great Train Robbery (March 22-June 13)
The Fall 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 (the one I start by listing “The Blackhearts”), 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)
Mr. Bribery & Abner Kadaver (June 22-September 24)
Selfy (September 25-December 17)
This story also marks the return of Gould villain Posie Ermine. He’s served his time, and no one tries to arrest him, but he’s definitely still a villain. He knows Selfy is a wanted fugitive but doesn’t alert the authorities, he rear ends Mysta’s car, and tries to forcibly take her with him. I expect we’ll see more of him and some more outright villainy from him in the future.
Dick Tracy Meets The Spirit (December 18, 2016-April 6,
2017)
Big Margie (April 7-June 2)
And that’s literally all they wrote (in GC)
Constantine500 over 7 years ago
If Mike still wants to do a Plenty Brothers reunion, I’m down w/ that. Although getting to know the clan throughout the decades parlays into their “mystique”.
Constantine500 over 7 years ago
Not a fan of last storyline at all. If you’re going to tackle a hot topic like hate crime, don’t make it an auxiliary plot to cosplay. ’Nuff said!
AnyFace over 7 years ago
Hmmm …
Fake haunting, to drive the Plentys out of their house, because there’s something hidden there that is of value to person or persons unknown?
Their combination Television/Stove, for example?
Yngvar Følling over 7 years ago
Boboscar, I really appreciate your story index. However, the tricky thing about it, aside from the need to split it up in many posts, is the need to search for the beginning of a new storyline to find it, creating a sort of chicken and egg problem. I can’t find your index without knowing where the beginning of the storyline is, but it’s hard to find the beginning of the storyline without your index.
Would it be possible to put the index up on the web somewhere? That would free you from the constraints of the GoComics comment section. Each entry could have an actual HTML link to the storyline it refers to, maybe starting with an overall index of eras like the Kilian/Locher run, the solo Locher run, and the current Curtis/Staton run. You could then limit the GoComics post to the last storyline or two, and whatever changes you might have made, and then a link to the complete list, which would fit a single GoComics comment. Those of us who would like to keep this list as a reference, could then make a bookmark in our browsers.
AKHenderson Premium Member over 7 years ago
Maybe it’s a ghost whose gravestone was recently toppled…
iggyman over 7 years ago
Been awhile since we saw BO Plenty.
Ignatz Premium Member over 7 years ago
I didn’t think that was the end of the last story, but I guess it was. I feel like it ended rather abruptly. I sort of want to know what made Big Margie what she is, whether Little Margie went to jail, etc. The whole graveyard vandalism anti-Semitism thing seemed to come out of nowhere, and not have any relationship to the rest of the story.
Crowmeus over 7 years ago
Maybe they should just let L’il Attitude handle things. He might scare away whatever’s making the noises.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 7 years ago
Happy Saturday All!
A R V reader over 7 years ago
If she’s hearing noises at night, then there may be a reason why her husband is called ‘’B.O.’’ Plus I’m eager to know more about the Margies case.
ssledge over 7 years ago
Hallelujah!!!! At last!!! My beloved BO is back!!!
HaroldRodriguez over 7 years ago
Thank you, Boboscar, for the index recap. Much enjoyed!
Sisyphos over 7 years ago
Sure is a bright midnight at Sunny Dell Acres!
And I wonder how much “Grecian Formula #9” B.O. uses on his hair and beard?! Not a speck of grey showing, while Gertie has been snow-white for some time!
And just what would Gertie consider to be “scary noises”? —Probably more than mice, wind rattling window-panes, or heavy traffic on the now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t overpass. What harm could an exorcism (exercise) do, though? Ahem.
Don Bagert Premium Member over 7 years ago
B.O.’s comment about the house needing some exercise reminds me of a fraternity I am familiar with that has an annual barn dance LOL