Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 30, 2023

Good morning™, all!

While Daddy Warbucks was checking his mail yesterday, Tracy has gotten himself an arrest warrant for Art Dekko! He seems surprised to see that Sue Reel is still with him. I suppose he thought she might have left by now. She’s not making any attempt to hide him, anyway, not that it would do any good if she had. The police would have found him soon enough, thanks to the search warrant, even if Agent 99 wouldn’t have.

On a technical note, the drawings are bleeding into the gutters between the frames. I wonder what the syndicate does to cause these problems. Shelley’s name is still partially faded out on the Sundays.

Lee looks like she doesn’t approve of Sue’s mustache!

Ha ha! Sue Reel rolls over on him without a twitch of her ’stache. Of course, monkey boy might have been halfway out a window by the time the first knock echoed.

Wasn’t Dick just there?

Mike is making things very herky Jerky!

Come back another day

Hopefully we’ll catch our prey

Hold the paper in our hand

Will the Fartman take a stand

Guard the doors and the stairs

Is he a magician who disappears

Tomorrow we’ll see if it’s the end of the chase

Unless Mike decides to go another place

We got the judge to issue the warrant on the basis we’ve reached the point in the story where we rush to the ending, jumping over any narrative build-up for a climax & leaving plot threads hanging and characters we’ve introduced ignored! Open up!

wait… this makes no sense… Sue and Dick meet earlier and obviously converse off panel… then Dick completely disappears and without any indication as to what they were talking about… now she acts as if it’s the first and only time they’ve encountered one another during this case… and befitting a sleaze-chimp like Art, it’s tit-for-tat from Sue, whereas Art threw HER under the bus in the past and now she’s doing it to HIM… appropriate…but the Dick and Sue thing makes no sense whatsoever… in other words, yet AGAIN, sloppy scripting on Mike’s part…

Sue Reel folded like a taco real quick….

Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by trusting his associates to keep the cops in the dark.

oh, wait; yes, he just has.

Good! The gigs up “monkey boy”. (ಠ⌣ಠ)

Good morning™, story wrapper uppers(?) !

Looks like a finish coming. It will be better rounded if the other bits get resolved per what Neil said above.

Not for long…

Art may have painted himself into a corner, from which he and his monkey feet can’t climb away.

Well, if you don’t need me any longer, I’ll just take my painting and go.

Let’s see where this is going…!

About Shelly’s Sunday name, I had not noticed, you are right!

It did not take Sue long to turn in Dekko !!! Let’s see if she gives up his plan.

Folded like a cheap tent in a gale. Let the cruel taunting begin now for next year’s Villain And Baddie Henchfolk (VABH) get-together and stolen wiener roast.

Sue looks nervous to see Dick Tracy, but as soon as she finds out the warrant is only for Art, she’s calm again.

She hasn’t even got her coat off yet, how can Dekko be asleep?

i guess that was smart, coming in the exit

Sue Reel is throwing the boss overboard! Guess Dekko will get his meals served to him in a different location…

well she certainly gave him up easily…

This entire caper exhibits a keen narrative clarity worthy of the late Dennis Hopper….

“Art Dekko didn’t get where he is by soaking his feet in Palmolive. "

Sue Reel didn’t get to where she is by letting losers tell her what to do…

So blonde female get black moustache eh. Who knews.

RAT FINK!!!

Sue’s not about to go back to prison on Dekko’s account… again. She’s probably doing him a favor.

What about 99, though? We have a new character and an fake art scam that’s going to fall through to tie up. I guess we have all week for loose ends.

MEANWHILE………..WHOA!! Ratted him out “reel” toot sweet, didn’t she?…….

1-DT: PIZZA DELIVERY FOR ART DEKKO! SUE: Wow. I guess he was more hungry than tired…

2-SUE: Dick Tracy? You deliver pizza now? I’m not surprised. Your detective work hasn’t been exactly stellar of late.

3-DT: No. THAT was a CLEVER RUSE to get you to open up! I’m here to arrest Art on the flimsiest of evidence based solely on his past shenanigans. As any Investment Firm will tell you – PAST PERFORMANCE IS INDEED INDICATIVE OF FUTURE PERFORMANCE. Well, in this case – more recent performance.

SUE: Whatevs. He’s upstairs. You should go in blazing away as he has all manner of weaponry and he’s amped up on bennies. And then there was ONE! Me. I mean me! The dough from the fake DaVinci is ALL MINE! As is this store and the tens of dollars it makes every month! I’M RICH! RICH I TELL ME!

MOVIE QUOTE—

“Toddy hates me”

Boris Karloff—THE BODY SNATCHER—1945

Sue is smart enough to know when the jig is up.Which is more than can be said for some little shrimps.

Look at Lee!She’s already got her gun out like she’s “itching to blast somebody”.We won’t mind,Lee.Not with THIS guy.

It is all so non chalant?

Well done, Sue.

Why is Lee with Tracy on this one and not Sam?

I’m wondering if the Jan.22 and 29 Sunday strips got reversed by mistake.The continuity would make more sense that way.

Nobody’s said if Dekko is out on parole—in which case you can nail him for any little thing and figure out the big stuff later.

Oliver Warbucks only Annie calls him “Daddy.”

Sue really does not know that much especially regarding the painting. Probably will get community service at her trial.

This story will never make it as a cliffhanger. Alfred Hitchcock was the master of that format.

Tracy and Lee Ebony come a-rapping at the “employees” door, and Sue Reel opens it and immediately crumbles before Lee’s intense stare and Tracy’s court warrant. She tells on Dekko. Art seemingly will have no way out when Tracy goes upstairs to collar him. Arrest warrant charging what crime? So far, only petty fraud at the furry con seems demonstrable by Tracy, but there is so much more that might come tumbling out if he and/or Sue start singing and filling in details (e.g., about the elusive hitman, Kryptonite)….

Are Sam and Lizz, or maybe just Sam alone, covering the front door? Could the little conniving criminal possibly escape that way if they are not?

Somehow Sue knows there’s a rat upstairs in more ways than one!