Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 01, 2013

So he didn’t poison the pizza after all.

What a great Sunday strip! Abner, Venus, Meles (sp), & a pic of BB Eyes! How great is this?

“Melies”…Forgive me. Good Morning, Margueritem!

Good morning margueritem and all the other DT fans…

Melies! Abner! Oh what a notable bunch!

So, he does have two more Apparatus members on his hit list. I wondered about that. Anyway, I don’t think it matters, because he’s not going to be doing any more killing once he tries to kill Tracy. At least, I don’t think he will be free to keep killing after that.

If Venus had a “Villain Song”, I bet it would be Bananarama’s Venus.

And, good morning, Gweedo, VB & all! Great art today, especially of Abner! And are the other 2 “disposable” members supposed to be Mumbles & Doubleup? The former I’d miss. The latter, not so much.

An interesting move by Kadaver…..seems he really does admire BB Eyes’ skills….

“Good morning, cpalmer, *Vista Bill and all to follow !”Now, THAT’S clever!

And, concerning a question from yesterday about the marks on BB Eye’s face: I always thought from the beginning that they were tread marks (maybe got hit in the face at some point with a tire from his days a s a “tire bootlegger”).

Abner manages to get around pretty freely for a guy with a very distinctive face and clothing style. Ms. Venus may have reason for concern at his showing up at her penthouse. But I wonder how she will react at his re-defining the order to whack B-B Eyes?

And I STILL believe Blackjack will become a hero before this is over.

double cross?

said: “I wonder how Abner gets around without being spotted. Maybe he has limitations on where he goes and at what times.”From today’s strip it appears Abner possesses his own version of Harry Potter’s Floo Powder.

I think today’s installment is one of the best strips I’ve seen so far.

It features both Abner Kadaver and Méliès, two of the greatest grotesque villians of the contemporary post-Gould era.

The artwork in the panels containing Kadaver is amazing!

I think that both Mumbles and Doubleup are safe (are safe). Abner would have been hired to kill off the higher-ranked members of the Apparatus, not the soldiers. B-B Eyes is Management; Mumbles and Doubleup are just talent

Abner, obviously, had not been in the military. Nor Venus. Because if he did that, he’d be doing pushups until eternity. His orders were to exterminate the rats; not bring them home goose-on-a-string style. Don’t pay him, Venus!

……why would anyone even bother to pay to eliminate two morons like Mumbles and Double-up……if THEY’RE competition, then you’re not saying much for yourself.

I’m thinking, as have a few before me, that Kadaver may have designs on yet a further upgrade…..bye bye, Venus and Melies! It would be funny if Venus turned out to be another nerd, or that what’s his face didn’t really die before, and is running this organization now in drag….

Abner’s also covering his own butt….he’s pretty vulnerable himself after knocking off the rest of the apparatus….his payment might instead be a bullet from Melies if someone doesn’t have his back. Of course, also very noble of Abner to give up his contract fee to save his friend’s life…..what a guy!

Seeing as how the apparatus was run by a mystery outsider before, yes, maybe Melies is this years “Panda” in regards to the Blackhearts.

All I know is this comic strip has gotten so good it’s scary!

Mephisto=Kadaver

It appears that Venus is holding 2 photographs?

I wanna see all the Apparatus hafta kneel and kiss Her jewel…..Ha Ha ha…wouldn’t that be sweet..

Arriving in a cloud of smoke, pizza pie hath been deliveredMéliès and Venus kept their cool, while in unison they shivered.At the sight of Abner Kadaver, his entrance rather boldA dull, dead gleam behind his eyes, his callous heart quite cold.Venus makes allowances for his liberties this one timeTapping her martini glass, a reprise would be a crime.Kadaver quick to apologize, he offers up a giftB-B Eyes a turn-coat, let his allegiance heal this rift.Doing so would leave but two Apparatus thugs to killAbner truly loves his work, bloodlust gives him a thrill.

Does Venus have a big round head resembling the planet Venus?

Joe Staton has taken care to show us, at least twice, that Venus has the habit of running her figure tip around the edge of her martini glass. I wonder if that will figure in the story in any way?

There was some speculation about how BB Eyes got those marks on his face. I looked up his first appearance, and he had the marks from the very first panel. I don’t know if any explanation was ever given, because my book doesn’t have the Sundays, but nothing was ever mentioned in the dailies.

A couple of observations about the decor of her penthouse. It seems that there is a roulette wheel in front of the giant playing cards. In the first panel of the second row, there is an interesting brown thing. To me, it looks like an airplane or space shuttle-type thing on the top. It seems like I’m not good at identifying things like that after thinking that Joe’s sailboat was some kind of aircraft. Maybe I’m sure seeing things!

I’m waiting for the big reveal: Venus is actually Fritzi Ritz. This is where she’s been keeping the rest of her body.

How do you make that light-green box in some of your posts?

I’ve been waiting for someone to ask. :) I have a bit of code that I keep in a text file on my desktop. For a while, I was typing it by hand each time, but there’s always a chance of a mistake and I made it a bit more elaborate with a border and some padding around the text, so I cut and paste. I will see if I can put the code here:

<blockquote style=“background:aliceblue;padding:.5em;border:1px solid gray;”></blockquote>

You will want to copy that and save it in a text file (like Notepad in Windows). When you use it, the text to go in the box goes before the </blockquote> part.

Thanks for the code tip. <blockquote style=“background:aliceblue;padding:.5em;border:1px solid gray;”>I will use with descretionBev used it at Ballard Street and linked to you here. Now I’ve saved to my desktop (I find pasting from sticky notes the easiest way as I’m 76 and not a great typist).

Well, I copy/pasted it and it did not work for me I tried it both with no space before and after the desired text and both resulted as above (with the code B4 the words as text and the last part (to quit blockquote) invisible.

Arriving in a cloud of smoke, pizza pie hath been delivered

Méliès and Venus kept their cool, while in unison they shivered.

At the sight of Abner Kadaver, his entrance rather bold

A dull, dead gleam behind his eyes, his callous heart quite cold.

Venus makes allowances for his liberties this one time

Tapping her martini glass, a reprise would be a crime.

Kadaver quick to apologize, he offers up a gift

B-B Eyes a turn-coat, let his allegiance heal this rift.

Doing so would leave but two Apparatus thugs to kill

Abner truly loves his work, bloodlust gives him a thrill.