Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 07, 2019

Good morning™, wish makers!

I remembered where I had seen St. Hilarie’s Hospital mentioned. That’s where Dick Tracy’s grandson Trey was born. See Dec. 24, 2014. Can you believe that was over 4 years ago?

Sparkle needs to flatline or else all credibility is lost!

Remember, “It’s just a comic!”

A flatline for Sparkle would be stunning to most readers. Even better if it were canon.

Judging from the monitor, she at least still has a spark.

Good morning™, death’s door monitors !

It thought she was already fried until I saw natureboy’s mention of the life signs reading. Don’t think I’ve ever seen Junior look so doleful and I aint talkin’ bananas here.

Mysta will visit Sparkles and zap her back to life

I just noticed that the weaponized facial features (well, head anyway) continue in this story with Junior’s buzzsaw hair.

Maybe there is no villain, maybe it is just old stuff rotting and turning bad?

Sparkle’s gonna live….this is modern Dick Tracy.

Love today’s strip, artwork and emotional depiction great! Get better soon, Sparkle.

so instead of a traditional mystery where the reader gets clues and solves the case we get a short mystery where most of the clue finding and evidence and suspects are kept from the reader? I think I prefer trying to solve the case.

In the tracy-verse, all medical monitoring equipment communicates wirelessly. But someone might want to hook-up Sparkle’s IV, because that line isn’t going anywhere useful.

This is what happens in a Minit Mystery series? Kill off a character? Really now! The dream sequences in Steve Canyon had more cohesion. Also made more sense. Chester Gould’s creation is turning into a soap opera…rather lousy one at that.

I don’t mind a little tear jerking once in a while. Classic Gould technique to have melodrama with main characters in the hospital hanging by a thread. Some didn’t make it: Model, Groovy Grove. Many did and they are still with us.

it seems it’s always snowing in this strip. do they live in the arctic?

I’m holding out hope for Sparkle!!

Ok fellahs, I have a question. Are we supposed to be solving this mystery? Or are we just along for the ride? Because so far I don’t have a clue, other than the one’s Dick has given us.

I agree with those, e.g., Pequod, Cheapskate0, who do not expect a major supporting character to be killed off (canonically) in a Minit Mystery. So, I expect, in one way or another Sparkle will at last recover, and the perp, who may or may not be Hugh Envalue, will be apprehended (or killed off). By my count, six more installments remain, which should be enough time to resolve the mystery in a satisfactory manner….