Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 30, 2011

Well yeah, if some stranger holds a cell phone up to my ear, I’m not going to divulge my social security number.

Meanwhile, it’s great to see that Dick and Mord are in the planning phase of their gay porn movie endeavor.

I see Mordred has his Kenner Glow in the Dark Hood on today…

Oh sure, just leave us in suspence WW! ;-)

I do like the last panel, nicely drawn today.

Oh my widdle aching head Ahead on this strip I have read I’ll not tell you what’s to come Suffice to say it will leave you numb On the storm swept shores a granary stands Put there to meet farmer’s demands Above the flood plain it was built Though precariously now it begins to tilt The waves of the rising water do batter The foundation soon they will shatter Inside, the barbs do fly Between the dick and the other guy No love is lost in their exchange It’s difficult to tell who is more deranged Amazing, after all this time has flown Mordred’s motive is still unknown Was he abused as a child Or just someone running wild On the silver screen will he life be splashed Or are his hopes to be dashed Will Tracy glean the truth For he is a fabled sleuth Or will he drop the ball And engage in a fatal brawl Like I said, I’ve read ahead The rest is better left unsaid.

wndrwrthg is back and in excellent form!

I want to take a moment to go over todays strip, panel by panel.

Crimestoppers: That hand, that phone, this is all wrong. Is that man doing some sort of cool trick or is some disembodied hand putting that tiny phone to his ear? Panel 1: What deal? No one agreed to anything! Panel 2: The entire outside is flooded and yet the granary holds its ground? Panel 3: No law enforcement does not Tracy. YOU want to know. Im sure the readers wouldnt mind knowing either. Law enforcement could careless. Law enforcement would like to know why you havent checked in since common sense hasnt told them all communications are down. Law enforcement is probably still waiting on you to bring Mordred so they can finish this trial in the middle of a flood. One cant help but be impressed at their tenacity. Panel 4: Why is Mordreds face glowing like some sort of lamp? Panel 5: HES FREE! RUN FOR IT TRACY! Panel 6: HES TRYING TO BLIND YOU WITH HIS LAMP FACE! And since that obviously isnt working hes gone to Plan B! Offer fame and fortune! Panel 7: Man Tracy, you could use a nap. Even your witty remarks are lame. And you have some large bags under your eyes. Might want to just chain Mordred somewhere and go to another corner and rest. Wait, on second thought leave the chains alone. You messed with them once and hes already broken loose too many times for comfort.

Well at least the art and color is done better this week but I think this might be the worst arc Ive ever read.

A book…or a movie… or even better yet a Broadway musical!

And of course product licensing, for all the Mordred parties sure to come.

Or- and I’m stretching it here- could it even be a comic strip.

No, that’d never work…

well said, Wonder Warthog!

The Locher Mess Monster is equally pleased with its achievement. “There!” it crows as it spills more ink. “I just made Dick Tracy say ‘scumbag,’ and on a Sunday, too! Take that, Chet Gould!”

That’s right, don’t ever give out your personal information under ANY circumstances!

“I’m sorry, honey. I know I promised to love, honor, and cherish you,til death do we part, but you’re still not getting my mother’s maiden name. No! I don’t care that you haven’t thanked her for the waffle iron yet!!”

Mordred has taken today’s Slimegobbler’s Drekbook to heart. Or whatever.

He isn’t laughing at Thick any more. Has his sedative worn off or is he just as bored as the rest of us?

I know at the pace we’re going most people have probably forgotten….but Locher spent at least a week (if not two) setting up that Mordred had friends that were going to break him out so he could continue his murdering spree. It even seemed as if these friends caused four cars to get flat tires, caused a storm to turn the street into a lake, and enticed Tracy to try to jump said lake resulting in a crash. Are these friends inside the abandoned barn (off panel) forcing Tracy to untie Mordred? Or is Mordred a hypnotist?

CretinCat, Mordred’s friends got together with the people who had sworn to kill him and the drivers of the decoy cars. They’re now playing a marathon Scrabble game, which is being used to generate the dialog.

Does Mordred realize that Thick has agreed to his deal, and Mordred should now start talking?

Psychologists would no doubt love to have an insight into Mordred’s thought processes. And this part would make sense, if the FBI had first briefed Thick, and told him they’d set up the transfer because they thought Mordred would open up to him, and if a psychologist had told Thick which questions to ask.

Flight Suit said, “Well yeah, if some stranger holds a cell phone up to my ear, I’m not going to divulge my social security number.”

… especially a stranger with a cell phone glued to his fingertips

Why is it that whenever Thick faces the Locher/Brozman signature, he gets all judgemental?

Cell Phone Guy has obviously read ahead as well. Nothing else could produce that look of utter pain.

-MMM-

Personal note: If I ever want to know what a deranged killer thinks or what would motivate him, all I would have to do is ask my brother. Now, he’s never killed anybody (yet) but the thinking is all there for anybody who has the stomach to listen to it. So, my tolerance for this plot development is at an all-time low. Releasing him so he can spill his vile against humanity? Thanks, but I’ll take a pass on that. He stays chained (in fact, I want to be really sure he’s secure). I know, from reading ahead that this doesn’t happen, but in the real world this guy doesn’t walk free again.

I’m not sure about Locher/Brozman. What are they doing roaming around loose? Do their attendants know they’re out? Sorry, Bill, but it seems whenever I face the Locher-Brozman signature I get a bit judgmental too.

Forget about Mordred, readers would like to know what makes Locher tick. Fortunately, the clock has almost run out on him.

Spacy: “Inquiring minds want to know”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRaoHi_xcWk&feature=related

Locher’s latest scheme to get rich: He’s selling Mordred lamps. A little statue of his character Mordred with a light up head to cheer any room.

In order to drum up business, he will be featuring it in the Nationally Syndicated Comic “Dick Tracy.”

That light-up mask does explain how they’ve got light to see with.

The electricity would have been turned off some time ago, and even if not the storm would have shorted the power panels which are usually located on the ground floor. So, no electric lights on the second floor.

Problem, theologically: Giving a criminal a “halo” seems to be a really bad idea. Are we to assume that Locher thinks deranged killers are good? Maybe even holy? There’s a scary thought or two.

CretinCat said, about 8 hours ago

.. is Mordred a hypnotist?…

He’s Mandrake’s evil twin, and he wants the chains off so that he’s free to gesture hypnotically.

Meanwhile, once again, as Locher gestures soporifically…

This NY Times article from last October helps explain how Locher has got away with his inanities:

http://tinyurl.com/39v6uao

I hope the new team just does a clean reboot of this mess and starts all over again. Put Liz(z) back as detective, bring back Pat Patton as chief, restore Junior the way HE’S SUPPOSED TO LOOK and have the useless Lt. Teevo start a car and blow up.

If your eyes are set so close together there’s hardly room for your nose, and someone glues a phone to his fingertips and shoves it in your face, and the phone asks you for personal information – there must be some kind of funny business going on, because you are so conspicuous everyone in town knows who you are.

At least we know where the light is coming from. This must be one of the pairs of decoys, and the actor portraying Dr. Mordred is reading his lines inside that hood with a flashlight.

I wonder if all the decoy cars got sunk in flooded intersections (or the same intersection?) and all the decoy cops and prisoners took refuge in granaries (or different parts of the same granary)? We might find ourselves switching back and forth between decoys and the real Tracy & Mordred without warning. The pairs might encounter each other, too, if they’ve taken refuge in the same abandoned granary.

-Cougar :{)

TALK IS ACTION DELAY IS SUSPENSE STASIS IS EXCITEMENT

So how would one go about rebooting this mess? Have Tracy roll over and wake up, look in the mirror and realize hes about twenty years younger, Pat is still on the force and may or may not be his partner and that was all a horrible dream? Or was it a vision of the future? Tracy could spend a few seconds pondering that before the wrist gee-nee signals him and hes on his way to stop another criminal.

i guess locher thinks this is really clever repartee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0_bYHZrw9A

Is that Donny Most on that cell phone?

Ludwig, REBOOT is the thing to do! Re-boot it back to where Queenie’s big arse is plugging up the smokestack of a harbor tug! That way, none of this garbage ever existed!

The feminists have had their 15 minutes of fame running the PD, and Teevo has had his experience changing the ribbon on the dot matrix printer in the Telex Room. C’mon back, Pat Patton! Bring it on Diet Smith and BO!

Bill Thompson–thanks for the link to the NYT article. It explains a lot, including why I canceled my subscription to the Tribune a little after Zell’s Angels took over.

The good news is that no matter how dismally this arc ends, all the new guys have to do is have Tracy wake up and say, “Wow, what a strange dream that was!” If it worked for Dallas…

If someone gave me their SS# I wouldn’t know what to do with it–I guess I wouldn’t make a very good con man.

Anyone else notice, in panel 4, that the granary has grown! Compare size to strips: 1/23, 1/29 for examples. Maybe it can turn into a sports venue after Thick and Mordred have their denouement.

Bill, I just looked at your link. As you say, it does explain a lot. Locher fits right in with Tribune management thinking. If that’s not a frightening thought, it will do until the real thing comes along.

Since this is an old abandoned building, I am surprised it is holding up so well.

When you look at granary being hit by high winds and those raging waves of water, one would think the foundation would be giving out by now, bringing down the building.

Once Mordred gets free of his chains will he take off his mask?

Most excellent, wndrwrthg.