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

a veritable Tracy Travelogue…

Ray should be able to identify panels two and three…

looks like the Doctor’s TARDIS in panel one…

Good morning™, guys!

I think that the “mad colorist” has done a good job of enhancing the art in the last two panels. It gets across the idea of neglect and deterioration.

Sounds like San Francisco

The “death” of a nation.

Good morning™, Run Down Towns !

Does face lifting a run down district deter bad people hanging there ?  This run down theater could be where story stuff starts ?

Abner?

So this takes place in Gotham City?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

This is almost as boring as the Jim Douglas bio I just read!

I could use a jug of Gweedo’s moonshine right now!

Welcome to another exciting episode of “Dick Tracy: Building Code Inspector!” Tonite: Tracy takes on archenemy Rooftop Jones & The Slumlords Mob!

Where is this going? … Phantom of the Opera?

The Phaaaaaaaaaantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind!

When they house criminals, that’s when I go to work… I wear a yellow coat.

Looks like Baltimore!!! And it’s even worse today !!!

Time for urban renewal! Sad but in most cases they tear down beauty and replace it with the mundane !

Looks like “The Shades” on a bad day. Any walls with burnt on silhouettes?

( A reference to a scene in Terry Pratchett’s Book “Guards! Guards!” )

(First of his I ever read. Brilliant).

Building a crumbling story eh.

It looks like Vitamin Flintheart’s theater needs a little TLC.

Looks like the sort of place Abner would hang out

Day Three: Still with no logic holes. Beautiful old building in Albany NY falling to pieces. It was put on list of historic architecture years ago, and can’t be renovated in any way that would detract from original architectural details. But no one can afford to re-create the original architectural details & it is useless unless it is adapted for some other use. Meanwhile, an old vaudeville theater got renovated prior to the rush to declare old buildings examples of historic architecture and is still used. Some attempts at preservation speed decay.

Enough with the guided tour. Let’s have a storyline we can gripe about already.

Is Abner or his equally eerie sister about to appear for Halloween?

…and the travelogue continues, b’gosh!!

I don’t know if this needs the score from cats or phantom of the opersa

Many of the grand old theatres have been renovated in recent years: Chicago Theatre (opened 1921, restored 1986), Auditorium Theatre (opened 1889, restored 1967), Oriental Theatre [renamed Nederlander in 2018] (opened 1926, restored 1998), and the Cadillac Palace Theatre, (opened 1926, restored 1999). Alas, the Uptown Theatre remains shuttered (opened 1925, closed 1981, restoration halted due to covid in 2021).

In NYC, the United Palace is one of the old incredibly gorgeous theaters. It was Reverend Ike’s old church. Can’t stand the man, but one good thing he did was say, “Don’t tear that down, I want it for my church.” Well, he’s dead, and the theater is a theater again. I saw “When Harry Met Sally” there recently, followed up by a live interview with Billy Crystal.

There’s also the Leow’s in Jersey City. Gorgeous. It’s run by a non-profit, so it’s CHEAP. Movies are $7, popcorn is $5. They have an old Wurlitzer organ that rises from the floor, with somebody playing it during silent movie revivals. Currently closed for renovation, it will be back next year.

Wasn’t a ruined theater a temporary refuge for Flattop JR?

And the stage is set, if you will…

Shooting years into the future. Enter Lil’ Abner Cadaver! Heavens to Harvey!

I guess that sad commentary is true. That there are a few “movie palaces” that have fallen from their glory, to the dustbin of history.

Eric should stick to waxing his mustache instead of waxing nostalgic about whatever he’s on about here…

The story line nightmarish vistas…………

MOVIE QUOTE

WE’RE THE HOUSE DETECTIVES

AND WE’RE PUZZLED WITH

THE FACT THAT NO ONE STOPS HERE

UNLESS THEIR NAME IS SMITH !

“Honeymoon Hotel”—-FOOTLIGHT PARADE—1933

I’m patiently waiting for the rendering of socialites and streetwalkers…

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

Dick Tracy has spent a lot of this week getting into the architectural history of Neo-Chicago and the state of local landmarked buildings. On the surface, this sounds like the sort of thing that I personally would be into, but it’s actually left me pretty cold. Maybe I’d feel differently if it were about public transit or something, but for now, I say: let’s wrap it up and bring on the officer-involved shootings!

My immediate thought was Flattop Jr. hiding in the abandoned theatre—with a Wondercar and millions of rats.Sic the little snot,ya rats.

The “teen genius” slowly descended into insanity—“Swarms of the black demons…waiting for me to fall asleep…drop my guard…relax…”

1-: _Sam, full of pastrami, lies his head on the deli counter and dreams of the tenement where his family was forced to live as poor immigrants from Lithuania…

2-: …Until that magic day when his huge hootered sister became the star of the Burlesque House Theater!

3-: Alas, the BHT’s fall into disrepair mirrored Sam’s sister’s sagging “popularity”. It was at that very moment that Sam caught the attention of a young beat cop destined for greatness…

DT: WAKE UP, SAM! HOW DID YOU NOT KNOW YOU WERE AT YOU’RE FAVORITE DELI ALL THIS TIME?!? LOST??? YOU LOST YOUR MIND IS THE ONLY “LOST” YOU WERE. C’mon. Something odd is about to happen and we need to get ready for it. SAM: Oh yeah? What?

DT: I dunno. Something. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not… Probably not…

I’ve occasionally joked and/or wondered if Diet Smith should be so darned lively after having a heart transplant.I just read that the great baseball star Rod Carew had a heart transplant in December 2016 and he’s doing fine. So I guess Diet gets a pass.

Best PERRY MASON TV title I’ve heard yet—“The Case of The Witless Witness”

Fire is speculating a return of Fata and Rikki.

Maybe we have a Vitamin arc where he’s plagued by a new baddie: The Fandom of of the Opera. Guaranteed to make us all cringe.

Costello seems to like jerking the audience around. No comments on this travelogue would be most appropriate. Maybe he’d decide to start a story. On the other hand, once he starts, he never knows when to stop.

It would seem that Tracy’s next opponent is the Phantom of the Opera.

That Nitrate brother/sister team also has a habit of hiding out in abandoned theatres

Up next, the incredibly ornate outhouse of B.O. Plenty

Perhaps “palaces of dreams”?

Louisville lost one of their very old Catholic cathedrals last week or two due to homeless people setting up camp there after the church had moved out and sold to an out-of-state owner who was likely hoping for that to happen so they’d get free or discounted demolition as they didn’t have anyone there checking for homeless or even boarding up access points leaving that to the city.