Dick Tracy by Dick Locher

Tags: Wheel Pig Returns, DEATH stalks the Circus!!, HEY RUBE!!, It happened!. Add Tags

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barticle35 said, 2 months ago

The second panel is another copy/paste, but the third is a nice graphic. See what the artists can do if they once put their minds to it.
Wonder what the pig on wheels is for??
Margueritem said, 2 months ago

The pig-on-wheels is just another red herring……

Great song yesterday, WW.
VistaBill said, 2 months ago

Yea! The pig on wheels is back!
Gweedo Murray said, 2 months ago

Hey Marg. I went back to see WW’s song. Not bad, not bad. Wish it had music. Looks like a timely number.
Flight Suit said, 2 months ago

I think the pig on wheels is eves-dropping.

Regarding the lack of Matt:

Is it possible he’s been banned?

I hope not.
Margueritem said, 2 months ago

He’s going to make up names for all of us today!
Sydney Phillips said, 2 months ago

POLICE SECURITY - CIRCUS - POLICE PROTECTION

8 -27 TRACY: “I’ve called for Police Security – you’re all safe for the time being” as police are seen bristling with heavy SWAT Tean weaponry

Today, you see the Po;ice and tomorrow again. thereafer not one Uniformed Officer in sighted anywhere in the circus. They’ll vanish just as they did in the Magnum Force- Braces story-line ! And, just when they are needed come Friday !

Off course, another “red herring”, wrong turn, at a logic level it doesn’t fit. And I repeat how stupid could the FBI get as to hide Ringo exactly where all the people looking to kill him now work, in a Circus (?)

The next day or two will test Matthew’s mettle in “CREATIVITY” i.e to come up with names for those he believes have offended – (sorry “defamed” him). it’s not ulike naming your Dick Tracy Villains. Good practise session there MPH !

I’m thinking part of Matthew’s plan was to take our focus off the “recurring decimal” errors Locher is falling all over, in this story !
watcha said, 2 months ago

While you busy with that stats sheet - how are you doing on those ‘Ransom’/’ threat’ ‘notes’/’letter’?
Michael McMillan said, 2 months ago

Maybe the pig is a trojan pig? It’s on wheels, so it can be brought into the tent. Once inside, assasins pop out of the thing and try to kill the ringmaster. Whoops, blew the plotline, now they have to think of another one.

Thread drama: MPH, I wish the only thing on my plate was whether somebody called me by my right name or by a nickname (which, of all the names they could call you, getting bent out of shape over being called “Mattie” took some doing don’t ya think). Like most here, I have far more serious things to concern me and worrying overmuch about a nickname rates somewhere below worrying about who my ex might be with tonight (she’s my ex, so who cares). Making threats just made you look petty.

mjmsprt40
Fearless_Fosdick said, 2 months ago

Yes Tracy, I have the stats: 36-24-26, she was 130 feet above the ground when she was shot. Her terminal velocity was 94mph when she hit the ground, and currently, she is at room temperature. Any other stats you want to hear about?
CyberV said, 2 months ago

Re: Fearless

“Yes. Does she have a sister? I haven’t exactly been seeing much of Tess lately…”
Ronshua said, 2 months ago

Well I don’t think it’s Louise Trapeze . If she is truly dead .
Mattaden65 said, 2 months ago

I truly hope Matthew is done.
I am just as sick of him as I am this stupid story line that I’m reading. If not for all the GREAT, FUNNY, and CREATIVE comments, there would be nothing good to read. Keep up the good work.

P.S.
My name is Matt too, but my second “T” is silent, so we are not one in the same. Have a great day loyal fans!
myqcdogs63 said, 2 months ago

The pig on wheels is a cannon.
neonleon59 said, 2 months ago

@Michael McMillan: Post of the day!
BASSMANB0B said, 2 months ago

Flight Suit said, about 9 hours ago

I am a car freak, and in all the automotive world, I don’t know of a make or model with the name BNM.

And as long as I’m axin’ questions, what is the significance of Woodstock? Is that where Locher and Brozman live?

Flight suit, the B stands for a color and the N stands for a body part. I’ll leave the rest for you to figure out.
Woodstock is where the Dick Tracy museum that Matthew lords over is located.
dicktracymuseum.com

Peace.

BB
Ray C said, 2 months ago

Mattaden65: I’ve been trying all morning to pronounce your name with the second “T” silent. My tongue has now become completely spavined. It feels like it’s been rode hard and put away wet.

PS
For those of you unfamiliar with the condition, “spavined” means “afflicted with a swelling of the hock joint.” I’d advise you all not to try pronouncing Mattaden65’s name.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Liam:

I have flagged MULTIPLE posts over the past several days, all of which were CLEARLY written to incite dramatics on this board, and you and GoComics have FAILED to do anything about the same.

I find this sad and pathetic, especially since one particularly pathetic mouthbreather, who is scraping the absolute bottom of the creative barrel, has taken to PROMOTING A WEBSITE DESIGNED TO MOCK AND HUMILIATE THE DICK TRACY COMIC STRIP…the very GIANT whose shoulders both YOU and GoComics stand on…that is such despicable and reprehensible behavior that I cannot adequately put into words how sick it makes me. And yet, GoComics and YOU, LIAM, stand idly by and do NOTHING.

Sad, sick and pathetic.

Comics fandom is dead, and people and organizations like GoComics and people like Liam and each and every one of you have killed it. I hope you are all happy as you continue to bleeep on the corpse of the industry and this strip.

MPH
kreniigh said, 2 months ago

Gasoline Alley today has a very well-drawn audience that’s not just a bunch of ovals.

And while I’m not crazy about the storylines over there, at least they don’t stutter, repeat, and self-contradict like Dick Tracy does.
BASSMANB0B said, 2 months ago

Liam, I have taken the time to flag the most recent post from Matthew Hansel. Please remove it due to inappropriate language.

BB
wndrwrthg said, 2 months ago

Margueritem and Gweedo, thank you. I think the “Pig on Wheels” is a food vendors wagon. He sells “Chittlins on a Stick”, and other pork related products.
captainzero said, 2 months ago

OK… so if it’s not a pig on wheels, then why does the cannon have ears? Also, why is the cop in the 3rd panel wearing a child-sized shirt?
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Bassmanbob:

If Liam deletes that post, he’s the BIGGEST of the MANY hypocrites on this board.

MPH
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

I find it cute that Locher named the circus after Jean Gould O’Connell.

:-)

MPH
Gweedo Murray said, 2 months ago

The comments board has to be the best thing thatt’s(second “t” pronounced loudly) happened at Gocomics. Whether the strip is highly popular (Pibgorn), or beat down (Dick Tracy), there’s never a shortage of cackling crows. I see a lot of creativity in the “second” stories. The ability to format, edit and DELETE your comments makes this place tops.

Liam:
I don’t see anybody complaining about Bill Watterson. What does that make this strip ? The drawing here has been really good at times. I EXPECT ¦‒I that the strip will eventually reclaim its former greatness. The stern face will smile when that happens.
morrow said, 2 months ago

You know, when people take the time to pontificate about children reading a “family oriented” strip and site such as this, and then include a last sentence such as above says it all. That just takes away from the story that is supposedly being told.
Gweedo Murray said, 2 months ago

You’re welcome dubya dubya
kab2rb said, 2 months ago

I hope tomorrow will reveal more to the story. At least DT keeps going even though a slow pace. Since I am not a professional drawer or sometimes typer the drawings are better then what I could do.
With all the sweatting Ringo has been doing I wonder how wet his clothes are?
puddleglum1066 said, 2 months ago

What’s it been, twelve weeks now? The stats have not exactly been delivered stat.
Fer Lefer said, 2 months ago

“THE DICK TRACY COMIC STRIP…the very GIANT whose shoulders both YOU and GoComics stand on…”

Ooooooookaaaaaaaayyyyyy… So why bother with Garfield, Calvin and Hobbes, Doonesbury, The Wizard of ID, etc. just pathetic amateur’s doodles?

And about the pig: I told you that it was the BIGGEST pig in the country, so they had to put it in a wagon, and was to follow the killer elephant act. They just forgot it there… or maybe it wasn’t worth the effort of moving it…

“Comics fandom is dead, and people and organizations like GoComics and people like Liam and each and every one of you have killed it. I hope you are all happy as you continue to bleeep on the corpse of the industry and this strip.”

You’re not happy with it, the door’s wide open, Matt
CougarAllen said, 2 months ago

I still think it’s a giant piggy bank where they save all the money from admission, popcorn, etc. It has to have wheels so they can haul it along when they go to a new town.

-Cougar :{)
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

I suppose it must be the weight of all of us standing on this GIANT of a COMIC STRIP that has caused the story to get squished so very very thin. Shame on us. Matthew is right, we are sad, pathetic hypocrites. boo hoo hooooooooooooo

So what exactly is a “stat sheet?” Did they go and perform the autopsy while Dick has been standing there talking these past two months?

When will this strip get better? When pigs have WINGS, not WHEELS.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

morrow typed: You know, when people take the time to pontificate about children reading a “family oriented” strip and site such as this, and then include a last sentence such as above says it all. That just takes away from the story that is supposedly being told.

And yet, YOU, morrow are one of the BIGGEST offenders of them all. You and your “friend” Sydney who continue to come hear and complain about the strip and how you think Locher is senile and can’t draw and how the strip is pathetic, et. al.

Since, both Liam and GoComics defacto endorse this type of commenting, my comments, by all comparisons, are relatively tame.

Again, I say, it is the VERY mentality of the TOO many of the “fans” of this strip that is DESTROYING the industry.

AND–again–I ask–since many of you PROFESS to LOVE the character so much and you want to engage in “tough love”–do you BEAT your loved ones to show them how much you love them?

MPH
MrBriberysShrunkenHeads said, 2 months ago

Comic Fandom for pointless zombie strips ended long ago. There are plenty of well-written and well-drawn strips out there. The number is obviously decreasing.

What is holding the potential of this strip back? Tracy in panel 3 looks very good, maybe the best Brozman depiction yet. Then there is a sketched in policeman with varying levels of abstraction in same frame that ruins the clarity.
avatarjk137 said, 2 months ago
Matthew Hansel (as he prefers to be addressed) said:

“Liam:

I have flagged MULTIPLE posts over the past several days, all of which were CLEARLY written to incite dramatics on this board, and you and GoComics have FAILED to do anything about the same.

I find this sad and pathetic, especially since one particularly pathetic mouthbreather, who is scraping the absolute bottom of the creative barrel, has taken to PROMOTING A WEBSITE DESIGNED TO MOCK AND HUMILIATE THE DICK TRACY COMIC STRIP…the very GIANT whose shoulders both YOU and GoComics stand on…that is such despicable and reprehensible behavior that I cannot adequately put into words how sick it makes me. And yet, GoComics and YOU, LIAM, stand idly by and do NOTHING.

Sad, sick and pathetic.

Comics fandom is dead, and people and organizations like GoComics and people like Liam and each and every one of you have killed it. I hope you are all happy as you continue to bleeep on the corpse of the industry and this strip.

MPH”

You seem to hold the rest of the board to higher standards than yourself, MPH (I hope you don’t mind me calling you THAT for the sake of shorthand, as you call yourself the same). You declare posts inappropriate and ‘written to incite dramatics’, while you call one of the posters a mouthbreather and call Liam himself ‘sad, sick and pathetic’. Putting aside the question of whether Dick Tracy is a ‘giant that both [Liam] and Gocomics stand(s) on’, parody is an act of art and an expression of free speech. And you’re spitting on it. You also seem to think that every single post that is flagged will be removed, which obviously isn’t true as many of your posts that I have flagged as inappropriate continue to stand. Perhaps the admins disagree with our use of flagging, or wait to hear multiple complaints before a deletion. It’s not really my concern.

The fact is, I’m not sure if I should even post this, because I suspect you may, in fact, be a troll. I’ll monitor the situation closely and see if the evidence continues to mount, in which case I’ll stop feeding you attention and urge others to do the same. If you are not a troll, you suffer from the somewhat more sympathetic ailments of being generally unlikeable and taking things far too seriously. Please stop complaining. If you don’t enjoy the comments, just enjoy the strip. I personally enjoy the comments more than the strip, and you have hampered my enjoyment enough by contributing to the departure of Grok.
- avatarjk137, or Justin Kane if you’d prefer real names.
nighthawks said, 2 months ago

i suppose this a nice , safe arena for folks from different sides to rationally agree to disagree with each other in search for common ground although it is becoming a ‘tea party town hall meeting’ at times. At least, in this venue, the folks who engage with each other cannot be shouted down or intimidated; each will have their censored say.
Anyway, I can’t help but think that some folks just like to stir up poopie…..and see what comes to the top
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Justin Kane:

I am NO TROLL…all of you are TROLLING here, if anything else, since many, if not all of you, post here with the sole purpose of mocking the strip and attempt to get a rise out of us who ENJOY the strip, and even go so far as to DRIVE AWAY THOSE READERS WHO ENJOY THE STRIP by mocking and humiliating them, especially when they call you out on your rather immature behavior.

AND–if you are going to use quotation marks and attempting to DIRECTLY quote my postings—DIRECTLY QUOTE MY POSTINGS, do NOT edit them in any way, because by doing so, you are not DIRECTLY QUOTING.

And–I don’t post here to incite anything, I merely call out the stupidity that I see here on a daily basis. I find it completely disingenious that people profess to have a great love for Dick Tracy, and yet they don’t like the current version of the strip, yet they CONTINUE to read it everyday and then complain to the point of obsession about it.

If you don’t like the current version of the strip…simply STOP READING IT. It is THAT simple, but far too many of you seem unable to comprehend that simple point.

MPH
jtpozenel said, 2 months ago

I sense a brilliant twist in the story coming within the next months.
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

Can’t help but observe…the “poopie” that is always floating atop this page is the Dick Tracy comic strip.

And yeah, Nighthawks, pretty much everybody here (save St. Matthew) rip the strip apart daily, aside from the occasional pat on the head when a panel is well drawn. Or, we all pick on St. Matt just because, well, it’s fun because he gets soooo worked up about everything.

But it’s not that we’re malcontents…many of us comment positively about other comic strips. It’s just that Dick Tracy has become so god-awful. It’s a pale shadow of what it was even a few years ago, and it gets worse and worse.
neonleon59 said, 2 months ago

Matthew Hansel said, “I am NO TROLL…all of you are TROLLING here…” (direct quote, per Matthew’s wishes)
———————–
I’ve known people like that.

“I’M not wrong, ALL the REST of you are!!!”

Sigh…
Sydney Phillips said, 2 months ago

QUESTIONS for MATTHEW ???

1) Dont you realize Liam isn’t taking you on ? And for good reason. To be noticed you need to rise to a higher level of belligerence, and right now you’re pressing the edge of the envelope. Watch it.

2) How do you know the poster is a “mouth breather” ? Do you know him (?) or are you just insulting him because you don’t like what he says ?

3) As you continue to “open up”, it seems clear your objective is to “shut up” any dissent on the board on Locher’s shoddy Dick Tracy work ? Democracy at work ? Not allowed to have a differing (majority) opinion ? Is saving Locher more important than “saving” the strip ?

4) Who is “mocking” and “humilating” Chester Gould’s great strip ? Look inward. Could it be the Author who in this story again proves he is a “serial” manufacturer of laughable story lines. More appropriate words might be “hang-your-head in shame - disgracefull ! Posters are only reporters, “commenting” truthfully. While you Matthew know Locher and DO NOTHING, not man enough (?) to tell HIM (the cradle of the current “rot”) — AS it is. But rather assail him and this board with hyperbole

Comic freedom is dead ? No ! It’s very much alive as is free speech and opinion. In the meantime, do you spend every waking hour thinking how to KILL comment that differs from yours ?

Try to find POSITIVE things to post on the work. Circus named after Jean Gould O’Connell. Small but a useful start. Cant you find anything further ?

Finally, it seems they “bleeped” that inappropriate word and the lesson is, don’t relieve yourself into the board’s wind, Carefull too about “mouth breathing” in those conditions. Some people call it Dick Tracy “yellow” !

What puzzles me is why you don’t take your OWN advice, You call it a MATURE” act, to stop reading the strip. Why not STOP reading the “comments” if you don;t LIKE them as you boasted you had done some months go ? (and Jeff reported here).

I know you are a “mature” young man ! (?)

It’s clear your agenda is to DEFEND Locher above all else ! (?) Most here want to PROTECT the integrity and continuity OF the Dick Tracy comic strip and the freedom to continue expressing their opinions.
mumbles said, 2 months ago

Gee, I remember when the Comments section involved COMMENTS ON THE STRIP, not egomaniacal back and forth rants about who’s bigger. Try blogging
BASSMANB0B said, 2 months ago

Lian, thanks for censoring and removing the offensive portion of Matthew Hansel’s eariler post.

BB
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

To be fair to Jim Brozman, he apparently still has a day job, managing a comics shop in the Chicagoland area: http://www.grahamcrackers.com/dgstore.htm . It seems likely that, with this strip now appearing in so few papers, drawing it just does not pay very well.

According to Wikipedia, Max Collins was sacked as the writer and replaced by Mike Killian at half the salary. When Killian died, TMS presumably opted to further the savings by having Locher write as well as draw. And the result of those cost saving moves is, according to another poster here, that the strip has gone from 350 newspapers to 50.

Which would appear to prove the maxim that you have to spend money to make money. The result of cutting the overhead on producing this strip has been a drastic reduction in the income the strip generates.

Right now, it seems pretty near the end for Dick Tracy…I don’t know what the break-even point is, but they’ve got to be close. Newspapers are loathe to drop even a bad strip, and it’s harder than that for a strip to get picked up. Dick Tracy still has enough name recognition that papers might be willing to risk it IF there were a clear commitment to producing a dynamic, exciting strip.

This is all pretty straightforward logic. I have no idea why TMS is letting this downward spiral continue…I can only assume that someone from there, or Brozman, or Locher is reading these comments (they’re fools if they aren’t, frankly, you can’t produce popular entertainment in a bubble). If so, there are a lot of people here who would love to hear the rationale behind this approach.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Sydney:

I will not answer anymore of your “questions” until you acknowledge the answers I provided to your laundry list of questions last week.

MPH
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

jumbobrain:

I have outline, time and time again, most recently for Sydney, the conditions underwhich the strip is being produced, and yet NOBODY seems to want to acknowledge this. I have FIRST HAND information, PRIMARY sources, and yet because it SHATTERS all of your preconceived notions about the strip, you all refuse to hear the truth.

Pathetic.

MPH
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Sydney asked for things I like about the strip:

1) The artwork. I’m a big fan of Locher’s art. Brozman’s inks have left me a bit cold, but overall I still enjoy the artwork—all though I wish it would head down a MORE cartoony path–much like the almost-big-foot approach Chet used in the early 1940s.

2) The villains…as silly as you all seem to think they are, I’ve enjoyed the recent rogues gallery…none of them will ever rise to the level of CLASSICS like Chet’s villians did—but, then again—outside Chet’s most NOTORIOUS villians, which ones actually DO stand out in the public’s mind? Almost NOTHING after 1947 I’d agrue.

3) I really liked the color on the Sunday pages when Locher was coloring them himself. The current coloring does nothing for me.

While I’m on the subject, too, I do not like the lettering font they are using, either. BUT–in general–I don’t like computer lettering fonts. I’ve created about a dozen lettering fonts (based on the lettering of MOST of the Dick Tracy letterers, including Ray Gould, Rick Fletcher and Dick/John Locher!), and there are ways to do the lettering on the computer that will make it look more natural, but…

So…there…off the top of my head, those are things I really enjoy about the strip!

MPH
cholldekkgher stenst... said, 2 months ago

The stat sheet is full of sheet.
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

Matt, the truth is this strip is lousy. You don’t need FIRST HAND PRIMARY sources to know that, you just have to read it. It’s lousy. When did Gould or Collins ever have a story that let Dick stand in the same place talking for two months, just to cite the most recent example of its lousiness?

It’s losing subscribing newspapers, and there is a point at which it will no longer be profitable to produce, and it will be cancelled.

There’s no cosmic force which says that situation cannot be reversed. Prince Valiant was in similar straits at the end of John Cullen Murphy’s tenure…his work was frankly tired and lacked passion. He needed to retire. When he did, King Features brought in a fresh team of award-winning cartoonists whose passion for the characters and story are clear. It’s a good strip again (and has been collected in book form, whereas the only Dick Tracy strips receiving that attention now are from years and years ago).

Locher’s had a good run. But it’s time to break with the past and put this strip in fresh hands, that can reconnect it with the qualities that made it an icon of American pop culture. Most people don’t even know this strip is still in print.

I know you like Locher and I’m sure he’s a great guy. But it’s a fact that Dick Tracy will not be around for a whole lot longer if the strip is allowed to continue as it has been.
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago
…and, um, Matt, though I know jousting with you is kinda pointless, I couldn’t help but notice that when Sydney asked you what you like about the strip. You said:
1. Locher’s artwork…except that he doesn’t draw the strip any more and you don’t like Brozman’s work as much.
2. The villains, though you say they aren’t as good as Gould’s villains.
3. Locher’s coloring, except Locher doesn’t color the strip any more and you don’t like the current coloring.
…and, you don’t like the lettering.

You are arguably the biggest/only fan of Dick Tracy as it is currently being done, and that’s the best you can say about it? ‘nuff said.