Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for January 11, 2022

“Oh yeah, and I’m about to die!”

Every little bit helps. ✨

The mummy is unwrapped

How did BJ know where Tracy is?

Wow, what a perfect strip today’s is!(as long as you suspend all logic and reasoning and just enjoy the action for what it is, which will make the Tracy minions happy!)

Who could ask for more???

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, at least Blackjack is still alive (so far), but as the gas wafts out towards him, he’s sweating and shaking and coughing. It doesn’t look so good for him, but he did manage to do something to protect his hero, Tracy.

And, of course, BJ has no idea that he’s late.

It will be interesting if 911 will take Blackjack seriously enough to get a “trace” on Blackjack’s phone to save him" and to send a police car to Pine Road Junction to rescue Tracy…

Blackjack may come to the rescue after all.

Good morning™, missing action bits !

I will be placated if we get an explanation or a flashback of how BJ got that hand free; it’s like a panel or two are missing.

I hope nine-one-one operator doesn’t blow Blackjack off as some prankster.

The fight should be over by the time anyone gets there. We’ll see Tracy standing and pointing his hidden gun (the one in his ankle holster) at Bones, who’s on the ground.

Well drawn strip today, though the MC only used about five colors. 911 lady is hot!

Don’t think Gould put that in one of his description arrow boxes?

Okay… Mr. Bones said his plan was to make people think Blackjack killed Tracy and then committed suicide. He dresses as Blackjack and goes out to kill Tracy.

Blackjack, meanwhile, is liberally wrapped up in plastic and the gas stove turned on without lighting it. (We are shown the open oven door, but the fumes are shown coming from the stove. Artist’s license to show us the method.) Mr. Bones thought the police would assume Blackjack would commit suicide by stripping naked, turning on the gas, and wrapping himself in plastic? I know the police are portrayed as pretty stupid, but really? I won’t even ask why they’d assume Blackjack was the killer since his attempted assassination has no witnesses. There is also the question whether gas concentration could really build up enough to kill anyone. Natural gas is lighter than air and dissipates easily. If the room is not air tight (and no room is or you’d suffocate) Blackjack would die of thirst before the gas would kill him.

Hey, I like it! Plays into how i figured it.

will the 9-1-1 dispatcher see that it’s not a crank call, and, take the action Blackjack demands? come back tomorrow. same Tracy time and station

He’s a hero.

1-Just…need…to…dislocate…my shoulder…*CRACK!* Well, that was easy!

2-Now to grab the script Travolta left for me to read. No! First things first! Number 1 – DAMN THAT HURTS! Number 2 – Call for help. I no longer believe that smell is the result of bean burrito overload.

3-*OPERATOR: Numbah puhlee-ase.

BLACKSTRAP: Send an ambulance to my location. My…arm…is dislocated…and I’m blacking…out…from…

OPERATOR: We can’t trace Burner Phone numbahs to a locashun. What is your address puhlee-ase? Hello? Hello? Oh well. One for the “RESOLVED” column. CLICK

Using the cell phone in a gas-filled room is risky.

Can somebody trace Blackjack’s call before HE bites the big one?

Back in the last days of the Gould era,Tracy was doing a series of public service spots called POLICE MEMO.(His “actor’s fee”donated to police charities).

Back then,it was an opportunity for Gould to get on his soapbox.

But I wouldn’t mind seeing that again.I think the only reason Dick stopped doing them is that there’s only 24 hours in a day.

Don’t give up, Blackjack!

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“Couple guys I knew were getting ready to knock over a grocery store.So they leave the heap outside with the engine running”

They come bouncing out a couple steps ahead of a shotgun blast….somebody snitched it!!.

So they dash down an alley…and run smack into a copper!!

Brother,what a mess!!

Arthur Kennedy—-HIGH SIERRA—1941

Today’s trip re-introduces a dynamic many of us have been seeing in the strip recently … characters being left in tight spots & then getting out of them surprisingly easy, often with no real explanation at all.

As Blackjack struggles mightily (panel 1) to get free of the plastic wrap, he manages (panel 2) to reach a hidden “burner” phone that Bones did not notice and confiscate, and then most selflessly call 911 (panel 3) not for his own sake but to get help for his hero, Dick Tracy, in danger of assassination by the dangerous Richard Bonhomme, a.k.a. Mr. Bones. Given the constraints of writing for a sequential art serial (i.e., not “gag-a-day”) strip, I fully expect the 911 operator to take the caller (Blackjack) at his word and dispatch a patrol car to check out the location. The obvious question is, will the squad car get there in time to save Tracy’s bacon, as Bones has seemingly gained the upper hand in his clash with Detective Tracy….