The following is an excerpt from the incident report of Watch Commander Lt. Frank Drebin, Emergency Operations Center, Naperville Police Department.
Report dated 1-09-2009,
Following reports of an explosion and strong odor, on the night of January 8, 2009, Fire and Rescue units, along with Bomb squad and Hazmat teams were dispatched to 742 Evergreen terrace (cross street Wisteria Lane). Due to information that there may be a hazardous material mishap, I instituted a reverse 911 procedure, calling homes to advise sheltering in place. Hospitals were informed to expect possible casualties and the Dept. of Homeland Security was informed as per their instructions. During this time and before the first units arrived on scene, telephone contact was established with occupant of the residence and said occupant informed dispatch that “Everything was fine here” and “No need for your services”. Because of budgetary concerns, all units responding were ordered to return to base, with the exception of Squad 51, which performed mop-up work. The scene of the blast was left unsecured, with no orders for units to patrol the area. Shelter in place restrictions were lifted at approximately 2300 hrs. Reports from Rampart General Hospital indicate persons being admitted with respiratory distress, burning eyes and throat and severe skin irritation. Injuries were also reported from flying glass and debris. Squad 51 reported odor permeated the area and compromised the integrity of their breathing apparatus and two crew members were transported to Rampart General for observation. Destruction was not limited to residence alone, an area of three blocks radius was affected with windows in homes and cars being blown out and debris being broadcast over a wide area. In a related note, Sgt. Friday and his partner Officer Gannon, were working the night watch out of Frauds Division, Bunko section, when the call came in and were dispatched to the area concerning reports of a WFA in Kabuki makeup in the area of the explosion going from home to home, working a possible Ponzi scheme on gullible women. Suspect is reportedly going by the name Angelorious Madoff. Sgt. Friday and Officer Gannon made contact with Detective Tracy in his home, who informed them that he had indeed seen the suspect, but was unaware that the woman who walked into his house unannounced and who was unknown to him or his wife and talking about making millions selling a line of nonexistent cosmetics, could possibly be a crime suspect.
Whenever they are caught out, the escape hatch that opens is usually … “Why? It’s only a comic strip! (As if to say, Hey! Why are you taking it so seriously) I come back to Groc on ‘speech’, “for us it’s free and if you praise it’s also for thee.
Okay, so Miss Joker’s got a mutant ability to make her braclets defy gravity. She’s using that to hypnotize Dick and Tess into thinking that wearing explosive chemicals is a brilliant thing to do.
At the same time, in case it doesn’t work, she’s sending coherant shadows to engulf the Tracys. Tess is immediately immersed, but Dick, having turned away to avoid the hypnosis, still stands a small chance for survival. All he needs to do is keep Miss Joker talking and focused on everything except her evil.
Also, why is Miss Joker talking to a closed door? And why is Tess wearing clown makeup?
In happier news, check THIS out: http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cgi?setupfile=fignews2.setup&category=actionfigures&topic=65&showarticle=989&nl=1
Angelorious was glad Tess came back to the house. She was especially excited when Tess told her about Dr. Noll and the explosion. Every since that day when she was injured during the explosion at the plastic surgery hospital Angelorious became obsessed with explosions and fire. She knew she was fortunate they saved her life, but she hated the fact that her arms had to always be extended as if she was a flapping bird. She did, however enjoy that she was able to sneak in an occasional ‘flip of the bird’ to those she despised.
“The perfume exploded? Great! I’ve got a name for it. LOVE FIRE”
Tess couldn’t take her eyes off of Angelorious.
“What an amazing women” she thought.
“LOVE FIRE, oh Dick, it’s a wonderful name”.
Tracy just stood there, upset that Tess never called him ‘Love Fire’. He hated the fact that on those rare occasions they got together she always called him ‘Pee Wee’.
“Will you do the merchandizing yourselves”?
Memo to Liam. Matthew must go. He is too violent with his words. He cannot or will not consider toning down even a little bit. Please remove him. To show how serious I am with this request I am asking that you remove me at the same time. That will be a small sacrifice to restore the peaceful nature of this posting board.
This whole story line is absurd. The events of the last three weeks would be condensed to three days if Mr. Gould were the author. I am amused at the other postings here making fun of Locher, etc., but let’s not forget that the Dick Tracy comic strip used to be a part of growing up for millions of loyal readers. As you read the first 5 volumes of Mr. Gould’s works beginning in the 30’s, you quickly realize that the story lines have a delicate balance of politics, education and entertainment that’s not found in any other medium today.
The modern day Dick Tracy strip should be terminated ASAP. It is an abomination of disrespect for the original author’s unique style and imagination that made Dick Tracy worthy of reprinting in the hardcover volumes available today.
Angelorious was glad Tess came back to the house. She was especially excited when Tess told her about Dr. Noll and the explosion. Every since that day when she was injured during the explosion at the plastic surgery hospital Angelorious became obsessed with explosions and fire. She knew she was fortunate they saved her life, but she hated the fact that her arms had to always be extended as if she was a flapping bird………
Wow Bassman, I think you hit it on the head here…. the old ploy of a plot within a plot…. how novel. Seriously that would definitely make the story line more interesting!
As far as matthew, I agree with you and even though I am only a rookie here I add my name to your “virtual” petition
CyberV says: In happier news, check THIS out: http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cgi?setupfile=fignews2.setup&category=actionfigures&topic=65&showarticle=989&nl=1
“You’ve admitted to doing as much. So, NO, no lie here.”
MPH
Matthew, I have NEVER stalked ANYONE on the internet and have NEVER admitted to doing so. Either you are delusional or a bold faced liar. DO NOT try to tarnish me Matthew.
Liam, when you get back from your weekend vacation please honor my request and remove both Matthew and myself. He cannot be allowed to create such havoc! You have to act!
Matthew, your “recollection” regarding me is incorrect! Perhaps you SHOULD have gone through the pages of the COMICSPAGE screen shots you saved to confirm what you accused me of before haphazardly tossing it out there. Please either verify what you’ve said or retract you false statement.
I SO don’t want to get into this again, but I have to say that the truths you refer to here, Matt, are indeed correct regarding Chet’s editorial environment vs. Dick’s.
You know, we share some common ground among us, even though we may disagree often on details. We ALL want the strip to be the very best it CAN be – that goes double for DL. The biggest hurdle that must be overcome for this strip to EVER get back to its’ roots and provide entertainment to its’ readers, is for TMS to begin reversing some of the editorial constraints placed upon the strip over the last 20+ years. The problem TMS faces in doing so, is that it jeopardizes losing those newspaper clients who buy and publish Tracy every day.
The problem, at its’ roots, is that the newspaper industry has consistently shrunk the comic strip’s it publishes to an almost unintelligible point – a point, I fear, of no return. Unless the industry WAKES UP and realizes that the NEWS is not the only thing the readers demand – comics and entertainment features ranking highest among readership positives – not only will the Dick Tracy strip continue to suffer, but the print newspaper medium may very well collapse on itself. To some degree, it already has.
With weekly reports of newspaper’s cutting ENTIRE PAGES of their Sunday comic sections as a “cost-cutting” measure (give me a break!), they are cutting off their noses to spite their face. The hardest thing for me to accept, yet it is confirmed repeatedly to me among those who are “in the know,” is that Tracy is subject to editorial constraints that other strips in the TMS stable are not. This is completely unfair and is killing this strip with each passing day.
I’m not going to go through the COMICSPAGE screen shots.
A) they are hard to read
B) Even if I presented proof, nobody here will believe it anyway.
C) I believe you admitted to me in a private email that you did not condone MORROW’s behavior.
I still recall you jumping on the bandwagon, though.
Again, if I am wrong, please accept my apologies.
MPH
Points A & B, your guilty of the same “Tricks” you despise in everyone else.
A) It’s no one’s fault that the screen shots are “hard to read”. If your going to refer to them them then you need to take the time to verify that what you claim they contain is correct.
B) Classic “blame others” tactic. It’s “OUR” fault because we won’t believe any “proof” you submit so why bother presenting the proof.
Unbelievably hypocritical of you.
C) In the “private email” we shared I let you know that I disagree with ANYONE who crosses the line of civility and that still holds be it you, me, Morrow, or even Liam!
“You realize that you are comparing apples to oranges, right?
Chet didn’t operate in the same “editorial” environment that Locher does. Chet was the CREATOR of the strip and PERSONAL FRIENDS with Col. McCORMICK and Joe PATTERSON, which allowed him a great deal of leverage and latitude. Both McCormick and Patterson were made of sterner stuff than today’s newspaper people and would not knee-jerk react to any criticism of the paper or the features. In fact, they actually were willing to LOSE READERS if they completely believed in a cause. Something sorely lacking in today’s newspaper environment where, because of the HUGE corporate ownership of those enterprises, they’ve been forced to chase every reader and every dollar which has forever, totally and completely changed the news business in this country.
Locher operates in an environment where they regulate how many guns he is allowed to show on panel every year, how many car chases he’s allowed, how many dead bodies he’s allowed to show, how much of a woman’s body is acceptable, etc. And those are just the ART rules!
So making a comparison to Chester Gould, along these lines, is not a fair comparison at all.
Also, remember, Chester believed in moving forward at all costs. He didn’t listen to the critics (Moon era anyone, or the law-and-order era of the 70s anyone?). He moved forward with his vision and if people didn’t like it, he said the heck with’em.
Remember, TMS approves EVERY strip that Locher does and they OWN the strip. Consider that.
MPH”
You are totally correct, MPH. But the bottom line is that the ridiculous snail’s pace of this strip with the silly story lines are not worthy of calling this “Dick Tracy” in any way, shape or form. I guess I get sucked in every day with the false hope that it will improve, but I really know it’s only getting worse by the week.
I guess the larger POINT of my post is this – the majority of those who post here direct blame squarely at DL, though he has only his EDITOR to please. His editor provides him an up-or-down vote on every strip he produces, knowing full well that he (the editor) must please his individual newspaper client’s who buy the strip every week. As long as newspaper editor’s are unwilling to accept their complicity in all of this and give the readers WHAT THEY WANT, the strip will remain the same. Interestingly, the internet provides comic strip creator’s the opportunity to thrive, absent these antiquainted constraints. This problem isn’t a recent one, folks – it has slowly gotten worse each and every year since WW2, but the corporate environment of the industry over the last 20 years has made it much worse.
If we really want to provoke change in the Tracy strip, we need to quit blaming those who have no complicity in this mess and demand that TMS open their eyes and take some risks in reversing these policies and truly pleasing their customers – US. You are ALL to be congratulated for contacting TMS in December and preventing them from ending the strip outright. It isn’t enough, though. TMS can hire the finest writer’s and/or artist’s of our time when DL ultimately retires, and they are going to face the same policies DL has been forced to accept. That, my friends, is the truth!
Now, we can continue to quibble childishly over matters that are unimportant to our shared mission of improving the strip, or we can focus on our common interest and demand action from TMS to level the playing field once and for all. These petty differences are just distracting us from the larger issue at hand and preventing TMS from even considering such action. Taking each of you at your word, I say we have a real good shot of making something happen.
So, employing logic and common sense about this mess is “pathetic”? I have a feeling NeonLeon doesn’t give a rip about the strip, rather comes here for the witty comments. No offense, NeonLeon, but their wouldn’t be any witty commentary here if the strip could thrive without these constraints.
One more thing Matthew. The fact that you had no problem discussing the contents of our private emails to try to make a point shows a lot about your character, integrity & trustworthiness.
Come on, BMB, you’ve said those very words Matt mentioned here and over at the Comicspage group repeatedly. He didn’t reveal anything you haven’t yourself already stated. It is to your credit, I feel, that MPH acknowledged and repeated your wise sentiment on civility once again.
And, NeonLeon, I agree with you wholeheartedly if your assessment of pathetic refers to this widely-held fallacy that comic strip and comic book creator’s (writers & artists) produce their work for their readers. Especially with comic strip’s – the editor is paying their bills, not us. Though the more commercially successful strip’s do provide additional income to creator’s, to the extent contractually agreed upon. Otherwise, IMHO, this repeatedly stated notion & widely held belief here reveals the novices among us.
Jeff, Matthew doesn’t need you to defend him, he’s certainly able to do so himself. Since you’ve felt the need to add you two cents, let me say that you’ve missed the whole point. The issue isn’t what was said but the fact the Matthew choose to discuss our private emails
publicly.
I am somewhat surprised that you would give him a pass on that violation.
I’m wondering out loud, do you agree with everything Matthew has said the past week and his method of expressing his views?
BB
MPH, I get the point. But what does any of that have to do with the obvious lack of substance, stalling and repetitiveness we see ad nauseum? Just move it along faster and it would help tremendously.
As I stated previously, I wasn’t visiting here over the past three weeks. It wasn’t until I spoke with Matt late last week that I learned of any of this. I visited and scrolled through the comments since I last posted, and you’ve already stated what I agree with that the discussion here began taking on a particularly offensive tone.
I know, as you do as well, that their is a, shall we say, controversial history between Matt and some who post regularly here. I don’t think it particularly mattered WHAT Matt started out saying in his first post here, we likely would have the same result. That being said, and I’m sure this is no surprise to you, I would likely not have stormed in the way Matt did, but that is really due mostly to the fact that I feel I already have some description of rapport here with the other poster’s. They KNOW me and what I believe and a few of my opinions about the strip. Not having the benefit of posting here regularly, and I’m certain somewhat outraged at the continuing smears and make-believe being discussed about both of us, Matt responded the way he did because he’s a person who loves a good debate but doesn’t believe that personal attacks win the argument. He acted accordingly to defend himself.
As you’ve likely read from late yesterday, I’ve also acted in MY defense by asking Liam to settle this matter about my hiding behind other screen names. To me, doing so is dishonest and I don’t condone the behavior. Especially when it comes to personally slandering someone. As much as we may discuss and argue about here, you really don’t KNOW me. You don’t really KNOW Matt. You think you do because of what he has said in defense of himself after stating his opinions and why he has them. But words MEAN things, you see. Matt’s professional pursuits require that he act in the best interest of defending his reputation and, like the rest of us who comment here using our real names, deserve protection under the law. I, likewise, have volunteered and sacrificed an awful lot for the benefit of the Museum and continue in my work preserving and expanding Chester Gould’s legacy, and also must act to defend myself in protection of my reputation, for the larger interests I serve. You see, its not all fun and games when you’ve invested so much for so long into something so much larger than yourself. One can’t risk letting it all fall apart based on false notions and gossip.
Also, BMB, Matt & I are not connected at the hip. Matt has his opinions and I have mine. I continue to state here that I’ll decide what opinions I share about certain topics. I’ll choose when I want to speak up and when I don’t. Do not accept my silence on matters as agreement or disagreement on every topic at hand, BMB. If I chose to be that way, you’d never hear the end of it. I choose my words carefully here. I don’t always agree with Matt and Matt doesn’t always agree with me. We’re just two people, about the same age, who happen to like Dick Tracy. Gimme a break – you know better, BMB, as I’ve stated as much repeatedly here and at Comicspage. As you see, I’m not rising up knee-jerk in defense or agreement with all his comments. I have very set ideas and I focus my commentary where I believe it will do the most good in the grand scheme of things.
Where did I ever say that, Grok? Again, you’re putting words in my mouth I didn’t ever say. Do I admire the man? Yes. Do I consider his larger body of work over his 50+ year career in my opinions of him? Yes, again. I’ve never said such things, otherwise. Puhleese? Your just PO’d that the air has quickly come out of your tired balloon. Gimme a break. You’re going to have to do better than that. The only member here that leaves no question is this cat, DLisagenius.
COMPLETELY ABSOLVED of RESPONSIBILITY !
It’s a little tiring to come on the board and see these vaccuous posts signed by one person. It gives more than a Chester Gould “CLEW” on the strategy and techniques used by the “Boys Brigade” from Naperville. “CLOUD OUT” every syllable that hints of the slightest criticizm of the MAN we admire. Young readers who visit the Board must not be exposed to this “heresy”. What matters is Dick LOCHER not the memory of Dick TRACY. Tracy must take his seat at the BACK of the Bus, not up front with our hero. As you see, we fight tooth and hair shirt nails to maintain that arrangement.
Every analysis is couched in coded language to convince “It’s the shrinkage of space, the Editor’s require it, just a very special surreal style (To gloss over artistic incompetense)”, and when as it all comes tumbling down (a house built on cards) and embarassingly there are no more “excuses” to wave, SAY, “Why? It’s only a comic strip”.
The techniques failed on the other board because a few people “stood up”, not willing to see a favorite Author idolised to a point where the WELFARE of the product became LESS important. Deep down, the Boys know that flaws are scattered all over the place, so every move made is to defend and protect. You can kick Tracy but you’ll never pin a donkey tail on their man. They’re never ever seen to praise the “Dick Tracy” comic strip; note, only the WORK produced by their favorite artist. In their lexicon, that folks, is what these 100 or so ‘long legged’ posts are all about.
It’s so mindful of an over emotional High School “Cheering” Squad.
Remember, my friend you’re here to
‘LEARN’ not to give little ‘Peaboy wanna-be a coconut’ lectures to people who where THERE before you ever nestled up to the rubber duckie !
Sorry Jeff but I can’t pick and choose when and whom I decide to defend. You and I have disagreed quite often in the past but when I felt others were treating you unfairly I choose to defend you. I have in the past defended Matthew(he might not remember and I don’t have the snapshots saved) and even Dick Locher. I suppose we all have to answer to our own calling. All I can say is if someone who I was close to crossed a line I would let them know.
I don’t “diss” the comic or the writer because I find it amusing. I do so to point out the problems and weaknesses in the vain hopes of getting him to improve. His efforts on this series are totally and completely below any acceptable standards for a strip as historically important and treasured as this one.
The story’s inept on every level. The artwork is awful. Dick Tracy and the readers deserve better. I just think Locher needs to know it.
I don’t do it out of hate. I do it out of love.
——————————————————————————–
Do you beat your wife to show her how much you love her?
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-25T21:06:15Z Flag
Here you go Matthew, the entire post. What’s taking out of context?
Oh, Sydney – your sad, tired rhetoric is so stale that there’s dust all over my keyboard. Educate YOURSELF about the business you’re continuously pontificating about, and then let’s continue this debate. I admire your passion, Sydney, but this isn’t about DL, it’s ALL about Dick Tracy. Your smoke and mirrors game, pinning this same argument upon us, is weak. Strategy? MPH, he thinks we have a STRATEGY, as if we’re somehow in league with one another and Dick! Once again, your overactive imagination has gotten the better of you, Sydney, old pal. Let me guess – your next comment will be that we’re part of a conspiracy out to silence you all. What a fantasy!
Thank you Matthew for removing the post that said I didn’t keep my promise to only call you Matthew(or Matt/Matty) I’m glad to see you realized you were wrong.
‘Only the Editor to please”? There you go again, another cop-out. Why should you try to hide his weaknesses behind an Editor’s coat tails?
Doesn’t the man have enough pride to accept that at the end of the day he MUST produce a good product and it’s the public that makes Dicky run? He must at the end of the day please THEM!
If I’ve learned nothing else from year’s of researching the strip and its’ many creators, it is this:
Today, DICK TRACY is larger than any one of its’ creators. No one who is familiar with the Gould work could argue that he alone is due the greatest credit for its’ continued existence. The DT strip is the fourth oldest continuously published strip in America today, preceded in age and run by only The Katzenjammer Kids (1897), Gasoline Alley (1918) and Blondie (1930). The value of the Dick Tracy strip, property & trademark is so vast that the syndicate tip-toe’s in its’ every decision about it and controls its’ content as if we are the audience of the 1950s. Why? Because that is what their client editor’s WANT you to read.
Bassmanbob, EDIT IMMEDIATELY your post that attempts to show words that are not mine. It starts with “Matthew Hansel says…” and the paragraph immediately after that is NOT my words. The words below are. You are attempting to give the impression that I am publicly attacking the strip and making fun of it. WHICH, I am NOT!!!!!!!!!
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-26T20:34:31Z Flag
Matthew, what are you talking about??? That’s your post I copied and posted. If I’m wrong then please explain my mistake. I will correct anything I did wrong.
You’re SO correct in you assessment, Sydney! Take any one of Chet’s stories and try to fit JUST his revolving cast of character’s and their statements into the PRINTED strip today. Try it, my friend. You’ll be appalled at the results. Not only can the creator NOT maintain a strong cast of character’s because of the space constraints, but they can’t even allow the character’s they CAN fit into the space the opportunity to say enough to move the story along. You’re right on both accounts, Sydney, but you’re expecting something that can’t be accomplished in anywhere near the same way it was historically.
And, don’t take Matt’s and my word for it – Milton Caniff howled repeatedly over the last 10 year’s of Steve Canyon’s run that his ART AND STORY SUFFERED MIGHTILY AT THE HANDS OF THE NEWSPAPER EDITOR’S WHO WERE SHRINKING HIM OUT OF RELEVANCE & bleeep NEAR OUT OF EXISTENCE. The greatest comic strip artist AND writer of ALL TIME said as much, and he had at least 65% more space than Jim Scancarelli, Ted Slampyak or Dick Locher have to work with today. Again, Tracy is constrained by a set of standards not applicable to the current creator’s of Gas Alley, Orphan Annie or Brenda Starr. NO ONE OTHER THAN THE EDITOR KNOWS WHY!
‘Fans don’t have a voice”?
Really? They sure had enough to SHUT DOWN a nonsense strip in the NY Daily News and also in 300 papers nation wide out of the current artists “inheritance” of THREE HUNDRED & FIFTY papers, which THEN in an interview, he said “made him RICH!” Many surveys among readers made it so. Hiding behind coat-tails doesn’t help. Face up to those WHO fire the FINAL shot!
I guess all this will give LIAM a Throbbing Headache !
Fans DO obviously have a voice, Sydney. That isn’t what Matt stated. Your voice, however, should be aimed squarely at your newspaper editor who BUYS the strip’s for the paper you read. You can say whatever you want about and to Dick Locher, but he can’t do anything because he inherited a property OWNED & CONTROLLED by Tribune Media Services. TMS dictates every detail of THEIR final product. You demand change, as so many others do – demand your satisfaction from the entity that provides you the strip to consume (your newspaper or gocomics.com) and, in their obvious financial interest to increase THEIR readership numbers by pleasing their customers, they communicate dissatisfaction up to the editor’s at TMS! Only then will there be a possibility to see real change.
Dick Locher is approaching eighty years old. His time producing the strip is limited, by contract, as you’ve stated here many times before, Sydney.
What’s your idea? DL retires and whomever inherits the strip is going to restore it to its’ rightful status? This is a fairy tale, my friend. TMS will continue to OWN & CONTROL every detail of the strip, as they do and exercise now. The only way to provoke the change you’ve been clamoring for now for so many years can only come from the top – and, the top is NOT the creator. The creator of these classic, inherited strips are simply keeping a seat warm for the next guy or girl who is CHOSEN as hired help to produce TMS’s property. Wake up, man!
“I have a feeling NeonLeon doesn’t give a rip about the strip, rather comes here for the witty comments. No offense, NeonLeon, but their wouldn’t be any witty commentary here if the strip could thrive without these constraints.”
You’re exactly wrong. I’ve loved Dick Tracy since I learned to read in the mid 60s. And I’ve followed it online for years. Only in the past few months did I start following the comments posted here. I have enjoyed - and contributed to - the “witty comments”. And as an author myself, I know being thick-skinned is a necessary defense. I don’t mind the criticisms of the strip - it’s all in good fun and makes for a good SECONDARY reason to come here (you see, I DO “give a rip about the strip”).
What’s pathetic is how the comments area here has lately devolved into personal attacks, counter-attacks, and downright meanness. Much of it is done under the guise of defending the author, but those messages are the most mean-spirited of all.
Criticism of the author, I can handle. But what it’s become lately is sad.
Sorry, Liam, if I’m contributing to your nausea, but what’s all this arguing about worth if there isn’t some larger goal to achieve? I, for one, would rather see everyone’s satisfaction achieved by provoking real change in this strip. Problem here is, too many believe in these false truths that get their arguments nowhere fast. Again, sorry for the nausea.
Could it be that the reason that “Dick Tracy” is so heavily controlled by the “syndicate”, is that is the only way they can get even a marginally coherent strip? If this strip were to be given the free rein as Annie and Gasoline Ally are alleged to have, I shudder to think of the complete lack of coherency that would ensue. Bear with me on this, but there has been a major explosion very near a police detectives home, AND HE DOES NOTHING! No attempt to contact headquarters, no attempt to secure the scene, in fact he does nothing that a veteran and professional police officer would be expected to do. We cannot read between the scenes, we have only what is provided to us to form our impression of the story line. My impression is that there is a serious lack of continuity in the story line and the depiction of the main character is that he is befuddled and is long past his prime as an effective detective (does this make him a defective). We, the consumers are what keeps this strip alive, not some editor in some newspaper. Without the readers there can be no “Dick Tracy”, if anyone is concerned for the future of this strip, then they would do well to listen to the comments, whether they are good or bad, well reasoned or just plain snarky. Even the ad hominem attacks can be productive, as some contain a grain of truth. Remove the ability of readers to criticize the strip and you will see it;s demise shortly thereafter.
On that note, I feel my zeal for broadcasting the truth about some of this has gotten the best of me and I’m going to sign off here for the day.
I just please ask that those of you who really want to see this strip get back to what it once was consider the statements made here today. I want the best for Dick Tracy and the very best strip for myself and ALL readers to enjoy. This property needs a serious reappraisal at the TOP, so it doesn’t fade into irrelevance as so many other great classic strips have over the years.
I don’t “diss” the comic or the writer because I find it amusing. I do so to point out the problems and weaknesses in the vain hopes of getting him to improve. His efforts on this series are totally and completely below any acceptable standards for a strip as historically important and treasured as this one.
The story’s inept on every level. The artwork is awful. Dick Tracy and the readers deserve better. I just think Locher needs to know it.
I don’t do it out of hate. I do it out of love.
——————————————————————————–
Do you beat your wife to show her how much you love her?
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-25T21:06:15Z Flag
Matthew, when I posted only the last line you said I was taking you out of context. When I post the entire post you say I’m misleading people. I really don’t get it.
What do you want? Maybe I’m just getting a little tired.
Liam, if your not going to remove both Matthew and me then remove me.
Jeff, We’re talking about ‘substance’ here. not vague concepts about Chet’s work unable to fit into panel space today.
A simple test would be to take a careful look at Chet’s last few stories and Collins’ as well. Length of text and art and you will see that they CAN fit. Lets not use a ‘broad brush’ on the issue.
More importantly the current story seems to skid and jerk without clear direction. Readers wonder if this is intentional or if the Author has not yet made up his mind? Will it happen by nexT week?
After SIX and a half weeks there is still no crime. No bad guy clearly identified (?) Is this one of those stories Locher ‘thinks’ is a mystery (?) or is it a version of what MPH likes to tout as superb “suspense”?
Some may seem to overreact but there is frustration here that Locher could easily have avoided by simply “getting to the POINT!”
To readers are seeing far too much ‘REPETITION’, a point I think I noted in a recent post. But as I have said before our man in Naperville seems quite ‘contented’ with his current style.
You should read my recent posts on the other board. They are VERY pointed and show how Locher is climbing a brand new tree. Those that Gould and Collins climbed needed to be ‘changed’, but I’m afraid that although DL seems to ‘fancy’ himself, his record on that score of change is not a distinguished one!
Sorry, I’m a realist!
Liam, you’ve had the beginning’s of a DICK TRACY reader revolt on your hands, my friend, and it seems to me it is gaining more of a fevered pitch with each passing day.
I’m so glad someone ELSE pointed out that offensive “do you beat your wife” comment Matthew made yesterday… That riled me, but it would only have made it worse to respond to such nonsense with anything other than a flagging.
Matthew, there’s no reason to argue with everyone here. We all have our own views on this, but no one view is necessarily correct. However, having said that, I stick by my original opinion… No matter what constraints are being placed upon Locher, the current state of the strip is inexcusable. Is it the job of the writer and artist to provide, at minimum, a coherant story for the reader to follow, both through the art and through the script. This provides neither.
As many, including myself, have pointed out, the actions of the characters do not make any logical sense, from Tracy not following basic police procedures to this cosmetics exec wanting to sell something to the general public that’s an obvious threat to human life without anything like, you know, testing ahead of time. At the same time, we have wildly fluxuating body proportions, vanishing joints and digits, and characters whose basic appearances are often not even stable from one panel to the next.
In short, it looks and reads like nothing any professional would actually put out unless they were TRYING for some surrealistic approach. Even in a strip infamous for the likes of the Moon Maid, the recent storylines have been among the worst comic strip serials I have ever read.
I understand you wanting to defend the strip, but even with constraints, there should still be some sign of professionalism in the strip. I see no logic, no reason, no proportion, and all too often no progress.
Take today’s strip for example. You have a professional businesswoman hearing that this new product blew up. Instead of saying that it clearly needs more testing and refining before it goes near the general public, she’s ready to send it to the shelves. At the same time, Tess is agreeing with her all the way when she should have figured out by now that the perfume is a threat to human life. Dick Tracy, a lifelong officer dedicated to protecting the public, is standing idily by and even ENCOURAGING this nonsense when he could very rightly just arrest the woman right now for her admission that she wants to sell said deadly chemical to the public.
Regarding the artwork, look at the woman’s hand. Her pinky is growing out of her ring finger at an akward angle. That’s not just grotesque, that’s revolting. It would have taken Locher maybe two minutes to fix that hand at most.
I can’t see how this story is in any way defensible. It’s complete nonsense. The artwork is horrifingly bad. Dick Tracy deserves better than this. We all do.
Constraints or no, Locher should be able to do better. That he doesn’t is depressing.
Hey, everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, though from the look of the Saturday and Sunday comment sections, no one left their computers. ;-P
First of all, let me say that there are no plans to have anyone banished from the site. So we can all stop calling for the banishment of others, ourselves, Dick Locher, Dr. Liam C. Noll, etc. We’re not into banishing. As I said in my Thursday posts, we’re not even into removing comments. These comment sections were created so readers like you could have a forum where all kinds of viewpoints related to the comic could be expressed. We’re not about to shut that down because someone realized Dick Locher tends to draw small hands and had the AUDACITY to point it out to others.
After reading through all of the comments since Thursday, I think the main thing we need to clear up is what makes a comment “personal” or “disrespectful.” Here is an example: No one at GoComics is going to bat an eye if you say “I can’t stand this story.” Other posters will agree or disagree. As consumers of comic strip art, anyone who reads Dick Tracy or any other comic is qualified to have and express an opinion, and that opinion should be respected by other posters, whether it’s praise or criticism. Where we have to draw the line is somewhere between “I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the most recent plot developments (or lack thereof) and this is why…” and “You don’t spend a lot of time with the opposite sex, do you, you basement dwelling mouth-breather?” There is a wide range between those comments. One is respectful (overly so, to my taste), the other is a personal attack, and most importantly, has nothing to do with the comic. We’d like you to keep respect in mind when disagreeing and to draw the line at personal attacks. If you find yourself typing a personal attack, which can come in the form of name-calling, accusations, depicting another person in a way that anyone with common sense would find unflattering, etc. - just don’t do it. The best piece of advice I can offer is, keep it about the comic. If you venture into criticisms of other posters, you’re getting into a gray area that may or may not result in your comment being removed. We want this place to be fun for everyone, not just for you and those who agree with you.
I hope it’s obvious by now that no one here at GoComics has any interest in censoring people’s points of view about our comics. If you love this strip, make a comment. If you hate it, make a comment. Just leave criticism of other posters out of your comments.
Let me assure everyone here I am not DLisagenius or any one else. Just Fishbulb, a Simpsons reference. Yes, I have a modicum of knowledge about the strip. I read it in the papers in the early sixties to early seventies. Read it up to the time Chester was replaced. I have also got the Blackthorne reprints and quite a few of the Spec publications. And some books that came out about the time of Warren Beatty’s “opus”. And the reissued Northern Lights models. I have been reading the strip online for some time and only recently began to follow the comments. Which did open my eyes as to how bad it was. I knew the plotting was weak at best, but I paid scant attention to the artwork, except to wonder why folks had such deformed and stubby arms. The recently completed robot story is a good example of this. The robots changed size, shape, configuration, speech patterns, and one of them even changed names. If folks on this board noticed this, shouldn’t the editor, let alone writer/artist? If people here enjoy playing MST3K with this strip, and can do so easily, what does that tell us about the quality of the strip, or lack thereof? I didn’t realize Angelorius, or whatever her name is was talking to a door until someone mentioned it. I’m just a reader. But if a reader notices this, again, shouldn’t editor & artist? No attempt at a back round at all in panel 2. Some vague shape next to Tracy in panel 3. I thought yesterday he was going to search the home of Dr. Noll (who has vanished today). Instead he is here discussing cosmetics marketing. Of an exploding perfume. I don’t think any of the above remarks are juvenile. As opposed to the following: Ding Dong! Napalm calling. Sorry.
And one more thing. I have a perfect dang right to count how many times an obsessive poster posts. And that does not make me a stalker.
Okay, so Miss Joker’s got a mutant ability to make her braclets defy gravity
I agree. A bangle would hang down from an arm, the arm would not be suspended in the middle of it. Even if a person was twirling her arm, the bracelet would act like a hula hoop with one part of the circle touching the arm at all times during the revolution.
Sigh. Nice to see SOMEONE ignored the whole “no need to argue with everyone” bit…
“Napalm Calling”… Brilliant. Best post of the day.
Glad you liked the door comment, fishbulb. Although in retrospect, she could also be talking to a wall. With very dull artwork or empty picture frames.
I get up in the morning at 3:30 am (cst) and read several of the comics. I was also amazed at the number of posts this afternoon after getting home from work. I also have been a fan of DT since learning to read in the early sixties. Although the strip these days leaves a lot to be desired,at least it’s still out there and hopefully will improve some day.
Matthew is not advocating violence in his response to another person. The other person said all of this criticism is out of love not hate. Matthew then makes the wife beating comment to show that this kind of love still hurts and is mean.
Matthew, while it’s great that you put the other person’s comments in with yours so we don’t have to scroll up, we still have to scroll up to see the person you’re commenting to. Can you start to add the xxx says when you do this?
I’m a long time “lurker,” first time poster, and I must say today’s posts have been quite mad.
Meanwhile, I’ve been reading Vol. Five of the Collected Tracys and reminded again what brought us–I presume–all together here in the first place–wonderful storytelling, poetic drawings (that sequence with the hidden boat in the “Studs” Bronzen tale!) etc.
Locher has the weird Gould sixties style down well I will give him that. But I never really got into the sixties Macy.
Yes, but then again, it’s also a bit extreme to equate criticism, even harshly worded criticism like mine, to spousal abuse. It’s apples and oranges.
Plus, it reminds me that I’ve never even had a girlfriend and am so lonely… (sniff)
What was said to me was essentially the Hitler Defense, where you jump right to equating one thing with the worst thing imaginable. It’s grossly unfair and offensive.
I gave some brutal commentary on a comic strip because I hate what it’s become and miss what it used to be. His response boils down to “You know who else hated stuff? Hitler.” And that’s just wrong.
What he said was a personal attack, not a defense of the strip. I had the exact same reaction years ago when I picked up an issue of “Doom 2099” (it tied into a Fantastic Four storyline, and I’m a rabid FF fan). The Doom series was on the fast track to cancellation and to help it along, they had an artist of about the same caliber as what we have on Tracy today. Details left and right were completely incorrect (right down to naming one building and showing a completely different one) and the art was completely amateurish. If it wasn’t essential to the FF continuity, I’d’ve chucked it into the waste bin.
I wrote one nasty letter that day. Didn’t make any difference since the damage was done, but I still felt it needed to be said. When I wrote that letter, it was out of love for the Fantastic Four. Writing what I did yesterday? Out of love for Dick Tracy. And I stand by those words. We as readers deserve better. Dick Tracy, as an institution, deserves better.
Wow! I just logged on after work too. This has to be some kind of record for # of postings on the DT comic board. I liked Liams post, too, it was very fair and good to hear from a representative of the site.
I enjoy a good laugh and am happy we can continue to comment on some of the strips’ quirks and crazy plot lines. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens with this whole perfume debacle. Will they really name it Love Fire? Or is Dicks’ face in Panel #3 the face of someone who is about to finally end the whole nutty professor charade? What will happen!!??
CyberV, you’re right. I guess after reading 100 comments, I got confused on the point I was trying to make. Basically, both of them were a little off on their comments. I still don’t think Matthew was trying to promote violence, but he could have used another way to express that he thought your comments weren’t fair.
I felt that if we got the least bit out of line, we would be kicked off the board. I know I’m not the only one that felt that way. Liam’s post today set that straight. Judy Hansel, you were told that you would be kicked off the board. Who did you hear that from? I felt that Matthew had a direct line to Gocomics, and had the ability to get anyone he wanted to removed. Did anyone else feel that way?
Margueritem,
yes I must agree with you. It was our own dear little matthew who made direct threats to Judyhansel to have her removed. His claim is of having “friends” in high places, both here and seemingly at the syndicate itself and in using them to ferret out those whom he decries as “bad guys”.
I admit to having shown up late today, like a few others after work. 124 posts, and most of them a rather heated flame war. Only “Pibgorn” regularly shows higher counts and those are friendly posts for the most part. I’ll give Liam an enormous amount of credit here, he showed far more patience than I might have been inclined to.
This is the COMICS. It’s supposed to be fun to read, maybe a bit of escapism from our otherwise hectic days. So, let’s ease up a bit on each other— and maybe even cut Dick Locher a bit of slack too. Though I do have to say that none of the people in today’s installment are acting at all normally. (Sorry, but Tess is clearly not thinking at all, D.T. hasn’t asked why this stranger just wandered in off the street and so on. I had such hopes after yesterday’s installment when D.T. finally started acting like a real detective, questioning what really exploded, too.)
Matthew, you’re still making a mountain out of a molehill. The bangle comment was meant to be funny. If it’s moving around, a couple movement lines would have solved the problem. Kirby did THAT from time to time, too. But I guess I’m just a “mouth breather”, right? My opinion doesn’t matter because it doesn’t line up with your’s? Because from your atrocious behavior, I’d gather that’s what you think.
We’re here to discuss (or in this case, roast) Dick Tracy. All bile should be directed at the strip, not each other. End of story.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my Tom and Crow puppets ready for the next barrage.
Margueritem,
yes I must agree with you. It was our own dear little matthew who made direct threats to Judyhansel to have her removed. His claim is of having “friends” in high places, both here and seemingly at the syndicate itself and in using them to ferret out those whom he decries as “bad guys”.
MPH -
I’ve been trying to stay out of your little rants but you’re going way to far, attacking everyone, even people who havent said a word to you and are trying to be nice, even when you’re attacking like a child. Lighten up. You’re obviously an intelligent person. Do you get some kind of malicious pleasure out of twisting even the most innocent comment out of context and proportion? I’m sure we’d all enjoy this much more if we werent all kicking each other around.
I think the heavy use of blacks indicates that we’re about to have a Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover. She’s sending them to the Shadow Realm where they’ll play a game of life and death. Their souls will be tested and if found unworthy, they will be cast adrift into the darkness.
…On second thought, nah. Yu-Gi-Oh! is WAY more coherant than this storyline. Even considering GX and 5D’s.
I don’t have to be attacked myself to be offended when I see others attacked. It’s called empathy. Understanding how another human being feels. Try it some time. You’ll be much happier, you sad little man.
It’s probably way to heavy for a Dick Tracy post but, hey, have you seen the discussion going on about God at Calvin & Hobbes? Anyway Matthew’s last post made me think and this poem.
When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.
When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.
Matt, if you think I’ve even bothered to read every post you’ve written you’re delusional. I only happened to glance at the one where you tried to flame Margueritem. She’s a nice person and there was no need for you to flame her. I tried to say so. I think it’s time for your medication, a nice hot cup of camomille and maybe the Tonight Show with Jey Leno before bed. He’s doing Headlines tonight, you’ll like it. It’s where Jay criticizes other people for making simple mistakes.
Matt, you don’t defend Locher out of any feelings for him. You do it for yourself. It makes you feel somehow important and superior. There is no altruistic motive here, no human empathy. Sure, you may have been reading Dick Tracy since before I was born but that doesnt make you the Last Defender of Naperville.
The fervor with which they LEAP to bring about the crusader cry “PERSONAL ATTACK” can only lead me to believe that they must feel guilty about what it is they have done, or else they would pay it no mind.
MPH
No, I feel no guilt about anything. We were asked not to attack other posters, yet you persist in doing so. I’m standing up for the others. As Dypak said, it’s called empathy.
Judyhansel, you are not a relative of mine and you are not even a real person. Stop insinuating that you know me. You do not. I’ve already asked GOCOMICS to terminate your account.
Apply that logic to me and Dick Locher and see what you come up with.
Double standard mean anything???
MPH
No one has attacked Dick Locher in the past few days since the board was wiped. You have attacked others, even today, when we were asked not to do so. I’m asking you to stop. It serves no purpose.
Lifelong DT fan, first real story was The Brain (74) but favorite bad guys were Bribery, Ugly Christine, Puckerpuss, Oodles, Flattop, Flattop Jr, Angeltop, Shakey, The Mole, Half-n-Half (’67 and ’78), Mumbles, Mumbles II, Mumbles III, etc. I LOVED THE MOON PERIOD. Not so much now, but as a kid it blew me away trying to piece it together. Obsession is probably a forgiving term…
I lost touch for in ’82 when it was dropped from local papers (for being lame, what a gold standard to present day). Moving to different cities I was able to keep up sporadically. About mid-90s, it seemed to a new hit stride being a silly parody of itself, and I could respect that; it was cute that it was still around and expectations were rather low having been away for so long.
Then it was available online and I could follow the stories; granted, I had to wait about a year so I could skip the mind-numbing repetition, but there I was clicking through. About two years ago, the strip stopped making any sense to me.
I could deal with no character development, complete thrashings of the existing character profiles and their current caricatures, non-DT color palette, lame villains, silly stories, but my oh my, since the Queen of Diamonds this has been a surreal adventure of utter badness. The Queen was a failed attempt at surrealism, her end was a complete rip-off of Ugly Christine and this lead to the Haunted House journey that forced me away from the strip for some time. I made no comment because it-was-so-intentionally-unbelievably-bad.
I returned for, I don’t know why, lifetime fan I guess, and found this Traz-E, ugh, I can’t even summon the energy to harsh on that story telling and artistry wretchedness…the only credit I can give to it was that I thought DL was making a time travel episode, where the strip actually went backwards over a week of strips, resetting to the previous Monday on Sunday. That was indeed genius, but it was like DL was angry and lashing out at anyone left reading the strip. I left until I was sure it was over, and indeed, read start to finish, the series actually goes backwards in time…the SWAT team never arrives, wait, Buddy Bot?
I don’t know who this Editor is or how to contact, but please consider this a letter to That Persons. There is a loyal group of DT-heads who are interested in helping the current situation. Newspapers will be gone within ten years and the only comics will be online. This removes size and content considerations. There is a new realm for these well-established and beloved characters to explore in the future. We are embarking on a New Depression, and, just as in 1932, we need a crime fighter to take on all the Real American Troubles with bloodthirsty symbolic vengeance without flinching and in Symbolic Old Testament Style (and this is from a pacifist!).
I feel bad when I see some of the griping and know it is mostly misdirected – Gould had what, three people keeping him from making these mistakes. I felt cheated as a kid when Gould retired, but Collins and Fletcher rocked, and quickly had me by brining back baddies, old characters and continuity that lasted years. When is the last time DT wore his trademark hat, fer crying out loud? Do The Editors even KNOW about the hat museum? Why should I care about a strip that purports to be DT but acts like this? How is this beneficial to the overall 80 year old product? Has Any Editor seen or heard of The Dark Knight or seen the Spider-Man movies?
I left again. I returned a couple weeks ago to become enmeshed in another ridiculous time travel experiment, forgetting all the previous troubles DT had with perfume (such as Oct-Nov 1976…Perfume Plenty had character development; she tricked the Plentys into taking a bogus vacation so they could use their backwoods property to water down and resell perfume with two generic yet not-completely-deformed-odious baddies. In-jokes abounded such as BO spitting chaw off a hotel balcony onto the newspaper reader below. Take THAT, newspaper readers! Perfume changed her mind, and got the baddies caught by the Plentys, who stuck them in road pipes (granted a tactic used before, but still cool how they broke out by clunking them to the BOs shotgun blasts to the pirated perfume piles). The Saturday strip before they broke out on Sunday was genius story telling – the baddies counting the shells, a shotgun blast, the baddies saying “ready”. You were jonsing for Sunday when they would break out and all heck would break loose- and it did not disappoint!). The baddies captured all the Plentys, held Perfume hostage but she pretended to be unconscious, rolled to the shotgun and caught the perfumers and, not thinking, herself. A nice (but dragged out) later-day Gould redemption story followed (for all of Gould’s last year : (. I’d love to see a forum for sharing cool DT memories, but The Editor would probably squash that.
That perfume story took place in six weeks, with in my paper, VERY small strips and tiny Sundays.
I completely disagree that DL understands the “60s” abstraction – that was more in the 70s and no, Gould’s darkening of characters made sense. Angelorious being darkened without any reason and being hailed as brilliant in today’s strip put me over the cranky edge.
Yeah, I may have offered too Low Hanging Fruit on movie adaptations…I got into Spider-Man same years as DT and I feel the pain…
But we have established The Editors are ONLY concerned about money, not The Product. I would rather see The Product carried on with mostly similarities (ugh, the Gwen Stacy/Venom issue prevented me from seeing third movie) if we can at least get the basic points right again, something we have certainly lost at this point anyhow.
I tried to make an appeal that I am a heritage DT fan. I like the Intellectual Property of the strip that Your Editors possess.
The current situation is FUBAR.
There is a group of people here who highly desire a positive outcome from our current situation and the unknowns that face the industry. I am more than willing to leave right now and return to lurking on ebay for the glory days, but I do feel The Intellectual Property of The Editors has potential for the 21st century. If this is not something we can all believe in, I will gladly return to my Non-Editor-Sanctioned cut-out-newspaper strips.
I knew we could find common ground! While I do not believe a comic book format for a traditionally daily strip would work, I would CERTAINLY pay GOOD money to see a daily, on-line, competent version of DT that was not constrained by the whims and Editor fake-morality.
Telling quote of a defeated fight: “you WIN the war with the army you have, or you shouldn’t be playing”. AUGH! what has happened to our lame excuse making country?
That comic book indeed sounds like a truly grand old time that would blow my mynd in a Dragnet Blue Man Episode Fashion. I dig, yeah. I do regret that circumstances did not allow (as I regret forsaking all chances of dating Lizz now that I spelled her name wrong…30 years of waiting in vain..augh! Please Lizz, Groovy is gone, forgive me!)…a comic book adaptation, but man, hold yourself together! We are in public, friend! These trolls, they smell denied artistry in the water.
That comic book indeed sounds like a truly grand old time that would blow my mynd in a Dragnet Blue Man Episode Fashion…………. These trolls, they smell denied artistry in the water.
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
The following is an excerpt from the incident report of Watch Commander Lt. Frank Drebin, Emergency Operations Center, Naperville Police Department. Report dated 1-09-2009,
Following reports of an explosion and strong odor, on the night of January 8, 2009, Fire and Rescue units, along with Bomb squad and Hazmat teams were dispatched to 742 Evergreen terrace (cross street Wisteria Lane). Due to information that there may be a hazardous material mishap, I instituted a reverse 911 procedure, calling homes to advise sheltering in place. Hospitals were informed to expect possible casualties and the Dept. of Homeland Security was informed as per their instructions. During this time and before the first units arrived on scene, telephone contact was established with occupant of the residence and said occupant informed dispatch that “Everything was fine here” and “No need for your services”. Because of budgetary concerns, all units responding were ordered to return to base, with the exception of Squad 51, which performed mop-up work. The scene of the blast was left unsecured, with no orders for units to patrol the area. Shelter in place restrictions were lifted at approximately 2300 hrs. Reports from Rampart General Hospital indicate persons being admitted with respiratory distress, burning eyes and throat and severe skin irritation. Injuries were also reported from flying glass and debris. Squad 51 reported odor permeated the area and compromised the integrity of their breathing apparatus and two crew members were transported to Rampart General for observation. Destruction was not limited to residence alone, an area of three blocks radius was affected with windows in homes and cars being blown out and debris being broadcast over a wide area. In a related note, Sgt. Friday and his partner Officer Gannon, were working the night watch out of Frauds Division, Bunko section, when the call came in and were dispatched to the area concerning reports of a WFA in Kabuki makeup in the area of the explosion going from home to home, working a possible Ponzi scheme on gullible women. Suspect is reportedly going by the name Angelorious Madoff. Sgt. Friday and Officer Gannon made contact with Detective Tracy in his home, who informed them that he had indeed seen the suspect, but was unaware that the woman who walked into his house unannounced and who was unknown to him or his wife and talking about making millions selling a line of nonexistent cosmetics, could possibly be a crime suspect.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
I’m reminded of a vacuum cleaner when I read the latest updates.
Great job once again, WW!
sydney almost 16 years ago
Whenever they are caught out, the escape hatch that opens is usually … “Why? It’s only a comic strip! (As if to say, Hey! Why are you taking it so seriously) I come back to Groc on ‘speech’, “for us it’s free and if you praise it’s also for thee.
drwatson almost 16 years ago
“Oh Dick, it’s a wonderful name” Something about that isn’t quite right.
LudwigVonDrake almost 16 years ago
I half expected not to be able to post today due to the efforts of Dorothy and Toto. I think we’re all living on borrowed time folks.
That said, that doesn’t look like Tess in the second panel. Consistency is not in the Artist’s repertoire.
invisifan almost 16 years ago
Is Tracy looking concerned or hopeful about Tess possibly wearing explosive perfume?
eggfu almost 16 years ago
Is Tess being sarcastic? If not then why does she have such a deadened expression?
neonleon59 almost 16 years ago
Is “merchandizing” anything like “merchandising?”
CyberV almost 16 years ago
Okay, so Miss Joker’s got a mutant ability to make her braclets defy gravity. She’s using that to hypnotize Dick and Tess into thinking that wearing explosive chemicals is a brilliant thing to do.
At the same time, in case it doesn’t work, she’s sending coherant shadows to engulf the Tracys. Tess is immediately immersed, but Dick, having turned away to avoid the hypnosis, still stands a small chance for survival. All he needs to do is keep Miss Joker talking and focused on everything except her evil.
Also, why is Miss Joker talking to a closed door? And why is Tess wearing clown makeup?
In happier news, check THIS out: http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cgi?setupfile=fignews2.setup&category=actionfigures&topic=65&showarticle=989&nl=1
A Dick Tracy Tonner doll!
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Angelorious was glad Tess came back to the house. She was especially excited when Tess told her about Dr. Noll and the explosion. Every since that day when she was injured during the explosion at the plastic surgery hospital Angelorious became obsessed with explosions and fire. She knew she was fortunate they saved her life, but she hated the fact that her arms had to always be extended as if she was a flapping bird. She did, however enjoy that she was able to sneak in an occasional ‘flip of the bird’ to those she despised. “The perfume exploded? Great! I’ve got a name for it. LOVE FIRE” Tess couldn’t take her eyes off of Angelorious. “What an amazing women” she thought. “LOVE FIRE, oh Dick, it’s a wonderful name”. Tracy just stood there, upset that Tess never called him ‘Love Fire’. He hated the fact that on those rare occasions they got together she always called him ‘Pee Wee’. “Will you do the merchandizing yourselves”?
Memo to Liam. Matthew must go. He is too violent with his words. He cannot or will not consider toning down even a little bit. Please remove him. To show how serious I am with this request I am asking that you remove me at the same time. That will be a small sacrifice to restore the peaceful nature of this posting board.
Thank you. Peace. Joy, and happiness always.
BB
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
bassmanbob–I’ve not “stalked people” on the internet like some people have (yourself included).
Matthew, that statement is a total and blatant lie & you know that! You are a liar!
JonD17 almost 16 years ago
margueritemPro says:
I’m reminded of a vacuum cleaner when I read the latest updates. Great job once again, WW!
Marg, you mean when you reach the point where the bag has to be changed, or the tub emptied?
davboyd almost 16 years ago
This whole story line is absurd. The events of the last three weeks would be condensed to three days if Mr. Gould were the author. I am amused at the other postings here making fun of Locher, etc., but let’s not forget that the Dick Tracy comic strip used to be a part of growing up for millions of loyal readers. As you read the first 5 volumes of Mr. Gould’s works beginning in the 30’s, you quickly realize that the story lines have a delicate balance of politics, education and entertainment that’s not found in any other medium today. The modern day Dick Tracy strip should be terminated ASAP. It is an abomination of disrespect for the original author’s unique style and imagination that made Dick Tracy worthy of reprinting in the hardcover volumes available today.
JonD17 almost 16 years ago
bassmanbob says:
Angelorious was glad Tess came back to the house. She was especially excited when Tess told her about Dr. Noll and the explosion. Every since that day when she was injured during the explosion at the plastic surgery hospital Angelorious became obsessed with explosions and fire. She knew she was fortunate they saved her life, but she hated the fact that her arms had to always be extended as if she was a flapping bird………
Wow Bassman, I think you hit it on the head here…. the old ploy of a plot within a plot…. how novel. Seriously that would definitely make the story line more interesting!
As far as matthew, I agree with you and even though I am only a rookie here I add my name to your “virtual” petition
margueritem almost 16 years ago
CyberV says: In happier news, check THIS out: http://www.figures.com/databases/action.cgi?setupfile=fignews2.setup&category=actionfigures&topic=65&showarticle=989&nl=1
A Dick Tracy Tonner doll!
Nice looking action figure!bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
“You’ve admitted to doing as much. So, NO, no lie here.” MPH
Matthew, I have NEVER stalked ANYONE on the internet and have NEVER admitted to doing so. Either you are delusional or a bold faced liar. DO NOT try to tarnish me Matthew. Liam, when you get back from your weekend vacation please honor my request and remove both Matthew and myself. He cannot be allowed to create such havoc! You have to act!
BB
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew, your “recollection” regarding me is incorrect! Perhaps you SHOULD have gone through the pages of the COMICSPAGE screen shots you saved to confirm what you accused me of before haphazardly tossing it out there. Please either verify what you’ve said or retract you false statement.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
I SO don’t want to get into this again, but I have to say that the truths you refer to here, Matt, are indeed correct regarding Chet’s editorial environment vs. Dick’s.
You know, we share some common ground among us, even though we may disagree often on details. We ALL want the strip to be the very best it CAN be – that goes double for DL. The biggest hurdle that must be overcome for this strip to EVER get back to its’ roots and provide entertainment to its’ readers, is for TMS to begin reversing some of the editorial constraints placed upon the strip over the last 20+ years. The problem TMS faces in doing so, is that it jeopardizes losing those newspaper clients who buy and publish Tracy every day.
The problem, at its’ roots, is that the newspaper industry has consistently shrunk the comic strip’s it publishes to an almost unintelligible point – a point, I fear, of no return. Unless the industry WAKES UP and realizes that the NEWS is not the only thing the readers demand – comics and entertainment features ranking highest among readership positives – not only will the Dick Tracy strip continue to suffer, but the print newspaper medium may very well collapse on itself. To some degree, it already has.
With weekly reports of newspaper’s cutting ENTIRE PAGES of their Sunday comic sections as a “cost-cutting” measure (give me a break!), they are cutting off their noses to spite their face. The hardest thing for me to accept, yet it is confirmed repeatedly to me among those who are “in the know,” is that Tracy is subject to editorial constraints that other strips in the TMS stable are not. This is completely unfair and is killing this strip with each passing day.
I’m off my soap-box.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
bassmanbob:
I’m not going to go through the COMICSPAGE screen shots.
A) they are hard to read B) Even if I presented proof, nobody here will believe it anyway. C) I believe you admitted to me in a private email that you did not condone MORROW’s behavior.
I still recall you jumping on the bandwagon, though.
Again, if I am wrong, please accept my apologies.
MPH
Points A & B, your guilty of the same “Tricks” you despise in everyone else. A) It’s no one’s fault that the screen shots are “hard to read”. If your going to refer to them them then you need to take the time to verify that what you claim they contain is correct.
B) Classic “blame others” tactic. It’s “OUR” fault because we won’t believe any “proof” you submit so why bother presenting the proof. Unbelievably hypocritical of you.
C) In the “private email” we shared I let you know that I disagree with ANYONE who crosses the line of civility and that still holds be it you, me, Morrow, or even Liam!
I accept your apology.
BB
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
“Do you beat your wife to show her how much you love her?”
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-25T21:06:15Z Flag
Here you go Matthew, here’s your answer.
davboyd almost 16 years ago
“You realize that you are comparing apples to oranges, right? Chet didn’t operate in the same “editorial” environment that Locher does. Chet was the CREATOR of the strip and PERSONAL FRIENDS with Col. McCORMICK and Joe PATTERSON, which allowed him a great deal of leverage and latitude. Both McCormick and Patterson were made of sterner stuff than today’s newspaper people and would not knee-jerk react to any criticism of the paper or the features. In fact, they actually were willing to LOSE READERS if they completely believed in a cause. Something sorely lacking in today’s newspaper environment where, because of the HUGE corporate ownership of those enterprises, they’ve been forced to chase every reader and every dollar which has forever, totally and completely changed the news business in this country.
Locher operates in an environment where they regulate how many guns he is allowed to show on panel every year, how many car chases he’s allowed, how many dead bodies he’s allowed to show, how much of a woman’s body is acceptable, etc. And those are just the ART rules!
So making a comparison to Chester Gould, along these lines, is not a fair comparison at all.
Also, remember, Chester believed in moving forward at all costs. He didn’t listen to the critics (Moon era anyone, or the law-and-order era of the 70s anyone?). He moved forward with his vision and if people didn’t like it, he said the heck with’em.
Remember, TMS approves EVERY strip that Locher does and they OWN the strip. Consider that.
MPH”
You are totally correct, MPH. But the bottom line is that the ridiculous snail’s pace of this strip with the silly story lines are not worthy of calling this “Dick Tracy” in any way, shape or form. I guess I get sucked in every day with the false hope that it will improve, but I really know it’s only getting worse by the week.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
I guess the larger POINT of my post is this – the majority of those who post here direct blame squarely at DL, though he has only his EDITOR to please. His editor provides him an up-or-down vote on every strip he produces, knowing full well that he (the editor) must please his individual newspaper client’s who buy the strip every week. As long as newspaper editor’s are unwilling to accept their complicity in all of this and give the readers WHAT THEY WANT, the strip will remain the same. Interestingly, the internet provides comic strip creator’s the opportunity to thrive, absent these antiquainted constraints. This problem isn’t a recent one, folks – it has slowly gotten worse each and every year since WW2, but the corporate environment of the industry over the last 20 years has made it much worse.
If we really want to provoke change in the Tracy strip, we need to quit blaming those who have no complicity in this mess and demand that TMS open their eyes and take some risks in reversing these policies and truly pleasing their customers – US. You are ALL to be congratulated for contacting TMS in December and preventing them from ending the strip outright. It isn’t enough, though. TMS can hire the finest writer’s and/or artist’s of our time when DL ultimately retires, and they are going to face the same policies DL has been forced to accept. That, my friends, is the truth!
Now, we can continue to quibble childishly over matters that are unimportant to our shared mission of improving the strip, or we can focus on our common interest and demand action from TMS to level the playing field once and for all. These petty differences are just distracting us from the larger issue at hand and preventing TMS from even considering such action. Taking each of you at your word, I say we have a real good shot of making something happen.
neonleon59 almost 16 years ago
This is beyond pathetic.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
So, employing logic and common sense about this mess is “pathetic”? I have a feeling NeonLeon doesn’t give a rip about the strip, rather comes here for the witty comments. No offense, NeonLeon, but their wouldn’t be any witty commentary here if the strip could thrive without these constraints.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
One more thing Matthew. The fact that you had no problem discussing the contents of our private emails to try to make a point shows a lot about your character, integrity & trustworthiness.
BB
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Come on, BMB, you’ve said those very words Matt mentioned here and over at the Comicspage group repeatedly. He didn’t reveal anything you haven’t yourself already stated. It is to your credit, I feel, that MPH acknowledged and repeated your wise sentiment on civility once again.
Peace.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
And, NeonLeon, I agree with you wholeheartedly if your assessment of pathetic refers to this widely-held fallacy that comic strip and comic book creator’s (writers & artists) produce their work for their readers. Especially with comic strip’s – the editor is paying their bills, not us. Though the more commercially successful strip’s do provide additional income to creator’s, to the extent contractually agreed upon. Otherwise, IMHO, this repeatedly stated notion & widely held belief here reveals the novices among us.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Jeff, Matthew doesn’t need you to defend him, he’s certainly able to do so himself. Since you’ve felt the need to add you two cents, let me say that you’ve missed the whole point. The issue isn’t what was said but the fact the Matthew choose to discuss our private emails
publicly.
I am somewhat surprised that you would give him a pass on that violation. I’m wondering out loud, do you agree with everything Matthew has said the past week and his method of expressing his views? BB
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Liam, I still have hope you realize Matthew needs to go and please take me with him.
BB
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
“I’m still waiting for answers on the other issues that YOU HAVE MADE ABOUT ME.”
Time’s a’wastin’.
MPH
I’ve tried Matthew and you dismissed it with a wave of your hand.
BB
davboyd almost 16 years ago
MPH, I get the point. But what does any of that have to do with the obvious lack of substance, stalling and repetitiveness we see ad nauseum? Just move it along faster and it would help tremendously.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Well, let me say this, BMB:
As I stated previously, I wasn’t visiting here over the past three weeks. It wasn’t until I spoke with Matt late last week that I learned of any of this. I visited and scrolled through the comments since I last posted, and you’ve already stated what I agree with that the discussion here began taking on a particularly offensive tone.
I know, as you do as well, that their is a, shall we say, controversial history between Matt and some who post regularly here. I don’t think it particularly mattered WHAT Matt started out saying in his first post here, we likely would have the same result. That being said, and I’m sure this is no surprise to you, I would likely not have stormed in the way Matt did, but that is really due mostly to the fact that I feel I already have some description of rapport here with the other poster’s. They KNOW me and what I believe and a few of my opinions about the strip. Not having the benefit of posting here regularly, and I’m certain somewhat outraged at the continuing smears and make-believe being discussed about both of us, Matt responded the way he did because he’s a person who loves a good debate but doesn’t believe that personal attacks win the argument. He acted accordingly to defend himself.
As you’ve likely read from late yesterday, I’ve also acted in MY defense by asking Liam to settle this matter about my hiding behind other screen names. To me, doing so is dishonest and I don’t condone the behavior. Especially when it comes to personally slandering someone. As much as we may discuss and argue about here, you really don’t KNOW me. You don’t really KNOW Matt. You think you do because of what he has said in defense of himself after stating his opinions and why he has them. But words MEAN things, you see. Matt’s professional pursuits require that he act in the best interest of defending his reputation and, like the rest of us who comment here using our real names, deserve protection under the law. I, likewise, have volunteered and sacrificed an awful lot for the benefit of the Museum and continue in my work preserving and expanding Chester Gould’s legacy, and also must act to defend myself in protection of my reputation, for the larger interests I serve. You see, its not all fun and games when you’ve invested so much for so long into something so much larger than yourself. One can’t risk letting it all fall apart based on false notions and gossip.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Also, BMB, Matt & I are not connected at the hip. Matt has his opinions and I have mine. I continue to state here that I’ll decide what opinions I share about certain topics. I’ll choose when I want to speak up and when I don’t. Do not accept my silence on matters as agreement or disagreement on every topic at hand, BMB. If I chose to be that way, you’d never hear the end of it. I choose my words carefully here. I don’t always agree with Matt and Matt doesn’t always agree with me. We’re just two people, about the same age, who happen to like Dick Tracy. Gimme a break – you know better, BMB, as I’ve stated as much repeatedly here and at Comicspage. As you see, I’m not rising up knee-jerk in defense or agreement with all his comments. I have very set ideas and I focus my commentary where I believe it will do the most good in the grand scheme of things.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Where did I ever say that, Grok? Again, you’re putting words in my mouth I didn’t ever say. Do I admire the man? Yes. Do I consider his larger body of work over his 50+ year career in my opinions of him? Yes, again. I’ve never said such things, otherwise. Puhleese? Your just PO’d that the air has quickly come out of your tired balloon. Gimme a break. You’re going to have to do better than that. The only member here that leaves no question is this cat, DLisagenius.
sydney almost 16 years ago
COMPLETELY ABSOLVED of RESPONSIBILITY ! It’s a little tiring to come on the board and see these vaccuous posts signed by one person. It gives more than a Chester Gould “CLEW” on the strategy and techniques used by the “Boys Brigade” from Naperville. “CLOUD OUT” every syllable that hints of the slightest criticizm of the MAN we admire. Young readers who visit the Board must not be exposed to this “heresy”. What matters is Dick LOCHER not the memory of Dick TRACY. Tracy must take his seat at the BACK of the Bus, not up front with our hero. As you see, we fight tooth and hair shirt nails to maintain that arrangement. Every analysis is couched in coded language to convince “It’s the shrinkage of space, the Editor’s require it, just a very special surreal style (To gloss over artistic incompetense)”, and when as it all comes tumbling down (a house built on cards) and embarassingly there are no more “excuses” to wave, SAY, “Why? It’s only a comic strip”. The techniques failed on the other board because a few people “stood up”, not willing to see a favorite Author idolised to a point where the WELFARE of the product became LESS important. Deep down, the Boys know that flaws are scattered all over the place, so every move made is to defend and protect. You can kick Tracy but you’ll never pin a donkey tail on their man. They’re never ever seen to praise the “Dick Tracy” comic strip; note, only the WORK produced by their favorite artist. In their lexicon, that folks, is what these 100 or so ‘long legged’ posts are all about. It’s so mindful of an over emotional High School “Cheering” Squad. Remember, my friend you’re here to ‘LEARN’ not to give little ‘Peaboy wanna-be a coconut’ lectures to people who where THERE before you ever nestled up to the rubber duckie !
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Sorry Jeff but I can’t pick and choose when and whom I decide to defend. You and I have disagreed quite often in the past but when I felt others were treating you unfairly I choose to defend you. I have in the past defended Matthew(he might not remember and I don’t have the snapshots saved) and even Dick Locher. I suppose we all have to answer to our own calling. All I can say is if someone who I was close to crossed a line I would let them know.
There are times silence doesn’t work.
BB
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Fair enough, BassmanBob. I’ve defended you also when talking with Matt, so it all goes around.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
I don’t “diss” the comic or the writer because I find it amusing. I do so to point out the problems and weaknesses in the vain hopes of getting him to improve. His efforts on this series are totally and completely below any acceptable standards for a strip as historically important and treasured as this one. The story’s inept on every level. The artwork is awful. Dick Tracy and the readers deserve better. I just think Locher needs to know it. I don’t do it out of hate. I do it out of love.
——————————————————————————–
Do you beat your wife to show her how much you love her?
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-25T21:06:15Z Flag
Here you go Matthew, the entire post. What’s taking out of context?
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Oh, Sydney – your sad, tired rhetoric is so stale that there’s dust all over my keyboard. Educate YOURSELF about the business you’re continuously pontificating about, and then let’s continue this debate. I admire your passion, Sydney, but this isn’t about DL, it’s ALL about Dick Tracy. Your smoke and mirrors game, pinning this same argument upon us, is weak. Strategy? MPH, he thinks we have a STRATEGY, as if we’re somehow in league with one another and Dick! Once again, your overactive imagination has gotten the better of you, Sydney, old pal. Let me guess – your next comment will be that we’re part of a conspiracy out to silence you all. What a fantasy!
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Thank you Matthew for removing the post that said I didn’t keep my promise to only call you Matthew(or Matt/Matty) I’m glad to see you realized you were wrong.
BB
jkersten almost 16 years ago
DOH!
sydney almost 16 years ago
‘Only the Editor to please”? There you go again, another cop-out. Why should you try to hide his weaknesses behind an Editor’s coat tails? Doesn’t the man have enough pride to accept that at the end of the day he MUST produce a good product and it’s the public that makes Dicky run? He must at the end of the day please THEM!
jkersten almost 16 years ago
If I’ve learned nothing else from year’s of researching the strip and its’ many creators, it is this:
Today, DICK TRACY is larger than any one of its’ creators. No one who is familiar with the Gould work could argue that he alone is due the greatest credit for its’ continued existence. The DT strip is the fourth oldest continuously published strip in America today, preceded in age and run by only The Katzenjammer Kids (1897), Gasoline Alley (1918) and Blondie (1930). The value of the Dick Tracy strip, property & trademark is so vast that the syndicate tip-toe’s in its’ every decision about it and controls its’ content as if we are the audience of the 1950s. Why? Because that is what their client editor’s WANT you to read.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
You promised to call me MATTHEW or MATT…Matty is a pejorative.
And–you’re welcome.
MPH
I really didn’t think you would be offended by calling you Matty. I will refrain from using it going forward.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
Bassmanbob, EDIT IMMEDIATELY your post that attempts to show words that are not mine. It starts with “Matthew Hansel says…” and the paragraph immediately after that is NOT my words. The words below are. You are attempting to give the impression that I am publicly attacking the strip and making fun of it. WHICH, I am NOT!!!!!!!!! MPH
Posted: 2009-01-26T20:34:31Z Flag
Matthew, what are you talking about??? That’s your post I copied and posted. If I’m wrong then please explain my mistake. I will correct anything I did wrong.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
You’re SO correct in you assessment, Sydney! Take any one of Chet’s stories and try to fit JUST his revolving cast of character’s and their statements into the PRINTED strip today. Try it, my friend. You’ll be appalled at the results. Not only can the creator NOT maintain a strong cast of character’s because of the space constraints, but they can’t even allow the character’s they CAN fit into the space the opportunity to say enough to move the story along. You’re right on both accounts, Sydney, but you’re expecting something that can’t be accomplished in anywhere near the same way it was historically.
And, don’t take Matt’s and my word for it – Milton Caniff howled repeatedly over the last 10 year’s of Steve Canyon’s run that his ART AND STORY SUFFERED MIGHTILY AT THE HANDS OF THE NEWSPAPER EDITOR’S WHO WERE SHRINKING HIM OUT OF RELEVANCE & bleeep NEAR OUT OF EXISTENCE. The greatest comic strip artist AND writer of ALL TIME said as much, and he had at least 65% more space than Jim Scancarelli, Ted Slampyak or Dick Locher have to work with today. Again, Tracy is constrained by a set of standards not applicable to the current creator’s of Gas Alley, Orphan Annie or Brenda Starr. NO ONE OTHER THAN THE EDITOR KNOWS WHY!
sydney almost 16 years ago
‘Fans don’t have a voice”? Really? They sure had enough to SHUT DOWN a nonsense strip in the NY Daily News and also in 300 papers nation wide out of the current artists “inheritance” of THREE HUNDRED & FIFTY papers, which THEN in an interview, he said “made him RICH!” Many surveys among readers made it so. Hiding behind coat-tails doesn’t help. Face up to those WHO fire the FINAL shot!
I guess all this will give LIAM a Throbbing Headache !
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Just to be clear, the “standards” that I refer to relate to the writing, most specifically.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Fans DO obviously have a voice, Sydney. That isn’t what Matt stated. Your voice, however, should be aimed squarely at your newspaper editor who BUYS the strip’s for the paper you read. You can say whatever you want about and to Dick Locher, but he can’t do anything because he inherited a property OWNED & CONTROLLED by Tribune Media Services. TMS dictates every detail of THEIR final product. You demand change, as so many others do – demand your satisfaction from the entity that provides you the strip to consume (your newspaper or gocomics.com) and, in their obvious financial interest to increase THEIR readership numbers by pleasing their customers, they communicate dissatisfaction up to the editor’s at TMS! Only then will there be a possibility to see real change.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Dick Locher is approaching eighty years old. His time producing the strip is limited, by contract, as you’ve stated here many times before, Sydney.
What’s your idea? DL retires and whomever inherits the strip is going to restore it to its’ rightful status? This is a fairy tale, my friend. TMS will continue to OWN & CONTROL every detail of the strip, as they do and exercise now. The only way to provoke the change you’ve been clamoring for now for so many years can only come from the top – and, the top is NOT the creator. The creator of these classic, inherited strips are simply keeping a seat warm for the next guy or girl who is CHOSEN as hired help to produce TMS’s property. Wake up, man!
LiamC Premium Member almost 16 years ago
No headache yet, Sydney. Definitely a bit of nausea, though…
neonleon59 almost 16 years ago
Jeff Kersten says:
“I have a feeling NeonLeon doesn’t give a rip about the strip, rather comes here for the witty comments. No offense, NeonLeon, but their wouldn’t be any witty commentary here if the strip could thrive without these constraints.”
You’re exactly wrong. I’ve loved Dick Tracy since I learned to read in the mid 60s. And I’ve followed it online for years. Only in the past few months did I start following the comments posted here. I have enjoyed - and contributed to - the “witty comments”. And as an author myself, I know being thick-skinned is a necessary defense. I don’t mind the criticisms of the strip - it’s all in good fun and makes for a good SECONDARY reason to come here (you see, I DO “give a rip about the strip”).
What’s pathetic is how the comments area here has lately devolved into personal attacks, counter-attacks, and downright meanness. Much of it is done under the guise of defending the author, but those messages are the most mean-spirited of all.
Criticism of the author, I can handle. But what it’s become lately is sad.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Sorry, Liam, if I’m contributing to your nausea, but what’s all this arguing about worth if there isn’t some larger goal to achieve? I, for one, would rather see everyone’s satisfaction achieved by provoking real change in this strip. Problem here is, too many believe in these false truths that get their arguments nowhere fast. Again, sorry for the nausea.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
My sincere apologies, NeonLeon. I shouldn’t have made that judgment about your interests here. It was unfair and I’m truly sorry for saying it.
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
Could it be that the reason that “Dick Tracy” is so heavily controlled by the “syndicate”, is that is the only way they can get even a marginally coherent strip? If this strip were to be given the free rein as Annie and Gasoline Ally are alleged to have, I shudder to think of the complete lack of coherency that would ensue. Bear with me on this, but there has been a major explosion very near a police detectives home, AND HE DOES NOTHING! No attempt to contact headquarters, no attempt to secure the scene, in fact he does nothing that a veteran and professional police officer would be expected to do. We cannot read between the scenes, we have only what is provided to us to form our impression of the story line. My impression is that there is a serious lack of continuity in the story line and the depiction of the main character is that he is befuddled and is long past his prime as an effective detective (does this make him a defective). We, the consumers are what keeps this strip alive, not some editor in some newspaper. Without the readers there can be no “Dick Tracy”, if anyone is concerned for the future of this strip, then they would do well to listen to the comments, whether they are good or bad, well reasoned or just plain snarky. Even the ad hominem attacks can be productive, as some contain a grain of truth. Remove the ability of readers to criticize the strip and you will see it;s demise shortly thereafter.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
On that note, I feel my zeal for broadcasting the truth about some of this has gotten the best of me and I’m going to sign off here for the day.
I just please ask that those of you who really want to see this strip get back to what it once was consider the statements made here today. I want the best for Dick Tracy and the very best strip for myself and ALL readers to enjoy. This property needs a serious reappraisal at the TOP, so it doesn’t fade into irrelevance as so many other great classic strips have over the years.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says:
I don’t “diss” the comic or the writer because I find it amusing. I do so to point out the problems and weaknesses in the vain hopes of getting him to improve. His efforts on this series are totally and completely below any acceptable standards for a strip as historically important and treasured as this one. The story’s inept on every level. The artwork is awful. Dick Tracy and the readers deserve better. I just think Locher needs to know it. I don’t do it out of hate. I do it out of love.
——————————————————————————–
Do you beat your wife to show her how much you love her?
MPH
Posted: 2009-01-25T21:06:15Z Flag
Matthew, when I posted only the last line you said I was taking you out of context. When I post the entire post you say I’m misleading people. I really don’t get it.
What do you want? Maybe I’m just getting a little tired.
Liam, if your not going to remove both Matthew and me then remove me.
BB
BB
sydney almost 16 years ago
Jeff, We’re talking about ‘substance’ here. not vague concepts about Chet’s work unable to fit into panel space today. A simple test would be to take a careful look at Chet’s last few stories and Collins’ as well. Length of text and art and you will see that they CAN fit. Lets not use a ‘broad brush’ on the issue. More importantly the current story seems to skid and jerk without clear direction. Readers wonder if this is intentional or if the Author has not yet made up his mind? Will it happen by nexT week? After SIX and a half weeks there is still no crime. No bad guy clearly identified (?) Is this one of those stories Locher ‘thinks’ is a mystery (?) or is it a version of what MPH likes to tout as superb “suspense”? Some may seem to overreact but there is frustration here that Locher could easily have avoided by simply “getting to the POINT!” To readers are seeing far too much ‘REPETITION’, a point I think I noted in a recent post. But as I have said before our man in Naperville seems quite ‘contented’ with his current style. You should read my recent posts on the other board. They are VERY pointed and show how Locher is climbing a brand new tree. Those that Gould and Collins climbed needed to be ‘changed’, but I’m afraid that although DL seems to ‘fancy’ himself, his record on that score of change is not a distinguished one! Sorry, I’m a realist!
jkersten almost 16 years ago
Liam, you’ve had the beginning’s of a DICK TRACY reader revolt on your hands, my friend, and it seems to me it is gaining more of a fevered pitch with each passing day.
jkersten almost 16 years ago
We’re easily going past 100 comments TODAY!!
CyberV almost 16 years ago
I’m so glad someone ELSE pointed out that offensive “do you beat your wife” comment Matthew made yesterday… That riled me, but it would only have made it worse to respond to such nonsense with anything other than a flagging.
Matthew, there’s no reason to argue with everyone here. We all have our own views on this, but no one view is necessarily correct. However, having said that, I stick by my original opinion… No matter what constraints are being placed upon Locher, the current state of the strip is inexcusable. Is it the job of the writer and artist to provide, at minimum, a coherant story for the reader to follow, both through the art and through the script. This provides neither.
As many, including myself, have pointed out, the actions of the characters do not make any logical sense, from Tracy not following basic police procedures to this cosmetics exec wanting to sell something to the general public that’s an obvious threat to human life without anything like, you know, testing ahead of time. At the same time, we have wildly fluxuating body proportions, vanishing joints and digits, and characters whose basic appearances are often not even stable from one panel to the next.
In short, it looks and reads like nothing any professional would actually put out unless they were TRYING for some surrealistic approach. Even in a strip infamous for the likes of the Moon Maid, the recent storylines have been among the worst comic strip serials I have ever read.
I understand you wanting to defend the strip, but even with constraints, there should still be some sign of professionalism in the strip. I see no logic, no reason, no proportion, and all too often no progress.
Take today’s strip for example. You have a professional businesswoman hearing that this new product blew up. Instead of saying that it clearly needs more testing and refining before it goes near the general public, she’s ready to send it to the shelves. At the same time, Tess is agreeing with her all the way when she should have figured out by now that the perfume is a threat to human life. Dick Tracy, a lifelong officer dedicated to protecting the public, is standing idily by and even ENCOURAGING this nonsense when he could very rightly just arrest the woman right now for her admission that she wants to sell said deadly chemical to the public.
Regarding the artwork, look at the woman’s hand. Her pinky is growing out of her ring finger at an akward angle. That’s not just grotesque, that’s revolting. It would have taken Locher maybe two minutes to fix that hand at most.
I can’t see how this story is in any way defensible. It’s complete nonsense. The artwork is horrifingly bad. Dick Tracy deserves better than this. We all do.
Constraints or no, Locher should be able to do better. That he doesn’t is depressing.
bassmanbob almost 16 years ago
Liam, how was your ski trip? :-)
LiamC Premium Member almost 16 years ago
Hey, everyone. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, though from the look of the Saturday and Sunday comment sections, no one left their computers. ;-P
First of all, let me say that there are no plans to have anyone banished from the site. So we can all stop calling for the banishment of others, ourselves, Dick Locher, Dr. Liam C. Noll, etc. We’re not into banishing. As I said in my Thursday posts, we’re not even into removing comments. These comment sections were created so readers like you could have a forum where all kinds of viewpoints related to the comic could be expressed. We’re not about to shut that down because someone realized Dick Locher tends to draw small hands and had the AUDACITY to point it out to others.
After reading through all of the comments since Thursday, I think the main thing we need to clear up is what makes a comment “personal” or “disrespectful.” Here is an example: No one at GoComics is going to bat an eye if you say “I can’t stand this story.” Other posters will agree or disagree. As consumers of comic strip art, anyone who reads Dick Tracy or any other comic is qualified to have and express an opinion, and that opinion should be respected by other posters, whether it’s praise or criticism. Where we have to draw the line is somewhere between “I respectfully disagree with your assessment of the most recent plot developments (or lack thereof) and this is why…” and “You don’t spend a lot of time with the opposite sex, do you, you basement dwelling mouth-breather?” There is a wide range between those comments. One is respectful (overly so, to my taste), the other is a personal attack, and most importantly, has nothing to do with the comic. We’d like you to keep respect in mind when disagreeing and to draw the line at personal attacks. If you find yourself typing a personal attack, which can come in the form of name-calling, accusations, depicting another person in a way that anyone with common sense would find unflattering, etc. - just don’t do it. The best piece of advice I can offer is, keep it about the comic. If you venture into criticisms of other posters, you’re getting into a gray area that may or may not result in your comment being removed. We want this place to be fun for everyone, not just for you and those who agree with you.
I hope it’s obvious by now that no one here at GoComics has any interest in censoring people’s points of view about our comics. If you love this strip, make a comment. If you hate it, make a comment. Just leave criticism of other posters out of your comments.
CyberV almost 16 years ago
…Correct me if I’m wrong, folks, but didn’t Dick have a little bit of gray hair a few months ago? Did he start coloring it or something?
LudwigVonDrake almost 16 years ago
Ok, I come home from work and check the comment section and see 102 POSTS!!! Amazing.
Just plain amazing.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
Thank you, Liam, for getting back to us today. I appreciate what you had to say, and I think it was reasonable and more than fair.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
Hi, Ludwig. Hope you had a good day at work.
fishbulb almost 16 years ago
Hi, one and all
Let me assure everyone here I am not DLisagenius or any one else. Just Fishbulb, a Simpsons reference. Yes, I have a modicum of knowledge about the strip. I read it in the papers in the early sixties to early seventies. Read it up to the time Chester was replaced. I have also got the Blackthorne reprints and quite a few of the Spec publications. And some books that came out about the time of Warren Beatty’s “opus”. And the reissued Northern Lights models. I have been reading the strip online for some time and only recently began to follow the comments. Which did open my eyes as to how bad it was. I knew the plotting was weak at best, but I paid scant attention to the artwork, except to wonder why folks had such deformed and stubby arms. The recently completed robot story is a good example of this. The robots changed size, shape, configuration, speech patterns, and one of them even changed names. If folks on this board noticed this, shouldn’t the editor, let alone writer/artist? If people here enjoy playing MST3K with this strip, and can do so easily, what does that tell us about the quality of the strip, or lack thereof? I didn’t realize Angelorius, or whatever her name is was talking to a door until someone mentioned it. I’m just a reader. But if a reader notices this, again, shouldn’t editor & artist? No attempt at a back round at all in panel 2. Some vague shape next to Tracy in panel 3. I thought yesterday he was going to search the home of Dr. Noll (who has vanished today). Instead he is here discussing cosmetics marketing. Of an exploding perfume. I don’t think any of the above remarks are juvenile. As opposed to the following: Ding Dong! Napalm calling. Sorry.
And one more thing. I have a perfect dang right to count how many times an obsessive poster posts. And that does not make me a stalker.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
CyberV says:
Okay, so Miss Joker’s got a mutant ability to make her braclets defy gravity
I agree. A bangle would hang down from an arm, the arm would not be suspended in the middle of it. Even if a person was twirling her arm, the bracelet would act like a hula hoop with one part of the circle touching the arm at all times during the revolution.
LudwigVonDrake almost 16 years ago
Marguerite, thank you. It went quite well.
How was your day?
margueritem almost 16 years ago
Ludwig: It was productive. I liked Liam’s response to all of us today, I thought it was very fair.
CyberV almost 16 years ago
Sigh. Nice to see SOMEONE ignored the whole “no need to argue with everyone” bit…
“Napalm Calling”… Brilliant. Best post of the day.
Glad you liked the door comment, fishbulb. Although in retrospect, she could also be talking to a wall. With very dull artwork or empty picture frames.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
fishbulb says:
Hi, one and all
Nice to see you here again today! You make some good points in your comments.
tommys almost 16 years ago
I’ve been gone for awhile,did I miss anything? It seems some of ya’ll had a bad weekend!
CyberV almost 16 years ago
It’s going all right, Tommy. Just seems like a few posters need a hug. Or a smack. Or maybe the writer needs a smack. Kinda hard to tell, really. ;)
And by smack, do I mean a kiss or a slap? YOU DECIDE!
tommys almost 16 years ago
I get up in the morning at 3:30 am (cst) and read several of the comics. I was also amazed at the number of posts this afternoon after getting home from work. I also have been a fan of DT since learning to read in the early sixties. Although the strip these days leaves a lot to be desired,at least it’s still out there and hopefully will improve some day.
tommys almost 16 years ago
explain to this simpleton why my icon is at the end of my post and not like everyone else out there. I have no time for simpletons.
tommys almost 16 years ago
I yearn to be like every one else!!!!!!
margueritem almost 16 years ago
tommys says:
explain to this simpleton why my icon is at the end of my post and not like everyone else out there. I have no time for simpletons.
That’s so when you are signed in, you can find your own posts quickly. If you’re not signed in, your posts will look the same as everyone else’s
tommys almost 16 years ago
It all seems so simple to me now. I feel better already
Akenta almost 16 years ago
bassmanbob and Matthew:
Matthew is not advocating violence in his response to another person. The other person said all of this criticism is out of love not hate. Matthew then makes the wife beating comment to show that this kind of love still hurts and is mean.
Matthew, while it’s great that you put the other person’s comments in with yours so we don’t have to scroll up, we still have to scroll up to see the person you’re commenting to. Can you start to add the xxx says when you do this?
petersandy almost 16 years ago
I’m a long time “lurker,” first time poster, and I must say today’s posts have been quite mad.
Meanwhile, I’ve been reading Vol. Five of the Collected Tracys and reminded again what brought us–I presume–all together here in the first place–wonderful storytelling, poetic drawings (that sequence with the hidden boat in the “Studs” Bronzen tale!) etc.
Locher has the weird Gould sixties style down well I will give him that. But I never really got into the sixties Macy.
CyberV almost 16 years ago
Re: Akenta:
Yes, but then again, it’s also a bit extreme to equate criticism, even harshly worded criticism like mine, to spousal abuse. It’s apples and oranges.
Plus, it reminds me that I’ve never even had a girlfriend and am so lonely… (sniff)
What was said to me was essentially the Hitler Defense, where you jump right to equating one thing with the worst thing imaginable. It’s grossly unfair and offensive.
I gave some brutal commentary on a comic strip because I hate what it’s become and miss what it used to be. His response boils down to “You know who else hated stuff? Hitler.” And that’s just wrong.
What he said was a personal attack, not a defense of the strip. I had the exact same reaction years ago when I picked up an issue of “Doom 2099” (it tied into a Fantastic Four storyline, and I’m a rabid FF fan). The Doom series was on the fast track to cancellation and to help it along, they had an artist of about the same caliber as what we have on Tracy today. Details left and right were completely incorrect (right down to naming one building and showing a completely different one) and the art was completely amateurish. If it wasn’t essential to the FF continuity, I’d’ve chucked it into the waste bin.
I wrote one nasty letter that day. Didn’t make any difference since the damage was done, but I still felt it needed to be said. When I wrote that letter, it was out of love for the Fantastic Four. Writing what I did yesterday? Out of love for Dick Tracy. And I stand by those words. We as readers deserve better. Dick Tracy, as an institution, deserves better.
And no one deserves the Hitler Defense.
EatDickTracySandwiches almost 16 years ago
Wow! I just logged on after work too. This has to be some kind of record for # of postings on the DT comic board. I liked Liams post, too, it was very fair and good to hear from a representative of the site.
I enjoy a good laugh and am happy we can continue to comment on some of the strips’ quirks and crazy plot lines. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens with this whole perfume debacle. Will they really name it Love Fire? Or is Dicks’ face in Panel #3 the face of someone who is about to finally end the whole nutty professor charade? What will happen!!??
Akenta almost 16 years ago
CyberV, you’re right. I guess after reading 100 comments, I got confused on the point I was trying to make. Basically, both of them were a little off on their comments. I still don’t think Matthew was trying to promote violence, but he could have used another way to express that he thought your comments weren’t fair.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
I felt that if we got the least bit out of line, we would be kicked off the board. I know I’m not the only one that felt that way. Liam’s post today set that straight. Judy Hansel, you were told that you would be kicked off the board. Who did you hear that from? I felt that Matthew had a direct line to Gocomics, and had the ability to get anyone he wanted to removed. Did anyone else feel that way?
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
Margueritem, yes I must agree with you. It was our own dear little matthew who made direct threats to Judyhansel to have her removed. His claim is of having “friends” in high places, both here and seemingly at the syndicate itself and in using them to ferret out those whom he decries as “bad guys”.
mjmsprt40 almost 16 years ago
I admit to having shown up late today, like a few others after work. 124 posts, and most of them a rather heated flame war. Only “Pibgorn” regularly shows higher counts and those are friendly posts for the most part. I’ll give Liam an enormous amount of credit here, he showed far more patience than I might have been inclined to.
This is the COMICS. It’s supposed to be fun to read, maybe a bit of escapism from our otherwise hectic days. So, let’s ease up a bit on each other— and maybe even cut Dick Locher a bit of slack too. Though I do have to say that none of the people in today’s installment are acting at all normally. (Sorry, but Tess is clearly not thinking at all, D.T. hasn’t asked why this stranger just wandered in off the street and so on. I had such hopes after yesterday’s installment when D.T. finally started acting like a real detective, questioning what really exploded, too.)
margueritem almost 16 years ago
And who do you define as “people” here? The less-than-handful of mouth breathers here on this board, or the 23 million that read Tracy every day?
MPH
Matthew, what did Liam say about being disrespectful to your fellow posters?
margueritem almost 16 years ago
Matthew, what did Liam say about being disrespectful to your fellow posters?
CyberV almost 16 years ago
Matthew, you’re still making a mountain out of a molehill. The bangle comment was meant to be funny. If it’s moving around, a couple movement lines would have solved the problem. Kirby did THAT from time to time, too. But I guess I’m just a “mouth breather”, right? My opinion doesn’t matter because it doesn’t line up with your’s? Because from your atrocious behavior, I’d gather that’s what you think.
We’re here to discuss (or in this case, roast) Dick Tracy. All bile should be directed at the strip, not each other. End of story.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my Tom and Crow puppets ready for the next barrage.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
I would think such readers of comics would be familiar with the most basic conceits of the medium, but…
MPH
Matthew, she has her arm out to the side. She’s not swinging it. Why aren’t the bracelets hanging from her wrist?
margueritem almost 16 years ago
wndrwrthg says:
Margueritem, yes I must agree with you. It was our own dear little matthew who made direct threats to Judyhansel to have her removed. His claim is of having “friends” in high places, both here and seemingly at the syndicate itself and in using them to ferret out those whom he decries as “bad guys”.
Thank you for verifying that, WW.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
MPH - I’ve been trying to stay out of your little rants but you’re going way to far, attacking everyone, even people who havent said a word to you and are trying to be nice, even when you’re attacking like a child. Lighten up. You’re obviously an intelligent person. Do you get some kind of malicious pleasure out of twisting even the most innocent comment out of context and proportion? I’m sure we’d all enjoy this much more if we werent all kicking each other around.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
Maybe the bracelets are some sort of prosthetic device and they are held in place with pins. She’s been involved in one too many perfume explosions.
CyberV almost 16 years ago
I think the heavy use of blacks indicates that we’re about to have a Yu-Gi-Oh! crossover. She’s sending them to the Shadow Realm where they’ll play a game of life and death. Their souls will be tested and if found unworthy, they will be cast adrift into the darkness.
…On second thought, nah. Yu-Gi-Oh! is WAY more coherant than this storyline. Even considering GX and 5D’s.
CyberV almost 16 years ago
I just noticed that there are tags for today’s strip. “Terrible” and “just terrible!”
Oh, that’s a riot. And true. Sadly true…
CyberV almost 16 years ago
You’re not gonna stop the personal attacks, are you? Please respect the wishes of GoComics and save the insults for the strip.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
I don’t have to be attacked myself to be offended when I see others attacked. It’s called empathy. Understanding how another human being feels. Try it some time. You’ll be much happier, you sad little man.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
It’s probably way to heavy for a Dick Tracy post but, hey, have you seen the discussion going on about God at Calvin & Hobbes? Anyway Matthew’s last post made me think and this poem.
When the Nazis came for the communists, I remained silent; I was not a communist.
When they locked up the social democrats, I remained silent; I was not a social democrat.
When they came for the trade unionists, I did not speak out; I was not a trade unionist.
When they came for the Jews, I remained silent; I was not a Jew.
When they came for me, there was no one left to speak out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firsttheycame…
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
Matt, if you think I’ve even bothered to read every post you’ve written you’re delusional. I only happened to glance at the one where you tried to flame Margueritem. She’s a nice person and there was no need for you to flame her. I tried to say so. I think it’s time for your medication, a nice hot cup of camomille and maybe the Tonight Show with Jey Leno before bed. He’s doing Headlines tonight, you’ll like it. It’s where Jay criticizes other people for making simple mistakes.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
Matt, you don’t defend Locher out of any feelings for him. You do it for yourself. It makes you feel somehow important and superior. There is no altruistic motive here, no human empathy. Sure, you may have been reading Dick Tracy since before I was born but that doesnt make you the Last Defender of Naperville.
Durak Premium Member almost 16 years ago
That explains alot.
margueritem almost 16 years ago
The fervor with which they LEAP to bring about the crusader cry “PERSONAL ATTACK” can only lead me to believe that they must feel guilty about what it is they have done, or else they would pay it no mind.
MPH
No, I feel no guilt about anything. We were asked not to attack other posters, yet you persist in doing so. I’m standing up for the others. As Dypak said, it’s called empathy.
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel Says:
Judyhansel, you are not a relative of mine and you are not even a real person. Stop insinuating that you know me. You do not. I’ve already asked GOCOMICS to terminate your account.
MPH
margueritem almost 16 years ago
Apply that logic to me and Dick Locher and see what you come up with.
Double standard mean anything???
MPH
No one has attacked Dick Locher in the past few days since the board was wiped. You have attacked others, even today, when we were asked not to do so. I’m asking you to stop. It serves no purpose.
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
Sorry if this reposts…my login is cumbersome…
Lifelong DT fan, first real story was The Brain (74) but favorite bad guys were Bribery, Ugly Christine, Puckerpuss, Oodles, Flattop, Flattop Jr, Angeltop, Shakey, The Mole, Half-n-Half (’67 and ’78), Mumbles, Mumbles II, Mumbles III, etc. I LOVED THE MOON PERIOD. Not so much now, but as a kid it blew me away trying to piece it together. Obsession is probably a forgiving term…
I lost touch for in ’82 when it was dropped from local papers (for being lame, what a gold standard to present day). Moving to different cities I was able to keep up sporadically. About mid-90s, it seemed to a new hit stride being a silly parody of itself, and I could respect that; it was cute that it was still around and expectations were rather low having been away for so long.
Then it was available online and I could follow the stories; granted, I had to wait about a year so I could skip the mind-numbing repetition, but there I was clicking through. About two years ago, the strip stopped making any sense to me.
I could deal with no character development, complete thrashings of the existing character profiles and their current caricatures, non-DT color palette, lame villains, silly stories, but my oh my, since the Queen of Diamonds this has been a surreal adventure of utter badness. The Queen was a failed attempt at surrealism, her end was a complete rip-off of Ugly Christine and this lead to the Haunted House journey that forced me away from the strip for some time. I made no comment because it-was-so-intentionally-unbelievably-bad.
I returned for, I don’t know why, lifetime fan I guess, and found this Traz-E, ugh, I can’t even summon the energy to harsh on that story telling and artistry wretchedness…the only credit I can give to it was that I thought DL was making a time travel episode, where the strip actually went backwards over a week of strips, resetting to the previous Monday on Sunday. That was indeed genius, but it was like DL was angry and lashing out at anyone left reading the strip. I left until I was sure it was over, and indeed, read start to finish, the series actually goes backwards in time…the SWAT team never arrives, wait, Buddy Bot?
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
I don’t know who this Editor is or how to contact, but please consider this a letter to That Persons. There is a loyal group of DT-heads who are interested in helping the current situation. Newspapers will be gone within ten years and the only comics will be online. This removes size and content considerations. There is a new realm for these well-established and beloved characters to explore in the future. We are embarking on a New Depression, and, just as in 1932, we need a crime fighter to take on all the Real American Troubles with bloodthirsty symbolic vengeance without flinching and in Symbolic Old Testament Style (and this is from a pacifist!).
I feel bad when I see some of the griping and know it is mostly misdirected – Gould had what, three people keeping him from making these mistakes. I felt cheated as a kid when Gould retired, but Collins and Fletcher rocked, and quickly had me by brining back baddies, old characters and continuity that lasted years. When is the last time DT wore his trademark hat, fer crying out loud? Do The Editors even KNOW about the hat museum? Why should I care about a strip that purports to be DT but acts like this? How is this beneficial to the overall 80 year old product? Has Any Editor seen or heard of The Dark Knight or seen the Spider-Man movies?
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
I left again. I returned a couple weeks ago to become enmeshed in another ridiculous time travel experiment, forgetting all the previous troubles DT had with perfume (such as Oct-Nov 1976…Perfume Plenty had character development; she tricked the Plentys into taking a bogus vacation so they could use their backwoods property to water down and resell perfume with two generic yet not-completely-deformed-odious baddies. In-jokes abounded such as BO spitting chaw off a hotel balcony onto the newspaper reader below. Take THAT, newspaper readers! Perfume changed her mind, and got the baddies caught by the Plentys, who stuck them in road pipes (granted a tactic used before, but still cool how they broke out by clunking them to the BOs shotgun blasts to the pirated perfume piles). The Saturday strip before they broke out on Sunday was genius story telling – the baddies counting the shells, a shotgun blast, the baddies saying “ready”. You were jonsing for Sunday when they would break out and all heck would break loose- and it did not disappoint!). The baddies captured all the Plentys, held Perfume hostage but she pretended to be unconscious, rolled to the shotgun and caught the perfumers and, not thinking, herself. A nice (but dragged out) later-day Gould redemption story followed (for all of Gould’s last year : (. I’d love to see a forum for sharing cool DT memories, but The Editor would probably squash that.
That perfume story took place in six weeks, with in my paper, VERY small strips and tiny Sundays.
I completely disagree that DL understands the “60s” abstraction – that was more in the 70s and no, Gould’s darkening of characters made sense. Angelorious being darkened without any reason and being hailed as brilliant in today’s strip put me over the cranky edge.
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
..the best intentions…sorry, the posts seem to be appearing out of order…
ridenslide65 almost 16 years ago
MPH is a Jag Off that needs to be removed. For the sake of all humanity.
Liam - Save us!
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
Yeah, I may have offered too Low Hanging Fruit on movie adaptations…I got into Spider-Man same years as DT and I feel the pain…
But we have established The Editors are ONLY concerned about money, not The Product. I would rather see The Product carried on with mostly similarities (ugh, the Gwen Stacy/Venom issue prevented me from seeing third movie) if we can at least get the basic points right again, something we have certainly lost at this point anyhow.
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
Oh, and (lowercase) editors, please do not delete dissenting opinions from either side; it is what keeps us honest.
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
Dear MHP,
I tried to make an appeal that I am a heritage DT fan. I like the Intellectual Property of the strip that Your Editors possess.
The current situation is FUBAR.
There is a group of people here who highly desire a positive outcome from our current situation and the unknowns that face the industry. I am more than willing to leave right now and return to lurking on ebay for the glory days, but I do feel The Intellectual Property of The Editors has potential for the 21st century. If this is not something we can all believe in, I will gladly return to my Non-Editor-Sanctioned cut-out-newspaper strips.
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
I knew we could find common ground! While I do not believe a comic book format for a traditionally daily strip would work, I would CERTAINLY pay GOOD money to see a daily, on-line, competent version of DT that was not constrained by the whims and Editor fake-morality.
Telling quote of a defeated fight: “you WIN the war with the army you have, or you shouldn’t be playing”. AUGH! what has happened to our lame excuse making country?
wndrwrthg almost 16 years ago
Matthew Hansel says: As Donald Rumsfeld so aptly put it, “you fight the war with the army you’ve got, not the army you wish you had…”
MPH This explains very much about you. You do realize that you do not START a war when your army is not at it’s peak?
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads almost 16 years ago
MHP-
That comic book indeed sounds like a truly grand old time that would blow my mynd in a Dragnet Blue Man Episode Fashion. I dig, yeah. I do regret that circumstances did not allow (as I regret forsaking all chances of dating Lizz now that I spelled her name wrong…30 years of waiting in vain..augh! Please Lizz, Groovy is gone, forgive me!)…a comic book adaptation, but man, hold yourself together! We are in public, friend! These trolls, they smell denied artistry in the water.
JonD17 almost 16 years ago
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads says:
MHP-
That comic book indeed sounds like a truly grand old time that would blow my mynd in a Dragnet Blue Man Episode Fashion…………. These trolls, they smell denied artistry in the water.
I smell sewage