Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 03, 2023

“This seems like a six-day tale to me.”

It sort of baffles me that you would write a Nero Wolfe without actually using any of the elements from the stories. This is the first day we’ve even seen him and Archie interact.

Oh No!!! Are we getting a recap within a recap???

Will the agony of this terrible story effort ever end?

(Hopefully this comment will stay until big brother wakes up!)

just over a month-long waste of time and of our patience… and what was the fooking point of it all?… to kill time til Easter rolled around?… speaking of Easter, Mike laid an egg with this one… AGAIN… so make like an eggroll and roll this egg on outta here…

Tracy’s hand looks very tiny. It’s not drawn well. (Apologies extended to all the Shelley groupies out there!)

I actually liked this story despite all the comments claiming otherwise …. Just saying.

Once again Neil is late with the patent greeting and that means me having to do some legwork. ;-p

Good morning™, raconteurs !

Regale us oh humongous one. I can’t find the word for Tracy’s P.2. expression but Shelley done it real good.

Good morning™, everyone! (Sorry, Gweedo, I was distracted.)

No conclusions yet from me, aside from what I said yesterday. It seems we have a few days of wrap-up to go. Only one note from today: the kidnappers were extraordinarily inept to have left Wolfe with a potential weapon like they did. If not for that, the outcome would certainly have been different.

I guess Tracy has nothing better to do, like lead the search for the gang that shot up a city street after robbing a bank, or leading a raid on the building where Wolfe was held, assuming the great detective Nero Wolfe remembered to mark the address after his escape before heading for the nearest flower stall.

Wolfe insists he will NEVER discuss a case over dinner, but perhaps relating his own story doesn’t fall into that category since he doesn’t need to do any heavy thinking for it. (He has bent this rule once or twice, such as in “Before I die” where he extracts a major clue from a dinner guest).

Will Dick Tracy make an escape from paying the dinner bill ? Will this meal bankrupt the department if not the whole city ?

The kidnappers were inept… and tasty !!! May they rest in peace and in Nero’s stomach.

Now we will know how he escaped!

He knifed the one guy in the house, took his gun and shot the others as they came back?

“And, as this is just between us guys, there’ll be no charges related to the hideously whittled henchman. Right? I understand the jail’s chipped beef on jerky is simply abominable. Pfui!”"

naturally

Wolfe must be desperately hungry. Eating a meal NOT prepared by Fritz Brenner, or, at Rusterman’s restaurant, back in NYC. And, he’s breaking another of his rules; talking “business” while eating. Famously Wolfe will conduct discussions while eating about any, all subjects, EXCEPT for whatever case he may be working on.

Check please .

Tracy saying…”honor us by telling us how??” Why is it an honor!

His kidnappers were so inept that they didn’t actually have a plan worth writing a story about as to why they had captured him in the first place. Epistemological realism aside (Nero doesn’t know what their purpose was that we can find out from him), they lack teleology (they apparently had no purpose that would interest readers).

Speaking of epistemology, how does Tracy know about Zeck’s activities enough to tell Sam? Is there going to be some future reminiscing worth telling to explain that?

Did anyone notice that Nero was drawn properly holding a knife and fork like the Royals and all upper crust folk of means are taught? Personally, I rarely have need of such utensils but I do hold out my pinkie fingers while grasping my fast food samitch.

Anyway – well done Shelly! It’s the little things that make you great! Oh. And your talent in general I suppose…

If criminals were smart, police work would be much harder!

Not exactly humble, is he?

Wolfe gets a steak. Tracy gets a plate of mashed potatoes.

MOVIE QUOTE—-“I’m trying to decide whether to put a Black Widow spider in his pajamas or cyanide lumps in his mashed potatoes”

Donald Cook—THE SPANISH CAPE MYSTERY—1935

I thought Nero was a beer drinker.

Okay,it’s all over.Tracy never brags,but he’s tolerant of honest people who do.

Mike had a limited “window” to write in,but all the bad guys got delayed justice in t he end.

They DID get Zeck in the end,didn’t they?

A kidnapee who saves themselves while the hero is still trying to find them – This is delightfully “novel”!

If Nero Wolfe never felt he was in danger, what made him take off like he did? Were some orchids at risk? What we had here was not a mystery…the whole thing was a “twistery”. Excuse me while I go look for a chiropractor.

Well,you were yelling for Flattop and now that you got him y ou’re still complaining??

What else could Mike do? Dr.Zy Ghote is still"Lost In Space";and Dr.Freezdrei and his reanimation clinic isblown to Kingdom Come.

1-STARCHIE YERSHORTS: White wine with steak??? WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU, BOSS?!?NERO?: Ummm…ermmm…what…nothing. They didn’t replace me with a look alike. Why would you even suggest such a thing? DT: You goin’ to finish that?

2-NERO?: It just so happens that those chaps exposed me to all manner of dining experiences that I would never have considered on my own. My eyes have been opened my dear Archie! Take this glass of Chateau Benzine ‘59 from the Petrol Region of France for instance. It will help digest that Rubbermaid cut of beef in no time. Expensive wines and meats are nothing more than a form of snobbery! In fact – remind me to fire that overpaid waste of space – Fritz – when we return! All I need from now on is 20 minutes, a skillet and a burner on high!

DT: Maybe he didn’t hear me… YOU GOIN’ TO… NERO?: YES!

He was smarter than his captors. Archie didn’t want to take any chances and the kidnappers still need to captured.

So…thought I was working from 2pm to 10pm today, looked at the calendar at around 9am to discover that I was scheduled for 11am to 7:30pm…I ended up leaving work almost 20 minutes early (7:14 I punched out) due to the fact that around 6pm or so I had RIDICULOUS and INTENSE pain on my left side, lower abdomen and felt lightheaded, dizzy and exceptionally warm…it slowed me down tremendously and had a hard time standing up…had to lean on the register counter for support

No idea what was wrong, but I think it could have been the remainder of the stones began moving..I was THISCLOSE to taking a percocet…which I havent taken since 2007…but sitting st home, reclined on the chaise lounge..I feel better..wickedly tired, but better…probably gonna go to sleep shortly tho

Wolfe feasts at one of Tracyville’s world-class Downtown restaurants, with Archie and Dick Tracy sharing his table. Archie Goodwin “strokes” his Boss, and Tracy almost obsequiously draws Nero into explaining his escape from inept kidnappers.

This will no doubt take up much if not all of this week’s daily comic allotment….

I’ve enjoyed this arc.

Somehow, “my kidnappers where inept” doesn’t seem right. It is too mild and too polite.

Perhaps “idiots” would work. But…

Since we are talking about Zeck here, Wolfe was almost certainly allowed to escape. Further, Wolfe knows this. But telling Archie and Tracy would just confuse the issues.