Thanks to an idea by tsull2121 and others, many of us are changing our avatar images temporarily to those of Dick Tracy superfan Vista Bill, in his memory.
A new story (The Green Hornet) is starting this week, but we are also anticipating a tribute to Vista Bill this week, culminating in a special strip this coming Sunday.
If you want to participate in the avatar tribute and need graphics, various ones are available here, along with instructions on how to change your avatar:
I’m already using an old Vista Bill postage stamp – one that I found intriguing, which is why I saved it, of course! Shout out to Gweedo, still in purgatory, I presume!
No offense to last week’s guest artist, John Lucas, but I’m really glad the regular team is back. Guess absence does make the heart grow fonder! Likewise for dear Vista Bill: great idea to share the avatars in remembrance of him…
With both the Ghost Pepper Case and the Minit Mystery wrapped up, it feels like this strip is the start of the next story. 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.
Minit Mysteries Note: at the request of people who wanted to see these listed here, I’ve decided to make a separate post for them to keep the listing of Mike Curtis stories in as few posts as possible.
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.
I can’t believe I was so dense that I never noticed this: “Bill Raley and Comet” is reminiscent of “Bill Haley and the Comets.” I had always assumed the name Comet was chosen to denote the cowboy’s swift and trusty steed. Maybe there was more than one inspiration for the name.
I wonder if Wendy “the Witch (spelled with a B)” Wichel is going to have a “MeToo” moment here and need help from the newspaper business-savvy Green Hornet to deal with Schrecker? She certainly does seem to be drawn as a much more appealing, more sympathetic, character here than she has been previously (as hinted at by Ignatz above)….
The third panel looks like it has a bit of noir to it, maybe pulp detective. Either way, I can’t wait to see the MCU work with (or maybe against) the Green Hornet.
Neil Wick over 6 years ago
Good morning, guys !™
Thanks to an idea by tsull2121 and others, many of us are changing our avatar images temporarily to those of Dick Tracy superfan Vista Bill, in his memory.
A new story (The Green Hornet) is starting this week, but we are also anticipating a tribute to Vista Bill this week, culminating in a special strip this coming Sunday.
If you want to participate in the avatar tribute and need graphics, various ones are available here, along with instructions on how to change your avatar:
http://worldofdt.info/vistabill/tribute/
Cheapskate0 over 6 years ago
I’m already using an old Vista Bill postage stamp – one that I found intriguing, which is why I saved it, of course! Shout out to Gweedo, still in purgatory, I presume!
artsyguy65 over 6 years ago
No offense to last week’s guest artist, John Lucas, but I’m really glad the regular team is back. Guess absence does make the heart grow fonder! Likewise for dear Vista Bill: great idea to share the avatars in remembrance of him…
boboscar over 6 years ago
“And now for something completely different.”
With both the Ghost Pepper Case and the Minit Mystery wrapped up, it feels like this strip is the start of the next story. 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.
Minit Mysteries Note: at the request of people who wanted to see these listed here, I’ve decided to make a separate post for them to keep the listing of Mike Curtis stories in as few posts as possible.
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
jonahhex1 over 6 years ago
Who is Schrecker? And from the looks of that last panel are he and Wichtel “involved”?
avenger09 over 6 years ago
WHY is her face plasted on all the monitors?
AnyFace over 6 years ago
Way-ay-ay back during “The Spirit” crossover, I’d joked about adding “The Green Hornet” into the mix.
Looks like the joke is on me. ✨therese_callahan2002 over 6 years ago
Thirty years ago, the Janice Trohs story arc. Twenty-five years ago, the arc about the mystery man who kidnapped rude people including B. O. Plenty.
Ignatz Premium Member over 6 years ago
How come this is the first time I ever thought of Wendy Wichel as sexy?
Don Bagert Premium Member over 6 years ago
Is Wendy having an office romance with her current boss? Maybe he’s going to introduce to her to the new owner – a Mr. Britt Reid?
Jonathan K. and the Elusive Dream Girl over 6 years ago
I can’t believe I was so dense that I never noticed this: “Bill Raley and Comet” is reminiscent of “Bill Haley and the Comets.” I had always assumed the name Comet was chosen to denote the cowboy’s swift and trusty steed. Maybe there was more than one inspiration for the name.
tcayer over 6 years ago
Gotta love a woman who has several giant portraits of herself on her office walls!
Sisyphos over 6 years ago
I wonder if Wendy “the Witch (spelled with a B)” Wichel is going to have a “MeToo” moment here and need help from the newspaper business-savvy Green Hornet to deal with Schrecker? She certainly does seem to be drawn as a much more appealing, more sympathetic, character here than she has been previously (as hinted at by Ignatz above)….
Blackthorne42 over 6 years ago
The third panel looks like it has a bit of noir to it, maybe pulp detective. Either way, I can’t wait to see the MCU work with (or maybe against) the Green Hornet.
Durak Premium Member over 6 years ago
Adieu John Lucas! Great week, thanks! Sure hope to see your work again. What other comics do you do?