Here’s a little tip in case you ever need to execute three people at once:
Don’t have them lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, and don’t hold your gun five inches from your first victim’s face; before you’re even done squeezing off the first shot, the other two will be wrestling the gun out of your hands.
I kinda suspected. When Mr. Pops fired his gun, the trapeze artist fell. Too much coincidence there. If somebody else had fired, the possibility of getting two shots fired simultaniously would rate right up there with winning the Megamillions and getting a date with this month’s Playmate at the same time. A second gunshot would have been noticed.
A man goes into witness protection and takes one of the single most visible jobs in the world, while the people that wanted him dead take up other jobs in the circus in order to kill him. Instead of doing it quickly, the criminals decide to wait, warn him, and then kill one of their own during a performance, an act bound to bring in the authorities. When it does, they instead assume the ringmaster called the cops in and threaten him a second time.
Meanwhile, Tracy begins looking into the case, fails to have the clown’s gun checked in spite of it being discharged right after a murder, and then randomly announces he has a plan to flush out the bad guy… Only for the bad guy to instead flush himself out without any effort at all on Tracy’s part.
At the same time, Tracy calls in paramedics and backup, while Ennen arrives ALONE… And all the backup and medics and THOUSANDS OF WITNESSES all vanish without a trace.
My god. AMATEURS would be emarrassed by this nonsense.
CyberV - I have to agree. If you would put all this together(the start of the Circus) in a short film, it would be like Laurel and Hardy - just a lot of silly things happening to 2 stupid guys.
Beyond incomprehensibly stupid. The one person holding a gun in public is never searched, nor his “fake gun by Tracy. That same clown makes an impossible shot without aiming his prop gun at anything and kills a moving target in front of hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. 2 threatening notes are produced, and Tracy NEVER asks where they were found, how they were delivered, etc. The sloppy writing never makes it clear if the performers are all in the ring at the same time or entering & leaving at random. Days ago they were all talking to Tracy, now everyone has conveniently vanished except for Tracy, Ringo, & Enen. Apparently, the showgirl riding the backed up elephant has finally left. A glove has now appeared on the clown’s hand, as we were told it would. None of this makes a bit of sense.
Cyber V
Has done an excellent job of summerizing what has appeared to happen. Which is quite a feat considering the amount of inaction.
We’re into TWO weeks of “EXPLANATION” time now, to hear what happened ! And will have to wait till that’s over for the next movement forward. Mr Pops the Clown, the head honcho, didn’t do the shooting and as we’ve already heard Louise T was one of the bad guys. Further, it seems they were all in the Cicus before Ringo.
Everything that’s revealed shortly makes the whole plot look more and more like SILLY SEASON.
In the meantime, take a peek at an “idea” that was never formally published - - BATMAN meets DICK TRACY which appeared on the D.T. Yahoo board.
Sydney, that DT/Batman strip certainly is well-drawn, and really is something to see. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that even in that strip, Detective Tracy is still incompetent, opening fire on Batman just because he looks like he might be a criminal, allowing a murderer to get away, engaging in police brutality…
He may be nicely illustrated, but he’s still the DT we know and love!
So for 3 days the pistol was held in his bare hand - today he’s wearing gloves. I think I’ve finally discovered the artist’s true intention - DT is meant to be a Spot The Differences comic.
And here we I thought is was just lousy workmanship and no attention to detail…
Ok, this story would make a stone cry with despair! The artwork is boring and simplistic. We’ve had talking head panels for MONTHS with no witty dialog, pointlessly detailed tigers, no scenarios at all, copy-paste panels and a boring pointless story. This pains me to say, as I grew up with Dick Locher’s artwork in Dick Tracy - but the strip MUST really change creators! This thing is PUTRID!
Brian Michael Bendis’ POWERS has police work, lots of “talking heads” but an incredibly amusing story that goes somewhere.
I think I’d rather see the strip ended than endure this mediocrity. However, I am forced to see it every day - it is like watching a train wreck. Now I understand most of the comments on this board - it is hard to find something nice to be said about the strip (and current storyline)
@Matthew Hansel: when you say “You’ll see that daily in about a month.” - where could we see that daily? Is this related to your previous announcement?
I didn’t really enjoy the art (or the story) from the Dick Tracy / Batman link - but it sort of gave me an idea for an alternate ending of this circus story debacle.
After seeing the horrors until now (and considering that Sydney told us that we will expect 2 more weeks of “talking heads” and stupid explanations, I just felt like drawing an alternative ending to this circus story. Just glorified fan-fiction, but a way to relieve my brain of the horrors that I’ve read.
@Sydney Phillips: if I do this “alternate ending” thing, I will make some references to previous stories - when I finish it, could I show it to you first, so you can check if there are some continuity errors regarding characters and such? (since I stopped reading during the Collins era - much has happened that I lost track of). I hope that’s ok with you.
Okay, so it’s the clown. If we had any idea who the clown was beyond a face that got xeroxed into fifty random panels these past months, this might be an interesting twist.
@Matthew:
I didn’t explained myself correctly. If I am going to have stories that move with the speed of an iceberg, I prefer to have them with Bendis-like-style-talking-heads instead of this stupid story - after all, “glacial” is something that could be applied to this story.
Actually, Tracy’s not “a little too close for comfort” at all. I’d say he’s years from making an arrest.
Does this mean we’ll never see Tracy’s clever scheme to reveal the killer? Or was his clever scheme to stand there for weeks, discussing the same plot points over and over, until the killer finally explodes out of boredom and whips out a gun?
On Sept 14th, tracy said “The FBI and I can smoke out the culprit”
On Sept 18th, agent Ennen ran the background checks Tracy should have done (did he lost his computer wrist thingie?)- AND the gun appears saying “You stumbled unto the truth, agent Ennen” - so, Tracy didn’t do a thing. And, to confirm he has no idea of what he is doing, he just looks at the gun and very surprised says “YOU?”
Quick DT primer: Dick Tracy became an American pop culture fixture in the 1940s, when it was written and drawn by its creater Chester Gould. He retired in 1978 and the writing went to Max Collins, who did (I think) a great job with it., with Rick Fletcher doing the art and later Dick Locher..but the syndicate fired Collins in 1992 and hired Mike Killian, supposedly at half the pay, to write. I haven’t read Killian’s work so I don’t know how it was. Killian died in 2005 and they decided for some reason to let Locher take over the writing…which many here would agree is the key problem with it nowadays. This continuity is a fine example, ten weeks of standing in one place talking and the clown pulls a gun.
@jumbobrain: Thank you very much for the quick DT primer. I started reading the strip around 1983, with the “Cryonic man” sequence - I stopped around 1991, when my local paper stopped carrying the strip - with the Little Boy saga - so, the work of Max Collins was my introduction to Dick Tracy - and I still think it was among the best strips I’ve read.
I began again recently, when I decided to look for the strip online, with the Dab Stract / Cole Lector trojan horse kidnapping thing (that was BEFORE the giant robots, right? - hard to remember), and I was a little bit … confused. Where was the rest of the cast?
I ordered the reprints of the original Chester Gould strips, so I can read the original work in a correct and complete chronological order.
I am not familiar with the work of Killian. I just read some of the 2001 strips (the first ones that are available online - that was the reason I bought the “Genius” account, when I later realized the final Collins strips were not available online) - and I only read the first continuity… it was… slightly disappointing. Thanks for the help!
AUTHENTIC ?
What doesn’t sound “authentic” are the HINTS you keep on dropping, as if somehow YOU are now drawing the strip ;-) Don’t BLUFF with “heart attack” news ! Give us more intriguing entertainment ! Like say, Locher is stepping down and Max Collins is coming back as the Writer.
The strip on Sunday, October 4, and after, all carry “credits” for Locher and Brozman. NO other name ! It’s comforting to know that you sleep well and have “rewarding” dreams
But, one thing you have picked up admirably from Dick Locher on writing, is the fine art of repetition, which by using it over and over, he has again beaten the current story to a frazzle and into a comess ! It’s a talent requiring patience, each point must be repeated SIX times to be absolutely sure little Johnny understands what’s happening.
If the Reuben people were to give a Wooden Spoon award for “Glacial Pacing”, Dicky would easily take it !
PS. idarke ! That’s a great final paragraph you have there today.
Personally, I would love Collins to come back as a writer … but I doubt that TMS is interested in making such an inversion in a “dying” field like the comic strip. Unfortunately.
I hope you didn’t get mad at me for saying that the “Dick Tracy city” posts were too long. It was not a comment specifically against you. Not at all.
Just a question: how are you able to look at the “future” strips? Just curiosity… I tried to, but all I could manage was to look until Sept. 27th…
Always glad to spew some of this trivia I’ve inadvertently spent so much of my life learning.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible for the strip to ever be as good again as it was in Gould’s heyday…first of course because it was Gould’s baby, and anybody doing it now is trying to recreate that magic instead of following their own muse. Also of course he’s kind of an anachronism…Tracy used to break the rules and use excessive force as a matter of course, and back then people cheered it on. Nowadays things aren’t so black and white…so Tracy’s either gotta be less tough, or portrayed as a little unhinged (as they’ve done with so many superheroes in recent years). And finally, sadly, comic strips just aren’t that big a part of culture any more. Tracy used to have three times the page space every week to tell his story, and people raved about it. When Berke Breathed retired his Opus strip recently he said Calvin was going to be the last comic strip character to capture the public imagination, and sadly I think he’s right. The medium just seems to be doing a slow fade, unless someone can come up with a new approach.
There are uniformed cops coming and going all the time throughout this story, Mr. Pops is going to shoot three people right here under the Big Top? Surely Ringo is at the greatest risk because he’s unarmed, Macy and Karen Ennen can pull out their gats.
OK, Matthew, where does one go to find your new strip? Is GOCOMICS going to carry it here? What’s the name of it? I’ll give you a 60 day pass before commenting (unless it is a good comment).
I keep looking at this strip to see if it somehow became less stupid. It’s really appalling how amateurish this whole presentation is, how long it’s taken to get to this “plot twist” and how really, all this time has been spent not establishing a plot. Honestly, if TMS wants to save money on writers they should have a contest of elementary students. Most of them could write more cohesively than this. That’s not a joke.
Probably the fastest Dick Tracy episode since
Mr. Gould retired. This must be the clown that
was always laughing on the outside and crying
on the inside.
I do most of my Web comix reading here. But the sad truth is there are really no comic strips that I am a devoted fan of these days. Dick Tracy is mostly a morbid fascination. I respect the work Scancarelli’s doing on Gasoline Alley. Prince Valiant is holding up well though King doesn’t post it online. Doonesbury is still worth a look. Lio is the only new comic that’s caught my attention.
The web ought to be better than it is…on gocomics when you click for a bigger view, it just magnifies the same low-resolution image. Their default image is way less than the average monitor width, which should be their standard.
As I mentioned here recently, the only thing I’ve seen that bodes well for “the funnies” is a weekly comics supplement DC has been publishing, with 15 full-page stories featuring their characters. The funnies themselves, well, they’re a mess. Newspapers have been ignoring them for years, and now newspapers are in trouble themselves.
@Matthew Hansel:
I like BMB, even when the pacing is glacial, I find his work entertaining.
@jumbobrain:
Thanks for sharing your Dick Tracy wisdom. I am actually very curious about the original Gould strips (as all I’ve known were the Locher/Collins strips)… and the current debacle.
I agree with you when you say that the comic strip as a medium is dying… everything looks stale - and since Calvin & Hobbes ended, the only strip that captured my heart was cul-de-sac, by Richard Thompson.
I am still a big comics fan, and I still believe in the potential of the medium. Probably comic strips in newspapers are dead (our local paper stoped carrying comic strips more than 10 years ago, I think).
However, I am a faithful followed of several webcomics: here I read Dick Tracy (ok, morbid pleasure, this one) Cul-de-sac & Brewster Rockit. Then I go to my favorite webcomics: sinfest, PHD, least I could do, pvp online % penny arcade. They are innovative, amusing and work pretty well in an online-only medium (even if I also bought the paper books with the compilation of the strips!).
FLIGHT SUIT almost 15 years ago
Ye Gods, that IS a gloved hand!
Hi Yeee!
margueritem almost 15 years ago
Sigh….. I was so hoping that it was the pig-on-wheels….
FLIGHT SUIT almost 15 years ago
Here’s a little tip in case you ever need to execute three people at once:
Don’t have them lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, and don’t hold your gun five inches from your first victim’s face; before you’re even done squeezing off the first shot, the other two will be wrestling the gun out of your hands.
Especially if they’re snoopy cops.
Llewellenbruce almost 15 years ago
I thought all clowns were supposed to be funny.
achtungkitten almost 15 years ago
“Beep beep, Tracy! When you’re down here with us, you’ll float too!”
dsped almost 15 years ago
Judging from Ringo’s face, he’s already had a little accident.
Steve Bartholomew almost 15 years ago
What I always say is, talk first and shoot later.
mjmsprt40 almost 15 years ago
I kinda suspected. When Mr. Pops fired his gun, the trapeze artist fell. Too much coincidence there. If somebody else had fired, the possibility of getting two shots fired simultaniously would rate right up there with winning the Megamillions and getting a date with this month’s Playmate at the same time. A second gunshot would have been noticed.
coratelli almost 15 years ago
Uhm, I wanna see a flag on the Mr. Pops gun.
FLIGHT SUIT almost 15 years ago
I think it’s too early to assume that this is really Mr. Pops holding the gun. For all we know, it could be anybody under that makeup!
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ almost 15 years ago
Now that the circus story is nearing an end, what’ll be next?
Fearless_Fosdick almost 15 years ago
So, you mean the guy who had a gun in hand that went off when Louise was shot actually shot her? What a shocker.
CyberV almost 15 years ago
So let me get this straight…
A man goes into witness protection and takes one of the single most visible jobs in the world, while the people that wanted him dead take up other jobs in the circus in order to kill him. Instead of doing it quickly, the criminals decide to wait, warn him, and then kill one of their own during a performance, an act bound to bring in the authorities. When it does, they instead assume the ringmaster called the cops in and threaten him a second time.
Meanwhile, Tracy begins looking into the case, fails to have the clown’s gun checked in spite of it being discharged right after a murder, and then randomly announces he has a plan to flush out the bad guy… Only for the bad guy to instead flush himself out without any effort at all on Tracy’s part.
At the same time, Tracy calls in paramedics and backup, while Ennen arrives ALONE… And all the backup and medics and THOUSANDS OF WITNESSES all vanish without a trace.
My god. AMATEURS would be emarrassed by this nonsense.
watcha almost 15 years ago
CyberV - I have to agree. If you would put all this together(the start of the Circus) in a short film, it would be like Laurel and Hardy - just a lot of silly things happening to 2 stupid guys.
LudwigVonDrake almost 15 years ago
Tracy didn’t snoop. He was stuffing his face like a pig (not on wheels) with popcorn when the silliness began.
Suddenly Sloppy the Clown is wearing gloves. What a shock.
Sigh…
poopa33 almost 15 years ago
is it over yet?
fishbulb almost 15 years ago
Beyond incomprehensibly stupid. The one person holding a gun in public is never searched, nor his “fake gun by Tracy. That same clown makes an impossible shot without aiming his prop gun at anything and kills a moving target in front of hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. 2 threatening notes are produced, and Tracy NEVER asks where they were found, how they were delivered, etc. The sloppy writing never makes it clear if the performers are all in the ring at the same time or entering & leaving at random. Days ago they were all talking to Tracy, now everyone has conveniently vanished except for Tracy, Ringo, & Enen. Apparently, the showgirl riding the backed up elephant has finally left. A glove has now appeared on the clown’s hand, as we were told it would. None of this makes a bit of sense.
Morrow Cummings almost 15 years ago
It makes sense to me! Mr. Pops doesn’t want his fingerprints on the gun. That’s why he wears gloves!
Groan……… (Come, Mattie; come explain the genius in this story. Be sure to wipe the drool off your chin)
sydney almost 15 years ago
Cyber V Has done an excellent job of summerizing what has appeared to happen. Which is quite a feat considering the amount of inaction.
We’re into TWO weeks of “EXPLANATION” time now, to hear what happened ! And will have to wait till that’s over for the next movement forward. Mr Pops the Clown, the head honcho, didn’t do the shooting and as we’ve already heard Louise T was one of the bad guys. Further, it seems they were all in the Cicus before Ringo.
Everything that’s revealed shortly makes the whole plot look more and more like SILLY SEASON.
In the meantime, take a peek at an “idea” that was never formally published - - BATMAN meets DICK TRACY which appeared on the D.T. Yahoo board.
http://www.positivebrand.net/serials/bmdt01/01.html
ridenslide65 almost 15 years ago
Cyber V, Fishbulb and Sydney have all hit the mark today.
Beyond nonsense.
Where is the back-up? A tent full of witnesses and not ONE single other cop?
Please. We’re not that dumb. Give us more credit than that.
sydney almost 15 years ago
morrow.
The thought flashed across my mind that Mattie had been banned from posting (with his, exaggerated boasting)
Now in Judy’s sympathetic hands for nursing (?)
But better, Liam has left egocentric to hang out for more “toasting”
Perhaps a strategic retreat to lick wounds ? He posted on the Yahoo board yesterday.
FLIGHT SUIT almost 15 years ago
Sydney, that DT/Batman strip certainly is well-drawn, and really is something to see. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that even in that strip, Detective Tracy is still incompetent, opening fire on Batman just because he looks like he might be a criminal, allowing a murderer to get away, engaging in police brutality…
He may be nicely illustrated, but he’s still the DT we know and love!
vancourt almost 15 years ago
So for 3 days the pistol was held in his bare hand - today he’s wearing gloves. I think I’ve finally discovered the artist’s true intention - DT is meant to be a Spot The Differences comic.
And here we I thought is was just lousy workmanship and no attention to detail…
linsonl almost 15 years ago
I think he’s just clowning around.
fishbulb almost 15 years ago
Honestly, Mr. Pops sounds like a Scooby-Doo villian making his “meddling kids” speech in the third panel.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
Ok, this story would make a stone cry with despair! The artwork is boring and simplistic. We’ve had talking head panels for MONTHS with no witty dialog, pointlessly detailed tigers, no scenarios at all, copy-paste panels and a boring pointless story. This pains me to say, as I grew up with Dick Locher’s artwork in Dick Tracy - but the strip MUST really change creators! This thing is PUTRID!
Brian Michael Bendis’ POWERS has police work, lots of “talking heads” but an incredibly amusing story that goes somewhere.
I think I’d rather see the strip ended than endure this mediocrity. However, I am forced to see it every day - it is like watching a train wreck. Now I understand most of the comments on this board - it is hard to find something nice to be said about the strip (and current storyline)
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
@Matthew Hansel: when you say “You’ll see that daily in about a month.” - where could we see that daily? Is this related to your previous announcement?
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
I didn’t really enjoy the art (or the story) from the Dick Tracy / Batman link - but it sort of gave me an idea for an alternate ending of this circus story debacle.
After seeing the horrors until now (and considering that Sydney told us that we will expect 2 more weeks of “talking heads” and stupid explanations, I just felt like drawing an alternative ending to this circus story. Just glorified fan-fiction, but a way to relieve my brain of the horrors that I’ve read.
@Sydney Phillips: if I do this “alternate ending” thing, I will make some references to previous stories - when I finish it, could I show it to you first, so you can check if there are some continuity errors regarding characters and such? (since I stopped reading during the Collins era - much has happened that I lost track of). I hope that’s ok with you.
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
Okay, so it’s the clown. If we had any idea who the clown was beyond a face that got xeroxed into fifty random panels these past months, this might be an interesting twist.
Alas, poor Dick, I knew him well…
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
@Matthew: I didn’t explained myself correctly. If I am going to have stories that move with the speed of an iceberg, I prefer to have them with Bendis-like-style-talking-heads instead of this stupid story - after all, “glacial” is something that could be applied to this story.
Has Dick Tracy been like that for how long?
PoppaBob Premium Member almost 15 years ago
DT has nothing to fear. Ringo will get it first, followed by the FBI gal. DT will have plenty of time to disarm the clown…
Or maybe the strong-lady will step up and throw Giggles to the lions!
idarke almost 15 years ago
Actually, Tracy’s not “a little too close for comfort” at all. I’d say he’s years from making an arrest.
Does this mean we’ll never see Tracy’s clever scheme to reveal the killer? Or was his clever scheme to stand there for weeks, discussing the same plot points over and over, until the killer finally explodes out of boredom and whips out a gun?
Dberrymanal1 almost 15 years ago
Should have known it was the clown. Yes, everyone loves a clown, and there’s something appealing about an evil clown. Such as the Joker of “Batman”.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
On Sept 14th, tracy said “The FBI and I can smoke out the culprit”
On Sept 18th, agent Ennen ran the background checks Tracy should have done (did he lost his computer wrist thingie?)- AND the gun appears saying “You stumbled unto the truth, agent Ennen” - so, Tracy didn’t do a thing. And, to confirm he has no idea of what he is doing, he just looks at the gun and very surprised says “YOU?”
Very good detective work, Dick Tracy!
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
@Dberrymanal1 And it was the clown who fired a gun the moment Lousie Trapeze was shot! WOW! And Tracy was surprised when he sees the clown with a gun!
Lyons Group, Inc. almost 15 years ago
“…and I would’ve gotten away with it too if wasn’t for you meddling detectives!”
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
Roberto,
Quick DT primer: Dick Tracy became an American pop culture fixture in the 1940s, when it was written and drawn by its creater Chester Gould. He retired in 1978 and the writing went to Max Collins, who did (I think) a great job with it., with Rick Fletcher doing the art and later Dick Locher..but the syndicate fired Collins in 1992 and hired Mike Killian, supposedly at half the pay, to write. I haven’t read Killian’s work so I don’t know how it was. Killian died in 2005 and they decided for some reason to let Locher take over the writing…which many here would agree is the key problem with it nowadays. This continuity is a fine example, ten weeks of standing in one place talking and the clown pulls a gun.
jpozenel almost 15 years ago
Oh great! Now all those psychiatric patients with an irrational fear of clowns really do have something to worry about.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
@jumbobrain: Thank you very much for the quick DT primer. I started reading the strip around 1983, with the “Cryonic man” sequence - I stopped around 1991, when my local paper stopped carrying the strip - with the Little Boy saga - so, the work of Max Collins was my introduction to Dick Tracy - and I still think it was among the best strips I’ve read.
I began again recently, when I decided to look for the strip online, with the Dab Stract / Cole Lector trojan horse kidnapping thing (that was BEFORE the giant robots, right? - hard to remember), and I was a little bit … confused. Where was the rest of the cast?
I ordered the reprints of the original Chester Gould strips, so I can read the original work in a correct and complete chronological order.
I am not familiar with the work of Killian. I just read some of the 2001 strips (the first ones that are available online - that was the reason I bought the “Genius” account, when I later realized the final Collins strips were not available online) - and I only read the first continuity… it was… slightly disappointing. Thanks for the help!
sydney almost 15 years ago
AUTHENTIC ? What doesn’t sound “authentic” are the HINTS you keep on dropping, as if somehow YOU are now drawing the strip ;-) Don’t BLUFF with “heart attack” news ! Give us more intriguing entertainment ! Like say, Locher is stepping down and Max Collins is coming back as the Writer.
The strip on Sunday, October 4, and after, all carry “credits” for Locher and Brozman. NO other name ! It’s comforting to know that you sleep well and have “rewarding” dreams
But, one thing you have picked up admirably from Dick Locher on writing, is the fine art of repetition, which by using it over and over, he has again beaten the current story to a frazzle and into a comess ! It’s a talent requiring patience, each point must be repeated SIX times to be absolutely sure little Johnny understands what’s happening.
If the Reuben people were to give a Wooden Spoon award for “Glacial Pacing”, Dicky would easily take it !
PS. idarke ! That’s a great final paragraph you have there today.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
Sydney,
Personally, I would love Collins to come back as a writer … but I doubt that TMS is interested in making such an inversion in a “dying” field like the comic strip. Unfortunately.
I hope you didn’t get mad at me for saying that the “Dick Tracy city” posts were too long. It was not a comment specifically against you. Not at all.
Just a question: how are you able to look at the “future” strips? Just curiosity… I tried to, but all I could manage was to look until Sept. 27th…
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
@Roberto,
Always glad to spew some of this trivia I’ve inadvertently spent so much of my life learning.
Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible for the strip to ever be as good again as it was in Gould’s heyday…first of course because it was Gould’s baby, and anybody doing it now is trying to recreate that magic instead of following their own muse. Also of course he’s kind of an anachronism…Tracy used to break the rules and use excessive force as a matter of course, and back then people cheered it on. Nowadays things aren’t so black and white…so Tracy’s either gotta be less tough, or portrayed as a little unhinged (as they’ve done with so many superheroes in recent years). And finally, sadly, comic strips just aren’t that big a part of culture any more. Tracy used to have three times the page space every week to tell his story, and people raved about it. When Berke Breathed retired his Opus strip recently he said Calvin was going to be the last comic strip character to capture the public imagination, and sadly I think he’s right. The medium just seems to be doing a slow fade, unless someone can come up with a new approach.
CougarAllen almost 15 years ago
It would have made more sense to wear gloves while he was in there, and take them off when he came out….
-Cougar :{)
CougarAllen almost 15 years ago
NIAGARA FALLS?! Sloooooooowly I turned … step by step … inch by inch I crept up on him …
-Cougar :{)
coratelli almost 15 years ago
For Matthew: BMB it’s a genius of the storytelling. It’s a great writer.
436rge almost 15 years ago
Dick Tracy serial from 1937 on TCM Saturday mornings for 9am-10am.
countoftowergrove almost 15 years ago
There are uniformed cops coming and going all the time throughout this story, Mr. Pops is going to shoot three people right here under the Big Top? Surely Ringo is at the greatest risk because he’s unarmed, Macy and Karen Ennen can pull out their gats.
Morrow Cummings almost 15 years ago
OK, Matthew, where does one go to find your new strip? Is GOCOMICS going to carry it here? What’s the name of it? I’ll give you a 60 day pass before commenting (unless it is a good comment).
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
I keep looking at this strip to see if it somehow became less stupid. It’s really appalling how amateurish this whole presentation is, how long it’s taken to get to this “plot twist” and how really, all this time has been spent not establishing a plot. Honestly, if TMS wants to save money on writers they should have a contest of elementary students. Most of them could write more cohesively than this. That’s not a joke.
akado2000 almost 15 years ago
Probably the fastest Dick Tracy episode since Mr. Gould retired. This must be the clown that was always laughing on the outside and crying on the inside.
jumbobrain almost 15 years ago
@MPH,
I do most of my Web comix reading here. But the sad truth is there are really no comic strips that I am a devoted fan of these days. Dick Tracy is mostly a morbid fascination. I respect the work Scancarelli’s doing on Gasoline Alley. Prince Valiant is holding up well though King doesn’t post it online. Doonesbury is still worth a look. Lio is the only new comic that’s caught my attention.
The web ought to be better than it is…on gocomics when you click for a bigger view, it just magnifies the same low-resolution image. Their default image is way less than the average monitor width, which should be their standard.
As I mentioned here recently, the only thing I’ve seen that bodes well for “the funnies” is a weekly comics supplement DC has been publishing, with 15 full-page stories featuring their characters. The funnies themselves, well, they’re a mess. Newspapers have been ignoring them for years, and now newspapers are in trouble themselves.
achtungkitten almost 15 years ago
I can’t get over how badly proportioned Mr Pops’ hand/gun is to the rest of his body. My mind is seriously blown.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
@Matthew Hansel: I like BMB, even when the pacing is glacial, I find his work entertaining.
@jumbobrain: Thanks for sharing your Dick Tracy wisdom. I am actually very curious about the original Gould strips (as all I’ve known were the Locher/Collins strips)… and the current debacle.
roberto.alves almost 15 years ago
I agree with you when you say that the comic strip as a medium is dying… everything looks stale - and since Calvin & Hobbes ended, the only strip that captured my heart was cul-de-sac, by Richard Thompson.
I am still a big comics fan, and I still believe in the potential of the medium. Probably comic strips in newspapers are dead (our local paper stoped carrying comic strips more than 10 years ago, I think).
However, I am a faithful followed of several webcomics: here I read Dick Tracy (ok, morbid pleasure, this one) Cul-de-sac & Brewster Rockit. Then I go to my favorite webcomics: sinfest, PHD, least I could do, pvp online % penny arcade. They are innovative, amusing and work pretty well in an online-only medium (even if I also bought the paper books with the compilation of the strips!).