Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 01, 2022

“When Sam called his old buddies, they laughed at him. But I promised not to tell anyone that.”

“Slippery.”✨

Good morning™, everyone!

Apparently, Tracy has been working on a “rash of car thefts” all this time without our knowledge. I think it would have been better to introduce us to that line of enquiry before now.

If I understand Tracy correctly, it would seem that Sam hasn’t been able to learn anything useful from his former colleagues in Boston.

Good morning™, wild goose chasers !

Steely must be howling with the laughing. To add more insult to insult Tracy’s car should be on the menu for a good working over.

Tracy and co. getting nowhere fast…

Could it be that the item Steelface got was Sam’s OLD two-way wrist radio?

It would explain why no one seems aware Steelface can monitor their radio frequencies.

“Nothing new to add” sums up today’s strip as well as anything.

Why would a high level police organization be wasting time on a car theft ring ?

i used a scanner to monitor police calls all the time, but now they went digital so scanners no longer work!

“All right, Bones, in the language of the planet, what’s your beef?”“Well, I don’t know how serious this is, but in all the confusion, I think I left my communicator behind.”

See how easy it is, Sam?

They have to know that Sam’s wrist TV was in the car when it was stolen (stupid to leave it in the car, Sam), so why don’t they realize that Steelface has it?

TRACY:“Rash, Chief? How about calamine?”

CHIEF: “Pay attention, Tracy! I expect THAT kind of hoo-hah from Sam. The only time he pays attention in major case briefs is when the puts what Whoopie Cushion on the Assistant Mayor’s chair. And the I can barely be heard over his chortling!”

1-CHIEF: So did ye raid the house of that gobshite neighbor of mine, boyo?

2-DT: Yes Chief. And…

3-…we found the pound of coke right where you told us he was hiding it. And we shot first and asked questions later even though there wasn’t anybody alive to answer them. The Department of Public Works should have that eyesore bulldozed by tomorrow.

CHIEF: Good job, laddie. Better than airy fence would’ve worked.

DT: I hate to report though – there’s a pound of coke missing from the evidence room.

CHIEF: Don’t ye be losing no sleep over that, boyo. Now get over to my neighborhood and tell Mrs. Johnson to trim those bushes!

DT: That sounds kind of personal, Chief. CHIEF: IN HER GARDEN!

MOVIE QUOTE

“Can you spare a coin for a moral cretin?”

Peter Lorre—TALES OF TERROR—1962

Nobody’s noticed that’s Dick himself in t he background of Panel 3(check the silhouette).

Obvious next step—plant a “bait car” with a tracer in it and wait for nature to take its course.Standard police procedure.

You know, if Sam had put a password screen on his wrist radio…

One would think that long before Tracy briefed Pat on the car theft ring, Sam would’ve noticed that he didn’t have his wrist genie, that he left it in his stolen car, and, that’s why Steelface’s crews are s step ahead of them.

Wait, Sam, and now Tracy know Robert is on call for Steelface. Shouldn’t they be looking into that?

Sooooo….No mention that his Partner’s car was stolen or that Police Equipment, the two way wrist radio, was in it?

HOLY COVER-UP, BATMAN!!!

Yo, Chief Patton! Tracy is a Plugger™. Let him keep up the pressure on the chop shop operation and in due course he and the MCU will bust “Steelface”! Sam may even redeem his careless loss of a Wrist Radio (that is giving the auto thieves such valuable anti-cop intel) by getting something of value from his old Boston contacts. —At least for much-criticized-here Sam’s sake, I hope so….

Is Chief Patton saying this because he is concerned that his car will be next?