Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 08, 2013

Or the powers of people who come from up above!

Good Morning! She’s OK!

Neck broken and ambulance means one of two possibilities….once again we have no answer…..

Doubleup is deadly with that whip, that whip.

Or the power of Doubleup’s whip it would seem.

Again, if he was going to die anyway….apparently, anyone who’s injured, but not fatally is DOOMED to die a few minutes later

I think I’ve found the appropriate epitaph for the late Hy Pressure:^“The wretch, concentred all in self,Living, shall forfeit fair renown,And, doubly dying, shall go downTo the vile dust from whence he sprung,Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung”^From Sir Walter or Willard Scott, I forget which.

The storm really tore the place up didn’t it? If the farm was running on a knife edge before, this could send them over the edge.

But why is our little darling buzzing with electricity like that?

And what happened to the Apparatus guys? Weren’t they supposed to make sure the deal went through? Are they still hanging around somewhere?

I feel sympathy for Moon Maid. She is the victim in all of this. Great expression in panel one. Still so many unanswered questions. I hope that Mike writes in Mysta’s talk with Diet Smith. He was going to explain the truth to her, correct?

I think it’s clear enough that Hy Pressure was killed, and the Apparatus guys left because there wasn’t anything more they could do, while Méliès and the remains of the other gang disappeared quickly, also having failed in their mission and wanting to escape retaliation from the higher-ups for that failure. So both rival gangs remain to fight another day. With Venus so recently vowing that the Apparatus won’t be around much longer, that fight could escalate anytime soon.<br<

I didn’t get a chance to comment yesterday, but I didn’t think there was a way that Diet could have sneaked Mysta onto the SC. I also doubt that he has the power to turn it around. I get the impression that his “remote control” gizmo is rather like a TV remote and can only operate with line-of-sight access.

Strikes me as kind of a cop-out that no one was killed in the exchange of gunfire, and that this one death (Hy Pressure) is being ascribed to accidental causes, although Doubleup probably helped him along at the very least.. It’s almost like the old TV show, The A-Team, notorious and rightly ridiculed for the huge among of ordinance discharged in every episode to almost no effect whatsoever—worst shots ever!

mike said thered be four casualties… hy pressure is one, sail, ghote and that sputnik dude i guess round out the overall tally.

Chris Robinson: Unsatisfactory closure, indeed! Wasn’t this supposed to be the “showdown”? All four deaths allegedly accidental? (Only we know about Doubleup, Doubleup).The sun comes out and the baddies all dry up?.Neil Wick: I think you’re right; maybe not “line of sight,” but certainly not worlds away. Which is why, I suppose, it was important for the narrator to add Sunday that Dietrich did not know there were stowaways on the space coupe. Even if Thursday’s panels strongly suggested that, indeed, he did know there was someone aboard – probably Ghote and Sail (so far, no one knows about moon face and the Elvis brothers – and right now, it looks to stay that way)..On the other hand, do we really know that he meant to do away with the space coupe, especially at that precise moment in time? Was he really so upset with his invention that he was ready to let it become intergalactic space junk?.Still thinking about Still Da Man!’s comment yesterday, suggesting that perhaps Dick Tracy has “jumped the shark”!

When it took months and months to spin a tale such as this, with more subplots than anyone can count, I’m disappointed that we are given a Porky Pig “That’s All Folks!” ending. Mike & Joe have lotsa splainin’ to do!

tsull2121: Having lived in Germany and spoken the language, I have always considered “Diet” short for “Dietrich.”.It’s my linguistic tic, linguistic tic.

It’s starting to feel like the pacing of the strip has gone too far in the opposite direction from the days when Tracy would spend days at a time standing in a tiger cage. The story flow feels like a rock skipping across water, touching down once in a while but leaving big gaps in the plot.

Sweet Betty said what I am thinking, also. I have no sympathy for Hy Pressure as a character in this story, but Pop Wheaton’s logic is faulty. If he fell off the porch steps as a result of being disoriented from the Mysta Zap, how is that not her fault?We know that the neck was probably broken by Double Up’s whip, but in that case, there would certainly be marks. If Pop spoke to the medic, and he told him the neck was broken, wouldn’t he have mentioned the marks too?

People who have sounded like the story is over have a point..Not that it really is, mind you, but it sure seems like it is..The great showdown ended not with a bang but a fizzle..And unless some rats want to start crawling out of the granary, all the baddies have faded away to fight another day..All that’s left is to tell us who and what is Moon Maid. But for now, can we even trust Dietrich to tell the truth, the truth?

hey… isnt that stiletta’s ambulance?!?!? :)

Good morning Gweedo! I suppose I am “Granddaddy of DT”! I’ll be 79 before the month is over!

Good morning everyone…

Even though Mysta/MM’s “zap” didn’t kill Hy, she really does need to get a circuit breaker!

As a local DC kid, I can tell you before Willard Scott was on “Today” he did weather on the local NBC 4 news (where he was known for going through the building selling fresh eggs from his farm). He was also the local face of Bozo the Clown (and as referenced by Kip W above, later the original Ronald McDonald) and for decades he and his lifelong friend Ed Walker were known to radio listeners far and wide as “The Joy Boys.” He is also a published author and one of the friendliest, funniest gentlemen you’d ever meet.

Méliès believes the Space Coupe is on course to rendezvous with Venus, so there is no reason for he and the Munros to stick around. BB Eyes, Mumbles and Doubleup apparently know that Hy Pressure failed to acquire the deed to Wheaton’s farm. They can’t make Pop sell with Tracy and other Detectives on the scene (not to mention the hail of bullets from the Consortium), so I imagine they hit the road at a high rate of speed. Between the storm, the gun play and the Coupe, I’m guessing that neither Tracy, Sam or Lizz ever had a good look at the gangsters. Tracy was there to protect the Wheatons and he succeeded with a little help from Mysta.

Deep hatred? Are you off your Prozac this morning? You make zero sense – not that that’s a big surprise.

It’s not over til the fat lady sings…..

Thanks for the tip, Tim. I’m putting on Troll Repellant this morning……

I repeat, WHY is Mysta still sparking? There has got to be a reason.

I notice all these comments about continuity and what happened to whom, where. This arc has now exceeded the longest Gould arc ever; Mr. Crime’s saga, which ran about six months. I think it’s so long the storytellers have themselves lost track of what they are trying to say. When that 3-4 week “limit” on stories was lifted, it obviously opened the door to go to extremes in the opposite direction. Please wind this up, fellows it’s way past its bedtime.

Let’s see…..the Apparatus will be ticked that they didn’t get the deed to that farm….the group led by “Venus” who are out to exterminate the Apparatus are ticked off because instead of getting the Space Coupe it is instead on a one way trip out of the solar system if not the galaxy.

I’d say that there is a lot of story left to tell in this tale.

I wonder if Doubleup gave Pressure a chance to explain that Tracy was in the house about to arrest him thus blocking the deal and he was fried by Moon Maid? I wonder if Doubleup cared? : )

Late enough in the day, and no one ought to be caring any more, but you are correct, Sweet Betty, I have been calling him “DEET” Smith, the correct phonetic way to say the name..If it’s German...With all the stogies and smoke pouring out of his mouth, I don’t even think it’s ironic to call him “Diet” Smith.

And, at this point, I think more of us ought to be upset because our main antagonists, Tim Sail and Zy Ghote, were just thrown away – without any idea as to where they came from, what they were doing (other than back-story for Ghote), or any idea why they did what they did..And stealing a space coupe would seem, in comparison, a rather “cheap” use of the incredible re-birth of Mysta or Franken-Mindy, neither of which we still know for sure..Okay, so we have yet another teaser, Venus, which is, I suppose, the promise of yet another very, very long arc in which maybe some of these mysteries will be cleared up..Maybe..Going back to another somewhat recent villain, it could be disturbing if this is going to be the trend – a couple of misdeeds, then train wreck, then end!.Even bad guys need some character development!

I think it’s clear from Tracy’s comments and even the lighting in his last appearance that Diet Smith sent the space coupe on a one way trip to the asteroids.

Mysta’s horns spark all the time. Not sure why all the surprise about why they’re sparking now.

I’d say it’s Pops’ opionion – not the medics – that Pressure died “a-fallin’ off the porch steps.”Pressure’s body probably had numerous injuries from flying debris, and would look like just another storm fatality. (Unless Doubleup’s whip left a distinctive mark, of course.)-———————And no, Mysta haters – she still is not responsible for his death. Pressure would have survived if he didn’t go outside to escape arrest.

I’m still stuck on the question of why did Smith send the Space Coupe on a one-way flight?He could have had the electronics and power core removed in the shop (making it inoperable), or simply dismantaled it completly.Why send it flying away? Is it just a plot device, to get Smith and Tracy at odds?

JP, I wonder if SDM smells like peanuts after a night with his pachyderm “partner”. Thanks for throwing me a line!