Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 12, 2021

Welcome to the library. Please stay and look around

There is a rogue’s gallery. Foul misfits do abound.

America’s Top Cop is he. He plays it by the book

His partner is Sam Catchem, so beware if you’re a crook.

Look to see crime history: An inkwell under glass

Tracy threw it at the Brow, a killer with no class.

Drove Summer Sisters off the road, thus in a car they drowned

The water rose above their heads. Their corpses soon were found.

Inkwell flew just past his head. Soon drawing his last breath

Tumbling out the window Brow impaled for gruesome death.

Look to see more history: The gun that Flattop used

Flintheart had it by mistake. Dick Tracy not amused.

Butterfingers Vitamin did drop the cursed gun

Upon the bar where it discharged. What happened next no fun.

The bartender did take a shot. He dropped upon the floor

Flintheart thought that he was dead and wept that never more

Would he be free to prowl the stage and serve the people ham

Tracy said, “The barkeep lives. I’ll free you from this jam.”

Welcome to the library. A collector’s paradise

Those who’d dare to lift a piece would be wise to think twice.

How did they get the hats?! Aren’t those Tracy’s own personal possessions??

I thought Flattop was brought down by getting snagged on a hook, and a rising tide.

Does anyone still think that the real, genuine, authentic Flattop is going to appear? So many of us were sure he would time travel to the present or Tracy would go back to him. I guess it ain’t gonna happen. Good! :-D

Sigh, what a waste of a Sunday.

Good morning™, everybody!

Tracy’s “Wall of Hats” dates back many years. It’s kept in the police station. Here are three appearances in recent years:

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/02/03

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2012/04/24

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2017/07/25

It opens tomorrow? Wouldn’t miss it for the world! Oh…I’m not in Tracy’s world…

Good morning™, exhibitioners !

Looks like the current case that has been so hot has been swept under the threadbare rug. Maybe Blackman will recover his Tracy artifacts in time to get them up along side the holey hats ?

Diet Smith proved that time travel is possible. He said he wouldn’t do it again. What if someone else develops time travel? Someone with deep pockets and a desire to find someone? Someone like Oliver Warbucks? He said he wanted Smith to find Annie’s real parents. I don’t think he’d give up so easily….

That’s a perfect drawing of Flattop. That’s how he should look, and in monochrome.

Tracy’s state is a communal property—they asked Tess, then did a little remodel in the station’s museum…

I would love to see an exhibit like this.

Flattop used a raygun? Also, the Brow was before my time. How did the inkwell get him?

1-HAT LADY: In tonight’s news, we reveal the latest on Dick Tracy’s abject failure to capture the Ace of Spades. Also tonight…

2-…The Justice Department – in light of Tracy’s most recent failure – is reopening the Flattop Jones case. They now believe the gun Jones supposedly had was a plant as evidenced by the “DT” initials carved into the wood grip.

3-…Dirty ice cubes at The Brow Bar & Grill are responsible for a mysterious illness that has sent dozens to the hospital.

4-…Tracyville mayor, Pearl McWhitehair, has launched an investigation into budget overruns linked to Dick Tracy’s trademark chapeau. Quote: “If Tracy didn’t wear a hat, the damn thing wouldn’t get shot-up or stomped and we wouldn’t have this ridiculous expense. Who wears hats these days anyway???”

5-…This and more coming up later in the program. Don’t touch that dial!

If Sam had a museum show, what would be in it? (Besides, half-completed crossword puzzles, copies of that comic strip he likes and bowties?)

Um…did that last panel did give anyone else a “Minit Mystery” vibe? LOL

Ummm…excuse me but, wasnt Tracy informed that Blackjack skipped prison? I get how the apparatus would take priority but don’t ya think that NEXT on his list would be finding Blackjack

So I’m guessing that in the case of the ace of spades, it’ll be just like Mr crime. We won’t find out for months who he really is.

Does it mean we will see Blackjack again? I recalled him escaped again to reclaim his stolen collection of Dick Tracy memorabilia.

Oo! “Replicas” of the guns…

ka-chester

My hero as a kid Flattop

That was his police hall trophy collection, Jab! I’ve seen it several times towards the creator-cartoonist’s final year! (Please set Ms. Wichell straight even in his character form!!)

Unless the chief (or higher like the mayor) authorized their removal and never told Tracy about it. This sort of thing seems to be common place in a workplace where upper management doesn’t inform subordinates of details like this from my experience

the inkwell that doomed The Brow? do tell?

Okay, if you guys are gonna rehash, let’s get it right…Flattop drowned after getting stuck below a pier. He was shot in the neck earlier, recovered, broke jail and died by drowning. The “inkwell” relative to the Brow was thrown at him by a lovestruck Gravel Gertie, knocked him out a window where he was impaled on a flagpole. I think Gould described it as being killed by the flag of the country he tried to harm.

I kind of like the idea…Dick Tracy relics…interesting.

Wendy Wichel must be choking on her, ah, brisket, having to do a “booster” story on Tracy! But, to her credit, she seems to have played it straight (we didn’t get to see the actual video, so we don’t know about her vocal inflections nor her facial expressions, but as much as we do see/hear, her report seems fair). That’s noteworthy.

Trivia for exhibit buffs: the replica guns. At the viewer’s right, Pat Patton"s (replica) gun appears to be a Colt Model 1911 (doesn’t look like a 1911A1, the later, modified version), caliber .45. Flattop’s (replica) gun is harder to identify, especially with what I take to be a suppressor (“silencer”). But it may be, given the ‘40s timeframe, a Walther model 4 (cal. .32), or at a stretch maybe a Russian Makarov, which was a popular pistol of the WWII era. I can’t really say; any experts have a guess?

Wendy looks just tickled to be doing this story… doesn’t she?

This story is going to be a doozy. Tracy and MCU get assigned to the Gould Museum. Especially when someone ripped off a few exhibit items.

I wonder what the admission prices will be and do they offer senior citizen discounts. Also, would AARP members get consideration? Opportunity for the public schools to have an ideal field trip, college students can write term papers on what they see and get credit.

After reporting this story,Wendy Wichel went out and had twelve double scotches.

The gun that brough Flattop down? I thought Flattop drowned to death when he got stuck under a peir trying to escape? (Or something like that).