Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 21, 2012

Sam’s fading fast. Hurry up, Tracy!

Phishface is as cold-blooded as it gets. Classic rogue in the Gouldian style!

Sam is in a heap o’ hurt!

Joe’s art is outstanding today. The 2nd panel is great, and the 3rd one is very stylish. Bravo!

Those boots ain’t made for walkin’ all right. Holy Nancy Sinatra Batman! Put the good guys in trouble and then foolishly walk away? Come back tomorrow, same Sam time, same Sam channel!

yeah Phishface, but one of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you!

Something told me Sam would be an ornament. Betcha Fritz Ann would save him and dish out some vengeance at the same time!

It’s not looking good for old Sam. But wait! With the creep and his goon gone dining, what’s to stop Sam from getting out of the suit and breaking surface?Meanwhile, I still fear for the Tracy kids in the aquarium. What if the creep recognizes who they are?

Good morning fellow DT fans…

Nobody can say this isn’t exciting. Betcha Honeymoon will discover the old storage tank.

Hate to see Sam suffer. Love the art and suspense.

woww, given the same six week time frame allotted by TMS this story seems a little less “rushed” than stiletta’s was. the pace is nice and even and plenty (no, not sparkle, b.o., gertie, etc, lol) of time is given to each character to shine. well, except for vitamin, and vistabill ;) i’m anxious to see who is going to find and/or rescue sam! betcha that once he is free, he lights up another smoke almost instantly ;) lol

Great artwork. The expression on Sam’s face is great. If the suit is essentially secured to the floor in the tank, I wonder how they got him in there. Maybe the tank was empty and they filled it after they got him in the suit?

Ok, I didn’t ask on Monday, when Sam just ‘suddenly’ popped up in the tank wearing the suit. I figured Phishface and his pal got him in there somehow.

But today the pal doesn’t know anything about how the suit is set up? I know that that’s just a narrative device so Phishface can tell us, because we don’t know, but come on! How did Phishface manage to get Sam into a diving suit which is anchored to a lead stand, under water?

Did they drain the tank, stuff Sam in, and refill the tank? Did they ask Sam to be a sport, swim down and put it on? Did they maybe hypnotize him, with a phishy stare?

Don’t get me wrong, this is a great story arc. Almost reminiscent of the 1960’s Batman TV show. But I gotta know, how did they manage to stuff an unwilling grown man into a diving suit, much less one anchored to the bottom of a huge phish tank.

Excellant art today!I have to think Chum already knows about the weighted plate (it must have taken the two of them to lower it into the tank), but his nerves – as seen in panel 1 – are showing.Okay, Team Tracy – how’s Sam going to get out of this one?

Both Dick and Lizz, with each having an arm in a sling and still healing from their wounds, are not fit for field duty. I know that Sam is a good friend and colleague, but not being at 100%, they could get someone hurt or killed. Dick also has the distraction of having family at the scene. All this considered, it does not look like there will be a positive outcome. But then again this is the Comic Strip World, not the real one.

Good morning all! “Nobody comes down here but us”…famous last words…especially meaningful to those who have ever chaperoned a group of elementary school aged children on a field trip. Talk about herding kittens!

Dr. Evil: All right guard, begin the unnecessarily slow-moving dipping mechanism. [guard starts dipping mechanism] Dr. Evil: Close the tank! Scott Evil: Wait, aren’t you even going to watch them? They could get away! Dr. Evil: No no no, I’m going to leave them alone and not actually witness them dying, I’m just gonna assume it all went to plan. What? Scott Evil: I have a gun, in my room, you give me five seconds, I’ll get it, I’ll come back down here, BOOM, I’ll blow their brains out! Dr. Evil: Scott, you just don’t get it, do ya? You don’t.

if it’s anchored to a “lead stand”, how in blazes did they get him in it? drain the tank first? what about the fishies? geeze.

FFace is gonna get his

Phishface obviously likes post murder meals, he probably used to go in chatrooms under the SN Phishface and used Chum’s pictures to talk to young girls.

I too am wondering how they got him in there in the first place… however, I see a glass-bashing ka-smash-y coming soon…

My best bet on getting him in there, and maybe out again, is that the decoration diving suit is attached to some sort of winch that lowers and raises it from the floor of the aquarium, possibly by chains attached to all four corners of the lead platform. I know that aquariums use winches and slings for maneuvering larger mammals like dolphins and killer whales. I would suppose they use them for maneuvering containers holding fish as well, since the fish would still need to be in water.Anyway, the hard part would be getting him in it. It is pretty baggy, so it wasn’t a tight fit, but I agree that it is a little hard to believe that they got Sam into the diving suit while he was conscious. This is the guy who took out a bouncer at Cueballs by himself.Maybe he got conked on the head, or conceivably had Phishface holding him at gunpoint (We know he carry’s a gun, he killed the aquarium Director with it). Chum also has Sam’s gun so with both of them pointing guns at him it becomes more feasible.Sam puts on the diving suit restricting his movement. The boots are already bolted to the platform and he thinks that it is just to keep him from moving around, so he doesn’t put up to much of a fight. Then Chum puts the helmet on, Sam assumes that is so that nobody will hear him yelling for help. He still isn’t to worried, the MCU knows where he is, and these clowns don’t seem to want him dead. Then Chum or maybe Phishface uses the winch to raise the platform he is on swing it over a tank and drop, or lower him into it.Now he is worried! The air tank is just for effect so that the helmet on the decoration would bubble. Phishface opened the valve all of the way so the air is leaking out pretty fast, it was originally intended to just trickle slowly so the decoration would bubble for a few days, but with the valve all the way on… Yeah, Sam has about an hour tops.

Hair changing directions ?-Well what do you expect from a character who’s been named Chum _Leen_-Forgive the vowel change ! ;-)

It looks like quite a big tank and there are fish in it. They would need to drain it, That would take a few hours since it is about the size of an Olympic swimming pool. They would need to transfer the fish to another tank. This is a risky process. Ph levels, temperature, salinity, etc. It also could take quite some time. Then adding in all of that water again. You don’t use tap water and they would most likely have to pump it from a river or ocean someplace. That could take a whole day.No, I am sticking with they lowered him in with a winch, or possibly even just pushed him in over the side and let him drop to the bottom, although that platform has to be heavy!

And didn’t Sam deliver food to him?

Despite my concerns about storyline, I still love the artwork, as always. Today is VERY EC comics (panels 2 & 3).

SDM should abandon his persona. Is that a vote?