Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 05, 2012

Good morning, my fellow fans!

thank goodness for beautiful color!

yes, I do like the vivid colors in todays strip

Sorry but I have to disagree. I think today’s color looks awful, particularly Spike in panel two. Coloring something that was made for black and white is just weird — like colorizing Citizen Kane.

When Spike Jones was used as a character in 1949, his cartoon name was Spike Dyke. For the present day, the name obviously had to be changed. Spike Smith makes more sense.

In the neverending color debate, I too vote for black and white Monday through Saturday. If the Sunday colorist was doing the daily color as well (the way some other strips handle it) I think I would probably prefer the color.

I agree with MdStudio. Bring back the B&W.

Good morning DT fans. -Color or B/W, Team Tracy delivers !!!

@safeway674:

And all others interested in the “smoking debate”

I posted a comment at the end of yesterday’s list of comments, thinking that it was today’s. I would be intersted in any response. Thank you.

I think the Naperville Police and the Yellow Cab Co. get their hats at the same place. Or……… the police drive taxis as their second jobs.

Nobody has suggested that perhaps Sam, having access to the latest technology, is using an electric cigarette that dispenses water vapor—as advertised on TV. Maybe it’s a high tech Diet Smith version…

Another vote for B&W. The dailies are meant to be in B&W and are inked with that in mind. Inking is done differently if a strip is to be colored. Coloring the dailies does not allow us to see the full effects of Shelley’s inking. Besides, the contrast and thus the impact of some scenes are much greater in B&W, such as when a character is seen as a shadow. And Dick Tracy is a very noir strip. In his world everything is black and white—either you’re a good guy or a bad guy at heart, although an occasional good guy might stray for a bit.

I figured the B&W, as always, was only for the Holidays. Surprised they didn’t have any for Christmas.Anyway, those clamoring for colored strips, the guy(s) at ComicsKingdom do a much better job (or at the very least, are much more consistent).Sure, we can get B&W at Chron and ComicStripNation, but both sites use way too much JPEG compression; wheras if they had saved them in 256-grayscale GIF, they would be much higher quality, and smaller filesize to boot! When GoComics actually do give us B&W strips, they do it right, and it would be great if it wasn’t just an unintentional holiday “gift”.

Would a police station really have puke green walls?

WaitingMan…… Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Arizona probably would like the puke walls. He makes his inmates wear pink undergarments and has less than half of the repeat customers other Sheriff’s do across the nation.

Heads up! Sam Ketchum’s daughter makes a guest appearence in the Brevity strip today!

Another vote for B&W, but does GoComics care?

First time I have seen someone from the Ralph Byrd / Morgan Conway movies appear in the strip. I am referring to Cueball…….and I thought Mr. Smith was a Mr. Dyke….but I suppose that name as a meaning that may not be the politically correct these days.

this constant color-BW debate/vote is pointless and boring — my suggestion for fans of BW is to pick up a newspaper (they could use the business) and read DT in glorious BW.

Y’all may not have noticed (if you’ve not been out an’ about, but near everything on Earth is coloured, we have to get accustomed to it.!

The Earth is in colour or has no-one noticed?

Well, that’s how it is on Merseyside, anyway!

@bildi:That would be swell, but, unfortunately, many, many, newspapers do not currently carry the DT strip, and some that do have their strips scrunched down to tiny size so as to fit on one page. I am a big fan of print journalism, having spent my career in the printing industry, and I want to see today’s newspapers suceed. But they do have their problems.

@WaitingMan:II don’t know about “puke green”, but the first chapter of one of the 87th Precinct novels expounds upon the “apple green” paint that was being copiously applied to all surfaces in the squad room while the detectives of the 87 tried to conduct their investigations.

Please accept my vote for B&W in the dailies.

Cocker,.Re your comments below from yesterday:.“Should Sam smoke? Should a hero smoke? Probably not. Political correctness takes over. It is socially unacceptable to smoke, crime forensics notwithstanding. Having said that, I personally, I like a J Jonah Jameson with a permanent cigar—but he is more like a villian to some degree. Keep the tobacco with the villians, the blowhards, the big shots, and the braggarts. Lose the butts, Sam.”.Your comment suggests that TRACY should bow to political correctness. .For myself, I despise polictical correctness with every fibre of my being. I despise to the length, and breadth, and depth, and marrow of my soul. I believe that it should be resisted whenever and wherever it rears its ugly head..It’s politcally incorrect for Sam to smoke? All the more reason to make him a four-pack-a-day man. Nothing warms the cockles of my heart like a devotee of political correctness grinding his teeth in frustration..This is not to say that it would be inappropriate for Sam to quit if a story could be crafted in which Sam’s coping with his habit was organic to the plot. .But that’s altogether different from suddenly depicting, without explanation, Sam as a non-smoker merely to placate the insidious forces of political correctness. It’s the one thing I disliked about Al Collins’s tenure on the strip. .And I applaud Mike and Joe for ending that particularly hideous form of idolatry to the false god of political correctness.

I personally don’t mind political correctness if it’s done to minimize offensiveness to people based on their race, sexual orientation, culture, etc. Unfortunately it’s often taken too far and some people demand changes simply because they imagine someone somewhere might possibly be offended. All things in moderation.

@Jim Doherty:

I agree that “political correctness” is altogether a bad thing. But, as I tried to bring out in my comment posted a couple of days ago, where did we ever get the idea that being against smoking in public places has anything whatsoever to do with “political correctness”?

This is a comic strip, but it is a very well done comic strip, which means that the readers begin to care about the characters. I hate to see Sam puffing away, because I know that in real life, he and his clothes and the room he is in and the people he is next to would all be enveloped in a nasty, putrid, nauseating stench.

I am guessing that most smokers do not realize the misery they are putting their non-smoking friends through when they light up. No right thinking person would make it difficult for those around them to breath, but that is exactly what happens to us when some one smokes.

Just because I don’t want to be left outWikipedia’s definition of political correctnessLarry the Cable Guy – “Politically Correct” Christmas StoryLarry the Cable Guy – “Politically Correct” Little Red Riding HoodLarry the Cable Guy – “Politically Correct” Snow White & The Seven DwarvesTry not to laugh to hard, I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.

Ah, come one guys. Arguing continually about color or no color is getting a little old. The presentation of the script is going to be what it is and while I personally think a comic-noir should be B&W, it’s OK in color.

After all the Sunday section is and always has been. Why don’t we try moving on to constructive criticism instead of getting stuck on trivialities?

Yes, please. Black & white for dailies and color for Sundays.