Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 24, 2014

Panel 3: “Sparkplug in Furlong”! Now, that’s funny!

Good morning all

“Afraid so Tracy.” Oh oh, this can’t be good…

Shades of Barney Google!

Looks like Vera Alldid is using his skills and the First Amendment to prod Tracy. That’s gonna be a burr under his saddle for a while.

I thought Vera was a woman’s name (I apparently was absent from Vera’s previous appearances).

Tracy isn’t quite sure what to think of this but he’s about to find out. (He doesn’t look to pleased, already.)

Did anyone notice that in the second panel, Sam is holding what appears to be a pencil as one would hold a cigarette?

Do we all kow how vera alldid got his name…?:..Father, an immagrent, not good on english, finally got a son, and decided no more chidren and said "Ve’re all did "

Something tells me that this comic interlude might take us into another Abner Kadaver storyline. Vera was employed by Ol’ Abner in the past, so he could be using him to lure Tracy into another trap.

Hmm. Unflappable Tracy seems rather peeved at Alldid’s parody-strip. I thought Dick had a thicker crust than that.Where might this lead?

Sparkplug. That puts a smile on my face. I love how the Team pays homage to other long-lived and long-loved comic strips. But the J. Straightedge Trustworthy (or is it Straightedge J. Trustworthy, with Vera trying to be cute) strip… yeah, I can’t wait to see how fast Vera will claim that it’s a parody, and that he can run it no matter Dick’s objections to it.

Personally, I was hoping for something along the lines of Fearless Fosdick.

Careful what you ask for, Richard!!

aww suck it up tracy, aint like vera let the last FIVE criminals get away like YOU did! (blackjack, abner, rikki, silver and sprocket) besides.. a guy’s gotta make a living! at least vera doesnt have to pay alimony to sparkle! lol!

I wonder how Tracy felt about Fearless Fosdick, who sometimes appeared in Al Capps Lil Abner strip

I beg to disagree. Silver and Sprocket are pushing up daisies.

Silver and Sprocket may be pushing up ice cubes – but not daisies!

Tracy allowed Rikki to take him to the death traps so he could save Bonnie. Rikki did not get away from Tracy. He was defeating the death traps in order to save Bonnie when Rikki fled from a different room. Blackjack did not escape. He was allowed to leave Kadaver’s lair, having arrived unbidden to shoot a sword out of Kadaver’s hand. Tracy defeated Kadaver at hand to hand combat (even though Kadaver was at an advantage with a knife), tossing him his own vat of goo. That Tracy did not follow Kadaver into the vat can’t reasonably be construed as “letting him get away.” While I believe that Kadaver is alive, Tracy could not know that there was an escape hatch in the vat (if indeed such a hatch existed). Silver and Sprocket are dead. If they had been able to drive out of the lake they would have been arrested. I believe they are at the morgue, where Silver is indeed unable to strike his sister. Broadway Bates is in jail. Jumbler is in jail. Fishface is in jail. Bardoll is dead. Hy Pressure is dead. Ghote and Sail are almost certainly dead.

It seems obvious that Vera is poking fun at Tracy, but it’s not all bad. After all, he named his character “Trustworthy”. To be known as a trustworthy person is actually an honor!

I think Tracy is annoyed becuase the strip is a personal jab at him by his daughter-in-law’s ex, whom Tracy would have preferred to just go away.He knows the parody is completely legal, and he has no recourse – and he knows Aldid knows it, too.And I don’t think this is an interlude; I’m sure this is the beginning of a new story, which will likely include the dog-faced guy we met at “King Lear.”

As a public figure, Tracy is fodder for parody. He may not like it (and even less so because of who is doing it), but has no recourse. Much like his relationship with Wendy Wichell, he will just have to grin and bear it. He should lighten up anyway as it obviously amuses his coworkers.

The other day after Sprocket and Silver drove into the lake, Tracy called for divers. The divers either found the car or did not. The occupants were either dead or they were not. Tracy knows. The chief knows, Sam knows. The readers do not know. I agree with other posters that the story would have had more of a conclusion had we seen the car being hauled out of the drink or even a diver saying, “It’s the darndest thing, I find nothing there.” (Tracy and Sam scratch their heads) Sam: I can’t get over it. (a phrase used frequently by Gould when something unusual occurred.

Who is Vera Alldid?

I like these amusing interludes between stories. Gould often did the same thing. I’m wondering, though, if this is something more than an interlude, namely, whether Vera will be a key player in the next tale.

Two words: Job Security!.One word: Amen!.And while I mildly agree with tsull2121 that there have been an unsettling number of baddies who have “gotten away,” I also agree with Pequod77, Ray Toler, and others who have said it’s not always the police or Richard’s fault..Which may be why these recurring death scenes have become so frequent – this way, we know that some of the baddies aren’t coming back, such as Sweatbox and the Nitrates.

And with Sparkle becoming upset with the return of any kind of Moon Maid, the imp in me is kind of hoping that perhaps Sparkle and Vera just might make way for Moon Maid to return as Honey’s mother!.It ain’t the way some of us diehard Moon Maid fans wanted it to be….but….As some others have said, sometimes we have to settle for what we can get!.(Indeed, during the days of the singing radio show, I had hoped something like this would occur, anyway. And it would be even nicer if that radio guy came back, after all!).(As usual, just horsing around)

@Mikeyj: I thought Vera Alldid was a character that went way back into the Sixties (I seem to remember involvement in a strip called Sawdust, back when I was a kid (never did understand that it was a parody at that young age).

Shouldn’t there have been an epilogue on the Nitrates?