Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 23, 2021

“Well, one less thing to worry about now!”

How long before they identify the two dead and one missing…

Where’s Neil with my cut & paste “TM” greeting ?

Now I have to do it myself.

Good morning™, destruction aftermath !

What a mess. It could take years to clean up. Will Diet take this as an omen that it is time to retire ?  He and Joe can have that party, with the Gold watch, and go through the door for the last time together.

Good morning™, everyone! (and Gweedo, sorry, I got distracted)

Well, some of us already figured out that the future of seven years ago’s strip is now… and I believe that SKJAM! correctly guessed yesterday that’s what Diet saw on the TV.

So, it’s possible that we have either 2 or 3 people dead. I don’t think that Briar Rose is included in those totals, because the guard would have concluded that she ran off after he got knocked out. Since she wasn’t injured by the initial explosion, I don’t think they’d include her among the missing. Certainly, Sterling is missing, but they know he was inside the Time Drone Complex, so he’d be presumed dead. They may not have found a body to prove it, yet.

I think this is what Diet Smith is referring to…..

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2014/11/06?ct=v&cti=2049029

All fame is fleeting…

I figured out 6 days ago that the aftermath of the explosion was what the original time machine photographed 7 years ago. Check it out, it was on Sunday, the 17th. It’s the featured comment of the day.

At the very least, I should get a no-prize. 8-D

An explosive ending for the 90th anniversary

Two days in a row

no cigar smoke from Mr. Know it all!

It’s a miracle!!!

Wouldn’t it be neat if someone sees the “mystery ship” appear, take a picture, and then disappear?

Was Diet diversified, or were all his eggs (buildings) in one big basket? that blew up.

Time drones aplenty? From where and built by whom?

Assuming the “2 killed, 1 missing” is for the Smith explosion (and we can’t necessarily assume that. The news scrolling along the bottom of the screen is for a different different story) it seems awfully premature. It can take weeks of going through rubble to establish casualty figures. At best it should be “2 known dead, 1 missing…” Perhaps the scroll began, and the ellipsis (…), read “At least”

The perfect end to this story: Flattop in modern times, glaring at a Starbucks and mumbling “That ain’t the Noble Hotel.”

Is this an attack of the drones?

Ah, yes – jumping dimensions and alternate universes… the same thing that nearly ruined Star Trek.

Yet another opportunity to reference The Blues Image only hit!

Ride captain ride upon your mystery ship

On your way to a world that others might have missed

1-DOIT: Get that nurse in here, Tracy! This Call Button ain’t workin’ and this head bandage they made outta Nicotine Patches has lost its effect!

DT: That’s the TV Remote for one thing and secondly – how’d you score this 80 inch TV! SWEET!

2-DOIT: That’s a window, nitwit! Wait a minute…that sign looks familiar…it’s…it’s all coming back to me…THE HORROR!

DT: Settle down, Doit. It’s probably just Calmgar (patent pending) withdrawal. Just let me change the channel…hey. Where’s the dial knob?

Yesterday I thought Diet was turning off the TV, but it was the opposite, which explains why he told Tracy to wait. It seems Diet is getting his first view of the extent of the destruction.

I am really enjoying this story.

“I have to go outside and wave to my past self! I may never get the chance to do that again!”

Still wondering what Blackjack, Double-up, Mumbles and the Hooded guys have to do with this. Maybe Team Tracy got so convoluted they forgot.

In the second panel, I feel like I am watching a combination of the Twilight Zone and the Invaders.

Where did the Smith banner come from? Was a company picnic being held on the grounds?

Smith Industries….a major employer in Tracy land? Staff will be in long lines for days to come getting unemployment compensation.

I just remembered that the last time we saw it, Smith was putting it in his office safe. What am I talking about? Bribery’s “power” ring.

Joe & Mike took the strip to a whole new level this week. Great work, guys.

The last panel reminded me of a X-Files episode … part of it took place in the future, I think the plot had Mulder deciding to join in the conspiracy, & on his death bed Smoking Man opened a curtain & Mulder saw a world in ruins as the extraterrestrials attacked. Powerful imagery then, powerful imagery now,

SBN (chiron) reports 2 dead, 1 missing. Wendy Wichel and her scathing commentary cannot be far behind. She’ll go after Diet Smith as a way of getting at Tracy!

And downed Diet is confronting the paradoxes of time travel head on; maybe this will shake up his often too complacent thinking….

Meanwhile, what of Briar Rose? What might she be up to? And what of the Apparatus and Ace of Spades? There’s a lot yet to come….

Today’s MUTTS again says it better than Diet ever could.

“I failed.I meddled in things that man should leave alone”—-Claude Rains.