Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 14, 2021

Rikki will need to take the next one.

Is this the end of Abner??

Good morning™, all!

Abner is losing his touch! Don’t you feel sorry for him?

Should’ve gotten out while the getting was good. ✨

Abner could try gardening

And what about Tracy who failed to apprehend an enfeebled Abner?

revenger09 came out in support about 1 hour ago

@Gweedo it’s legal here Murray

“you appear to be an “Army of one”

I think there are a few people out there that support me.

I support you, just that you are sometimes ezy pickins. ;-)

Good morning™, washed up marksmen !

Not so way in the distance I can hear Petty doing “End of The Line”.

If The “Apps” paid him anything down it might be a time for doing a refund, if he knows what’s good for him. If Doubleup got close enough I bet he could snap, and pull, Charlie’s head right off. Rikki does her best to assuage the stench of failure.

“See this hand?”

“Steady as a rock!”

“Yeah, but THIS is the hand I SHOOT with!”

-Blazing Saddles

Is that sadness ( or even fear ) that I see in Abner’s eyes ?

Cry me a river, Abner.

No, really. I just bought a boat and my house is landlocked.

Of course he didn’t take the freak accidental timing of Sam’s gesture with his hat blocking the dart

Not a face you want to meet in a dark alley…..

If only Abner knew the only reason he missed is because Sam took his hat off at the wrong time.

His career is over.

Last panel well done, you almost feel sorry for Abner! Almost!

Degenerate Abner has degenerative disability!

While I must agree with everyone who commented Abner’s shot was dead on… (Or at least it would have been if Sam hadn’t taken off his hat.) That was what we could see in the strip. We must believe that Abner felt a tremble in his aim, because he told us he did. Still, given the lack of aerodynamics of the dart, the downdraft Rikki mentions, and the lack of power of the air rifle it was a remarkably good shot from the palsied Abner.

1-A.B.: SNIFF! That’s never happened to me before. I swear.

2-RIKKI: Don’t worry about it. It happens to all guys at some point in their life.

3-A.B.: Really? So other guys have it break off?

RIKKI: Uh…well, I’ve heard about them getting broken but not so bad that they fall off but I’m sure it’s happened.

A.B.: SNIFF! It rolled under the couch. Would you get it for me?

RIKKI: OH, HELL NO.

Cheer up lil bud.

Crikey, Abner’s lost his mojo! Can he time-travel back to the 60s to reclaim it?

Look at the anguish on Abner’s face that Rikki sees!

Technically he didnt miss, Sam’s hat blocked it

Parkinson’s? Or some sort of deterioration due to his “disease”?

Hmmm, you know..a while back I speculated that this story would somehow focus on couples, but now with Sam aiding tracy with guarding charlie21, rikki with child,and vitamin with kandilame and their grub…maybe its trios instead? Theres got to be a connection between them and the tempest play but again, never having read the tempest, I’m at a loss

Maybe Ab should try the “Kid Shaleen” remedy.

Maybe he should retro fit the dart gun with a tripod.

Does the Apparatus need to know that their independent contractor suffers from the shakes?

“I’ve always been steady as a surgeon”….apparently this “operation” was blotched.

Wow! Abner is really devastated, one would get the impression he never missed any target.

I thought it was Sam doffing his hat that stopped the shot.

Well, let me put it this way: I like Rikki just fine, but Skeletor is really starting to wear me down. Bring back Shaky and Edison!

Uh-oh. Especially with the fine rendering of Abner’s concerned face in panel 3, I’m almost starting to feel just a tiny twinge of sympathy for the ugly lug.

Could Kadaver be checking out on a low note? Do we hear the mournful dirge in the background?