Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 08, 2021

“Now, if only I had lips. Speaking of which, yours are looking fine!”

Good morning™, snipers!

He does love his dart guns! I think he’s on the roof of a building across the square but it’s a little confusing because of that other building on our right.

Ithought, wouldn’t the edifices surrounding public official buildings be guarded by officers? But then I remember the Capitol…

Good morning™, SBDs !

Unless that outdoor area is so quiet, no one will notice the pffft of the blow gun. I bet that stinger will carry some potent poison.

Not wearing their trademark hats would confer anonymity to who they are. Ab’s dying anyway so what does he care but Rikki has her whole life ahead of her of not being the mother to her as yet unborn child. I am still going with “preggers” until I see different.

It would be sensible making Charlie enter through a lateral or rear entrance.

Costumed super-villains require costumed super-heroes.

I recall tsull212 saying that he is an Abner fan – though he is definitely not a Moon Maid fan. Not understanding his thinking there.

As far as I’m concerned, as effective as Tracy has been against Abner (which pretty much matches Abner’s effectiveness against Tracy), I’d think an Abner and Moon Maid matchup would work quite well!

You know the fact Charlie 21 was testifying before the Grand Jury YESTERDAY makes Abners contract as moot as a court date, doesn’t it?

What did he put in the darts? Arsenic? Cyanide? Strychnine? Or a combo of all three?

If it’s the same as the Modern Rogue’s latest with the weaponized NERF gun, this will not go well. Make sure the safety is off, AFTER inhaling.

Loving the no attempt at concealment, especially the top hat….

Unusual weapon he has there, an air gun rather than a blow gun I think!

What happens if the Air Compressor explodes, a la Wile E Coyote?

Oh Rikki, you little double entendre devil you….you’ve seen abner “use that weapon” before…if what our speculations about your comment several days ago are true

Anybody else think it’s strange that NOBODY has been notified yet about Rikki’s escape?

Just how much pressure will it take to deliver a dart with any sort of penetrating power at any sort of range? Daisy was fairly close to Tracy when he used Yeti’s dart gun.

But agree with asking how Abner knows what door will be used. I know a number of government court buildings where someone like Charlie wouldn’t be walking through any door. An automatic garage door goes up, police car drives in, and witness/prisoner/VIP is now inside without even being seen outside the building.

Are they flying the Bennington “76” flag from the courthouse?

1- Tracytown doubles down on Classic Greek architecture by adding a SECOND FLOOR with columns! Screw you, you Parthenon Poseurs!

2-RIKKI T.T.: Do you have a license for that thing?

3-A.B.: YOU NEED A LI …oh. You mean my B.J. 5000 SURE SHOT. I don’t need one. The Apparatus successfully “lobbied” (and by that I mean, donated to re-election campaigns) for everyone’s right to Open Carry in TracyTown.

RIKKI: Not that. Your first assumption was correct. That comment is how I tell guys that they forgot to zip up. You know, an improvement on the old “Your barn door is open” or “No flies on you?” or “Is Pistol Pete Maravich looking for the ball” or “The ball’s in your court and so’s your bat” or…

A.B.: ALL RIGHT! I GOT IT. Here hold this. I MEANT THE B.J. 5000!

Umm… killing a witness AFTER he testifies to the grand jury will not help you!

Outstanding 2nd panel.

A long time ago in front of the county courthouse in my hometown there was a major public hanging. Besides the three guys who were hanged, two other people died. One was a twelve-year-old boy working in a food stand. There were so many people standing on it to get a view that it collapsed and killed him. The other was a guy who was on the roof of the hotel across the street to see and fell off. Things seldom work out exactly as planned.

What is to stop a passerby in the courthouse from glancing out of a window? Hmm, do we have a trial going on in here to merit a news crew stationed on a roof?

What’s really confusing Neil, is how this strip has turned into Flash Gordon and his ray gun, or something from Star Trek. Weird, and totally disconnected.

Many women in the strip started off differently than what they eventually became. Mike has a tendency to give sympathy to those who began as unsympathetic. As we saw sympathy and softening with Belle, Blaze Rize, Sprocket, Ugly Crystal, among others. Now we are seeing it with Rikki. It doesn’t matter that Belle, Blaze, Sprocket and Rikki are all murderers, once you see the face become softer, cuter and the little turned up nose begins to appear. You know that for these criminals, crime does pay in opposition to the theme of the strip.

When I was in graduate school, my Stage Directing instructor and my Advisor once said, “Never fall in love with your characters. If you do, you will never want to see them get what is coming to them—particularly in farces and mysteries or other plays where there are often fights, kicks, and punches. Don’t let your own sympathy for the characters get in your way.” I think Mike has a tendency to do this.

Sure many of these women are beautiful but does Rikki really deserve sympathy for keeping up with Abner’s hits while he was in Europe? Does she deserve sympathy for her car crunching vehicle? Should she have sympathy as an accomplice to dart gun murders? Ask a judge if a woman’s beauty or pregnancy cuts her any slack if she is guilty of mass murder? I like Rikki—but as a villain and a murder’s moll, not as a sympathetic, unwed, pregnant murderer.

Putting the word Blow over the word Job now cannot be unseen, special thanks to my wife for pointing that one out to me.

Colonel Sebastian Moran called… ;)

Air powered weapons have been in use for 500 years or more. Lewis and Clark carried some on their expedition for Pres. Jefferson.

So, responding to his nations call a Moyle joins the IDF and following his service obligation marries and has a family. Hi daughter asked him, one day, what he did in the army. “I had a very important position,” he responded, “I was a snipper!”

Abner’s going to see Dick Tracy and end up failing to kill Tracy or Charlie.

Neat-o high-powered blow gun you’ve cobbled together there, Abner (panel 3)! —Indeed, it is nice to see a bit of original technology here, since this comic strip has a reputation for gizmos to be maintained. Faithful Rikki gives the prompt (panel 2) for the explanation, while back in panel 1 we see the set-up for the assassination plot, on a terrace or balcony across from the front staircase of the courthouse. Actually, I am surprised that a routine security sweep hasn’t detected such an obvious sniper’s nest….

Wow … with what other strip do you get comments in one day touching on everything from the Kennedy assassination to cosplaying to classical architecture to the Molly Maguires?