Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 09, 2024

I JUST noticed something in panel two of yesterday’s installment…

Annie sure has very masculine and un-feminine hands for a female adolescent…

man hands…

so Annie’s parents are undercover(?) Feds?…

so Annie is really born Annie Gray…

Is Mike recycling the Peter Parker’s parents storyline?

Good morning™, Leapin’ Reveals !

Good job, stuffin’ the kid back in, lady. Looks like ‘Chuckers’ had a massive yellow ink spill.

Good morning™, all!

Yes, Annie parents were the cartoonist who created her and his wife — or at least characters with their names. I suppose that’s fair.

I see that Winifred was pregnant at the time of this picture, as she was meant to be when we saw her before the opening intro.

Well, yes, the FBI did exist back when Annie debuted, but they didn’t hire female agents back then. But I nitpick…

Shouldn’t have or would have the photo been better in Black and white?

Harold Gray! Where have we heard that name before? Just kidding.!

I am so glad Winifred Frost did not give Harold Gray the cold shoulder!

The photo must be a prequel to the one we saw earlier!

“Golly….I’ve got their eyes!”

Common knowledge holds true in this case. Little Orphan Annie is the child of Harold Gray.

Wow!!

Whatever happened to Little Annie Fannie, the ripoff featured in Playboy Magazine ?

Well Harold Gray WAS her creator….

Just as Mike made Tracy’s father, Chester Tracy after Gould, he has now named Annie’s folks Harold and Winifred Gray. So, in Tracytown, are all cartoon characters’s parents named after the original creators?

And, why are they all so pure and wholesome in a LOA universe where rarely anyone was pure and wholesome (except Annie)? Why these two could likely attend a toenail-clipping slumber party and blend right in without anyone noticing. (Once they got to Honeymoon’s bedroom, though, they’d be undercover).

Doesn’t this big (non-)reveal also sort of mess up the plot of the musical where Annie is searching for her parents and gets conned by Miss Hannigan and Hannigan’s brother, Rooster, who, along with Rooster’s girlfriend impersonate Annie’s unknown parents? If I was 95-year-old Charles Strouse, 85-year-old Martin Charnin, or 88-year-old Thomas Meehan (all distinguished Broadway writers who wrote the musical), I might be a little miffed at someone messing with the theme for what became one of my biggest successes.

Not all mysteries need to be solved.

Annie has one more thing in common with Peter “Spider-Man” Parker. They’re both orphans, and their parents were revealed decades after their first appearances to actually have been secret agents.

Our story so far:

In the final story of 2023, we find Art Dekko selling forged nostalgic memorabilia at the FurryCon. (we also have a crossover by Mumbles who claims to be a Furry). A lot of time was spent in this story on the sexual relationship between Lee and Blaze Rize.

The Art Dekko story was interrupted near the end by a weirdly drawn Minit Mystery with a thinly written nostalgia plot based loosely on the death of George Reeves who played Superman (Reed and Ultraman in this version). Tracy took in a suspect on suspicion of murder. Although we don’t see the trial, Tracy tells us that she received life in prison.

In the Nero Wolfe Crossover next, who the bad guys were was never discovered by Tracy or Wolfe. Flattop and Blowtop both got away completely unseen by Tracy.

Gameboy followed with his love for stealing old gameers memorabilia. In a silly move in the Gameboy story, B.O. Plenty’s chicken (not any of the police “experts”) diffused the bomb and Gameboy was easily apprehended without incident.

Next, a ridiculous Fearless Fosdick crossover re-run framed as Tracy’s dream (Rip van Winkle slept for 20 years. Thankfully, Tracy only slept for 2 weeks.). Several cartoon character crossovers. Total absurdity.

And while today’s strip doesn’t have enough shock value to rival that provided by shuffling feet across a carpet, tomorrow’s definitely will when it’s revealed that they – NOT THE ROSENBERGS – gave the Russians atomic bomb secrets! Hidden in a SUCRET tin box (original green flavor) because they thought it was humorous.

Oh. Also, they’re alive and well living in Russia.

1-BOB SMITH, ESQ: Here’s part of your inheritance – a photo…

2-…I should also mention that your parents, THE GRAY’S wrote the esteemed medical book, GRAY’S ANATOMY, and have earned multiple millions from its use in med schools ever since. PLUS they’re the Creators and Producers of the TV Show of the same name. As their lawyer, I’m authorized to offer you TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS IF you’ll sign this No Contact Agreement.

WARBUX: DO IT, ANNIE! THAT WAS A LOT OF MONEY IN 1929!!!

Back in the days when J. Edgar Hoover required FBI agents to be an attorney, an accountant, or a cartoonist…

(Kidding aside, I believe they actually did have to be either an attorney or an accountant.)

Historic moment in Cartoon History! 100 years of anticipation over!

… and all we can talk about is the Man Hands :(

Looks like having no pupils is hereditary . . .

I guess blunk-out eyes is a dominant genetic trait in that family.

My eyes could not be rolling further in my head over today’s ending.

Could be worst. Mike could have made Annie’s parents Scully & Mulder.

Well, she’s got her mother’s eyes, and the milkman’s hair

Is that an actual drawing of a Harold Gray (annie’s creator) photo?

Shades of Peter Parker! Nit Pick: The Bureau of Investigation only became the FBI in 1935, eleven years after Little Orphan Annie. But Harold Grey working for J. Edgar Hoover would work.

This is an important moment for Annie. I wonder if she will follow theit footsprint and work for the F.B.I. in future.

Wait a doggone cotton-picking minute! Annie’s parents were FBI agents. Her father’s name happened to be Harold Gray? And the artist who drew Annie in the comic strips was Harold Gray. Talk about coincidences.

“Agents” but not “Special Agents”?Does that mean they were paid informants rather than investigators?As a furriner I always wondered why the FBI only have “special” agents.

Looks like Winifred has “one (presumably Annie) in the oven!” That would be cool to have a photo of oneself when they were but a protuberant mound of flesh! My mom never thought to have one of those taken~~~

Harold Gray was such a miserable old grump in real life It’s a mystery he found somebody who WOULD marry him.

This is the guy who said “Sweetness and light, who needs it? Murder,arson,and rape—that’s what the world is made of”.

Harold Gray, creator of the comic, is Annie’s biological father?!?!?!Interesting parallel with Marvel’s Spider-Man — Peter Parker’s parents were intelligence agents.