As we all remember back on July 31 after the girl was shot our Detective confidently jumped right into the Circus Ring.
TRACY:
“What’s going on here Mr. Ringmaster … who would shoot a trapeze artist?”
There are numerous daily complaints about story progress as two weeks later, it still creeps along testing everyone patience with Locher releasing only one “tit-bit” a week (thanks Grok).
Always willing to help when it becomes apparent the Author doesn’t know what the Heck he’s doing, I suggest DUMP all the August and early September strips, some 100 panels (of wasted time and effort) and “pick up” from the response on —
Sept 4. Tracy (still in the Circus Ring) : “Go on Ringo”
Sept 4. Ringo : “The shipment from my Company (to South America) had some modern Hi-tech weaponry hidden with the farm machinery … it was highly illegal … I went to the FBI”
Now isn’t that a whole lot better (?) getting to the “point” directly, rather than waffling out nonsense for more than a month ?
I suspect we have a Rip Van Winkle problem here. The man just doesn’t get up when the alarm goes off at 4.00 am. Perhaps, a preoccupation with the expulsion of “wind” from the nostrils and a few artistic “tit-bits” elsewhere. A condition emerging on the delay in “discharge” of duties on time, resulting in, a sort of “SMELL” in the strip below, when you fail to get on with the show, an’ it ain’t moving no mo’ !
Sorry to release some of September’s text early, but to make the point on poor pacing I needed to do so. Kind of better than having Tracy in the center of the ring - “tra-la-la-a la”- moving like A Madame Tussauds Wax Doll for six weeks
Sydney Phillips said : ” Come back in early September ! ”
No way José ! We will miss all your smart comments and to the point . I just don’t come here for the strip . The comments are more interesting than DT !
I consider this place as a meeting point of a wonderful family .
Having bought and enjoyed the “Complete Dick Tracy”, Vol’s 1 through 7, with 8 & 9 on order. It’s difficult to appreciate anything Locher has contributed to the continuation of the strip. A shame since he apprenticed with Chester Gould and should have kept the integrity of the original. With the difficulty that the newspaper industry is having, it’s not likely that this strip will survive for to much longer and I can’t see a future in Locher’s efforts making for archived books in the future. I have followed the exploits of Dick Tracy since the early forties and now view this comic as a “What’s wrong with this strip?” scrolling back to see the mistakes pointed out. There are comic strip strip artists out there that could revive the old with good writing, but no medium to support it. What you see is what you get and will until it’s over.
I noticed the reappearing moustache and the shrinking arm even before I read the earlier comments pointing them out. Does that make it look like I know something? I hope so. It always feeds my ego when it looks like I know something. :D
As for me, though, I am not trying to point out errors. I am assuming Locher & Brozner know what they’re doing and the strip makes sense, and trying to justify that assumption any way I can think of.
Right at the moment I can’t think of any way to interpret today’s strip that makes sense, but it’s early yet. I have all day to think about it. Back later …
What Dberrymanal1 said is hysterical! It’s a forum for people who critique the Dick Tracy strip. The comments make me think of the car wreck right across the street from you. You know it’s there, but instead of going out to help the people in the wrecked cars, they sit in their living rooms and argue who was the cause of the accident! Most of the comments in here are funnier then most of the comic strips in here. I say keep them going. The comments are funnier then most Seinfield episodes!
Good point. Would anyone ever buy an archive of these strips from their local bookstore? I for one, would not. It’s painful enough to suffer through these now.
I’m having trouble deciding between two hypotheses, but maybe if we put our heads together …
http://tinyurl.com/2zycp3
The Non-Chronology Hypothesis
Criticizing the continuity depends on the assumption that the strips are telling the story in chronological order. How do we know that?
After all, the story has made no progress at all for a month or more. (Seems like a month, anyway.) The characters are standing around in the ring saying the same things over and over. Who’s to say one day’s strip is supposed to have occurred before or after another day’s strip? They’re all the same….
Maybe a mischievous office boy goosed a large-breasted secretary bird at the syndicate and in her surprise she dropped a stack of comic strips and they went flying all over the office. After she picked them all up she was able to sort out the different strips, and she was able to put the other strips in chronological order easily enough, but how could she put the Dick Tracy strips back in order? Not by the dialogue, that’s for sure. No doubt she tried her best….
At some point during this interrogation in the ring, the ringmaster pulled out a razor and shaved off his moustache. Why? I don’t know. We haven’t seen that strip yet. The secretary mixed up the order of the strips so we have seen some strips with no moustache, and some strips with the moustache, mixed in together, and we haven’t yet seen the one that shows him shaving it off and explains why he will do that. No doubt he will have a good reason and we’ll understand it when we see it.
That could be interpreted as an error, in a way – but not Locher & Brosman’s error! It’s the secretary’s fault! Locher & Brosman are not to blame!
The trouble with the Non-Chronology Hypothesis is it doesn’t account for Tracy’s deformed left arm in Panel 1 – but I have another idea:
The Double Twins Hypothesis
http://tinyurl.com/2eexvq
The Ringmaster has an evil twin, who is probably the murderer. One of the twins has a moustache – the other one DOES NOT. Which is the evil twin? THAT will be Tracy’s task to find out – once he notices that there are two ringmasters.
Why hasn’t Tracy noticed that there are two ringmasters, one with a moustache and one without? Because TRACY TOO HAS A TWIN! (How’s that for a surprising plot twist? Locher & Brosman should be commended!) Dick Tracy’s twin looks a lot like Dick, but he has a withered tiny little left arm. Dick has been swapping places with his twin so one of them can snoop around while the other interrogates the ringmaster. Tracy (neither of him) hasn’t noticed that there are two ringmasters because it just happens that every time the twin ringmasters swapped places, Dick and his deformed twin brother happened to swap places at the same time! So, Dick’s deformed twin has only seen the moustached ringmaster, and Dick himself has only seen the one without any moustache!
Obviously that’s a string of coincidences that can’t go on forever. Soon one pair of twins will swap places at a moment when the other pair DOESN’T, and then they will discover each other!
Tracy stared blankly at the paper he held in his hand. He was always afraid someone would discover his secret - that he couldn’t read to save his life.
“Time to think of some witty, mind-boggling remarks”, he thought to himself.
“Pretty basic death threat stuff – I’ll have forensics look at it”.
“Ringo began to wonder if this jerk was really a cop.
“Stuff? STUFF?, what’s he babbling about”? Ringo wondered.
“There’s a rub, Tracy….”
Dick rose to attention when he heard the word rub, not knowing where Ringo was going.
Seeing the sparkle in Tracy’s eyes alarmed Ringo as he continued…
…”Investigation or not, my performers are afraid to put on a show”.
Some of the performers had moved closer to listen in on the conversation.
Little Jeffery, the groups smallest dancing clown shuddered as he whined;
“We’re scared, boss”.
He squeaked out as he hoped Matthew the chief Clown would hold him.
Check out that outfit in panel 3. Male circus performer in a bro/manzier AND a banana hammock? He is gonna need a lot more arms if he wants to cover up all of the embarassing parts.
Do think that Itchy Oliver is the secret villain Locher is going to drop on us. That was his earlier (40’s) diet for Tracy.
Or instead another “version” of J.Kindly Goodfellow at the end?
Diet similarities aside he’d rather have the breasted man in, rather than a Gould villain, I believe
Because of Penguins I have to get to Tracy via another strip, This means passing through “Little J’s” contribution to Frog Applause. actually it was a very good strip.
Dick Tracy has been captured! He is lying all tied up somewhere and a circus freak with a deformed arm has disguised himself to take his place!
The false Tracy is illiterate (see bassmanbob’s comment above) which explains his retarded remark in Panel 1. He is trying to act like he knows what he’s doing.
The daily strips are out of order because the secretary dropped them, which explains why we haven’t seen the capturing and tying up yet.
The ringmaster might shave his moustache sometime for some reason, but more likely he has an evil twin.
So, Tracy must escape from his bonds, prove himself innocent of whatever trouble his double gets into, and figure out which ringmaster twin is the evil one. Talk about building suspense! Locher & Brozman are geniuses!
ridenslide65 over 15 years ago
That’s Dingleberrymanal1 in Panel 3!
Hey, Don’t pick on him! You bunch of thugs you!.
margueritem over 15 years ago
Ringo bears a strange resemblance to Prune Face…
mrbribery over 15 years ago
Spacy will have to arrest somebody before the next show.
Then after the show he can investigate the crime.
wndrwrthg over 15 years ago
Well, the mustache is back. I do hope I am not being unduly critical.
drwatson over 15 years ago
I’m sure forensics will be impressed that Tracy has put his own fingerprints all over the letter.
Fearless_Fosdick over 15 years ago
Tracy might have to go undercover to get the killer. Hmmm. Wonder what kind of outfit HE will have to wear?
riley05 over 15 years ago
Arrgh, Fearless, you just made me think of Roger Moore in one of the absolute low points of the James Bond movies.
LudwigVonDrake over 15 years ago
“My performers are afraid to put on the show”. I guess poor Louise was the sacrificial lamb?
sydney over 15 years ago
As we all remember back on July 31 after the girl was shot our Detective confidently jumped right into the Circus Ring.
TRACY: “What’s going on here Mr. Ringmaster … who would shoot a trapeze artist?”
There are numerous daily complaints about story progress as two weeks later, it still creeps along testing everyone patience with Locher releasing only one “tit-bit” a week (thanks Grok).
Always willing to help when it becomes apparent the Author doesn’t know what the Heck he’s doing, I suggest DUMP all the August and early September strips, some 100 panels (of wasted time and effort) and “pick up” from the response on —
Sept 4. Tracy (still in the Circus Ring) : “Go on Ringo”
Sept 4. Ringo : “The shipment from my Company (to South America) had some modern Hi-tech weaponry hidden with the farm machinery … it was highly illegal … I went to the FBI”
Now isn’t that a whole lot better (?) getting to the “point” directly, rather than waffling out nonsense for more than a month ?
I suspect we have a Rip Van Winkle problem here. The man just doesn’t get up when the alarm goes off at 4.00 am. Perhaps, a preoccupation with the expulsion of “wind” from the nostrils and a few artistic “tit-bits” elsewhere. A condition emerging on the delay in “discharge” of duties on time, resulting in, a sort of “SMELL” in the strip below, when you fail to get on with the show, an’ it ain’t moving no mo’ !
Sorry to release some of September’s text early, but to make the point on poor pacing I needed to do so. Kind of better than having Tracy in the center of the ring - “tra-la-la-a la”- moving like A Madame Tussauds Wax Doll for six weeks
Come back in early September !
Rene_Simard over 15 years ago
Sydney Phillips said : ” Come back in early September ! ”
No way José ! We will miss all your smart comments and to the point . I just don’t come here for the strip . The comments are more interesting than DT !
I consider this place as a meeting point of a wonderful family .
Ph00ey over 15 years ago
I betcha PETA is behind this!
Keith W. Burnham Premium Member over 15 years ago
Having bought and enjoyed the “Complete Dick Tracy”, Vol’s 1 through 7, with 8 & 9 on order. It’s difficult to appreciate anything Locher has contributed to the continuation of the strip. A shame since he apprenticed with Chester Gould and should have kept the integrity of the original. With the difficulty that the newspaper industry is having, it’s not likely that this strip will survive for to much longer and I can’t see a future in Locher’s efforts making for archived books in the future. I have followed the exploits of Dick Tracy since the early forties and now view this comic as a “What’s wrong with this strip?” scrolling back to see the mistakes pointed out. There are comic strip strip artists out there that could revive the old with good writing, but no medium to support it. What you see is what you get and will until it’s over.
sydney over 15 years ago
marktrail,
TAKE NOTE ! That’s why most of us are here and “read” the strip
CougarAllen over 15 years ago
I noticed the reappearing moustache and the shrinking arm even before I read the earlier comments pointing them out. Does that make it look like I know something? I hope so. It always feeds my ego when it looks like I know something. :D
As for me, though, I am not trying to point out errors. I am assuming Locher & Brozner know what they’re doing and the strip makes sense, and trying to justify that assumption any way I can think of.
Right at the moment I can’t think of any way to interpret today’s strip that makes sense, but it’s early yet. I have all day to think about it. Back later …
-Cougar :{)
MotleyCrue over 15 years ago
What Dberrymanal1 said is hysterical! It’s a forum for people who critique the Dick Tracy strip. The comments make me think of the car wreck right across the street from you. You know it’s there, but instead of going out to help the people in the wrecked cars, they sit in their living rooms and argue who was the cause of the accident! Most of the comments in here are funnier then most of the comic strips in here. I say keep them going. The comments are funnier then most Seinfield episodes!
jumbobrain over 15 years ago
Space Coupe! Space Coupe!
jpozenel over 15 years ago
LelandReport:
Good point. Would anyone ever buy an archive of these strips from their local bookstore? I for one, would not. It’s painful enough to suffer through these now.
CougarAllen over 15 years ago
I’m having trouble deciding between two hypotheses, but maybe if we put our heads together … http://tinyurl.com/2zycp3
The Non-Chronology Hypothesis
Criticizing the continuity depends on the assumption that the strips are telling the story in chronological order. How do we know that?
After all, the story has made no progress at all for a month or more. (Seems like a month, anyway.) The characters are standing around in the ring saying the same things over and over. Who’s to say one day’s strip is supposed to have occurred before or after another day’s strip? They’re all the same….
Maybe a mischievous office boy goosed a large-breasted secretary bird at the syndicate and in her surprise she dropped a stack of comic strips and they went flying all over the office. After she picked them all up she was able to sort out the different strips, and she was able to put the other strips in chronological order easily enough, but how could she put the Dick Tracy strips back in order? Not by the dialogue, that’s for sure. No doubt she tried her best….
At some point during this interrogation in the ring, the ringmaster pulled out a razor and shaved off his moustache. Why? I don’t know. We haven’t seen that strip yet. The secretary mixed up the order of the strips so we have seen some strips with no moustache, and some strips with the moustache, mixed in together, and we haven’t yet seen the one that shows him shaving it off and explains why he will do that. No doubt he will have a good reason and we’ll understand it when we see it.
That could be interpreted as an error, in a way – but not Locher & Brosman’s error! It’s the secretary’s fault! Locher & Brosman are not to blame!
-Cougar :{)
CougarAllen over 15 years ago
The trouble with the Non-Chronology Hypothesis is it doesn’t account for Tracy’s deformed left arm in Panel 1 – but I have another idea:
The Double Twins Hypothesis http://tinyurl.com/2eexvq
The Ringmaster has an evil twin, who is probably the murderer. One of the twins has a moustache – the other one DOES NOT. Which is the evil twin? THAT will be Tracy’s task to find out – once he notices that there are two ringmasters.
Why hasn’t Tracy noticed that there are two ringmasters, one with a moustache and one without? Because TRACY TOO HAS A TWIN! (How’s that for a surprising plot twist? Locher & Brosman should be commended!) Dick Tracy’s twin looks a lot like Dick, but he has a withered tiny little left arm. Dick has been swapping places with his twin so one of them can snoop around while the other interrogates the ringmaster. Tracy (neither of him) hasn’t noticed that there are two ringmasters because it just happens that every time the twin ringmasters swapped places, Dick and his deformed twin brother happened to swap places at the same time! So, Dick’s deformed twin has only seen the moustached ringmaster, and Dick himself has only seen the one without any moustache!
Obviously that’s a string of coincidences that can’t go on forever. Soon one pair of twins will swap places at a moment when the other pair DOESN’T, and then they will discover each other!
-Cougar :{)
bassmanbob over 15 years ago
Tracy stared blankly at the paper he held in his hand. He was always afraid someone would discover his secret - that he couldn’t read to save his life. “Time to think of some witty, mind-boggling remarks”, he thought to himself. “Pretty basic death threat stuff – I’ll have forensics look at it”. “Ringo began to wonder if this jerk was really a cop. “Stuff? STUFF?, what’s he babbling about”? Ringo wondered. “There’s a rub, Tracy….” Dick rose to attention when he heard the word rub, not knowing where Ringo was going. Seeing the sparkle in Tracy’s eyes alarmed Ringo as he continued… …”Investigation or not, my performers are afraid to put on a show”. Some of the performers had moved closer to listen in on the conversation. Little Jeffery, the groups smallest dancing clown shuddered as he whined; “We’re scared, boss”. He squeaked out as he hoped Matthew the chief Clown would hold him.
BB
RichardT over 15 years ago
Check out that outfit in panel 3. Male circus performer in a bro/manzier AND a banana hammock? He is gonna need a lot more arms if he wants to cover up all of the embarassing parts.
andy.vaughn over 15 years ago
In panel one, Tracy looks like he’s been locked away and fed raw turnips and a teaspoonful of water for weeks!!!
margueritem over 15 years ago
Oh Stop! I’m laughing too much here, and I might hurt myself.
sydney over 15 years ago
andyh40,
Do think that Itchy Oliver is the secret villain Locher is going to drop on us. That was his earlier (40’s) diet for Tracy. Or instead another “version” of J.Kindly Goodfellow at the end? Diet similarities aside he’d rather have the breasted man in, rather than a Gould villain, I believe
sydney over 15 years ago
margueritem,
Because of Penguins I have to get to Tracy via another strip, This means passing through “Little J’s” contribution to Frog Applause. actually it was a very good strip.
I see it once or twice every day.
CougarAllen over 15 years ago
My Hypothesis #3
Dick Tracy has been captured! He is lying all tied up somewhere and a circus freak with a deformed arm has disguised himself to take his place!
The false Tracy is illiterate (see bassmanbob’s comment above) which explains his retarded remark in Panel 1. He is trying to act like he knows what he’s doing.
The daily strips are out of order because the secretary dropped them, which explains why we haven’t seen the capturing and tying up yet.
The ringmaster might shave his moustache sometime for some reason, but more likely he has an evil twin.
So, Tracy must escape from his bonds, prove himself innocent of whatever trouble his double gets into, and figure out which ringmaster twin is the evil one. Talk about building suspense! Locher & Brozman are geniuses!
-Cougar :{)
Durak Premium Member over 15 years ago
I see it now, Dick, undercover at the Circus. The only question is which clown will he be?