Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 19, 2018

Good morning™, fellow breathers!

Sawtooth really wants Tracy to himself! The cuff of that sleeve on the arm holding the gun tells me that Sawtooth fired the shot into Grimm’s shoulder just to get Grimm to back off. That’s not the shot I was expecting.

Wow~!! On-Camera Bullet Wound~!! ⚡️⚡️⚡️⚡️

Wait, who shot Grimm? Was it Sawtooth or Tracy?

And if it was Sawtooth who shot Grimm maybe it was because he knew Grimm gambled all his money away.

Where did Tess go?

A nice bit of action today. Guns and punches. Tracy needs to kick Sawtooth in the knee. Best way to disable someone larger than you. Both patellas if you can. Just 7 lbs of pressure will work.

I see some pink on that gun.

Good Morning, excited rumble watchers!™

Who was it that was complaining about too quick and easy a wrap-up to this story?

I saw pink on the gun handle too…Tess?

Shot a whiskey?

Good morning™, desperate crazed killers !

At least one of them is definitely out of action and just a matter of another couple minutes before Sam and Lizz burst in to find two incapacitated ex Ernie’s “employees”.

First, Grimm loses all of that money at the horse races. Then, Tracy clobbers him with a rolling pin, and now he gets shot. Man, this is REALLY not his day !

How is this guy still conscious after a blow to the noggin from a rolling pin?

Tess is wearing a blazer and the cuffs would have that silhouette, plus it does look like the gun’s grip and trigger area are pink. I’m with @Night-gaunt and the others on “Team Tess” as her being the shooter.

If that was Tess she should get Sawtooth as well although no spent cartridge has been ejected from what is clearly an automatic, jammed perhaps?

Where’s the rolling pin?

Whoever shot is a terrible shooter!

Remember that the coloring is not done by the creators but by someone at this web site. He has no guidance on how to color things. And has been wrong on colors before. So I would not use the pink on the gun as an argument for the shooter.

Instead the position in the room and the fact that Sawtooth could not have released Tracy, pulled the gun, shot Grimm, put the gun away, and gone back to chocking Tracy in three panels are a better argument for Tess being the shooter.

Normally Joe is so perfect in his artwork. To have a strip that is this confusing is unusual for him.

As a former colorist, i have to say that artists do supply information that would affect the colors used in the story. Not that mistakes don’t happen, but Tess’ gun was specifically tagged as being pink, so I see this as no mistake. Who is using her gun is my question!

Comics Kingdom makes it clear that that the gun isn’t Tess’s gun, although it’s still unclear who’s the shooter, her or Sawtooth. Needless to say, none of the current sloppiness would have ever happened if Dick Locher were still running the show!!! HaHaHaHa!!!

Tess forgot her training. You’re supposed to aim for center mass. Not get fancy and, shoot shoulders.

You are a baddie thinking you are about to take out Dick Tracy; this is the next 60 seconds of your life….[if anyone remembers those Operation Lifesaver PSAs in the early 90s].

So I figure one of the two bad guys (probably Sawtooth) is going to desert the other (Grimm) in attempting to escape. As mentioned above, Tracy is ready to strike another punch with his right hand, and I assume Tess has at least one more bullet in her gun.

Also, note that Sawtooth’s left hand seems ready to grab Tracy’s shirt collar- maybe in order for his teeth to have a clear shot at Tracy’s neck? :P

I cant beleieve theres so much speculation over who shot Grimm. This is a no-brainer! IT WAS KRISTIN!!!!

This is the first time we’ve actually seen someone being shot. Usually it’s off-panel, due to the restrictions put on Joe and Mike regarding depictions of violence. This is something you would have seen in Chester Gould’s day.

Who shot Grimm?Who shot JR? Who shot Mr. Burns?

Important questions that need to be answered.

Don’t forget who killed cock robin, who shot the sheriff, who’s on first, and who cares? Yours truly; PINKY Tuscadero

Very old-school Dick Tracy showing the blood squirting! Chester Gould would be proud!

It was little Joe who picked up ma Tess’s gun and shot the bad guy.

Who shot first, Tess or HAN SOLO?!?!?!

Who’s who???

We’ve talked before about the pressures on the availability of newsprint forcing smaller comic strips. The latest is a new tariff imposed by the United States on Canadian newsprint. Apparently, various U.S. newspapers claim that it’s causing them major problems. They can’t raise prices for fear of subscribers dropping their subscriptions and just going online for their news and they can’t just depend on online revenue, because the majority of their ad revenue comes from print. Here’s the story:

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/us-newspapers-getting-%E2%80%98murdered%E2%80%99-by-steep-tariffs-imposed-on-canadian-newsprint-as-hearings-into-duties-held/ar-AAAfjeu?li=AAggNb9&ocid=wispr

As I see it, here’s the deal.

It is Tess, with her partly-pink gun, who shot Grimm. This, IMO, is certain. It is almost as certain that shooting him in the shoulder was just chance, not intentional. In the frenzy of rushed close combat (the fog of battle, etc.), while one is taught to aim for center mass (X2, “double tap,” then a third to the head, circumstances allowing), in haste and without truly aiming but just pointing and firing, Tess is lucky to have scored any hit at all (in real gunfights, misses are far more likely than hits). But she did hit Grimm’s left shoulder (glad to see the “old school” spurt of blood, too) and has rendered him hors de combat at least for a while, maybe permanently. Tracy and Sawtooth continue to grapple, with Sawtooth seeking to get to Tracy’s neck with his Jaws of Death. But Tracy has the opportunity for a strong right to the body, which should slow down even a big man like Sawtooth. I think Tess will hesitate to shoot at Sawtooth, fearing she might hit Tracy instead. So the protagonist and the antagonist will have to finish their dance without interruption (the MCU will probably not arrive until after the action is completed).

That’s how I see it, today….

Wow – a comment count over 140. Most on topic and no name calling! Like the old days – VB would be delighted.