Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 07, 2016

We finally learn Bribery’s interest in Notta and Purdy!

So Bribery wants Purdy’s gold. I figured greed was the motivating factor in helping Notta.

Now that’s out, I want to know what is inside the package that Bribery is sending Notta. A month’s supply of cigarette?

So, Mr. Bribery hopes that Purdy will one day be able to tell him where the gold is, just as many of you have speculated.

On another point, it does seem like Notta cares and wants to protect Purdy from harm.

WooHoo! Did I call it or what?

I started my speculations about this back on June 13, 2015, wrote rather lengthy posts on July 30, 2015 and the next few days, wrote about it again on January 3rd 2016, and then again yesterday.

Not all of my predictions have come true but I have called a this particular situation pretty well. Now if Moon Governor shows up and Bribery turns out to be Mr. Intro, I will have called it all. (Purdy revealed the existence of the gold caches to Mr. Intro after Bribery was supposedly dead. How did Brbery suddenly know about the stashed gold if he is not Intro?)

Congratulations to everyone who sussed Bribery’s intent out.

Also …

Two Panel Strip Today~!! :)

Jerryjohn52 asked, “As I looked over the 1967 strips I wondered why the Chin Chillars thought that hiding out at Piggy’s farm was a good idea? With a vehicle like the Space Coupe you can get to any place in the world in minutes. If they thought it out better they could’ve found a much safer place to hide out.”It was Notta’s husband, George, who came up with the disastrous idea to seek refuge on Piggy’s “farm.” George had worked with Piggy and his men before, showing them how to disable burglar alarms, and George was convinced Piggy would regard him as a friend. “He likes me!” Notta, for her part, sternly warned George not to go to Piggy’s farm, since Piggy was “the most brutal gangster known.” George could not be dissuaded. (He often acted impulsively, while Notta was rightly concerned how a large gang of violent men would treat her.) George discovered the foolishness of his plan soon after landing the Space Coupe at the farm, when Piggy sent him and Notta to work in the stables.So it was impulsiveness by George and a feeling he needed to hide out with (supposed) friends that led the Chin Chillars into Piggy’s clutches.

“We’ll play his game for now.”Sounds like a losing game to me…….

,Good morning guys!

bribery has an obsession with gold doesn’t he? whatever happened to the gold from the train heist? was it returned to its rightful country, or is that yet another loose end that we never got tied up?

WooHoo! Did I call it or what?

You and several others.____________________________

I called it a year ago.

I am still confused as to how Bribery found out about Purdy’s gold stash. Purdy only told Mr. Intro and did not do that until after Bribery’s supposed death. Mr. Intro was supposedly vaporized. It is doubtful Intro ran his mouth about it. So who told Bribery?

To be fair, some of Intro’s thugs heard Purdy’s pitch about the gold but believed him to be nuts as in the panel I posted above.

There is a man named Walter Bishop specializing in FRINGE science such as this. You can contact him c/o Harvard University :)

Great work today by Staton. The first panel evokes Gould’s Moon Era style. Nice touch. The second panel is beautifully done. The relative sizes of the three characters is striking. Notta seems to tower over Blaze’s silhouette, while helpless Purdy looms larger still in extreme closeup. The motion of the scene flows toward Purdy, which fits perfectly since he’s the main subject today.

Bribery’s and Intro’s withered arthritic hands:

Purdy is the key to everything. Notta better get out of there before the police show up and take him away from her.

The original Mr. Bribery story was one of Gould’s longest tales and Bribery was one of the few villains never apprehended by Tracy.

Although I am glad to see him back, I have never been quite satisfied with his explanation of how he survived. During Gould’s day, Joie Packet was believed to be Bribery’s real name. But now according to his explanation (and contrary to a police investigation conducted by Chief Patton), Packet was only his double and it was Packet who fell from the Space Coupe.

A better explanation would be Bribery’s association with his henchman Nan Tay, who had the ability to leap off of skyscrapers and land on the ground unharmed. He did this to get away while being chased by Sam across a rooftop.

Bribery could have learned the skill from Nan Tay. True, Bribery crashed through the prison workshop roof and was seen by several cons lying on the floor after the fall. But then, the issue was dropped by Gould and we moved on. There was no mention of what happened to the body after this.

But now we know that Bribery had employed Sail and Ghote, two medical experts in cloning and rejuvination, to clone Moon Maid. Could Bribery’s body have been retrieved by the pair like they did with Moon Maid’s DNA? Could they have revived Bribery after his fall? Is Dr. Klipoff on Bribery’s payroll as well?

The Mr. Intro story began very shortly after Bribery’s supposed death. Some say Gould created Intro to capitalize on the success he had enjoyed with Mr. Bribery. However, Intro walked with a cane. Was that possibly Bribery recovering from any injuries he suffered during the fall?

These may be wild speculations but I have mentioned them before. I don’t know what will happen but there seems to be a logical progression if these speculations turn out to be true.

My reasoning for Moon Governor’s involvement in this relates to his reaction when put over a barrel by Diet Smith. Smith states that if the Governor does not agree to Smith’s terms, Smith will dissolve their partnership leaving the Moon without access to the Earth materials they need.Then the only way they can get those materials is through force and piracy.

Although the Governor (very angry at being bested) eventually ended the partnership himself, that did not stop the Moon’s need for Earth materials. And, the Governor (who was a dictator on the Moon) did not recognize Earth law so would have no problem with setting out on his own based upon his own greed.

“Hey, if his scientists were able to clone a moon woman, how much easier would it be to clone this regular human?”Before anyone jumps me about how one cloned woman in the strip is enough and how Dr. Sail and Dr. Ghote are dead (maybe??), I get that. Just daydreaming a little this afternoon. :) The only people I’m hoping DO take it seriously are Mike and Joe. ;)

Notta may be imprudently self-confident that no mad scientist will touch Purdy again. Indeed, I suspect it must happen. Perhaps Mr. Bribery will track Purdy’s new hideout (and by that I mean Notta’s, of course) and try to force an attempt at his revival. Purdy is otherwise Chekhov’s gun….

I’m jumping for joy over today’s strip. The confirmation that Bribery has big plans for Purdy means that he and Notta will both survive this story, and that we’ll see them again, maybe on the Moon. Yahoo!

Also joyful over all the 1960s strips that have been shared today. What a great time it was for Dick Tracy, and even greater that it’s being revisited in the new strips. Notta, Bribery, Purdy, Mysta, I love all these characters! Such colorful and attractive characters, and such rich histories to tap into. Plus the science fiction angle. Love it!! Thank you, Mike Curtis and Joe Staton!!!!!!

Lots of speculation today. What was never explained was how Joie Packet was substituted for Bribery in prison because I believe it was the true Bribery who was captured when Tracy raided the slum apt. Bribery and Miss Deal were holed up in 1966. Perhaps Bribery paid Joie to take his place in prison and assigned him the job of retrieving the money from orbit with the Chin Chillars. Then Bribery could’ve had the Chin Chillars double cross him after they got the money. Killing his double Bribery could resume his crime career surreptitiously with the police thinking he was dead.

There certainly could’ve been a connection between the Painted Lady and Venus. I think it was an error on Gould’s part to have Painted Lady murdered. Bringing in Venus was a fine idea by the current team but then not using her for full potential and killing her off so suddenly also was an error in my opinion. She seemed smarter than Melies and Apollo and would’ve made for a good story with her as the boss.

“We need to hook him up to a mind imaging machine to show us his thoughts….”.See Brewster Rockit of May 11, 2016. Dr. Mel has a sophisticated device for examining Brewster’ mind.

“He’s CLEARLY much better off this way!”