Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 29, 2023

Good morning™, everyone!

He might have been able to deal with Tracy in one direction, but he can’t really look ahead and behind at the same time, so it’s very handy that Archie happened to be in the bank at the time of the robbery (attempt).

“Forget it Flattop. Nobody shoots Tracy but me!”

“I will put you so full of holes that the fat man will use you as a Swiss cheese slice on his sandwich.”

in order for this arc to work, Flattop and Blowtop HAVE to escape somehow and thereby leave Dick with no idea as to their existence, setting up each brother’s first encounter with Dick in their future… if they are both apprehended here by Arch and Dick, then their actual first confrontations with Dick will have been completely FUBAR and Mike will have done it yet again, only WORSE, because if this IS the way that it plays out with the Top brothers captured, then Mike will have put the FUBAR on Gould’s established canon for Dick…

Both In terms of coherent narrative structure & implications for the Tracy canon this storyline is a complete & total mess. But today’s strip, standing alone by itself, is a classic of action narrative in the comic strip medium, a perfect union of writing & artwork, literally suitable for framing. So I have to say Mike & Shelley really outdid themselves today. Great work.

Retcon day 1?

I STILL swear he looks like James Stewart!

If I remember correctly, Archie’s usual gun is described as a “Marley 38” though he does have others available, but I’ve not been able to find a photograph online so I don’t know if this is it, or if it even existed as a real gun. Do we have any gun nuts who might know? He doesn’t usually carry a gun unless he’s on a murder case, but I guess an out of town kidnapping would be enough to justify it.

That parted his hair!

Good thing his head is flat, the bullet like crobnison said above just parted his hair!

I wonder if Flattop drives a car with a flat head engine?! EX: Ford V-8 up until 1954!

Wolfe was notorious for not taking cases when offered, so clearly Archie is in the bank, wanting to make a little (okay, hefty) withdrawal to cover his salary. And the crooks had the TEMERITY to muscle in. Not to mention beer is costly and Wolfe drinks a lot. Huuuuge mistake!

RADIO ANNOUNCER: Just in the nick of time! Come back next week for another thrilling episode of “Archie Goodwin, Private Eye”.

So the situation is that Tracy was coming to pick up Archie and Archie by chance was staying in a room across from the bank. It stands to reason that Archie saw the heist going down from his room and went over to thwart it. If the Tops are not to be caught in this story, then perhaps he inadvertently facilitated their getaway and simultaneously saved Tracy’s life.

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On another note… we have some ACTION!

Also nice look in FT’s eyes in P2 and the steely face of Archie in P3. Great art as usual!

Does Flat Top’s hair have a new part?

Seems like a major turn of events!

An esoteric note here. The floor the colorist made a very light gray in the first panel looks like Shelley may have been going for terrazzo. Both terrazzo and linoleum seem like likely candidates for flooring and the obvious lines make me think the former (though the lines also gives a visual depth to the floor). Little known is that while modern terrazzo was developed in the 19th century, ancient terrazzo has been found in ruins as far back as 8000-9000 BC. I work in a niche industry where our waste can be used for terrazzo – hence my interest in it as a sustainable flooring.

While I appreciate the “action”, are we to believe that Archie saw the bank being held up, took the time to get to the street and casually walked into the bank during the course of the holdup without being noticed? Oh well. I was watching an episode of Poker Face on Peacock where the heroine was saved from a solid frameup in the last couple of minutes of the show by a bad guy deciding to confess to the murder. And some screenwriter got paid big bucks for that sweatbox ending. So, write away Mike!

Did an employee set off the alarm? Has Goodwin been at this bank before? How would he know about a rear entrance?

1-FLAT BOTTOMED BOAT: Look at that simpleton, Tracy – just WAITING for my slug to take him…

2-BLAM! FLAT: Hey! Who farted? You’re gonna give away my element of surprise here!

3-ARCHIE PELAGO: Stop or I’ll shoot. Again. I mean I’ll shoot again… ED: I’m hit! I think I’m hit. Maybe not. Lemme check. I’ll get back to you…

So that’s what a Marley looks like! (Or is that a Grisson?)

It’s a bank robbery. Where’s Blackjack when you need him??

To DMITRIO—-

Bart Bush entry today—-I believe he was in the “Xylon Retcon” story by Collins—-Flattop had taken out contract on FBI man Jim Trailer and Tracy rescued him in a shoot out.

Again,it wasn’t Machine Gun Eddie’s time.

MOVIE QUOTE

“We open tonight and he’s got lumbago!”

Ned Sparks—GOLD DIGGERS OF 1933

Archie inside the bank,Tracy outside the bank checking on the getaway car.If anybody escapes,it’ll be on foot.

You’ll notice Flattop gave the loot to Eddie,NOT his brother.The bet is still on.

Pretty Boy Floyd(FLATTOP inspiration) gets all the ink.Nobody remembers Wilbur Underhill.

I never noticed this before, but if you put a pencil-thin mustache on Flattop, he’d look an awful lot like Gomez Addams.

I have to wonder why Flattop bothers with the bandana. His head’s so distinctive that the police will be able to identify him from eyewitness descriptions even with it.

Better surrender,Flattop.That’s Frank Smullins.

Archie’s trusty Marley revoler: top of the line in fictional weaponry.

How did Archie Goodwin get from that upstairs room across the corner into the bank, so fast and without being seen by Ed or the Jones Boys?!

Maybe that’s why it’s called a “mystery story”!

Archie crouches behind a counter in the bank and fires his big revolver (not named here, though some Comments refer to the fictional “Marley .38” mentioned in some Wolfe stories; alternately, one could think of the big Webley .455, popular with the UK armed forces and oft seen in British film and TV: https://tinyurl.com/dfrenymy

This startles Flattop and throws him off-stride in his mission to whack Tracy….

You were saying, wise guy?