Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 20, 2020

Last thing he saw a Tiger paw. Lower now the curtain

Felt a snap. Heard not, “Aw, crap.” The dead no longer hurtin’.

Pouch a grouch who will not vouch for deadly Tiger Lilly

“Have some fun and make Bill run.” To kill him worse than silly.

In some distress cleaned up the mess. Wharf a watery grave

To be rough less he must confess much hassle that would save.

Phone does ring. Tony does sing that Bill is on a slab

Oh my! Oh dear! Motive unclear. Shall Pouch stay mum or blab?

Good morning, uniroyals (Tiger paw) !™

Aquarius is pretty cool for a guy who just lost an “employee”.

Good morning™, sellers!

When we last heard about Tony Rocky Horror, Doc tried to kill him by sending a booby trapped book. Maybe that didn’t work. https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2019/06/27

I still believe it is a reference to the mobster in Pulp Fiction who we never see. John Travolta’s character explains:

Antoine Roccamora, a very somewhat heavy set half Black, half Samoan, some people used to call him “Tony Rocky Horror”. Two guys sent by Marsellus Wallace threw him over the balcony, he fell four stories before falling through a greenhouse. Since then, he developed a speech impediment.

Groovy days

Purple haze

No time to say so long

Unintentional kill

Causes Dollar Bill

To serenade his last song

I wonder how

Tony the Tiger could growl

And make the hippies aware

That to place an ad

Through Indeed would be rad

The need for a replacement is clear

I try not to bore

Or cause you to snore

With words that repeat what you’ve read

’Tis always my goal

That my gift isn’t coal

But puts a smile on your face instead

There was a one-hour interview podcast with Joe Staton put up last week on Spoiler Country. For those who haven’t heard about it yet, you can find it here:

http://scpod.net/joe-staton-co-creator-of-huntress-green-lantern-corps/

You can listen to it online or download and listen to it later. I haven’t actually had the time to listen yet, but it’s about an hour long, so there is bound to be plenty of information about Joe’s whole career.

Why would you automatically assume after finding out someone was in the morgue that they were murdered?

Wonder if Tony will be stopping by later to give Cheesecake a foot massage.

So a dope dealer’s turf war gets started…

Uh. And the story grinds to a halt. I really dislike these characters, especially the mysterious “auntie.” Aquarius’ question – “Who did it?” really seems misplaced. I mean, you’d expect a, “What?” of surprise, and – asking her who did it? Her? Sniffles the cokehead? She wouldn’t know who did it, even if Tony told her.

The eventual revelation of Auntie Bellum better be pretty special after all these teases….

I like the way she looks downright bored when delivering the news.

Aquarius is correct, Dollar Bill is indeed late. Just not the way he meant.

“Big last sale” for sure

Do we actually know what ‘business’ Tiger Lilly and Pouch are in? While we know that Aquarius and Dollar Bill were involved with drugs all we know is that Tig (his close friends call him Tig) and Pouch didn’t want Bill poisoning pigeons in the park. While readers seem to assume they didn’t want competition it is also possible they didn’t want Bill attracting the attention of the police – because it might interfere with some unknown scheme they were running. The fact the coke wasn’t taken off Bill’s body might hint at something more complex. (I mean, if you’re going to haul him from the park to a wharf you might have taken the time to look through his pockets.)

1-NARKY MARK: Powder! Where are you? I got tea.

2-POWDER NOSE: I’m over here. Take off those ridiculous sunglasses! RING!

3-NARKY: When did we get a doorbell? POWDER: GEEZ! It’s the phone, dummy! Lemme talk! Yes…yes…yes…oh, no!

4-…It was the cops. Summer O. Love is dead! He had your name in his phone’s Contact’s List under “BOSS”. The cops want to know if you want to come in and pick up his belongings including some “merch” he had on him.

NARKY: Do you think it might be a trap?

POWDER: Nah. Besides, mama needs some candy so it’s worth the risk.

NARKY: Yeah. You’re right. I’ll just tell them it’s just Goody’s Headache Powder. POWDER: There you go. Perfect!

How can the villain’s molls always be such dumb bimbos when all they do is sit on the couch and read all day? If she’s a coke addict, seems to me like she would have a lot more energy than this. Also, a coke addict might not mind cooking but would not be hungry.

“He hasn’t got the drive” ..must have been a real laid back kind of salesman.

“Who did it” says Aquarius. Not like he is going to do revenge, probably wants to avoid the area where the deed was done.

Won’t it be something if Auntie Bellum is a combination of: Maudie Frickett (character played by Jonathan Winters) Mama Harper (character played by Vicki Lawrence) Gladys Opry (character played by Ruth Buzzi)

Tony Rocky Horror, eh? I shiver with Ann Tici…..

PATION!

I loved the image on Thursday of Dollar Bill’s dollar bill wafting away even as his soul fled his body.

Those eyelashes. Really?

Some people are not exaggerators in the emotion department.

Aquarius reminds me of the DJ, Wolf Man Jack.

As languid Cheesecake relays the sad (?) news from Tony Rocky Horror, Aquarius, who seems to be wound up rather tight, leaps to a conclusion, perhaps warranted, as it turns out, but in context premature, so far as he would know.

Dollar Bill may have been small fry as a dealer. but he seems to have been one that Aquarius relied on as his regular dealer for his blonde telephone answering service/girlfriend. Slowly, the wheels grind, and Aquarius, who seems rather quick-tempered, is headed for a confrontation with Pouch, the consummate player who only rarely shows his more forceful side (as when taking on Tiger Lilly to be his muscle)….

I wonder if Tony Rocky Horror still has that speech impediment.

Loving the Pulp Fiction name drop. But will Tony Rocky Horror get tossed out a window?