Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 21, 2021

Who’s that with The Ace? ✨

I guess smoking is a prerequisite for working at the Apparatus. I just hope they have a good health plan.

The Ace of Spades has forgotten how to hold a non mobile phone apparently

“Unfortunately, I’m also under contract from Stiletta, and cancellations must be done by the client.”

Unless the cancellation fee surpasses the contract fee….I see Abner as a man possessed. He’ll still go through with his plan to eliminate Tracy. Guess I’ll have to tune in tomorrow to see if he is going to argue with the Apparatus. Would it be logical? There is more of them and only one of him.

What? Not kill Dick Tracy?

Well, they have to do something to break out of all this predictability.

“So how are things with your freaky chick?”

“Good, good. And yours?”

Seems the office is suffering from a black-out. I wonder if Abner’s phone is going to go dead.

In many circles, the slang for a cancellation fee is a “kill fee.” But given the nature of Abner’s work, he and his clients would be wise in avoiding that term to eliminate confusion! I don’t think Abner can say no — unless he doesn’t care about the consequences, which would likely be the Apparatus bringing in another hitman in a race to ice Abner before he can ice Tracy. Or have we seen that story already?

Abner has a vendetta against Tracy. It wouldn’t matter if all the contracts were pulled, he’d still want to eliminate him.

Good morning™, cancelled killers !

What job could they have for Ab that would be better than offing Tracy ?  A nice swerve away from the predictable.

Good morning™, fellow readers!

I wonder how The Ace got to be so familiar with Kadaver’s work history. I suppose Kadaver’s habits are known “in the industry,” but I don’t think that we readers have ever seen any personal contact between these two men before.

I think Abner is a zombie now.

Well, this is one story trick to break out of the “Kadaver vs. Tracy” cycle….Ace is right on keeping the heat off, but the person he wants dead must REALLY be a threat to make him pay Kadaver to drop his effort against Tracy.

Will Abner’s obsession with killing Tracy allow him to go along with these terms?

I wonder if his mask has a little round hole for his cigar…

I’m no grammar expert, but shouldn’t the Ace say that the Apparatus is cancelling the hit on Tracy, or, withdrawing it?

they will pay a cancel fee to cancel the contract to cancel tracy?

The Apparatus likes to keep a low profile; years ago they leaned on the dying Big Boy to drop his open contract on Tracy because of the chaos it was causing.

Perhaps the new contract is to kill Pouch—to finish the job. The Apparatus could have been the recipient of the blue balloon.

Yes! Take it, Abner!

Panel one makes me wonder where that dude’s ears are

Love the Cadabra character.

What year is this? Everyone has a landline phone…

Ace holds the receiver earpiece a lot higher than his ears.

1-ACES WILD: YOU STILL THERE?

2-ABNER: YEAH!

3-ACES: You wanna attend our next Key Party? That’s where everybody puts their keys into a bowl and then you go home with whoevers key you pull out.

ABNER: What if you get a dude’s key? ACES: Yeah. That’s why these parties aren’t very well attended anymore. In fact, if you show up, it’ll just be you, Rikki, me and Lil Queenie here.

LIL QUEENIE: I don’t mind if I get Rikki’s keys. In fact, I’d prefer it to getting yours, Aces.

ACES: WHY YOU GOTTA DO ME LIKE THAT??? So Abner, you two in? It’s on Saturday.

ABNER: Umm, lemme check my calendar. I’ll get back to you never.

It is already getting wired!

Speaking as a contract lawyer, the term “repeal” isn’t really used when ending a contract. “Cancelling” or “Terminating” are the terms of art used. “Repeal” is used more for laws or regulations. On rare occasions, you might hear “aborgate,” which can have a definition of “repeal,” but I think in the 29 years I’ve been practicing law, I’ve only ever seen that term used “in the wild” a few times.

I see: bad guys have each other on speed dial on their land line phones, a smoking addiction so bad you have to smoke THROUGH the mask that covers your entire face, and Ace’s ear is about 1/2 an inch from the top of his head.

ACE: I’ve noticed how well you did as a seamstress, making Rikki’s new duds. I was wondering if you could come over and talk with Queenie and me about designing some new super villain costumes for us. I was thinking of something along the line of the playing cards in Alice in Wonderland.

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e5/f6/4d/e5f64d539a0e2c350cd8dd8598745e0f.jpg

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Oh, wow, I guess the members of the Apparatus in Dick Tracy are going to stop trying to kill Dick Tracy, which seems like it would take a lot of the oomph out of this strip, not gonna lie. I guess this is the sort of cautious movie you’d expect from a crime lord who puts on a ski mask to talk on the phone to one of his own allies. Fortunately for fans of ultraviolence everywhere, Dick Tracy is definitely not going to reciprocate and stop trying to kill the members of the Apparatus.

DT is not the only one who is “colorblind”.

https://www.gocomics.com/wizardofid/2021/04/21

Since Ace is still in the 60s, certainly he’s using a landline. No cells were invented at that time. Can you say Back to the Future kids?

I wonder if Abner is going to accept the cancellation, given his obsession with Dick Tracy.

“But Why?”

“Well, to tell you the truth people have been complaining in the comments too much. So…”

Come on Abner, stop posting all your contracts to Facebook. It’s not like you have a face.

Makes sense since gunning for Tracy is a death sentence for whom ever would try,

Street-smart Abner accepts the terms set by the Apparatus, takes their cancellation fee money, sees to their new hit—and meanwhile keeps “killing Tracy” as a personal, unpaid goal.

The tale becomes convoluted….