Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 27, 2015

Melies & Mrs. Flattop were 2 of the most interesting villains invented by Team Tracy, and now they are both gone! But the great thing is that they continue to create new & interesting foes for Tracy. Plus, they also honor Chester Gould’s imagination by bringing back classic characters in imaginative ways! So, while I’ll miss ol’ Moonface, I have no doubt that the best is yet to come!

Not only is Venus ten times better looking than Apollo, she has ten times more cool under pressure. When this is all over, I hope she survives to charm us another day.

Apollo you jerk, you crazy foolish dopeYou just might have shot our one and only hopeof getting out alive with our heads attachedTo the rest of our body at a size that’s a matchFigures the phone choses now to ringI’ll have to do a dance as I weave and I singPerhaps a little time I’ll be able to buy While we clean up this mess that was once a moon guyUnfortunely for Melies in a sudden fatal wayHe learned that Death doesn’t always take a holiday.

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The comics are make believe so death is usually not hurtful. The tragedy yesterday almost made me not post today’s poem. Prayers of peace and comfort to all those affected by this horror.

At this rate, the Blackhearts will kill each other off before Tracy can get to them!

Where the bullet impacted is heavily impl-EYE-ed.

So it looks like Apollo shot Méliès’ brains out, so to speak. The smoke is coming from his head.

He was a great character, but I won’t miss him too much because I know that lots of other great characters are coming from the pen/pencil/brush, etc., of Mike and Joe and the others. At least I won’t have to keep constantly switching keyboards to type Méliès. I live in Québec and I studied linguistics and I insisted on typing it “properly,” just because of that. It’s going to be convenient not to have to do that constantly.

The end of the road for Melies. He nearly became a part of Mr. Bigg’s collection.Apollo seems to have lost his nervousness with using the gun. That’s bad news for the next person who goes through that door,

Quick …

… someone update the Death List!

Dead-Fish Dead.

Looks like the folks who figured Apollo literally blew away Méliès were spot on. Nicely played…..

Still amazed that the recoil didn’t break Apollo’s wrist.

I hope Venus has more than that little pop gun if she expects to battle Tracy and the MCU!

Méliès’ head might have been as real as Kadaver’s face. A prop to distract … Playing dead might be a useful strategy.

Not sure why Bribery agreed to stashing Diet so he’s be alive and useful……if he plans on flying away and leaving him there.Time for a Fritz-Ann and Sam co-arrest….

Plus I was curious whether Nah Tey’s brother would be able to shrink that enormous noggin enough to fit it in the display case.

Good morning guys!.I’ll miss the moon man, Méliès. I miss Phishface, too. Oh, well. Others will follow.

Gweedo deilghtfully commented,Good morning Vista Bill. -When you upgrade, Deca Bill just wont have the same ring.-———————————————————————-G’morning Gweedo. Upgrade? Are you talking about W10? No way! I have a third Vista machine on the way now. A Dell laptop. Now there’ll be Comet (my dream machine), Shadow, Sunshine (my W8.1 laptop), and Shadow 2. Geeky, huh?

Dumb connection, but only the Apollo missions were the only ones to land humans on the moon. I wonder if that crossed Team Tracy’s discussion sessions when planning this story arc?

Great words, Av. These might be your best.

And just HOW does a fellow with a spherical head that resembles the moon look like the police? WOW, Apollo’s something of a Nervous Nellie…

My god, it was all full of candy!

Where was Melies hit? I thought it he was hit in the midsection yesterday but it looks like there’s smoke coming from his head in panel 2. It’s coming from his head or the door.

Truly spectacular strip today !

Mike has squeezed in near 4 days of ‘hand wringing’ out of some of us, after seeing Apollo’s gun shot and that incredulous ‘expression’ on Méliés face last Sunday.Today, visually - we are hardly any wiser - on the damage, not sure if he is dead (?), although we do see the edge of his head, which tells us (thankfully), it didn’t ‘roll down’ the stairway well and hit Fritz Ann coming up, squarely in the chest !

But what’s really got my ‘attention’ today, is what’s Venus doing with her left hand*?* . . .Is she pulling down something in front of her chest?

.Well, observed it’s the rage in Bill de Blasio’s NY City now, women going around TOPLESS in the streets. And you’ve got to concede Joe’s given her much to show off ! ?But in the circumstances (Police raid) it might be a pragmatic “self-defence” move ? Which sane man looking at a beautiful naked woman would aim his gun, and then - pull the trigger ?

Maybe by tomorrow things will progress (more ‘undress’?)Not likely in the comics !. But one Mr. Raley may ‘wake up’, and just (maybe?), decide to take a closer look ?

LIZZ in profile

July 1st 2015

T- BOLT in profile in 3 (Check the “Curvatures” of The 3 Fore Heads)Aug. 6th 2015

LEE EBONY in profile Cheek bones are Right , but ’ Forehead ’ – ’ So Aquilne’ ?* Jan. 19th 2015

July 16th 2015

Recognition ? A ‘look’ of certainty ? The EYES have it !Aug. 4th 2015

It’s often ‘helpful’ to take a close look at ‘bone structure’ for comparing bodies and heads in any identification process

So today, it might be ‘instructive’ to look at of Lee’s semi-circular ‘aquiline’ forehead, there in panel 1, (1-19-13) Hmm*!* Shades of Pelé in a Soccer World Cup Final ? Score ? For starters, Lee’s side - may be down One Nil, She “headed in” an Own-Goal !

And then, a quick flash back to T- Bolt’s ‘straight up’ (90 degree) Dick Tracy-like fore-head. You got to wonder what happened here ?Must be her “disguise” ! Special ‘skull cap’ there to DULL that unfortunate curvature ? Got to be careful to remember in any ‘Martial Arts’ action, it doesn’t get ‘knocked’ hard, or Fall Off ! Would look kind of silly to see all along it was just a darn Shoe Box on top !

Then someone brightly ‘speculated’ that Diet might easily ‘recognize’ it was Lee, just from T- Bolt’s eyes, so to be helpful, we found a pair, and dropped them in for ‘expert’ attention. Strip (8-4-2015)

Now some may think, but possibly ‘shy’? to say, that all ‘these things’ don’t matter ‘one hoot’ in the comics ,,,. Staton and Curtis are not going to pay any attention to those (unfortunate) “self defeating” details to the plan !

They’ve already ‘decided’, it’s Lee Ebony in disguise, even if ALL their “physical visuals”, and her “known” Skill training, seem ‘messy’, contradictory and suggest otherwise ! ??

You can lead a Horse to Water - but you can’t make it Drink ! ??

Unless I’m wrong, Apollo’s back was to Melies when he appeared on their floor.

It certainly was. He turned around quickly and fired towards the noise he heard before he could get visual confirmation of what he was shooting at.

CORRECTION !

The strip DATE in my earlier post providing Lee Ebony’s PROFILE, is from 2013 (January 19), not 2015 as earlier stated in error.

Thought I should mention this, to avoid “heading” anyone in the wrong direction !

I think unfortunate Méliès really is dead fish dead. My guess is that the big .50 slug did (eventually!) hit him in the right eye, as implied by the oft-repeated historical image, corroborated by the smoke/haze rising from his head in panel 2, and finalized by Venus’s graphic remarks in that same panel. The .50 would have left a large exit-wound; Venus seems to indicate that Apollo literally blew his brains out. Seeing that “mess” would explain why wimpy-wobbly Apollo seems about to toss his cookies in panel 3. Meanwhile, Venus shows herself to be more ballsy than the curly-haired guy as she quickly regains her composure, shifts her revolver to her left hand, and with her right takes out Méliès’ ringing phone and answers Mr. Bigg on it. Venus has survival skills, though she could still lose out in a gunfight with the MCU, but Apollo may just shrivel up and die on his own, he is so shook up….

Judging from the smoke….

BOOM! Right in the FACE!!!

Mike’s given us terrific dialogue today, that sounds funny and absurd, but very believable.Apollo’s “Is he okay?” , made me immediately think of the terrorist on the train in France several days ago.One of the US military men who took him down said that, when he took the pistol from the terrorist, the terrorist said, “Give that back!”They’re automatic reactions to the unexpected, that leave you with ‘what were they thinking?’ and the realization, they weren’t thinking at all.

dead Fish-Eye..it was comin’ all along!!

That scene Sunday must have been a freeze frame, catching the look on Melies’ face just as he realized he was looking into the barrel of Apollo’s rocket launcher.There can be no question, Melies is very dead, and they won’t need an autopsy to determine cause.

Wouldn’t Bribery have heard the shot?

I dreamed about T-bolt last night. We were working together but she asked me for my ID and I gave her a fake one. Then I was really nervous that she probably knew my real identity.

And just HOW does a fellow with a spherical head that resembles the moon look like the police?-————————————-I think he just fired at the first sign of movement in the doorway.Venus had better take that cannon away from him before he shoots her, too, although he seems a bit preoccupied at the moment…

Good afternoon everyone.-—————-Loads of excellent comments today.-—————-*Avenger09: another great poem and Amen.-—————-Have a great day my friends.

Gweedo asked,How you like your 8.1 ?-—————————————————————————-

I hate it! It is installed in Sunshine, my Asus Eee Book that replaced Katie, my very old and slow W-XP Pro laptop. That’s why I ordered Shadow 2, a refurbished Dell Latitude laptop with Vista! I’ll have three machines running my beloved Vista. Two desktops and one laptop.

Gweedo asked,Can us non coffin dwellers get one, Bill ?-—————————————————————-The Tombstone Zombie is a deathtop computer Gweedo. It might not function in a normal environment.

Wonder if green cheese oozed all over the place???

I’m waiting for people to comeback on 10 before I plunge. How you like your 8.1 ? People seem to gripe about that one.

Nobody seems to like 8 (including 8.1), but Vista was also unpopular. The last I saw, people using XP far outnumbered people using Vista. In fact, this past March, the share of users using XP actually grew!

March is the most recent graph I found (click for bigger):

As a veteran, I can attest that one should have a comprehensive knowledge of your assigned weapon, or weapon of choice. Let’s see if Stanton and Curtis shows Melies’ with a .50 round in his eye!

Seriously …

Could somebody get in touch with BobOscar or Tarry, co-curators of The Unofficial GoComics Staton/Curtis Death List, and request it be updated to include Méliés’ oft-foreshadowed demise?

Venus is smokin’ hot! Rikki may be out of a job if VB gets a notion.

I would also say that they’d be yellow too.

Oh well. What’s another crater in moon mans’ head.

Windows 7 is at the top. I admit it’s not the best graph.

Gweedo stepped up to the bat and remarked,I can buy a 7 loaded machine new if I choose. Wouldn’t mind getting something that’s not half way through its updates life though.-————————————————————————————

Gweedo, W7 is like a Vista SE (second edition) (my opinion). As for the half life of MS operating systems, I realized that my age 80++, I don’t look far into the future,