Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 16, 2022

Not yet. ✨

Awww…man. Just when it was getting good, it’s back to snooze-ville. Should have continued with the car chase. I sure could use some of Tracy’s coffee because today’s strip is just BORING-BORING-BORING!!!

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, I guess the police officers in that car called in a report even if they couldn’t give chase. No big advancement of things today.

So…just a couple observations (because I have to amuse myself somehow with today’s strip being so boring.)

1) Why does Tracy have to step outside for coffee? There’s a coffee pot in the office. Did Sam drink all the coffee? Is Tracy too good for the office coffee? Is he afraid he’s going to get cooties from Sam?

2) We’re seeing a coat rack with coats on it again! It’s minit mystery time!

A hit and run, with only minor property damage, gets reported to Major Crimes??

Good morning™, big letdowns !

I was all juiced up and now left feeling deflated. It is incongruous to be reporting a non case related non emergency to their department unless Ms Steffihawk is on break. Will they next get a call on upturned trash cans at the high school ?

Sam: “Well, the donuts were spilled all over the floor of the patrol car.”

Tracy: “Noooo! The humanity!!!”

Tracy doesn’t tolerate any scofflaws!

Hit and run, I guess the car was unmanned when ferret hit it!

Dick Tracy, Cartective.

Wow, in my absence everyone else picked up the slack and posted negative comments.

Now that’s what I call teamwork!!

its not MCU coffee

Why would they be informed of a traffic accident?

I wanted to give Tracy some brief touches of life outside the MCU, so I gave him a breather and a change from Sam’s usual witch’s brew. Hazelnut pepperment (I personally either go with vanilla or hazelnut), so this was deliberate. {Plus, it gave Sam something to do, where Trace would’ve otherwise taken the call himself.

Tracy has to be notified about all traffic accidents, jay walkers and purse snatchers.

The big question now is whether A and F will have the common sense to ditch the car, steal another, and continue on with Yeti’s list, or henchman-up and go back to give an excuse for not completing the job. Even I have no idea what they’ll do next.

The hit and run was great concern to the MCU. With Mayor Armstrong’s budget cutbacks defunding the police, that meant one less police car on the street and those famous plain-clothes detectives, Tracy and Sam, will be required to use unmarked police cars from now on.

So… traffic accidents get reported to the major crimes unit?

1-SAM: Sorry, Tracy’s not here right now. He stepped out in the hall until the gas attack clears…No, not terrorist related – Taco Bell breakfast related…Ok, I’ll let him know.

2-DT: Give me a little bit of warning the next time you’re looking to clear a room, Sam. Dam!

SAM: Yeah, sorry. We just got word that there’s a French couple in their Peugeot terrorizing napping cops. Not sure if it’s intentional or if they just think they’re driving in England…

3-…So, should we get out there and join the manhunt?

DT: And get in the confined space of a vehicle with Senior~ Farto El Blasto ? NO THANKS!

In retrospect, this could’ve been fixed with a dialog change:

PANELS ONE AND THREE

SAM (P1): I’ll tell Tracy.SAM (P3): Hit-and-run on a patrol car. It’s Jimmy Dale.TRACY: Jimmy? Is he hurt?

This one honestly never occurred to me as a problem. Then again, I worked this one differently than my usual script outline, where I put a label (i.e. set-up, complication, confrontation, resolution) at the top of each week’s panel breakdown, so I can pace things. Given that, might have slowed down a little on this script.

You all have a valid point.

MOVIE QUOTE:

“Listen,you.I hate dentists.I hate dentists so much that I’m not going to tell you how much I hate you in front of your wife!!”

Mickey Rooney—IT’S A MAD,MAD,MAD,MAD WORLD—1963

Tracy is perfect in Panel 2.Not so perfect in Panel 3.

Don’t worry.Ape and Ferret will do something to MAKEthe minor accident the size of a house.That’s their special talent.

……to which Sam deadpans: “Only when they laugh, pardner, only when they laugh”………

tO PASS THE TIME,yETI WATCHES tarantula—1955 ON CONTINUOUS LOOP.

I too was hoping for more of a car chase. I’ve really been enjoying the antics of Ferret and Ape. I keep reminding myself that, given that they work for Yeti, they’re guilty of at least being accessories to various nefarious acts, but I can’t help but feel sympathetic to them. (Well; Ferret, anyway.) I’ve worked for totally unreasonable bosses, though, thankfully, not murderous ones. I’ve been saddled with moronic co-workers. (I didn’t find them to be charmingly innocent and child-like; I found them to be maddeningly incompetent and hard-headed.) So, I feel for Ferret. I hope we see more of her in this, thus-far, quite entertaining story.

It may seem like a minor matter at first, and beneath the dignity of the MCU, but this non-fatal sideswipe could kead to very important revelations, If either Ape or Ferret tells all.

Meanwhile, the furnishings are very Spartan and sparse today. No fancy electronic devices, not even a proper desk for Sam, who seems to working at a table instead, with just his desktop computer, a landline telephone, and an old-fashioned gooseneck lamp. Is this his private office (such as it is) rather than the MCU squad room? Or maybe his individual flunky’s work station in the squad room?…