Augh. This story has gotten so stupid I’m actually looking back with nostalgia on the giant robot story. At the time I thought it was a new low for the comic strip, and yet now it seems like a high water mark.
Is anybody at TMS ever going to do anything about this? Before it has zero newspapers?
Man, this story’s so awful that it inspired me to pick up “The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy” when I saw it at Half Price Books yesterday. Just finished reading about B.B.Eyes.
Looking good, Carlo! I really appreciate your ability to draw automobiles realistically. It’s amazing to me how many comic book artists can’t do that. Even artists working on “serious,” comic books from Marvel and DC seem to have absolutely no idea what a car looks like or how they’re proportioned.
OK, the clown shot Fee Fi a couple days ago…did Tracy or the police officer call for medical assistance? No. Where is Ennen? Surely, if she went to powder her nose, she’d be back by now. I’m pleased to see that Mr. Pops survived the 80’+ fall without injuries. This story should be reaching a conclusion within the next month or so.
Carlo, agreed: excellent work. Especially on the cars. I’m jealous, they have ever been my Kryptonite when it comes to cartooning.
Dr Watson: wa ha ha ha.
In the interests of pointing out major flaws on a daily basis: Why is the female bodybuilder also the animal trainer, and why did we not know this before today and why isn’t she in handcuffs if she shot Barb Ellis and why would anyone listen to her telling them not to shoot the tiger and for that matter why doesn’t anyone try to open the dang cage door, and above all why has the ostensible hero of this strip been reduced to a completely passive bystander for the entire length of the story?
Seriously, you could drive an airplane through the holes in this writing.
Flight Suit: oh, man, does that cartoon bring back memories! Alas, they were memories I’d managed to suppress through meditation, alcohol and powerful drugs…
WGN (the Tribune’s TV station; for the uninitiated the call letters stand for “World’s Greatest Newspaper,” which the Tribune once called itself) used to broadcast those cartoons on weekday afternoons back in the ’60s, when I was just a young sprout. Hosted by the late great Ray Rayner, if I recall correctly.
Scanned the credits, but could not see any mention of Dick Locher as head writer. Maybe he was using a pseudonym…
So once again I have to point out that Barb Els admitted to blowing Louise out of the sky, the only murder in this whole story, and was last seen carrying a rifle. Does anybody care? No. She walks up, as if nothing happened, pleading for the tiger. It never occurs to Tracy to slap her in irons and ship her to the slammer.
I wouldn’t worry about Pops. He fell three stories and wasn’t even knocked out. He still has a gun. He is capable of climbing up the side of the cage in a flash. Barb is the cold blooded murder. Where’s the arrest?
Joe Allen Doty said, “The person in panel 2 is “Barb Els,” the female bodybuilder. Some women who become bodybuilders tend to look very masculine over a period of time.
Apparently she is also the animal trainer for this circus made up of Mr. Pops’ former employees.”
I thought that was Barb Els, but faces never look the same more than once in this strip!
kab2rb said, “Too bad they don’t have a tranquiler gun they could give the cat a much need sleep poor thing being deprived of food has to be mad and starved.”
And, dehydrated from, apparantly, no water. The tiger is probably too weak to do much harm. Look what has happened to Tracy. He simply stands and looks (providing commentary).
The last time we saw Barb Els she had a rifle. Does Tracy (or Ennen) have any sort of weapons?
My! My! My! Deny! “Deny”! Deny! Another Mattie infant try !
So what’s framed, panel 2, 2009 on Sunday April “five”
A yellow duck, a nippled teat or a Locher Dab Stract eye ?
Explain yourself untutered pompus Tracy man, try a cry or give that usual silly -SIGH-
They came from Woodstock “green” of ear,
To learn of Tracy from old ones, those who knew and cared
One’s now left, head full and well rewarded
The other’s SLOW, still here, he hasn’t even started
There is something some may scarcely know
He met Dick Locher five times or so
Empowered now with plenty clout
He lectures here, assuming knowledge he struts about
Assuming grandeur knowledge from what Locher had imparted
In one hour HE absorbed it, Dick Tracy A to Z and as a bonus the “smell” Locher may have started
Now powerful and knowing everything he lectures you and me
Soon for his trial strips he’ll try to charge a fee, he’s always hated you guys, getting Tracy free.
Equipped to inform this board, with authority and “bling”
You’d think he was there when Gould designed this thing !
Some may not agree with this assessment and to Matties knowledge cling
And if you do just stay behind to kiss, his “rubber duckie” ring
An empty barrel making hollow noise,
Playing Artist with his Batman looking toys
When you get a “reference” better LOOK and SEE,
Before feeling free to babble, your inaccuracies at me !
You haven’t arrived you’ve just begun
Peeping over the horizon at best, a “rising sun”
No “authority”, no “locus standi” on the Tracy comic case
Open your ears, pay attention Mattie, and realize your place
Posturing and “Biging-up” youself on this and every issue
Pontificating open mouth, a tongue like paper tiger tissue
Your Dick Tracy knowledge is not Encyclopedic
But when you speak we’d think, it’s not Vic Wichert, but YOU’RE the one who wrote it !
You’re right about the TV cartoons, but there is still a difference between them and the current DT strip.
That is…
The cartoons were obviously meant to be ridiculous, for the entertainment of small children. The current DT strip is supposed to be serious entertainment for adults. But, due to sheer ineptitude on the part of the current author, the DT strip is even more ridiculous than the cartoons.
Mattie,
“jtpozenel” may have heard you and reacted for the same reason. Like Locher you repeat yourself too much.
I’m sure you haven’t bothered to look at any of the dated, easy to check, references I’ve made (?) So you can’t respond “intellegently” to them. Your mind and opinions are apparently “frozen” in advance. No need to look, YOU already know ALL the answers ! Don’t mind that readers like Karl Arbo have recently commented on them on the DT Yahoo board and Margueritem also has, right here a few months ago. In your “mental” world these symbols and signature changes STILL don’t exist !
Why should anyone bother to read your opinions when you’ve demonstrated that you have a closed mind, rather than an “enquiring” one ? And so SURE of your faulty opinion (even with helpful dates provided for the examination of the latter) you stick to your original thought. Oblivious to the “evidence” !
Lookin’ good, Matt! It may interest you to know that when I first saw the “teaser” art you linked to here, prior to the start of Apollo, I assumed Crandall was a villain. Even now, he still does have a villain-ish look about him. Perhaps this hints at some inner complexity in his character?
I propose a new award. The Nebuer. Given by fans of comic strips. To the worst artist, poorest writer, most plot holes, least logic, worst continuation of a strip by a different team, slowest pacing, worst coloring, etc. This strip should clean up.
Matthew Hansel said
I would remind you all that APOLLO is updated daily: www.apollocomicstrip.com and that Methuselah’s Gate: Water World is thrice a week: www.waterworld2151.com
Your feedback and comments are always welcome!
MPH
HERE”S SOME FEEDBACK
Stop promoting yourself.
BTW - Locher should retire and save Tracy in the process. And YOU are obsessed with Sydney.
Flight Suit, your checklist of the worst faults of Locher’s strip compared to the UPA 1961 animated series was incomplete. What about:
Plots that move at the speed of a molasses glacier?
No check for the cartoon series. It’s actually pretty lively,
Characters that constantly change their looks from one scene to the next?
No check here. The animators at UPA knew how to draw consistently.
Dick Tracy with huge Groucho Marx eyebrows and without his hat, always looking either frightened or constipated?
Nope. He may not have done much in most of those cartoons, but at least he looked the way he was supposed to. Speaking as someone who owns the DVD set and has watched all 130 episodes, I can vouch that there were a number of times where he actually did take part in the action, instead of leaving everything to his helpers.
It’s all opinion, of course, and I never expect anyone to change theirs after expressing my own. But I’d happily rather watch a dozen of those UPA Dick Tracy cartoons than look at one Locher strip. In fact, I think I’ll go watch some now! Six-two and even, over and out. :-)
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Who’s goosing the cop in Panel One?
Who’s the old guy in Panel Two?
Why is pops already on the ground!? Shouldn’t he still be falling a week from now?
Moreover, why doesn’t he have a broken neck and caved-in skull?
jumbobrain over 14 years ago
Augh. This story has gotten so stupid I’m actually looking back with nostalgia on the giant robot story. At the time I thought it was a new low for the comic strip, and yet now it seems like a high water mark.
Is anybody at TMS ever going to do anything about this? Before it has zero newspapers?
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
And in case you missed my posting a few hours ago on yesterday’s installment…
(Drum roll please…)
The new addition to the DT pantheon who you’ve all been clamoring to see more of…
He’s ENTERTAINING…
He’s DECEASED…
He’s a WATER FOWL…
Ladies and Germs, I give you…
The FUNNY DEAD DUCK:
http://kraptastrophe.blogspot.com/
leakysqueaky712 over 14 years ago
Tootie and Muldoon in panel 1…………….Car 54 where are you???????????????
margueritem over 14 years ago
Rhoda, what have you been up to lately?
margueritem over 14 years ago
Flight Suit, how much are those dead ducks going for?
leakysqueaky712 over 14 years ago
Aunt Marg……see my question to you in Brenda.
Llewellenbruce over 14 years ago
Get Brenda Starr. She knows how to shoot a tiger.
margueritem over 14 years ago
Rhoda, I answered it.
Steve Bartholomew over 14 years ago
Why is the cop asking Tracy for advice? He has yet to do anything. That duck isn’t dead. It doesn’t have an X over its eyes.
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Margueritem, they’re a lot cheaper than what Amazon’s charging for the Pig On Wheels!
CyberV over 14 years ago
Man, this story’s so awful that it inspired me to pick up “The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy” when I saw it at Half Price Books yesterday. Just finished reading about B.B.Eyes.
Man, that was the stuff.
drwatson over 14 years ago
He’s my baby?!! Is that legal?
Fearless_Fosdick over 14 years ago
shoot pops and put him out of his misery.
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Here’s another thing you may have missed, ‘cause I posted it very late last night:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gJ_9FMYI00
I’d never seen that before. I dare say it commits most of the current strip’s crimes and then some. To wit,
Totally implausible physics?
Check!
Absurd criminal scheme that makes absolutely no sense?
Check.
Even more absurd, totally implausible trickery on the part of the good guys?
Check.
Dick Tracy sitting around and doing nothing while the bad guy’s foiled by other people or random bad luck?
Check.
Add to this human hands that are less misshapen, yet have only four fingers, and racial stereotyping that’s almost too inept to be offensive.
Flight Suit says check it out!
coratelli over 14 years ago
Hi guys. Today it’s online the strip number five:
http://shockdom.com/open/carl/
LudwigVonDrake over 14 years ago
The cop in the first panel looks like he’s passing gas.
Sloppy the Clown should be dead from the fall he took.
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Looking good, Carlo! I really appreciate your ability to draw automobiles realistically. It’s amazing to me how many comic book artists can’t do that. Even artists working on “serious,” comic books from Marvel and DC seem to have absolutely no idea what a car looks like or how they’re proportioned.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 14 years ago
OK, the clown shot Fee Fi a couple days ago…did Tracy or the police officer call for medical assistance? No. Where is Ennen? Surely, if she went to powder her nose, she’d be back by now. I’m pleased to see that Mr. Pops survived the 80’+ fall without injuries. This story should be reaching a conclusion within the next month or so.
rshive over 14 years ago
Mr. Pops is evil. The tiger will take a bite and spit it out in disgust. ” I want real food; not just evil clowns!”
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 14 years ago
Perhaps the new guy in panel two is the animal trainer. Where was he when Tracy and Ennen were trapped in the cage?
jumbobrain over 14 years ago
Carlo, agreed: excellent work. Especially on the cars. I’m jealous, they have ever been my Kryptonite when it comes to cartooning.
Dr Watson: wa ha ha ha.
In the interests of pointing out major flaws on a daily basis: Why is the female bodybuilder also the animal trainer, and why did we not know this before today and why isn’t she in handcuffs if she shot Barb Ellis and why would anyone listen to her telling them not to shoot the tiger and for that matter why doesn’t anyone try to open the dang cage door, and above all why has the ostensible hero of this strip been reduced to a completely passive bystander for the entire length of the story?
Seriously, you could drive an airplane through the holes in this writing.
puddleglum1066 over 14 years ago
Flight Suit: oh, man, does that cartoon bring back memories! Alas, they were memories I’d managed to suppress through meditation, alcohol and powerful drugs…
WGN (the Tribune’s TV station; for the uninitiated the call letters stand for “World’s Greatest Newspaper,” which the Tribune once called itself) used to broadcast those cartoons on weekday afternoons back in the ’60s, when I was just a young sprout. Hosted by the late great Ray Rayner, if I recall correctly.
Scanned the credits, but could not see any mention of Dick Locher as head writer. Maybe he was using a pseudonym…
kab2rb over 14 years ago
Too bad they don’t have a tranquiler gun they could give the cat a much need sleep poor thing being deprived of food has to be mad and starved.
Araldite over 14 years ago
So once again I have to point out that Barb Els admitted to blowing Louise out of the sky, the only murder in this whole story, and was last seen carrying a rifle. Does anybody care? No. She walks up, as if nothing happened, pleading for the tiger. It never occurs to Tracy to slap her in irons and ship her to the slammer.
I wouldn’t worry about Pops. He fell three stories and wasn’t even knocked out. He still has a gun. He is capable of climbing up the side of the cage in a flash. Barb is the cold blooded murder. Where’s the arrest?
idarke over 14 years ago
Has there ever been a more ironic statement in this strip than the cop exclaiming “We gotta do something”? Maybe he should start slapping faces.
Saucy1121 Premium Member over 14 years ago
Why does Barb Els have any say in shooting the tiger? WHY IS THE COP LISTENING TO HER????
JPBecker over 14 years ago
Bring back pigs on wheels!!!
Please will someone put this strip out of it’s missery!!!
Hell I could do a better job and I’m not a writer nor artist. Not even a cop! Hell if all police were like this criminals would have a field day!
Well this stinker be over by Thanksgiving or will we still have Pops & company with us come New Years 2011! (Note I said 2011 not 2010)
coratelli over 14 years ago
For Fer Lefer: It’s the Casablanca of the mid 50’s.
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 14 years ago
Joe Allen Doty said, “The person in panel 2 is “Barb Els,” the female bodybuilder. Some women who become bodybuilders tend to look very masculine over a period of time. Apparently she is also the animal trainer for this circus made up of Mr. Pops’ former employees.”
I thought that was Barb Els, but faces never look the same more than once in this strip!
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 14 years ago
kab2rb said, “Too bad they don’t have a tranquiler gun they could give the cat a much need sleep poor thing being deprived of food has to be mad and starved.”
And, dehydrated from, apparantly, no water. The tiger is probably too weak to do much harm. Look what has happened to Tracy. He simply stands and looks (providing commentary).
The last time we saw Barb Els she had a rifle. Does Tracy (or Ennen) have any sort of weapons?
Vista Bill Raley and Comet™ over 14 years ago
JPBecker said, “Bring back pigs on wheels!!!”
I agree! Someone should start a “Pig on Wheels Fan Club”. Maybe Flight Suit will get one going.
sydney over 14 years ago
My! My! My! Deny! “Deny”! Deny! Another Mattie infant try ! So what’s framed, panel 2, 2009 on Sunday April “five” A yellow duck, a nippled teat or a Locher Dab Stract eye ? Explain yourself untutered pompus Tracy man, try a cry or give that usual silly -SIGH-
They came from Woodstock “green” of ear, To learn of Tracy from old ones, those who knew and cared One’s now left, head full and well rewarded The other’s SLOW, still here, he hasn’t even started
There is something some may scarcely know He met Dick Locher five times or so Empowered now with plenty clout He lectures here, assuming knowledge he struts about
Assuming grandeur knowledge from what Locher had imparted In one hour HE absorbed it, Dick Tracy A to Z and as a bonus the “smell” Locher may have started Now powerful and knowing everything he lectures you and me Soon for his trial strips he’ll try to charge a fee, he’s always hated you guys, getting Tracy free.
Equipped to inform this board, with authority and “bling” You’d think he was there when Gould designed this thing ! Some may not agree with this assessment and to Matties knowledge cling And if you do just stay behind to kiss, his “rubber duckie” ring
An empty barrel making hollow noise, Playing Artist with his Batman looking toys When you get a “reference” better LOOK and SEE, Before feeling free to babble, your inaccuracies at me !
You haven’t arrived you’ve just begun Peeping over the horizon at best, a “rising sun” No “authority”, no “locus standi” on the Tracy comic case Open your ears, pay attention Mattie, and realize your place
Posturing and “Biging-up” youself on this and every issue Pontificating open mouth, a tongue like paper tiger tissue Your Dick Tracy knowledge is not Encyclopedic But when you speak we’d think, it’s not Vic Wichert, but YOU’RE the one who wrote it !
DonnieTevault over 14 years ago
Flight Suit:
You’re right about the TV cartoons, but there is still a difference between them and the current DT strip.
That is…
The cartoons were obviously meant to be ridiculous, for the entertainment of small children. The current DT strip is supposed to be serious entertainment for adults. But, due to sheer ineptitude on the part of the current author, the DT strip is even more ridiculous than the cartoons.
margueritem over 14 years ago
Carlo Coratelli, I like your strip very much, and I agree with the others, great job on the car!
jpozenel over 14 years ago
ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz……………
sydney over 14 years ago
Mattie, “jtpozenel” may have heard you and reacted for the same reason. Like Locher you repeat yourself too much.
I’m sure you haven’t bothered to look at any of the dated, easy to check, references I’ve made (?) So you can’t respond “intellegently” to them. Your mind and opinions are apparently “frozen” in advance. No need to look, YOU already know ALL the answers ! Don’t mind that readers like Karl Arbo have recently commented on them on the DT Yahoo board and Margueritem also has, right here a few months ago. In your “mental” world these symbols and signature changes STILL don’t exist !
Why should anyone bother to read your opinions when you’ve demonstrated that you have a closed mind, rather than an “enquiring” one ? And so SURE of your faulty opinion (even with helpful dates provided for the examination of the latter) you stick to your original thought. Oblivious to the “evidence” !
Sorry Mattie, no one can help you !
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Lookin’ good, Matt! It may interest you to know that when I first saw the “teaser” art you linked to here, prior to the start of Apollo, I assumed Crandall was a villain. Even now, he still does have a villain-ish look about him. Perhaps this hints at some inner complexity in his character?
fishbulb over 14 years ago
I propose a new award. The Nebuer. Given by fans of comic strips. To the worst artist, poorest writer, most plot holes, least logic, worst continuation of a strip by a different team, slowest pacing, worst coloring, etc. This strip should clean up.
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
If that’s Barb in Panel Two, why does it look like she’s aged fifty years since we met her?
Oh, wait, I forgot:
We were ALL much younger when this story arc began!
sydney over 14 years ago
fishbulb,
I really like your idea on the Reuben reverse - - the “Nebuer”
And sadly, I agree Dick Locher wins in all categories hands down !
A fresh design is needed for the award - how about “small hands” with Lochers head on top ?
ridenslide65 over 14 years ago
Matthew Hansel said I would remind you all that APOLLO is updated daily: www.apollocomicstrip.com and that Methuselah’s Gate: Water World is thrice a week: www.waterworld2151.com Your feedback and comments are always welcome! MPH
HERE”S SOME FEEDBACK
Stop promoting yourself.
BTW - Locher should retire and save Tracy in the process. And YOU are obsessed with Sydney.
FLIGHT SUIT over 14 years ago
Matt:
Keep on promoting yourself. It doesn’t hurt anybody if you occasionally post a link here, and it doesn’t cost them anything if you do so.
Maxine_Viller over 14 years ago
Flight Suit, your checklist of the worst faults of Locher’s strip compared to the UPA 1961 animated series was incomplete. What about:
Plots that move at the speed of a molasses glacier?
No check for the cartoon series. It’s actually pretty lively,
Characters that constantly change their looks from one scene to the next?
No check here. The animators at UPA knew how to draw consistently.
Dick Tracy with huge Groucho Marx eyebrows and without his hat, always looking either frightened or constipated?
Nope. He may not have done much in most of those cartoons, but at least he looked the way he was supposed to. Speaking as someone who owns the DVD set and has watched all 130 episodes, I can vouch that there were a number of times where he actually did take part in the action, instead of leaving everything to his helpers.
It’s all opinion, of course, and I never expect anyone to change theirs after expressing my own. But I’d happily rather watch a dozen of those UPA Dick Tracy cartoons than look at one Locher strip. In fact, I think I’ll go watch some now! Six-two and even, over and out. :-)