Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 06, 2022

Good morning™, everyone!

Mr. Bones now has Blackjack’s gun and he’s tracking Dick Tracy using Blackjack’s Wrist Wizard. Blackjack took Tracy’s Wrist Wizard as a souvenir in a 2012 story (https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2021/4/15) and Tracy let him keep it. That was the model that was recalled by Diet Smith in the 2016 story after the battery exploded.

1.Bones seems to be wearing a different style hat in panels 1 and 2.

2. Blackjack apparently is totally naked. Does Bones have his tidy whiteys on?

Bones may live to regret not terminating BJ at this point- I’m betting he gets out of this somehow and saves the day.

I love how evilly maniacal Pleger has Mr. Bones look in Panel 2.

Tracy’s not headed to the “Top Cop” exhibit, so where?? I think it would be very cool if there’s an old supporting character whose family roots are from “the old country” and Tracy is going to visit them as they celebrate Orthodox Christmas Eve. As my late friend Donnie used to say: “Hristos se rodi (Христос се роди).”

Ah, the obligatory „villain explains his plan to the victim he‘s supposed to kill“ plot.

Good morning™, clear wrap mummies !

Kind of hard to believe BJ. would off himself and that he could do it while secured. Of course, if there were a fire that started from a gas accumulation and a spark, like a gas fired heater of some kind lighting up… I suppose B. could start the gas leak from the stove and leave some kind of timed charge to go off…

Poor BJ, I hardly knew ’im.

As to BJ holding his breath, if the wrap is really tight he may need to.

Sombrero in panel 2!

1-TRAVOLTA: My Uber is almost here!

2-…Dressed in the guise of my next role as Cab Calloway – Criminally Talented , I’m going to run lines with the driver on my way to my jet. I’ll start with ♪♪ _Minnie the Moocher, a low down hoochie coocher! ♪♪

BLACKSTRAP: YOU FIEND!

3-…But…what’s the gun for?

TRAVOLTA: GUN! THIS ISN’T A MICROPHONE?!?

BLACKSTRAP: Huh, oh yeah. Just kidding. Sing into the long, thin part and squeeze the volume control with your index finger.

TRAVOLTA: Oh, like this? BLAM! YIKES! That’s some vicious feedback! Here. You keep it.

BLACKSTRAP: CURSES, FOILED AGAIN!

Editor’s Note: Yeah, I’m getting tired of the “Travolta” conceit too but Shakespeare doesn’t change characters mid play!

Mr Bones has a wicked sense of humour and love to be spectacular. I like him, such a evil character.

Don’t underestimate Blackjack, Mr. Bones, if you know what’s good for you.

From the looks of things, Mr. Bones has left nothing to chance. I wonder if the Apparatus paid him half now and the other half when Tracy has been eliminated. They do strike me as the kind of organization that pays for results as opposed to “best efforts”. I do recall an old saying “closeness only counts in a game of horse shoes”.

This has to be a real wang dang doodle. Blackjack gets framed for the murder of Tracy. When the law catches up him, he gets perp walked in his birthday suit. Naturally a blanket will be thrown around him when the media comes.

I was wondering about BJ’s gun — have we ever seen him firing it? He doesn’t want harm to come to his intended victims, so I can’t imagine he’d ever put bullets in it.

It would be funny if, should Bones try to shoot Tracy, a banner shoots out of barrel with the word BANG! on it.

Well,Panel 2 has an oven behind Bones.Maybe Blackjack can squirm over and melt his way free.

Police labs have many ways of figuring out “suicides” are anything but.Does Blackjack seem like the “suicide type” to YOU??

Strong snow predicted for East Coast tomorrow.May be absent from “the boards”.

MOVIE QUOTE—

A killer always holds his chin in.You ever notice that?"

Leslie Howard—-THE PETRIFIED FOREST—1936

So soon Tracy will be sleeping with the fishes, alongside Luca Brasi?

We caught up with Peanutbutter.

There’s one other kid we should check in on.Not out of curiosity,but a genuine welfare check.

SPEC—-the little mute girl.Mother conspired with IVY tokill her father—-both natural parents were killed.

For a little while it looked like Lizzand her first husband Jimmy Worthington were going to adopt her;but Jimmy died in 1959 and that apparently went by the wayside.

The “system” sometimes isn’t kind to handicapped children,calling them “unadoptable”.So what happened to her?

Luca Tracy sleeps with the fishes?

I just love that hat. I’ll bet you could toss it like a frisbee just fine.

Ah, Richard! You are so talkative, like many another criminal Master Mind who has thereby set up the captive Good Guy’s escape. I’m not sure how nudie Blackjack might unwrap himself, but when he does, and gets back up (tubthumping), you will find him a formidable foe, and a crack shot, too.

Blackjack needs to escape his wrapping, dress and arm himself, and intercept Bonhomme’s attempt to assassinate Dick Tracy! That’s a tall order, but I hope Team Tracy takes that route in developing this plotline….

Firefighter Jonathan (Jon) Flagler of the L.A. County Fire Department lost his life on the job this morning. I’m sure he’ll be featured on the First Responders Hall of Fame on this strip some Sunday.

did he wrap Blackjack up in saran wrap?