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

The plot thickens….and moves right along….good work again.

Why is he called the Fifth? Fifth what?

Good morning everyone…

barticle35 said, “Why is he called the Fifth? Fifth what?”

Fifth Amendment… fifth generation of his family… fifth of liquor? I like his tie. If I were to have a “numbered” tie, I’d choose “1”!

Come on guys, just give me one little continuity error. Please. It would make me so happy.

I was reading about the original Flyface story today, and it said so many fans were grossed out by the character that a number of papers dropped the strip.

I hope the same thing doesn’t happen in 2011. ;-) (not likely)

That said, I’m thoroughly enjoying Slaton and Curtis’ work!!

Maybe his ancestral home is on the Firth of Fifth.

“Undercover career fighting terrorists…”

Boy howdy, the Department of Homeland Security will hire ANYONE, won’t they? ;D

That’s probably the most words used in one 3-panel Dick Tracy strip for a long time. I’m impressed!

I take it we’ll have a recap of the Fifth and Flyface’s pasts. All I could dig up was that they’re villains from about fifty years ago; Flyface was an attorney and the Fifth was a criminal.

Flight Suit - A day late, but awesome photo yesterday!

MMM - 2 days late, but I loved the Granary Collage. I’m thinking of printing it and turning it into a flip book. Now if only there were a Granary College. Hey, Iowa State, I’m lookin’ at you.

With all this attractive artwork and natural dialogue, I haven’t much to say other than “cool!” I kinda miss Mordred, though. But I’ll always have my memories. My horrible, horrible memories.

Hey Barticle 35 Maybe he”s named after his favorite amendment.

Flyface looks like some has-been sports announcer. I can’t put my finger on which one…….

Oh the horror, oh the humanity What we have here is a calamity It grieves me so to have to shout But I think this new team may not work out It’s an occurrence that leaves one numb In the third panel, just look at that thumb To think things were going so well Now there arises this awful smell The artwork was crisp, the story was tight Now we are treated to this abysmal sight My once soaring ardor has been dimmed By the sight of a nail improperly trimmed And were Tracy and Sam ever told that Indoors a gentleman always removes his hat You may say that I am splitting fine hairs But about this strip I really cares The strip is otherwise fine, that you can be sure But Tracy really needs to get a better manicure Don’t go hating me for what I speak For my tongue is firmly in cheek.

Thanks all, for your comments the other day. MMM, great collage. It would make a great pop-art poster. Flight Suit, nice find on the PoW.

MMM, That collage of the Granary was a brilliant idea.30 - panels of essentially the same thing. It captures Locher’s penchant both for stories bogged down with repetition and for drawing the same buildings (from the same angle) nearly every day.

An enlarged version, placed on tne Naperville River would be company for his Dick Tracy stature and a reminder of his artistic presentations for the Dick Tracy comic strip

And a quiet message, a promise of hope - that better will come.

Now note the link below showing (not all), but 200 Chet Gould characters.. I understand that many (if alive) will make ‘brief’ returms during future stories . Occasionally some will have full returns like Flyface and Willie the 5th (1959) - who were believed to have died in a **tidal wave when trying to hide out in Hawaii. A panel was left with empty swiming trunks on the beach with circling flies. Hinting that they may have survived The 5th was so named for taking the 5th ammendment and Flyface was his unsantary legal expert who alwas had circling flys

http://mikelynchcartoons.blogspot.com/2009/06/200-characters-from-dick-tracy-1931.html

Good artwork.

Amazing how quickly this plot is advancing, and the art continues to impress…a huge improvement over what we had before. This strip is now in very good hands. One thing, though…is Flyface’s real name ‘Felix Weatherlimmp’ or ‘Felixweather Limmp’? I thought it was the latter, but could be wrong…

It’s amusing how EVERYONE was griping about the old Locher strip, and now that there is a new creative team, some people still want the “bad” work. Is this a sign of human nature only wanting misery? Or is it just natural for people to want to complain?

Correct names - Felixweather Limpp (1959) and

Willie the FIFTH MILLYUN (1959)

The latter tried to kill Lizz in the original story by having her tied in a chair on a rooftop and focusing the Sun through a giant magnifying glass on her. It in revenge for Lizz having killed his brother Halffa Millyun

We’re joking about wanting the bad stuff. (Anyone who really needs a reminder can check out

http://www.gocomics.com/dicklocher/2011/03/18/

and see what’s become of Police Hooters and the Nappingville Sign Company.)

I don’t miss it at all. The new artwork is splendid, the story is moving along, and I look forward to each new strip. It’s fun to wonder how this story will develop. And it’s still good to see Wonder Warthog’s poetry.

WW You haven’t lost it.

I was away for 4 days last week for medical and wasn’t able to check in on Tracy.

Who would ever think, that missing a couple days of Tracy, would mean, missing a LOT!!!!

Well wwcameralab, Good question !

One could observe that Locher’s Tracy work was seductive in inducing reader MISERY and he also had a great talent for repetition

Perhaps induced and absorbed enough times it becomes part of you, and mesmerized, readers get a daily FIX enjoying the collective rythmn and kicking the old CAN ‘down the road’.

Particularly if Locher kept on playing the “same music” -. And he did !

And I guess, if you’ve been an addict, - it’s hard to ‘wake up’ one morning, and take it cold turkey !

is that device on fly-face’s chest shooting out bug spray?

in the early days of their association it was fly-face who advised millyuns to take the fifth and he had to do it so often the moniker stuck.

Okay. I’ve seen enough of the Locher strips to have to raise this question: what is happening on the right side of the third panel? To my warped mind, it almost looks like someone is holding a cardboard cutout of Spacy. Please answer my stupid question and I’ll go away quietly.

Wow! The artwork is the way it used to be years ago! Looks great! Exactly when did it change over? Also, it will be wonderful not having a storyline that takes months and months to develop. Looking forward to a good year!

Hey gang. Relative newbie to GoComics, but lifelong Dick Tracy fan. Somehow I missed the Pig on Wheels panel. Can someone share a link to that historic strip? Thanks.

To quote the 5th Dimension “Does anybody really know what time it is?” Dick and Sam are wearing hats, so we must be in the 1950’s. But terrorism is so 21st Century. Which 50-year-offset are we to assume ? ? ? ?

The hat is a “Trademark” for Tracy.

That would have been like us asking Minnie Pearl to remove the price tags from her hat!!!

Bob Hope to get rid of the golf club in his act.

I don’t look at the strip as today’s world.

I see it as a mix of the early days of Dick Tracy with today’s technology added in.

The strip isn’t supposed to reflect a real city and real people.

It is a place to escape each day from our screwed up world and enjoy a classic crime fighter.

Old Tracy to answer your question, it’s Tracy’s shadow. Got to used to the bad artist did ya? I’m saying shadow not silhouette since its drawn with gray scale lines, a silhouette would be solid black. Notice the well drawn thumb inside the dark area also showing shadow lines.

clevitekid said, To quote the 5th Dimension “Does anybody really know what time it is?”

That wasn’ the 5th Dimension (though they might have done a cover); it was Chicago, on their first album, when they were known as The Chicago Transit Authority (they changed the band’s name to Chicago when the real CTA threatened to sue).

When I looked at today’s strip, it was in black and white.

I just refreshed my screen to seen any new comments,

and the strip is now in color!!!!!

Wow!

Color too?

Color! Oh my stars and garters Color!

I’ve got back into DT a while back, and I used to just wait until Sunday’s and read the whole week. Now I check it every day. The new team is AMAZING! A story that is actually moving along, oustanding artwork, and old fimilar friend’s ( and enemies ) resurfacing already, WOW!

I’ve never signed up for ANY kinda of message board before. But, I just had to comment on how The New Guys got me excited about a strip I’ve loved for years. I never commented on the Lochner period ‘cause ma always said ” If you don’t have anything nice to say…” Well you know..

KUDOS!!! To Joe and Mike, Keep up the Good Work

And now Color. I LIKE IT!

The new Dick Tracy looks good.

Oh, my gosh. This is a thing of beauty.

the color is dreadful, and doesn’t match the more subtle shades of the sundays, they are by the strips official colorist. correct my if i am wrong. also, the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s had probably gould’s best drawing. his silhouettes, usually highlighted just on the very profile were his trademark of that era. these guys are doing a great retro-ish job! keep it up, and get ridda the color dailies! at lease my email version comes I lovely b&w!