OK, AnyFace…..here’s the Trivia question:Everybody knows Donald’s nephews, right? Huey, Dewey and Louie.But do you know the names of Daisy’s nieces? Mickey’s nephews?How about Minnie’s nieces?Answers later today.
The nephews did exist prior to this, unfortunately. They were created by Max Allen Collins back in 1982 or thereabouts. They were part of a very long story where Pat had something of a mid-life crisis. While taking a vacation cruise, Pat bumped into his old flame, Toby Townley (introduced in the strip back in the ‘30s), and impulsively married her while still on that cruise. Upon returning to the City he announced his plans to retire, publish a tell-all autobiography, and raise his two recently orphaned nephews who were in their late teens. Nearly all of this turned out disastrously. First, his ghostwriter twists his autobiography into The Dick Tracy Story. By letting everyone know his book was going to be a tell-all, he made certain crooked higher-ups nervous. And, as it turns out, his nephews were a couple of rude, lazy, good-for-nothing louts who didn’t even like their uncle. In short, poor Pat made a lot of dumb moves in his midlife crisis which very nearly became his endlife crisis as he gets abducted, shot, and left for dead. Fortunately, what at first glance might’ve looked like his dumbest move, his impulsive marriage to Toby, turned out to be the one smart thing he did in this period, as she sounded the alarm early over his disappearance, leading Tracy and Sam to find Pat’s comatose body just in the nick of time. But with Pat in a coma, it was up to Tracy to solve a real whodunit, with the suspects being Pat’s ghostwriter, the crooked higher-ups…and his two no-good nephews. At the end of the case, Pat’s would-be killer turned out to be one of the crooked higher-ups.This case stretched all the way into mid-1983. In the next story, while Pat was still recovering, his nephews went from bad to worse, entering a life of crime working for a crook named Lofty. Tracy exposed and caught them with a little help from Honeymoon and her much younger “Uncle Joe” (Dick and Tess’ young son). Tracy had to break the news to Pat, who confronted his nephews in jail. Pat sadly informed them that since they had committed several major felonies, he could do nothing for them. That’s the last we saw of them until now. I can tell you that it’s not even remotely out of character for one of these jerks to gladly sell out Pat to Rikki for money.BTW, that Lofty/Pat’s nephews story was also one of the last times we saw Toby up until now. Despite being married to one of the main characters, Toby has almost never been seen since then. I do recall seeing her in Christmastime 2011, celebrating Hanukkah at Sam’s house along with the rest of his friends. But she wasn’t named and she didn’t say anything, so if you didn’t recognize her, you’d have no reason to pick her out from the crowd. I’m positive that today’s strip is the first in 33 years to confirm that yes, she and Pat are still married.
I kinda/sorta want Mr. Intro to make a comeback one day, though the circumstances surrounding his demise might make his return just a wee bit difficult.
It was – To the best of my limited knowledge – never explained if “Mr. Intro” was his actual name, or a pseudonym.
As he was never seen without his face completely obfuscated, there’s a chain of thought which suggests that he might have been someone the MCU would have recognized.
If “Mr. Intro” was a pseudonym, what was its significance, if any?
Might “Intro” have been a radio or TV announcer at some point?
A piano player (… who played people on & off-stages, hence ‘Intro’) forced out of the business by visibly crippling arthritis in at least one – if not both – hands?
Might just have been Gould’s take on a Bond villain, of course.
Still …
… makes one wonder if there had been an intended deeper meaning.
“Good Morning, Tracy Fans! This is your BMBG DJ JPW here, spinning the platters that matter just for you! Since we all seem to be in a questionable mood today, this wonderful blast from the past might be appropriate:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTa7ADWjrYY
Thanks for the thanks, everyone! :) For some specific replies:@tsull2121:As I mentioned, in those Hanukkah strips Toby isn’t named in them and doesn’t say anything, nor is she identified as Pat’s wife. While her presence next to Pat made it more likely, I’d say even a 99% certainty, that they were still married, today’s strip is the first one since 1983 that explicitly confirms they still are.@AnyFace:At least Mr. Bribery was supposedly dead so we had no reason until last year to think we’d ever see him again. In Toby’s case, until today it was more like, “Well, um, we haven’t heard of her death or divorce, so I guess she’s still alive and married to Pat. I guess.”@Ken in Ohio:Rick Fletcher would’ve been the artist for the story of Pat’s midlife crisis/getting shot. According to my notes, this story ended on March 12, 1983. Fletcher died just 4 days later on March 16, but his work had probably continued for the next few months. (Mike Kilian died on October 26, 2005, but the strip was still credited to him as writer until January 15, 2006; I can be precise with him thanks to GoComics, but not with anything prior to 2001.) There was actually another story that happened in between these two stories involving Pat’s nephews, about a teamup with Itchy’s brother Twitchy and B-B Eyes’ brother B. D. Eyes. The Lofty case began in mid-May and ended in August. While it’s possible Fletcher could’ve drawn as much as the first half of that story, the second half would definitely have been drawn by Fletcher’s replacement Dick Locher.@Newenglandah:To quote Homer Simpson, “Somethings are so good they never go out of style. Like tail fins and clear plastic domes.” And Pac-Man and Rubik’s Cube.
Thanks to boboscar for the useful and convenient backstory summary on Pat Patton’s miscreant nephews. It looks like Rikki has strong Google-shui and has calmed down enough to conjure up a worthy sinister plot to whack Pat. For a few bucks, sonny is going to …what? Lure Pat into a location where the Vampire Car can scoop him up and Rikki can do a Long Villain’s Monologue, allowing time for a rescue? We’ll see….
Today’s stroll down memory lane reminds me of two unsolved mysteries involving characters prominent in 1983, Toby Townley Patton and B. D. Eyes.Toby’s final appearance in the strip while it was still being written or drawn by her creator Chester Gould was way back in 1940 where it was revealed she married a guy named Kress Kroywen (New York spelled backwards) and had a baby son. (This baby was the main focus of this 1940 story even though he was never named.) When Toby married Pat in 1982, there was never any mention of her first husband or their son. Presumably she was single again by this time, since in no story was she ever charged with bigamy, but was she widowed or divorced? And what happened to her son? Since he was born well before the birth of Sparkle Plenty, so he’d definitely be an adult by the time of her second marriage, if he was still alive. :0In his teamup with Twitchy, B. D. Eyes was caught. Then he suddenly shows up in 2015 being trotted out by Mr. Bribery (still known only as Mr. Bigg at the time) to be used as a hostage to exert more control over B-B Eyes. But what is B. D.‘s current legal status? This one really bugs me since I mainly see the strip as centering around its villains. Was B. D. Eyes somehow acquitted of his crimes? Or was he convicted and served his time? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then he’d technically no longer be a criminal, and thus no longer a villain. Did he somehow break out of jail or prison? Or did Mr. Bigg/Bribery break him out for the sole purpose of using him to control his brother? If the answer to either of these latter 2 questions is yes, then he’d technically still be a criminal/villain. Come to think of it, the fact that B. D. is currently out and about while Pat’s nephews are still in prison even though they were all caught around the same time only adds to the confusion.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
For those hoping to see Chief Patton’s significant other, All Hail Jombi …
… Your Wish Has Been Granted.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
Did Chief Patton’s nephews exist prior to today?
jonahhex1 over 7 years ago
Wonder what the felonious nephew has to say………..?
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 7 years ago
This is the other side of the law acting like the police do. You never want smart criminals.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
Many fictional characters have infamous nephews …
Gweedo -it's legal here- Murray over 7 years ago
Wonder if Bizarro Patton knows he is helping his uncle to an early grave..Good morning, Vista Bill and the rest of the Death Watch countdown crew !
blunebottle over 7 years ago
OK, AnyFace…..here’s the Trivia question:Everybody knows Donald’s nephews, right? Huey, Dewey and Louie.But do you know the names of Daisy’s nieces? Mickey’s nephews?How about Minnie’s nieces?Answers later today.
blunebottle over 7 years ago
Interesting that Rikki is having this conversation over the prison phone- they do monitor it, you know!
boboscar over 7 years ago
The nephews did exist prior to this, unfortunately. They were created by Max Allen Collins back in 1982 or thereabouts. They were part of a very long story where Pat had something of a mid-life crisis. While taking a vacation cruise, Pat bumped into his old flame, Toby Townley (introduced in the strip back in the ‘30s), and impulsively married her while still on that cruise. Upon returning to the City he announced his plans to retire, publish a tell-all autobiography, and raise his two recently orphaned nephews who were in their late teens. Nearly all of this turned out disastrously. First, his ghostwriter twists his autobiography into The Dick Tracy Story. By letting everyone know his book was going to be a tell-all, he made certain crooked higher-ups nervous. And, as it turns out, his nephews were a couple of rude, lazy, good-for-nothing louts who didn’t even like their uncle. In short, poor Pat made a lot of dumb moves in his midlife crisis which very nearly became his endlife crisis as he gets abducted, shot, and left for dead. Fortunately, what at first glance might’ve looked like his dumbest move, his impulsive marriage to Toby, turned out to be the one smart thing he did in this period, as she sounded the alarm early over his disappearance, leading Tracy and Sam to find Pat’s comatose body just in the nick of time. But with Pat in a coma, it was up to Tracy to solve a real whodunit, with the suspects being Pat’s ghostwriter, the crooked higher-ups…and his two no-good nephews. At the end of the case, Pat’s would-be killer turned out to be one of the crooked higher-ups.This case stretched all the way into mid-1983. In the next story, while Pat was still recovering, his nephews went from bad to worse, entering a life of crime working for a crook named Lofty. Tracy exposed and caught them with a little help from Honeymoon and her much younger “Uncle Joe” (Dick and Tess’ young son). Tracy had to break the news to Pat, who confronted his nephews in jail. Pat sadly informed them that since they had committed several major felonies, he could do nothing for them. That’s the last we saw of them until now. I can tell you that it’s not even remotely out of character for one of these jerks to gladly sell out Pat to Rikki for money.BTW, that Lofty/Pat’s nephews story was also one of the last times we saw Toby up until now. Despite being married to one of the main characters, Toby has almost never been seen since then. I do recall seeing her in Christmastime 2011, celebrating Hanukkah at Sam’s house along with the rest of his friends. But she wasn’t named and she didn’t say anything, so if you didn’t recognize her, you’d have no reason to pick her out from the crowd. I’m positive that today’s strip is the first in 33 years to confirm that yes, she and Pat are still married.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
There’s going to be a new DUCK TAILS series on Disney XD next year, don’t trust it yet …
… even though I think the very nice production art a few posts above was sourced from it.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
Okay, tough Disney Trivia now …
During the classic/theatrical era, only seven Disney animated film series opened with a logo/picture of the featured character/charactrers.
Can Anyone Name Them All?
AnyFace over 7 years ago
… I’m speaking of the animated theatrical shorts, of course.
Bonus points for posting pics, so that I don’t have to.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
I kinda/sorta want Mr. Intro to make a comeback one day, though the circumstances surrounding his demise might make his return just a wee bit difficult.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
It was – To the best of my limited knowledge – never explained if “Mr. Intro” was his actual name, or a pseudonym.
As he was never seen without his face completely obfuscated, there’s a chain of thought which suggests that he might have been someone the MCU would have recognized.
If “Mr. Intro” was a pseudonym, what was its significance, if any?
Might “Intro” have been a radio or TV announcer at some point?
A piano player (… who played people on & off-stages, hence ‘Intro’) forced out of the business by visibly crippling arthritis in at least one – if not both – hands?
Might just have been Gould’s take on a Bond villain, of course.
Still …
… makes one wonder if there had been an intended deeper meaning.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 7 years ago
.Good morning guys!
jrankin1959 over 7 years ago
The plot sickens…
tsull2121 over 7 years ago
Neilwick, thanks for verifying for me yesterday that tracy has seen rikki before.. I had forgotten she picked him up! MUCHOS THANK-OS!
JPuzzleWhiz over 7 years ago
“Good Morning, Tracy Fans! This is your BMBG DJ JPW here, spinning the platters that matter just for you! Since we all seem to be in a questionable mood today, this wonderful blast from the past might be appropriate:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTa7ADWjrYY
abdullahbaba999 over 7 years ago
Wow, what a history for Pat…TBC
Morrow Cummings over 7 years ago
It’s gotta be the “seventh inning stretch” for the Rikki story for half of the comments to be about Mickey Mouse’s nephews. ZZZZzzzzz……………..
boboscar over 7 years ago
Thanks for the thanks, everyone! :) For some specific replies:@tsull2121:As I mentioned, in those Hanukkah strips Toby isn’t named in them and doesn’t say anything, nor is she identified as Pat’s wife. While her presence next to Pat made it more likely, I’d say even a 99% certainty, that they were still married, today’s strip is the first one since 1983 that explicitly confirms they still are.@AnyFace:At least Mr. Bribery was supposedly dead so we had no reason until last year to think we’d ever see him again. In Toby’s case, until today it was more like, “Well, um, we haven’t heard of her death or divorce, so I guess she’s still alive and married to Pat. I guess.”@Ken in Ohio:Rick Fletcher would’ve been the artist for the story of Pat’s midlife crisis/getting shot. According to my notes, this story ended on March 12, 1983. Fletcher died just 4 days later on March 16, but his work had probably continued for the next few months. (Mike Kilian died on October 26, 2005, but the strip was still credited to him as writer until January 15, 2006; I can be precise with him thanks to GoComics, but not with anything prior to 2001.) There was actually another story that happened in between these two stories involving Pat’s nephews, about a teamup with Itchy’s brother Twitchy and B-B Eyes’ brother B. D. Eyes. The Lofty case began in mid-May and ended in August. While it’s possible Fletcher could’ve drawn as much as the first half of that story, the second half would definitely have been drawn by Fletcher’s replacement Dick Locher.@Newenglandah:To quote Homer Simpson, “Somethings are so good they never go out of style. Like tail fins and clear plastic domes.” And Pac-Man and Rubik’s Cube.
Sisyphos over 7 years ago
Thanks to boboscar for the useful and convenient backstory summary on Pat Patton’s miscreant nephews. It looks like Rikki has strong Google-shui and has calmed down enough to conjure up a worthy sinister plot to whack Pat. For a few bucks, sonny is going to …what? Lure Pat into a location where the Vampire Car can scoop him up and Rikki can do a Long Villain’s Monologue, allowing time for a rescue? We’ll see….
boboscar over 7 years ago
Today’s stroll down memory lane reminds me of two unsolved mysteries involving characters prominent in 1983, Toby Townley Patton and B. D. Eyes.Toby’s final appearance in the strip while it was still being written or drawn by her creator Chester Gould was way back in 1940 where it was revealed she married a guy named Kress Kroywen (New York spelled backwards) and had a baby son. (This baby was the main focus of this 1940 story even though he was never named.) When Toby married Pat in 1982, there was never any mention of her first husband or their son. Presumably she was single again by this time, since in no story was she ever charged with bigamy, but was she widowed or divorced? And what happened to her son? Since he was born well before the birth of Sparkle Plenty, so he’d definitely be an adult by the time of her second marriage, if he was still alive. :0In his teamup with Twitchy, B. D. Eyes was caught. Then he suddenly shows up in 2015 being trotted out by Mr. Bribery (still known only as Mr. Bigg at the time) to be used as a hostage to exert more control over B-B Eyes. But what is B. D.‘s current legal status? This one really bugs me since I mainly see the strip as centering around its villains. Was B. D. Eyes somehow acquitted of his crimes? Or was he convicted and served his time? If the answer to either of these questions is yes, then he’d technically no longer be a criminal, and thus no longer a villain. Did he somehow break out of jail or prison? Or did Mr. Bigg/Bribery break him out for the sole purpose of using him to control his brother? If the answer to either of these latter 2 questions is yes, then he’d technically still be a criminal/villain. Come to think of it, the fact that B. D. is currently out and about while Pat’s nephews are still in prison even though they were all caught around the same time only adds to the confusion.
AnyFace over 7 years ago
God willing, voice legend June Foray will turn 99 years of age on September 18th.