Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 06, 2009

As abstract poetry written and illustrated by preadolescents, this almost works. As a comic strip…bleah.

Speaking as somebody who’s been thrown into a tiger cage by a giant, I find this strip deeply offensive.

The tiger won’t eat Mr. Pops. Clowns taste funny.

I like panel three today, nicely done.

SPAM:

Everybody please check out my latest blog posts:

http://kraptastrophe.blogspot.com/

Thankew.

Flight Suit, you been hanging out with Teresa at Frog Applause? Speaking of which, where is today’s FA???

Mr Pops looks to startled to even scream.

Margueritem, I take that as quite a compliment!

Tracy is relegated to play by play commentary.

In the 2nd panel someone have a heart attack. And the clown jump.

Thank you Mr. Exposition. (with apologies to MST3K)

Wow, that’s all one can say About what’s in the strip today Forgive me for being flip But this is a crock of… After you think you have become inured Your gaze falls on this loathsome… What could possess the people at TMS That they would publish this awful mess Perhaps they should call a doctor To check on the comatose Locher That can be the only explanation For this sordid abomination

I hope the tiger doesn’t get indigestion.

Then again, Panel Two reveals that the cage now contains not a tiger but a giant black fuzzy tribble. In which case Mr. Pops should have a soft landing and be safe…

Unless he’s really a Klingon in disguise.

Tune in tomorrow for more “Adventures of People in the Same Room as Dick Tracy”!

Jumbobrain has an inkling, the dialog looks like some sort of haiku.

Tracy and Ennen couldn’t climb up the bars of the cage from the INSIDE to escape - - - BUT, the Clown and Fee Fi just zipped effortlessly UP the same vertical bars from the OUTSIDE (?)

All curtesy Dick Locher “majic” …

Count his CONTRADICTIONS, count them one by one, The number will surprise you, that Poppy Locher’s done Four months now he’s seen us grinding, just fussing daily cussing A beguiling, mezmerizing loafer, with a subtle gloating feeling over a comic strip he’s KILLING !

Didn’t we see it coming that he was going to be done in by the tiger?

Who is talking, and where is he? He’s higher than the top of the cage; we can see that much, and if the cage hasn’t morphed since yesterday it reaches almost to the top of the tent. Has someone climbed a tent pole?

Tracy and Ennens were able to stand on the empty space between the bars. Mr. Pops isn’t even between the bars. Is he really falling? Why?

-Cougar :{)

Told ya so.

Quick Poll: When did you first realize that the clown was going to end up in the tiger’s cage in the end? 1) When FeeFi picked him up. 2) When he climbed the cage to get away. 3) When he locked Tracy inside. 4) When this story started. 5) When Locher took over the strip.

The man does like to telegraph things, doesn’t he?

ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……………

Awesome shot of Mr. Pops in the 3rd panel, seems like from that height, he’d be dead from the free fall he will be taking instead of by the tiger 4 lunch. I wasn’t sure what 2 think of this story at first, but I really liked how the way it’s developed. I guess if u want the Chester Gould artwork and storylines, u’re better off going back and reading the older stuff. With Gould we had lightning in a bottle, the likes of what we’ll never see again. That is why I can’t complain much about the way the strip is now. Yes, it can be disappointing at times, but it still is interesting 2 read. Otherwise if it wasn’t being read, no one would have anything 2 say…

I want the pig on wheels!

Well here it is Friday and we are still being tortured by this so called plot line. Any bets that we will still have Mr. Pops & co still around this time next Friday? And who didn’t know that Mr. Pops would fall into the cage? Where is PETA and the ASPCA? What has this poor tiger done to deserve this abuse?

Chester Gould must be spinning in his grave seeing what they have done to his strip!

And “JPBecker” realized too late that the story would not be over for another 2 and a half weeks (i.e. Nov 24)

Tracy refused to shoot the dogs in the Baskerville “epic”. Wanna bet no one shoots the tiger before he turns Mr. Pops into Kaboom breakfast cereal? How convenient. Mr. Pops manages to drop his gun on a fortuitous cross bar out of his reach outside the top of the cage. This strip is an emetic.

On the Yahoo D.T. board it has just been reported that SHEL DORF has “passed on” !

Shel was a lifetime Dick Tracy fan and in years gone by one of the few individuals who had a complete Dick Tracy collection. Some will remember him as the Editor of the Blackthorne Dick Tracy comics which reprinted a large block of Gould’s work. Perhaps even more than Spec Productions (the D.T. Fan Club).

In another sphere not only was he a top artist but for years did that impecable “lettering” for Milton Caniff”s Steve Canyon comic strip, up to the time of the latter’s death.

I corresponded with him occasionally and was the happy recipient of photocopies of a few Canyon Sunday pages prior to publication date !

As Mattie will know, Shel’s Tracy “collection” was donated to the Dick Tracy Museum in Woodstock, with our long absent Jeff Kersten as custodian.

The “real” Dick Tracy World has lost another soldier.

R.I.P. Shel !

RIP Shel indeed.

I am myself curious where Brozman came from. It seems logical that he knew Locher, and was picked by Locher rather than TMS, much the same way that Locher was tapped by Gould. Which, given the state of the strip, seems like a bad approach. I think if TMS were to call “open auditions” for a new team on Dick Tracy they could generate some interest and enthusiasm…maybe even enough to get the strip popular again.

There are a lot of big-name cartoonist who I imagine would love a chance to do Tracy (just as they line up to do Batman in the comic books). Though I am sure Tracy doesn’t generate enough income for many of them. But if I were TMS, I would get innovative and do something like contract with different teams and have them do stories…much as Neil Gaiman did with his “Sandman” books. This goes against newspaper desires, to have a steady, unchanging product. But let’s face it, newspapers are on the decline, Tracy is in the pits, and there is nothing to lose by trying a radical approach. If nothing changes, Tracy is on his way out anyway.

But Mattie, you do know from the D.T.Yahoo board that very shortly writer Mike Curtis with top artist Joe Stanton are currently arranging to put up a NEW Dick Tracy story (Return of Willie the 5th and Flyface)

It’s no secret that it’s with a “VIEW” of trying to impress TMS and take on the job when Locher retires next year.

Matt:

All joking aside…

After reading Apollo, I do hope that you’d consider trying to get the Dick Tracy job.

Your story is coherent, the artwork is good, and your hero is doing an actual police investigation. With DT, I’m sure you’d do a better job than the current team.

I called it!