Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 07, 2013

Oh, that Sam . . .

You can’t fool Dick Tracy!

Sam’s breaking the 4th wall and Dick smells something rotten in Denmark!

Of all the places the Space Coupe could be, we know Kansas isn’t one of them.

Good morning all…

Diet Smith’s no dummy! He can do what the courts can’t/won’t.

Come on, Sam – you’re supposed to be a detective.

Tracy’s not buying it…….

I wonder if that Space Coupe CAN be recalled…..I also wonder if maybe Diet Smith programmed it to return after a period of time…..like maybe after an emergency hatch blows and empties its “cargo” in deep space.

What else is Diet not telling Tracy? Maybe that he sent the Space Coupe to the moon people?

Don’t think I’ve ever seen Tracy speak that language before……..And I don’t think Sam’s actually speaking to us, he’s just continuing to speak as Tracy walks away.

Tracy’s just grumpy over his lost hat. Sam is being a wise-acre, without realizing that he is closer to the truth than either he or Tracy knows. I knew that the Narrator yesterday was misleading us; probably a paid shill for Diet Smith Industries….

Good morning all!

Tracy’s no foolhe’s lost his coolHe talks foulFor Diet liedhe feels betrayed

I don’t get it. Diet has always been a loyal friend to Dick Tracy. Maybe this Diet is Putty Puss?

Diet has one big secret at this point: the secret of “Mysta’s” origin. That secret has compelled him to do one of two things: either to destroy the last Space Coupe by remotely flying it into deep space (not knowing, as the narration box suggested, that it was occupied), or gave him some compelling reason to kill everyone on board. I’m much inclined to believe the former, but anything is possible. In any case, I’m not convinced we’ve seen the last of the Space Coupe or its crew. Maybe they’ll discover where (or be rescued by) the lost Moon people went before they run out of air.

Known: Diet has lied, about the space coupe and his meeting with the old Ghote. He has hidden that he brought Ghote to the farm. .Tracy knows the space coupe is stable in stormy weather, so Tracy knows Diet has lied. He just doesn’t know what about. .As for our intrepid and involuntary space travelers, I, too, suspect an error in yesterday’s narration. The question is whether Diet intended to kill..For this, two possible clues:.One, what point was there in saving Ghote alive from Mumbles’ point blank shot last week, only to snuff him out minutes later in a renegade space coupe?.Two, willy007 has posted a picture, and in that picture, Diet and space coupe are featured rather prominently. Evidently, both will continue to be part of the strip. .If there’s anything to be disturbed about in that picture, it’s that both Diet and Dick Tracy seem to be second behind Moon Maid!.Dick still has top billing, but Mysta gets most if the real estate!

….I like this humorous banter and supposition…keeps everyone on their toes

Hee hee hee!

…just plain ol’ police stories, please.^^Amen

I wish Staton would stop it with all the smoking, either that, or have a “Sam fights lung cancer and emphysema” arc

What indeed does Sam know about spaceships? given’ his luv of SciFi .

Someone mentioned Sam breaking the fourth wall. I’m not so sure. It appears to me, at least, that he’s simply looking off in the direction of that place known as “nowhere in particular.”

Nope he’s breaking the 4th wall. It’s subtle, but pretty clear to me.

ok, i have a few problems with the last two days worth of strips. actually, lets start from friday. everyone go back and take a look at the sputnik brother who waswith melly mel… then go to saturday when sail is patching up ghote. SAME GUY… sorry if someone mentioned this but i didnt read the comments, just the strip itself.

then we get the “mysterious disappearance of the space coupe”… tracy thinks diet is hiding something?!?! really, gee could it MAYBE be because when tracy told diet that the space coupe was drifting, smith produced his remote control and said that he would handle the situation… and now the coupe is gone and diet says he has no idea where it went and seems quite blase about it being “lost”. with all the trouble he went thru to HIDE it’s existence youd think that diet would be a little more concerned… especially since i am sure it took a few million to build.

where is double up and hy pressure, hy pressure?? where are mumbles and bb eyes, wheres the sniper, wheres melly mel and the other sputniks that arent lost in space? wheres nellie, and pops wheaton, junior, moon maid lite and sparkle?!? Hell for that matter… WHERE’S LIZZ?!?!!

and manimaniman i wish “storms of the decade” blew over THAT quick! seems it lasted only about one night, and now its bright and sunny in tracyville?!?!

where’s the space coupe headed? maybe “back home” where the moon people are located now?!?

so much for the “neat little sunday wrap-up” huh?

ok, i just checked sundays strip closer and i see sparkle and nellie herding th eanimals. hat’s two, but where are the rest? also, yesterday’s strip it was dark of night and today its bright and sunny? tracy didnt thnk to possibly confront diet about his theory during that time? and sparkle WILLINGLY left her husband with moon maid lite? sorry, THAT’S too much of a stretch, even for me!

While things ended badly for Mr. Bribery, he and the Chin Chillars (George and Notta) had themselves quite a time on the Coupe..for a time.

To the moon, Alice, to the moon.Ralph Cramden

I LOVE SAM !

I’m liking the sub-story-arc (although wishing Moon Maid would consistently show what she’s made of, instead of collapsing in near-breakdown. It’s a story device I’ve NEVER been fond of). I think Diet knows precisely what’s going on. Diet’s got a lot going on in the background, as they say…and some money riding on the dark horse.

In the 3rd panel on Oct 3, you can see Mysta over Diet’s shoulder – apparently sneaking onto the Coupe.

Dick is speaking Murky, and is this over yet?

This is a comic so we can’t treat it like it’s an Oscar winning script. But, we have had to digest a few too many implausible story arcs (like everything revolving around the Wheaton Farm) and I just get the feeling that the writers are rushing this story to a conclusion a bit too quickly. PLOT ISSUE: we saw Diet Smith next to Tracy looking out at the Space Coupe through an open door and Diet programs the remote. Um. They’re right below the Coupe. Why did they not see the coupe zipping up, up & away? It was right outside the house. Wasn’t Diet going to LAND the coupe? Very odd and implausible.The Coupe was landed between Tracy on one side and the villains on the other: well within eye-sight, even during a storm. There’s only one entrance into the coupe and they did not see three people entering it?I dunno, I just get the feeling that this brilliant story is unraveling before our eyes. I’m hoping I’m wrong.

I see a thought balloon over Tracy’s head. so It seems he didn’t utter an obscenity out loud.Nice squiggles thou.

Tidbits from yesterday..For many reasons, previously stated, I’m hoping the old Ghote will stick around for a while. On the other hand, if Ghote has fulfilled his usefulness for Mike and Joe, they ought to have let him die last week when shot by Mumbles..As for the Lost-in-Space sequence, if this is the way Mike and Joe chose for Ghote to die, they ought to have included Mumbles and Ghote (not necessarily Sail) on this one-way ticket..That would have provided a LOT more irony – and bad guys do need to die with a healthy helping of IRONY!

Again, from yesterday: Rightwingmoron, I’m with you. Dietrich did make a big deal in his clandestine meeting with criminal Ghote about how he regretted practically everything that had to do with Ghote, Moon Maid, and the Space Coupe..My suspicions regarding the matter also include Ray Toler’s comments a few days ago that Mike and Joe seem to use shaded faces to indicate when characters are doing something they know is wrong..Hence my comments yesterday, “Holy Krazy Kat, Batman! The space coupe has just been used as an Ignatz trap!”.Diet brought the space coupe as both bait and trap for his now perceived enemies, Zy Ghote and Tim Sail. When the incredibly stable space coupe started to list, Smith knew that the bait had been nibbled; now it was time to spring the trap!.I wouldn’t say “triple murder” because Dietrich doesn’t yet know of the Elvis brothers’ presence. And besides, his ax to grind was with Sail and Ghote..But it still doesn’t make any sense whatsoever for the authors to have saved Ghote from Mumbles’ gun only to waste him minutes later in a (deliberately) runaway spacecraft!

All I wanted from Dick Tracy was the story of how Mysta the Moon Maid survived the car bomb, what became of her in the time between her disappearance and reappearance and, most importantly, what becomes of her now that Junior, her husband, has married Sparkle, thinking that Mysta was dead, which was a reasonable conclusion until the beginning of this story arc..What we have gotten is a tale so full of bad guys that it’s starting to look like a revolving door. And as for Mysta, now quite possibly Franken-Mindy, all we have gotten is an endless tease..While this is clearly the best Dick Tracy story in a very, very long time, all good things must come to a close..It is time for this story to close up its loose ends..And I don’t think I’m saying it because of attention deficit disorder!

Still Da Man!: Frightening – but you may be on to something, there! (Reference, jump the shark!)

Diet’s just playing the Daddy Warbucks game: Mind your own business and clean your own skunks.

I am doubting that Sail, Ghote, and Flash will be “lost in space.” We know Diet can control the Space Coupe remotely. As Tracy suspects, Diet is hiding something.

Diet also knows he brought Ghote to the farm. Why isn’t he suspicious about his whereabouts now? Perhaps Diet didn’t want anyone to know about his recent association with Ghote. Perhaps he landed the Coupe let Ghote out, relaunched and landed a second time as it appeared last week.

Also, everyone is still digging out of the rubble from the storm. We haven’t seen what happened to BB Eyes, Mumbles, Double-up or Hy Pressure. Melies and the rest of the Munro’s could have easily left the old granary unnoticed but the others were pinned down by an old junk pile between the granary and the house. Today’s strip looks like a lot of damage with wood and junk blown up against the house. Perhaps when they dig under those piles several rats will turn up.

I think with these events and the introduction of Venus, the story just got a bit more complicated (like real life crime investigations). I’m not disappointed a bit. I’m still anxious to read the strip each day.

Thanks, Ray Toler, for the reality check. There are days that the story gets so complicated and, in addition, it seems to have blown right by at least one spoiler’s promised deadline for the end of the story. We continue to get more questions each day than answers..You are right, Ray. We need to be patient.

Well, truth of the matter is Diet would be guilty of FIRST DEGREE MURDER if he knows (which I’m sure he does) that the coupe is occupied, and doesn’t bring it back….so I’m sure we’ll see Ghote and Co. again. Anyways, we need more storylines here, let’s get it up to double figures, anyways…..

the script’s author has already told us Diet is unaware there are people on the coupe. So if it turns out later, he did know, this strip loses all credibility. As for plot holes, that’s what rushing the ending does; it is business as usual here. The current Dick Tracy is always about impressing us with a cool plot in the beginning, and then the work is over………..finish up the story as quickly as possible at the end so we can be impressed by the next clever plot coming our way.

the script’s author has already told us Diet is unaware there are people on the coupe. So if it turns out later, he did know, this strip loses all credibility. As for plot holes, that’s what rushing the ending does; it is business as usual here. The current Dick Tracy is always about impressing us with a cool plot in the beginning, and then the work is over………..finish up the story as quickly as possible at the end so we can be impressed by the next clever plot coming our way.

Bottom line: There are those of us who question the accuracy of the narrator yesterday. And there have been typos before – such as spelling Ghote’s name Dr. Zyghote, for which Mike apologized..IF Diet knew there were occupants, as several of us suspect, AND he doesn’t bring them back, then it’s MURDER, as Fredville points out. But, if Diet knew it was occupied, then we have every right to expect to see the nefarious pair-of-docs again in the future..IF Diet did NOT know there were occupants, then Ghote just died his second death! The first was last week, at the hands of Mumbles – a far more appropriate death than lost-in-space!

In the 9/12 strip, Diet Smith says(to himself) “I wish I had never met Dr. Ghote or invented the space coupe…I must find a way to set things right.”If he ditches the coup with Ghote aboard, then he’s getting rid of 2 things that are bothering him quite a bit.

What happened to all the gangsters?