Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 06, 2021

Good morning™, summoners!

So, Stephan Bellum called Dick Tracy? Who expected that? I sure didn’t see that coming.

Little do they know that Peggy is anything but safe at this moment.

Good morning™, first responders !

They called the police but got even better in the personage of Dick and Sam. Peggy has a much better chance now, if Aquarius can stall Oscar a few more minutes, or less if the freight elevator is handy; no stops just a direct flight to the fight.

I have a lot to say but I don’t want to upset JD, or whomever he really is, and I do have my suspicions!

Now if this story was plotted by Gould, Act II would be wrapping up, the “Big Bad” would become clear to everyone, and would (for the moment) elude Tracy and set up a last-ditch scheme to try again to do what Tracy had just foiled. Gould used a flexible three-act structure often enough, and I usually enjoy Mike/Joe’s extended stories . more than the one-act ones. Is this one going three-act of wrapping up with act II? Or could it spin out Pouch and Tiger Lily v Aquarius?

Hotel security guard: “Man, you guys are fast!”

Tracy: [Taking all the credit] “Yes, yes we are. NO ONE’s ever going to call us ‘half-fast’.”

I’m wondering if Alex is still going to be alive when the cops get there.

Closing in.

“Uncle Bellum” just doesn’t have quite the same ring as “Auntie Bellum” does it?

So…..wake me when it is over!

Everything that has happened since March 22nd has happened on the same day.

Gosh. It’s nice to see Tracy again. I was beginning to think this was all going to play out without him!

Tracy gets tagged in for the UpperCut!!!

1-MR. BIGG: I pumped Peggy for info on Narky’s whereabouts, Tracy, but the cagey old broad wouldn’t spill, see. Yeah, see, yeah.

DT: You’re useless as a snitch. Sam, get word out on the street that this guy works for us. MR. BIGG: NO, TRACY, NO!

2-DT: Hey you…you work here? HOTEL MANAGER: What was your first clue, copper, my HOTEL MANAGER’S BADGE???

DT: Giving me lip eh? Maybe I’ll fatten it for ya. Which way is the top-floor suite that Peggy Bellum’s in?

3-HOTEL MANAGER: It’s up that way. See where I’m pointing?

DT: Ok, that’s more like it. Let’s go Sam.

SAM: I haven’t got my steps in today. Let’s take the stairs.

DT: OK but you might have to carry me after the second flight…

Why do I have the feeling that tomorrow’s strip will feature Pouch back in the park hawking balloons?

If Gould was plotting this epic, it would have been over a month ago.

Who put you in charge Pickle Nose?

Top floor….executive suite….walls must be paper thin. Oh yeah the occupants in the room to the left of Auntie Bellum asked hotel staff to call the police because the noise next was ruining their candle light dinner. The occupants in the room to the right asked for the police to be called because their romantic rendezvous got interrupted by the shattered china ware and silverware. Really killed the mood…no tryst….no sweating up the sheets. Somebody is going to be sued for emotion distress.

“Security? We’re here to see a guest”… Maybe it’s just me but that looks like an envelope in Tracy’s hand. What kind of hotel is this where you have to get an invitation to see someone? Couldn’t Mr. Bellum just vouched for them? Then maybe he does not own this piece of real estate. So the staff would not know him from a can of paint.

Mr. Bellum….unseen thought bubble…I’ve done all I could for that boy…so I’m turning him in. Of course Mr. Bellum does not know his son is in the executive suite.

Some nice shots of Tracy looking very Tracy-ish in today’s sequential art. And, serendipitous as Tracy’s presence may be, Security Guy is I hope steering him to an express private elevator to the top of the Pierview with its Executive Suites, where the din and ruckus of falling room service cart and place settings and screams and cries of mortal hand-to-hand combat will surely have been noticed by any Uptight Hippie-Hater or other uppercrust guest in the vicinity.

Will Tracy and sidekick Sam arrive in time to break up the fight before the fighters break up one or the other of themselves? Will Peggy and Kelly survive it all?

Yes, I think, Auntie and Cheesecake will survive. But in the battle of the baddies, either Oscar or Aquarius might end up a casualty, dead fish dead.

Last thought for the day: more than ever, I see this fine, extended tale as the Saga of a Dysfunctional Family….

Who’s this guy in the yellow hat and coat. looks familiar… but I can’t quite place him. Oh well probably not important.