Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 23, 2024

Good morning™, everyone!

Two suppositions confirmed today:

1. He was indeed the CEO. I thought his office looked too big for anyone else.

2. That was a suicide note, in case there was any doubt.

What was in the suicide note envelope is a surprise to me.

Good morning™, Big Disclosures !

The cat’s outa the bag. Gordie’s been a B-a-a-a-a-a-d boy.

Chuck’s still finding Tracy’s look. I like the looking up view. Nice official looking document in P.3.

The story continues!

Chucky, Tracy is looking a tad peacock-ish today! LOL!

Don’t get me wrong, it’s all cool.

Oh, oh, someone regarding a loan he made drove the guy to snuff himself.

Making bad loans may not look great on a bank vp’s record but they’re not crimes, at least as far as I know.Maybe the loans were tied to the criminal activity that the bank president went to jail for (usually it’s the other way around with white collar crime, the guys at the top get off while the assistants below them end up taking the rap). Eric Costello has been doling out the info one fact at a time, we’ll see where this goes. A2 1/2 stars.

This look like a job for… The Loan Ranger!

Just gimme a loan and then leaves me alone. That what me always say.

Some of the loan sharks are pretty bad, the only difference between tham and Jesse James is the mask!

A surprising element in a lot of late 19th / early 20th century mysteries is the detective letting the guilty party know they have been identified and leaving, so that the killer can “do the honourable thing” i.e. blow his brains out with a pistol. I said honourable because it was especially true in English mysteries, but could also be found in American, French, Austrian, etc.

Blackmailers, of course, were scum. So, was Pierce being blackmailed – or had a late 19th century detective uncovered his sins and was allowing him the gentleman’s way out?

(Always wondered why suicide was the honorable way. I think public hangings were over by then. Was just being taken to court where everyone got to hear your sins and crimes exposed to the world that much of a disgrace? Was this just a literary device ‘cause the writer wanted to wrap up loose ends and didn’t know how to write a trial? When did you just hire a shyster lawyer and hope to get acquitted rather than reaching for the pistol? And why did the killer in the old mysteries not try to shoot the detective – who was often the only one who knew?)

Now in her 4th day, Detective (?) Misty Fying is obviously more than just a walk-on, so when is Eric gonna give us some scrap of info on her already?

Supposin’ Blackmail is a Major Crime. I just hope the villain isn’t some permutation of Milverton.

S&L crisis/failures started in the 80s.

1-DT: This is the church…ummm…here’s the steeple… How’s the next part go?

2-BRENDA: Pay attention! This Post-It Note says I gotta show this to you…

3-…Gordo was AVP at OC S&L BEFORE he became CEO at BC! DT: Are you trying to recite the alphabet? I remember it as being longer. And B-4? There’s no numbers in the alphabet silly girl! OH! Open the doors and there’s the people! I remembered!

BANCORP H.R. PERSON: So, there’s a gap in your resume for several years in the 1980’s. What were you doing during that time frame?

GORDO: Uhhh, I was on a journey to find myself? No wait. I was in a coma having suffered a head injury saving a busload of children from a psychotic criminal. Yeah! I was a hero! That’s the ticket!

Note the line in panel 3 that says “$100,00.00” instead of “$100,000.00”. This brings a couple of possibilities to mind. The most likely is that this is just the GoComics letterer making a mistake. However, human or computer error on the part of Old Court S&L is also possible. Since this happened the early 1980’s, it’s unclear how much the S&L was relying on computers back then.

BRENDA: I’ve found what troubled Gordo to the point of suicide. His MOTHER made clear her disappointment in him being only a lowly AVP at the Savings And Loan by writing Tsk Tsk Tsk on this loan paper. Then she died before he became President of Bancorp. OBVIOUSLY he wanted to get to the afterlife to rub it in her face!

DT: Makes sense – but who cares? NEXT!

Yes, they do make white post-it notes (as in panel 2), but they don’t stand out on top of white paper :)

On the surface it looks like Gordon Pierce is a blackmailer. Time for a background check on his finances and his associates.

“I’ve been t ortured enough., I’ve lived a life of fear and Hell for years and I’m through with it!”

DUBBS—-1931