Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 09, 2022

Blackjack trusted Mr. Bones. Now wrapped in Cellophane

Knocked out by the ketamine. Plans for revenge profane.

Dishonest ruse foul Bones did use to lure Tracy in

Bones very strange. Shoots point blank range. The hitman’s violent sin.

Bird takes flight in full moonlight. Bones turns to give a glance

Tracy’s possum act thus ends. Knocks Bones right off his stance.

A time to talk. A time to walk. A time for a kill shot

To look away is a fool’s play. Dick gives him all he’s got.

A boot to jaw! Such stars Bones saw! Hitman bound to fail

Again today crime does not pay. Take this punk to jail.

And a surprise kick to the face from Tracy. That should do some damage to that already nasty face of his.

Looks like Blackjack’s gun is loaded with blanks

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, I see that there’s no silencer, as I figured, but it’s not such a great gun. Im not sure what to make of the shells falling in front of Bones’ feet.

Tracy got in a very effective kick when the passing owl rustled the branches overhead. This fight isn’t over yet.

Well, today’s strip turned out differently than I feared, and I’m glad for that. I do wonder how Tracy made that kick. In panel 3, he’s face down on the ground. How did he do it?

Tracy looks like he’s doing the Can Can with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes!

How convenient for Bones to get distracted by Tweety Bird.

Great Sunday page!

I’m wondering if Tracy will retrieve the Wrist Wizard and get to Blackjack’s location in time?

Good morning™, fakeouts !

How would Dick have made the save if the bird taking flight didn’t distract Boney long enough, that he could do a quick turn that got his foot lined up for the field goal ?   Now call Sam and tell him to get the over bright desk lamp and rubber hose ready; this bird has some beans to spill and a little coaxing will help that along just fine.

Odd. Owls are silent fliers.

Well, ALMOST anything works…

I’m enjoying this a great deal, though you’d think if you were using a strange gun to kill somebody, you would at least give it a once over before using.

Looks like Hong Kong Phooey Tracy’s kick knocked one of Blackjack’s jacket buttons from the outside sleeve to the inner.

Did you catch that Kenny G.?

LOL!

Kevlar?

“I’m not dead, yet” “What?” “He says he isn’t dead, I can’t take him if he’s not dead.”

Also, I don’t think it’s an owl—I think it’s a pigeon

I’m betting he’s packing a Kevlar vest!

Dick Goodman is so stunned by the existence of birds that Dick Tracy had time to crawl a couple feet forward, roll over onto his back, and throw up a perfectly angled kick. I assume body armor ate those three bullets (which shouldn’t have ever surprised a professional hitman knowing he’s been sent after a law enforcement officer, but then again no villain in this strip is allowed to have an IQ that exceeds single digits), but wow, how about that PLOT armor?

he’s packing you up for an arrest for attempted murder.

So we have a combination of a weak gun and a bulletproof vest?

If it has been the shadow of a bat instead of a bird that was the distraction, it would have made a great crossover story.

Nice perspective shifts the last few days – stimulates interest in the floating observer. The coloring and detail add nice feeling of presence. The block colors quite atmospheric. Overall the illusion of movement in the characters and surroundings – not static. Captivating!!

Knee-jerk reaction. I always have that when I get shot.

Looks like Dick clubbed him with someone else’s leg.

“Blackjack has lousy taste in guns”

Maybe it can shoot out a little flag that says “BANG!”

Curious why we have an advertisement for a book author on top rather than a tribute to a fallen officer.

Very Batman-esque today. In the first proper panel, The Joker like pose. And in the third and second to last panels with the distraction look like a tribute to the original Bat-Man of Bob Kane and Bill Finger.

The middle two panels, in the last row.

If I were a poetic sort I would pen a verse on how Bones stopped a moment, to pause and reflect on the silence of the night, the only witness a passing owl, the gentle fall of the last winter leaves…

Dick has his own poem…“My FOOT bone’s connected to your HEAD bone! And that’s how Bone’s bones fall!”

Tracy always wears a bulletproof vest

Not only does BlackJack have lousy taste in guns but he also fills them with blanks, it seems.

There was a local (British Columbia) lawyer who had a reputation for acting on behalf of assorted neo-nazis and other nasty people, and was suspected of sharing some of those views. He was also known for a bullying manner, and was generally greatly disliked in the legal community. I remember (admittedly without being able to find verification easily) a story about a trial where he was acting for the defendant in an assault trial. Something like:

A police officer (the victim, as I recall) testified that the defendant had been lying on the ground in a certain position; when the officer approached, the defendant gave him s debilitating kick to the groin. The lawyer said that it would have been impossible for his client, in that position, to have delivered such a kick. The officer insisted. OK, said the lawyer, you lie on the ground in that position, I’ll approach you, and we’ll show that it’s impossible for you to kick me the way you described. The officer got on the ground, the lawyer approached, and the officer delivered a devastating kick to the lawyer’s groin. There were a lot of smirks and guffaws in the legal community about that.

I wonder if Tracy’s shoes have steel toes for just such a situation…

Although the drawing does not exactly resemble any pistol with which I am familiar, in general it calls to mind something like a classic Ruger .22 or a specialized target-shooting .22 caliber. The thing is, Blackjack is an ace-level marksman, who doesn’t really want to kill anyone. So a small-caliber, highly accurate pistol (and for those here who are truly ignorant about guns, a .22 is the smallest commonly-found caliber, although there are some rarer ones even smaller) is just what he would choose. Bones doesn’t like it.

Unluckily for Richard Bonhomme [I note the translation given above by jroggs as “Dick Goodman”], his momentary distraction by the flushed owl gives Tracy, knocked down by not out by the three small “center mass” slugs to his body armor, the brief moment he needs to muster a devastating kick with his heavy shoe to Bones’s face. Broken jaw time?

Owl’s can be territorial,especially if they think their nest is being disturbed.