Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 06, 2024

yes, Daddy, WHAT?…

Good morning™, everybody!

I quite like the drawing of Tracy in the first panel.

The nature of “Daddy” Warbucks business was always pretty hush-hush. I don’t think Annie is going to get a detailed answer to her question.

“Cheat him in a business deal? Steal his girlfriend? Have your cop buddies rough him up? Some other rich guy BS? Not complaining, looking forward to my turn.”

I’m a bit worried about this storyline, about it possibly going straight through to August. If it’s not an interjectory in a Dick Tracy main story, I fear there could be some readers that could leave. And unfortunately people will blame Charles even though it’s Mike who is authoring the script, possibly even sighting Charles’ own admitted mistake as an example. And I truly do feel for Charles, not only is it the iconic Dick Tracy, but his first story to draw is a “crossover” with another iconic title Little Orphan Annie.

I know it’s a very slim chance of it happening, but it is possible.

Good morning™, Separate Conversations !

All Bob needs are the elbow patches, for true perfesser status. ELSEWHERE… Annie has a burning need to know about the attempted kidnap shenanigans. Are these people in the same room anymore ?

Something just occurred to me. I wonder if Mike Curtis does the artwork for the strip. I know he’s a huge Superman fan and I can see a lot of Supe’s square lantern jawed visage in Dick Tracy’s.

Being a multimillionaire isn’t reason enough?

Does the ashtray say SIAM? Ancient name for Thailand!

Nice perspective artwork on panel 1. Simple but effective.

Give that girl a haircut!

2/29 it was announced that Bob here had pictures of Annie’s parents. Poor child has wanted to see pictures of her parents for as long as she can remember. But we don’t show them to her. We eat a leisurely dinner and move to the front parlor where Warbucks enjoys a fine cigar as he reminisces with Tracy about events ten years earlier.

I’m still calling this emotional abuse. Show the kid the pictures already.

I thought it was only Tracy, Annie and Daddy in the room. When did Mr. Smith come in?

I feel like I have just entered the scene in mid-conversation.

She’s awfully short, or on her knees

“I tucked it away in my Corvette and forgot about it.”

I’m not even reading this . I give it a quick glance and then go see what The Great Unwashed have to say .

Something that would have gotten Warbucks 20 years if it came out.

“And why are you turning beet red? It was that humiliating towel snap in the school showers, and in the hallways, and in math class, WASN’T it? HUH, ya’ big bully??"

I’m jonesing for a Vengey cartoon .

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“It ain’t enough I got me a brother, he’s a tambourine whacker!”

Jim Dale—HOT LEAD AND COLD FEET—1978

Good angle shot in panel one.

I need a fix of Another Take .

Well, at least it appeared that Smith was included as a dinner guest.

This turkey is worse than cold turkey .

I keep flashing back to Gould’s BORIS ARSON—-who was certainly drawn to LOOK like a Bolshevik and somehow managed to live through THREE Encounters with Dick(his sister wasn’t so lucky)

………I’m waiting more for something, uhmmmm, substantial from Bob-O than from any of the other present three put together……..oh, and I hope that he is likewise “filled with dinner”!……

This “I have a big secret to reveal, but first let’s have dinner” reminds me of a sequence in Gasoline Alley starting in late March of 2004. Wallet matriarch Phyllis had decided to tell adopted son Skeezix a shocking secret about his left-on-doorstep event that she had kept for 83 years! (Back then, the strip was still moving in real time.) Skeezix says can’t it wait until tomorrow – my wife has dinner waiting! Of course, things don’t work out as planned. (Read it in GoComics if you’re interested.)

Annie, don’t ask questions you don’t want to know the answer to. Daddy might have had some underhanded deals with unscrupulous characters and your illusions of his uprightness might be dashed.

You mean you don’t remember? YOU WERE THERE!

Bob must have Neutron star density as he has caused the couch to bend under him. The armrest is on an angle as is Bob himself. (Check the angle of his head against the top of the frame.)

1-DT: Well Dr. Garageman – can you do anything about Gigantous Chin Disease ?

2-DR GARAGEMAN: You’ve obviously let it go too long. The best I can do is to slow the progression. OR like me, you can hide it under a beard! DT: You’re useless. I’m glad we didn’t let you eat dinner!

3-LOA: Will I ever contract Gigantous Chin Disease or be bald as a cueball like you, Daddy-O?

DADDY-O: No, dear. Fate has been cruel enough what with your hideous hair and freakish eyes. LOA: That’s a relief! DADDY-O: Yeah…sure…

Oliver, like in the musical, can you spell S-C-A-M?

Good question, Annie.