Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 22, 2024

Face now turning crimson, Pat Patton makes it clear

Find the source of camera glitch or payment shall be dear.

I.T. can’t say what on that day did cause the camera jam

Killer took advantage to dispatch and then to lam.

Patton won’t be placated. “This mess is front page news

Hit the street and gather facts. Find something we can use

To find the killer bold and free, and place him in a cage”

Meanwhile, Lee begins to see. The wheels turn for our sage.

Legitimate his presence. Yet two birds with one stone

He may have killed without blood spilled. Actions he shall own.

Good morning™, everyone!

It seems that contemporary police don’t really understand World War II technology. They’ll figure it out, I’m sure.

So much for “guarded” optimism.

Pat on the warpat…

errr, PATH…

“Eric, put some action in your stories!”

“No!”

“Eric, put some humor in your stories!”

“Absolutely not!”

“Eric, make me cry!”

“No can do!”

“Eric, put me to sleep!”

“Now you’re talking! ZZZZZZZzzzzz,,,,,!”

Who is this “Chief Pat PattEn”? He doesn’t much resemble Tracy’s similarly named former partner?

“Come on, figure this out. You don’t want to be shown up by those lardbutts in MCU do you?”

h.v.greenman has endangered my unpatented formula about 16 hours ago

@Gweedo it’s legal here Murray

Brewed from guaranteed fresh, locally sourced, goat berries.

Just blab THAT secret all over the place, why doncha !?  LOL !

Spell check needed! It is Patton not Patten, unless we are in a different strip ( maybe we are)

Good morning™, Quivering In Fear Minions !

What does family mean in this context ?  Does he come from a family of criminals many of which are doing hard time or is the chief’s use of “family” merely a cryptic red herring ?

Why is it “herring” when it could be Sockeye, Grouper, Pike, Cod etc. ?

“You will be spending time with your family” Oh! No! Anything but that!

(Yes, I know it’s a threat to his job)

I think I’m beginning to understand. Dick Tracy is no longer a serial narrative strip telling a coherent story, but a daily gag strip, & some days the gags are funnier than others.

Charles may have lost a point on his overall score?

Simple enough fix, he blames Eric.

A$$ chewings are never fun, it means the boss has no idea how to solve the dilemma, and has to have someone else to put the blame on!

Spending time with family? Gee. Thanks boss. Me was really want to goes vacation with em. Happy holidays to you too. See ya next year!

You (whoever you are, we haven’t decided – if you looked differently and had a different spelling of your name) are yelling at this poor slob for the problems with the video surveillance system rather than watching loud cat videos instead of watching the door to the toilet (either loud cat video, or he’s deaf not to hear the killer go in and commit murder)?

“He was there legitimately, but” But Tracy doesn’t let lack of evidence stop us! Let’s rattle his cage!

After nearly a century, youd think they’d know how to spell his last name correctly #ROLLSEYES

Just more waste of precious comics space. Story coulda moves along but we just gets notheeng valuable once again. We already knows he was there legitimately. That is what his sign in entry means. Duh. Just more pointless dialogues and monologue. And why thems even talking about CCTV footage now after so many days of incident? Thems shoulda already look at all that by now.

Theengs ain’t looking good chief. You gots to patten down the hatches see.

IT guys can’t explains? What is we paying em for anyways? Not tells me thems was updates the macrosoft systems again and then them cameras was all goes off then.

Say chief waitsaminite. We shoulda be talking this under the cone of silence.

He’s Union, Chief. The best you can do is suspension with pay.

Pat looks a lot different. and even changed his name it seems

“Legitimately”??? How many Nazi Scientists were smuggled into the U.S. by our own Govt?

I do like the images today : )

MGT 101…

1- PAT THE BUNNY: QUIT PRAYING! I’LL HAVE NO PRAYING IN MY OFFICE!

2- TSA GUY: IT’S A MIRACLE! I PRAYED THAT YOU WOULD DIE BUT YOU DIDN’T! THAT’S…wonderful?

3- PAT THE BUNNY: SHADDAP! Whadaya know about Batman smuggling musical instruments into the jail and wailing on Bee-bop Jazz all night??? TSA GUY: Uhhh. Nothing? I work at TSA? Also I don’t think that’s Batman in the picture nor do I think that’s a music refer…

4- PAT THE BUNNY: SHADDAP! Now get outta here and get me some answers! AND RIP THOSE QR CODES OFF YOUR UNIFORM!

TSA GUY: sputter/shudder But they open a link of the subway time tables and… PAT THE BUNNY: OUT!

5- LEE: Geez! What’s the old fart yelling about now??? Did his laxative kick in unexpectedly hard and fast?

WHOA! Time at home with the fam! HEINOUS!!!!

“Inexplicable how those smiley face stickers got onto the camera lenses. And that it took a week for anyone to notice something was off. NObody is THAT happy! We blame either Martian infiltrators or Erik, the Phantom of the Opera.”

I must have missed something. What the heck is Lee thinking about?!?

Me thinks the jamming transmitter is located in the clock tower!

Perhaps they have installed an EMP (electromagnetic pulse) generator in the clock tower that can jam cameras and computers or anything electronic.

Pat apparently belives in the “sh*t rolls downhill” principle. The media is dumping on the department’s camera failure. Pat is dumping on this guy. Who will this guy dump on?

I thought Chief Patten looked quite different from this guy.

Costello obviously doesn’t read the comments, just plods along in his never-ending sagas. He opines “I’m too big to respond, I is an author”

So the “neck guy” from the November 5 strip is now the target of the chief’s ire. Another candidate fro Eric’s list of nameless background characters! (Other possible names for the list: the Lieutenant from Homicide, introduced during the LIbris case, sand Tracy’s inspector friend from the Two Foxes construction site, who was in the November 17-19 strips.)

Patton/Patten – stupid mistake. As for being off model, his model has changed dramatically over time anyway. He’s gone from round face with small chin to square face with big chin, from chubby face to thin… I’m going to fault Charles for being off-model when there hasn’t been a consistent model.

My issue is with the writing. First, the pacing is all but nil. The content is repeating itself in different ways. Second, the dialog is off-character. Third, there are either logic errors or gaps in exposition. I could make a list, but they’ve either been covered or we’d only guess at it to try to make it make sense when it really doesn’t.

Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of Dick Trycy