Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 21, 2021

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Good morning™, everyone!

This is the same blonde with the ponytail that we saw in the lineup on Dec. 8, but the Mad Colorist made her hair brown that day.

It sounds like more arrests are coming, but first, the “catch of the day,” and I don’t think it’s fish! (Lizz is hard at work, despite the fact that readers have not seen her as often as they’d like.)

What a great strip tod,,,,,ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz,,,,

Shelley’s Tracy is on steriods!

FANBOY POLL: If you were being interviewed by Lizz, would you want her to play good cop or bad cop?

Catch of the day? I’m thinking Mumbles.

Good morning™, seine cinchers !

The faces and poses really pop in this one. I like that Tracy is doing something during the panel one talking head bit. I don’t know what words to use to describe Sam’s look but I am intrigued by it.

I wish lightning bolts would come out of my cell phone like that!

Wonders if the Catch of the day is the Deli Guy…?

I like seeing the police work and interrogations and don’t think it slows down the story. After all, this is a detective strip about crime and detection.

salmon or flounder?

1-DT: Hey Sam – have you seen my suit jacket and my gun? SAM: Oh brother

DT: OH! I found them right here where they oughta be.

2-Meanwhile an APB AND a BOLO have been issued for Tracy archvillains Bum and Boobs , the nefarious pair of Bonnie and Clyde Tribute Criminals whose devotion to the originals has them robbing banks and making their get-away in a ’32 Ford Coupe.

3-DT: Hmmmm. Four PM – DINNER TIME! How about joining me at the MCL Cafeteria, Sam – today’s special is their Easily Digestible, Unflavored, Easily Chewed Meatloaf. I’ve had it before and it’s everything they describe it to be! Sam? Sam, where’d you go?

But THEN (ta-daa), in a surprise move, Homeless Guy (played with much effort by Johnny Depp) turns out to be the Ace!

The plot here is good…but it needs better focus and momentum.

I think Mr. Curtis can pull it off.

Shelley’s drawings look really defined. I think!

Overall, she’s doing a very good job. She’s still coming into her own.

I wish we could see today’s strip in B&W – it looks like Shelley left a lot of white space in Tracy’s suit jacket, for the colorist to be able to give it two shades like that.

Let’s STOP defining women by their appearances! “The homeless MAN” vs “The BLONDE with the PONYTAIL”. Men are never describe this way. If Tracy said “The Redhead was the shooter” would you think it was a man or a woman with out a visual clue? Time to drop this!

So, either ponytail girl is a good liar or she isn’t the same ponytail girl with the mask. Can there possibly be 2 different ponytail girls with blond hair. I defer to my standby video…

https://youtu.be/Ma4TOv2f_WY

Under the lights, Tracy seems to be wearing a gray suit. Come to think of it wasn’t he the original man in black?

What a teeny, tiny pistol Tracy seems to be packing in panel 1! It looks more like a .25 caliber vest-pocket pistol than like the police-issue 9mm it is probably supposed to be! Problem of scale….

Panel 2: win some, lose some. This is not the same blonde ponytail we saw, if I remember correctly, in a spandex “card” suit a while back….

Panel 3 expresses hope for bigger fish to be netted, while leaving us to wonder, who is Lizz about to interview? Stay ’tooned for Interrogation Room Confidential!