Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 23, 2011

OMG, COLOR!

The colorization is unwelcome (a blue coatrack?) but everything else is a pleasure. And it’s moving!

Dear Staton and Curtis:

You’re doing it wrong. When we complain that DT is viewable in glorious color on other sites, but not here, you’re supposed to ignore us.

In fact, you’re supposed to completely ignore all of our comments.

Also, the pace of this story is moving way too quickly. Dick and Sam should not be putting on their coats and rushing out the door, unless it’s to go to a donut shop or to buy another newspaper so they can get more clues from it.

Has Locher taught you nothing?

And “MCS” is Mike Curtis, Stanton?

Now if only we could get 3D…

Good morning everyone…

MCS = Major Crime Squad.

Thumbs up for the color.

Thumbs down on Tracy’s clumsy syntax. Using “now” at the end of that sentence doesn’t sound right.

Minor quibble I know, but I have to find something to complain about since everything else is so great!!

Yes, I agree the green makes Sam look like the Riddler. Great action on last panel with old style syntax.

As I stated previously. Joe, Mike, Shelley, and Shane are NOT responsible for the colorization of the daily strips. In fact, if you look at different sites you will notice that the coloring isn’t even the same from one to another. I noticed that this site colored The Fifth and Fly Face in the newspaper article while the Chicago Tribune had them in B&W. Today’s strip has even more coloring differences. It is worrisome. There are going to be a few panels were color is important. (sigh)

Terry, is there anything they can do to stop the colorization? (Probably not; I realize Dick Tracy is a franchise and most likely control is out of their hands.) It’s a shame to see the artwork messed up by the colorization.

Odear. Technicolor. Yeah, Sam should be in a brown suit…

I like the strip in color. It’s another move forward. An improvement.

I prefer to think that her cup says MC5 and that she’s got “Kick Out The Jams” blaring on her eight track.

I can’t believe it. I like Dick Tracy again!

All of yesterday’s comments are back up.

Clevitekid, terrorism isn’t a twenty-first century development. It was around long before 11 September. Anarchist bombings in 1919, the Klan in the Twenties, Bombingham and the Weather Underground come to mind.

Let’s Roll? Okay Tracy, were right with you!

color ??? very good should bring out the story very well….to me anyway :-}

Dick Tracy at his finest…Whooa, I can actually get back to saying that !

I still think that colorization borders on sacrilege, just like messing with the art form of the B&W movies. Please TMS, give us the strip as the artists draw it. Any junior high school kid can use an image editor to put color in a picture.

I have no complaints.

I love the strip with colors!

The game is afoot !

COLOR! Thank you! Artistry is back, storytelling is back–oh, yes, life is good. We missed you, Tracy.

The flesh tones aren’t right. Did they all just get back from a vacation on Miami Beach?

VistaBill

Good Morning.

The YELLOW Fedora is baaaaack!

I have a feeling that when THIS Dick Tracy says, “Lets roll!”, it’s going to mean action.

Dick Tracy in BLACK and WHITE ?:

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComics.mpl

I like the color as well….

I vote to keep the color. Luvvit! B/W is drab. But I don’t think a police detective would be wearing a bright yellow coat and hat.

Finally color. It’s about time.

I vote that ya’ll just enjoy the bleeep comic! Good job, guys! I didn’t start reading this til a few months ago, and I must say, ya’ll are doing a fine job!

I think some of you guys would gripe if they hung you with a new rope?

I vote for B&W for the dailies and color only for the Sundays. On a comic strip inking is done differently for B&W than for a strip meant to be colored. So coloring on a strip meant to be in B&W just doesn’t come out right.

Besides, Shane Fisher is the artist who colors the Sunday strips and there is a chance some will think he also does the substandard colors on the dailies to the detriment of his reputation.

A blue coat rack is nothing 2 be surprised at, I’ve seen them b4…

You know how good the new version is when the ONLY thing people can fuss about is the color. Did everyone fuss in the past about the color every Sunday?

“Let’s Roll!”

Be sure to take a power approach.

dimeadance, of course I would gripe if I got hung with a new rope. I prefer an old rope. They break more easily.

The blacks in the color version are really washed out and the lines aren’t as crisp. Please bring back the black and white version! People who want to see it in color have that option available elsewhere. And no, this wouldn’t have been an issue under the previous management. It’s just that the artwork is so good now I’d like to see it clearly! Sydney Phillips, thanks for the link! Why can’t Gocomics display strips that large?

Web comics are the perfect opportunity to have your cake and eat it too when it comes to color. A button to switch between color and B&W would be easy to implement, and it could be a profile preference. The color information can be stored separately and combined on demand to avoid storing both versions.

I you don’t like the colors, view at comics.com

Stuart–good point. This is the internet; it ought to be able to do something print can’t do!

(Oh, wait… I actually did see stuff in print with optional colorization–the colors were on a transparent overlay… is there nothing new under the sun?)

And Sam’s suit was green back in the old Chester Gould days - well before The Riddler first wore one (on the Batman TV series, later in the comics and movie).

I wish the Tribune would have Shelly color all the strips to maintain continuity.

While B&W is traditional, I’d rather see them in color (to attract more readers) than risk losing Dick Tracy (as we did Annie).

Joe, Mike, Shelley & Shawn – keep up the great work!

I can live with the color, as long as the art and story is good (so far so…)

You know DT is your new favorite strip, when you rearrange your bookmark file of comic strips, so that DT is the /first/ instead of the last to show up :)

Great work, gentlemen. You have Chester smiling again :)

Hi Everyone Thanks to the efforts of Steve melvin at UComics I am posting here again.

What no comments on Tracy wearing his signature yellow hat and coat again? When I wore mine at a convention, someone thought I was Inspector Gadget!

Color is cool… but please have it come from the art team/studio like the Sunday color does!

I prefer black & white if the color is simply being added by a disinterested outside party!

No color for daily strips! Sunday only! PLEASE!!!!!

I also vote for b&w. For example, in panel one, as printed in the Chicago Tribune today, Lizz’s hair is nicely shaded. In color, as above, it looks as if she’s donned a beret to join the hat parade in the squad room. And where can I get an MC5 cup? Kick out the jams…brothers and sisters.

Hopefully the new team will show us what happened to the decoy cars.

Keep the color, it’s fine.

In reply to NightShade. Shelley does NOT color the strips, Daily or Sunday. Shane Fisher is responsible for coloring the Sunday strip ONLY. I repeat, Mike, Joe, Shelley, and Shane have no control over the colorization of Dick Tracy Dailies, and neither does the Chicago Tribune. They are looking into obtaining contact info for some of the people who are doing the coloring, in an attempt to assert some control over some of the color choices and inform the colorists of certain things that may need to be colored to maintain proper story continuity.

I am glad to hear that everyone likes the new Tracy. I know that Shelley has been working hard to make her inking match the style of the early comics. I am drowning in reference books. (grin) I appreciate your comments, both positive and negative. Shelley has been to busy to go over the sites and read the comments, so I have, sort of, taken on that task. I tell her the main points. I believe that everyone is going to be happy with the new path Dick Tracy is taking. Mike and Joe have been fans for as long, or longer, than many of you, and believe me when I say they want Tracy to live again. The Tracy you will be seeing is going to be a lot like the classic Tracy, but he is going to be battling villains who are more modern, this will, of course, mean that he will be adapting to a more modern way of fighting against them. This is tricky story telling, but Mike is up to the task. The man is a genius. Joe, of course, is a professional to the core. As you all can see, his art is top notch, and a joy for Shelley to work with. Be patient as the team adapts to drawing Tracy and the rest of the MCS slowly making the characters theirs as they define the way they are going to look. You will be seeing many of the old characters making come backs. I think you are all going to be pleased.

BIG THANKS to Sydney Phillips for posting the link for

Dick Tracy in BLACK and WHITE :

http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComics.mpl

Color Sundays, B&W as drawn for the week, PLEASE!

Yes tigger, it is moving along faster.

Miss a day and you will miss a lot.

Look at how much info in todays strip.

Sam is researching, Lizz recalls the attempt on her life, while Tracy is on the phone.

Final panel has the team out the door as Dick knows where flyface is.

Daily strip should be in B&W. It’s a detective strip, be noirish!

Uh-oh. First continuity error. Sunday showed F & F already at the auditorium. Today Dick says they’re on their way there. ALTHOUGH the person on the other end of the phone could be out of the loop perhaps because of not following Flyface’s Twitter page.

nix on the daily color. it doesn’t match the more subtle coloring of the official sunday colorist. and yes, sam alway wore green back in the day … luckily me email version comes in glorious b&w. bet you color lovers thought ted turner’s colorized movies were nifty too!