Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 28, 2021

Industrial Park far from a lark when money men get greedy

Raze, bulldoze, and clear the lots. No nickels for the needy.

Leverage used harshly abused. Aquarius small time

Illicit powder up the nose a penny-ante crime.

Mister Bellum will have his way, for money tends to swear

Get in the way of his payday. Obstruct him if you dare.

Those who would impede his path may wake up underground

Bellum buries bodies deep. The dead don’t make a sound.

Yet another moving part! Can’t say this plot lacks complexity.

That’s likely the client of Pouch.

Good morning™, plotters and schemers!

So, Mr. Bellum here is the father of Alex/Aquarius unless he and Peggy have other siblings. He’s looking to tear down the house and replace it with an industrial park, which is a kind of cliché plot for “family” dramas, but it works as a plot device, so I guess that’s fine.

I’m surprised, actually, that it’s public knowledge that the police are looking for Tiger Lilly, but I suppose they could use the help of the public. I’m not clear on how this “leverage” business is supposed to work.

I bit more weird perspective with the positioning of the laptop computer in the last frame. If it’s sitting flat on the table as it is in the first frame of the second row, it shouldn’t be at that angle unless we are looking down on it and then we’d be looking down on Mr. Bellum and Oscar.

Good morning™, News flash !

Unbeknownst to him, Tiger Lilly is in the best place he can be right now, save for lack of food, water and lavatory facilities. Now, if there were someone who could get him to a country that doesn’t expedite.

I’ve probably watched (and loved) way too many Frank Capra movies, because now I’m really rooting for Tim Wildman to end up reconciling with Peggy once she sees what illegal business Alex has been up to right under her nose (pun intended!) Together, they will thwart Mr. Bellum’s development scheme and the mansion will become a non-profit communal space for artists, writers, philosophers, and the like…

”Maybe it’d stop you trying to be so desperate about making more money than you can ever use? You can’t take it with you, Mr. Kirby. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends.”

Mr. Pro Bellum? Mr. Post Bellum?

Well, it was a small internal combustion engine on a paint sprayer machine that did in Wormy’s wife, as we discussed when Ted Tellum made his appearance a couple of weeks ago. They were in a garage type building in the middle of a winter storm.

Excuse me, but how does the death of Dollar Bill translate into “We know why Alex hasn’t come forward,” or serve as leverage? The article may say Bill lived at the commune and is suspected of selling drugs, but the pompous suits on either side of the desk don’t have anything else that isn’t common knowledge from the newspaper article for those two conclusions/assumptions.

Have a great Sunday my friends. Worship at the church, synagogue, mosque, etc of your choice.

Seems like Mr. Bellum has a plan to get control of the property!!!

Not another ‘from left field’ Sunday! After all the build-up of the fake gas leak, I was looking forward to today’s strip. Instead, we got another “something completely different” strip like the one with Ted Tellum. I really don’t need another log thrown on the fire.

! WOW ! Great images again as usual , But I’m in the pit with Daisy on this change of events .

1-MR. BIGG BELLUM: YOU REMIND ME OF MY SON, AQUARIUS. WELL, THE SON I WANTED HIM TO BE. OBSEQUIOUS AND SUPPORTIVE OF EVERY THING I DO AND SAY. I’M GOING TO CALL YOU BIGG JUNIOR FROM NOW ON.

2-BIGG JR.: What an honor?

3-MR. BIGG: YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT IT IS. AND FROM NOW ON, I’M CALLING MY REAL SON “ERIC”. THAT MEANS “USELESS” IN VIKING. I LIKE TO THINK OF MYSELF AS A VIKING.

4-BIGG JR.: Shall I read you today’s news, ummm, Dad? I know how you hate to read.

5-MR. BIGG: NO TIME FOR THAT, JUNIOR! WE’VE GOT TO GET RID OF MY SISTER SO I CAN MOVE FORWARD WITH “BIGG BELLUM TOWERS”. AND BEFORE SHE WRITES ANOTHER “TELL ALL” BOOK ABOUT ME. GET MY LAWYERS ON IT!

JUNIOR: They’re all disbarred or in jail, Dad.

MR. BIGG: ARRGGG! YOU’RE AS USELESS AS ERIC. GET OUTTA HERE!

JUNIOR: Yes, Dad. Ummm Dad, my last paycheck bounced…

MR. BIGG: TRIVIALITIES! GET OUT!!!

Story’s too long, too short… No pleasing everyone all the time here, but I like the “mystery” factor that has creeped in with this one.

Yeah the “Mystery” is WTF is happening. Somebody thought Tolstoy’s War and Peace was long and unfathomable. We now have a new contender.

There seems to be a family resemblance between Aquarius and Mr. Bellum. Aquarius looks like his son.

Mr. Bellum, ehh? He’s a big, wide-bodied man and could easily be deserving of the appellation “Mr. Big” if we didn’t already have one or two of those running around Tracyville. . Oscar has the latest developments about the development machinations, and it emerges that Alex has made himself an obstacle to Dad’s grand plan and needs to be leveraged out of the way of “progress” and the new industrial park on the land presently (and for a long time) occupied by “The 1312” at 1312 Bedwell.

I, among others, was surprised that another tack in the storyline is today’s theme. But that’s okay, because it’s a fine juggling act that keeps all these plates spinning at once (to mix a metaphor or two). I still think, though, that some climax cannot be too far off….

There won’t be a sister Sarah Bellum, because it’s a Power Puffs character.