Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 17, 2012

Good morning all…

Looks as though Sam got himself in a fix again! I thought he’d be thrown in the shark tank.

Good morning!Sam is in deep waters, hope they’ll rescue him in time!I’m beginning to think Sam needs a remedial training in investigating…he gets caught a bit too often. Chet Gould’s Sam was more smart!

This seems like a rather convoluted way of killing somebody.

It does fit with the Tracy universe’s way of doing things, however.

Now, according to the Batman/ Dr Evil rules, you must leave at once and don’t check up on him.

I’m wondering where Monn Maiden is going to fit in all of this?

Sorry about the misspelling. I meant Moon Maiden.

Sam is not swimming with the fishes yet, but he is uncomfortably close. Two episodes of reckless brashness in a row (fake hospital; aquarium) for Sam. Maybe this will scare some caution into him. Fortunately the MCU is on its way and should arrive well within an hour….

What a cliffhanger! And that look on Sam’s face! Think about the last time you had that look on your face and why. For me, it happens too many times to just mention one…

Sam saved Tracy last time so I wonder if his old pal will return the favor. If Fritz Ann finds out, Chum and Phishy are in real trouble!

Well, at least Sam doesn’t have to woory about the sharks. I am sure most of us have the Chester Gould’s Complete Dick Tracy books. If you recall, when Sam first shows up for the Sleet story arc, he tells Dick that he used to be a dentist, and then ran a deli, before becoming a cop. So, since sharks and dentists are tooth based professionals, I should think that the sharks would accord Sam professional courtesy, and leave him alone.

Sam’s REALLY looking worried…or maybe he’s having a nicotine fit…

Looks like Sam tanked the fight. Something’s phishy about giving him an hour to mull over his fate.

Sam’s in a pickle …. wait … what?

Anyone notice someone is conspicuously AWOL this morning? Hint: it’s someone who strives to be in the group of early posters. He got his hand slapped yesterday for posting eight of the first ten.

Well, Phishface’s chum doesn’t sound hooked on this idea. Maybe he’ll have a change of heart and fish Sam out of this?

@Still Da Man!No need to be so hard on yersself – I’ll save you the cash and explain…A deathtrap requires a chance of rescue. Otherwise, it’s just murder, fast, over, and requiring vengence.This trap – elaborate as it is – is designed to keep his place of death seceret (no water filled lungs, or bits of floating debris). Maybe Phishface is feeling sadistic, and wants to stretch out Sam’s suffering (besides, there was bound to be air in the suit). And yes, I know those suits didn’t use air tanks, but air pumped down from the boat. Cripes, SDM! Work with us!

No offense, but this is really dumb. Why would they give him an hour of oxygen?

@Still Da Man!I don’t watch videos of cats (no matter how cute). But I find myself hypnotized by a baby sloth….

I try to read everybody’s comments that have already posted before I add my comments. @Ashmael: you said, Chet Gould’s Sam was more smart. While it is true that twice in a row seems a bit much, Chet Gould’s Sam had his share of troubles. The first was the aforementioned “Sleet” story, which found Sam dumped in a truck taking snow to be dumped into the bay. Then, Pearshape and Nellie wound a few yards of wire fencing around him, after first conking him on the head. Empty Williams and his Lady Barber friend chloroformed him and crammed him into the back of a console size slot machine on its way to be demolished. Mr. Crime’s henchmen and the Mushroom Lady conked him also, and put him in a car which they ran over a cliff into an iced over quarry pond. All in all, Sam’s life as Dick Tracy’s Number Two Man has not been an easy one. I’d be worried about brain injury, if someone in real life had been hit over the head that much. But, people in fiction seem to recover from these things pretty rapidly. My favorite series of boys’ books was Ken Holt. He and his friend Sandy Allen were knocked out in at least half the books, but never suffered any permanent injury. Same with the Hardy Boys.@: All those who wonder why crooks prolong death traps – it is a tradition in Dick Tracy. NightShade09 had a very good explanation for this one – with no water in the lungs, and the body found elsewhere, it would perhaps draw any investigation away from the Aquarium – although, Phishface should realize that if Sam is snooping around there, others at Police HQ will know about it too. But, then, it may be that Phishface is a computer whiz, but not too smart otherwise.Sam’s expression today reminds me very much indeed of the way Chet Gould drew him during his perils. Nice artwork!

Reading Dick Tracy and commenting on it IS one of my hobbies. Another hobby I have is reading actual books, with pages and chapters and things. I guess that probably has helped to increase my attention span over time.

Oh, yeah, whenever I kill a cop I try to come up with the most bizarre and contrived method possible and then “dump the body later.”

Back to the wrong hair color for Chum…

By the way, the expression is “sleeping with the fishes”.

Uh oh; Team Tracy jumped the shark with the Mrs. Flattop story finale, now it’s literally in the tank with the shark. Not good. Why would Phishface put an hour’s worth of oxygen in the tank? Why even go this route? Let alone in a public space with presumably some sort of monitoring / security equipment. Weird.

And Chum’s skin color is wrong, too! ;-)

I doubt it is more than two stories underground, it is an aquarium after all.

Two of the most elaborate deathtraps were during Tracy’s first encounter with BB Eyes. First he tied him up in a basement next to a steam boiler with a broken safety valve. When that failed, and they met again, he encased Tracy and Pat in wax cylinders, with the idea of rolling them down a chute in front of an oncoming train. But, he had his henchmen remove the pipes used to form the cylinders, thus giving Tracy a chance to fall over, roll into the furnace, melt the wax and escape. The villians in Dick Tracy are diabolical, but not especially smart.

As a good leader, DT simply can’t allow Sam to do solo undercover work anymore. In real life, these serious lapses in judgment would be fatal at some point.

Sam is thinking right now, "I knew I should have stayed home for Rosh Hashanna.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict Sam lives!!!