Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 21, 2022

So that’s his racket. ✨

Uh, car detailing. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Nothing suspicious here!

Good morning™, automobile aficionados!

“Processing” business is down at the chop shop, and the possibility that Steelface had spontaneously reformed goes out the window.

Back to the story after 3 days of comicstrip gaga!

Wonder if we’ll ever know for sure what the gray smudges are on steelwools jaw?

Good morning™, whopper chopper shoppers !

Wont the VINS give away that the cars are in some police report somewhere ?  Seems that when you go to register it, as a new owner, they come out and record the number in order to run it through a data base to make sure it is on the up and up.

“I’ll take care of that!”

The Ironclad Lad has spoken!

how will Steely provide the cars needed for his operation?… and what has the Patterson Playhouse to do with Steely’s operations?… is it possible that the vehicles of the patrons attending the Funny Papers play will be the ones that Steely will provide for his shop?… and will Robert somehow be used in some way?… I can’t see THAT as being Steely’s plan, as it would attract attention if vehicles are being jacked on consecutive nights while the patrons of those vehicles are attending the play… but I’ve seen dumber plans (and dumber storylines written by Mike) perpetrated by the criminal element in Tracyville in the past…

So Steelface is up to the same racket he was plying in Boston….

That’s not going to go well with his old foe, Sam Catchem, now aware of his presence…..

Sam, Sam the Pastrami Man…

Dick’s sidekick has got a plan…

Once he gets a whiff of Steely’s scam…

Steely will do the only thing he can…

to try and take his-ass on the lam…

but he’ll fail miserably and wind up in the slam…

thanks to Sam, Sam, the Pastrami Man.

Oh, please don’t tell me that Robert is going to be Tonsils 2 storyline?

Anyone missing a Limo?

Steely is the boss I see of the operation and Goodwin is the main operative I guess!

Apparently they are having trouble getting computer chips for their cars from China because of Covid having an effect on production!!!

A clue… a piston being used as an ashtray. Steelface must be operating an Autozone or Advance Auto Parts store. No wonder I feel like I am getting robbed when I go there !!!

It is not generally a good idea to talk about your illegal business on a cell phone, Steelface. Or on a phone at all.

This guy is living up to his name—Embrace the Steel Motif!!

“Smudges” obviously “5 o’clock shadow”>>what else?

well, it sounds like a crime might finally happen-or it could be he’ll increase advertising to get in more business.

Ahh…so Steelface runs a large-vehicle detailing business. How nice! LOL j/k

There you go. Steelface is definitely still in the “business.” I wonder if nephew knows.

1-STEELY DAN: Goodwin – is Gaspar there?

2-GOODWIN: No. He’s at Gavin’s. Or maybe Griffin’s.

3-STEELY DAN: Ok. Well hurry up with that limo. Vitamin is expecting it today in return for giving my talentless nephew a part in his play. AND he expects it to be pink like the Caddies him and Elvis used to tool around.

GOODWIN: Ugh. Tall order boss…

STEELY: Oh. And it needs to be a convertible.

GOODWIN: I quit.

Cuttin’ out for a weekend fade to kinfolksville, so I’ll catch all you hepcats on the flipside, dig?

Alright Steelface use your head…don’t roll up to the theater to see your nephew in that stretch limo. Nah…he wouldn’t do that because he’d turn from a smooth criminal to a stupid criminal.

Oh heck, opening night they will rip off all the cars of those who attend the play. One of them bet not be the Mayors….MCU is going to get involved. When the Mayor says jump, Chief Patton asks how high? She says stoop he asks how low?

Now we know what he does. Auto theft.

MOVIE QUOTE—

“It is not exactly a house you put on the market”

HALLOWEEN:RESURRECTION—-2002—filmmaker explaining howthey got permission to shoot in THAT house.

Three guesses which stretch limo will be rented by Flintheart Productions,and somebody will recognize“their old car”.or at least the door.

I’m going back to the 1963 Olga/Smallmouth Bass story.

The villains had rigged a stretch limo so carbon monoxide would be pumped into the sealed back seat,effectively and noiselessly killing their victims.

Comments still more interesting than story

“I have an IN at HQ who says he can get me as many squad cars as I want in exchange for ‘snazzy bow ties’. Word is, he’s a real pro at…uh…acquiring’ things.”

Machine oil?

It would be hilarious is the next strip is Steelface at the police auction buying cars.

As expected. Today’s dialogue between “boss” Steelface and chop shop (not strictly a chop shop; more a re-finishing/re-identifying shop) manager Goodwin makes clear what business Steelface is in: stolen cars for sale, in large numbers! And he expects plenty of “production” every day, too….