Dick Tracy by Dick Locher

Tags: Everybody loves a clown, DEATH stalks the Circus!!, HEY RUBE!!, It happened!, clowns, scary!. Add Tags

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Flight Suit said, 2 months ago

Ye Gods, that IS a gloved hand!

Hi Yeee!
Margueritem said, 2 months ago

Sigh….. I was so hoping that it was the pig-on-wheels….
Flight Suit said, 2 months ago

Here’s a little tip in case you ever need to execute three people at once:

Don’t have them lined up shoulder-to-shoulder, and don’t hold your gun five inches from your first victim’s face; before you’re even done squeezing off the first shot, the other two will be wrestling the gun out of your hands.

Especially if they’re snoopy cops.
Llewellenbruce said, 2 months ago

I thought all clowns were supposed to be funny.
achtungkitten said, 2 months ago

“Beep beep, Tracy! When you’re down here with us, you’ll float too!”
dsped said, 2 months ago

Judging from Ringo’s face, he’s already had a little accident.
big G 3469 said, 2 months ago

MR POPS?!?!?! Or is it one of Flattop Jones’s relatives???????
barticle35 said, 2 months ago

What I always say is, talk first and shoot later.
Michael McMillan said, 2 months ago

I kinda suspected. When Mr. Pops fired his gun, the trapeze artist fell. Too much coincidence there. If somebody else had fired, the possibility of getting two shots fired simultaniously would rate right up there with winning the Megamillions and getting a date with this month’s Playmate at the same time. A second gunshot would have been noticed.
Carlo Coratelli said, 2 months ago

Uhm, I wanna see a flag on the Mr. Pops gun.
Flight Suit said, 2 months ago

I think it’s too early to assume that this is really Mr. Pops holding the gun. For all we know, it could be anybody under that makeup!
VistaBill said, 2 months ago

Now that the circus story is nearing an end, what’ll be next?
Fearless_Fosdick said, 2 months ago

So, you mean the guy who had a gun in hand that went off when Louise was shot actually shot her? What a shocker.
CyberV said, 2 months ago

So let me get this straight…

A man goes into witness protection and takes one of the single most visible jobs in the world, while the people that wanted him dead take up other jobs in the circus in order to kill him. Instead of doing it quickly, the criminals decide to wait, warn him, and then kill one of their own during a performance, an act bound to bring in the authorities. When it does, they instead assume the ringmaster called the cops in and threaten him a second time.

Meanwhile, Tracy begins looking into the case, fails to have the clown’s gun checked in spite of it being discharged right after a murder, and then randomly announces he has a plan to flush out the bad guy… Only for the bad guy to instead flush himself out without any effort at all on Tracy’s part.

At the same time, Tracy calls in paramedics and backup, while Ennen arrives ALONE… And all the backup and medics and THOUSANDS OF WITNESSES all vanish without a trace.

My god. AMATEURS would be emarrassed by this nonsense.
watcha said, 2 months ago

CyberV - I have to agree. If you would put all this together(the start of the Circus) in a short film, it would be like Laurel and Hardy - just a lot of silly things happening to 2 stupid guys.
LudwigVonDrake said, 2 months ago

Tracy didn’t snoop. He was stuffing his face like a pig (not on wheels) with popcorn when the silliness began.

Suddenly Sloppy the Clown is wearing gloves. What a shock.

Sigh…
poopa33 said, 2 months ago

is it over yet?
fishbulb said, 2 months ago

Beyond incomprehensibly stupid. The one person holding a gun in public is never searched, nor his “fake gun by Tracy. That same clown makes an impossible shot without aiming his prop gun at anything and kills a moving target in front of hundreds and hundreds of witnesses. 2 threatening notes are produced, and Tracy NEVER asks where they were found, how they were delivered, etc. The sloppy writing never makes it clear if the performers are all in the ring at the same time or entering & leaving at random. Days ago they were all talking to Tracy, now everyone has conveniently vanished except for Tracy, Ringo, & Enen. Apparently, the showgirl riding the backed up elephant has finally left. A glove has now appeared on the clown’s hand, as we were told it would. None of this makes a bit of sense.
morrow said, 2 months ago

It makes sense to me! Mr. Pops doesn’t want his fingerprints on the gun. That’s why he wears gloves!

Groan……… (Come, Mattie; come explain the genius in this story. Be sure to wipe the drool off your chin)
Sydney Phillips said, 2 months ago

Cyber V
Has done an excellent job of summerizing what has appeared to happen. Which is quite a feat considering the amount of inaction.

We’re into TWO weeks of “EXPLANATION” time now, to hear what happened ! And will have to wait till that’s over for the next movement forward. Mr Pops the Clown, the head honcho, didn’t do the shooting and as we’ve already heard Louise T was one of the bad guys. Further, it seems they were all in the Cicus before Ringo.

Everything that’s revealed shortly makes the whole plot look more and more like SILLY SEASON.

In the meantime, take a peek at an “idea” that was never formally published - - BATMAN meets DICK TRACY which appeared on the D.T. Yahoo board.

http://www.positivebrand.net/serials/bmdt01/01.html
ridenslide65 said, 2 months ago

Cyber V, Fishbulb and Sydney have all hit the mark today.

Beyond nonsense.

Where is the back-up? A tent full of witnesses and not ONE single other cop?

Please. We’re not that dumb. Give us more credit than that.
Sydney Phillips said, 2 months ago

morrow.

The thought flashed across my mind that Mattie had been banned from posting (with his, exaggerated boasting)

Now in Judy’s sympathetic hands for nursing (?)

But better, Liam has left egocentric to hang out for more “toasting”

Perhaps a strategic retreat to lick
wounds ? He posted on the Yahoo board yesterday.
Flight Suit said, 2 months ago

Sydney, that DT/Batman strip certainly is well-drawn, and really is something to see. I couldn’t help but notice, however, that even in that strip, Detective Tracy is still incompetent, opening fire on Batman just because he looks like he might be a criminal, allowing a murderer to get away, engaging in police brutality…

He may be nicely illustrated, but he’s still the DT we know and love!
Fer Lefer said, 2 months ago

Wait a second! This is a CIA job and Mr. Pops is their inside man… so expect two other weeks of explanations and in october 4th… well… what the frag!
vancourt said, 2 months ago

So for 3 days the pistol was held in his bare hand - today he’s wearing gloves. I think I’ve finally discovered the artist’s true intention - DT is meant to be a Spot The Differences comic.

And here we I thought is was just lousy workmanship and no attention to detail…
N7326 Foxtrot said, 2 months ago

I think he’s just clowning around.
fishbulb said, 2 months ago

Honestly, Mr. Pops sounds like a Scooby-Doo villian making his “meddling kids” speech in the third panel.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

I’m not banned…I’ve just been swamped with work.

After seeing today’s “gun” drawing…I inked up a daily strip today that had some “gun action” in it, so I was SURE to take photos of both the “gun” and my hand so I could be sure it would look authentic. You’ll see that daily in about a month.

MPH
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Sydney:

Re: that link you provided.

UNGH.

The art is most definitely not my cuppa, so I won’t comment about it other than to say almost universally when I’ve seen people attempt to draw Tracy in a “more realistic” fashion, he always comes off looking like a thug or mobster with a broken nose. Best to keep Tracy in the land of the impressionistic and bring THAT style to the Batman, not the other way around.

MPH
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

Ok, this story would make a stone cry with despair! The artwork is boring and simplistic. We’ve had talking head panels for MONTHS with no witty dialog, pointlessly detailed tigers, no scenarios at all, copy-paste panels and a boring pointless story. This pains me to say, as I grew up with Dick Locher’s artwork in Dick Tracy - but the strip MUST really change creators! This thing is PUTRID!

Brian Michael Bendis’ POWERS has police work, lots of “talking heads” but an incredibly amusing story that goes somewhere.

I think I’d rather see the strip ended than endure this mediocrity. However, I am forced to see it every day - it is like watching a train wreck. Now I understand most of the comments on this board - it is hard to find something nice to be said about the strip (and current storyline)
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

@Matthew Hansel: when you say “You’ll see that daily in about a month.” - where could we see that daily? Is this related to your previous announcement?
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

I didn’t really enjoy the art (or the story) from the Dick Tracy / Batman link - but it sort of gave me an idea for an alternate ending of this circus story debacle.

After seeing the horrors until now (and considering that Sydney told us that we will expect 2 more weeks of “talking heads” and stupid explanations, I just felt like drawing an alternative ending to this circus story. Just glorified fan-fiction, but a way to relieve my brain of the horrors that I’ve read.

@Sydney Phillips: if I do this “alternate ending” thing, I will make some references to previous stories - when I finish it, could I show it to you first, so you can check if there are some continuity errors regarding characters and such? (since I stopped reading during the Collins era - much has happened that I lost track of). I hope that’s ok with you.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Roberto:

OH. DEAR. GAWD. Please don’t mention BMB name to me. I really, really, really, really, really, really dislike his writing style. Talk about stories that move with all the speed of an iceberg!!!!!

Re: Daily strip. I will announce where/when/how the daily strip will be viewable. And–YES–it is related, partially, to my previous announcement(s).

MPH
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

Okay, so it’s the clown. If we had any idea who the clown was beyond a face that got xeroxed into fifty random panels these past months, this might be an interesting twist.

Alas, poor Dick, I knew him well…
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

@Matthew:
I didn’t explained myself correctly. If I am going to have stories that move with the speed of an iceberg, I prefer to have them with Bendis-like-style-talking-heads instead of this stupid story - after all, “glacial” is something that could be applied to this story.

Has Dick Tracy been like that for how long?
poppabob said, 2 months ago

DT has nothing to fear. Ringo will get it first, followed by the FBI gal. DT will have plenty of time to disarm the clown…

Or maybe the strong-lady will step up and throw Giggles to the lions!
BASSMANB0B said, 2 months ago

Matthew, the idea of a gun in your hand is very, very frightening!

BB
idarke said, 2 months ago

Actually, Tracy’s not “a little too close for comfort” at all. I’d say he’s years from making an arrest.

Does this mean we’ll never see Tracy’s clever scheme to reveal the killer? Or was his clever scheme to stand there for weeks, discussing the same plot points over and over, until the killer finally explodes out of boredom and whips out a gun?
BASSMANB0B said, 2 months ago

After seeing today’s “gun” drawing…I inked up a daily strip today that had some “gun action” in it, so I was SURE to take photos of both the “gun” and my hand so I could be sure it would look authentic. You’ll see that daily in about a month.

MPH

Matthew, is this your way of saying you didn’t like the way the gun holding hand was drawn today?

BB
Dberrymanal1 said, 2 months ago

Should have known it was the clown. Yes, everyone loves a clown, and there’s something appealing about an evil clown. Such as the Joker of “Batman”.
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

On Sept 14th, tracy said “The FBI and I can smoke out the culprit”

On Sept 18th, agent Ennen ran the background checks Tracy should have done (did he lost his computer wrist thingie?)- AND the gun appears saying “You stumbled unto the truth, agent Ennen” - so, Tracy didn’t do a thing. And, to confirm he has no idea of what he is doing, he just looks at the gun and very surprised says “YOU?”

Very good detective work, Dick Tracy!
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

@Dberrymanal1 And it was the clown who fired a gun the moment Lousie Trapeze was shot! WOW! And Tracy was surprised when he sees the clown with a gun!
Josh 1360 said, 2 months ago

“…and I would’ve gotten away with it too if wasn’t for you meddling detectives!”
jumbobrain said, 2 months ago

Roberto,

Quick DT primer: Dick Tracy became an American pop culture fixture in the 1940s, when it was written and drawn by its creater Chester Gould. He retired in 1978 and the writing went to Max Collins, who did (I think) a great job with it., with Rick Fletcher doing the art and later Dick Locher..but the syndicate fired Collins in 1992 and hired Mike Killian, supposedly at half the pay, to write. I haven’t read Killian’s work so I don’t know how it was. Killian died in 2005 and they decided for some reason to let Locher take over the writing…which many here would agree is the key problem with it nowadays. This continuity is a fine example, ten weeks of standing in one place talking and the clown pulls a gun.
jtpozenel said, 2 months ago

Oh great! Now all those psychiatric patients with an irrational fear of clowns really do have something to worry about.
Roberto Macedo Alves said, 2 months ago

@jumbobrain: Thank you very much for the quick DT primer. I started reading the strip around 1983, with the “Cryonic man” sequence - I stopped around 1991, when my local paper stopped carrying the strip - with the Little Boy saga - so, the work of Max Collins was my introduction to Dick Tracy - and I still think it was among the best strips I’ve read.

I began again recently, when I decided to look for the strip online, with the Dab Stract / Cole Lector trojan horse kidnapping thing (that was BEFORE the giant robots, right? - hard to remember), and I was a little bit … confused. Where was the rest of the cast?

I ordered the reprints of the original Chester Gould strips, so I can read the original work in a correct and complete chronological order.

I am not familiar with the work of Killian. I just read some of the 2001 strips (the first ones that are available online - that was the reason I bought the “Genius” account, when I later realized the final Collins strips were not available online) - and I only read the first continuity… it was… slightly disappointing. Thanks for the help!
Joe Allen Doty said, 2 months ago

When that hand appeared holding a gun for the past few days, there was no glove on it.

The trapeze artist has been called Louise Trapeze and Lousie Trapeze. Now what was her real name?

Does “Lousie” mean infested with lice (the plural of louse) as in “Lousy” or does it mean that she was very bad as a trapeze artist?

This comic strip needs both a proof reader and a quality control person to correct the mistakes of the artists and writers.
cholldekkgher stenst... said, 2 months ago

Well Joe, You are the perfect volunteer. Get on the ball, dude!
Sydney Phillips said, 2 months ago

AUTHENTIC ?
What doesn’t sound “authentic” are the HINTS you keep on dropping, as if somehow YOU are now drawing the strip ;-) Don’t BLUFF with “heart attack” news ! Give us more intriguing entertainment ! Like say, Locher is stepping down and Max Collins is coming back as the Writer.

The strip on Sunday, October 4, and after, all carry “credits” for Locher and Brozman. NO other name ! It’s comforting to know that you sleep well and have “rewarding” dreams

But, one thing you have picked up admirably from Dick Locher on writing, is the fine art of repetition, which by using it over and over, he has again beaten the current story to a frazzle and into a comess ! It’s a talent requiring patience, each point must be repeated SIX times to be absolutely sure little Johnny understands what’s happening.

If the Reuben people were to give a Wooden Spoon award for “Glacial Pacing”, Dicky would easily take it !

PS. idarke ! That’s a great final paragraph you have there today.
Matthew Hansel said, 2 months ago

Bassmanbob: Why? I’m an avid hunter and fisherman. Why is the idea of me with a gun so frightening?

Roberto: I’ve said my peace of BMB. I do enjoy POWERS, but his Marvel stuff leaves me absolutely COLD.

Sydney: I’ve NEVER said I was drawing Dick Tracy, nor did I say I wasn’t. Rest assured, tho, you’ll be seeing daily comic strip work from me beginning on October 4th (if you choose to read it, that is). I will tell you that it involes MURDER, GUNS, a HERO with a SQUARE jaw, a burnt out cop, and a BIG bad guy! ;-)

MPH