Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 05, 2020

Good morning™, visit-wrapper-uppers!

Meanwhile, back at police HQ, Sam seems to be on a break. Apparently, there is something in the paper that is a lot funnier than fake-vampire murders.

Guess Sam is reading the plot to the rest of the storyline for this strip.

Good grief! Can we drag this out a little longer?

Hopefully, Sam is reading Smokey Stover! If we’re going to sandbag, then could he at least share it with us?

FOO!

Get to the point of the strip for #!^-+$&#!

Good morning™, funny papers readers !

Sam must be reading old Gasoline Alley where Joel and Rufus crashed Cut rate Chase’s door and then pulled his sign down …. and put it back on upside down. Chase was p.oed and never did find out who caused all that damage.

Did we already know for sure that Diet Smith added selfie taking and posting capabilities with his latest WizardOS update? Cool beans…

Gaging by the reactions in the squad room Sam does not laugh that often!

The story started so strong, lots of atmosphere, a murder, and then… I realize that the last 9 or 10 days’ strips with Sven actually only took a few hours in Tracy’s time, but it ground the story to a dead stop just for a publicity stunt.

Wonder if Sam is reading J Trustworthy Straightedge?

Sam just read that the Eagles are in first place in their division with a season of 1-1-2

And meanwhile Tracy and the kids are making shadow puppets???

Annie feels like an “extra” in this story. I would have thought they could have used an in-world character rather than going to a crossover. She doesn’t seem to be adding much value, other than as a sounding board for Honeymoon. Nothing against Annie, she’s a great character in the right story, but I’m not sure this is a good use of her.

Is tracy playing charades now?

The others gape in mute horror when Sam laughs at the funnies.

First panel – 4 people, 4 styles of eyes.

Tracy demonstrates that he can’t do math.

“Jeepers, gang, another crime solved! Live long and prosper, everyone! Let’s go out for root beer floats! I know this great diner with a bleached blonde, gum snapping road weary sassy waitress that gives better than she gets! I mean in snarks!"

“YAY!”

Meanwhile, over at HQ, Sam finally figures out why the chicken crossed the road.

And so it goes…

An Odd Day In Tracyville

1-Tracy blows an imaginary whistle and calls a foul on number 5. The girls agree that the foul occurred while the shooter was in two point territory, not three.

2-Sam reads that:

READERS CHOICE:

A-Sam learns from the obits that his mom has died.

B-Sam learns from the financial page that the Police Retirement Fund will receive one penny on the dollar from the Bernie Maddoff settlement.

C-Sam learns from the Police Beat that the cops have no clue that he is the Vampire Killer.

D-It suddenly strikes Sam as hilarious that the local newspaper still exists and in such a strange, small format.

It looks like Lizz’s hair is growing out again. It looked okay shorter but I always liked it longer. Great artwork today.

Looks like some of the commenters are finally beginning to see how badly this strip has deteriorated. Time for a creative change perhaps?

The vampire part of the murders are real after a fashion even if it is done artificially. They were murdered and their blood drained. Just not be ’real" vampires. No Janos Skorzeny here.

This is not a comic book or graphic novel where you have the whole story there at one time. This is a daily comic strip where (if you’re lucky) you might get a paragraph of the story per day and you lose track of that story if it drags out and does not move quickly. This tale has had so many stalls, false starts, irrelevant crossovers and guest stars that I have become apathetic to whatever the plot is. By the way, who were those sisters we saw a couple of weeks ago? Remember them? Who cares?

Something in the Daily amused Sam to the LOL point, and we are not the only ones left wondering “what?”, as Lizz and Chief Patton clearly show (panel 2). At least things were going well in panel 1, with Tracy, the Tweens, and Sven….

Well, today’s strip sure brought the narrative momentum to a screeching halt.

Dick Tracy: His hand-puppets are so hilarious you’ll laugh at them from across town!