Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 23, 2020

So the movie’s title is “Left Breathless”? Did we see that before?

Good morning™, chasers!

No talking heads today, for a change, as Shaky shakes his way out the back door. This is a great action scene, as the story finally gets into gear.

It looks like there actually are some crew members on set, even though we didn’t see them yesterday.

Don’t do it Sam – you can’t shoot a fleeing felon unless he is about to use deadly physical force against you…

Way to go Joe and Shelley!

Ray Toler blowed up real good about 4 hours ago

Ask Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam. Looney Tunes has taken away their guns but still lets them blow each other up with dynamite.

“Mav’rick !  Fetch the dah-nee-maht !!!”

Good morning™, shakers and chasers !

More lameness to follow but the graphing is real good today. Too bad we wont get to see Sam fire but will only get a “ka-pow” from off camera.

The bright lights are on now and the crew is suddenly much in evidence as Tracy races (easy there, old guy!) after the fleeing Shaky Mk.2; Sam in support is drawing his piece and looks ready for a fight. Lizz remains off-panel. Mayhem on the set! Has some anxious crew member hustled “Breathless” off to some safe place?

The big action-panel looks great! But how did Shaky get such a big headstart (he seems already so very far away)?

Good old Tracy…still hasn’t learned after all these decades of crime fighting, to have enough bodies around to intercept a runner.

I’m surprised he can shake a leg so well…

Wonderful strip, today!

“Should we shoot him now, or wait till we get home?” “Shoot him now! Shoot him now, Sam!”

That light next to Tracy’s head, is it giving us the finger?

What’s the t-shirt say in the guy in the background wearing the blue cap?

CUT! Here we go. The chase is on! I think them chickens are comin’ home to roost now.

Poor planing on Dick’s part. Should have had a swat team at the rear exit.

All this, for “harassment”? I’m surprised the Powers Above didn’t edit out Sam’s gun.

we now add flight, and resisting arrest to the charge sheet. next week tracy will be on TV complaining about liberal judges letting criminals out

He can really shake a leg when he needs to.

Sam is pulling out his gun in that room?!? For a black eye?!?

Cue the surf music and the sound effects cards…

DT: What? Wait…I mean, I KNEW HE’D RUN!

SAM: Good thing they haven’t defunded the police yet. I gotta full clip.

DOLL: That’s got nothing to do with the Defund The Police movement. Here, let me explain it…

DT: Do it later. I think he just said “You’ll never take me alive!”

SAM: Huh? OH YEAH, I heard it too! (wink wink, nudge nudge)

Shaky bolts! He tries running like the wind while making wind! Suddenly, his desperate flight from justice comes to a sudden and unexpected end!

His pants have fallen down around his ankles! Ironically, he wasn’t wearing a belt because it didn’t have a buckle! If only he had used his prized treasure to hold his britches up, he would could have escaped this cruel fate. On the other hand, he’s thankful that he had the comely and delectable Edison shoplift some underwear for him, although he would have preferred something other than SpongeBob Squarepants boxers.

Tracy, Sam, and the spare chick cuff hapless Shaky. As per his custom, Tracy stands over his captured prey and recites the mantra burned into his mind and soul by his mentor, Sgt. Joe Friday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7COcohB9n3w

And suddenly all is well in the pleasant, otherwise law abiding hamlet of Tracyville, until those blasted kids start playing stickball in the street. Tracy knows that it’s the Dead End for those Kids, especially the yappy one that looks like a junior J. Edgar Hoover without a dress.

Tracy radios for a car to take Shaky to the hoosegow. A car swiftly materializes and the officer starts the booking process.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InLP1ZfW8Gs

Shaky starts wondering how bad a new career as a life insurance salesman could possibly be.

And so it goes, by gar, by gar…

That one crew member has his hands full trying to prevent the light from falling over. That, and the script papers flying out of the young woman’s hands, are nice touches in the art.

I do hope they take Shaky alive or they will never get the belt buckle back. Unless Shaky has sold or pawned it already.

Interesting panel today. Talk about lights, camera, action. More than the movie crew bargained on. Sam is shown taking his gun out of the holster….can a shoot-out be unfolding?

Well, there goes the “this is all part of the movie” theory.

The lamp on the left projects a shadow onto a wall or other surface of someone giving the finger. It’s The Bird-Signal!

For a fellow with the shakes and not wearing reeboks or nikee’s , that fellow knows how to skidaddle with the quickness. Wonder if Shaky ran track in high school.

They do this all the time on cop shows. Instead of covering escape routes, they call to the perp from far away so they can have a cool chase scene!

What’s the crime again??

Between the pose Shaky is in, and the shaky lines surrounding him, I get the impression that he’s a cardboard cutout who is tilting back and forth to move around, and that makes me giggle!

Off topic – anybody else fed up with that stupid survey GoComics forces you to respond to and send a response for over and over again?

This drawing is brilliant—carrying so much of what is going on and with active figures of various sizes. I don’t know of anyone who has drawn an action strip better.