Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 12, 2021

There was a time when violent crime held sway in Tracyville

Thugs bearing arms possess no charms. Not troubled when they kill.

Take Tess’s dad. He caught it bad, thus fell dead to the floor

Amidst the gore, Dick Tracy swore would be this way no more.

In plainclothes his stature rose, became the great detective

Deadly thugs and well-dressed mugs soon found their schemes defective.

To be succinct, in this precinct you’ll find crime does not pay

‘Tis off to jail to weep and wail or fall this very day.

I want to use whatever Tracy uses to remain so youthful looking and energetic.

“Briar” took a quick pause to pop her colored contacts in. Or out.

I was afraid of this. Today, Briar Rose is brown-haired and brown-eyed. SIGH…!

Is that a left hand or a paddle Tracy’s extending? LOL!

Many thanks to our resident historian Neil for taking the time to listen to some original songs I wrote and recorded with my band.

I asked for his honest opinion and many here will find it poetic justice that in his own words he really “nitpicked them!” LOL!

He did say that he could hear the Beatles influence in one of them! Yeah Yeah Yeah!!!

Good morning™, everyone!

I see that the coffee cups have resumed their normal yellow. I was thinking: it’s interesting that this meaning of “woolly” almost always appears in the phrase “wild and woolly.”

It seems that Ms. Rose didn’t do any research before this interview.

Whatever her hair color is, I think it’s a possibility that this is Queen of Spades’ true color, the freckles are real, and her blonde ponytail in her unitard is fake. (Assuming her ponytail is actually blonde.)

RonnieAThompson Top notch guy laid praise about 2 hours ago

@Gweedo it’s legal here Murray

Wise words my friend. May Covid avoid you and yours.

Thank you, Good buddy and so far it has.

Good morning™, green around the gills reporters !

She may be a recent grad of some community college but will leave the station a well informed veteran on the magnitude of crime in that town and of those who combat it.

Would his story just tell it as an impersonal description of the precinct, ignoring the fact that he was around the whole time since Prohibition? No, there comes the final panel, practically admitting that Tracy must be 100 years old. Or are they pretending that in the Tracyverse, Prohibition was only 20 or 30 years ago?

Ok. Tracy expressly states Tess’ father was killed during Prohibition which ended in 1933. That would make Tracy at least 108 (assuming he was 20 when he joined the force). At least with Captain America you can move when the Avengers found him frozen but Tracy doesn’t have that luxury.

If only Mike had a nightmare that he is back to that era when gang bosses… reigned over the city with little fear of consequence and decided to write a story about it after waking up sweating profusely, we might just have a story packed with action every day. Are you ready to go to sleep, Mike? :)

She seems really happy about the gun violence.

♪♪"Thorn in my side,

You know that’s all you ever were.

A bundle of lies.

You know that’s all that it was worth…"♪♪ ~ Eurythmics

So we’re acknowledging that this happened back in prohibition times? Huh. I guess it’s like how the Punisher lives in modern times and looks like he’s about 40, but still is a Vietnam veteran.

Is it just me, or is the third time that she’s being drawn/coloured?

Orange eyes and hair for September-ween, very nice.

I just realized Briar Rose is asking about things that happened roughly a hundred years ago.

Tracy’s segueing from talking about the precinct’s past to his own personal life? If I were a reporter I’d ask him to stay on topic.

Great images again today , but what is with the hair color and the eyes ? Both are ok with me but I just kinda liked the red hair and the almost green eyes from a few days ago . I ’m wonder who the guy in the third frame looks like ? Edward G. maybe ?

Of course this makes Tracy over 100 years old.

DICK TRACY IS SPIDERMAN!!!!????

“If you’re wondering how he eats and breathes, And other science facts…(la! la! la!) Then repeat to yourself it’s just a show, I should really just relax…”

“Germans?” “Forget it, he’s rolling.”

She was “Ms.” just two days ago, Tracy. Did she correct you yesterday?

1-DT: This is the hand I wipe with. I handed you the coffee with my right hand so you don’t have to worry.

SUKI: Oh, good! Say, do you like gangster movies….?

2-…I love ‘em. There was a great one on TCM last night…

3-…If I’d been alive back then, I’d been a gun moll for sure…!

4-…AND I would a been part of the St. Valentines Day crew! BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA BUDDA…

5-…AND I would a blasted my Great Grandpa. That bast*rd voted against the Social Security Act!

DT: Hmmm, ok. Uh, more coffee?

An anniversary retrospective along with a time machine is the perfect time and setup to do a retcon of an older character if you are going to do one. This would be the perfect situation if you wanted to bring Tracy into the modern age (like revising the time period when Superman came to Earth).

I thought Mike was being very careful not to mention any time period in connection with Tracy specifically, instead using the history of the precinct. But, the whole thing was blown in the last panel by bad implication that Emil Trueheart was killed during prohibition while we all know Tracy was there.

Although the panel caption says “It was during a robbery…” which does not specify a specific time period, we know that Tracy was there and that it was the seminal experience in his life. From Tracy’s apparent age in the strip, we also know that it could not have happened during prohibition. There are few readers of the strip today, if any, who were even alive during prohibition. The coloring however, implies it was exactly the same time period as prohibition in the previous panel. Had Tracy said, “Years later during a robbery…” with coloring and art style more like the 90s than the 30s, it would have left things more nebulous.

Whether it was bad wording, bad proofreading, or just first-draft-writing, someone was trying to tell the story by being too clever by half and the implication it gives to the reader doesn’t work very well in my opinion.

Twenty years later and people are still dying from 9/11. What a shame men like Officer Fortini had to fight for support and medical care.

Mission Complete Sir, Return to Base. Salute!

A Dick Tracy history lesson!

So are they going to let everyone know that Tracy’s father-in-law was murdered in 1931? And that’s what got him to join the force? That he’s most likely 100+ years old?

Emil Trueheart’s killing is repeated nearly daily in our big cities by stray bullets passing through windows and walls… Particularly tragic, are the deaths of innocent infants, children, and teens…

Okay folk, enough with the 100 years old BS. It’s a friggin’ cartoon, not real life. What should be criticized is that Team Tracy resurrects long dead individuals, with lame excuses (BB Eyes) for how they survived. I mean if Tracy’s 100, how old are Blondie and Dagwood,?, Mutt and Jeff?, the list could go on and on.

Yup! That ’lil ’ol balloon deflated in a hurry…..umm…like some ages-old idea to get Howdy Doody a girlfriend (called “Heidi Didi” or some such thing), got tossed out, as well…….

While this is accurate in the history of the strip, mention of his fiancee would indicate Dick is about 105 years old.

Perhaps the time drone will fix this apparent problem.

That’s gotta be Edward G. Robinson with the tommy gun. "’Cause I’m Rocko, see?

Prohibition was mostly during the 1920s. It is now the 2020s. Sticky question: When did Tracy join the force?

I am reminded of the Andy Griffith episode where an attractive young woman posed as a college student studying journalism, and interviewed Barney in an attempt to get dirt on Andy. Of course, Barney fell all over himself trying to impress her, and then redeemed himself with a very special speech about Andy at the official hearing. Tracy here shouldn’t be susceptible to this girl’s charms (if she is a ringer), but she does look a good deal like the actress who played the part on Andy

“This precinct was established during the era when gang bosses made rich and powerful by prohibition reigned over the city with little fear of consequence”. In other words, crime bosses knew who to pay to look the other way. Trying to forbid alcoholic beverages had the opposite effect…bold and daring entrepreneurs made their own variety of bath tub gin. High Society and nightclubs were too glad to accept the illegal product. Regarding those old buildings which still have bullet holes, it is a wonder that they are not on the tour guide schedule for visitors to our city. Sometimes I wonder muses Tracy, why no commemorative markers have not been placed near these buildings.

I am starting to see why Chief Patton handed her off to Tracy. He will tell Miss Rose the history so well to the point, she will experience “You Are There” moments like that program Walter Cronkite narrated.

Tracy reminisces about the (vaguely) Olden Times in his precinct, while the junior reporter, auburn-haired (orangey-brown, if you will) Briar Rose sips copious coffee and takes no notes, has no tape/digital recorder that we are aware of, and instead just listens to Tracy’s tale like an awe-struck teenager (which she may well be). I am not impressed by her professionalism. But, hey, the main thing is to let Tracy spin tales in greytones (black-and-white and in between) and surreptitiously salute the strip’s ninetieth anniversary….

And no the rest of Prohibition needs to end now and forever.

1.)Her notebook is blank.Every page of it.SHE’S NO REPORTER!".Part 2

2.)Who the heck is the little guy with the tommy gun?That’s no Tracy villain I ever saw,looks like “Scarface Dummy” from Batman.

3.)They say Holy Name Cathedral on the North Side still has bullet holes in the frontfrom gangland assassination attempts in the Roaring 20’s,but I never noticed them.

Dion O’Bannion ran his flower shop “front” across the street from the Cathedral.

How can one “establish” a precinct? I can easily understand establishing a police department and dividing its jurisdiction into precincts, but putting it the way that Tracy does suggests that there was a police department in existence, but not covering the city (or county or whatever), with some kinds of pioneers setting forth into previously unpoliced areas and “establishing” a new “precinct.” Or something like that.