Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 12, 2023

Good morning™, vicarious tourists!

A deserted beach. All is calm and quiet, but this may be the calm before the storm. Enjoy your swim, Paul. It may be your last.

Nothing bad could possibly happen on a morning like this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX3bN5YeiQs

Good morning™, salubrious swimmers !

Paul’s on top of the world !  He got a free vacation, and doesn’t think it is suspicious after issuing demand for a bigger cut ?  At least he’ll go out happy, if you don’t count the last twenty seconds of sheer panic and terror.

Immigration ships must be patrolling the waters or there would be dozens of illegal aliens flooding the beach !!!

Looks like Paul is going out like Carroll Rosenbloom.

Why if you’re gonna knock somebody off do it so far away?

Wonder how he’ll buy the farm…..?

Jellyfish attack?

SCUBA diver pulling him under and holding him until he drowns?

A boat suddenly appears and runs over him in an “accident”?

Place your bets ladies and gentlemen….place your bets….

There’s a strong undertow in that part of the ocean and Paul will pull far, far away from the shore and possibly under water due to tiredness. It doesn’t that it is actually Kryptonite doing the pulling and not the undertow. :)

Cue Baywatch music-Oops, uhmm. Sorry.

Look out for the sharks, Paul!

Can we que the theme music from “JAWS” please!

Gotta admire the art though. Brilliant……

I see a bad guy in scuba gear in Poor Paul’s future…

Meanwhile, off-panel, Art Dekko’s hit man is zipping on his Acme Shark Suit…

He’s forgetting the “Buddy” rule…

Cue “Chariots of Fire”!

Paul’s identity will be stolen and end up being used by at least 50 illegal aliens. This is Florida you know. Kriptonite the hit man will be exhausted chasing down all the fake Pauls and Paul will lose all his money to the fraud being committed using his name !!!

Let’s see… Our man Kryptonite (there has been more than one spelling) appears to offer an employment service – matching hit men with prospective clients. Does he have a shark on his payroll? Is that why he suggested Dekko send Paul to Panama City?

Paul should have become suspicious when Dekko gave him that bottle of Chum™ Tanning Lotion.

Picture 3 does not look correct. There are no hay bales of drugs, raw sewage, or medical waste floating by Paul. And where are the illegal aliens trying to swim to shore ?

Bye, Paul.

How does Paul keep such perfect skin at his age?

How is he able to stay in such perfect shape at his age??

How does he have so much stamina at his age???

Why, he might live to be 100!!!

Do you mind if I take just one more look? (“A Star is Born,” 1937)

Cue the “Jaws” soundtrack~~~

cue the dark ambient music with discordant overtones which, although broadly tonal, is inflected with chromatic and polytonal passages to utter sound in tremulous tones.

The suspense is killing him!!!!

Nice art work……..

MOVIE QUOTE— “Oh,Richard,we’re spies!”

Joan Crawford—ABOVE SUSPICION—1943

Looks like a storm rolling in.

Cue the Jaws theme.

It’s been hinted Dekko’s hired killer specializes in poison,sothis is apparently an “accidental drowning”,and if nobodydoes an autopsy it might stay that way.

Recall 1976’s Pucker Puss story,where the violent end came on a Florida beach rather than “Tracy’s city”.

No witnesses. I can hear Chopin’s Funeral March play.

Cue the Jaws…wait. Has anyone already posted that? No? THEME!

1-DARN IT! Nobody’s here to admire how lifting 5 Gallon buckets of Latex paint have toned and shaped my bod! I’m glad I didn’t waste time squeezing into my Speedo…

2-I think I’ll go for a jog on the beach before swim… OOPS! WRONG DIRECTION!

3-Art wanted me to confirm that we live on a Flat Earth by swimming out to where the water drops over the edge. It doesn’t look that far off. It’s the least I can do for him seeing as how he paid for this vaca. STROKE. STROKE. STROKE!

Cue the suspenseful music!!

Beach all to yourself = no witnesses

Say goodbye to Paul, everyone.

nothing ominous here, move along!

Coming up: the long-awaited Dick Tracy/Sherman’s Lagoon crossover

What if this is the beach that makes you old?

While Paul is in the water,somebody steals his lunch

CUE the “Jaws” theme!

Time for a nice morning swim, in the warm waters of coastal Florida.

But wait! The scene in panel 3 seems palpably, ominously darkening. A foreshadowing of Paul Chandler’s fate?

(Otherwise, there is not much happening in today’s ’toon.)

Really nice looking water in P3.