Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 20, 2018

Good morning™, cosplayers!

I kind of suspected it couldn’t be the real Flattop.

This party reminds me of the plot for an episode of the Gerald Mohr led “Phillip Marlowe” radio series. ✨

So “Flattop’s” surprised look yesterday was just an act.

The apostrophe has moved to the correct position.

Good morning™, Tracyville players !

Why do I hear P.2 Tracy talking with an Edward G. accent ?

Wow! A cosplay angle. Now that’s different and original..

Another cosplay themed story?

Can’t the boys come up with something original for a change?

Well, this is a bit more interesting and I like the art. I think maybe I’ll follow this one.

Either that wandering apostrophe is a clue or somebody did a quick edit, and on a Sunday no less! And don’t worry, I won’t gloat about calling the cosplay angle yesterday. With all my wild theories it’s more like being a broken clock. But that also means I’ve got another one coming!

My comment today is not related to the current mini mystery. I thought some posters here would find it interesting. I’m currently reading The Complete Max Collins/Rick Fletcher DICK TRACY #2 – Who Shot Pat Patton? In the Introduction writer Max Collins (Who took over from Chester Gould) describes the storyline as a Whodunit and that he (Max Collins) intended to kill off Pat Patton, but the powers-that-be at the Tribune Syndicate would not hear of Max Collins killing off Chief Patton so the storyline was changed and as we all know Chief Patton survived. I thought this was interesting since Max Collins did kill off Moon Maid-Junior Tracy’s first wife shortly after taking over the reins of Dick Tracy from Chester Gould. Thanks for listening!

Burchett’s Tracy is OK, but the “Flattop” looks a little too much like the version from the UPA cartoons in the early ’60s.

So yesterday’s “Dick Tracy? What are you doing here?” was facetious. But does “Flattop” know this is the real Dick Tracy? He would assume it was a costume, right?

Will the three Margies cosplay as themselves?

Nerdier and nerdier

About the art: I’ve noticed that whenever Joe, or a guest artist, introduces a classic villain, whether in a flashback or as part of an ongoing story, the art is spot-on, and the villain looks just like the original, or very, very close to it. But nobody seems to be able (or willing) to draw Dick Tracy himself to look like Gould’s version.

Now, I realize that Tracy under Gould changed considerably over the length of Gould’s run, but still – there is a “classic Tracy” which nobody seems to be able to capture. Joe came very close in the samples he submitted, but his Tracy in today’s day-to-day strip isn’t the same. One artist who nails it, imo, is the Gasoline Alley artist when he does a Tracy tribute.

And I certainly cannot make Tracy look right when I try to draw him – but I’m no artist, just a guy who attempts to draw my favorite comic strip character on a scrap of paper from time to time. It’s really, really hard to get it right.

I am, with some trepidation, looking forward to the cosplay Pruneface

There’s my answer.

I’d expect that one of the cosplay villains will turn out to be the real thing. If this mini-arc sticks to continuity then they’ll be easy to pick out.

This would be an interesting way to bring back Abner Kadaver hiding as one of the cosplayers.

It’s actually kind of grisly. Can you imagine a club in real life where the members dressed and acted like John Wayne Gacy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, or Charles Manson? I think you would immediately refer the members for psychiatric counseling.

Grown-ups? Cosplay? Seriously?

As relieved as I am to find that this is cosplay, still, Flattop is a scary likeness simply because the resemblance is mostly in non-costume parts. He is more like cosmetic surgery play than just cos(tume)play. What or who will we see next? The story needs to move briskly even at two weeks allowed length, so we need to meet essential characters and solve a crime in short order….