Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 17, 2023

Good morning™, all!

We last saw Francisco Wunbrow in 2016 in the X-Ray Specs case. That mostly took place in his home territory of Cuba, but he seems to have been informed about this U.S. case this time.

Well, it’s looking more and more that Paul Chandler didn’t make it out alive from his one last swim before breakfast.

Wow, unless Mike is pulling a fast one on us it looks like Uncle Paulie’s been fish food for at least a few days.

Like Gweedo, it’s so anticlimactic!

and of course, Paul’s demise… the off-panel excuse/explanation yet again…

Good morning™, off panelists !!!

Did we just miss a whole day’s strip ???  Maybe something happened that it is not Paul, but fat chance. He got snuffed and we did not even get more than seeing what may be covered feet in a drawer.

Wunbrow’s hand looks more like a claw. Poorly drawn by Shelley.

On the other hand(pun intended) great attention to detail by her, giving the morgue technician a comb over.

Kudos for that!

What is Cuban Wunbrow doing in Panama? Come to think of it how he was unaffected by the Cuban Castro revolution at Cuba? Or more recent evolution of Cuban regime? Was he forced to flee? And how can he know if someone Tracy could be interested in ( assuming he’s Paul as I’m afraid)

The Thunderball parallels include both the underwater theme as well as the fact that that movie also had an operative, vital to the plan, who wanted more money, but just happily accepted that he’d get it after his part in the plan was done.

Just once, I’d like to see someone smart enough to arrange for a dead man’s switch. Like “I’ve arranged for a letter to be sent to the cops unless I stop it.”

Another violent death occurring off-screen, as it were, in the 2020s version of Dick Tracy. There’s more actual violence these days in Judge Parker. Maybe in a day or two we’ll learn how they i.d.‘d Paul’s body.

I would think, though, that Tracy would be more familiar with who a hit man was than an artist…..so…..

Speaking of Cuba, I wouldn’t be surprised if a ’57 Plymouth Belvedere or two (as in my avatar) is still rolling around in real life Havana. It would be fun to visit there sometime if only to search for classic cars.

So the suspicion yesterday that Paul was killed off strip is correct, and that Art was seen possibly forwarding the final payment.

Looks like the deed was done!

I think Wunbrow needs a female partner Wondabrah to help him on this case !

What was cause of death ? Spear-Mint-Gun ?

Great images as usual by Shelley , but I’m stone cold lost in this one for sure : (

Cool hat.

Wunbrow is an old friend? Some old friend, he never writes, he only calls when he’s got a dead body! I’ll bet he never even sends Tracy Christmas Cards!

Did Wunbrow emigrate from that “Socialist paradise?”

Wunbrow believes Tracy would be interested in that guy working in the morgue? ;-)

Did Wunbrow previously call Tracy by his first name? It’s rare for anyone besides Tess to do it.

As the possessor of a unibrow myself, I am insulted.

The first two panels could have been edited out for pace and flow because the last panel alone tells the point of the whole scene.

Sam and Lizz and even his son Junior call him “Tracy” but Wunbrow is so buddy-buddy he calls him “Dick?” C’mon.

Looks like it was definitely his one last swim.

HEY! WHO’S THIS NEW CHARACTER? The one in Panels 1 and 2???

Oh wow!! Wunbrow is back after so many decades – hurrah!!

1-MEANWHILE…

2-Dick slowly but competently selects Line Four Hello? Hello? Who’s there? Anyone on the line???

3-WUNBROW: Hey Dick ol’ buddy, ol’ pal! How’d you like to smoke a Cuban?

DT: Uh, depends on how you mean that. WHO IS THIS???

MORGUE GUY: Cause of death – drowning with incidental speargun injury. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times…

GALLERY OF THREATS

1.)“Let the big shot Tracy come! He’ll get the same reception the only other cop to come into these hills got!”

Cutie Diamond 1935

2.)Listen,flatfoot.You and I crossed swords six years ago and you won.This time it’s different!"

Stooge Viller 1939

3.)There he goes.Goodbye,Mr.Tracy,a corpse at last!And it took old Rughead to do it!"

Rughead 1954

I’m hoping Kripto snuffed himself, the big dummy, and Paul is knocking on Dekko’s door right now.

Wunbrow DOES seem to have a lot of investigative leeway,considering he’s from a dictatorship.

When he debuted in 1958,the set-in-Cuba story sneaked in just BEFORE the Castro takeover.

Before Castro,Havana was famous as a playground for organized crime,and for guys on the lam(Batista wasn’t exactly a nice guy,America cheered when he was overthrown).

Willie The Fifth sensed the days of Cuba as a mob playground were over,and that’s why he was always trying to muscle into Hawaii in 1959 and 1960 strips.

MOVIE QUOTE

“The last time I was cheated was 25 years ago when my squirt of a husband ran off with a blonde tightrope walker”

Edith King—-CALCUTTA—1947

What makes no sense……since Art planned to cheat his partners totally out of their shares anyways, what does it matter what amount he promised Paul? Absolutely no need to kill him…..

why does he look, colorwise, like he’s a newt?

Hmm! They’re being a little coy about the reveal here…

So… this all happened off screen. Laaaaaaaaame…

Meanwhile,Putty Puss has changed his name to George Santos and is currently at large…..

We know who it is.

My contrarian comment for today’s singularly uninformative strip:

How did Cuban Detective Wunbrow just happen to turn up in the morgue at Panama City? If you are a bit rusty on Florida’s geography, Panama City is in the north, on the Gulf of Mexico (west) side of the state, and far north of the typical entry for Cubans fleeing “the Socialist paradise” (as WilliamVollmer dubbed it, above), in the Miami area. ’Tis a verily strange coincidence!

And, we have NO IDEA who might or might not be depicted on the morgue slab in panel 3: Paul Chandler? Kyp/Krip/Kryptonite the hitter? Some other nameless deceased person? Sure, we can guess, but that’s all we’re doing for now, until and unless some definitive identification is given!

Okay. My “best guess” is that panel 3 shows the dead art forger on the cold slab. But that’s all it is, a guess….