Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 25, 2018

Good morning™, disapponted detectives!

At least he got Topper.

He’s dead Jim!

Weeks of hearing over and over again about Topper this and Topper that, and let’s not forget how many times we had to hear Topper explain his master plan and now this!

Today is a sad day.

Unless you like jumping sharks!

I’m going to say it, even if it gets me sent to Gweedoville!

Mike and Joe have forgotten how to write stories.

They have lost their way.

“Extra! Extra! Green Hornet still at large!”

Reply to Av09 and the good morning crew

Good morning™, The Ones That Got Away !

I heard Gweedoville is a swingin’ place !

Gweedo is with us in spirit. (He isn’t dead just banished.) We think about him always and like when we get to hear from him second hand.

Next question is that it? Or does the Green Hornet have more cooked up to do like hurt the Apparatus?

I don’t care what anyone says, i’m liking this.

I don’t know if the Green Hornet will go after the Apparatus, unless they show more attention towards Central City. That may happen later on, but I don’t see it in the near future. He wanted to shut down Topper quickly, and shut him down, he did. I would like to see the story arc go on further, but that’s up to Team Tracy. Personally, I wouldn’t mind if Tracy, Sam & Lizz head to Central City to follow up on any links the Apparatus might have up there. I know, wishful thinking on my part, but still… it could happen.

Hiyo, Silver, awaaaaaaay!

Sometimes, you have to settle for a small fish instead of the Big Haul of the Hornet and the Apparatus!

Must stick in Tracy’s craw though.

Place your bets, ladies and gents – does Tracy find out the truth of the Hornet, or will Reed be making a return to Tracytown? (And, pardon me, but I suspect Chief Patton knows more than he’s letting on…)

Today is Friday. Maybe the next two days will wrap this story and drop a teaser for the next.

I disagree with the idea that Tracy cannot know (or figure out) who the GH is and what his real purpose is. I envisioned a scenario where they would shake hands at the end, before GH goes back to his own city, much like the wrap up to the Spirit crossover. But this is Tracy’s strip – GH is the guest appearance. The focus should have been on Tracy.

If the idea of sharing the secret was not allowed, when Mike and Joe were negotiating with the GH owners, then the whole crossover should have been dropped! Did they want to do it so badly that they were willing to hamstring their own main character? Why? My advise would be to quit fooling around with crossovers, and concentrate on coming up with a solid, rip roaring story firmly established in Tracytown.

it is true that the violence factor must be curtailed today, compared to Gould’s era. But, in my opinion, that is not what made Dick Tracy great anyway. Let’s have clever villains with good designs and names to match, stories that involve lots of CSI type detection, Tracy and Sam and Lizz in action, plot twists. Mike and Joe both claimed to be big fans of Gould’s 50s work. Go back and read some of those, take them as a template, and put in modern, topical crimes and modern technology. That’s the winning formula!

The Daddy Warbucks and Annie crossover worked but the characters didn’t overstay their welcome. It would behoove Mike and Joe to go back to the old landmark so to say and see how Gould worked the characters. However we are in the 21st century now, when are Latino characters going to be featured? In Tracyland, there are no Latinos or Asians on the police force? Come on now, the 1975 sitcom Barney Miller had diversity. I am going to my local library and look through the microfilm copies of our local newspaper just to see how much violence was curtailed in the April and June 1968 strips of Tracy. I would also point that the television networks, ABC, CBS and NBC were going to pull back on violent shows due the assassinations and rebellions in the cities. That sentiment didn’t last long. By 1970-71, violence was back with a vengeance. The school shootings are deplorable but those students aren’t getting the idea to do it from reading Dick Tracy.

All things add up to a half filled glass. The other half must be coming.

Hey dumb arse, he’s on your side.

Anyone else wonder if there’s a hidden meaning to Topper’s mugshot number? Feb. 11 1938 was the DOB of Bobby “Boris” Pickett, of “Monster Mash” fame, and Tracy was shot in the leg in that day’s episode of his radio show. Somehow I don’t think either of those is meant as an easter egg.

Total agreement with the second half of Ken in Ohio’s comment, and I would suggest even the 40’s. If the artists are “students” of the strip, there is nothing wrong with some retro stories combined with modern tech. Why the combos with other strips continues to befuddle me. If I wanted Green Hornet, Annie, Gasoline Alley or Krazy Kat, I’d go read it. The title of this strip is nominally Dick Tracy, so why is he a minor character?

I wonder what happened to Clyde?

It is a grim and embarrassed Chief of Detectives we see today, confronted by his old friend and former partner, Chief Patton. Tracy was outwitted and outfought at every turn by the Green Hornet, and on his own Tracyville turf! He can’t be a happy camper after this series of events, even with Cyrus Topper, a mere mid-lever racketeer, in custody. I pity the next common thug he comes up against, because Tracy just might snap and do something not by the book; maybe even get suspended. That could be an interesting storyline for Mike to mull….

Shouldn’t Topper have gone to the hospital before being booked? Tracy did shoot him.

Overall pretty good! The Hornet does his thing and leaves with Tracy eating a large helping of humble pie. Was set up well, even if it took a little long to get there. The only way this can play out. The Green Hornet needs his reputation and secret identity intact.

Despite a few missteps (‘Red Wasp’, silly fight words), this was a very fine story-line. The resolution was the only way this could have ended. Those expecting something else are not paying attention. At all.