Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 25, 2016

Rikki vs. Pat! Mortis and Patton engaged.Rikki has her blood upSo violently enraged.“Tis not to be,” says Bribery. “No yield in such bloodshed”Matty sets off “TNT.” Rikki Mortis nearly dead.Leaping from the Vampire Car in just the nick of timeOnly to be cuffed by Pat. No profit in her crime.Farewell, Rikki Mortis. Your beauty just skin deepThought that you were living large. Kadaver just a creep.Here’s to the conquering hero. First bust since making Chief.Rikki Mortis secured in jail to everyone’s relief.Elsewhere, look to see a man who’s looking at himselfMirrored glass is everywhere: each wall and every shelf.Narcissistic to the core, one more selfie he does shootIn cahoots with Bellowthon to grab up ill got loot.

.Good morning guys!

On to new business …

“Selfie” is definitely a name Gould might have employed in this brave new 21st Century World.

More ‘Flattop’ DNA being distributed …?

Should be interesting finding out what sort of white color political crimes those two are in to……

Good morning all. Looks like an election year theme for the new story. Narcissistic “Selfy” sure does have a lot of mirrors (and self-portraits, of course). Could this be a crooked politician or something more?

(Still trying to catch up on my blog. I’ll update whenever I have something.)

Gould would have liked"Selfy"! Am I wrong or he’s a cousin of Flattop?

Have a nice sunday you all!

With the end of the previous story, here are my notes of the stories you can find on the GoComics archive. My notes are fairly simple. Just my name for the story (usually the name of the main villain or villains, unless they just aren’t the emphasis) followed by the dates the story began and ended. If someone was the main villain for more than one story, I add a “II” and so on to emphasize this. If more than one villain from a past story are in the same story committing major crimes, I include them altogether. Finally, for the two cases of more than one villain with the same name (Chameleon, Mr. Crime) I add, “The Second” in front of their names.I’ll be doing three posts on this, one for each writer. At the start of the GoComics archive, the writer was the late Mike Kilian. Personally, I like his work on Tracy and think he’s very underrated. At the very least, he knew how to tell a story in the daily strip format where every day, something happens that moves the story along, a quality his successor sorely lacked. I recommend anyone here who hasn’t read these stories to check them out.2001The Airplane Murder Mystery (March 29-June 20)The earliest strip on GoComics is Sunday, April 8, 2001. GC then skips a week to the next Sunday, April 15, then skips the next couple of days to Wednesday, April 18. Sadly, this means GC doesn’t have every strip from this first story. Happily, GC has every strip from Tracy from 4/18/01 to the present.The Mistress of Death (June 21-September 13)Snails (September 14-December 5)A Detective, 2 Gunmen, and a Kitty (December 6, 2001-January 13,2002)G. R. Eed (January 14-February 24)Pinhead (February 25-April 26)Percy Brillig (April 27-June 27)Heartless Mahoney II (June 28-August 23)Hawk (August 24-October 16)The Abduction of Tracy’s Granddaughter (October 17-December 15)I believe this is where Junior and Sparkle’s daughter (initially named Sparkle Plenty Junior) was renamed Jewel.The Second Chameleon (December 16, 2002-February 7,2003)The Revenge of Hard Case Harry? (February 8-May 3)Hard Case Harry was a bitter ex-con who served time for a crime he didn’t commit. In an earlier story, he initially sought revenge on Tracy, but got a chance to reform. Here, he and a family go missing, and Tracy’s left to wonder if he’s decided to become a criminal after all. This leads to reprinting the entire original Hard Case Harry story that ran from December 13, 1993-January 23, 1994, before this second HCH case is solved.Hawk II (May 4-July 2)The Filligree Murder Case (July 3-September 22)Dr. Beau Tox, Heartless, Mahoney, Prune Hilda, Dab Stract, & No Face (September 29-December 18)All of the above villains were recurring villains except for Dr. Tox, the main villain. By the end, Prune Hilda is killed, Mahoney and Stract testify against Tox in exchange for freedom, but despite their testimony, Tox is acquitted. So Tox, Mahoney, and Stract were all legally freed (and Locher later confirmed that Stract reformed). No Face, as always, escaped without getting caught, and is still at large. ARGH!Sal Monella II (December 19, 2003-March 10,2004)Mousse (March 11-May 30)Piggy Bank VI (May 31-August 27)Yes, this was Piggy Bank’s sixth story as a main villain. And he escapes and remains at large. ARGH!Flunke (August 28-December 22)Airport Sabotage (December 23,2004-March 14,2005)The Manipulation of Moonrock (March 15-May 27)Dick Tracy in the Southwest (May 28-August 11)Cellphone (August 12-November 3)This is the last story Kilian lived to complete.Oily II (November 4, 2005-March 22,2006)Oily was a villain who debuted in a pre-2001 Kilian story. Sadly, Kilian died in late 2005. The last Sunday strip with his signature on it was January 15, 2006. The last Daily strip with his signature on it was over a week earlier on January 7. Up to that point the story had been moving along at Kilian’s usual brisk pace. He’d even had the story largely wrapped up. Too bad his successor, Kilian’s friend and longtime Tracy artist Dick Locher, stretched out the ending for over two months, that feel like over two months just reading it. A sad omen of things to come.Coming up: Locher’s abysmal run as writer.

And now, here’s my coverage of Dick Locher’s run as writer. In fairness to Locher, he’d been a good, regular artist for decades. And stepping in at the crisis of Mike Kilian’s unexpected death probably saved the strip and kept it afloat. And earlier, when Max Allan Collins left, Locher wrote and drew one story before Kilian stepped in (which sadly, isn’t on here) that’s actually pretty good. That said, his writing here from 2006 to 2011 is Bad. Really, really Bad. Excruciatingly Bad. I list the stories here, where you can find them, but I really wouldn’t recommend reading them. Although halfway through, the experience starts to become worthwhile on this site, but not for anything Locher is doing (at least not intentionally).2006Al Kinda (March 23-August 24)Dr. Figment Froid (August 25, 2006-January 21,2007)Queenie (January 22-May 19)The Brainwashed Baron (May 20-October 14)The Haunted House (October 15, 2007-January 22,2008)Cole Lector (January 23-May 15)Baskerville & Shirl Locke (May 16-August 27)And this is where it (sorta) becomes worthwhile. When Tracy first found the Internet, TMS published its own Tracy website, complete with a forum. In early August, 2008, the site and forum were completely shut down. Which is when GoComics took off. On August 3, fans began to post here, and with nothing good going on in the strip, the fans resumed what they’d done on the old forum, mocking and making fun of just how awful the strip had become. If you like Riff Trax and its predecessor, Mystery Science Theater 3000, you might get a kick out of these comments, many of which are clever, witty, even hilarious at times.There’s one caveat however. There were a couple of ugly flame wars started here by Locher’s friend and supporter, the other Matty, Matthew P. Hansel. He would rudely insult anyone who didn’t appreciate Locher’s “genius”, namely just about everyone else posting. It got so bad several times, that the GoComics administrator would have to step in and put a halt to it. Eventually all of Matty’s posts would be deleted, which was no big loss, but several fun commentators would get deleted, too, which was a big loss. Going over these old comments now, while still often amusing, can be a bit odd, because the remaining posts include reactions to comments that are no longer there.Be that as it may, there’s some entertainment value in the comments section of the following strips, even if there’s none in the strips themselves.Braces (August 28-December 10)Angelorious (December 11, 2008-March 2,2009)Big Ace & One-Eyed Jack (March 3-July 10)Murder at the Circus (July 11-November 24)The Maestro and His Son (November 25, 2009-April 6,2010)Johnny Nothing (April 7-July 21)D’Buckworth (July 22-November 13)Dr. Mordred (November 14, 2010-March 13,2011)And after five years of darkness, there was light.

And now my listing of Curtis’ stories. I have the least to say here, but’s all good and often great. Anyone looking for past good stories can find them here. Highly recommended.2011The Fifth & Flyface III (March 14-April 30)Hot Rize (May 1-June 2)Doubleup (June 3-25)B-B Eyes II (June 26-July 30)Morning Gloria (July 31-September 17)The Retelling of Tracy’s First Case (September 18-October 23)The Second Mr. Crime, B-B Eyes, Blaze Rize, Mumbles, Doubleup, & Abner Kadaver (October 24-December 2)Abner Kadaver is in a unique position among Tracy villains. As a professional hitman, he’s always taking orders from somebody, and they’ve always been main villains in their own right. So technically, Abner is never the “main” villain. But there are stories where he is the main focus, and whenever that is, I boldface his name.Putty Puss III (December 3, 2011-February 2,2012)Thunderchild (February 3-March 7)Blackjack (March 8-April 24)The Second Mr. Crime, B-B Eyes, Blaze Rize, Mumbles, Doubleup, & Abner Kadaver II (April 25-July 20)Mrs. Flattop (July 21-August 20)Phishface (August 21-September 28)Measles II (September 29-November 16)Broadway Bates II (November 17, 2012-January 5, 2013)Sweat Box (January 6-March 3)The Jumbler (March 4-April 16)The Return of Moon Maid (April 17-October 19)The Blackhearts, Mrs. Flattop, Abner Kadaver, & Blackjack (Octobr 20, 2013-January 4,2014)Silver & Sprocket Nitrate (January 5-March 19)Tabby Angus (March 20-May 31)The Search for Annie (June 1-October 12)Gruesome (October 13, 2014-January 18, 2015)Silver & Sprocket Nitrate and Mrs. Flattop (January 19-March 21)The Great Train Robbery (March 22-June 13)The Fall of the Blackhearts and the Return and Rise of Mr. Bribery (June 14-October 11)Where it’s revealed that Mr. Bribery was the secret leader of the Blackhearts, making him the unseen main villain behind the Return of Moon Maid, Abner Kadaver’s second “solo” story (the one I start by listing “The Blackhearts”), and the Great Train Robbery.Midnight Mirror Mystery (October 12-December 25)Specs & Spicy and the Return of the Ace of Spades (December 26, 2015-April 6,2016)Mrs. Notta Faller Chin Chiller, Blaze Rize, and Putty Puss (April 7-June 21)Mr. Bribery & Abner Kadaver (June 22-September 24)

“Bellowthon” sounds like slang for “filibuster”…

Selfy looks like Thurman Murman from Bad Santa!!!

This has the makings of a “Side B” filler story! Good morning. ZZZZzzzzzz…

Gould likely would have added text to indicate that selfie is holding a ‘Smart Phone’ – as he did favor labels.

Who can ever forget the Pig on Wheels

The first thing that came to my mind when I first saw Selfy was this.

“Selfy’s” last name wouldn’t happen to be Jones, would it?

I enjoyed seeing Pat Patton back in the thick of things. While Sam Catchem is a superior sidekick, I always thought it was a shame that over time Patton became a generic afterthought. He was a great character in the early days of the strip. Kudos to Team Tracy for shining the spotlight on Pat. He took a risk, wishing to save his rotten nephew from prison violence, only to face off with the Vampire Car. Rikki thought he’d be a pushover, and Squared certainly surprised her, but Patton held his own in the wake of the brutal blast. On go the cuffs and Rikki exits to contemplate her deeds in jail.

Preach it, boboscar! You are right as rain. Thanks for the good work. Selfy is a narcissist. Where have I seen one of those recently? Thanks to Vista Bill, Ray Toler, Gweedo, Night-Gaunt49, Willy007, Chris Sherlock and JPuzzlerWhiz for the kind words. Much appreciated.

Oh look, Narcissus has been reincarnated.

Again. LOL

The flaming also spilled over onto the Yahoo Dick Tracy Group. Those comments are still searchable (although no as easily as they once were). But the Group has outlived the participation of its founder and now it is impossible for new members to join even though the site is still active. It has in recent years faded in importance and receives few posts nowadays.

I just went back to the 2001 strips and read the Snails arc. I liked it!

Selfy is definitely a Chet character in the Now!!! TBC

At last, possibly a new character which hopefully won’t involve a long dead villain from the 60s. Fingers crossed.

The name Bellowthon sounds like Telethon.

Selfy?

This is starting to get weak.

Thanks for all the compliments, guys and gals!@AntiQuercusI think I will continue to repost these whenever a new story starts (it’s much easier to tell when a new story starts than when an old story’s ended).@GweedoI’m afraid I’m not a GC employee, just a dedicated fan. BTW, how do you do those smiley images?@PequodThanks. And I just want to say thank you for all the poetry you’ve given us through the years. I rarely comment on them because I can’t think of anything to say that others haven’t already said, but I do always enjoy them.

There was a fellow named Mark Cohen, active in the 80s and 90s as a gagwriter, who sold gags to many, many comic strip writers. Indeed, you learned to spot his writing in many strips, including some long-story-arc strips in which they differed so much from the strip’s usual writing that it was jarring. Snails, to me, bears more than a bit of a resemblance to Cohen. I wonder if it was meant as an inside joke; comic artists put their friends, colleagues and acquaintances into their work from time to time.

You’re so vain. You’d probably think this song was about you.

By the way …

… there was a short-lived TV series of the same name.

Selfie looks kinda like Liberace (at least, to me he does). Meanwhile, back at the ranch, shouldn’t Tracy ask that old coot about any remnants of Abner? He could pay for the trip by selling him some more autographs of Sherlock Holmes. Heck, he could stop by a pipe shop and get one that looks legit and I bet the good doctor would give him $500 for it! Or, at the least, trade it for some pellets (reds).