Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 17, 2018

Good morning™, sushi fans!

There’s no antidote for blowfish (fugu) poison. It sounds like Ghost added fugu poison to the dinner, even though the lunch was safe.

Good morning™, Sargento Peppers !

I am thinking it is something other than Fugu poison, something special that ghost came up with.

He wouldn’t have made the point if he hadn’t added his own special compound. Some of them can kill then be broken down within a short time. But you have to research them to know.

Looks like Simon dies a heinous death while Ghost slakes his thirst for revenge and scarfs up Simon’s cash to boot……

I’m still not convinced that Simon is going to die- rather strange for Ghost to tell Simon to enjoy the ‘trip’ he is going on, if indeed he’s dying.

Hootie named his band after a toxic fish?

One fish makes you taller

And one fish makes you small

But the fish that Pepper feeds you

Is the fish that makes you fall

Go ask Simon

Who’s tripping, down the hall!

I don’t think he’s dead. He’s probably drugged.

He’s going to turn him into a “zombie.” A favorite method of enslaving dissidents in Baby Doc’s Haiti. It is also documented in the book and film The Rainbow and the Serpent and appears as a plot device in the Miami Vice episode, “Tale of the Goat” S2E7

Okay Ghost says “the fugu was safe, is was his own special ingredient…”

I’m thinking Ghost added some sort of hallucinatory drug. His quip, “enjoy the trip”, suggests this.

“Enjoy the trip.”

Is it going to be a one-way trip?

Does anyone else think Ghost looks like he is peering out of a casket in the last panel?

Dying can be considered a “trip” in this case…

The Beatles’ “Magical Mystery Tour” was supposedly about death… Hence, the album title…

By mentioning Simon’s lunch was “safe,” I’m wondering if Ghost put fugu poisoning in his dinner — the idea being that the lunch meal (when he apparently wasn’t around) will be blamed for the death, clearing Ghost of suspicion.

Spader is too expensive. And Grace Slick couldn’t have said (Sung) it better,Mr. Marmel.

Hat’s off to Joe & Mike for a great week of strips!

As I noted in a Reply way up above, I think Ghost’s remarks show that his “secret ingredient” in Simon’s dinner is intended not to kill but to induce some kind of unavoidable “trip,” maybe like LSD but in a mixture to render Simon paralyzed while the trip plays out.

Interestingly, it is still not at all clear why any of this is going on or what Ghost’s objective may be. Good yarn so far….

It will surely look suspicious if Simon dies as he’s trying to purchase Pepper’s, especially if the plan was to take the money and run! I’m not seeing what the plan Ghost has is.