Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 22, 2011

It’s good to see Thick remain calm and collected in a crisis, especially after he caused the crisis. Are thse the same stairs they were climbing yesterday, or does this high-rise granary have more floors?

“Mm, yes, find him you will!” says Yoda. “But only when calm you remain will the Force respond! Otherwise the storm will you provoke to greater storminess!”

Ah yes, up the rickety stairs. Climbing into more danger, are we?

I’m sure you’ll find him if you stand around and talk about him long enough.

Even Horn Hair is appalled by Testicle Chin’s words. If he gets any calmer he won’t even notice the autopsy.

Amen, Gweedo.

I know this is a stretch But this reminds me of a sketch By Monty Python, that examined déjà vu But in this case it’s just so much poo They went up the stairs yesterday Now they again make their way I told you they got in the grain And now they’ve gone insane Or perhaps it’s Escher inspired But that’s to much to be desired Tracy’s goaded by a toad Soon he’s going to unload BillT may have it right A hanging may soon be in sight Meanwhile, warm and dry back at the station They take stock of the situation Considering they are still there In the world they haven’t a care It’s no secret as to why it takes so long They’ve been taking hits from a bong Climb the stairs, talk some more This is such an interminable boor Wrap it up and make it snappy That will certainly make us happy.

Thank you Gweedo, Nvash, BillT, marvee, woodworker318 and neolleon59. Another great installment BB6.

I once downloaded a videogame where you’re in a building that’s rapidly flooding, and to survive you have to figure out the fastest route to climb up through the various floors. This strip is like that game, only boring and slow.

And homoerotic.

If this gets any slower, it’ll stop. Well, the policeman at the intersection was holding a “stop” sign!

What really makes this funny is that Locher seems blissfully unaware of the sexual implications … or is he? Morbid gets closer every day to laughing out a full-bore “Hee Hee Hee!” (Consulting my copy of the Fat Freddy’s Cat “I Lived Nine Lives” adventure, the drug that changes sexual orientation is named “Hee Hee Hee.”)

“Oh you flighty sensitive Chief of Police woman you, don’t get all flustered and panicky.”

Hee Hee Hee will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no Hee Hee Hee.

Or something like that.

Where’s Norbert the Narc when you need him? ;D

Let me see if I get this straight.

Plainclothes ran twice a week and their story moved right along at a reasonable speed.

Dick Tracy runs every day and it takes a week to climb a flight of stairs.

OK, I think I’ve got it. As far as the speed of the tale told. Think of it, if the Tracy strip ran at the same pace that Plainclothes did no arc would last much longer than three weeks, many would finish in just over two weeks. Of course, Locher’s quality still leaves much to be desired but the lethargy could be cured if he thought about it a little.

I’m trying my best to keep from thinking that Tracy and the rest of the police in this thread have made every mistake possible and a couple that defy imagination, but I’m having bad luck at it. Some here try to make it political, saying it’s because of Locher’s political bent but I don’t think it’s political. I think Locher just hates the police. Reality check: Something bad happens in your neighborhood, who do you call? Whether you’re a super-liberal or almost a caveman conservative, chances are pretty good you’ll call the police. These days I hope it’s real police and not Locher’s version of them that show up if I call.

“Up these rickety stairs” Ain’t the dialogue NATURAL? Some time back it was: “creaky old door is unlocked” or something similar (too painful to go back and check).

Oh well, back to my meal. Pass that granular salt in the sparkling glass shaker with the dirty black fly perched on its rim ….

Ozzie, I wondered a bit about that myself. It’s an abandoned granary. So, the door is creaky and the stairs are rickety because nobody has maintained them— OK. Locher’s point in mentioning the condition of the building is???

Bill Thomas mentioned earlier that it was a wonder that the roof didn’t leak. That is, indeed, a wonder. Drive through a rural area and notice how many older buildings no longer have roofs to speak of, and many that do have roofs look as though they’ll fall in at any moment. Seriously, Thick and Mordred may be in more danger inside the granary than they would be out in the storm.

I’d be calm, too, Sam, if I’ve spent Dec 26th on, looking for the all weather gear!

You have to step out of headquarters in order to find Thick (giving us probably about 3 different views of the ever-morphing Police roof sign).

The Chinese Water Torture has nothing on Locher.

This strip is not only godawful, it’s annoying.

My theory is that TMS continues to live about 80 years in the past, when Dick Tracy was the #1 comic strip in the land. You know, the way that KFS does with Popeye, another horrendous but formerly popular strip that was absolutely ruined by that third-rate hack Sagendorf.

Alas, poor Plainclothes, I knew it well.

M. Mitchell Marmel, Norbert the Narc is busy running the decoy operation. And it’s a stunning success. Nobody but Thick knows where Mordred is, and even Thick doesn’t know where Thick is.

Michael McMillan, I doubt that Locher consciously hates the police. I think the problem is that he doesn’t know how to tell a story. He wants to get Mordred and Thick alone at the top of the granary, but he can’t think of a reasonable way to do it. So he cooks up a second-order idiot plot. The cockamamie transfer plan, which gets the two characters alone. The storm, which immobilizes any help. The power approach and sinking, so they have to get out of the car. It only works if all the charactersare idiots.

But I do wonder how the real police feel about the many times he’s shown police as incompetent or worse.

The happy ending for Thick and Morbid:

Red Meat comic

Only works if all the characters are idiots?-Must be humming along on all cylinders then

IT HAPPENED!!!!

Oh, wait. No it didn’t

VanDork, here’s the wikipedia entry for “idiot plot” and “second-order idiot plot.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idiot_plot

Great poem WW. I think you outdid yourself today.

By the way everybody, have I mentioned that, in my humble opinion, this story arc is dumb?

Does anybody know what happened to: Plainclothes site? Last monday I downloaded MCS058.gif to MCS060.gif and now there is no service.

BillThompson said, about 1 hour ago

“Michael McMillan, I doubt that Locher consciously hates the police. I think the problem is that he doesn’t know how to tell a story.”

That could also account for the constant repetition: it takes him two or three days to think up one day’s forward progress in the story line.

“Remain calm! All is well!” - Chip Diller

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDAmPIq29ro

Um … speaking of loudmouths …

-Cougar :{)

they went up the stairs yesterday; how long are those stairs?

“Calmer than you are.” - Walter Sobchak

I hope the new creative team introduces something that hasn’t been in this strip for a long time: ACTION!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9TGj2jrJk8

excellent again ww

the point about this story is that there is no story – there’s an outline of a story idea and plot but locher obviously has no idea where to go with it.

please find him dead

I have figured this whole story arc out. Tracy and the Chief are both being Punk’d. Ashton Kutcher is in the zombie suit and is wired to hear the Chief’s conversation. That’s how what he says so closely mirrors what’s being said back at Police HootersQuarters.

Wouldn’t the ground floor be the best place to stay dry in a rickety old building? Does he want to get closer to the leaks so he can dodge them?

wndrwrthg, another great one!

Really btmosley? You think Popeye is horrible? I mean, its nowhere near the quality that it was once upon a time but its not as bad as this either. I think the main problem is it just focuses on Popeye. Hes okay but wheres Castor? He added the much needed comedy to the strip whenever he showed up. It was the two of them together that made it good, not just Popeye.

doc1947g, the Plainclothes site had material by Curtis and Staton. From what ohers have said here, they took down the site as part of their deal with TMS to take over Dick Tracy. The site is supposed to return with news about their new role.

I hope the artwork on the Plainclothes site gets published somewhere.

billdi, I think Locher knows where he wants to go with the story. He just has no idea how to get there. He doesn’t even know how to put Thick in jeopardy. (One of the rules of writing is “Show, don’t tell.” Locher could have shown Mordred getting loose; shown Thick pursuing him. But that would require him to do something more demanding than endless, static close-ups of faces.)

My guess is that Locher wants to have Mordred hang. Okay, that’s a cool way to off the mouthy SOB. But the set-up is insultingly stupid. And it could have been done as an action story!

Dick Tracy could have been called to the scene of a murder. It’s gruesome and looks like the work of the elusive Dr. Mordred. Dick spots a clue that tells him Mordred is still around. (Mordred, let’s say, gets it off by watching the police examine a crime scene.) Dick locates Mordred’s hiding spot, which he reasons will be safe because the forecast says a huge storm is approaching. Dick flushes him out and the chase is on.

Dick is not alone, but Mordred is armed and shoots any cop with Dick. Meanwhile the storm of the century blows in as Dick chases Mordred into the countryside. Mordred enters the granary. Dick knows it’s a trap but he pursues Mordred. They shoot until they run out of bullets, while Mordred leads Dick upstairs. They fight hand to hand. Mordred has Dick on the floor and is about to strangle him with some rope from a hoist. Dick gets the other end of the rope around Mordred’s neck–

Creak, crunch, the building tilts and sways in the storm. Mordred slides away, crashes through a window and ends up hanging. And it took me longer to type that than to think of it.

Now that is how Chet would have done it, BillT.

Gweedo, Plainclothes was waaaay good! It fits in with what I remember of the 60’s era cartoons.

The Doctor is right, Tracy’s gonna die. At the rate this strip is moving, of old age… and before the story gets resolved.

With the “rickety” stairs and the rising flood, my guess is the building will collapse. Tracy will end up clinging to debris, while Mordred’s chains drag him to the depths.

Saucy1121, that makes as much sense as any other guess. Locher may even recall that when he introduced Mordred, he made a Camelot reference; Mordred might fall on a metal spike “and ironically, he died with a sword through his stony heart.”

Thank you, brownceb and Gweedo Murray. Of course doing an outline is the easy part … but Locher would have done a lot better to try it himself.