Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 03, 2016

Pain that must be dealt with pounds inside of Specs’ poor brainNeedles piercing from within now driving him insane.Spicy is his better half, seeks medical attentionStudy at Smith Industries pursues brain pain prevention.Experimental glasses: each pair fails to do the trickUntil the very last one. Specs no longer sick.Now pain-free, what Specs doth see appears as X-Ray visionThrough skin to bone, though brick and board with noteworthy precision.Specs slips away, no bill to pay for shades experimentalImagines his great fortune, yet there are those temperamentalWorking in the Apparatus who make plans of their ownFor the glasses Specs did steal, these men cut to the bone.In their inner sanctum see the criminals now plottingTo drop Specs in the talent pool controlled by Mr. Notting.Specs is now a useful tool for what he sees through shadesThinks he’s hit the big time. Just a pawn for Ace of Spades.

So, it looks like Little Notting has served his time and is now out of prison. Interesting how with such a huge inferiority complex he could get back on top so quickly. Oh, and if he was actually the top man of the 52 Gang, who branded him?

As I recall, the rest of the 52 Gang burned to death on their Pleasure Mesa after Tracy dropped napalm on them.

Interestingly, I don’t believe the name “Little Notting” nor his face ever appeared except in the strip I just posted.

I also posted several rather lengthy discussion points concerning the 52 Gang and Little Notting back on July 10 and and added several other posts on July 20, 2015 (several posts each day). And on June 13th my speculations as to how Moon Governor, Purdy Fallar, Notta and perhaps even Mr. Bribery could fit into these events.

Interesting to read my old posts and see how many of my predictions seem to be, if not accurate, at least on the right track.

Notting is something after all.

Why, I’m so psychic I praised Pequod’s poem before he posted it. Time stamps are way off this morning.

Love it! Love it! Love it! Mr. Bribery is now Mr. Bigg. Little Notting is now officially (but was always referrred to as) Ace of Spades! These remembrances of the Gould years are a joy to an old fan like me (especially when blended in with new Team Tracy creations such as Specs & Spicy)! What a great way to start the new year!

Ace of Spades? Sounds like Bribery is holding the string. I thought Specs going freelance.Well done, PequodSeems like Vista Bill is late today.

Good morning and happy new year! BTW “bribery got him off” is not referring to Mr Bribery, who had yet to appear in 1962. This appears to be an interesting story indeed! How the three detectives will enter the picture, I wonder?

“Swifter, more seductive it is. Once you start down the dark path, FOREVER will it dominate! Consume you, it will!” – Yoda

.Good morning guys! G’morning 22ph and everyone.A bit late today! Nice poetry (again) Pequod! Specs fell right in with the smokers!

In today’s Crimestoppers, it says “Professional burglars can be very convincing when they’re to get useful information.” Especially when they’re that little mask and watch cap while they talk to you face to face.

At least he is not interested in more lurid aspects.

He did seem interested in what he could see at the neighbours’ house, but money is even more appealing. Besides, the Apparatus have him where they want him.

So, it seems that the glasses only work on Mr. Specs. Interesting. In any case, with the Apparatus behind him, let the crimewave begin!

Those mysterious hoods that the “52 Gang” wore, and that Ace of Spades is wearing now, seem to cover the entire face, and yet allow for eating, drinking and smoking.! I remember that they sat around the pool on their hidden mesa and drank and partied with their hoods in place, and today, Ace is smoking with his hood plastered against his face.

Good poem. It sums up everything nicely and concisely.

Mr. Crime Stopper forgot the most important thing about home “security” cameras. Keep them off the internet. almost none of them have any kind of on-line security built in. They are VERY hackable, and burglars know it. Many search for “security” cameras to monitor. You’ve been warned.

So has Specs been working for the Apparatus all along? There’s one thing I don’t quite get.Yesterday the Apparatus members were discussing a spy they had planted at Smith Industries, who was supposed to retrieve the experimental glasses. The spy reported that the glasses could not be found.Today Specs shows up with the glasses and the Ace of Spades doesn’t question how he acquired them or seem surprised that he has them. So was Specs the hired spy?

Even when obscured by shadows, Spicy’s cuteness still shines through.

Dear Joe Staton, could you please ask whoever colours your Sunday Strips and has recently been filling the words ‘Dick Tracey’ in Panel 1 with a slightly graduated Dirty Pink RGB 220-100-100 or #DC6464, to pretty please go back to the uniform Deep Rich Red RGB 221-29-59 or #DD1B3B? It used to contrast so beautifully with the rich yellow of DT’s fedora! ____________________

All in Good Time….Specs needs protection..

In the wake of the fall of the Blackhearts, the Apparatus rises. Specs may soon wish he had never seen any of this. Dead men tell no tales, nor do they get migraines. They also lose out on the spice of life. Specs should go to Tracy and confess, but we know it won’t go down that way. The scuttlebutt shared in the smoke-filled room places an Apparatus man inside Smith Industries. Smith might want to pony up more dough for security, both at home and at work. Specs was not the spy. Could Spicy have arranged this meeting with the Apparatus? That her face is all in shadow save for her eyes suggests she may be part of the Apparatus. Her man will be an earner, even as he makes a spectacle of himself. The Jack of Hearts has nothing on the Ace of Spades.

Thanks to time travlin’ Ray Toler (I reread the July posts you mentioned: great stuff!), Night-Gaunt49, Gweedo (clever!), 22ph, Willy007, Vista Bill, Neil Wick and Jonathan K. for the kind words. Eye very much appreciate it!

The text in panels 4 and 5 today really seem to ‘suggest’ that the glasses won’t provide see-through “vision” for ALL wearers ! ?But that’s a ‘defect’ not evident in Diet’s earlier technology on the Wrist Geenee, today called the Wrist Wizard as we saw from the panels posted a couple days ago - anyone holding the device could USE it.That was Diet Smith Industries achieved technological LEVEL from some 18 years ago - back in 1997 !

What’s happened since ?Retrograde !

Seems Project Blue Image IS now really “working” - after all (?) … and taking them so far back into the past ?

Better perhaps, to steal a Wrist Wizard ?Get him aside, offer Sam a Smoke - then take His !

Do you think a “separation” will occur ?

It depends how greedy Specs and his girlfriend are.

In the halls of Injustice, dimly lit and smoke-filled, Specs backed by Spicy is called to account before Little “Ace of Spades” Notting and readily accedes to Apparatus constraints. I suppose he has no idea how much tighter those constraints are likely to get, until he is finally squeezed out of the picture….

Kindly replied: I agree with this assessment and request for the title panel. The red looks washed out.Hi Gweedo, many thanks for your support… you have sharp eyes! I was hoping that this was going to be a temporary anomaly for a few weeks since I noticed it but to my intense surprise, it all started long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away on Sunday April 01, 2012! Some kind of April Fool’s gag, maybe?That Sunday nearly four years ago was the first on which I can see that the shade of red had been tampered with adjusted but it was only very slightly washed out compared to the previous months of Sundays. However, the following Sunday it was very washed out. For the next few months in 2012 it went redder and paler every Sunday like a yoyo, as if someone was experimenting with it to find a match to a particular shade.There have been approximately 196 Sundays (3 years and 9 months) since all the ‘fun’ started… and I only ‘just’ noticed? Ouch!____________________

Awesome poetry as always, Pequod! Thank you!

A question to the Tracyville vets:

The Apparatus members wear hoods, completely covering their heads and faces (or at least have a hole for smoking, eating, etc.), but I see one of them in Panel 3 with hair and earrings.

An exception made to the rule?

kindly replied: Hi, “rvl” !I pretty much glossed over the lead panel myself, in a hurry to get to the strip and the opening talk. I would like to see it go back richly colored. Are you getting this, Shane ? AndJust popped back to the last Sunday in March ’12 and there is a distinct difference. How about it, Team Tracy?Hi Gweedo, many thanks again for your support! Hmm, “Shane”? I guess you know something I don’t know about Team Tracey?And yes, I also pretty much skip the lead panel in a hurry to get to the rest of the strip and the comments!____________________

Never thought I see Dr. Insano guess star here.____________________

Great Scott!

Could it be …?

There are many instances of long-running series and serials retconning past storylines.

“ONE LIFE TO LIVE” revisited/revised/resolved the “Murder” of Victor Lord (… who wasn’t really dead!) some twenty years after the fact.

And Dick Van Dyke once did the same favor for “Joe Mannix!”

‘Little’ Notting was one of the many suspects we’d discussed as a potential identity for “Mr. Bigg,” along with P.S. Tone and the still-deceased-at-the-time-of-this-posting Dyne O’Matic.

Seems the boys are thoroughly mining the “Moon Era” material.

Can Mr. Intro be far behind …?

kindly replied: You forgot to put a “laughy” on that, rvl !Shane Fisher does the Sunday color for Team Tracy, which is the strip’s official colors. I hope that he will revisit the title box.Many thanks for your heads-up on Shane Fisher, the Sunday Strip’s colourist, Gweedo! I’m sorry I was too lazy to look up how to insert emoji, images and strips into GoComics Comments :-(Did he do it for a bet? Or to impress someone? Or just to see if anyone would notice… or care!?I receive my daily strips by email and click on, say, DT to see the enlarged strip and read the comments. Right above the strip is a kind of Masthead with a pic of DT, his name in the same font as in panel 1 and in what we would think of as the right colour, a TV set showing criminals’ faces, Joe and Mike’s full names, and a ‘2014 Harvey Award Winner’ banner. The ‘red’ in Panel 1 is very, very different to the one above! ____________________

Grumbles about Time-Stamps …

Someone – Either here or a commentator on one of the numerous Tracy wikis – Noted that Gould seemed to be building towards some sort of reveal with the masked Mr. Intro … only to have that reveal cut short by an explosive finale.

Maybe Mike & Joe can make it happen.

May 1, 2011 – the start of the Flakey Biscuits story – is when I first see the intense red changing to a lighter shade. Before that it was RED

Pain that must be dealt with pounds inside of Specs’ poor brain

Needles piercing from within now driving him insane.

Spicy is his better half, seeks medical attention

Study at Smith Industries pursues brain pain prevention.

Experimental glasses: each pair fails to do the trick

Until the very last one. Specs no longer sick.

Now pain-free, what Specs doth see appears as X-Ray vision

Through skin to bone, though brick and board with noteworthy precision.

Specs slips away, no bill to pay for shades experimental

Imagines his great fortune, yet there are those temperamental

Working in the Apparatus who make plans of their own

For the glasses Specs did steal, these men cut to the bone.

In their inner sanctum see the criminals now plotting

To drop Specs in the talent pool controlled by Mr. Notting.

Specs is now a useful tool for what he sees through shades

Thinks he’s hit the big time. Just a pawn for Ace of Spades.