Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for April 22, 2021

The lack of trust is disheartening.

*You see Sonny, it’s not business, it’s personal!"

Ah, there’s an out here. He said, “the cancellation of our contract.” Which says nothing about any other contracts. As I said yesterday, there’s also the contract with dearly departed Stiletta.

Will this mean that, in the future, the Apparatus will try to kill Abner for defying their wishes, thus having Abner then come after them ?

Good morning™, job cuts !

Will they have him followed while he does their job and then to be snuffed shortly after ?  At least Ab will have funds enough to keep the phone on and the one 40 watt bulb going.

Have they tapped into a line for power and phone or do they actually pay bills and what name would that all be listed under ?

He’ll just go after Dick Tracy as a hobby. After hours.

What kind of capo is Ace if he instructs Abner to do something but doesn’t also explicitly promise him what kind of painful consequence there will be for disobeying?

Does the Apparatus now start their workday with an office pep talk and group cheer? Have they hired a “visualization coach” to help them set achievable personal goals to become “the best versions of themselves”? Is there a friggin’ “Hang in there!” kitten poster next to the espresso machine??

I thought Riki’s outfit was supposed to be purple. But back on the 20th and again today the colorist has made it a goldenrod color

Good morning™, fellow readers!

Honouring his contract to kill Dick Tracy is like an addition with Abner. Even if he doesn’t seek out Tracy, it will take a lot of his willpower to resist killing Tracy if the situation happens to present itself.

Sounds like they may put out a contract on Abner.

He would do well to look up what happened to Dutch Schultz when he refused to follow the dictates of the “organization”.

One: More talking heads.

Two: That Abner is told to back off of Tracy – which no one expects him to do – might set off a war between the Apparatus and Abner, that might be the crux of the story coming up.

My, how disappointed Li’l Abner is to be told to leave Tracy alone.

Of course, if Abner (whom Tracy thinks is dead) were to go rogue and kill Tracy anyway, would there be any way to trace it back to the Apparatus?

Of course, Abner never has been all that effective against Tracy…

Faceless: “Ok, so, what next?”

Ace of Spades: “Find two more people for a rubber.”

Waiting to see what develops! Wonder where the theater will fit in?!

Do I smell “plausible deniability” here?

Rikki’s looking like a character from the Rocky Horror Picture Show in p2, and it doesn’t match the outfit Abner gave her when he first rescued her.

“Do you think he’ll abide by our decision?”

“Regrettably, no. A lot of readers have already noted the inconsistencies and contradictions in what we’re saying. But if we’re lucky we’ll get one hit out of him, and then he’ll run off to kill Tracy again before we have to pay for the killing he did for us… Unless he comes back from the grave again wanting payment.”

The Ace of Spades cancels the contract on Tracy, which Kadaver reluctantly accepts. Still, the Apparatus does have work for him. Who needs to be taken out? While we know a hit on Tracy never quite succeeds (hence, the name of this strip), others have no such guarantee. People will talk when conducting business. A criminal who heads the Apparatus has need of anonymity. Thus he is wise to keep his face covered where prying eyes (or a hidden camera) may gaze. I like where this is headed. Rikki seems dubious.

! WOW ! Is todays images great or what ? The center frame is out of this world . He has depicted the lady so sexy yet beautiful it is hard to believe . Her eyes and her lips , plus the images in the last frame leave us guessing what is going to happen next . Too , Bad that they are smokers , for sure . Because it looks like the whole room is full of smoke , I think ? Plus her hat in the center frame makes it perfect , actually the whole outfit is wonderful .

1-ABBY: Hang on a sec, Aces…why’d you turn off the lights, Rikki? I can’t see sh** in here!!!

2-RIKKI TIKKI TAVI: Yeah, that’s why I did it. Your combination BB Eyes / Sam outfit design is too hard to look at in the light.

ABBY: INGRATE. ANYWAY ACES, in case you didn’t catch my drift a second ago, that’s a big NOOOO to your Key Party. CLICK

3-ACES WILD: That was hurtful.

LIL QUEENIE: My left lung just crawled out my mouth and is trying to make it to the window…

ACES: Must be a genetic condition. Now, who else do we know that’s worthy of an invite…? LIL: Dick Tracy? ACES: Yeah, I could see him getting MY key… LIL: NOT what I was thinking…

….Nah, he won’t just walk away from this…..ya can’t keep a good Kadaver down……….

I’m sensing from that cloud cover that these folks will one day pass from lung cancer…….

If Abner’s not careful the Apparatus will give him a bad review on Yelp.

Abner sounds disappointed. Probably had elaborate and not so elaborate plans to snuff Tracy….now all of that is off the table.

When the Ace of Spades says regretably no, he is aware that money is not what motivates Abner.

Who does not concur with the Ace of Spades?! We all just know that Abner is only granting his concession pro forma and that he will in fact do his best to off Tracy (and will fail again). In the process, he may also botch his new assignment….