Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 14, 2024

Just routine. Another day. Deposits to be made

When a rumpus did ensue. The guards quickly waylaid.

“Put all cash into the bags!” The big boy he did shout

Brandished weapons they would use. Of this there was no doubt.

Racing heart did skip a beat. May have been three or four

Fast as they came they disappeared. Vamoosed out the door.

Thought about that movie where there was an inside man

Did not feel like one of those. Thieves stole and then they ran.

well, THIS will really go good for the Croptop gang… the only thing they’re wearing to disguise themselves is the kerciefs covering half their faces, while everything else (tattoos, distinguishing marks, general body features and characteristics) are exposed for cameras to record…

yeah, this’ll go good for ’em, no doubt about it…

that was called ‘sarcasm’…

Old lady in Panel 4: “Listen here young woman, I’ll empty my drawers when I get in the restroom, thank you very much.”

Well drawn snapshots, but comes across like hollow, boring excitement. No lasting effect. So far, the story is pretty standard.

Between the story and the Sunday boretry, not a good day.

Sorry, but like a Firestrike fart, it is what it is.

Chucky, not for nothing, but from one artist to another, you COULD have put a little bit more effort in drawing the Benjamin’s.

¯\(ツ)/¯

Good morning™, Successful Getaways !

Tracy wanted to know about Floof Top…  Well there you go !  The startled elderly customer lady in P.1. is just too much ! :-D LOL !  The ground-up view of the car speeding uphill adds a nice depth of drama.

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, this is step one, but I think it’s only a means to an end, not an end in itself. Croptop needed the cash to buy that book, for whatever reason.

A bit of artistic license is used to get the ideas across to the reader. Yeah, their disguises are not very extensive, but we readers have to be able to recognize them. I notice that Croptop’s eyeshadow is much more muted and neutral here than it was through the week.

More artistic license: is there a bank anywhere that leaves loose bundles of $100 bills sitting out in the open in the vault? I rather doubt that, but it does get the idea across for us readers.

Unless CropTop hired another member at the local sleazydive crooks employment agency off camera, she didn’t have a get away driver, you know, somebody to keep the get away car running while they were robbing the bank to ensure a fast get away, like actual bank robbers. Throw in their complete lack of disguises (shout out to Firestrike) & you can understand why CropTop’s a complete loser when she doesn’t have BlowTop around.

I get a kick out of that old bag’s reaction to being held up in panel two…

Hall of Fame: The woman actually had lost the bottom of her bathing suit just before getting into the current that she couldn’t seems to struggle out of, making the situation embarrassing as well as potentially dangerous. Story here: tinyurl .com /2ud62tbp

It’s nice to see Canadian stories in this feature, as well as ones from all over the world.

the shoutout has been duly noted…

A mask won’t be enough if you wear your habitual, striking outfit…

I would have thought that hiding your faces with stockings would have been more appropriate these days. Or even masks. If you are going to do it old style with kerchiefs, at least wear hats as in the old west right up to ’50’s gangster movies. Or is this just a slip up that will identify Croptop?

Still loving the artwork though……..

Hmm…obviously they did not factor in a silent alarm being set off. It would be a clever idea for them to slow their roll. Why arouse suspicion of police officers? No, scratch that! City will have overhead cameras at traffic lights.

Me wonders how many hours of Woody Allen’s " Take the money and run" did they watch.

And just wait until they try and count the fake bundle of cash with the exploding dye capsule in it.

What this the wild west? You always seen around with that particular hairstyle and dressing and only face mask? Tsk. Tsk. And bank got no armed guard too?

Hmmm… I’ve questioned Croptop’s business model: Walk into a random bar and ask, “Who wants to help me rob a bank?” and taking on the two guys who say, “Sure,” and “Okay, I didn’t have plans for tomorrow.” (And they are expected to furnish their own weapons and steal a getaway car.)

And I wondered what kind of henchmen she could recruit that way.

And then I asked myself. If you’re sitting in a bar and some biker-looking chick strolls in and asks, “Who wants to help me rob a bank?” shouldn’t you ask her what her qualifications are planning a heist? And, if her answer is, “I just got out of prison for a really clumsy bank robbery,” is that really the résumé you want for the brains of the outfit?

And now we know what kind of henchmen you can recruit with her question.

Maybe Flattop had an ancestor called Treetop. So the apple doesn’t fall too far from the Treetop.

In my bank, the bulletproof glass in front of the teller does not have such a huge opening, but instead a sliding tray to pass documents or currency.

“Shame! Come back, Shame!”

Great images today , but I do miss Shelley : ( What did happen to her anyway ?

I’m always amazed at how easy it is to find parking near the door at a busy bank

An old school bank robbery, a classic that never goes out of style and knowing when to run away, very clever of her!

Oh, yeah, wearing your everyday clothes and driving your own car when you rob a bank…. brilliant….

…..tsk tsk……so 1940’s-1950’s T.V. YAAAAWWWWWNNNNNNNNN……….Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…….

1-CRAPPIE TOP: EMPTY YOUR DRAWERS INTO OUR BAGS! OLD WOMAN: GLADLY! You hooligans just caused me to soil them! I was about to anyway to be honest…

2-BOWLING LEAGUE: Put this over your head! My disguise isn’t so good and I don’t want you to see me. Plus – you ugly.

3-OBVI INFORMANT: HERE! I’ll get the door with this power door button…hmmm. Must be broken. I’ll inform the local ADA Chapter later…

4-CRAPPIE TOP: LET’S GUN IT! OBVI: Uh, do you mean shoot or run?

5-CRAPPIE TOP: Wait? Where’s Bowling? OBVI: Oh. He got locked in the safe by accident. CRAPPIE: He’d better remember my rule: If caught – Death Before Dishonor!

OBVI: Yeah – neither one of us knew what you meant by that…

I don’t keep money in my drawers; that’s what pockets are for. Lady has some weird ideas. I blame those creepy pouched underwear commercials.

Action , short realistic dialogue and great art . If this was a comic book I’d put my money on the counter .

If someone charges in waving a gun around, they aren’t going to like what I empty out of my drawers

I loved the story about the policeman saving the woman! So lucky he didn’t get swept away himself. Bravo, hero!

Croptop and the rest of the Jones family of bank robbers apparently haven’t kept up with technology. No need for high spped puruit of bak robbers. At least one packet of bills from the teller stations has a chip embedded in it. The cops just use a scanner to track it.

I would think that a member of the notorious “Top” family, would wear something that covered her head… Plus, not wear the same identifying outfit she wears the rest of the time.

A reporter called Phil Harris “Blowtop” on Phil’s (rerun) radio show last night.

Okay, we have a few plot holes, but otherwise, we are getting a classic Tracy story with some great artwork. This is the best we’ve had in a while (maybe since the Aquarius arc?). Enjoy it while it lasts.

Hopefully she goes after the KarTRASHians next but their butts would fill up the whole panel !!!

Who still Robs banks in 2024?

I especially like the artwork in the last panel, from that low perspective.

Those kind of masks come in handy if you develop hay fever during the robbery….