Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 16, 2021

Good morning™, goal-makers!

He wasn’t ready for “The Tempest” until now? I don’t remember much about how that play goes.

Ooo, not a good job coloring her hair.

How I wish Blandi was holding a Tracy special to use on the old goat!

Good morning™, bad hair dye jobs !

We could pretend she is trying a new thing with her hair. Can someone link an older KK shot; our new color guy might see it. Her hair looks neat, if it is something she meant to do.

Is The Tempest that hard of a play that Vitamin, after all these years, is only now feeling suitable to be in it ?

Next panel: (Kandi) “Things have been looking up since you joined the Manson family. Shall I freshen up that mark on your forehead?”

Did Kandi have her baby yet?

And does anyone else find it a but creepy that the writers put this young woman and old man together or does it give you hope if you’re older and single? LOL!

If that’s a video camera she’s holding, does this mean Kandi’s taking her Vitamins? Cause, that’s sweet.

All the good will this strip has garnered over the past 4 1/2 months & now we’re back @ the theatre w/ this unfortunate pair. I sometimes wish Mike would just spin them off into their own strip— “Ham & Cheesecake”.

Hmmm…a thought just struck me….follow me on this one

Vitamin is like 3 million years old and Kandilame is maybe in her late 20’s/early 30’s (seriously, he’s literally old enough to be her grandfather) and nauseatingly, they’re a couple. They’re friends of Tracy and are “on the side of the angels”

Then there’s Abner (mah boy!) Kadaver who has GOT to be as old as, or older than, tracy himself…Abner is known to have hosted the horror show for 30 years, and if he started at, say, 25 years old then he would have been 55 in his first appearance….Rikki is HIS love interest and she seems to be in her early 20’s at the most…probably no more than 25… and THEY are enemies of tracy and are on the “side of the devil”

So Vitamin/Kandilame would be the “positive flipside” to the “negative coin” that is Abner/Rikki

BOTH Vitamin and Abner are “dramatic” (vitamin being more the drama queen than Abner I think), both are, obviously, film aficionados (sp?), and both are “connected” emotionally and physically with younger women…

A few people commented before in jest about “The Phantom of the Playhouse” but in truth, that is almost exactly what these two are… they are The Phantom who hides in shadows and terrorizes/murders people (Abner) and Christine, the ultimate diva (Vitamin)

Truthfully, we know pretty much ZERO about Abner’s history…his real name, where he came from, his motivation (aside from being a psychopathic mass murderer)…all we DO know is that he is a film buff and hitman

As always , great images . But I’m totally lost on what this is or where it is going ? Sorry .

Is it Lent? I think I see a smudge in the shape of a cross on Vitamin’s forehead in p2.

Vitamin’s first wife, Snowflake, was at least 30 years younger than him.

1-BARBER POLE: I found a ray gun prop that you can use for your new production of Forbidden Planet. SUGAR DADDY: I’m performing The Tempest, dear. Written by The Bard himself…

2-…It’s the story of an old geezer and his young, attractive daughter and how she betrays him for a younger man. BARBER: Sounds perverted!

3-SUGAR: Perhaps but it has an odd familiarity that draws me to it. Now, could you tell me – was I just arriving or was I going out? I forget.

BARBER: _CLICK CLICK CLICK. DAM! I guess it was too much to hope that this ray gun was real…_

Wow, I did not know Vitamin had a son. Who was his wife? And what is Kandi to the old guy?

Why is she pointing that radar gun at Vitamin? Surely, he can’t move that fast. “He can, and stop calling me Shirley”.

I wonder if the “swirling fog” behind Vitamin in Panel 2 is a portent of Abner Kadaver being involved with the play somehow ?

Other villains have done so in the past…

In this 21st Century Kandi still chooses to use a camcorder as opposed to a digital camera with video technology….imagine that!

Prospero is a tough role in the Tempest. And secondly, as mentioned, Snowflake, Vitamin’s first wife, was much younger than he was, and this was way, way, before Viagra. You go old timer!!

According to theater tradition, Prospero is a role taken by a retiring actor. We know Vitamin isn’t voluntarily going to retire.

He has his eyes set on the character of Edward Morbius er, Prospero.

The word that first comes to mind when I see Vitamin’s face is “rictus.” The word that comes next is “constipation.”

I’ve heard tell that propriety dictates that the minimum age of your paramour should be half your age plus seven, so, for example, if you’re 50 your significant other should be no younger than 32 (50/2 + 7 = 25+7).

I suspect Vitamin is breaking that rule by a significant margin.

I see that Kandikane’s formerly white-and-red-streaks hair has gone orangey-red and red streaks in both GoComics and ComicsKingdom. Is this, then, the new canonical coloring? Kinda misses the implication of “Kandikane=candy cane,” doesn’t it? Maybe motherhood has aged her; she seems to have lost some of her former sparkle (though her black tee-shirt contributes to that impression). At least she is keeping up with her videography, documenting the Patterson production from start-up through public performance (presumably)….

Well that’s an odd flex. I’m assuming he means because Prospero is old. But in the comics, Vitamin has been old since like 1940 or something. Oh well, in comic timelines, age really is just a number. :p

@Ray Toler – I appreciate your response. I had know idea, wow! Thanks!