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

Proof? Tracy? Dick Tracy? Huh.

Good morning™, shady faces and hearts ? !

Why is this jamoke wearing sunglasses in places you normally don’t ?  Despite letting Tracy see some possibly very revealing footage I wonder if he is comfortably distanced from personal involvement in this heist.

Good morning™, all!

Vickers has the goods. Anders is clearly guilty, but he’s in the hospital, I think. On the other hand, the truck driver was probably in collusion with Anders. I’m guessing Madsen may have been the truck driver.

Typo in the first panel on the second row. Ander’s should have been Anders’.

Gosh, are these two the life of the party or what???

This story is an out of control train,,,,going at 5 miles an hour!

There seems to be some underlying tension between these two.

“Let’s keep it professional, guys!”

What did Anders think? He’d stage a truck hijacking in cahoots with Audie, but think he’d throw upper management & the police off by not providing basic info like the identity of the purchaser or the name of the driver of the truck? If he’d left some of the stolen merchandise on his desk he couldn’t have done more to raise immediate suspicions about himself. Once upon a time this strip had great criminal masterminds like Pruneface & the Brow with ingenious schemes trying to outwit Tracy. Now we have penny ante crimes drawn up by crooks with the I.Q. of a rock.

Self-driving trucks are the way to go!

Tracy: “Can I call you ‘Vicky’, since we’re friends and all?”

The next time Tracy visits Argos it’ll be a sprawling complex large enough to rate its own zip code….

Wake me up tomorrow .

If a porch pirate tries to steal my packages, he’s gonna swing for it!

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

“Jamoke?” Is that like “yokel”? Re: those glasses…maybe he got suckered into a pair of those “X-Ray Specs”…….and he’s waiting to try them out on the next babe who walks in…….

Pequod is late

I was thinking it was nice to see some solid real police investigation going on. Question and answers, information gathering to build the picture. It can’t all be car chases, though we’ve had a real shortage of those for years now.

BORETRY ROCKS!!!!!

1-VICKERS: Mr. Vickers asked me to give you the info you requested, Detective.

2-DT: Sputter, choke But YOU’RE Mr. Vickers! With sunglasses…

3-…That reminds me of a song – ♪♪♫ VICKERS IN DISGUISE – THAT’S WHO YOU ARE! WITH GLASSES! ♪♪♫ VICKERS: OK. You spotted me…

4-…Sometimes I just like to play the role of a tough guy…

5-…Plus I get to draw TWO salaries. It took a great detective like you to see through my clever sunglass disguise, Mr. Tracy.

DT: Uh, right. No one ever noticed. I’m sure it wasn’t their fear of a crazy man that stopped them from mentioning it. VICKERS: Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to squeeze into my dress and take my place at the switchboard during Judy’s break.

’Tis a big deal

To find out who would steal

Despite who gets hurt

And put morals in the dirt

Their shady scam

Serves up a sweet slice of toe jam

Yet Vickers might help

To cease our yelp

Their end is nigh.

Let’s catch this slimy guy

If he keeps getting away

I must ask why.

Ta Da!!!

@ Pequod™, whenever you get here:

You being the poetic type, I thought you might enjoy today’s Baldo strip (I noticed it’s not in your list of “followed” comics):

https://www.gocomics.com/baldo/2023/07/30?ct=v&cti=1028975

OT WHIMPER: As I am now rewriting a fair part of the current fantasy novel that the laptop (bless its tiny wicked processor with a sledge hammer) LOST, I’m using AI to design working models of additional characters that I can refer to to maintain design continuity.

A gripe. I am not writing a word-version peep show. No matter how specific I am about armor and reasonable proportions, I now have multiple tries at minotaur female whose ‘slightly battered steel chestplate’ seems to be abbreviated blue cloth (Oh, THAT’LL be useful in a pitched battle) and her bustline? Well, referencing a remark (Possibly from S. J. Perelman) about ordering a desk and slightly paraphrasing, you could ‘land n airplane on it’.

First two book sold well. I don’t care to hve the series end with a muddled mess.

THIS is not what I was aiming at.

Anders, Vickers, Argos, Madsen, Audie, Sabrina, Ernesto…

Did anyone catch the space coupe parked in the swimming pool?

I got nothing.

It’s just me but I would think truck drivers who are on Argos property normally sign a log-in sheet. Then again facial recognition plus a wave of the hand gets someone in and out.

Does Regional Manager Vickers have an eye problem, or is he thinking of trying out for the FBI or Secret Service? What’s with the shades? His rummaging about, in any case, has produced a plump folder on Anders for Tracy to digest. But our detective still must grapple with The Phantom Truckdriver; would it be amiss to cast Madsen in that part (continuity be darned!)? We inch forward….

Talking heads.

Interviews like this constitute 50% of all good police work,and I enjoyed this day’s strip.

Unless Vickers turns out to be the driver,,this is the first real “official cooperation” Tracy’s managed to round up.

Meanwhile,at another ARgos gate, a hollowed-out gas truck is waved on through…..