Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 22, 2023

Things ain’t pretty in Panama City. Paul laid out on ice

Good times so dear until a spear assured he’d pay the price

For forgery and larceny designed to bring phat loot

Paul felt he was living large ‘til sharp harpoon did shoot.

Sudden death. A dying breath and then swept out to sea

Physician was his finest work. High times were not to be.

Just a floater spied by a boater, soon washed up on the beach

The artist dude became fish food, the payoff out of reach.

Good morning™, everyone!

Dekko left on his errand to Paul’s place just in time to avoid Tracy’s questioning him. If Dekko is smart, he’ll check Paul’s place for any evidence before Tracy gets there.

Kryptonite (finally spelled properly) told Art that Paul (with a harpoon through his heart) was no longer a problem, but problems like that tend to resurface when you least expect them to.

Hall of Fame

I would imagine that similar situations happen fairly often. Here is the full story, but the panel in today’s Tracy strip covers it pretty well:

https://www.masslive.com/springfield/2022/01/massachusetts-state-trooper-pulls-over-speeding-vehicle-going-over-100-mph-to-find-mother-in-labor-about-to-have-baby.html

Around year, we have been having a lot of ambulance shortages. I’m not sure how widespread that problem is. I’m sure that the pandemic didn’t help.

Interesting plot movement and development!

Too much information to process!!

Excitement level on overload!!!

Anticipation on high alert!!!!

NEVER MIND!!!!!

Have she and Tracy never met?

instant recognition there on Sue’s part… and damms, Onebrow is history, Dick made a return to town in record time and we see a harpoon protruding from Paul’s body in shadow… NOW Sue’s gonna get the entire skinny on Paul from Dick and her ‘stache is gonna do curls when Art’s agenda is laid out before her…

My guess is Sue Reel will throw Art Dekko under the bus when Tracy tells her what happened to Paul Chandler.

Tracy always knows how to make an entrance!

Can Dick Tracy solve the mystery of the mustache ? He does have DNA testing in the police lab.

Tell her Paul Chandler is dead and see her reaction. She will talk to save her own skin … or mustache !!!

Good morning™, to those about to go stoolie !

Now, what inconsequential possibly foreshadowing event will be cut in for tomorrow ?

“You just missed him, Mr. Tracy.”

Love the last 2 panels!

Sorry, Mr Dekko has stepped away to see an old friend—and I’m sure he’ll be telling Sue stories when he gets back to the shop—thus cutting his own throat.

cue the dark ambient music with discordant overtones which, although broadly tonal, is inflected with chromatic and polytonal passages

Shelleys image stoday are just SUPER ! GREAT ! as usual .

Think how hot Sue would be if her mustache were blonde. That way it wouldn’t look like runaway nostril hair.

If they can color Dekko’s cigarette they can color Sue’s Snidely Whiplash.

Great portrait of Tracy in the last panel!

Does it bother anyone else that Art Decco not only addresses everyone by their full first and last name, but also thinks of them that way? He never thinks just “Sue” or just “Paul” or “the artist”, it’s always their full name.

…cue in opening chords of DRAGNET theme.

The last panel has an excellent image of DickTracy!

MIGHT want to put a comma in before his name. Or is he calling HER Dick Tracy? Which would still benefit by punctuation.

Art, you should have gone over to Paul’s place the moment you hired Kryptonite to eliminate him. I see the coffee drinking is going to start up again. Make sure you go to an actual coffee shop.

Tomorrow I’ll find out if Sue Reel is like a broken refrigerator…she can’t keep nothing. Art probably kept her in the dark about the hit on Paul.

I hope Kryptonite got his money in advance, the person who made a contract with him is about to be arrested.

1-ART: I’m going to the shoe store. These bedroom slippers aren’t cutting it.

2-… _I love these slippers! No way I’d replace them. Sue is such a dolt. I also love this car which shows movies on the windshield! Fun AND safe. Oooh! Thunderball is on!_

3-SUE: Hmmm. A message from Massa Card. Art apparently reported the card he used to pay for Paul’s vacation as stolen – RIGHT AFTER he booked the room! HA HA! Paul will think that trick is hilarious!

4-…What choo want – we got everything legal and otherwise…oops.

5-DT: The name’s Tracy. Dick Tracy. And you’re in violation of Tracyville’s Blue Laws which make it illegal to be open on Sunday. Better lock up. You’re going to be away for quite a while.

SUE: WAIT! I WAS JUST GOING TO CHURCH. I JUST STOPPED IN TO GET SOME MONEY FOR THE COLLECTION PLATE! DT: Tell it to the Judge, sister. Tomorrow. He’s not working today of course.

Where’s my poetry muse? I need his inspiration!

Tracy’s HOF:

I just love happy endings!

Just saying something off the top of my tin foil hat, but…you never see MonkeyBoy and Sam at the same time…

Sleazy schemer Dekko bamboozles gullible Sue Reel (get that girl an electric razor, while there’s still time!) and gets to have a couple of cups of joe in the process.

And then SuperCop in silhouette strides into Movie Memories. Sue Reel reels. Great Tracy headshot in the last panel, and his remarks recall for me the late Rowdy Roddy Piper’s famed line from They Live: “I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.”

Tracy found out and he is going to pressure Dekko. Lean on him some.