Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 23, 2023

When an owl and chicken are the best things you got going for you in a comic strip, you’ve got problems!

Hi Ho the Cherry-O! See theft in broad daylight

A common game is stolen. Things are just not right.

The distraction an attraction to give the villain time

To grab the print. Soon moolah spent. Audacious game faire crime.

Left in its place a true disgrace, a message from the thief

Taunts the law who never saw the one who’s causing grief.

Look to see B.O. Plenty intruding on the scene

Declares he must see Tracy. What can this visit mean?

See she smolders like the sun. Tresses long and gold

Whom might she be? A plea to see this stranger tall and bold.

Lizz is definitely looking better today!

Well done Shelley!

Little good did the expert opinion do them, as GameBoy has rudimentary diversion skills. Enough to flummox the MCU anyway.

Name something today’s strip gave us to advance the (alleged) story?

Good morning™, everyone!

The “Hi Ho! Cherry-O” theft is strange. It’s worth maybe $15, but it seems to have covered up the theft of the Little Orphan Annie map. I can’t believe they staked out the Toy Faire and he still got away with that map.

Anyway, there’s no time to investigate now, because B.O. Plenty and his chicken are faster than Tracy.

Desperate for

Words galore

To tell a tale of woe

Train ahead

Derailed instead

No where left to go

Glories of past

Never seem to last

End time comes to all

Quit the game

Before so lame

Beat them to the call

Tracy wanted to have it known that he’s out to lunch, as to avoid running into BO, but now that BO has made his way into Tracy’s presence, Dick has seen him and has LOST his appetite…

or his proverbial lunch…

It’s Plenty who’s “out to lunch”…

Good morning™, failed stakeouts !

P. 3. Tracy looks like he got a “whiff” of something. Is that, post lunch, Sam standing just off camera ?

That Gameguy’s got boo-alls.

Hello, unexpected visitors!

AGAIN, we’re skipping time and another robbery. What happened to the stakeout?! Are we, the readers of this strip forbidden to ever see any action in these stories. This is another buildup with supposed “experts” providing theories as to what Gameboy is going to target next and we don’t even see one cop in the “flashback” panel, just some dude with a yellow security t-shirt on! Besides seeing two Pawn Stars people who’s appearances were pointless considering we saw no part of the stakeout, how was their presence relevant at all to this story? WAS there even a stakeout? It’s no surprise this nut has successfully robbed so many places; the police appear to be treating this case as an afterthought. Mike just keeps leaving craters of missing scenes and information in these stories and I’m seriously losing interest in reading this strip anymore.

So, even though the police were presumably on stake-out, & the convention site presumably had its own security, Gameboy was able to get in, walk around with his highly identifiable mask, grab two items, & get away clean back to his parent’s basement. You know it’s a messed up day in TracyLand when a B.,O, Plenty appearance is the most sensible thing in a strip.

Tracy’s expression fourth panel, not eager to meet with B.O. Plenty, Hello Mr. Macy!

I trust that B.O. was not allowed to bring his chicken into police headquarters. Nah… Chick Tracy II would not pass the “service animal” smell test.

“Hi Mr. Macy”…after all these years he still can’t get Tracy’s name right. In the words of Jed Clampett…“pitiful”. Just pitiful".

What is in Gameboy’s future? Steal the chicken?

Mr Macy should mace Mr Plenty !!!

Looks like they had the right venue, but the wrong crime. New theory, Gameboy is really Red Herring…the REAL crime is still upcoming

Gameboy’s post-crime messages aren’t very witty or clever. He’s certainly no Riddler…. or Cluemaster even!

Why isn’t the chicken Chick Macy II?

“Who’s A Little Chatterbox ?” Is that a reference to the 1970’s era cinema classic Chatterbox ? Obscure references seem to be the thing here so I’m guessing yes. If that is indeed so then I know why Lizz has the mini-skirt on today.

The shading in the cartoon are excellent….story not so much!

with Walter being included in this arc and speaking of the commercials with members of the animal kingdom as spokesanimals yesterday, the owl from America’s Best Contacts and EyeGlasses comes to mind, along with Nigel, the Xyzal owl… granted, not insurance spokesowls, but they only came to mind because of Walter… I can imagine Walt having the attitude of the EyeGlass owl…

B.O. Plenty heard from Chick Tracy II that Gameboy plans to steal this game next:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0f/9c/0b/0f9c0b8f1509430e2e48865a31a2ee99.jpg

Apparent.y Tracy is terribly incompetent at protecting something he KNOWS will be a target of robbery. Time to retire, man.

Thankfully, we were spared any lengthy time spent at the toy convention and instead just got the short version told to us by Lizz (who does look better today). Was she the MCU rep on the stakeout who failed big-time to prevent the theft of the Simmons Corners map?

Tracy (antepenultimate panel) clearly does not want to have to interact with B.O. Plenty, but—too late the “out to lunch” ploy (as Lizz notes)—, because B.O. has already spotted Macy. Who is the blonde? Of the several suggestions made above by the Commentariat, I tend to favor the theory that she is an agent representing Plenty and Chick Tracy II.

I guess we are making some progress in the story, although painfully slowly….

Multiple stakeouts at the convention and Gameboy STILL pulls it off?Somebody’s asleep and it isn’t me