Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 09, 2009

Grass in Tracyland, snow on Sunny Dell…

Police business is his priority? When in the last six months has he employed it?

Does that look like the brim of a hat in panel one?

And when you look at the size of B.O’s hand you can’t help but wonder, is it big enough to hold that “left-hand” lever on the slot machine? One, that now seems to have disappeared.

wndrwrthg asks: “Police business his priority?…”

Well it should be, and if I recall correctly the “Genious” predicted a few days ago that we would have some real detective work soon. If the “past” is an indicator of the “future” (?) We can also write that one off to - “Wishful thinking”.

How many times will we see the snowy picture of Sunny Dell Acres II? When this story is slogging along in May it’ll probably be snowing in Sunny Dell Acres.

I don’t know why you guys still bother to comment on this strip-except that your comments are usually more interesting than the strip. Locher isn’t even trying any more. And you know he’s surely not reading your comments, because if he was, he’d be shamed into producing something better.

I’ll bet several of you could write far better scripts for this strip. If you’ve got the time, why not try and contact him, offering your services?

Certainly looks like Tracy has his hat on in the first panel … let’s see how long that lasts!!! For the most part, I am pretty pleased with the artwork today!!!

LudwigVonDrake, are you sure that those are snowflakes; they could easily be stars (ok, the ones on the façade are then either paint-splotches or paint wearoff spots.

Funny how Tracy land cleared up almost overnight. It was just yesterday that Anthraxilicious was driving wildly through the snow on her way to a fiery death that went completly un-investigated.

Hopefully, Tracy has his hat on.

Sunny Del Acres is the new building shot we’ll see at least dozens more times for the next few months. Just like the doctors shack and the office building with Brute Force.

BO ready to punch a slot machine with a left hand pull??

The artwork seems much improved lately. Except for the fact that Tracy and the Plentys seem to be living in different time zones due to the weather. Or ridenslide65 called it about a shot we will see of Sunny Dell Acres over and over. Like a transition scene in a sitcom, a shot of say the Brady house with the music playing in the back round to indicate the passage of time. Unfortunately since it is no longer snowing in Naperville the insert shot needs to be updated. And why is Gravel Gertie still talking to Tracy who hung up the phone Thursday?

In an Interview back in 1995, Locher, as he briskly “polished” his artistic spurs (mind you, sitting comfortably on 350 ‘inheritied’ newspapers and ‘high priced’ Max Collins’ back gone. He saw good fortune just ahead and confidently stated : “I’m not quite as rich as Chester was. My intention is to make Tracy grow and grow … more papers better stories, more action, more intrigue and to keep the viewer guessing”.

But as we all know the road to hell is paved with good intentions (moreso, if you ‘think’ you know what you are doing, but really don’t). The only part of DL’s above objective that was achieved was having the readers “GUESSING” ! Indeed, they still are! (?) We further know that at the time of Kilian’s death, the team had “squandered” (?) their inheritance of 350 newspaper and were by then down to a measly 50. Senior partner Dick Locher, if nothing else, is well “equipped” from personal experience to write about a “get-rich-quick” plan. Like his character B.O. He pulled that left-hander lever too often, “gambled” with what seemed dazzling, but untested “change”. Sadly,(As Locher now knows), only “lemons” rolled up. He lost. Now, at 50 papers it’s only (as Gertie says) “butter and egg” money left in the Dick Tracy comic strip? Shed a tear for a real life Vitamin Flintheart … another “ham”! (?)

Locher “paved” the road. He likes it ! He learnt little from Gould. It’s too late to help him ! Let him continue his “well-intentioned” journey to it’s logical destination!

P.S. LudwigVonD easily wins today’s “J. Hennessy Tucker Award” for seeing through DL’s flawed picture, and noting that an area previously, heavily covered with SNOW (which Angelorious had to drive through), now looks like a sunny Spring morning in May. Not a snow flake in sight.

WarehouseEyes says: “I don’t know why you guys still bother to comment on this strip-except that your comments are usually more interesting than the strip.”

Objection, your honor, question asked and answered…

Sydney Phillips says:

Does that look like the brim of a hat in panel one?

Yes. Yes, it does!

What’s the distance and temperature between frames. >XD

The appearance of the hat brim, and the fact that the first two panels seem to be in two different climates, pose another question for me.

Is DL still making original drawings, or is he taking drawings from the past and recycling them?

Donnie Tevault asks: “Is DL still making original drawings or is he taking drawings from the past and recycling them?”

Certainly when he first took up duties after Rick Fletcher, visually there was a lot of that, And I think there still is, but we must make a distinction between a “paste-up” of an earlier drawing (horrows if you’re buying original art) ;) and simply re-using the original layout of a panel previously drawn. The latter seems to happen quite frequently. The artist probably finds it a “time” saver. No need bust his creative mind to “compose” a fresh panel. I’m guessing here but I believe there are some Artists that would find that practise below their dignity.

But, there are quite a few artists on this board, and they could give a far better and more definitive opinion.

Heck, why do original drawings. Drawing the same panel 3 times has been working for Garfield the last ten years. Also, if DL wanted “advice” he should have asked permission to use the “Name A Villain” group from Dick Tracy Magazine. Most of them would be an improvement.