Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 21, 2017

You take then while I take now

Ferret out the truth somehow

With facts and dates and time and place

We’ll solve the crime and crack the case.

Where they were before being here

Graveyard thugs excavated fear

Look to see local cemetery

Hate crime desecrations one, two, three.

Blurry photo of tall and short

A puzzle piece that leads to court

Dick and Sam gather germane facts

Margies can’t cover all their tracks.

Search warrant sure to speed the plow

Digging up who, when, where and how

The thieves did fleece the cosUcon

Soon they are caught or on the run.

Knew that paying off the rent would come back to bite them.

Couldn’t quite break 200 Comments yesterday, guess we’ll have to settle for a sad, shameful 195 or so.

Well, it looks like it’s all over. Next story arc (reportedly with B.O.)!

Good morning guys!

There’s still the arrest, I think.

And possible resistance thereof.

Tracy grin and chuckled hard He knew the Margie’s were full of lard. Foolish girls to think they could fool. the one and only Dicky cool. How silly to play a game of chess. When your strategy was a total mess. A matter of time is all it’ll take. To eat my food and taste the cake. These girls messed with the wrong amigo. There’s something they’ll learn and eventually know. Don’t mess with the best the numbers don’t lie. Nearly 200 comments sent Av’s list bye-d-bye!

So, Covina, for those who don’t recognize it is the town where Harold Teen takes place. In the real world, it’s in California but I think the Harold Teen strip might have treated it like a suburb of Chicago. Anyway, Big Margie may have been doing her dirty work there before moving into the city.

I have no complaints about the art today. I think it’s excellent and Avenger09 should be happy to see that Sam’s toothpick is clearly visible in every frame that Sam appears in.

Another Canadian in the “Roll of Honor” today. Policing is a much more dangerous business than it really should be.

At first, I didn’t like the art. I thought it was well-drawn, but didn’t fit the strip. But either it’s gotten grittier or it’s grown on me; I like it now. It’s been terrific.

Is that a fly on Tracy’s nose??? LOL!

Sam’s new name is Freaky Freckles! He dropped one in the first panel and lost them all in the last! (Peter, I’ve lost my freckles! ) I know AN, it’s the distance, it’s the lights, etc.

Thanks to NG49 for fixing my poem. When you’re taking 10 minutes to think it up and type it on a cell phone while taking care of business while sitting on the loo things don’t always come out the way you’d like. Too much information? LOL!

I think I called it, what was it, Thursday: It’s all over but the chase! But someone else may have called it better. Don’t remember who it was, but they said they hoped that Big Margie didn’t vandalize the cemetery just to make it easy for Tracy to find her! (That does appear to be the case here)

I’m actually kind of sad. I was hoping the three Margies weren’t the bad guys, that they might stick around and provide some comic relief, not unlike Bob Oscar used to (before Sparkle became a sort of main character).

Last, and certainly least: I think I now know where Tracy’s “Li’l Abner” came from. From one of the “wiki” sites, I learned that Abner Kadaver had been the host for horror movies. (I suppose the Nitrates episode hinted as much, as well) From this particular arc, I learned that Svengoolie is alive and well, even if Jerry G. Bishop isn’t.

Around 2012, Rich Koz, the current Svengoolie, got a new coffin – the one he used previously was the same one used since Bishop had the role. For those who watch Svengoolie (which I now do), look at the engraved face on the new coffin! If that ain’t our beloved Li’l Abner, I don’t know what is!

Note Sam’s moving toothpick – on the right side of his mouth (our left) for three panels, then his left (our right) on the next-to-last-panel, and then gone (or much shorter) for the last panel :)

So Luann does stand-alone gags for their Sunday strips, so DT even beat them last Sunday and probably will this Sunday (already well ahead). We’ll see what happens on Monday…

So I wonder what the rent amount is for the costume shop – I assume it’s more than $1,500 per month or the Margies would have just paid rent for both last month and this month with the $3,000.

Come on, wasn’t this just a touch too easy?

Always good see Sam and Tracy working a case. Working the then and the now leads to a search warrant. We may get some time with the Margies now, as the warrant will take a little time to process and serve. Most stories find us spending more time with the crooks than the MCU, so maybe we’ll get a little back story as the tension mounts. Having enough for a warrant is not the same as The End.

Thanks to Vista Bill, Neil Wick, 22ph, Gweedo, Night-Gaunt49, Willy Carlson007 (Welcome back! Good to see you on the board.), JPuzzleWhiz, ave.09 and Ray Toler for the kind words. Very much appreciated.

The question is what will the Margie’s do after Tracy and Sam search the place. They won’t find the disguise, but they’ll sure panic the Margies.

Don (Bagert) is going to take the count into the hundreds today! Eat your hearts out Anyface and Neil! Into the Clubhouse Turn, Bagert’s got a 3 length lead!

Meh-todology over at Frog Applause knows how to fix the blocked replies problem that several users are having with the new “Featured Comment.”

Anti-Semitic cowards like the 3 Margies can act tough with items like headstones that can’t fight back, but when Tracy & Sam confront them they’ll collapse like a poorly constructed home-made Iron Man suit.

What were the Margies doing for work prior to opening their business in Tracyville, I wonder …?

I believe either The Batman or The Shadow said criminals were a stupid and cowardly lot….seems Big Margie has the stupid part of that saying covered.

I don’t think Little Margie will be in trouble – she seems to have some sort of learning disability or something along that line…least that’s how she is coming across to me.

The end draws nigh! But I don’t think Big Margie is going down without a fight of some sort. Middle Margie brandished a gun during the robbery; if Big M. grabs it at the shop when Tracy and Sam show up with a search warrant, which she might at first hasty glance mistake for an arrest warrant (about her speed, I think!), there could be a shoot-out at the 3 Margies Costumes corral!

Wouldn’t it be ironic if Sam winged the anti-Semitic bigot and made the collar?!

Unless the cash was marked. I’ve got renters that pay in cash now. No reason to harass them. Maybe they are lucky with scratch tickets.

135 comments isn’t bad :)

Note: Big Margie said SHE was from Covina – that doesn’t mean all the cousins were.