Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 20, 2023

“Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by not throwing someone else under the bus!”

Guess I was wrong, the Fartman story continues, unfortunately!

How can the MCU have a picture of agent 99?

Was there a contractual obligation to waste a whole week on a repeat miniscule mystery?

Art is a skilled liar but he won’t fool Tracy

Yes!!!! I knew we’d pick up with Art Dekko and hear more of 99!

Well, I don’t know it, but I wanted it and predicted it, and I was right!

I love this story.

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix

Chapter Seven

Tracy jumped to his feet after gathering his wits!

“That explosion came from the back of the theater!” he quickly surmised.

“Everyone leave in an orderly pace!” he shouted out loud to the crowd as they were running panicky to the exits.

“Pop Pop, I can’t find Crystal! She left a few minutes before the explosion!”

Tracy looked down to see Honeymoon with a frightened look on her face.

“Don’t worry Honeymoon, she’s probably already out of the theater. Go outside, I’m sure you’ll find her!”

Tracy waited until Honeymoon got outside before heading back towards the explosion sight. Arriving at the Theaters main office he saw that a small explosive was used to blow open the front door.

“The money!” Tracy blurted out, realizing that the ticket money was being kept inside the office.

“It’s gone, it’s all gone! Some dirty Pig on Wheels took off with my money!”

As Tracy, feeling distraught and angry began hitting the wall he suddenly heard a voice behind him.

“Come with me!”

Turning around he saw it was Bleeder standing in front of him.

“You did this!” Tracy shouted as he started to run towards the bookie.

He stopped in his tracks however, when Bleeder pulled out his gun.

“Come with me”, Bleeder said, “Doctor Fix wants to talk to you!”

To be continued

(and finished)

1:17 est,,, WHERE’S NEIL???

Hooray, we aren’t finished with the last storyline after all! There is still a chance to get some of our unanswered questions answered and loose ends tied up now.

Good morning™, weasely confessors with an angle !

I feel so sorry for the blighter but a call to Mr. Kleen can get him out on bail where he will promptly skip.

Nice that we WILL get story concluded after all. :-)

Good morning™, all!

Sorry I’m late. I had to do some emergency surgery on my mattress.

Anyway, it’s good to see lying Art Dekko back again. Even Tracy doesn’t believe his story that “99” made him do it, but it’s pretty hard to prove one way or the other. He’s blaming “99” for the shooting, but I’m not entirely convinced she was behind it.

I read on the Times web site tonite that researchers recently discovered actual handwritten documents by Leonardo da Vinci documenting his calculations & experiments in the field of gravity centuries ahead of Newton & Einstein. Hmmm… Maybe Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by running just one da Vinci scam at a time.

They have a picture from the Cuban Police Officer since she probably works for Fidel Castro here to take down the American way of Life while living in the Banana Republic of Miami !!!

I find it hard to believe that an Agent for Control would do that!

Art tells a good story. Too bad Tracy’s the one interviewing or he’d have a shot of getting away with it.

If it was an attempt on Art’s life it could help his defense. But, as Tracy pointed out, how can Dekko know it wasn’t Tracy who was the target? (Tracy’s had a lot of guys & gals try and kill him over the decades.) And, as everyone and a dog named Sandy pointed out, where did the picture of 99 come from?

I’ll say it…99 Looks like Lizz in disguise…

Hmm…Deko is stitching a story together that /sounds/ convincing, however…

Poor baby! Not!

Great images , Shelley is back and what a relief this is : ) I wonder what ever happened to that " sexy " " 99 " woman ?

Oh, Oh what a spinner of tales!!!

Good morning, fellow bridge sellers!

It doesn’t look like Tracy is buying Dekko’s sob story (or the bridge for that matter). The only one he hasn’t tried to throw under the bus so far is Sue Reel… so far. Since his M.O. is to point his bony fingers at everyone else, he will probably put it on her tomorrow. Hopefully (for Sue’s sake) she told Tracy the whole story when he visited the shop prior to coming back with Lee to pick them up. I’m glad boboscar and Neil were right and we’re getting some resolution to the story.

Mr. “Never wrong” Neil has convinced me that the picture of agent 99 isn’t on the MCU weird monitor but a flashback picture to help remind us senile readers who she is.

GET THE TAR AND FEATHERS READY,,,

It’s a terrible job by Shelley

It’s very confusing.

Why not do this;

Fartman: "By this 99 woman (see 1/23/23 strip) who forced me,,,

Much cleaner and clearer.

Who…who is his strange Monkey Boy? It’s like I’ve seen him at some distant point in time. He seems vaguely familiar, but I just can’t place him. New Look Sam?

I’m sure that Tracy is thinking “tell me another one Dekko,” while listening to him try to push the blame on everybody else. The old “Some other Dude was to blame” game.

Art Dekko didn’t get where he was by telling the truth.

DEKKO: My lawyer will be asking for a write of habeas corpus – I was waiting in this room for over a week waiting to be interviewed!

here…for any of you who don’t have the link to my Tracy stories…here it is

https://thedicktracycrimestoppers.createaforum.com/general-discussion/trouble-in-paradise-

well, wasn’t I mistaken in thinking this arc was finished and that we would never see 99 again… I was about as wrong as the populace in choosing to move a rump to 1600 a few short years ago… (and that was an analogy, NOT a statement, so chill, lol…)

and I realize that I’ve been harsh in critiquing Mike, but today’s installment has REALLY got me interested in seeing a frantic Art trying to explain about an individual who he honestly can’t even proves exists… it’ll be interesting to see if and how MCU will be able to uncover that there WAS a mystery person involved, much like whether or not there was a second shooter at Dealey Plaza all those years ago… (that was ANOTHER analogy, by by the way, so REMAIN in that chilled state… lol…)

and vengey above is correct… how IS MCU able to have an image of 99?… it CAN’T be that accurate from a descript that Art may have given of her… and we haven’t seen Junior about to sketch up a likeness, so THAT explain won’t wash, along with any ‘off-panel’ nonsense…

but Tracy HAS to realize that with the way Art is so frantic and insistent that he WAS shot at, there MAY be something to to Art’s whining… and even though Art IS manufacturing up a doctored version of the relationship between him and 99, the fact of her existence still remains… and it also shows that Art is still thinking how to somehow worm his way out… so this SHOULD be interesting and I really AM hoping for an intelligent and logical resolution where Mike can redeem himself with a satisfying ending and shut my mouth when it comes to his scriptwork… (see?… no denigrating description of his craftwork, for once… I CAN be and AM a nice guy, really, LOL…) I really DO hope so, as I believe that if Mike can dig in deep and bring back up to the surface what made him great a few years back, then it’s true that lightning CAN strike twice, miracles CAN happen and wishes DO come true…

99 eh. So when did she defect to KAOS?

Chapter 6 of “Trouble In Paradise” is up on my Dick Tracy message board…the link is up above if you’re interested

HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF! I knew Mike was just yanking the chain of us complainers.

1-ART: YOU failed to Serve and Protect! I’m bringing you up on charges, Tracy!

2-DT: OK but I get to go first with mine. Then you can revel in the slap on the wrist I get every day of your 20 to life sentence.

3-ART: You got me wrong, Tracy! I’m not one to revel in the misfortune of others! Why I was distraught when I learned that Kripto had spear-gunned to death Paul, my forge…Ummm. Maybe I’ve said to much? Oh. Wait. 99 told me all that.

Whew! That was close!

OOOOOH! Art Dekko is applying some spin to the situation! I figure he’s going to have to produce some evidence of 99, somehow… or else I don’t think they’re going to believe his fib!

this guy keeps monkeying up the story.

He deserve an Oscar for this.

Boo hoo! Poor little weasel! Surely, Tracy will not fall for that “blame it all on the mysterious 99” crapload!

But this does almost open another arc entirely, the saga of ‘’Agent 99," whom we’ve seen so little of, learned even less of, yet need to bring to Tracyville justice if we are going to get the Dekko case truly resolved! She is the agent of change, as it were, for this whole story, a veritable dea ex machina.

How will Tracy track her down, when even the natural-born liar, Art Dekko, knows so very little about her?

This could be entertaining, or it could be a mess of massive proportions….

Is Art working from a script or is his ’explaining being made up word for word. Probably will be off strip whether what is said here passes muster in court.

Hmm…did Art Dekko get to where he is by not having a lawyer on retainer and a bail bond company on speed dial?

PAH-LEASE Monkey-boy! Such a liar.,.but Art Decko didn’t get where he is by telling the truth! ¯\( ͠° ͟ʖ °͠ )/¯

Art Dekko is back himself,the old liar

And the last thing he stole was the log for their fire

“Nearly” doesn’t count,except in horseshoes.

Not mentioned is if Dekko is on parole,if so he’s probably violated it multiple times.

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix

As they walked out the back exit, Tracy wasn’t worried that Bleeder would shoot him in the back.

“Not his style”, he reasoned to himself.

Tracy had never been able to discover the identity of Doctor Fix, and he was unsure what would come from this encounter. Doctor Fix had the reputation as a ruthless, cold blooded “Fixer” of any sort of problem.

“Why does he want to meet me?”, Tracy pondered.

Bleeder, leading Tracy to a closed bodega motioned for Tracy to enter the store.

“Go inside, I’ll be out here so don’t get any ideas about running out!”

Tracy, complying to Bleeder’s orders walked into the darken store, only to be momentary blinded by a bright light in his face. Then he heard a very familiar voice.

" Hi, Chief detective Tracy!"

Turning around, Tracy’s square jaw almost dropped to the floor when he saw who it was.

“Ugly Crystal, what are you doing here???”

“Making sure that you understand exactly what you’re going to do for us!”

Tracy was stunned! Could this ugly, stupid brat actually be Doctor Fix?

To be continued (and finished -Hallelujah!))

Tracy, feeling his rage coming to the surface, turned towards Crystal.

“Ugly Crystal, I knew you weren’t the innocent, poor little niece of a madman! You’re going to pay for this’!

“Don’t call my uncle Bribery that, he’s a genius and a great man!”

Tracy laughed out loud, “Not so great that he couldn’t get caught by me and sent to jail for a very, very long time!”!

Crystal grinned widely while almost hissing; “Don’t think those four walls are stopping him from ruling this city. He’s still in total control with his wishes being carried out by folk like me, his sweet, shy niece!”

“Don’t you mean a devious niece, better known as Doctor Fix?” Tracy sarcastically said.

Crystal laughed out loud with a surprised look on her face.

“You think I’m Doctor Fix? I underestimated how dumb you are. Of course I’m not Doctor Fix, I’m just a loving niece delivering messages!”

Tracy eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth.

“Well then, if you’re not Doctor Fix then I don’t need to take anymore of this Lady GaGa from you, do I?”

Tracy began to walk towards where a smiling Crystal was standing, but before he finish his second step, Tracy froze upon hearing the sound of a shotgun being cocked.

No, I’m not Doctor Fix, but he is!"

To be Continued

(I know, I’m trying to finish the story but I figure I owe it to my 3 fans not pull a Mike and leave them dangling!(calm down Firebug!))