Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 03, 2014

Aha. m’dearie!

Well, here we go!

Well there’s your Scottish gentleman

Those blank eyes, that kinky hair, now we know… Annie’s grown up and transgendered!

me too! Our vet said one can never have too much money or be too lean.

“based on Dick tracy?” “No, it was based on Peppa Pig!”Come on, Alldim!Now we encounter Mr Bulldog Face again! And no, I don’t think Mr kolossal was Annie…a relative, perhaps?

I had a feeling that it was about time for “Mr. Angus” to reappear! (See my very late comment on yesterday’s strip.) I just couldn’t figure out exactly how he would fit in with the established characters of this story. So, it appears that he’s financing Kolossal Pictures. Maybe he’s a loan shark? I think we have our criminal now. Mr. Kolossal is clearly intimidated by him.

As for the “blank eyes” it appears that Alldid has them, too, if you look closely. There isn’t necessarily any connection to Annie, regardless of the fact that it’s a distinctive feature of that strip.

Good morning everyone!

Know the players… getcha’ scorecard here!

We finally make the connection with Scottie MacDogg.

Mr. Angus doesn’t look too friendly.

Alldid looks to be using the, “I am shocked, SHOCKED you would think my strip is based on Tracy.”

So Mike and Joe have finally done it. Introduced the ultimate evil into the Tracy comic strip. The owner of the syndicate that runs the daily comics. Will Tracy survive????

Ah, there’s our Scotsman—Mr. Angus, the silent bankroll behind Kolossal films. No doubt laundered international dirty money, which is where Daddy Warbucks will tie in, as the Asp and Punjab extend their search for Annie and enlist the aid of Dick Tracy. Maybe Sparkle Plenty Alldid Tracy has run into Annie unwittingly? Or Honeymoon?

next thing you know, mr angus is gonna be the illigitimate father of the sprockets and half brother to ghote looking for revenge on tracy

Tracy might want to start his search for Annie down on Wheaton’s farm. Nellie may have spoken with Annie, as she quoted her to Mysta:

Very curious, indeed..Yesterday, it looked as if Scott was going to do what Tracy threatened to do over his parody of Dick Tracy. Today, he (Scott) loves it!.Very curious change of gears for Scott..Vera Alldid “shocked” that others think his comic is a parody of Dick Tracy? Muddy waters, indeed!.More likely, to me it seems, Vera is about to become victim of some real criminals. Someone yesterday (or the day before) said something to the effect that perhaps Tracy would have to “save his bacon”….While Vera may have had an axe to grind with Richard, I still think one point of this storyline may be to clear his name as far as his past associations with criminal activity (i.e.: AK)..We may well go from Vera the criminal to just plain old Vera the annoying this summer. Then, next year, we may get a Vera who gets over his past dealings with Dick Tracy..And perhaps gets some help for his people skills deficiencies!.As for me, Vera Alldid seems to be one of the more interesting characters introduced of late. Lots of possibilities, both as a criminal or a good guy. I think it’s too early to know for sure what Mike is going to do with him..I’m hoping that, in a couple years or so, his character may receive a total facelift as Mike and Joe continue to right the ship that Collins and Fletcher deliberately capsized.

Trim back the hair, and Mr. Kolossal looks just like Alex Trebek did, back when Jeopardy (his version) began about 30 years ago.

Reading the comments thus far this morning, and some from late yesterday, I see all sorts of speculation about the Mr. Kolossal character. “Could he be related to Annie”, etc. For those of you who may have missed it, I will copy my post from late in the day on April 1:

The Mr. Kolossal character is originally from Little Orphan Annie. He was a big-deal movie studio owner back in 1935, when Annie had a year or so in Hollywood. I didn’t make the connection yesterday when his name was mentioned, but today, with his character appearing in the strip, I checked back to my Annie reprint book, and , sure enough, he is the same guy. Hair, moustache, nose. If anyone has access to the old 1935 strips, and could post a picture, that would be cool. It is interesting that Mike and Joe should bring in a rather obscure Annie character now, with the confirmation of an Annie crossover story scheduled for June!I wish I could put up a couple of those 1935 strips, so you all could see what I mean, but I have no idea how to do that. My book is a big, over-sized reprint collection called Arf. The Life and Hard Times of Little Orphan Annie, 1935-1945 published by Arlington House. I bought it in the mid 70s.

tsull, make that loose leaf binder one with 3" rings. This strip is starting to occupy too many memory cells. I need to get a million G chip installed in my head.

Okay. So Kolossal is an Annie character. But here in Tracy town, Mr. K is clearly associated with criminals. (It’s unclear as yet whether Vera is aware of this).Was Kolossal a criminal in Annie?

Or the real life Scott Shaw, for that matter…

Love Vera’s, “What? WHO? ME?” type denial in the first panel, as if no one would make the connection.Of course, if he admitted it, Tracy could sue for a piece of the profits (which, of course, he’d give to charity).Several years ago James Cameron admitted “The Terminator” was adapted – without pay or approval – on two episodes of “The Outer Limits” written by Harlan Ellison; Ellison sued and won. (The episodes, “Demon With The Glass Hand” and “Soldier” were among the series’ best.)

Annie is in the Funny Pages. Part of J. Trustworthy’s universe..Let the story unfold..

For the sake of sanity, let’s agree that “Little Orphan Annie” is an authorized comic strip inspired by Annie Warbucks’ adventures. And that Dick Tracy is, as we’ve seen, an old friend of Oliver Warbucks.Just as he knows characters from “Mary Perkins – On Stage,” “Gasoline Alley,” “Terry and the Pirates,” and “Brenda Starr.”Simple enough. Okay? (Where’s my aspirin?)

Mr Angus bears a resemblance to Leland Owlsley. Just a coincidence, I’m sure ;)

This forum in an unlimited treasure of comic history – thanks to all! Oh – and mornin’ VB! Snow last Sunday but spring may be here at last – and with it buds on the trees before the end of the Cherry Blossom festival.

Annie’s hair is less curly these days.__________________________

I have been wondering about which version of Annie will be used during the story arc. Joe Staton’s poster seems to show the Harold Gray curly mop Annie yet the modern version was the last seen in the Annie strip.

I never liked the modernization of the character so I’m hoping Mike and Joe return to the traditional Annie look.

I always liked the premise of the poor honest waif trying to make her way in a corrupt world. This was always Gray’s premise. The modern Annie seemed less waif-like and more like a suburban teen. I never feared that the modern Annie would worry about starving or having to sleep in a box in an alley. To me, the traditional Annie was a much more sympathetic character.

ok, so i just checked the movie poster in the atrium here at work, and the Annie flick ios set to hit theaters at Christmas 2014.. so, mike has THIS storyline to build, the franken-mindy one, and apparently th enitrates still to do as well.. so if.. IF he takes two months for each, thats six months of stories right there which would bring us to October of this year… just in time to FINALLY get the “search for annie” started in full swing, and wrap up in two months.. RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!

pretty clever planning… if they DID in fact plan it out that way of course

Here is a key scene of Mr. Kolossal from the October 6, 1935 Little Orphan Annie.

I have seen several different versions of eyes used in the same manga and cartoon.

There’s no reason that characters can’t have whatever type of eyes they need at the time, but Harold Gray’s eyes are definitely quite distinctive. Susanna McLeod wrote in 2010, “The blank eyes of characters in Little Orphan Annie almost became Gray’s signature, leaving the reader to interpret the mood themselves.”

Makes me wish I was an “Annie” fan. Or at least paid attention….

I have no clue what’s going on. The empty eyes do ring a bell, of course.

Wow! I guess “Mr. Crime” is going to get rid of Tracy for good by the gift of humor!