Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 24, 2012

Good morning all…

Dems fight’n words! BRING IT!

Hmm, this could, and will be, a momentous meeting.

Good morning, VB! (I liked the armadillo.)

Mornin,’ Vista Bill, Tarry, margueritem, etc.!Blackjack’s a Tracy fan?Instead of robbing a bank, couldn’t he have just written Dick a nice letter? You know, asking for an autograph, that sort of thing? (Oh yeah, he’d have to give a return address…)This smacks of the old west, when somebody’d come to Dodge to challenge the marshall (and end up in Boot Hill).This should be some showdown!

Mornen VB & margueritem. Now we know that Blackjack will have met his match!

To begin with (respectfully) “Good Morning, Vista Bill”.Posted this several days ago, but I’d look & it wasn’t always there. Figured I’d try again:First time on this website, but I’ve been watching for some time. Very interesting insights from those of you who comment! I first started reading the strip in 1961 (encouraged by my parents, who were fans!), and my first story line involved Spready Spensive, Duke Keen, and Mona the Mouthpiece (their lawyer who wore a hat that almost looked like a lamp shade & covered the top half of her face). That was followed by the Tommy McConny story (he was an escaped-con-turned-businessman who, while on a golf course, shot a golf ball into a supposedly abandoned home, and accidentally killed an elderly lady who turned out to be Junior Tracy’s birth mother, Mary Steele (not seen for a long time). Next, there was one of my all-time favorites – the story of the Brush who, with his henchman, Hindrix, ran a scam soliciting donations for fall-out victims (Brush supposedly had hair growing from the front of his face (so much so, that you couldn’t see his features). I’m surprised that no websites seem to discuss this period, which I consider to be some of Chester Gould’s best. The same can be said for the 52’s, the Pallette Twins (which featured the return to the strip of B.O.Plenty, Sparkle, & Gravel Gertie after an absence of many years!) Smallmouth Bass & Olga, and on & on. Does anyone agree? Mike Curtis & Joe Staton are doing great work that shows they carefully studied the history and must have Chester Gould sitting on their shoulders. I thank everyone involved so very much for giving me a daily read to look forward to!

I love this strip. I also love Blackjack not being so green anymore.

Creepy guy!

Blackjack is way over the top in more ways than one! He seems to have possibly paranoid fantasies about confronting Tracy (Old West style, as NightShade09 put it), on top of delusions of grandeur (this TV interview, his attention-getting flashy dress neo-zoot suit), as well as sociopathic tendencies (carefully planned and executed bank robberies with a Robin hood-like flair). And he’s got a thyroid problem, too, with those perpetual bugged-out eyes. At least, so I read him up to now….

Interesting build up to the inevitabe clash . . .

Two thing intrigue me, Blackjack’s “Popeye” style eyes, near Golf Ball size, and the other’s the orginal source of the VOICE from the STEP - in panel one (?)

This might really be a big ‘STRETCH’ - but that wouldn’t be Moon Technology, would it ?

A question for long time readers. In the “reality” of the strip Dick Tracy, who is a cop on a city police force, also seems to be a national figure that everyone on the streets seems to know by name and sight. “Look up in the sky, it’s Superman” if you will.Has it always been this way? If not, when and how did Dick go from local cop to national superhero in the strip?

I’ve noticed the scar on Blackjack’s face … upper left to lower right … I’m guessing that sometime in the future we’ll learn where and how he got it.

To cpalmersq: Nice introduction. That would make a nice conversation to start up. What was the first Dick Tracy story everyone began with? For me it was just a couple of years before cpalmer. It was with Rodent. To this day I’ll never forget that Sunday with Tracy at a farm and the drops of blood falling from the corpse up on top of that windmill thing. Another unforgettable scene was the skeleton in the piranha tank. Thanks for the memories involving Spready, Mona,Brush and the rest.

Blackjack says he wants to go to Dick Tracy’s city. Ah, but what city is that? Some say New York, some say Chicago, and probably some even say Cleveland or Detroit.I was born in Detroit, so that’s what I say it is.

And the gauntlet is thrown down! You know Tracy will pick it up. Sam had better not or while he’s bent over reaching for it a certain FBI agent is liable to goose him!

One week into the arc, and there are already multiple layers to be seen. Blackjack, a “Robin Hood” style robber, is a Dick Tracy fan. Fritz Ann, the FBI agent assigned to help catch him, is, apparently, a Sam Catchem fan. Plus, basing this on last week’s strips, will this have any tie-in with Crime, Inc.?

So many tangents… a polar opposite of more than a year ago. Already a quarter to ten am here, and I cannot wait until Sunday.

Sorry folks, had to remember my password to post.

Yes, Blackjack is over the top. Even more so than you think, as witnessed in tomorrow’s strip.

Next week is very special, folks, especially Wednesday. Stay tuned for a guest.

I first read TRACY in the Harvey Giant reprints, then onto to THE BRUSH in the comics. All the characters mentioned above like the 52 gang, Smallmouth Bass, Olga, and others are my favorites as well. Be assured they will be remembered by Joe and myself in future plans. But he’s got to wade through Mr Crime’s gang, who get their seventh and final member at the end of this storyline.

The first Tracy story I read was MEASLES THE TEENAGE DOPE PUSHER and I am currently working on a Measles story for October.

Joe is at a convention in Kansas City this weekend, if anyone’s there.

@ Tarry Plaguer, you are more than welcome. @ margueritem, thank you.As HannoX does say, down, the gauntlet has been thrownBut it seems to me, Blackjacks rhetoric is a tad overblownTo match wits with Tracy, he should be alarmedAs he is going to be only half armedA megalomaniac with thoughts of grandeurIs just likely to raise Tracy’s danderWith a flashy suit and a tie so redSoon he will wind up deadAnd though he may be a crack shotHe needs to give this plan much more thoughtMany have tried to best our DickAnd of their bones the vultures did pickJust how does Blackjack dress so nattilyDoes he engage in a little philately?Or perhaps our dandy fopSkims a little from the topDoes he charge a finders feeFor what he collects on his spree?Tracy now knows he soon will be comin’And for him he will be gunnin’.

Wonderwarthog, I wonder what your reaction will be to next Wednesday’s strip.

I learned to read in 1953, and before that I looked at the pictures. I remember Flat Top and Prune Face, and read the comic up through the Moon Maid arcs. Came back to the strip here at GoComics. Imagine my disappointment when I saw what Tracy had become. The comments kept me coming back in spite of the stories. Now, I look forward to each day’s strip!

He might as well visit Tracy’s city and take him on. That FBI agent hasn’t been able to stop him…

To bad we can’t see Fearless Fosdick in this strip.

This is a RANDOM voice asking FLAVOR FLAV a dumb question——.YOU KNOW IT!.I AM A CRAZY ROBOT ASKING YOU, WHAT’s THE NAME OF THE CITY THAT DICK TRACY OWNS!.THIS ROBOT HERE WANTS TO SHOW YOU HIS GUN AND CLAIMS THAT HE IS A FANATIC OF THE DICK TRACY NEWSPAPER COMIC STRIP!

Folks, I do apologize for my typos. My one eye doesn’t see as well as it used to.