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

Why it’s #@%?!!@ on the line!

“Voice disguised”? Just when you think the story cannot get any more absurd.

It is a little known fact that modern day police officers are thoroughly trained in voice disguise. Also ventriloquism. And card tricks.

Great hand drawing 3rd panel.

Great hand drawing 3rd panel.

Great hand drawing 3rd panel.

So good you had to say it thrice……..;)

Sooo… we’re gonna stay back at the casino? What about BO, Gravel Gertie and the thugs they rounded up? When did Tracy teleport back to the casino? And why? Bad continuity here, the artist forgot to show Jack’s corpse. Don’t tell me it has already been removed? Since when can Tracy disguise his voice? What other unknown skills will he reveal in the future? Street mime? Mid wife? Topiary carving? The strip is back in nonsense land.

Adding to barticle35’s list - also uncanny ability to make lame jokes and puns.

“beam me up, Lt. Teevo!”

Anyway… except for the hand in the 3rd panel, the artwork is good.

The disguised voice fits right in with the comment from yesterday about Tracy being a ventriloquist. Unfortunately, that could mean he is carrying on both ends of the conversation. First call…..”Sorry Jack can’t come to the phone right now…he’s dead.” Second call…..”Jack? Uh, no, Jack is busy bleeding on our carpet and cannot come to the phone.” Third call……”Oh, you want Jack? Why didn’t you say so, he’s right here. Um, yeah, one more thing, he has a cold that makes him sound rather, uh, police-like.”

Shouldn’t Tracy be saying. “This IS One-Eye…” in the third panel?

Shouldn’t Dick put on Jack’s outfit before imitating him?

Hint to Tracy: Obviously you are going to invite Big Arse to come out and play (heh-heh) at Jack’s Place. But so far, he hasn’t broken any laws. You haven’t the evidence to charge him with anything. If Naperville has a DA or an attorney, I bet your name is a joke!

I didn’t realize Tracy could do imitations … he must be great at parties!!!

“THIS ONE-EYE– WHO CALLING”

…would have made slightly more sense.

Tracy’s younger counternance in panel two is a refreshing one. Gone is the splash of gray hair over the ear and the more slender face lends an encouraging youthful look. Removing the rubber duckie was a first step. He should slowly start morphing the characters back to what they once were, starting with Junior Tracy

For “Jimmy Flattop”, his first “hit”, should be that relick of nepotism. Now I’m NOT being “insensitive” here, just trying to desensitize the Dick Tracy strip from something sculptured and included in less than good taste, one that should never have been in the strip. It was an illadvised way of “expressing” sympathy

Readers seemd to get a message that Locher “changes” in the past were aimed more at patting himself on the back as a modernizing innovator in creating brand new versions of existing characters. But you can’t teach a Dodo how to fly ! And his changes reflected an unhelpful spin down the runway without benefit of “lift-off”. It was all an exercise in FAILURE, one he probably won’t admit, even to himself. A good assisyant in some respects, he never knew his limitations !

You can add the changes up. But it’s already there pre-packaged, ALL embodied in one character … Lt. Teevo. !

Perhaps, Teevo should be kept around to “remind” those still to come, what you get when lesser mortals try to posture as God in Dick Tracy.

I must point out that the hand in panel three, while getting better, is STILL incorrect…….Look at your own hand in that pose and align all four fingernails ….the fingers are NOT all the same length……little finger is smallest, 2nd finger is longest…..index and ring are about the same….. …I know, picky picky….but if Bassman says it is ‘great’ THREE times, then a reply is in order!…..

or not

I am dumb-founded; I guess that also is the basis for the development of this strip. It seems to be constructed on dumb foundings.

nighthawks, I was being sarcastic.

nighthawks, I was being sarcastic.

nighthawks, I was being sarcastic. (might as well go for the Trifecta again)

Dick could’ve at least squinted one eye…

Tracy (in a dramatic whisper): I told you to never call me at this number!

His fingers are a bit stubby for a man his size. And, uh… Frog Applause mentions Dick Tracy today. http://gocomics.com/frogapplause/2009/06/10

Who’s that with the ‘phone in panel one ?

Could it be Sam Catchem in disguise ? Haven’t seen him since in background of a panel on September 23rd (over eight months now) and befure that briefly in Cole Lector in February 2008 (one year and three months ago) !

Is Locher phasing him out ? Has the time for Teevo to blossom arrived?

Tracy’s practicing his Edgar Bergen imitation.

Turner Classic Movies will have a Dick Tracy Film Festival on July 18th!

Why do these “improbable” things always “leap” out at me ?

Like the observation of little Henry Waxman (see his earlier comments above) just called me. First he took the expected “deep breath” now that DAD had shafted chain smoker Sam Catchem with his new Tobacco Control Bill. But what he asked was relatively mundane. He wanted to know how Ttacy started a short “telephone” conversation with Big Ace wearing his Yellow coat and at the end the coat had “gone” ? Tracy was suddenly seen in a black suit !

See June 9th (coat), and compare June 11, 12, and 13th (no coat). It will probably irritate some people that young Waxman “spotted” all this even before taking a deep breath. But the family is physically endowed to detect smoke, and as young Henry noted (fast as a sulpher match) there is never smoke without “fire”.

I suggested it may be the new “teleportation feature” (in the Wrist Geenee ?) we have been noticing recently. But, better to check at the source of the spring, with Mattie in Woodstock, who has told me repeatedly how “well informed” he is.