Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 15, 2008

Has Tess aged that much during these robot antics?!?

but he’s still missing some fingers!

Tess is looking a bit haggard these days.

Grokenstein says: “…And Diet switched his “phone” and “milk” hands!” It’s part of his new fitness regimen.

So, did Tess hang up, or did Diet put Tess on hold so he could talk to Tracy?

Tess, let me save you some trouble. Diet is not qualified in “that” field, or any field for that matter. Judging by his ever expanding and deflating size, he has not even been on a field, in any qualified way, for a long time.

Tess’ looks tend to change each time we see her, but today’s strip…EEEEEWWWWWWW! I just wish DL would stay consistant with his designs! This is awful!

Tess looks like she just marathoned with one of Diet’s prototypes and broke it.

I’ll forgive you all for not paying attention to the events that played out between TMS and DL over the past two months. You obviously have quickly forgotten.

DL was asked to retire from DT in October. Once TMS received an onslaught of negative responses to this event via email and snail mail, they somehow got DL to come back to the strip right before Thanksgiving.

The TRAZE-R story was to be his last. Having been un-retired from the strip at the 11th hour with 59 seconds, DL was required to hammer out the next story (what we are reading here and now).

I can tell just by looking at the 2nd panel that DL had to move quickly in order to reestablish his work, consistent with the deadlines of Tracy’s newspaper clients.

As I see it, the behavior of TMS, once again, leaves quality a distant second in priority to meeting pressing (and unexpected) deadlines. At worst, it leaves DL in the unenviable position of creating a NEW story arc with great haste and without the benefit of the normal deadline schedule he ordinarily is afforded.

I guess we’ll all see the full results of this madness very soon.

Hey, Jeff! Would the Tribune’s request to DL to retire have anything to do with their own financial mess?

JK: You hinted at something aproximately two months ago, but never gave us any details. That was quite unkind of you.

I’m sorry you feel that way, Marguiretem. I’m in a position where it might very well have been harmful to the Museum to provide any more information beyond what was being actively reported in the comics press. If not harmful, it certainly would have been inappropriate, given the positive, long standing relationship the Museum has with TMS, much less my friendship with DL.

As I said above, you had access to enough reported information to draw your own conclusions.

Morrow: I can assure you (with great confidence) that these events had nothing at all to do with the current financial struggles at Tribune Co.

TMS contributes significant cash flow to Tribune’s bottom line and is very healthy in its’ own right as a business unit. The struggles facing Tribune Co. will be resolved through the shedding of assets and business units that do not contribute significantly to its’ cash flow.

Increasing overall cash flow, as I see it, is the only way Tribune Co. can eliminate the onerous debt burden Sam Zell has added to the liability side of its’ balance sheet. To this end, I feel very good about the future for TMS.

Ok, can someone, other than Jeff himself, tell me who he is and what kind of authority he is on the subjects that he lectures to us on? Should I be impressed? Grateful? Should I feel sorry for him and speak nicely? I just can’t figure it out.

Coming from the Cowardly Lion, Pity works best.

“Namedrop the Clown”!! AWESOME!!!

I must be the only one, but I thought Tess looked very attractive in that panel. I didn’t come aboard until the middle of the Baskerville episode, so I don’t know how DL draws her normally.

Ray C says:

I must be the only one, but I thought Tess looked very attractive in that panel. I didn’t come aboard until the middle of the Baskerville episode, so I don’t know how DL draws her normally.

Ray, Ray, Ray….. Don’t you remember Dick Tracy from your youth, when Tess was a pretty woman? She looks rode hard and put away wet in that second panel.

It’s been some time since Tracy promised Tess a vacation.

A huge success? Hasn’t Tracy been reading the strip?

Tess looks like she was drawn by an Etch A Sketch. On a train. That’s going off a cliff.

I wuz gonna say she looks like she wuz rode hard and put up wet, but I thought that was too suggestive……

margueritemPro says: “Ray, Ray, Ray….. Don’t you remember Dick Tracy from your youth, when Tess was a pretty woman? She looks rode hard and put away wet in that second panel.” Well, I happen to like women who look like they’ve been rode hard and put away wet. Especially if it was my fault.

Tess almost looks like she has a mustache…