Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 19, 2017

Brush and Kitchen in the house

Siam lights they quickly douse

Brush a killer and a louse

Law enforcement now approaching.

Dick and Spirit on the scene

Violent crime makes Tracy mean

Some bad boys just can’t get clean

On bad karma they’re encroaching.

Elevator on the move

Criminals have much to prove

Dick and Spirit in the groove

Earnest money’s not for poaching.

Action now! Hear shots ring out!

Spirit hit yet shall not shout

Tracy bold with heart so stout

Our two heroes need no coaching.

Who will live and who may die

Once the bullets start to fly

Too late now to beg or cry

What’s arrived is done approaching.

Good morning guys!

♫ But a shot in the dark, one step away from you.

A shot in the dark, always creeping up on you ♫♫

The Spirit appears to be hit in the shoulder!

Hope ‘The Spirit’ has armored up for this fight.

I guess they did have more than just the dart guns.

Is DT using a silencer?

BTW Good Sunday Morning to you all the early bird ord late bird.

Maybe it is a mute movie…♫♫

Shawna Jones lost her very young life doing for others. Saaaaalute!

Gun fire here this time, no more trank darts. And a medium range too. Practically point blank.

Those guns seem ridiculously huge, especially the gun in Tracy’s hand. I’m not any kind of gun expert at all, but the one’s I’ve seen cops carry on T.V. are more in proportion to their hands. After all, they have to carry them on their shoulder or belt when they’re not using them.

Did Dick Tracy get shot?

No. It looks like Spirit took the hit.

Spirit has the blue hat.

See this is when "more’ comic panel space is needed. From the six we get today to the twelve we got yesterday.

Dick , next time don’t wear a tie that glow in the dark .

The Spirit’s eyes in the middle row, panel 2 – creepy!

No Comment.

Has anyone here made a post and it disappears later? I just did – and it wasn’t offensive or complaining, either!

Regarding the discussion yesterday concerning Mike unable to access the ending of the original Brush story:

IMO the original story was a fairly mediocre tale and not one of Gould’s best but typical of his early 60s storylines. In this case he tried to liven the story up by adding a lot of humor.

Brush was a barely literate con man (he could not operate a typewriter and could not spell). He operated a scheme pretending to be the victim of nuclear fallout which caused his facial hair (actually a hairy mask used to perpetuate his con). He was so pretentious that he used a long cigarette holder (a’la Vitamin Flintheart). He was so paranoid that he would not hire a secretary who might discover his scheme. Instead, he used several trained chimps to open his mail (containing donations) and drop the cash down chutes to bushel baskets in the basement.

Brush tried to escape with a million dollars in cash in a sack after his partner was killed by the chimps. He tossed the bag on top of a laundry truck he had stolen and tried to make his getaway. Of course, the sack fell off during the chase. Tracy and Sam flew over the truck in a helicopter and used a hook and winch to lift up the back axel of the fleeing truck. After being handcuffed, he made another break for it during a terrific thunderstorm. He hid in a dynamite trailer, the trailer was hit by lightning, it exploded and all that was found were Sam’s bloody handcuffs in the rubble with no trace of Brush.

By the way, the chimps smoked cigars. This was years before Matty Square’s cigar-smoking cat.

Actually, the chimps killed their trainer (who was cruel). He was not actually Brush’s partner but was hired by him to provide the chimps. Brush himself killed his partner, Hendrix.

Silent panels with bold art. Striking! Tie and eyes stand out in the dark. Looks like there is a little less of Spirit than a moment earlier. I’ll wager you only get one shot at either of these seasoned pros. More of the good stuff from Team Tracy.

Thanks to Vista Bill, Neil Wick, 22ph, Doc1947G, Night-Gaunt49, Chris Sherlock, JPuzzleWhiz, Morrow and Ray Toler (and invisible Gweedo? Free Gweedo!) for the kind words. Very much appreciated!

Gweedo we know you are here, lurking but stopped from commenting. May that barrier evaporate damn soon!

Man I love Dick Tracy. This has got to be easy one of the best five comics in syndication. When I hear about news papers going under losing the funny pages is the thing I worry about the most. Save Dick Tracy! Subscribe to a newspaper that publishes it!

Looks like the Spirit got hit … but isn’t he a cop who already died or something? If that is the case, how can he be injured or, like, killed? The art today is really great, but I hate these cross-over stories….

Well, this new format, and earlier changes, drove a lot of commenters away already…..with gweedo gone, the rest may qualify as an endangered species now, lol

I really enjoy the silent, dark artwork of the Gunfight on 28 today!

As I noted above in a reply to Pequod’s battle-paced poem, I’m not (yet) convinced that the Spirit has been hit. It seems to me to be a plausible interpretation of the final panel that he dodged and that the shot was a near miss, considering the perspective and the line-of-fire-extended, which seems to bypass Spirit’s arm and shoulder.

But, hey, it’s dark, and I could be wrong. I assume we’ll find out tomorrow….

It looks to me like the Spirit may have been grazed by a bullet.