Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for February 19, 2023

Tracy Meets Doctor Fix

Chapter six

Tracy smiled smugly as he surveyed the full house that was waiting for the show to begin.

“This is fantastic! I’ll get enough to pay off my gambling debt and even have enough left over to head over to Vegas for a week!”

Tracy thought everything through to a tee. Nothing could go wrong. Insisting that the tickets be paid for only in cash ensured the maximum profit. After the show, he would demand that he take the money to the safety of his office, only to get robbed on the way.

“As long as Bleeder is at the right location to complete the robbery this will be the perfect caper!” he gleefully thought to himself.

“Well Richard, this was a wonderful, thoughtful idea of yours. I couldn’t be prouder to call you my friend!”

“Geez, I wish he’d stop spitting every time he said something!” Tracy thought while resisting the urge to wipe his face.

“Vitamin, You’re the one who put everything together, now go out there and break a neck!” said Tracy sarcastically.

Tracy couldn’t wait for Hambone to get away from him. He really despised the old crab.

“Time to sit back and relax until the show is over. What could go wrong!”

No sooner had Tracy sat in his seat when a loud explosion suddenly knocked him on his butt. Standing up, he heard a voice come over the loudspeaker!

“Everyone evacuate the playhouse, a bomb just went off!”

To be continued. (Yeah Yeah, I know, finish it already!

Good morning™, everyone!

So, Ms. Lovecraft actually was the murderer. I had forgotten, but she did sound kind of suspicious with her insistence that George was talking suicide.

Maybe we can get back to cleaning up the Art Dekko case a bit tomorrow.

You call that a “mystery”? The perp was evident from the very beginning the only mystery is why they even bothered to make it.

Woohoo! Shelley back tomorrow!!

just to keep it honest, in real life, Leonore Lemmon, whom Lenore Lovecraft was based upon, was never arrested for any crime related to George Reeve’s death, as it was ruled a suicide… she and George were to be married in three days before Reeve’s demise… and she lived out the rest of her days until 1989, when she herself passed…

“Later, Dick Tracy was himself arrested on suspicion. He was found in the studios of the artists, where he was surrounded by bits of flesh and bone and lots of blood. Tracy claimed it was an accident, that he had been unable to see when he entered the room because his clothes were so bright, and that he’d tripped and fallen into the artists with his chin. The Prosecutor charged Tracy with “revenge killing,” but the Judge threw the case out on the grounds that whatever happened had obviously been justified."

Thanks for another fun Minit Mystery! Whether anyone else does, I prefer them and look forward to them.

Luckily, where I live the mailboxes are inside, and no one get in without a key.

Dang. And me thought the butler did it.

Tracy solved the crime when the folks in 1959 could not!

What is the significance of the electric plug in the first panel?

Let’s see then prove it in court. We’re her fingerprints on the bullet ? Was there camera footage ? Can they prove she was the last to see him ? Where did the bullet enter the body ? The mystery is how they got away with writing this dribble !

Within this story, I don’t see what Tracy means, saying it would be impossible for a suicide victim to fall onto his own shell casing. Why couldn’t that happen?

I posit that it is NOT impossible for the spent casing to be under the dead body. The casing is ejected quickly, if the body didn’t drop immediately, it could certainly have hit the ground first, and depending on where it fell (and where the body fell) the body could have fallen on top. It would have been more telling to know where the weapon was located, and having a last set of prints would be nice (not just prints for prints’ sake, but the nature of them -their position, smudge marks, etc). No, I’m not a real detective, but I do read, and I’ve stayed in a holiday inn express once. :) Well, no, not really, but I have stayed in a nice hotel.

Did anyone else hear the Dragnet theme playing in their head as they read the last panel?

Wish the George Reeves death case would have ended that way. Powerful influences pushed bogus “suicide” story, just as in Marilyn Monroe’s death some 3 years later and numerous others over many years.

Feels like a predicable ending, but it is what it is.

Well, that was embarrassing!

ka-chin

Cool…..but will one of you D.T WORLD geniuses please explain that cord plug in the first panel after Crimestopper’s Textbook? Gosh! Could it mean that this (sorta alternate…) D.T. has “pulled the plug” on the case? Gee Whizz!!

For myself the art works adds decades to Tracy’s features.

I agree !

I find Tracy’s logic to be deficient.

I just want to point out that when last Sunday’s strip first came out, the image was all blurry and unreadable. Mid-week, the image was restored on Google Chrome, but was still unreadable on Microsoft Edge. Today, last Sunday’s strip was fully restored on Microsoft Edge.

TRACY IN PANEL 2: Reeds did indeed commit suicide. This tiny reusable metal condom suggests he was so embarrassed about his “size” that he decided to check himself out of this cheap hotel we call Earth.

LENORE: Wrong. I shot him. TRACY: Oh……Never mind.

Too bad Reeves death was never solved.

Ok, giving ya a heads up…tomorrow (well, today actually, but I have plans so…) is my first full day out of work and I plan on spending it writing the next chapter of my Tracy story…I’ll post the link here when it’s done

On a side note…concerning yesterday’s procedure, the barely even mild pain I’m feeling randomly (and only for a few seconds) is on my RIGHT side and not my left which is where the stone was…luckily I got another prescription for percocet, this time 15 tablets to add to the ten from December that I didn’t use yet…but all in all I’m fine and gonna make the most of my “downtime” from work

Hey, random question time again….

anybody see any mention of that old guy in the garage yet? It’s been what…three months now? I’m getting a little worried for his safety lol

THANK GOODNESS THAT ONE IS OVER.

Who leaves theit name on a mailbox??

Lovecraft was framed! #NoJusticeNoPeace

Who will they get to play Ultraman in that new Cinematic Universe now? ;-)

Dubious grounds for arrest, at best, but at least Tracy did say suspicion of murder. The real wrap-up comes only in the last panel, where Tracy finally (literally" finally") cites some some real evidence that Lenore (Ms. Lovecraft) was guilty.

Apropos of nothing, but coincidentally, Lenore is the name of Dethany Dendrobia’s pet raven in On the Fastrack….

Not against the artwork as a whole. but pointy chins just don’t do it for me.

Shell casing under the body. I see three possibilities:

1) The deceased was upright when shot. The casing bounced around, then he fell on top of it. This could happen with suicide or murder.

2) The casing was placed AFTER the death. That would imply someone trying to frame someone. Probably the Candidates trying to frame Lenore. (Again could be murder or suicide.)

3) The casing was placed BEFORE the death. There would be another casing somewhere. This would imply Reeds trying to frame someone for his suicide, probably Lenore.

Both 2 and 3 need the detective to be naive, and Tracy apparently is.

Also, Lenore’s visit to the gun club’s range earlier in the day means Tracy’s other evidence is worthless too.

“Art Deko has a letter from Art Deko’s mommy saying Art Decko s a good boy, and was nowhere whatever it is you’re taking about happened.”

In Gould’s 1970 “giggly triplets” story,he stated the paraffin test had been discardedas “unreliable” and replaced by a scientific advancementcalled the “neutron enhancement” test.

But Gould loved the paraffin test in 1951,when Mrs.Knox killed her husband during the CREWY LOU story.