Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 15, 2021

Sorry for my partners disrespect yesterday, Chief detective Tracy, I promise it won’t happen again.

“… but always there is — The Chase~!!” ✨

Good morning™, cold canal escapees!

Unlike Shawshank’s Andy Dufresne I doubt there’ll be any redemption for Tiger Lily, only karma. It’d be fitting if his flight through this frigid flow found not freedom, but a frightening finish as a face-down floater.

unca jim remembers about 9 hours ago

@Gweedo it’s legal here Murray

“Back then, I was assembling my first Harley 45 after HiSchool and learning how NOT to kick-start the SOB !!♥”

I heard how bikes used to kick back when the piston(s) was at the ‘right’ spot in its stroke. Hope you didn’t break an ankle over it.

Good morning™, chasers!

Tiger Lilly is finding out that it’s a lot easier to get into an icy canal than to get out of one. At least he’s a bit out of reach for the uniformed cops especially with the fence blocking them, but that could change if they can get to the bridge around the bend before he does.

Good morning™, blocked pursuers !

So, these Keystone Kops can’t find the opening where Tiger Lilly got through and follow him canal side ?  That lady cop must be sucking up for quick promotion.

If it wasn’t for massive fear fueled adrenaline flow Tiger might just lay down and wait for the inevitable.

Umm, Tiger, the answer is “upstream”…

It’s probably a little chilly out. Tiger might want to get out of that water and get some dry clothes.

Tiger Lilly should have Harry Lime with him!

“Hold that Tiger, Hold that Tiger” sorry, it’s Monday!

Someone is going to get sick in that icy water!!!

I commented yesterday that the artist showed a section of fence being down. It was probably covered in snow and what Tiger tripped over as he took a tumble into the canal channel. Apparently the cops missed yesterday’s strip and are left wondering how Tiger could get over the fence rather than glancing to their right or left.

The law sets out to bag a Tiger! Nice to see a bit of sustained action; I was half expecting the scene would switch back to Auntie, Cheese and Oscar for a day or three.

Second panel is a superb depiction of the physical and emotional isolation experienced by this fictional criminal when his loss of the sense of security among his others, the few, Oh, so few! whose transient support is extinguished, and he is“alone, all all alone” in a narrow ditch under a baleful Moon.

Here come the alligators!

I think Tiger’s out of easy exits.

1-OFFICER SIDEKICK: OUCH! AN ELECTRIC FENCE!

OFFICER BACKUP:* That’s just your Wrist Radio shorting out again. They haven’t been worth a damn ever since Apple started making them in China.

2-FRENCHY: It’s my lucky day! A fence miraculously appears right where I just ran through. No time to consider the absurdity of it now – gotta run! The Tallahatchie Bridge is up ahead. If my luck holds, any cops who see me there will just think that I’m Billy Joe McAllister!

You know what song this will be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNB8AKMdqiQ

Where’s the way out? That’s what I want to know?

I’m wondering when the cops started wearing bright red neckties?

Someone mentioned Harry Lime. The Third Man is on TCM’s Noir Alley this Saturday.

Chief Detective Tracy…maybe this is how his name is placed on interdepartmental memos.

The uniformed types don’t want to get any closer. They just learned “what they’re dealing with — and I’m just making an educated guess here, I’d like to make that clear — is a multi-cellular life form with stripes, huge razor-sharp teeth, about 11-foot long, and of the genus Felis Horribilus. What we doctors, in fact, call: a tiger.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLdk2C25Z14

If the detectives waiting by the bridge don’t get him, the icy cold water will. One way or the other, Tiger Lilly’s criminal career will be on hiatus again, soon (if not permanently cancelled).

Good film noir mood in today’s strip; maybe some Will Eisner influence in Joe’s artwork, too….