Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 07, 2023

Garage long needed sorting out. Smith blames procrastination

Not his pack-rat tendencies or project hesitation.

At last he waded in amongst papers, junk, and trash

Piled to the ceiling, he feared that all would crash

Down upon his fragile head. He sorted, tossed, and gazed

Came across some photographs, which left old Smith amazed.

The likeness so uncanny, it cannot be denied

Separated long ago. Smith hung his head and cried

To think that “orphan” Annie might regain what was long lost

After so much time and tide, incalculable cost.

Warbucks has been a loving ward, Punjab and Asp agree

This scene does whet the appetite. Next year do look to see

The Search for Annie’s Parents. Rich lore and history

Gather at this very space to catch a mystery.

Good morning™, everyone!

The garage man finally has a name, at least, although “Robert Smith” sounds a little generic. As we expected, this whole mystery has to do with Annie’s parents. I don’t know if this a good idea or bad idea, but we’ll have to wait till next year to find out, so I’m thinking that it will be in the summer.

Next year? So soon?

If the strip spends much more time and attention on that clucking chicken, will any papers still be carrying it next year?

Bernadette Peters and Tim Curry..?

What’s next!? News about Bruce Wayne’s parents?

Now will we interrupt this interruption with another irrelevant Nero Wolfe story?

Good morning™, menacing figures !

Man !  If I saw something at my door that looked like P.1, that door would slam shut so hard the walls would just about fall down. If Bob had some bear mace, and the sense to realize imminent danger, that stuff would fill a panel with a dense fog.

Who Didn’t see this, “a-coming around the mountain?”

A truly Ho Hum reveal.

The Only silver lining would be if Dr. Smith made his reappearance due to the pressure we put on Mike.

I doubt it.

Bet you a 20 piece chicken nuggets chick Tracy shows up tomorrow

So Mike’s got a year to get the story right? – Sorry but someone had to do it.

It appears that Annie’s parents be dead, otherwise she wouldn’t be an orphan. Therefore, the present tense in the last panel suggests that the pictures be before they had died.

So, close to a year or so after Robert Smith’s initial appearance, we finally learn (after several hints) that he has information regarding the identity of Annie’s parents … & learn that this “adventure” will be continued … next year. This is the storytelling equivalent of watching grass grow … paint dry … glaciers melt…

Huh, he doesn’t look a thing like the lead singer/frontman for The Cure.

Hope there’s a DNA testing site near Oliver Warbucks’ home.

Preview of coming attractions!

“…some correspondences from long ago…” How long ago? Annie isn’t that old in the strip. Or maybe we’ll discover they both died in World War I. (As we learned Peter Parker’s parents died in World War II.)

6 months to bring saucer eyes back, then “wait til next year”…. obviously Mike thinks we care about this enough to be excited…

IF we’re lucky, by then Mike would have been replaced by someone who has a well thought out, plotted, LINEAR idea of what to do in an ongoing comic strip that’s entertaining and they’ll completely abandon the whole “annie connection” and steer well clear of and self satisfying meaningless crossovers

Shelleys images today are just Super Great , BIG time : )

I’m sorry, but if Mike’s goal is to irritate his loyal fan base, then he’s succeeding. A teaser for a story still a year away should come between story arcs, not smack in the middle of a police stakeout/chase scene in the current arc. Six Sunday panels could have been used to help us grasp who’s who and what’s going on in the current story.

Tomorrow, tomorrow, it’s always tomorrow…We still have a Gameboy today….(I’ll stop singing now)

Oh, is Warbucks dead again? What is it this time? Secret Mission? Tax reasons? Just doesn’t like the current President? We all know that while Warbucks might die, he never actually STAYS dead for very long.

It’s Orphan Annie time,

It’s Orphan Anne time,

Bob Smith and Aspie too,

Will give us all a clue!

(Hopefully before the entire Peanut Gallery graduates from college….)

NEXT YEAR??? It’s kinda cruel to say such an interesting thing 7 months in advance.

Oliver Warbuck’s Estate? What, is Daddy Warbucks dead again? That fellow died and came back to life more often than Little Orphan Annie got lost, which was nearly every month.

What the hell is going on with this strip?

Here’s the story on Haley Magee: https://www.seacoastonline.com/story/news/local/2022/06/23/hampton-nh-officer-honored-saving-woman-burning-car/7683369001/

If Smith is going to refer to Annie Warbucks as “Orphan Annie”, shouldn’t he be talking to the fourth wall, since he’s using that term for the benefit of the audience? LOL

Next year! Now Mike is just trolling us!

:)

What’s the story with this Mike Curtis ?

Hmmmm…Robert Smith….of The Cure? (hell, I balked at throwing this in for, like, several seconds before just saying what the hell………)

asp? snake eyes? is this a trend or just a coincidence?

Next year? In tis strip?

First appearances of Robert “Garage Guy” Smith:

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2022/06/13

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2022/06/14

Waiting for the “Pogo” and “Li’l Abner” tie-ins.

The Asp? Not Mr. Asp? I don’t trust him.

Oh! This is pretty interesting. Crossover for a comic strip that concluded? I like it!!!

Okay , I get it now. I must confess , that as a newcomer to Mike Curtis’ wacky universe of Dick Tracy and his obsession with crossovers , I was caught with my pants down. I expected something different. I expected the Dick Tracy of yore. That Dick Tracy died with Chester Gould. I understand the lay of the land now. It’s like the Heroes Reborn debacle. If I offended any long time Mike Curtis fans I apologize. We all like what we like and I ain’t going away. I will learn to like it but I will still groan inwardly when something goofy transpires from the pen of Mike Curtis. Let the games begin.

What would Harold Gray, the one who drew Annie until his passing in 1968, think of this?

what the HELL does this have to do with Dick Tracy???

How come Asp gets to keep his eyeballs?

Next year actually kinda makes sense .. considering that the Little Orphan Annie comic strip began in 1924.

The 100th anniversary of the first LOA strip’s publication will be on Monday, August 5, 2024.

Is that Asp SMILING on middle row, second panel? That’s rarely done by him, unless he’s talking to Annie…

You’ve GOT to be joking…

You mean I have a shot at seeing who Annie’s parents are before I die?

I am always happy to see The Asp, one of my favorite characters from the glory days of comics. But I think Shelley’s talent actually works against her here, as, IMO, she has made Asp’s face too expressive, whereas Harold Gray always (and to my imagination, correctly) drew him as an inscrutable poker-face.

And for all his breathless fans, Garage Guy makes his return (if only fleetingly) and acquires a name, Robert Smith (if you can believe that’s a “real” name and not an alias). But I am a bit confused as to the “current” state of Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks: The Asp says he represents the estate, as if Daddy were dead, while Bob Smith* says Warbucks told him to expect a Visitor, as if Daddy lives.

And Smith believes he has evidence for Little Orphan Annie’s true (birth-)parents?! And the story is set of NEXT YEAR?! This is our Sunday episode in the slow-churning Gameboy arc?! Give me a break.

*Bob Smith: Trivia from my distant past—my first appearance on radio was when I was a kid and we lived for a couple of years in Texas, on the morning (Drive Time, though in those days and in that relatively small town it wasn’t called that) show, on a LBJ-owned station, with a host known as “BS-ing Bob Smith.” —Not the same guy, I’m pretty sure….

Dissatisfaction number 1: So many of these Dick Tracy story arcs are so short and go by so fast and not memorably. This is one where I wish the monopoly game element hadn’t occurred now, and like real life Tracy’s work on this is interrupted by some other set of crimes that need to be investigated.

Observation #1: Race (and current issues) are so fraught now-a-days. Would we see High-top doing a crime today? Could Curtis and the rest put an immigration crime, such as a semi loaded with illegals and several of them dead, in front of Tracy? – No wonder Team Tracy brought back the Lunarians, to serve as a stand-in for matters of hate and discrimination.

At least the Playboy version of Little Annie Fannie didn’t show up and get arrested !

Dissatisfied another one. I have liked some of the Annie or Warbucks are involved here arcs, such as resolving Annie’s disappearance (end of that strip), and the immortality arc. And a nice ‘Christmas Egg’ referring to an element of Leonard Starr’s ‘Annie’. But unsatisfying is the contrast between Mr. Am in ‘Annie’ and ‘here’. In ‘Annie’ I had the sense that Mr. Am might be God, and shows up when he chooses, has no definite place or earthly job. ‘Here’ he is a high-end hotel owner. (Side note: Not long ago gocomics reran a story arc of ‘Annie’ I hadn’t seen before, where Annie was currently the guest of Mr. Was. How does that guy fit in?)

Next year????

The Asp has pupils in his eyes, but Robert doesn’t. Was that how the Asp was normally portrayed?

Okay,stop criticizing Garage Man.Looks like he’s got dangerous friends in high places.

NEXT YEAR???Some of us old geezers might not BE here next year!!Firestrike especially.

*1-GARAGE MAN: I’ll be durned – a traveling preacher! I shore could use some redemption…

2- …Come on in, Reverend Stranger! DUMBASP: I guess this guy doesn’t watch the news…

3-GARAGE MAN: I suspect you’re here for my nudie picture collection, Reverend. I knowed they was sinful but they’re just so hard to part with – even if they don’t get my Willy’s attention so much anymore.

4-DUMBASP: WHOA BABY! Hang on. These people look familiar.

5-GARAGE MAN: I doubt it. No one’s ever seen LITTLE ORPHAN ANNIE’S PARENTS but me. Ya know, I bet she’d like to see these here pictures of her folks…well, NOT THAT ONE! Her mama was nasty!