Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 27, 2021

Good morning™, treasure hunters!

For anyone who doesn’t know, people have been hunting for treasure on Oak Island, off the coast of Nova Scotia, since 1795. Six men have died while digging. The History Channel show, The Curse of Oak Island, has already aired 138 episodes over eight seasons and it seems likely that another season will begin in November.

“Theories about artifacts present on the island range from pirate treasure to Shakespearean manuscripts to possibly the Holy Grail or the Ark of the Covenant, with the Grail and the Ark having been buried there by the Knights Templar.” More here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak_Island_mystery

And RUIN their show? I don’t think they’d thank you.

I wonder how this will lead to the next caper?

Diet wants to get a part of the treasures. A 50/50 share?

I don’t know, that drone and what it can do, it seems to me that it will bring more problems than good things!

Bob and Doug McKenzie? Beauty.

~ Good morning™, treasure revealers !

Perfect National Enquirer fodder. Only middle age suburban housewives will actually believe the story is true while the rest of the ‘sane’ world will dismiss it as fantastical ramblings. The brothers have nothing to worry about.

If he’s talking about Oak Island, where pirate treasure is believed to be buried, good luck with that.

I think the time drone will reveal things they really should not know about, things better left unearthed!

Could find that Nazi train full of gold…..

Zzz….

Nice shout-out to the Time Tunnel in the first panel.

For those who don’t follow the show The Curse of Oak Island, Rick and Marty Lagina have been looking for treasure on Oak Island, Nova Scotia for over a decade, and what they’ve found is evidence of some sort of significant undertaking (stone roads, wharfs, pine tar kilns, etc.), probably by the French or British Navy, between the late 17th and mid 18th centuries.

It’s an interesting show, but you have to kind of just roll your eyes when they get a little more… fanciful, shall we say, in some of their speculations (they found a iron artifact that some were saying looked like the top of a type of a Roman spear, but when they took it to their blacksmithing expert he concluded it was a cribbing spike).

The brothers have no interest in finding anything. They’re enjoying making their television program… The little voice in the back of their minds is telling them it will be a bigger anti-climax than Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vaults when they find nothing after 23 seasons of wild speculation.

Ahhh, the drone can travel into the future? Imagine the killing Diet could make on betting the World Series or Kentucky Derby (not to mention Wall Street).

I noticed that the left panel, shows something reminisce of the old ‘time tunnel’ show. Very sly ;).

Meh!!!

I could show them exactly where to dig. That is, once they cut me in on a piece of the action…

I would think a government agency would step in at this point and impose its own restrictions.

Maybe the Drone can get Ex President Trump back in office .

Is the image in frame 1 a tribute to the old TV series “Time Tunnel”?

Am I the only one who is interested in the art work that Diet mentions? If that were true, then he’s already sent the drone back enough times to get noticed/spotted and recorded in the media of the time…

Hmmm… Maybe if you started showing the various hoaxes fooling the gullible were frauds it would encourage people to use their brains and accepts facts rather than… Nah. They’d insist the videos were all fakes from the Jewish Communist Banker Illuminati Templar conspiracy rather than garbage posted by Russian hackers.

Yep, got the Oak Island reference right off, but then I pick up a lot of obscure information. Don’t get me started on cryptids and seven secret spices.

I’d say you have a better chance of finding Jean Lafitte’s treasure here in Galveston.

Wow, so his design of the drone is based on images of strange objects in historical paintings? Reminds me of Sheldon and Leonard agreeing that if either of them invented time travel they would appear at the apartment at that moment, then becoming sad when no one shows up.

1-DOIT: BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH…

2-DT: Yeah, interesting but what I really wanna know is – was Susie Jenkins hot for me in High School and did I miss my chance to put the “first notch in my gun” with her?

3-DOIT: Hmmm. Fascinating. Let’s make that our first test in how history might be changed for the better. IF she was “hot for you” as you put it, I could get a note to you with the Time Drone and we’d see history changed right before our eyes!

DT: Probably not. I was afraid of girls then now that I think about it. Also, I liked being envied by all the guys in school for not being caught-up in the infamous Crab Outbreak Of ‘36

DOIT: I’m gonna try it anyway. Especially since watching you scratch your crotch like mad will be proof positive of the Time Drone’s ability to change history!!!

I am really enjoying this story arc. Looking forward to how it continues to develop

“Or we could break history in half over our knee, blast one of these babies through Teen Hitler’s skull and really whack out the timeline.”

Think of the possibilities. Jimmy Hoffa. Amelia Earhart. The Lindbergh baby.

From today’s Comics Curmudgeon:

I was going to complain about this, but you know what? It’s fine, actually. The list of terrible things an amoral scientist who works hand-in-glove with America’s least-restrained police force could be using chrono-viewing technology for is frankly terrifying, so I think the fact that his very first thought seems to be that his time drone can serve as a glorified metal detector is a good sign, all things considered.

Diet’s “reasoning” in panel one is so circular, it’s making my head spin. He sent his drone back enough times so that the people of the past started noticing it, and including it in their art. He knows this because he looked at examples of their art and saw the depictions of his drone. Except that the art, with the “UFO” depictions, existed before Diet even thought about his time drone.

If we follow the paradigm set forth in the “Back to the Future” movies, Diet should be sitting there with a piece of art from, say the 1600s that does not have any UFOs in it. He sends his drone back in time to that particular artist’s studio, on the day the artist is putting the finishing touches on his painting. The artist sees the done, is inspired to include it in the painting, and then Diet and Tracy look at their present day copy of the painting, and the drone thing is in there, where it wasn’t before. However, that would mean the drone is not just passively observing, it is effecting change, which, as Doc reminds us over and over, is messing with the space – time continuum and must be avoided at all costs! Unless you have a personal interest in the outcome, and then, as Doc said “I figured, what the h—-!”

I’m thinking of the humorous side.The Time Drone gets caught on a building ledge or in atree like “Charlie Brown’s Kite”,and the only way you can get it back is manually.

2.)Also,in the old days Diet ’s smaller inventions were powered by lithium batteries.And modernscience has proven them to be um…..“erratic”.

TO DMITROI

Once again,I ask that I be unblocked.I see many minor characters that I can expand on WIKI/FANDOM,and my only “crime” is to provide accurate information to Tracy fans.

Be with us on Sunday,when"The Mugg Family" takes on “The Tip Family”.

Let me get this straight: Diet wants to use his time drone to observe the hiding of a treasure, which may or may not exist, by unknown people (who may or may not exist) at an unknown time (which might have been never)? Lotsa luck, Diet…

At least in the weird sf mini-series Devs, the time viewers content themselves with more mundane views, sorta: the crucifixion of Christ (apparently did happen), and the wedding night of Marilyn Monroe and Arthur Miller.

Folks,it’s a cartoon. If you want reality, try Andy Capp. Jeez, you keep encouraging these guys

Don’t mess with the Time Line, Smith! Tracy has enough work in this reality and doesn’t need to have others dragged in by reckless Time Droning!

All those hours in the lab, all that money spent, and Diet Smith is going to test this drone by making its services available for treasure hunting.

Oh gosh… I feel a Treasure Island flashback coming on. Last time I read the book…it was pre Y2K.

If the brothers rip you Diet by taking the machine, you could go to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Just a thought, Tracy will not have any authority up there.

At least Tracy is not considering running by Chief Patton the idea of the police department purchasing one of these gadgets. Thank goodness for small favors.