Tracy, feeling his rage coming to the surface, turned towards Crystal.
“Ugly Crystal, I knew you weren’t the innocent, poor little niece of a madman! You’re going to pay for this’!
“Don’t call my uncle Bribery that, he’s a genius and a great man!”
Tracy laughed out loud, “Not so great that he couldn’t get caught by me and sent to jail for a very, very long time!”!
Crystal grinned widely while almost hissing; “Don’t think those four walls are stopping him from ruling this city. He’s still in total control with his wishes being carried out by folk like me, his sweet, shy niece!”
“Don’t you mean a devious niece, better known as Doctor Fix?” Tracy sarcastically said.
Crystal laughed out loud with a surprised look on her face.
“You think I’m Doctor Fix? I underestimated how dumb you are. Of course I’m not Doctor Fix, I’m just a loving niece delivering messages!”
Tracy eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth.
“Well then, if you’re not Doctor Fix then I don’t need to take anymore of this Lady GaGa from you, do I?”
Tracy began to walk towards where a smiling Crystal was standing, but before he finish his second step, Tracy froze upon hearing the sound of a shotgun being cocked.
No, I’m not Doctor Fix, but he is!"
To be Continued
(I know, I’m trying to finish the story but I figure I owe it to my 3 fans not pull a Mike and leave them dangling!(calm down Firebug!))
flashback time… and now it begins… and thank god, no Garage Man til the summertime, hopefully… this should drive the Garage lovers crazy and quiet until summertime…
With Art Dekko & Sue Reel in custody, and 99 safely out of town, and Tracy reminiscing about the time he met Nero Wolfe, it appears we’ve reached the start of a new story. When I’ve decided a new story’s started, I do a list of every Tracy story on GoComics. Unfortunately, soon after I started doing this GC imposed an asinine character limit of only 2000 characters which includes every letter, space, punctuation, & html, which means I have to do this over several posts. I’ll do my initial introduction in this post and start the list in the next one, because otherwise, I can’t even get past the second year.
My notes are fairly simple. Just my name for the story (usually the name of the main villain or villains, unless they just aren’t the emphasis) followed by the dates the story began and ended. If someone was the main villain for more than one story, I add a “II” and so on to emphasize this. If more than one villain from a past story are in the same story committing major crimes, I include them altogether. Finally, for the 4 cases of more than one villain with the same name (Chameleon, Mr. Crime, Shaky, the Ace of Spades) I add, “The Second” in front of their names.
Minit Mysteries Note: at the request of people who wanted to see these listed here, I’ve decided to make a separate post for them to keep the listing of Mike Curtis stories in as few posts as possible.
At the start of the GoComics archive, the writer was the late Mike Kilian. Personally, I like his work on Tracy and think he’s very underrated. At the very least, he knew how to tell a story in the daily strip format where every day, something happens that moves the story along, a quality his successor sorely lacked. I recommend anyone here who hasn’t read these stories to check them out.
I’ve started taking notes on all the crossovers (x-overs) Curtis has written into the strip. I wasn’t taking notes of these when they first came out, so I had to start from scratch. I’m able to do this because I’ve taken on trying to read every single Dick Tracy story in the comic strip, alternating between reading Gould’s original strips (which I can read in my complete collection of IDW reprints), the post-Gould pre-GoComics period (which I can read in Newspapers.com) and the GC period. This is a WIP (Work In Progress) that will take a very long time for me to complete. In the meantime, I’ll post that WIP here on the same day I list GC stories, listing the year, then the titles of the stories in boldface and anyone here can use my GC list for cross reference.
IMHO, there are several different types of x-overs: characters from other comic strips, characters from other media outside comic strips (including characters that originate from Dick Tracy media outside the DT comic strip), real life celebrities appearing as themselves, and Written Around Trademarks (WAT) cameos from other strips and media. A WAT cameo is one where it’s never directly stated, so there’s room for plausible deniability, but it’s pretty obvious it’s this character.
Finally, I decided not to include characters based on real life celebrities but with different names, because I feel the changed names mean they’re not really x-overs. However, I will give honorable mention to the two most prominent such characters here, and the stories they debuted in: Jerry King (based on real life wrestler Jerry Lawler) who made his debut in the Thunderchild story, and George Tawara and his husband Brad (based on real life actor George Takei and his husband Brad) who made their debuts in the Sweat Box story.
The story was just starting to pick up some real narrative steam, with an intriguing woman of mystery on the run & the introduction of a potentially great villain. So of course Mike has Tracy pouring coffee & telling us there’s nothing going on, & will now give us at least a week of a cross-over story featuring a character that could just as well have been chosen by throwing a dart at a board with the names of literary detectives who have about as much connection with the world of Dick Tracy as Daffy Duck. Really, Mike, are you that bored with the strip?
Well, I sleep through the changeover, so I thought I’d better come on and say hello.
It seems that we are setting up for an extended flashback story. We are not looking at Nero Wolfe yet. This whole scenario would be out of character for Wolfe. This is clearly Pat in the last panel.
“… when Pat and I were partners. As I recall, he [Pat] was taking off for a long weekend, but came by to rub it in.” So, that’s the setting. Tracy’s partner at the time, Pat, has left for the weekend, leaving Tracy in the office all by himself. So, Tracy is going to tell Sam the whole story about how he came to know Nero Wolfe.
I have read exactly one Nero Wolfe book out of the 33 novels and 39 novellas that were written between 1934 and 1975, the year of death of the author, Rex Stout. The book I read was The Doorbell Rang and I think it would not work well at all in a daily comic strip. It’s much too complicated. That novel severely criticized the FBI and I understand that J. Edgar Hoover kept a close watch on Stout for suspected Communist connections.
For those who don’t know Wolfe at all, he tended to keep to his New York City brownstone residence and he had rule about never going out of the house on business. All of the investigating out in the field was done by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Wolfe had a strict routine at home, including a time set aside for his beloved orchids and very formal gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Wolfe was also always reading books when Goodwin went to report to him.
Oh goody! Yet ANOTHER meaningless, go nowhere, where’s that ritalin, “celebrity” crossover story. Geez, I just can’t get enough of these things!
And yet, somewhere some old man is still digging thru a mountain of papers in his garage while lonely ol’ ollie blank eyes puffs on yet another stogie trying to decide whether or not to call tracy to help him with whatever vague problem he currently has
Trivia: there was a Nero Wolfe newspaper comic strip for a while. After all the dark-haired actors who have played Archie Goodwin, I was shocked that the cartoonist drew Archie as a blond! Archie never describes himself in the books, so it’s possible. I’m really looking forward to Shelley’s version.
During the years when Tracy’s partner was Pat, there was no MCU, as depicted in today’s last panel. Tracy and Pat took on every kind of crime, from kidnapping to petty theft. (You could look it up!)
Tough times for Sam fans lately, with Mr. C mostly absent from the last case and now about to be benched again while a yarn that predates him unfolds….
And, we now come to the Nero Wolfe crossover, obviously authorized by Rex Stout/Robert Goldsborough’s publisher and, the Stout estate. I’ve seen a few drawings on how Wolfe would look like, and, then there’s the various actors who have portrayed him on TV. It should be interesting to see how Shelly sees him (and, Archie too?)
I’ve always imagined Shelley as being much younger than Mike and I fear that her youth will cause her to draw Nero Wolfe like Robert Pattinson in the Twilight movies. I suppose if she makes that mistake, at least Tracy will get a bunch of new, pre-teen readers. Ugh…
1-SAM: Our newspaper sure is hurting for news! Lookit this headline! DT: Well you know they can’t afford to subscribe to AP and the mayor won’t let them print any local government failures.
2-SAM: Lucky for the MCU. DT: Yep. We screwed the pooch on that Art Dekko thing but the public will never know!
3-SAM: On the other hand, now this outta towner detective gets all the press.
4-DT: Lemme tell ya a story about the Chief that will explain why that’s a good thing. CHIEF: Was I sober in this here story, boy-o? DT: Course not…
5-…Hang on a sec – I gotta put my hat back on to tell this story. So the Chief wasn’t Chief then and he was still young enough to handle the booze he had in his glass-lined cane. He was headed out to fill his satchel with the weekly take from bars when…
CHIEF from the doorway: I STILL HAVE THAT CANE AND SATCHEL! DT: Not important, Chief. Anyway, as usual he grabs a couple of shots along with each cash pickup and as always – loses the satchel! SO the rest of the department has to chip in for the mayor’s piece! We all hate the Irish drunk but the mayor – who always gets his cut – thinks he’s great and makes him CHIEF! And that works out for us because Liz is a reliable and sober bagman! CHIEF: HAPPY ENDINGS ALL AROUND! LET’S HAVE A DRINK TO CELEBRATE! BURRRPPP!
And so we begin the long-expected Nero Wolfe crossover, beginning with Tracy’s reminiscing about the Old Days with then-Detective Pat Patton (seen in the last panel as he was then) as his partner. Where will this lead, besides to a certain NY brownstone?
Back from a week-long trip to the Middle East and I find the story has wrapped up, if you want to call it a “wrap-up”, and we’re starting another one. Okay. We’ll give this one a few days to get going. It has to be an improvement, right?
From the looks of today’s story, it looks like I am going to get a flashback narrative with a touch of comic strip noir (my paraphrasing of film noir) I just went to a search engine and found out Sam was partnered with Tracy on September 11, 1949. So in the last panel, it looks like Pat was the one who is going fishing for the weekend. Nero Wolfe must have appeared on the scene when Pat left. From reading a few Nero Wolfe mysteries, the character was rather portly and had an affinity for food.
By the time this flashback wraps up, I hope Mike and Shelley will have some new villains. Generation Xers and the Millennials, I don’t recall seeing these groups represented and reflected in the strip as of yet. The former costumed hero should have graduated from the police academy by the time this storyline concludes. Maybe he and his superior will the ones who contact MCU about a pending case.
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each other for years. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all these questions. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each other for years. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all this yaking. If it were up to me I’d have eliminated you a long time ago. You’re just lucky I like Honeymoon. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
Tracy knew that he was in a real jam and needed to act quickly. A crazy idea came to him.
“What do I have to lose?” He figured as he prepared to give his idea a try.
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s business in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each for a long time. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all this yaking. If it were up to me I’d have eliminated you a long time ago. You’re just lucky I like Honeymoon. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
Tracy knew that he was in a real jam and needed to act quickly. A crazy idea came to him.
“What do I have to lose?” He figured as he prepared to give his idea a try.
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes on it in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!” We own most of the papers and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.
“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.
“B.O., my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy;
“Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy Meets Doctor Fix
Chapter 9
Tracy, feeling his rage coming to the surface, turned towards Crystal.
“Ugly Crystal, I knew you weren’t the innocent, poor little niece of a madman! You’re going to pay for this’!
“Don’t call my uncle Bribery that, he’s a genius and a great man!”
Tracy laughed out loud, “Not so great that he couldn’t get caught by me and sent to jail for a very, very long time!”!
Crystal grinned widely while almost hissing; “Don’t think those four walls are stopping him from ruling this city. He’s still in total control with his wishes being carried out by folk like me, his sweet, shy niece!”
“Don’t you mean a devious niece, better known as Doctor Fix?” Tracy sarcastically said.
Crystal laughed out loud with a surprised look on her face.
“You think I’m Doctor Fix? I underestimated how dumb you are. Of course I’m not Doctor Fix, I’m just a loving niece delivering messages!”
Tracy eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth.
“Well then, if you’re not Doctor Fix then I don’t need to take anymore of this Lady GaGa from you, do I?”
Tracy began to walk towards where a smiling Crystal was standing, but before he finish his second step, Tracy froze upon hearing the sound of a shotgun being cocked.
No, I’m not Doctor Fix, but he is!"
To be Continued
(I know, I’m trying to finish the story but I figure I owe it to my 3 fans not pull a Mike and leave them dangling!(calm down Firebug!))
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Sigh, another wasted Sunday on a history lesson.
Brian Premium Member about 1 year ago
That guy in the final panel looks to be about 1/2 the size of the “real” Nero Wolfe.
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Pat’s like; “Geez, let me get out of here before I get suckered into listening to this story for the umpteenth time!”
firestrike1 about 1 year ago
flashback time… and now it begins… and thank god, no Garage Man til the summertime, hopefully… this should drive the Garage lovers crazy and quiet until summertime…
boboscar about 1 year ago
“And now for something completely different.”
With Art Dekko & Sue Reel in custody, and 99 safely out of town, and Tracy reminiscing about the time he met Nero Wolfe, it appears we’ve reached the start of a new story. When I’ve decided a new story’s started, I do a list of every Tracy story on GoComics. Unfortunately, soon after I started doing this GC imposed an asinine character limit of only 2000 characters which includes every letter, space, punctuation, & html, which means I have to do this over several posts. I’ll do my initial introduction in this post and start the list in the next one, because otherwise, I can’t even get past the second year.
My notes are fairly simple. Just my name for the story (usually the name of the main villain or villains, unless they just aren’t the emphasis) followed by the dates the story began and ended. If someone was the main villain for more than one story, I add a “II” and so on to emphasize this. If more than one villain from a past story are in the same story committing major crimes, I include them altogether. Finally, for the 4 cases of more than one villain with the same name (Chameleon, Mr. Crime, Shaky, the Ace of Spades) I add, “The Second” in front of their names.
Minit Mysteries Note: at the request of people who wanted to see these listed here, I’ve decided to make a separate post for them to keep the listing of Mike Curtis stories in as few posts as possible.
At the start of the GoComics archive, the writer was the late Mike Kilian. Personally, I like his work on Tracy and think he’s very underrated. At the very least, he knew how to tell a story in the daily strip format where every day, something happens that moves the story along, a quality his successor sorely lacked. I recommend anyone here who hasn’t read these stories to check them out.
TBC cuz GC decided to suck now
ScottHolman about 1 year ago
Old story over? Well that was exciting….not.
Ashmael about 1 year ago
I’M really looking forward to see how Shelley depicts the most ponderoys private sleuth!
boboscar about 1 year ago
Curtis Crossovers
I’ve started taking notes on all the crossovers (x-overs) Curtis has written into the strip. I wasn’t taking notes of these when they first came out, so I had to start from scratch. I’m able to do this because I’ve taken on trying to read every single Dick Tracy story in the comic strip, alternating between reading Gould’s original strips (which I can read in my complete collection of IDW reprints), the post-Gould pre-GoComics period (which I can read in Newspapers.com) and the GC period. This is a WIP (Work In Progress) that will take a very long time for me to complete. In the meantime, I’ll post that WIP here on the same day I list GC stories, listing the year, then the titles of the stories in boldface and anyone here can use my GC list for cross reference.
IMHO, there are several different types of x-overs: characters from other comic strips, characters from other media outside comic strips (including characters that originate from Dick Tracy media outside the DT comic strip), real life celebrities appearing as themselves, and Written Around Trademarks (WAT) cameos from other strips and media. A WAT cameo is one where it’s never directly stated, so there’s room for plausible deniability, but it’s pretty obvious it’s this character.
Finally, I decided not to include characters based on real life celebrities but with different names, because I feel the changed names mean they’re not really x-overs. However, I will give honorable mention to the two most prominent such characters here, and the stories they debuted in: Jerry King (based on real life wrestler Jerry Lawler) who made his debut in the Thunderchild story, and George Tawara and his husband Brad (based on real life actor George Takei and his husband Brad) who made their debuts in the Sweat Box story.
My list is coming up in the reply.
BreathlessMahoney77 about 1 year ago
The story was just starting to pick up some real narrative steam, with an intriguing woman of mystery on the run & the introduction of a potentially great villain. So of course Mike has Tracy pouring coffee & telling us there’s nothing going on, & will now give us at least a week of a cross-over story featuring a character that could just as well have been chosen by throwing a dart at a board with the names of literary detectives who have about as much connection with the world of Dick Tracy as Daffy Duck. Really, Mike, are you that bored with the strip?
Ida No about 1 year ago
How can you recognize Nero Wolfe, he’s the Stout one.
Neil Wick about 1 year ago
Good morning™, everyone!
Well, I sleep through the changeover, so I thought I’d better come on and say hello.
It seems that we are setting up for an extended flashback story. We are not looking at Nero Wolfe yet. This whole scenario would be out of character for Wolfe. This is clearly Pat in the last panel.
“… when Pat and I were partners. As I recall, he [Pat] was taking off for a long weekend, but came by to rub it in.” So, that’s the setting. Tracy’s partner at the time, Pat, has left for the weekend, leaving Tracy in the office all by himself. So, Tracy is going to tell Sam the whole story about how he came to know Nero Wolfe.
I have read exactly one Nero Wolfe book out of the 33 novels and 39 novellas that were written between 1934 and 1975, the year of death of the author, Rex Stout. The book I read was The Doorbell Rang and I think it would not work well at all in a daily comic strip. It’s much too complicated. That novel severely criticized the FBI and I understand that J. Edgar Hoover kept a close watch on Stout for suspected Communist connections.
For those who don’t know Wolfe at all, he tended to keep to his New York City brownstone residence and he had rule about never going out of the house on business. All of the investigating out in the field was done by his assistant, Archie Goodwin. Wolfe had a strict routine at home, including a time set aside for his beloved orchids and very formal gourmet meals prepared by his chef, Fritz Brenner. Wolfe was also always reading books when Goodwin went to report to him.
CarrollJr about 1 year ago
A very young Nero Wolfe if he has left his home.
Farmboy71 about 1 year ago
Let me guess… Pat was off to spend his long weekend at a comic book convention…
therese_callahan2002 about 1 year ago
At least the sites I buy food and clothes on are 100% legit.
Mark Jeffrey Premium Member about 1 year ago
I just cannot overstate how excited I was to see Nero Wolfe’s name!Just hoping it isn’t a let down.(Paid up member of the “Wolfe Pack” fan club)
tsull2121 about 1 year ago
Oh goody! Yet ANOTHER meaningless, go nowhere, where’s that ritalin, “celebrity” crossover story. Geez, I just can’t get enough of these things!
And yet, somewhere some old man is still digging thru a mountain of papers in his garage while lonely ol’ ollie blank eyes puffs on yet another stogie trying to decide whether or not to call tracy to help him with whatever vague problem he currently has
CaptainKiddeo about 1 year ago
Trivia: there was a Nero Wolfe newspaper comic strip for a while. After all the dark-haired actors who have played Archie Goodwin, I was shocked that the cartoonist drew Archie as a blond! Archie never describes himself in the books, so it’s possible. I’m really looking forward to Shelley’s version.
cmerb about 1 year ago
The images are just great by Shelley today , thanks " BIG " time : )
Sporteric11 about 1 year ago
I always enjoy reading your notes.
Sporteric11 about 1 year ago
I remember Nero Wolfe being played by Raymond Burr so I expect his comic counterpart to be a big man !
Ken in Ohio about 1 year ago
During the years when Tracy’s partner was Pat, there was no MCU, as depicted in today’s last panel. Tracy and Pat took on every kind of crime, from kidnapping to petty theft. (You could look it up!)
SKJAM! Premium Member about 1 year ago
Hmm, Nero Wolfe isn’t in the public domain, so I presume this is a licensed appearance (when the character actually appears on page, that is.)
Just-me about 1 year ago
I remember William Conrad playing Nero Wolfe in the 80’s tv series.
orbenjawell Premium Member about 1 year ago
Ohhhhh-kay: I confess: I’m new to this one…….so….“lead, kindly light, lead thou me on”……..
orbenjawell Premium Member about 1 year ago
……like that look on the chief’s face: like: “Oh hell, he’s actually going to tell it……”
oakie817 about 1 year ago
read everything Mr. Stout wrote when i was a kid
Delicate Girl about 1 year ago
Demanding readers want to know…WTH? With the world spinning out of control, I prefer a little Tracy slowness.
atomicdog about 1 year ago
Ooo
Batster about 1 year ago
Tough times for Sam fans lately, with Mr. C mostly absent from the last case and now about to be benched again while a yarn that predates him unfolds….
WilliamVollmer about 1 year ago
And, we now come to the Nero Wolfe crossover, obviously authorized by Rex Stout/Robert Goldsborough’s publisher and, the Stout estate. I’ve seen a few drawings on how Wolfe would look like, and, then there’s the various actors who have portrayed him on TV. It should be interesting to see how Shelly sees him (and, Archie too?)
prrdh about 1 year ago
https://www.scribd.com/podcast/418728119/Episode-147-Wolfe-in-Sheep-s-Clothing-Amazing-Nero-Wolfe-Billed-at-one-time-as-the-handsomest-man-in-the-world-silent-screen-idol-Francis-X-B
TracyFan 65 about 1 year ago
Tracy’s gotten YEARS of use out of that necktie!
Wichita1.0 about 1 year ago
So early, Mike?
Wichita1.0 about 1 year ago
SAM (continuing): So, everyone. Do you know Pinky Pie from MY LITTLE PONY?
TRACY: KNOW her? I was best man at her wedding to Papa Smurf.
MuddyUSA Premium Member about 1 year ago
The art work on this current strip is excellent. Nice work, Shelly!
Another Take about 1 year ago
I’ve always imagined Shelley as being much younger than Mike and I fear that her youth will cause her to draw Nero Wolfe like Robert Pattinson in the Twilight movies. I suppose if she makes that mistake, at least Tracy will get a bunch of new, pre-teen readers. Ugh…
Another Take about 1 year ago
1-SAM: Our newspaper sure is hurting for news! Lookit this headline! DT: Well you know they can’t afford to subscribe to AP and the mayor won’t let them print any local government failures.
2-SAM: Lucky for the MCU. DT: Yep. We screwed the pooch on that Art Dekko thing but the public will never know!
3-SAM: On the other hand, now this outta towner detective gets all the press.
4-DT: Lemme tell ya a story about the Chief that will explain why that’s a good thing. CHIEF: Was I sober in this here story, boy-o? DT: Course not…
5-…Hang on a sec – I gotta put my hat back on to tell this story. So the Chief wasn’t Chief then and he was still young enough to handle the booze he had in his glass-lined cane. He was headed out to fill his satchel with the weekly take from bars when…
CHIEF from the doorway: I STILL HAVE THAT CANE AND SATCHEL! DT: Not important, Chief. Anyway, as usual he grabs a couple of shots along with each cash pickup and as always – loses the satchel! SO the rest of the department has to chip in for the mayor’s piece! We all hate the Irish drunk but the mayor – who always gets his cut – thinks he’s great and makes him CHIEF! And that works out for us because Liz is a reliable and sober bagman! CHIEF: HAPPY ENDINGS ALL AROUND! LET’S HAVE A DRINK TO CELEBRATE! BURRRPPP!
42Irish Premium Member about 1 year ago
I was wondering about the MOLAR CRIMES UNIT?
sugordon about 1 year ago
It looks like Pat is going fishing in our flashback.
Wichita1.0 about 1 year ago
TRACY (continuing): “Pat caught a U-Boat and NEVER let me forget it! Yu may have notices it’s mounted on the wall of his office.”
Sisyphos about 1 year ago
Bye bye, Agent 99! Crime does pay! (Grumble!)
And so we begin the long-expected Nero Wolfe crossover, beginning with Tracy’s reminiscing about the Old Days with then-Detective Pat Patton (seen in the last panel as he was then) as his partner. Where will this lead, besides to a certain NY brownstone?
Gweedo -it's legal here- Murray about 1 year ago
P. 5. Tracy looks really good. :-)
jim_pem about 1 year ago
Back from a week-long trip to the Middle East and I find the story has wrapped up, if you want to call it a “wrap-up”, and we’re starting another one. Okay. We’ll give this one a few days to get going. It has to be an improvement, right?
IvanB.Cohen about 1 year ago
From the looks of today’s story, it looks like I am going to get a flashback narrative with a touch of comic strip noir (my paraphrasing of film noir) I just went to a search engine and found out Sam was partnered with Tracy on September 11, 1949. So in the last panel, it looks like Pat was the one who is going fishing for the weekend. Nero Wolfe must have appeared on the scene when Pat left. From reading a few Nero Wolfe mysteries, the character was rather portly and had an affinity for food.
IvanB.Cohen about 1 year ago
By the time this flashback wraps up, I hope Mike and Shelley will have some new villains. Generation Xers and the Millennials, I don’t recall seeing these groups represented and reflected in the strip as of yet. The former costumed hero should have graduated from the police academy by the time this storyline concludes. Maybe he and his superior will the ones who contact MCU about a pending case.
IvanB.Cohen about 1 year ago
As Tracy is telling this story, was there even a Major Crimes Unit? The lettering on the door makes me wonder.
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy Meets Doctor Fix
Chapter 10
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each other for years. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all these questions. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
Before
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy Meets Doctor Fix
Chapter 10
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each other for years. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all this yaking. If it were up to me I’d have eliminated you a long time ago. You’re just lucky I like Honeymoon. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
Tracy knew that he was in a real jam and needed to act quickly. A crazy idea came to him.
“What do I have to lose?” He figured as he prepared to give his idea a try.
Getting close to the end.
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy Meets Doctor Fix
Chapter 10
“Turn around slowly Tracy, and be nice to the little girly. I don’t want to, but I won’t hesitate to put a hole the size of Gertie’s cooking pot in you”.
For the first time in his life Tracy felt totally dumbfounded. He must be imagining things. For a second he thought the voice he just heard sounded just like B.O. Plenty’s.
“B.O?” Tracy stammered, “is that you?”
“Well it sure enough ain’t Groovy Grove, ya darn fool!” B.O. chuckled at Tracy.
Ugly Crystal, walking to the wall, turned on the store’s lights, which caused Tracy to squint and put his hands over his eyes.
“Chief detective Tracy, I think you know Doctor Fix, who my uncle hand picked to run his operation while he’s away, thanks to you!”
Tracy, still shocked by all of this turned to B.O. and simply said, B.O., why?"
B.O. smiled and said, “All these years you and everyone else bought my dumb hillbilly act. What better person to operate in plain sight without anyone suspecting me of running Bribery”s business in his absence."
“But how do you know Bribery?” Tracy asked, while scanning the room to see if there was anyway he could get the jump on them.
“We’ve known each for a long time. Bribery bought goat milk from me and Gertie for years!”
Suddenly Ugly Chrystal moved in front of Tracy.
“Enough of all this yaking. If it were up to me I’d have eliminated you a long time ago. You’re just lucky I like Honeymoon. Now you’ll listen to us and do what we say, or you’ll regret what happens next!”
Tracy knew that he was in a real jam and needed to act quickly. A crazy idea came to him.
“What do I have to lose?” He figured as he prepared to give his idea a try.
To be continued. Getting close to the end
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy Meets Doctor Fix
Chapter 11
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes on it in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!” We own most of the papers and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
avenger09 about 1 year ago
empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Chapter 11
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.“Well my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy; “ Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!
avenger09 about 1 year ago
Tracy had a plan, but for it to work he’d need to set the groundwork, and quickly.
“Well B.O., I give you credit, All these years you had me fooled. I always thought you were nothing but a mindless, stupid, ugly, idiotic hillbilly bumpkin and here you are, the second in command of a huge, evil empire!”
B.O. squinted his eyes and hissed; “What do you mean, ‘Second in command?’ I’m in charge of this here crime syndicate!”
Tracy grinned; he knew B.O. ate the bait.
“B.O., my former friend, obviously Ugly Crystal is the real brains and leader of the syndicate. Do you really think Bribery wouldn’t leave his niece in charge while he was picking up soap?”
Crystal quickly interrupted Tracy;
“Shut up, you lousy excuse for a cop! Don’t listen to him B.O., he’s just trying to put a wedge between us!”
Tracy went for the kill; “B.O. if and when Bribery ever gets out, you’ll be goat food before you can say; ‘Yee Haw!’”
Crystal pulled her beloved slingshot out of her back pocket and placed a large, round rock with spikes in it.
“I won’t hesitate to kill you with this Tracy, and then I’ll leak to the newspapers all about your secret Lost Weekend in the Catskills and about what you did to poor, poor Hilda!”
“Ye Gads!” Tracy thought in shocked horror, “The little maggot knows about Hilda!”
“We own most of the papers in the city”, she continued, "and they’d love a juicy story of a beloved detective messed up in scandal!
Tracy, trying to remember where he heard that before knew it was now or never!
To be continued
Every time I try to wrap up the story it keeps pulling me back in!