Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for March 08, 2020

Conniving for a payout, low Shaky has a scheme

Extract a payment to keep still. Of cash flow he does dream.

Arrives with gun to take and run, yet whom might he discover

The Great Detective armed and calm, thus Shaky must recover

From his wound. A bullet hits! Struck in his left arm

Shot a round himself. Ye Gads! To Tess he’s done grave harm.

She falls and bleeds. The world recedes. Is this the end of Tess?

All we know is blood does flow. The rest we’re left to guess.

Good morning™, all!

A bit of a shaky takedown of Shaky. It’s hard to say whether Shaky was hit, but it does look like Tess took a bullet. Not good!

*OH NO! Tess has been hit!! :-(

At last! A twist to make it interesting!

Will they “go all the way” – and write Tess out of the strip?

Good morning™, gravely damaged targets !

I may rot in jail but I will be a hero among the other inmates.

It’s a dangerous business. ✨

Will Tess depart

After being shot

I doubt she will

But it sends a chill

Down my spine

To think this time

The boys took a chance

And wrote a story enhanced

With some meat on the bone

Guess I’ll leave them alone

Shaky shakes so much his aim might have been off when he hit Tess!

Kind of slow reaction there, Dick.

Wait, what? Don’t tell me it’s another hastliy ending “story”.

Wow! Tess REALLY doesn’t like loud noises!

Shaky, NOOOOO!!! and Tess too.

Now that was unexpected! But then Shakey was a few fries short of a happy meal. I mean pulling a gun on Tracy? Trying to shake down another Tracy?

Wow, many questions to come about today’s action? Is shaky wounded or dead? Is Tess badly wounded or dead? If they’re alive how bad are they and what about Edison has she heard the shots? A lot for tomorrow!!!

Ohhh… I didn’t see this turning out like this.

Let’s all count now the number of charges Shakey has brought on himself by puling a gun (probably unregistered, and, him without the necessary licenses,) firing at a police officer in the performance of his duties, trying to escape a (presumably,) legal arrest, and, injuring Tess in the commission of all the previous offenses on top of it. I hope Shaky v2 knows a good lawyer in Tracyville, because it sounds to me that once the State’s Attorney reads al Tess’ statement, and, the report Johnny Adonis makes, all the recordings, AND, Tracy’s reports, all the trial lawyers in the office will be clamoring to take this case because it appears to be a slam dunk.

Ok now, if Tracy can’t maintain control of a scene better than that he needs to retire before someone (else) gets shot. You subdue and control your badguy and never, ever give him the courtesy of allowing him to shoot your wife.

‘Riffin Without A Script thankfully nears an end – you hope

1-JAY BOGART: If I remember correctly, I’m playing a big producer and you’re a talent agent with one client – Rock Hudson. HEY!

2-DICK TRACY AS HIMSELF: Scripts changed. You’re some kind of criminal now. JAY: WHAT? NO! That’s just weird. Hang on…

3-…Is that why costume made me strap up? I thought this was one of those cool gun lighters for my ciggies. See…

4-BLAM and BLAM. DTAH: I always let the criminal get off the first shot. It’s tough on the overcoats but it makes the inevitable Internal Affairs investigation go easier.

5-BLONDIE: HELLO? Anybody notice that I might’ve been shot? And that I might die if I think my dramatic death scene will get a good write up in the Trades? OOH. EVERYTHING IS GETTING DARK. Hold my hand Rock…one last time…

ROCK: Forget it. I done this scene this scene in Magnificent Obsession OOPS. SPOILER ALERT.

BLONDIE: Don’t worry about it. Nobody’s here. Ahem, THERE… A BRIGHT, BEAUTIFUL LIGHT…

So Dick and Tess BOTH have their guns drawn and pointed at Shaky, but even with the shakes, he reaches inside his coat and draws and fires before either one of them can react? Time to retire, Tracy.

Time for Edison to find a new lowlife boyfriend?

I hope she’s about to sneeze

News headlines:. “Tracy shoot Tracy; the comic strip author(s) is/are looking for a new and better storyteller(s)”

Aw, HECK no?!?! What a well-mannered villain!

Wait. Tracy, Tess, and I can’t remember his name all had their guns out, but waited until Shakey pull his gaff before they fired?

Damn, that SWEATBOX EXPRESS showed up a lot quicker than usual… not that it’s a BAD thing with this lame duck story

Something unexpected.

The situation is now ripe for some Gouldian melodrama. Will Tess live or die? It will be touch and go for a while. Her life will be hanging by a thread. Many characters (including Tracy himself) throughout the years have been in this exact tear-jerking situation. Gould used it often and effectively as did Collins. Effective each time because readers knew some lived and some died and even major players like Groovy Grove were not exempt from death. Tess herself has not been exempt from dire situations and death traps in the past.

During the touch and go, we cut back and forth between Tracy, the MCU and Junior all standing vigil at the hospital; Edison making her quick exit; Honeymoon worried and crying about Grandma; and we discover Shaky’s ultimate fate. This kills two birds with one stone by tying up loose ends while tugging our heartstrings. In true Gouldian grisly-humor-fashion, the coroner could ironically mention that that even after being killed, Shaky’s nerves still keep twitching like a frog’s leg in biology class.

Tess’ cling to life may eventually seem so hopeless and grievous as to require Tracy, with tears in his eyes, to kneel and pray as his last and only resort, like he did once for BO Plenty. Gould used to milk these situations for all they were worth. Why not? Cliffhangers make a strip exciting. Strong emotion in turn invests readers who, excitedly, can hardly wait for the next episode.

Tess’ fever will break and she will open her eyes, out of the woods, with the worst over, and she and Tracy will kiss in the final panel with all of their friends in the background smiling. Now that’s the way to end a story!

I know Shaky is a goon but I do like his pizza.

Why does his moustache lok stuck on?

There’s three guns at the ready, Tracy, Tess and her partner, and then Shaky draws from his holster? Maybe Tess is reacting to the sight of blood.

I looked up the Fredericton constables killed during shooting mentioned in the First Responders Roll of Honor. The RCMP is handling the case, the suspect is in custody, but no word yet on a trial. From what the various articles said, the shooter was a nut case and Islamophobe.

Looking at the strip several times, and the various bodily positions, it looks to me as if it was Tess’s gun (or perhaps her partner’s) firing in the penultimate frame. The angles look wrong for it to be Dick’s. On the other hand, it looks as if Shaky is between Dick and the glass door and windows out into the hallway, so if Dick had fired he could easily hit anyone unseen in the outer hall, which is something that (good) police training strongly advises against; you just don’t put innocent people at risk. So that could explain why Dick hesitated, if he did.

Turns out Edison is a vigilante who hooks up with budding criminals, then gets them involved in harebrained schemes that result in prison or death. Who will be next? Flattop IV?

Don’t sneeze, Tess!

Well, that’s unfortunate.

Tracy is present and confronts Shaky, would-be shakedown artist, gun drawn. Tess also has her pistol at the ready (I can’t be sure about Johnny, but would not be surprised). Shaky tries to bully his way and goes for his gun. Tracy fires, hits Shaky (kill-shot or not), who manages to squeeze off one wild round, which hits Tess!

Shaky is down, wounded at least and possibly dead (Tracy has a long history of leaving gangsters dead who dared challenge him in a square gunfight), but so apparently is Tess! What a rotten development this turned out to be!

Edison is a hex on her Bad Boyfriends, it seems. Who’s next? Or will she silently fade away from the Tracy strip, perhaps never to be seen again? —Or, will she take up arms herself and seek vengeance? Hmm?

Looks Shaky may have gotten his revenge (for his “uncle”) on Tracy by shooting his wife. Shaky was right, that was the way to get to Tracy.

Blam?

Maybe BADOW or BANG or BOOM or KAPOW were not contractually available.

Hate to change the subject,but if you look at this Sunday’s ZITS youll see they’ve been reading old DICK TRACY strips.R.I.P. Mary Steele.

All those posters complaining about the lack of action in this story will now have to eat their words,with liberal helpings of Colman’s English Mustard and Frank’s Red Hot.A shoot out in an office that isn’t that large means SOMEBODY is going to get hurt.And this is a bad guy who was boasting a few days ago about how nonviolent his methods were.Not th at we didn’t know it was horsebleep THEN.No,tess won’t be killed off.But I agree that we’re in for a hospital vigil.