Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 01, 2009

Hmmm…

By the way, Dick Tracy was driving his Porsche in front of me earlier today:

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j223/flightsuit/tracysporsche.jpg

I tried to get his autograph, but he and Tess were on their way to a concert of some sort.

At least we know for certain that he’s the maestro….

I can’t believe nothing’s happened yet! Find the son! Go to the operah! Give me something! Please! Someone increase the pace of these!

Urhmmm, I thought he does not care about his son, only what his son has taken from him. Now he is angry because his son is missing….

Watcha, this actually makes sense so far. If somebody had taken something from you, it would be worse if they were missing. Also, he can pretend he cares about the well-being of his son, if he feels so inclined. It would be better for his rep.

Incidentally, I had no idea the Maestro was a dude until today. I can’t wait for a horribly violent death to foil his needlessly complicated and nonsensical scheme!

uhm…

Unfortunately, I have no faith in Locher’s history of story writing.

Panel one: close up of the concert hall, I guess. No need to memorize it. If this story is anything like the last several, we’ll be seeing it over and over in place of new art in the weeks/months to come.

hmmmmm, i think this story can top the circus one.

Okay, so the bassoon player is in the witness protection program, see. And everyone in the orchestra is mad at him for turning them in for selling their reeds at black market prices…

No, avatarjk137, he has already told the police officer that he does not care about his son, to late now to act like he does. Also he said ‘…. - only what he took’ which means to me that the son has disappeared on purpose.

This is just more of those little slip ups that constantly plague this strip.

son of Pig on Wheels is missing?

I don’t see this as a slip-up, watcha. He told the cops the whole truth, but he’s telling the “idiot” a half-truth to explain his distraction. He wants to look like a caring father in front of those he knows. Seems reasonable to me. But I’ll say this, that if Tracy encounters yet another murder on yet another “relaxing evening,” I might actually lose confidence in the storytelling in this strip.

Oh Hum ! Time for … fee fi foe fum As I smell the blood of another “apologist”, Locher chum

Is he “Inside” my head … or is he out ? I’d rather opinions from the “Pig on Wheels” about !

I’ve got it! Phil Harmonic’s son stole the Pig on Wheels, which was the centerpiece of his Pink Floyd tribute show, and sold it to Ringo’s circus!

So, Tracy went to the circus, a crime was committed, and he stood around commenting on everything while the story played out, but didn’t actually do any police work.

Now, Tracy is going to a concert, where a crime will be committed, and he will stand around commenting on everything while the story plays out, but not actually do any police work.

BORING!!!

“But Maestro, you have a performance tonight! Any minute now people are going to come crawling in on their hands and knees through our sideways front doors!”

Judging by the non-euclidean geometry of the music hall,

Cthulhu will no doubt be pleased by Phillip’s performance.

Does the son have the Necronomicon?

Judging by the tentacles coming off Maestro’s head in Panel Three, I think maybe he *is* Cthulhu.

By the way, there’s been an Evil Clown sighting!

http://www.apollocomicstrip.com/2009/12/december-1-2009.html

The artwork seems better when they don’t have to draw hands. It isn’t really better, but it seems that way.

-Cougar :{)

Why do I always get the feeling of extreme boredom when I get to this page?

idarke said, “But Maestro, you have a performance tonight! Any minute now people are going to come crawling in on their hands and knees through our sideways front doors!”

That reminds me of when the people left the circus tent after Louise Trapeze was shot. It looked like rice krispies pouring out of the tent.

Creepy fella that maestro very shifty.

PACING PROBLEM !

I’m coming to believe that the slow pacing problem in Dick Tracy springs partly from poorly thought out story movement between Sunday pages which servers to restrict forward movement and encourage repetition in the in-between daily strips (and his six-seven panels on Sundays doesn’t exactly oil progress).

I know the way Gould and later Fletcher handled it. That is, the Sundays are always weeks ahead and the daily strips are effectively “fillers”. How Locher does it, I don’t know ! (?)

It’s instructive that the following Sunday strips consume the same “space”, yet the Annie strip averages 9+ panels per Sunday, Brenda Starr 7 and Tracy 6+ (the latter, equivalent to two daily strips). Locher I’d guess has probably settled into a “comfortable” routine which he would be loath to change. And nobody is about to tell him to do so.

So he seems stuck (unconcerned?), with a well honed unprductive system, and as long as TMS doesn’t “shake” him up he’ll happily leave it in that “defective” way, and on cruise control.

A casual look at the “elbow room” between a few D.T. Sunday pages will make this observation obvious..

Still trying to understand acoustics at the bifurcated concert hall - do they play in the 30 story buildings behind it or underground? Or does Maestro / Cthulhu summon the Old Ones from the outdoor area playing to the audience inside?

My son is missing with my baton! I feel like Noah castrated by Ham!

Heck ! And Mattie got censored for “advertising”.

R_Noonan63.

Sorry, strips ahead are up to Dec.26 now and NO “names” of anyone mentioned yet. And, that’s 4 weeks into the story line.

fishbulb said, “Panel one: close up of the concert hall, I guess. No need to memorize it. If this story is anything like the last several, we’ll be seeing it over and over in place of new art in the weeks/months to come.”

And, the height, width, depth, shape will change. Somedays it’ll be a small concert hall and other days it’ll be a huge structure.