Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 07, 2009

Where’s the Nixonesque Teevo we all know and love?

The show’s still going on, I see…

“The show must go on”! You cannot allow a little distraction like a murder and a corpse in center ring to keep performers at bay. Unless, that is a flashback to when the threat came. Oh, and the credit card charge? Designed to tie the advice from the Gobbledygook joke book to the strip, showing even the great defective can be susceptible to the crime.

Lt. Who? Whatever happened to Sam Catchem? I miss him.

Lt Teevo went undercover and had plastic surgery.

Yes Tracy. The circus received a warning about a murder, and by pure coincidence, you happened to be here on the night it happened. Maybe Bonnie or Tess fired the shot.

Since we last saw Teevo, his hair has turned white and he got plastic surgery so he no longer looks like a cross between Richard Nixon and Bob Hope…well at least for today. He might look completely different tomorrow.

Did Teevo bring along his portable Telex machine to give Macy his messages?

I’m starting to think that the strip creators are really trying to maintain feeling that circus is still going on.

Why?

According comic creators “handbook” any successful comic has to be lively. You can only maintain vivid atmosphere by drawing dynamic scenes.

If your comic is stuck and nothing is really happening anywhere (Besides two heads talking to each other) you can always try to create some vivid background happenings.

I think that this what is happening in panel 3.

I think all good murderers like to warn the victims.

Suddenly I find this strip interesting but it’s probably more to do with the entertaining comments than the strip itself.

The strip irks me because as Grokenstein says it marks time (even occasionally goes backwards!) with the occasional tidbit thrown in.

Compared to this, “Gil Thorp” is becoming more interesting and the story moves on at a faster pace today.

Is that a different clown? Or is it the same clown, who just happens to look completely different either because Tracy is hallucinating again or because the artist is an idiot?

Dick Tracy is so avant-garde these days it’s often hard to understand what’s going on.

What is that thing at the end of the clown’s arm? It surely can’t be a hand….

-Cougar :{)

Great art work today. For the first time that I can remember, Dick is looking his age and he looks appropriately world weary and pissed off.

As for the third panel…well,

Tracy could barley hide his shock! Who was this stranger standing in front of him? It couldn’t be that buffoon Teevo, could it? “Man, stay away from the office a few months and look what happens”, Tracy chuckled to himself. “Guess he went to the Wildenstein School for plastic surgery rejects”! Tracy forced himself to get serious. “Lt. Teevo, We have a homicide. This is Ringo, boss of the circus…” Tracy paused while putting on his game face, hoping to put some fear in Ringo. “Who is just about to tell us what he means by, “It happened”. Tracy noticed that Teevo, who wasn’t paying any attention to him had begun to hum a Beatles song,. “Sigh, what a moron. What does “Chief” Lizz see in this paper cut”? Ringmaster Ringo, after giving Teevo an annoyed look cautiously answered Tracy. “Detective Tracy, the circus was warned there would be a murder”. Meanwhile, Chief Clown Matthew was off to the side, listening to everything being said while twirling a plate on an umbrella. Chief clown Matthew loved to twirl!

Tracy looks positively gaunt in Panel #2!!

Someone let that man eat a pizza, or at least let him finish that popcorn he liked so much.

Right ,Grokenstein. this sure has been one loooong afternoot at the circus.

Flightsuit, I think the only purpose of the final panel is to remind us that this is taking place at a circus.

Locher much think our memories are as bad as his.

Macy’s face looks unusually flat today as if it’s been under a panini press. Ringo has finally shut up!

Well the “NEW” 2010 Teevo model is here. That’s what happens with Stimulus Packages in the Auto Industry. Travelling on electricity alone, he as able to leave HQ for the first time in two and a half years. Sadly, the “charge” was only strong enough to turn around and go back as the battery was running down.

Blame Al Gore and his “get rich” theory on Global warming.That’s why he didn’t wait around to hear Ringo’s explanation on – “What happened” ! You won’t see him tomorrow.

We note that he still has not been alloted a first name, Could it be “Capricious” ? Hmm! “Lt. Capricious Teevo”, seems to fit. Whimsical, fickle – possibly, even another transvestite character ? The Author seems to like them, remember Lottie Latte (2006) ?

Now WHO (?) could have been the inspiration for them ?

I really don’t know, but who or what may have been the motivation for the “yellow rubber duckie” in the Sunday Pages. Some say it’s a “memorial”. It’s an equally obscure source.

That’s like this Circus story, it doesn’t have a “known” Villain or currently, any hint of forward movement, just “languishing” in the Circus ring. NOBODY knows what the heck is happenning and Tracy can’t find out. That’s what “happens” in these (laborious) Locher “mystery” tales. Pralyzed Bedlam and the unknown . Readers note that the story seems “stuck” going nowhere and as Grok observed progress is the (husbandry) release of one little “tit bit” of information every week

We know this is not Superman and don’t “expect” the pacing to be – “like a speeding bullet”

Yes ! Sometimes I get carried away, but I wish that our Author would take an injection in the posterior for vigor and “liveliness”, get up, and quickly transfer some it into the comic strip.

QUOTE:

If your comic is stuck and nothing is really happening anywhere (Besides two heads talking to each other) you can always try to create some vivid background happenings.

Could someone please forward Wally Wood’s famous primer to Locher and Brozman?

Calling MAXINE !

Well there is your “cue” Maxine, Wally Wood to Dick Locher

Sadly, as we complain about poor pacing and find the story seemingly STUCK in a repetitious mode. There’s REAL bad news over the horizon !

Not revealing too much (there’s not much to “reveal” anyway), but a Death Threat note will arrive early next week. You’ll shed tears, as “talk” and “repetition” will DOMINATE for an inordinate length of time

All occuring IN the Circus ring, and for an entire THREE week period !

Is this the “quality” stuff that makes the man a GENIUS ?

Do I hear the “Promotions Man” backpedaling along with Teevo there ?

Now he’s got me on the edge of my seat!

You should scoot back, then. I mean, you’ve got a lot more room there.

I also miss the (original) Dick Tracy Junior.

I miss Frank Zappa, too.

Ah, Sydney – if only I could post those MAD parodies of DT that were done by the master Wally Wood. Not even Rick Fletcher (whose work I respect and admire) could touch Wood when it came to capturing the essence of Gould – and without even being serious about it!

As for the WW primer that radams36 was talking about, I’ve seen that, too – it has great layout tips that any artist could benefit from. I wonder if DL even has a copy of it?

Dick Tracy got eyes!