Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 03, 2023

“You’re not doing much to stay in the strip, Riger!”

“What do you mean? What strip?”

“Oh, no one had the ‘talk’ with you. Never mind.”

Good morning™, all!

Even miraculous-tech Riger can’t solve this one, but we can see from a lock of his hair who is in that car. At least there is an explanation as to why there wasn’t identification from the security guard in the booth.

Greetings, missing Security guards!

So, was there even a Security Guard in the booth or did Mad Boy use an automatic card reader without the guard present? I don’t see a hand taking the card from him. Even if he was posing as a maintenance worker, one of the employees would typically notify the gate guard so he would be allowed entry to the lot. We’re getting more questions than answers. I don’t mind longer stories; I actually like them if they’re not complete filler and no progression, but this has gone way too far. To stuff what coud have been a good story with endless filler for weeks is ridiculous. I don’t blame Wichita for this. I blame the PTB at the Tribune for not using his script and allowing this story to end in a sensible way. A new story could have been written by Wichita or someone else after this one ended and it would have still giving more time for Mike’s absence and less confusion for us readers.

Good morning™, bad security equipment maintainers !

How many YouBoobs of caught-on-cam robberies have we seen where some of them have bad resolution/lighting that the images only give faint promise of the perp(s) being caught ?

‘Security’ at ARGOS, like fire’s ‘stick’, is pretty flaccid.

Not to be facetious, it is a shame that knuckle recognition software does not exist. Tracy and Sam are back in square one.

Argos security personnel earn barely minimum wage. So why would they be all that motivated to go through the motions?

I do like that Riger can’t get a conclusive shot of him unlike in tv shows and movies where they would miraculously be able to enhance, enhance, enhance….

I could be charitable & think the writer, whoever he or she is, was asked by TCA to just stretch this story out however they could while TCA waited to get a handle on Mike’s situation, & how long it looked like it would be until Mike returned, or even if he would be returning, & if that was the case how TCA wanted to handle the strip going forward. I’m getting a feeling the whole future of the strip could be up in the air.

If only the booth was manned by Mike Ehrmantraut !!!

Let ‘em run my **"DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND"** story lol

Well, now we’re getting somewhere…

“Opening and closing”….so they trust just about anybody all those hours in between, eh?……..

Is it just me or does Sam have SpongeBob’s face ?

Given what Argos gave them, does Tracy really expect Rigger to do miracles? I doubt if even Diet Smith’s techs could do better.

The implication appears to be that the place is open limited hours (say, 8 am to 5 pm), most of the cars (which appeared to be at least few dozen on Tuesday) come in at 8 and leave at 5, with four people only there for half a day. Madsen came in, shot Anders, and came out during that short change in shifts. Does this all sounds believable? :)

Only at opening and closing? Like when shifts change?

You know it’s getting bad when even Vengy won’t show up to point out the flaws. And where is Fire today? You guys go fishing together or something?

Holy crap….Chester Gould you are missed!!

Not for nothing, but since they know the car is an orange Caprice, then, assuming they can get a shot of the license plate, can’t they issue a BOLO for the car? If they find it, the registration (unless it’s been removed, and/or it turns out that the car was stolen) might have Madsen’s name on it.

MOVIE QUOTE

“I think you’re a kind man”

“Don’t count on it,Ma’am”

Ruth Gordon&Peter Falk—-COLUMBO:TRY AND CATCH MEepisode

“I think this story is moving too darned slow”

Signed—MORDRED THE MISSING

They show surveillance footage of crimes on the 6 o clock news and it could be anybody from Tom Thumb to Andre The Giant. There must be A SOLID MARKET Forcamera lenses with fuzz on them

I absolutely love that Riger can’t just “ENHANCE” the image when the data isn’t there in the source video! Also real explanations that make sense immediately – I’d wager there’s a LOT of dirty security cameras out there, considering how often I have to clean the rear-view camera on my car just to be able to see anything when I’m backing up. This may be filler but I’m diggin’ it!!

1-DT: Riger – is that you in that car?

2-RIGER: Hmmm. I don’t think so…

3-…Lemme get a closer look. No…I don’t believe it is. DT: Progress Sam! We’ve ruled out Riger.

SAM: It might be me but I’m not sure. DT: sigh One step forward, one step back.

I thought the writer’s strike started last month. This tome makes it appear that it started in June

—In which we find that technology has its limits!

Maybe Riger can clean up the video some, pixel by pixel (or whatever), but it seems that Tracy and Sam will have to find other ways to identify the suspect driver (whom we know to be Madsen). Maybe the cameras caught the license plate number? Or maybe a BOLO on “an old tan (?) Caprice” will turn up something?

Time marches on!