Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 24, 2023

Good morning™, everyone!

“The new deal”? Does Franklin D. Roosevelt know about this?

Anyway, she knows about Kryptonite! Maybe he is her boyfriend, as Gweedo joked(?) yesterday. Anyway, Art Dekko’s life is spared because she needs him to go through with the auction so she can get her cut.

Really excellent visuals today, aside from the extra-short doorway.

it’s not Lizz… MCU is not aware of Krip the Hit’s involvement…

“Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by not knowing a hitman. Kryptonite can take care of this.”

“I’ll have to call Kryptonite.”

“Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by not . . . er . . . something something.”

Good morning™, grabbed by the short hairs !

…And boy does that hurt !  Arty will still get a good chunka change so it behooves him to go along to get along. I bet her connection with Krypto is ju-u-u-st a little bit stronger that Arty’s … sucker !

Does 99 always change glasses to say goodbye???

I guess 99 isn’t Lizz working underthecovers like Lee!

Looks like a game of Monkey In The Middle with Dekko caught between Agent 99 and Dick Tracy !!!

Not for the first time, I’ve seen this Art Dekko (whom I’m going to refer to from here on as Art cuz character limit) story being compared to the first Art story and found wanting. The problem I have with that is that a story that finished is being compared to a story that hasn’t finished yet. The first Art story lasted 5 months, 6 days while this tale started on November 27, so hasn’t yet lasted 2 whole months. I’m going to summarize what happened in that first Art tale within its first 2 months, and since it started on 1/6/80, the 2/29 strip seems a good place to cut off to match the under 2 months this tale is going.

Dick’s called in for an art theft at the museum of a Cezanne and meets Johnny Adonis, an art theft specialist. At the same time, Art is selling the Cezanne to Diet. At Dick’s urging, the museum publicizes the theft. Diet sees the newstory and realizes he’s being sold the theft. He contacts Dick who advises him to go thru with the sale so they can nail Art. At the same time Sue Reel’s Apparatus connection warns her & Art of Diet’s ties to Dick. Art backs out of the sale, claiming the Cezanne has already been sold. Dick & Sam confront Art, but he just denies the sold Cezanne was the stolen one. Johnny informs the MCU of Art’s prior as an LA drug dealer, and how his last partner Candy Noze suspiciously ODed as the LAPD were closing in on them. They decide to set a trap for Art by having Lizz disguised with some help from Wendy Whichel and Sparkle Plenty as a famous reclusive heiress. Art learns of some Picassos being exhibited and Sue realizes he’s planning to steal them. He reads Whichel’s column on the heiress (secretly Lizz) and makes contact.

And that’s all that happened within the first 2 months of Art’s first story, ending at 2/29.

tbc

Even though yesterday I suspected Lizz, I had a feeling that it wasn’t because of the old “Confession by coercion” especially by gun point is illegal in a court of law.

Art backs up out the apartment, where is his coat and hat? Oh the rain must have slacked off and the temperature rose up to the mid 60’s.

“This is all hearsay”. Hmm…didn’t the “hearsay” about the existence of a Da Vinci get into the newspaper? Art’s attempt bluff Agent 99 had the texture of Swiss cheese.

Looks like his plans were similar to those cartoons where the dollar bills grow wings and fly away.

“I found a lot on you in this apartment. And, fortunately for me, we’re in a city where the police don’t check out the apartments of known art forgers who die under mysterious & violent circumstances & already have a clue linking the murdered art forger to a known dealer in fake art like you at the same time a major new art work by da Vinci has mysteriously surfaced!”

Have a nuce day you too art connoisseurs! Art Dekko may claim to having been framed ;)

A nice day i mean

Maybe it’s Lizz’s long lost identical twin sister?

Who IS this lady really?!

Last panel is cool with Dekko’s image reflected in her glasses!

Shelley , you are just super the way these images are depicted today . The " hooded " fox is even more " sexy " today . Whew ! These are just super images . : )

Yesterday made no sense. Today’s makes less. Although I was correct that Dekko had a good reason to go to the apartment to attempt to remove any possible evidence of Paul’s art or his connection with Dekko.

It still makes no sense that Dekko wouldn’t know if Paul had an agent, or for an artist’s agent to start looting his apartment for blackmail material two minutes after learning his death. And her threatening to hire the K (in any of the three spellings of his name which have been used)? How would she know what hitman to call, knowing Dekko would recognize the threat?

A theory I’ve pooh-poohed, she’s the girlfriend/sister/favorite auntie of K could explain her presence… If K demanded a detailed reason for Dekko wanting the hit. And K told her, and she went looking for the evidence. This is entirely outside the Professional Hit Men’s Association code of ethics, and adds another level of clunky to a plot that was already doomed to failure 5 seconds after any expert looked at the fake da Vinci.

That’s a weird gun.

what the hell is with that gun? the top of the cylinder doesn’t line up with the barrel.

Terrible gun drawing.

“Hearsay”?

What difference does that make? Are we in a court-room? Is there a jury? Am I a judge? Do I have a gun?

Half. Be glad I’m not telling you ALL.

“By the way, that frilly underwear on the bed is just NOT yout best look.”

She’s not Lizz, but looks exactly like her? Why would they do that?

Today is Gweedo’s birthday.

Happy Birthday to Gweedo.

Happy Birthday, Gweedo!

Going to be hard shooting that gun. The cylinder with the bullets is below, and not lined up with the gun barrel.

What goes around comes around!

MOVIE QUOTE

“Man,you coulda taken a fair share like the rest of us!”

But no!—-You had to go and grab up the whole scene,baby!"

Dick Shawn—IT’S A MAD,MAD,MAD,MAD WORLD—1963

There’s too many vertical lines in panel 2.. I just can’t stand it!

In addition to this,remember w ho’s waiting for Art back at the shop!!

He might want to climb the Tribune Tower and yell “Good bye,Cruel World!”

I’d cry for him except I don’t I don’t have any onions handy.

Also love panel 3.Being blackmailed is bad enough,but when you don’t know WHO’S blackmailing you…..

Hey Gweeds – Do NOT make the mistake of taking a swig of ’shine before blowing out your candles this year! You insurance company added that to the list of “Uncovered Fire Origins” – remember?

1-99 BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL: You gotta ask yourself – would this gun even work with the cylinder below the barrel? Well, would it, PUNK? ART: Probably not but I don’t feel lucky.

2-99: Good answer. So we’re agreed. You pay my boyfriend, uh, I MEAN KRIPTO out of your share and I GET PAUL’S SHARE!

3-ART: Fine! You got me over a barrel – that doesn’t line up with the cylinder. Let’s celebrate this arrangement with me giving you an all expenses paid vacation in Panama City!

99: Really? I didn’t know you’d be so cool with this! ART: Heh heh. I’ll give Kripke a call the second I’m outta here! Another problem solved by my geniusness!

SAM or LIZ or LEE or DT OFF PANEL: Excuse me – I’m investigating a murder. You’ll have to leave. ART & 99: Ok. ZOOOOM!

https://youtu.be/VxbuisNLkL8

Happy birthday Gweedo!

https://hillbillygoats.com.au/home

That revolver, as drawn, would not work, barrel does not align with cylinder.

Why is he worried? That gun barrel doesn’t line up with the cylinder. It’s not going to fire.

cmerb, the Shelley fan club president is ignoring the gun today! LOL!

Ooooh she’s slick!

To celebrate Gweedo’s birthday (and happy birthday), GoComics has finally corrected the mistake made nearly a week ago (so it looks like it really was just a mistake) of reposting the 1/16 strip on 1/18 and posted the correct 1/18 strip. See it here:

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2023/01/18

Art Dekko goes into a seafood restaurant and says to t he waiter—“Do you serve shrimps here?”

The waiter says—“We serve anyone,Sir,please be seated”.

It was nice of her to wish him a nice day. It least she wasn’t rude about it.

Oooh! Isn’t this new icy babe a treat! She’s holding all the cards, it seems, as well as that improbable gun, against Dekko the gecko, regardless of whether she really is/was the murdered forger’s agent or not. And she knows about Kryptonite, somehow. It’s almost enough to make one feel some sympathy for Not-So-Smart Art (but not quite). She has the dope on Dekko’s scheme thanks to what she found in Chandler’s apartment, and she wants half the take. Kinda hard for Dekko to argue with her, at this point anyhow. Carry on, bad boys and girls!

The art work today (except for the revolver with cylinder and barrel unaligned) is excellent. Moody (panel 1), inventive (panel 3, with Art reflected in both lenses of her glasses), and wonderfully disturbing in panel 2, with its homage to German Expressionist film’s distorted and psychologically-twisting odd perspectives (it is this acute from-the-ground view that makes the doorway look short—it’s not—and lets the Ice Queen loom large over puny, deflated Art)….

Looking closely at the 1/24 strip. I now believe the artist was trying to show Art Dickwaddle had stepped further into the room. Has to be hard to 3-D a comic strip.