Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 17, 2014

There’s clarification!

There you go. Unfortunately, Dick Tracy has fallen under spell, like everyone else in town except Annie and Axel. Belinda is obviously a radio show like Orphan Annie but based on the similar UK comic strip Belinda and complete with the famous decoder badges sent out by sponsors of Radio Orphan Annie. Indeed, Annie had better come up with a strategy, quick.

A Shout Out to the Annie radio show, as evidenced in “A Christmas Story”.

Congratulations to Joe and Mike and the team on another nomination!

I posted it late yesterday, but I thought I should repeat for those who don’t read all the comments, the 2014 Harvey Awards final ballot was announced yesterday (for works published in 2013) and Dick Tracy is nominated again! These are the nominees for Best Syndicated Strip or Panel

DICK TRACY, Joe Staton and Mike Curtis, Tribune Media Services

FOX TROT, Bill Amend, Universal Uclick

GET FUZZY, Darby Conley, Universal Uclick

MUTTS, Patrick McDonnell, King Features

THE PHANTOM, Tony DePaul and Paul Ryan, King Features Syndicate

Thanks for the Update Neil! Congrats to Joe & Mike once again!!

Harvey Kurtzman, now there was an artistic genius of satire.It’s awesome that they named the award after him.

I just noticed that Dick Tracy is joined by another adventure strip this year, The Phantom. I wonder if Staton and Curtis have started a trend.

Hmm, the old hypnotizing decoder badges trick…

The more things change the more they stay the same…now people can’t take their eyes off their smartphones…

Love ya Phantom, but Team Tracy is number one! Congrats on another well deserved nomination. (Thanks for the quick info NW)

Multitudes of masses sat glued to the radio just like them back then. I can’t imagine it would be an unusual in 1944 to see a scene like that. Annie however, would stand out like a sore thumb, someone might notice her!

WRONG! LOL! But it does seem to point to yet another time Tracy is gonna need someone to save his rear end!

Okay, this is helpful information. Somehow the sounds from the radio show interact with some electronics in the decoder badges to cause hypnotic effect.

Congratulations to Team Tracy! My mighty decoder badge says that a repeat for the current Harvey Award Winners for Best Syndicated Strip is what the future holds. What fun to drive to the awards ceremony and cheer for Team Tracy. I’m happy to give other fans a lift:

Ah ha! I just caught the connection! The guy in panel two is a Mason! And panel three mentions that it’s a “Secret Society!” The whole thing is a … (drum roll, please!)… masonic conspiracy!

Good morning fans. Congrats Joe and Mike!

When I first saw today’s strip, at roughly midnight (no comments allowed, I was at work!), my thought was this:.Is this a crossover or a parody?.Little Orphan Annie had her own radio show, complete with “secret society” and decoder rings. Now, all of a sudden, the trappings of the Little Orphan Annie radio show have been ascribed to the U.K. Annie, aka “Belinda”!.Or, was the bogus calendar an indicator that is, in fact, an alternate universe?.Where’s Doctor Who? Ask Tommy Westerphall!.Better yet, where’s StillDaAvenger and tsull2121 when you need them?

I still think Marty & Spud got cheated out of their well-deserved glory. All four of the M&S Fan Club got cheated (again)! Someone rigged the vote! Recount!

Today’s strip confirms my suspicions about Tracy’s plight. Now, Simmons Corners, all unawares, depends on Annie for rescue from Axel and his allies. But Annie has pluck. She’s better than Belinda!………………………………………………….Much as I like Team Tracy, I would be happy to see DePaul (writer) and Ryan (artist) win for The Phantom, another favorite of mine that I read on Comics Kingdom via the Chicago Tribune daily (the Sunday Phantom is drawn by another artist).

It’s my guess Tracy is fakin’ it and knows exactly what he’s doing—blending in to figure out what’s going on. He had to be told who he was and what he did, and he commented it was strange to be back in his police uniform.

The Asp is coming. He has the Mysta Power. He can break Belinda’s spell. Watch & Wait. To be continued…

It’s worth mentioning that the “Always eat your Ovaltine” gag in A CHRISTMAS STORY was funny, but not true to life. The messages Radio Orphan Annie gave were generally some kind of plot-related thing, like MEET AT OLD MINE. The advertising was right there on the surface, including the theme song. (I have a copy of the sheet music, which Mom got and saved, in exchange for some foil seals and maybe a dime or so. She had a couple of decoder pins, but those vanished in the last years of her life.)

Night-Gaunt49: Not in the real 1944, we are agreed. But methinks the bogus calendar may indicate something else going on – not your run-of-the-mill abduction..While Mike and Joe could certainly make this a straight-up kidnapping story, for the moment, I’d like to think the jury’s out on an “alternate reality” scenario..Bottom line: As elaborate as this faux 1944 appears to be, the bogus calendar is just too stupid a mistake to have made..Unless it was no such mistake…

Sidney Phillips; Any idea what happened to DT Mag or SPEC?

D R I N K Y O U R O V A L T I N E

Mattie is now the inker for The Night Watchman strip from Big Bang and Image Comics.

Link

Good afternoon everyone!

So many exciting comments to go with the strip! I’m happy for you guys, Mike, Joe, et al, for the nomination! You deserve to be labeled as number one!

Congrats to Mike, Joe and the rest of Team Tracy for your nomination!(As a longtime Phantom fan, I’m glad to see DePaul and Ryan nominated, too!)

So Tracy and everyone else in Simmons Corners has decoder badges, and are hooked on that radio show.But why? And how?Leapin’ Lizards, this is confusing!(Maybe Annie should send a letter to Popeye. Or Mandrake.)

Does anyone else there hate Ovaltine? I always thought it tasted slightly medicinal. My father, who is of an age to have listened to the radio show, thinks the same way. For chocolate milk, I always preferred the syrups anyway.

I just noticed, Annie with her hand pressed up against the glass of the barber shop nicely echoes the final frame of the Annie strip:

Gee Whiskers, Annie! Maybe if you changed the clock, and made it 15 minutes slow, Tracy would miss the broadcast!

I must admit that I wasn’t interested when this thing started off. And naturally, since there wasn’t anyplace to go, I had to sit back and wait it out. It kind of grows on you (actually, me), and now it has self-generated some interest here. We’ll see. And I don’t hear a train whistle coming through the tunnel yet.

Late in the day. Don’t know if anyone will notice..I think we’ve solved the mystery of what was in the barber’s cup:.OVALTINE!

When the calendar was first shown to Tracy, he was wondering who he was and where he was. I doubt he was alert enough to notice that the days of the week were screwed up.