Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 17, 2020

Brenda is setting the wheels of justice in motion!

The pieces fit together.

Good morning™, quick actors!

With that tip, Tracy is on the case. Can he prevent a second murder? We’ll see soon.

Good morning™, gravely concerned reporter friends !

I sure hope Tracy gets there in time or the sparkles will go out of Brenda’s hair.

For those who don’t follow the Facebook “Dick Tracy Fan Club,” I thought I’d let you know that the founder of that group, Bart Bush, recently passed away and Mike has promised a Sunday tribute to him soon, maybe tomorrow.

According to this article: https://tulsaworld.com/entertainment/books/bart-bush-fandom-pioneer-and-oklahomas-first-comic-shop-owner-dies/article_e70fc1c0-eeba-11ea-8de4-9f93baa0d97f.html Bart owned “possibly the largest collection of Dick Tracy art and related items in the world” and he was the first person open a comic book store in Oklahoma. He also organized comics conventions and printed fanzines.

Curious art. Tracy’s phone is an obvious land line, but where’s the cord? Brenda’s phone is an obvious handset with a nub antenna on it. Continuing with Tracy’s fuzzy setting in time, does anybody remember these things?

Even laptops and tablets and iPads have come to Tracy’s world, but these handsets?

Unlike the case of some politicians, no flies on our Brenda!

WOW ! Beautiful ladies today .

Gee theres a surprise…the guests do more detective work than the supposed star of the strip does…thank God brenda is in town otherwise Stokes would be giving Jack the ripper a run for his money by now….I wonder if this entitles her to a portion of Tracy’s salary

Who did Brenda tell, before she got around to telling Tracy? I mean, if she’s telling folks about the Vampire Murder, it’s all over town by now. Heck, the Vampire probably has heard by now. Why didn’t she just tell Tracy first?

Carl Kolchack would be proud of her.

Brenda has done all the work except for apprehending the perp. I guess Tracy still serves some purpose around here.. Get off your duff, detective, and save the young lady’s life!

A face-off between Sureshot Tracy and Stokes equipped with full Vampire Gear could be visually exciting, at least. But isn’t this arc supposed to last through Halloween? That’s two more weeks. Maybe there’s at least one more twist involved (oh, Sweet Charity)….

1-DT: Red, Tracy here. We got a complaint that you ordered an expensive Protect My Car policy and had it billed to Perfesser Stokes.

2-RED: Why do you think it was me? DT: Because it was FOR your car. Even I can figure that one out. Hang on a sec…

3-I CAN HEAR YOU TWITS ON THE PHONE. HANG UP NOW. This is official business! Sorry Red. The police station is on a party line now. Budget cuts. Speakin’ of which, I need you to drive to the station. My cruiser is out of gas or I’d come and arrest you.

RED: Is my policy still in effect? There’s a lot of traffic this time of day.

DT: I guess it…hey! I caught you “Red” handed. Ha Ha. Tracy Snap! RED: I hear you’re the one who’s red handed since I sold you those photos last night in the park. I knew that wasn’t Professor Strokes! RED SNAP!

“Hello, Brenda. This is investigative legend Dick Tracy. I hear that you have some information for me. I assume that it’s going to cost me a couple of bottles of cooking sherry?”

“What? No! I’ve never asked for anything other than being first on site for scoops! You may not be a Superman that feeds them dastardly Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen leads, but you’re all that I’ve got.”

“Right. Sorry, I mistook you for another of my Stoolies, Spongebob Guzzlepants. That guy comes up with some good stuff that he picks up in seedy, smoky bars, but he has to be careful to not go too near to open flames. You really should start hanging around in those places.”

“I like my teeth. You want the info or not?”

“Shoot. Not literally. Sometimes I forget who I’m talking to.”

“I think that the Vampire Killer’s next victim is Faith Hope.”

“Why?”

“NOSFERATU!”

“Gesundheit! Again, why?”

“Feminine intuition and an overall feeling of the heebee jeebees!”

“Good enough for me! On the way!”

And there it is, the pieces come together.

Joe got sloppy and forget to put a cord on Tracy’s handset – plain and simple. Besides, they’d have land-lines at HQ anyway. Brenda is clearly using an older cordless handset.

You know what would be cool? If Annie and Honeymoon teamed up with Twinkle St. John to solve this case out from under Dick and Brenda.

Since Tracy and Brenda both work in offices, the police department and the newspaper must have access to the latest technology. Probably not available in stores for the average consumer but wait until Christmas…different story(no pun intended) then.

Brenda has an important piece of information to pass along to Tracy so she goes back to her office, fixes herself a cup of coffee and THEN places the call. I don’t know about anyone else, but if I had information that could potentially prevent a murder I would probably use my cell phone the second I stepped outside the coffee shop…er…travel agency. Would it make a difference in the story? No, of course not, but it’s little things like this that bug me.

OK, I understand the eyes effect, but still it looks so bad. Maybe if it was done lighter or in a different colour?

Nothing to add. The comments total was stuck at 99 so just posting to crack the three digit mark. The jazman will like this anyway. Giggity giggity!