Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 09, 2022

Good morning™, missing letters in P.5. !

I like bob’s shadow in P.1. The P.2. approval looks genuine and not coerced.

that’s right, Steely, draw unnecessary attention to yourself… REAL smart…

Good morning™, everybody!

“He was an arc welder in his teens. Over time little bits of metal got into his face and magnetized.” (If you zoom in, you can actually see the letters in white that should be black.)

In the book, the cartoon Pinfold took on a life of his own after his “friend” (Georgie) started drawing him and the dog as a news illustration that became a cartoon. Pinfold actually didn’t know how to read, so he would take the paper to his neighbour, Albert, to find out what the cartoon version of him was up to that day.

We finally get a bit of backstory on Steelface. I guess the secretary is fairly new around there.

Looks like Gaspar isn’t just a bar chum. Is that a rifle or shotgun or something in the last panel?

Strange old bird shared a single word. Steelface has some pull

Some lines to learn. Applause to earn. Theatre’s never dull.

Got the part! Now rehearsals start. All the world’s a stage

Roar of the crowd. Cheering loud. Create what’s on the page.

Incurred a debt sans all regret. Steelface holds the strings

Play’s the thing. The words take wing. See what tomorrow brings.

Looks like Homer Simpson in the last panel.

If that little excerpt is typical of the songs in this musical I’m thinking Max Bialystock is producing the show.

So much for a Halloween type story……here the baddie isn’t even a bit scary, lol.At least the next story won’t have a hard act to follow as this looks like a snoozer…

The bubble lost two words in next to last panel.

I could say the same thing about Dr. Doom.

I like the dog depiction panel 1!

When did “Crimestoppers Textbook” become “Tracy’s Hall of Fame” Just noticed that!

Even the criminals in Tracyville must drink their coffee.

So, he has magnetic skin? That way he has somewhere can hang his keys and charge his cellphone.

Some comic book science crossing over to the Tracy strip.

1-ROBERT: ♪♫ I SHAVED MY HEAD AND CHANGED MY NAME TO FRED AFTER I MADE MY GIRLFRIEND DEAD…

2-…NOW THE COPS WILL NEVER FIND ME! ♪♫ CASTING DIRECTOR: GREAT STUFF!

3-SECRETARY: How’d the boss come to own this used car lot, Gasper?

4-GASPER: He was working here as a kid and finally earned enough money to buy it from the owner.

5-SECRETARY: So…this place isn’t a chop shop and somewhere the mob brings bodies to make them disappear and to launder their ill-gotten gains?

GASPER: No. SECRETARY: Oh. Didn’t think so.

GASPER: Why is this can of soda steaming?

I love her look of annoyance in the last panel. “Answer the question I asked you – stop mansplaining things I didn’t ask about!”

It is as simple as that!

To cover that ill-conceived pin-up tattoo of Smurfette he got wile blitzed while on shore leave in San Diego.

ᕦ(ò_óˇ)

How does Robert see without pupils? Likewise the dog.

Features a dog who knocks off Annie’s dog Sandy.

So the the notes are not shown as cracking and the dog seems to enjoy the singing, so the casting director must not be faking it (due to Steelface’s influence) and Robert really is talented. However, Robert is always asking Steelface for favors. Hmm…

The theater must be auditioning one person at a time for the role. Uncle must have called in a favor or did he pay someone? Will the readers ever know? Oh well…on with the story.

arf

Stop talkin’ and start walkin’ the story forward. There’s more dialogue and less action in this strip than Hamlet’s soliloquey.

SO OFF TOPIC THE ROBINSONS , BEING LOST IN SPACE, WOULD NEVER FIND IT: I particularly liked this 20-second putdown of the hero in OTHERWORLD Ch. 23. The usually drowsing basilisk in the party just saved him from being devoured by a huge snake, and Midori isn’t ABOUT to let him forget it.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AuAkHFRzO54mmHzzWkpUvuOXVwv2

Pieces of metal go into his face and magnetized? Just, what, magically?

Worst origin story EVER.

The (improbable, but what the hey) back-story on Steelface and his “condition.” Blonde secretary/receptionist is apparently new to the Steelface company and pumps dour, fatalistic Gaspar for the information that he is only too (un)happy to provide. It seems as though Gaspar has been Steelface’s henchman/flunky/front-man for quite some time and is pretty familiar with the whole story; he may even have been a childhood friend of young Steelface (or whatever his given name was before he adopted or was given this soubriquet).

And, of course, in filling Blondie in on the background, Gaspar/Mike Curtis is really filling us in….