Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 05, 2017

New day dawns at the Siam. Ramon pulls back the curtain

Time keeps rushing right along, tomorrow never certain.

Good morning my dear mistress, your breakfast is now served

Those who wished to steal your cash did get what they deserved.

Bidders shall soon gather. For immortality they’d pay

Imitate the sun. Rise and shine. What doth my mistress say?

Doubleup! Please Doubleup! Dear mistress won’t awake

Now we need a miracle, I never would forsake

The Queen of life who’s lived so long, now silent in her bed

It cannot be, this thing I see, dear Flammel is now dead!

Sometimes in the middle of the night

When there’s a tremendous absence of light

Death surprises us with an unexpected turn

Things don’t always go according to plan

And we find ourselves longing for the simple and bland

All the time wondering what we’ll eventually learn

Shock and grief come with the turf

Feelings turn blue like a sad Papa Smurf

And the call is sent we need our own Charlie Chan

The common goal to learn the facts

Unite many foes to play give and take back

Is this the start of a different type of clan?

Good morning fellow DT fans!

Doesn’t say much for the serum.

Who is the person criminals call when they need help? DICK TRACY, DICK TRACY!!

Whoa! Two twists I didn’t expect! Flammel is murdered – and it’s Doubleup who says to “call Dick Tracy! Dick Tracy!” (Lovin’ this story!)

Flammel is now dead.

Doubleup sends for Tracy.

A mystery now.

Oh, yeah – and a really interesting Hall of Fame, too!

That was unexpected.

Well, sort of …

… a few of us had recognized the set-up for A Locked Room Mystery.

Whodunit?

I think someone made good use of the floor plan that Kitchen Brush got from The Pouch. Kitchen Brush never took advantage of that plan during the robbery attempt so it probably wasn’t meant for the $1.25M heist but for the fountain of youth. The Kitchen Brush episode was just a cover for the main event. Looks like it was a success… or maybe it wasn’t!

Tracy was right to suspect that someone was behind Kitchen Brush. Who could it be? The Octopus? Mr Bribery? The Dragon Lady?

It could even be the ghost of old Nicolas who doesn’t want the formula to fall into misuse. 8D

Dead? Or putting on an exhibition?

There’s also the possibility that an alchemist capable of developing an immortality serum might also be capable of using similar means to fake her own death.

What if Perenelle faked her own death and Bribery was in on the scheme. Remember the rose? It turns out that Doubleup was recommended by Bribery. Doubleup is asking for Tracy to make the death pronouncement official. Perenelle is revived after the burial and they leave with the money.

The only snag is that there are too many holes in this scenario and the ending is kind of murky. :)

DUN DUN DUNNNNN!

What is?! A fiend calling for Dick Tracy?!

Looks like Doubleup actually reformed.

Who killed her? Bribery? I did not see this coming at all.

Since she’s not going to eat it, can I have her Monte Cristo?

Doubleup may be a crook, but he’s smart enough to know when he’s out of his depth. But probably not smart enough to kill his employer and make it look like someone else did.

“Go Call Dick Tracy! Dick Tracy! Now pardon me while I was my mouth out with soap. With soap.”

Great twist that I don’t think any of us saw coming. As Ramon continued talking to her in Row 2, Panel 2 I quickly realized what that meant.

I recall the last time we saw her alive, when she expressed her plan to get out of the City ASAP once the auction was over. At the time I thought there were two possible reasons for this: 1) She really hated the City for some reason, or 2) There was something crooked about this auction and she was trying to leave before she could get caught. Today’s strip creates a third possibility:

3) She knew somebody in the City was trying to kill her.

Called it!

Well, that was quite the twist.

Really doesn’t give much value to the elixir, does it? We already learned that it cannot provide regenerative properties, and it’s obvious now that it does not provide invulnerability either.

Yet another unexpected twist… Bummer!

Monte Cristo Sandwich. “A quick and easy sandwich with ham, turkey and swiss slices, dipped in an egg/milk mixture and fried to a golden brown. A hot alternative to the usual lunch or snack. Try it with berry jam on the side.” – Allrecipes.com

Another interesting turn of events! Deadly. We’re reminded that surprises are fun and it is wise to not complain about the ending of a story that is not, in fact, over.

Thanks to Vista Bill, Gweedo, Neil Wick, 22ph, Night-Gaunt49, DSnerker, Interventor, Willy Carlson007, Chris Sherlock, JPuzzleWhiz and Ray Toler for the kind words. Very much appreciated.

This is truly an amazing story, wow!

Whoa Nelly Bell!

I can’t wait for the Coroner’s report. When he gets to the line where it says “age of deceased”, what’s he gonna put down? Her death might throw cold water on the formula’s hammer price as far as warranty goes.

The formula keeps you from aging, so presumably if you take care not to have accidents, you would be immortal. HOWEVER, since she did lose an eye, it seems possible that she COULD be killed.

So much for my theory that Perenelle is really P’Gell. (Mea culpa!) so who killed her?

This is a really interesting story. There are so many variables and possibilities that I can’t even figure what seems the most plausible. I didn’t think I missed this but did they ever give any explanation of how Brush is still alive? Tracy didn’t seem surprised at all which is odd considering his death seemed definite. My assumption is that it’s the real Brush who got away before the blast but apparently someone else was in the area and took the explosion. Is this the last we see of him for awhile?

[Early morning, a few minutes after the strip above occurs.]

VOICE OVER WRIST RADIO: Calling Dick Tracy! Calling Dick Tracy!

TRACY (annoyed, having been woken up by the voice): You don’t have to say it twice. Who are you, Doubleup?

VOICE: Well, sir, it’s funny that you mention him…

Well, that’s wild hearing Doubleup of all people requesting Dick Tracy to the scene of a unattended (and probably criminally induced) death.

And it would appear that formula isn’t all it was cracked up to be since the supposedly immortal user turned to be all too mortal after all.

“What a revolting development this turned out to be!”

I don’t think any of us was expecting that Perenelle would be found dead.

If we choose to believe in the Elixir of Life/serum/potion/whatever-you-may-call-it, then it follows that Perenelle did not die a natural death (she couldn’t). Whence it follows that Murder Most Foul has been done. This of course, assuming she really is dead fish dead.

DoubleUp is surprisingly smart to have Ramon call for Dick Tracy Dick Tracy! (It appears to me that he is not faking here.) But who could have done the nefarious deed, and how? We need not only Tracy but also the Medical Examiner and the CSI squad!

This is a delicious turn of storytelling!

Maybe they should consult Viola Davis?

Or Jessica Fletcher?