Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 05, 2015

I felt nostalgic earlier today & re-watched “Arsenic & Old Lace”, one of my all-time favorites. One thing that struck me funny was the character of Aunt Martha finding the hat of “Mr. Hoskins” (her & her sister’s latest ‘victim’), and (with eerie music playing), adding it to their hat collection in a cabinet in the parlor. Pre-dates Tracy’s collection. Wonder if Chester Gould was a fan of this flick.

It’s “Frankenstein” redux!

And, of course, who is not looking forward to tomorrow’s strip?! Great job, Team Tracy! In fact, one of the best yet!

May be the best single daily strip I’ve seen Team Tracy do yet!Joe’s art is spectacular, and the Unknown Colorist at GoComics did an excellent job.

…..and Tracy STILL hasn’t learned never to stand close enough to be disarmed.

I see that Gruesome is trying to grab Tracy’s gun. Hopefully, he won’t be as successful as he was with Sam. If they can keep their balance, the collapsing windmill might not be too bad, but I’m afraid that one of them might get trapped under the wreckage if their no careful. The bits of windmill will almost certainly be heavier that the theatre flats that landed on some of them at the theatre.

Should be interesting to see what kills Gruesome….will it be the fall or the flames?

….impressive artwork…

A comment on yesterdays comments. Three of you commented about the original writer of Frankenstein, but none of you spelled her name correctly. It is Mary Shelley NOT Mary Shelly. Why do I care? Umm… Well it is the same as my wife’s name. She was named after Marys husband Percy. I always cringe when I see it spelled wrong.

Granted that it doubles as a tool shed, but still, isn’t that windmill awfully big for a miniature golf course?

Seems “Fall” arrives early in Tracyville.

Good morning guys!

Outstanding strip today and even better tomorrow, I betcha!

Morning, Tracyville!

This is great stuff! Team Tracy has us sitting on the edge of our recliners reading the daily comics!

Good morning to all. Will Gruesome cheat death? Will Tracy get burned? Will we find out tomorrow? Only the fans who remember this story from the past will know. Y’all have an exceptionally good day.

High adventure! Fire baddd! It all comes to a crashing halt tomorrow (or maybe it gets stretched out for another day or two beyond, as if in ultra-slow motion…). Who survives? Who dies? Who escapes? Who is arrested? Does Lizz stop pointing and actually do something?

Considering where they are on the roof, they may be thrown clear of most of the wreckage. Or not.

“DRAMITIC” ! – “SENSATIONAL” ! “Fiery” ! “Really Rip – Roaring” !

And put alongside other such “complimentary” remarks this morning, they were Well Deserved . . . ‘First Blush’ - Comments . . . UNTIL a more serious LOOK . . . for aside from the impressive graphics they’re really SUPERFICIAL (Blissfull?) observations ?

For they stopped short, failing to “take account” of what had actually - just happened (?)

Tracy’s has had a Gun trained on him (Gruesome), from the moment he emerged on the roof, from below the trapdoor, but here now, our Detective (careless?) allows him to get close enough, to TAKE a punch in the Chest ? Just like with Sam, too close (12-1-14) - and punched then - silly, into a Trunk ! Tracy, fortunately - with a little more ‘stand up’ endurance . . . A telling FLAW by two Unit members, and on the very same - case ! ?Beginning to look like a need for some “basic retraining” in the Unit ?M - MakingC - Clumsy (in)U - Unison ????

Can we expect a better performance from the female members of the Unit ? Lizz and Lee Ebony ?Well someone please “help me” (?) For I can’t recall either member depicted holding a Gun in these past 4 years ?

And as you ‘PONDER’ on the ‘Larger Picture’, does every exciting event have to depend (or emerge) ONLY as result of a police blunder ?Saving Grace - might have been the Gruesome Bomb, which allowed a diversion at Patterson for his escape

Credit to Neil and some others, for noting the similarity with Sam’s blunder

Actually, the action is a bit stupid. No, a whole lot stupid. 1) Tracy climbed up on top of a burning building. Stupid. 2) Tracy is not using his gun on Gruesome. Stupid. 3) No one is trying to put out the fire. Stupid.

Tracy should have just waited at a distance and let the fire kill Gruesome. But that doesn’t make for ‘thrilling’ (read ‘how stupid’) comic writing.

@ All the comments about Tracy letting gruesome grab his gun. I was getting a bit concerned about that myself; it would seem that when a police officer has a gun trained on a suspect or fugitive, and that opponent makes a move, the officer is within his rights to shoot. But, Night-Gaunt49 has a valid point – maybe the burning roof shifted under their feet, and Tracy lost his balance. This same thing happened when Tracy was trying to arrest T.V. Wiggles in a coal bin in the 50s. The load of coal shifted under their feet, giving T.V. an opportunity to jump in and wrestle Tracy’s gun away from him.

Well, if he does use his gun and shoot Gruesome, he has to get him down, too. Now…..why he didn’t wait on the ground for Gruesome like he did, for instance, Pruneface (ironically, freezing one out and burning the other) is beyond me. And of course in real life he’d justifiably shoot Gruesome and ask questions later….the man’s a murderer and who knows what weapon he’d have now?

Tracy today, Gun in hand, right on - a threatening Gruesome . . .These days, you don’t expect ‘a shot in the Head (TMS Veto?) but how about a disabling one in the Leg ?But then, you might guess, that our modern hero doesn’t have the Trigger Doom gene in him

Makes you ponder over the number of times Tracy has actually pulled a Trigger (?) … during this Teams 4 year stint - coming up this mid March.And if he’s had to shoot a criminal dead ?Has our hero become a Mr. Hesitation ? A throw back from the time in the early thirties when he shot Patton in the arm (by mistake) ?

Memory may be faulty, holding a gun is one thing, but discharging a firearm is another, and my recall suggests there are only three occasions of Tracy ‘pulling the trigger’ ! One with Measles (11-02-12) the bullet passing close to the latter’s gun hand, another at B-B Eyes in the new Mr.Crime drama (7-7-12) where the bullet hit a couch ! ? With the other (4-23-11) when he fired into a room to take out Willy the 5th (off camera) who had just killed Flyface with Diet’s invention - Thor’s Hammer !. The only occasion I remember, where Tracy actually shot and killed someone in these 4 years !

There is one other shooter in the Mr’Crime fight July 9th, 2012 firing 4 shots at Doubleup, but the face is indistinguishable although the GoComics colourist has the coat in yellow. But there is No Hat on that individual, While Tracy was depicted earlier, July 7, 8, and later, July 10 and11 with a Hat,.

A thanks’ to *Ken in O - for his kind recall of Lizz holding guns. In my look back a few minutes ago in the Mr, Crime tale (7-5-12) Lizz is seen holding a gun and Lee Ebony actually fires 3 shots at Abner Kadaver at point blank range, but he remained standing, he still lives so lets speculate he had on a bullet proof vest ? ;- )

The angle at which the windmill seems to be falling in panel 3 indicates to me that it will carry them away from the main brunt of the fire.

I’ve been noticing that since yesterday. The roof is slowly collapsing over to one side which will take them away from the centre of the fire.

I know he will escape, you seemed to have missed my more subtle echo there of the old Batman tv series didn’t you?

It didn’t seem subtle to me. It was quite obvious as soon as I read it.

Great job!

Fantastic art. I’d like to have this one framed!