Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 23, 2014

The plot sickens.

Good morning all…

Sing along with me now, “It’s the cirrrrrcle of liiife…”

So it’s officially a “sting” (had to look it up: “an elaborate confidence game; specifically : such a game worked by undercover police in order to trap criminals”). Apparently, this pair does cons on a regular basis. As for Lena, ewww, it does look like Miles is about to dies a grisly death.

I was thinking that film might have been a fake, wow, finally got a plot twist again, took 6+ months

Guessing Lena will be in line for a Vitamin supplement soon as well, if he pays the 300 G’s and is dissatisfied afterwards

lena the hyena may just have Miles for breakfast!

oh yeh and by the way… WOOO HOO!!! I’m back in the top ten! i guess that proves how dull and lackluster this story has been so far! normally at this time i am somewhere in the high teen’s or mid twenties when posting!

Guess who’s coming to for dinner?It looks like there won’t be a sequel for Miles.

Whooo! Called it!

Alas, poor Miles! We hardly knew ye!One large helping of Lena Hyena Chow, coming up!

As I’ve said several days ago – they’re old pros at running this con.Only now we know why they have Lena.Too bad for Miles; his leading role is about to become bit part(s).

Keep trying; you’ll make it up to the top! LOL!

Love the inverted spots on the smoking jacket in panel 2! Great touch.

ok sorry

Let’s play “Hungry Hungry Hyenas.”

No honor among thieves, I see.

You asked if this could be a Ponzi scheme.It may have elements that resemble elements in a Ponzi scheme (Silver’s comment that he would pay off his accomplice with money left over from his last sting) but it is not a classic Ponzi scheme, per se.A Ponzi scheme is an investment scheme where the crook offers high returns on investments by using some sort of secret, new method of investing (which is not real, but sounds really good to the uninformed mark.) Initial investors are well pleased, because the schemer is paying them off with his start up capital and the money he gets from subsequent investors. Everything looks good on paper, but no investing of any kind is actually happening, and the schemer is raking in the money from his investors for his own private use.I actually learned most of the above from a Dick Tracy continuity written by Max Allan Collins and drawn by Dick Locher from the early 1980s. There is also, of course, information available on Wikipedia.

It’s almost more impressive as a fake than as some other scam (since scam we knew it would be). Let’s assume Vitamin’s statement about the film being lost is true. This means Silver must have seen it many years ago. His memory is so amazing that he recalled Vitamin’s tiny role (probably uncredited, as it was non-speeaking), and then he was able, from memory, to recreate that scene in enough detail that Vitamin fell for the scam. I’d say he about deserves the 300k!

Jonathon K: Hey, where did you get that Mac Tonight logo you posted last Saturday?.It was always my favorite McDonald’s character, though I hear that, after Darrin’s son got through with it, it had a pretty ugly history thereafter….At any rate, thanks for the glimpse of a childhood memory!

RWM, what happened to the Bridge Tender? I must have missed something.

Gweedo? Same question.

Here’s an explanation on how Silver would know so much about a lost television episode. It is possible that, while the film is lost, the script of the episode still exists Or maybe just enough of the script to recreate a few seconds of the show. here might also be some photographs taken at the time.

Jonathon K: Probably too late in the day, but if you have an approximate location of the Mac Tonight sculpture, I can find it with Google Earth. Thanks again!

Lena’s looking really hungry. I think either sandwich would work.

Do ya ever wonder if people even see your post?