Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 17, 2021

Should have sent the Knave of Swords.

Forget the Jack of spades, Ace

Yes, Doubleup,Briar Rose is smarter than all the Apparatus’ bozos. Apparatus’ bozos!

Good morning™, everyone!

Rose > Jack.

Doubleup seems to know Briar Rose better than the Ace does. He has a privileged spot there where he can hear things from both the management side and the rank and file. Jack is late filing his report, probably because he’s dead. Ace is right to be worried.

Idiotic of the dunce of spades to go through the hassle of moving Red Rose to a different location where any number of things can go wrong rather than just kill her at HQ. I’d probably enjoy the strip more if I stopped expecting reasonable writing and didn’t get upset over ridiculous decisions like to eliminate the Jack of Spades “off camera” yet deal with days and days of smoked filled Lady Gaga’s!

Oh and there’s a mistake with Doubleup’s whip’s shadow.

Sloppy sloppy, tsk tsk!

Good morning™, foiled plans !

He got ‘jacked’ and Double Bubble is already considering the worst and in a more pragmatic way than Ace who is on his way to needing an antacid for his tummy.

Receptionist lady looks too classy to be working for the likes of this outfit.

Gives new meaning to laying a card down……

I’d lay odds of .45 to one Sam trumped the Jack

Ace is not going to feel so smart when he realizes he delivered Briar into the hands of the Police. Unless of course, he’s really Black Jack

This is why you kill her at headquarters, instead of some exceeding pointless trap that takes setting up and everything to work perfectly. The only reason for this arrangement was to set up a coincidence so that the police could interview her. The Ace appears to be Tracy’s best friend with this.

Uh, sir? You asked me to remind you about your 2:15 torture and murder…

Ace; the Jack got trumped by Sam Catchem

What? No Joker in their deck?

Ace’s worries are just beginning. Wait til BR starts singing to the MCU.

I didn’t comment yesterday. I had an appointment with my surgeon which lasted most of the day concerning my broken leg. Doctor ordered new x-rays. He removed the cast he had put on during the operation. The leg and foot were completely blistered with blood blisters under the cast. He said it was normal. He removed 16 staples he had put in during the operation and said the incision looked good. Then he did something surprising. Instead of a new cast, he put on one of those walking boots. I am still not allowed to put any weight on the leg for two more weeks then gradually work up to regular walking in the boot with a crutch. Following that, at least a month or two of physical therapy. All in all about 8-10 weeks from the operation until walking with the boot alone. He said it will take about 6 months for full recovery but the thinking now is to get the patient up and walking as soon as possible. The boot weighs a lot more than the cast but seems to me equally as protective. Thank you, everyone, for your support and good wishes.

The art work under Shelley is very nicely done!

1-MS. EFFICIENCY: There’s a call from a customer at our Marmel’s Deli operation, sir. It seems that our employee has been replaced by a contingent of police who can’t tell the customer where they keep the mustard. Do you know?

2-RATFACE: Hmmmm. Mustard? I think it’s … WAIT A SECOND??? POLICE? I think our plan must’ve gone awry.

3-WHIPPY: Rye? That sounds good. Have the Jack bring me a Cali Wrap on Rye, Ms. Efficiency. Ms. Efficiency.

RATFACE: I’LL HAVE ONE TOO!

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Given that the Apparatus is led by a guy who wears a full-body gimp suit just to hang around the office and staffed by people like Doubleup, a dude with Dagwood Bumstead hair who carries a bullwhip around at all times, it’s extremely hilarious to me that they just have a regular-old receptionist named “Joanne” out at the front desk fielding calls. I assume she sort of knows she’s taking messages about murders and such but in the grand scheme of things she’s not paid enough to care about it, you know?

Well now we know who that was that Sam capped yesterday. Briar Rose is about to be a thorn in the side of the 51 who remain if she wasn’t already and it looks like Tracy and company have more answers than Apparatus at this point.

Ah,nuts.It wasn’t “The Ace” that got blown away.

Doubleup doesn’t look like he cares one way or the other if Rose got away.

We’ve all got our old favorites we’d like to see again.

Peanutbutter has been reintroduced,now I’d like to see him play an actual role in a case.Maybe Junior can get the flu for a few weeks.

I’d like to see the two characters Chester Gould spent thelast year of the strip on—-Perfume Plenty and Dade Plenty.

WARN IN ADVANCE—-Drawing Perfume and all those “odor wiggle lines” will be rougher than drawing Shaky.Ah,but she was such a charming little ditz.

I’d like to think Dade stayed straight and has found somesuccess in the fashion industry.Even at his worst,he wasprotective towards Perfume,judging her to be too loopy to take care of herself.

This was not an entirely unjustified attitude.

Worrisome indeed….and they don’t have a “plan B”. If the Ace of Spades did, can’t go forward with it now. I suppose the word “evacuate” is not in his vocabulary.

Jack of Spades….hmm…maybe the King of Spades should have been given the assignment.

“I’m told she’s very resourceful…” Next thing I’ll probably hear is that she is related to Penn & Teller.

One thing I find interesting about this day’s strip is what it says about Doubleup.

The last we saw Doubleup prior to this story was five years ago in The Spirit crossover, where he was the bodyguard of the mysterious lady that ended up being murdered. There he was described as “having a rap sheet a mile long, but so far no convictions.” But he did nothing villainous in that story, and even seemed guilt and remorse stricken at failing to protect his client.

Near the start of this story, we’ve seen him be the bodyguard of the new Ace of Spades. Sinister, but nothing specifically illegal in that, in and of itself. But here, his talk with Ace indicates that he was fully aware of the plot to murder Briar Rose, making him an accessory before the fact. His criminal status was up in the air up to this point, but now there’s no doubt he’s back to being a full blown crook.

I think I owe the MC an apology. After bashing the change of Briar Rose’s outfit colour back to green on Monday, today we learn that Joanne is wearing purple — so the MC did Rose a favour by changing her wardrobe shade so as to avoid a very awkward fashion faux pas! As an executive secretary who literally knows where the bodies are buried, NO ONE upstages Joanne.

The good: Double up Double up did not commit the intended murder intended murder.

The bad: Double up Double up was aware of the intended murder and apparently approved of it approved of it.

At least, the point of view of those of us who had thought Double up was going to be reformed be reformed.

Is still alive?

MOVIE QUOTE—

“Trying to make a hotel out of the city park!!They even put a couple of benches together,so they could have twin beds!”

And when I tells em’ to move on,the LITTLE fella tips his hat and says “Yes,Ma’am”,

THAT’S WHAT I’M SORE ABOUT!"

Policeman;ANOTHER FINE MESS—1930

A little self-doubt begins to crawl under Ace of Spade’s cowl. Jack was not so nimble in dodging Sam Catchem’s bullet, but his Ace does not know this yet. DoubleUp avers that Briar Rose is resourceful and so something could have happened to turn the tables in her favor, without knowing that a detective blew away Ace’s assassin….

Slowly the plot progressed….