That does it! Locher is now ripping off Dark Shadows! He’s using their parallel-time gimmick in which the undead Barnabas Collins could visit a universe in which he was not a vampire. Locher is showing us two time-streams. In one Thick is surrounded by Feds and homeless men; in the second, it’s just him and the D’imwits in a deserted postapocalyptic Nappingville. Here we see that D’Barnabas has hypnotized Thick into obsessing over the anti-Lara Parker. While the Flying Thickle Finger of Fate tweaks her nose, D’Barnabas rises from the grave and goes in search of blood.
Flight Suit, the Netnanny won’t let me even hint as to why Penny is kneeling in front of Thick. But she must be very good at it, to make Thick overlook D’ipstick’s return from the dead.
Locher is making even less sense than usual tonight. Is he trying for a personal worst? Or are we to infer that Thick, distraught at Penny’s fatal attraction to her estranged husband, has somehow risen to a jealous fury? Never mind that the Feds accused D’oggydoo of destroying Western civilization, never mind the gunplay, Thick has caught his first conspirator in … something.
And–in the streets, rising from the gratings, it’s–no! it’s NEON NOODLE!
Give the homeless people a lot of credit. First, they did Spacy’s job and got the gun away from 3-D and now they’ve formed a search party looking for the federal agents.
It’s pathetic how the police department is making fun of Tracy now that he is old. First, they ridicule him by sending him out with a cell phone that only has 9 digits and now Liz has shown that apparently she doesn’t trust him with a gun. After all this time, he can’t even pull out a water pistol.
I can’t figure out which is worse on this Friday night where i am , This comic strip or the U of M’ s football defense. But like a fool I still look at both.
This is clearly a Dick Tracy from an alternate history, one in which witchcraft remains a felony. And for good reason, considering that Penny has summoned the farces of dorkness to make her enemies vanish, return her husband from the dead and keep Locher in business.
Unfortunately for the readers, Thick knows the proper summoning spell to keep the zombified D’oggybreath from escaping. After speaking the secret name of one of the princes of Hell (“D’Buckworth!”) and drawing the cabalistic Locher pentacle on a wall, Thick forces the creature to stop, return and spend the next week explaining its motives.
Remember that with one of his many dying breaths D’opey warned us he’d married a Halloween witch. She must be stopped before she becomes a Thanksgiving witch!
If we’re lucky it will turn out that panel #3 is a close-up of D’ummy as he is handcuffed and hustled away by the Feds, who have tossed Thick a bone in the form of his wife the co-conspirator. If we’re lucky it will turn out that Locher has skipped over the part where D’oofus survived the beating without any injuries to his face and was grabbed by the Feds. But when was the last time anyone used the words “lucky” and “Dick Tracy fan” in the same sentence?
Ah, what scheme might that be? Did 3D do anything illegal? Do they need to track down the people who received the $1000 bills? These questions and many more will…NEVER be answered.
Hey, people, if you don’t like this strip, just stop reading it! I, for one, consider myself a “lucky” “Dick Tracy fan.” For example, the current storyline offers some of the finest - wait, this story sucks. Um, okay, but the artwork gives us - oh, yeah. Crappy drawing. Stumpy hands. Alright, but the concept of a billionaire pretending to be homeless so that he can give away - (sigh) - Okay, okay, but yesterday, or maybe the day before, there was a huge crowd and now there are just two - but maybe three, or maybe not, but - It’s magic! Or as a certain hack would say, “It’s called ‘writing.’” But the point is, you shouldn’t make fun of it because - wait a minute, I love making fun of it! Aw, crikey…
Okay, but if you want to see misshapen hands, tiny guns, pigs on wheels and melting faces, where else are you going to go? Huh? There! I’ve run rings around you logically! Now stop making fun of the “fine” writing and the “competently” drawn “humans” that make up this “entertaining” strip.
LudwigVonDrake, I think D’eadguy is about to interrupt his latest wacky escape plan so he can defend himself against Thick’s accusation. That accusation is based on the unsubstantiated words of Norton, who accused him of causing the economic meltdown, and on the self-serving claims of the inadequately-widowed Penny. Locher is going to use the billionaire as a mouthpiece for his views.
This whole arc, all 104 days of it so far, comes across as a badly-written Mary Sue. Cliched villains raise straw-man arguments against the central character, who will soon win the hero’s approval by demonstrating his ingenuity, charity, honesty, humility and good penmanship.
Hey we know Queen Elizabeth II is old as Methusela but she isn’t giving up her crown till she croaks and Locher ain’t given up drawing Tracy until then either. So there!
@ BillThompson – WOW!!! That MCS comic rocks! Bringing in new characters, bringing back old, making the Major Crime Squad look like a team….not to mention great artwork and close-to-proportional arms & fingers!
Unfortunately, that’s the knock-off and this is the real one. There truly is no justice…
In Panel 1, is that steam rising from a sewer grate? Or … is it a word balloon? We often see word balloons pointing to an invisible speaker out of panel (and that is not merely an effort to avoid having to draw a face – it’s AHHHHTISTIC! Besides, it gives us the opportunity to guess who said that.) This time, I think the sewer is speaking and it’s the words that are invisible out of panel. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll find out what the sewer said … or Monday … or Tuesday …
-Cougar :{)
P.S. Or maybe it’s not actually the sewer itself speaking. Maybe some of the people who keep disappearing and reappearing are hiding in the sewer! Of course they can’t hide very effectively if they’re going to talk, but perhaps they’re only talking quietly among themselves….
Cougar Allen-I believe that is a word balloon, a couple weeks ago Chuckle Brothers got a shipment of word balloons in, it looked a little light to me at the time, but I didn’t say anything, I wonder if it just fell off the truck, or if it was stolen. Probably fell off the truck, given there would be no motive for anyone in this strip to steal it, given that nothing of substance appears in the word balloons used here.
What’s the buzz
With this incompetent fuzz
Who exactly did they ream
In this incomprehensible scheme
And where did all the people go
Inquiring minds want to know
Will answers be forthcoming
Is that a lyre Locher is strumming
Something smells like burning bleeep
Oh wait, it’s coming from this strip
I know I’m a bad little hog
To complain about this dog
But lo these many days
There has been nothing for to praise
Like insects drawn to a zapper
We keep frequenting this crapper
I realize everyday cannot be a jewel
But this stuff is downright cruel
Some say Locher is a god
To me he’s nothing but a sod
I will praise that which deserves to be
But nothing here there is to see
There is a morbid curiosity to this strip
That makes it difficult to quit
They say the definition of insanity
Is to return to read this inanity.
At first I couldn’t see what all the beef was about, and then I went to “PLAINCLOTHES” wow I see why youall think this is b— s— I will mind my own beeswax
Where can I go to get a D’Buckworth Scheme? Why wasn’t the scheme brought up before? I see the word, spaghetti in the back ground buildings. Was there a spaghetti dinner mentioned earlier in the week?
If you look at the arm just right in the 2nd frame you can spot the word, beetyuk. Just what is meant my hiding this in the pointing hand?
What’s the point?
And the guy in the last panel looks like he is thinking about what show he miss last night on prime-time TV. Hey did anyone see Medium last night? I missed it again; can anyone tell me if it was a re-run or a new show?
Thanks!
DatBigGuy, if only the people at Plainclothes could get a job doing a DT strip, or at least a comic book! They obviously put a great deal of time and effort into their work–perhaps more time than a weekly strip would allow. But who wouldn’t want to give them the chance?
CougarAllen, it’s the Word Balloon From Hell! Literally! Satan himself is about to beg Jehovah for mercy.
Wow, that link:
http://www.plainclothescomics.com/index.htm
It’s like, these guys have FOR FREE knocked out an adventure that is exactly what the “real” Dick Tracy ought to be like. Said it before I’ll say it again, I cannot understand why TMS lets this strip be so uniformly bad. It’s a huge disservice to their client newspapers, Dick Tracy fans, and the years of work others put into making the strip a cultural icon.
FIRE THIS CREW AND GET SOME PASSION BACK INTO THIS STRIP, ALREADY!
Yeah, I see what you mean there, Night-Gaunt49. It looks like a judge or prosecutor’s finger pointing in accusation at a defendant. It would look good in a courtroom scene, with the villain suddenly exposed or the heroine falsely condemned.
But it doesn’t fit here. Thick should handcuff her at once, in case she’s carrying a second pistol, and Mirandize her as he arrests her for the attempted murder of her husband.
My guess is that Locher needed an excuse to have Thick say “D’Buckworth scheme.” That would provoke the D’unce into defending himself. So far it’s working–it made him rise from the dead.
Radfish, I’m sure that Thick’s official report will make very entertaining reading, and it would no doubt make better fiction than what we’ve seen here. “At this point I assisted in the suspect’s apprehension by provoking him to run away until he became exhausted. When returned to the scene the suspect seized a weapon and attempted a second escape, at which point I took charge and directed the effort to apprehend him … ”
WOW….all of a sudden out of the blue, Tracy fingers Mrs. D’Buckworth for conspiring with her hubby….where in the flying you-know-what did THAT come from????
FLIGHT SUIT almost 14 years ago
Panel One: Everybody disappeared except for Tracy and Mrs D.
Panel Two: Why is Mrs. D on her knees in front of Tracy? Again?
Panel Three: Mr. D has re-appeared.
Where are all the cops and homeless people?
OldTracy almost 14 years ago
At least there is no problem with crowd control. Did all the others run off to join the federal authorities? Why hasn’t Spacy run away?
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
That does it! Locher is now ripping off Dark Shadows! He’s using their parallel-time gimmick in which the undead Barnabas Collins could visit a universe in which he was not a vampire. Locher is showing us two time-streams. In one Thick is surrounded by Feds and homeless men; in the second, it’s just him and the D’imwits in a deserted postapocalyptic Nappingville. Here we see that D’Barnabas has hypnotized Thick into obsessing over the anti-Lara Parker. While the Flying Thickle Finger of Fate tweaks her nose, D’Barnabas rises from the grave and goes in search of blood.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ almost 14 years ago
They come and go…
margueritem almost 14 years ago
It’s magic, I tell you! Or senility…
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
Flight Suit, the Netnanny won’t let me even hint as to why Penny is kneeling in front of Thick. But she must be very good at it, to make Thick overlook D’ipstick’s return from the dead.
Locher is making even less sense than usual tonight. Is he trying for a personal worst? Or are we to infer that Thick, distraught at Penny’s fatal attraction to her estranged husband, has somehow risen to a jealous fury? Never mind that the Feds accused D’oggydoo of destroying Western civilization, never mind the gunplay, Thick has caught his first conspirator in … something.
And–in the streets, rising from the gratings, it’s–no! it’s NEON NOODLE!
Steve Bartholomew almost 14 years ago
What exactly was the scheme? I’m still confused.
OldTracy almost 14 years ago
Give the homeless people a lot of credit. First, they did Spacy’s job and got the gun away from 3-D and now they’ve formed a search party looking for the federal agents.
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
Marvee, in case you missed yesterday’s post the site you want is
http://www.plainclothescomics.com/
There’s also
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=%22dick%20tracy%22
for a collection of movies, serials, TV and radio shows.
OldTracy almost 14 years ago
It’s pathetic how the police department is making fun of Tracy now that he is old. First, they ridicule him by sending him out with a cell phone that only has 9 digits and now Liz has shown that apparently she doesn’t trust him with a gun. After all this time, he can’t even pull out a water pistol.
Fusnr almost 14 years ago
I can’t figure out which is worse on this Friday night where i am , This comic strip or the U of M’ s football defense. But like a fool I still look at both.
I am very BLUE over these afairs,.
Dr. Midnight almost 14 years ago
Panel 1: What happens now, Detective Tracy?
Panel 2: Smell my finger!
Panel 3: (rolls eyes)
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
This is clearly a Dick Tracy from an alternate history, one in which witchcraft remains a felony. And for good reason, considering that Penny has summoned the farces of dorkness to make her enemies vanish, return her husband from the dead and keep Locher in business.
Unfortunately for the readers, Thick knows the proper summoning spell to keep the zombified D’oggybreath from escaping. After speaking the secret name of one of the princes of Hell (“D’Buckworth!”) and drawing the cabalistic Locher pentacle on a wall, Thick forces the creature to stop, return and spend the next week explaining its motives.
Remember that with one of his many dying breaths D’opey warned us he’d married a Halloween witch. She must be stopped before she becomes a Thanksgiving witch!
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
If we’re lucky it will turn out that panel #3 is a close-up of D’ummy as he is handcuffed and hustled away by the Feds, who have tossed Thick a bone in the form of his wife the co-conspirator. If we’re lucky it will turn out that Locher has skipped over the part where D’oofus survived the beating without any injuries to his face and was grabbed by the Feds. But when was the last time anyone used the words “lucky” and “Dick Tracy fan” in the same sentence?
LudwigVonDrake almost 14 years ago
Ah, what scheme might that be? Did 3D do anything illegal? Do they need to track down the people who received the $1000 bills? These questions and many more will…NEVER be answered.
JCFremont almost 14 years ago
Hey, people, if you don’t like this strip, just stop reading it! I, for one, consider myself a “lucky” “Dick Tracy fan.” For example, the current storyline offers some of the finest - wait, this story sucks. Um, okay, but the artwork gives us - oh, yeah. Crappy drawing. Stumpy hands. Alright, but the concept of a billionaire pretending to be homeless so that he can give away - (sigh) - Okay, okay, but yesterday, or maybe the day before, there was a huge crowd and now there are just two - but maybe three, or maybe not, but - It’s magic! Or as a certain hack would say, “It’s called ‘writing.’” But the point is, you shouldn’t make fun of it because - wait a minute, I love making fun of it! Aw, crikey…
Okay, but if you want to see misshapen hands, tiny guns, pigs on wheels and melting faces, where else are you going to go? Huh? There! I’ve run rings around you logically! Now stop making fun of the “fine” writing and the “competently” drawn “humans” that make up this “entertaining” strip.
Clutch Cargo? And that’s when I woke up.
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
LudwigVonDrake, I think D’eadguy is about to interrupt his latest wacky escape plan so he can defend himself against Thick’s accusation. That accusation is based on the unsubstantiated words of Norton, who accused him of causing the economic meltdown, and on the self-serving claims of the inadequately-widowed Penny. Locher is going to use the billionaire as a mouthpiece for his views.
This whole arc, all 104 days of it so far, comes across as a badly-written Mary Sue. Cliched villains raise straw-man arguments against the central character, who will soon win the hero’s approval by demonstrating his ingenuity, charity, honesty, humility and good penmanship.
JCFremont almost 14 years ago
And spam! There should be more spam! I need more Ed Hardy T-shirts for only $25 with free “shiping.”
Spamity Spam! Wonderful Spaaaamm!
Me go back to bed now…
436rge almost 14 years ago
Hey we know Queen Elizabeth II is old as Methusela but she isn’t giving up her crown till she croaks and Locher ain’t given up drawing Tracy until then either. So there!
veldy almost 14 years ago
Just think of all the homeless people that have been employed through this strip over the past several weeks
Araldite almost 14 years ago
Wherever they all went, the street lamp in panel one went with them.
davidf42, I sent them a request yesterday. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.
DatBigGuy Premium Member almost 14 years ago
@ BillThompson – WOW!!! That MCS comic rocks! Bringing in new characters, bringing back old, making the Major Crime Squad look like a team….not to mention great artwork and close-to-proportional arms & fingers!
Unfortunately, that’s the knock-off and this is the real one. There truly is no justice…
CougarAllen almost 14 years ago
In Panel 1, is that steam rising from a sewer grate? Or … is it a word balloon? We often see word balloons pointing to an invisible speaker out of panel (and that is not merely an effort to avoid having to draw a face – it’s AHHHHTISTIC! Besides, it gives us the opportunity to guess who said that.) This time, I think the sewer is speaking and it’s the words that are invisible out of panel. Perhaps tomorrow we’ll find out what the sewer said … or Monday … or Tuesday …
-Cougar :{)
P.S. Or maybe it’s not actually the sewer itself speaking. Maybe some of the people who keep disappearing and reappearing are hiding in the sewer! Of course they can’t hide very effectively if they’re going to talk, but perhaps they’re only talking quietly among themselves….
:{)
veldy almost 14 years ago
Cougar Allen-I believe that is a word balloon, a couple weeks ago Chuckle Brothers got a shipment of word balloons in, it looked a little light to me at the time, but I didn’t say anything, I wonder if it just fell off the truck, or if it was stolen. Probably fell off the truck, given there would be no motive for anyone in this strip to steal it, given that nothing of substance appears in the word balloons used here.
wndrwrthg almost 14 years ago
What’s the buzz With this incompetent fuzz Who exactly did they ream In this incomprehensible scheme And where did all the people go Inquiring minds want to know Will answers be forthcoming Is that a lyre Locher is strumming Something smells like burning bleeep Oh wait, it’s coming from this strip I know I’m a bad little hog To complain about this dog But lo these many days There has been nothing for to praise Like insects drawn to a zapper We keep frequenting this crapper I realize everyday cannot be a jewel But this stuff is downright cruel Some say Locher is a god To me he’s nothing but a sod I will praise that which deserves to be But nothing here there is to see There is a morbid curiosity to this strip That makes it difficult to quit They say the definition of insanity Is to return to read this inanity.
Thank you, neonleon59, Sydney, billdi and g6793.
johnrussco almost 14 years ago
At first I couldn’t see what all the beef was about, and then I went to “PLAINCLOTHES” wow I see why youall think this is b— s— I will mind my own beeswax
Bloggernet almost 14 years ago
Where can I go to get a D’Buckworth Scheme? Why wasn’t the scheme brought up before? I see the word, spaghetti in the back ground buildings. Was there a spaghetti dinner mentioned earlier in the week?
If you look at the arm just right in the 2nd frame you can spot the word, beetyuk. Just what is meant my hiding this in the pointing hand? What’s the point?
And the guy in the last panel looks like he is thinking about what show he miss last night on prime-time TV. Hey did anyone see Medium last night? I missed it again; can anyone tell me if it was a re-run or a new show? Thanks!
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
DatBigGuy, if only the people at Plainclothes could get a job doing a DT strip, or at least a comic book! They obviously put a great deal of time and effort into their work–perhaps more time than a weekly strip would allow. But who wouldn’t want to give them the chance?
CougarAllen, it’s the Word Balloon From Hell! Literally! Satan himself is about to beg Jehovah for mercy.
Bloggernet almost 14 years ago
What do you mean Satan himself is about to beg Jehovah for mercy ?
I thought this was the Dick Tracy strip?
g6793 almost 14 years ago
:) Nice, WW…
jumbobrain almost 14 years ago
Wow, that link: http://www.plainclothescomics.com/index.htm
It’s like, these guys have FOR FREE knocked out an adventure that is exactly what the “real” Dick Tracy ought to be like. Said it before I’ll say it again, I cannot understand why TMS lets this strip be so uniformly bad. It’s a huge disservice to their client newspapers, Dick Tracy fans, and the years of work others put into making the strip a cultural icon.
FIRE THIS CREW AND GET SOME PASSION BACK INTO THIS STRIP, ALREADY!
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
Yeah, I see what you mean there, Night-Gaunt49. It looks like a judge or prosecutor’s finger pointing in accusation at a defendant. It would look good in a courtroom scene, with the villain suddenly exposed or the heroine falsely condemned.
But it doesn’t fit here. Thick should handcuff her at once, in case she’s carrying a second pistol, and Mirandize her as he arrests her for the attempted murder of her husband.
My guess is that Locher needed an excuse to have Thick say “D’Buckworth scheme.” That would provoke the D’unce into defending himself. So far it’s working–it made him rise from the dead.
Bill Thompson almost 14 years ago
Radfish, I’m sure that Thick’s official report will make very entertaining reading, and it would no doubt make better fiction than what we’ve seen here. “At this point I assisted in the suspect’s apprehension by provoking him to run away until he became exhausted. When returned to the scene the suspect seized a weapon and attempted a second escape, at which point I took charge and directed the effort to apprehend him … ”
jonahhex1 almost 14 years ago
WOW….all of a sudden out of the blue, Tracy fingers Mrs. D’Buckworth for conspiring with her hubby….where in the flying you-know-what did THAT come from????