Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 04, 2021

The unveiling! Like in “The Phantom Of The Opera!”

Good morning™, all!

Will we finally see what’s beneath that mask?

And underneath . . . perfectly normal!

Removing the mask

Is such a task

It’s the end of the mystery

But to Rikki’s surprise

Those EMT guys

Came to take care of Tracy

Abner can wait

It’s a very deserved fate

For all the problems he gave

If he only learned to shoot straight

He might be walking out of the gate

Instead of waiting to be saved

“DON KNOTTS?!”

Did everybody forget we already saw what he looked like last time?This time we will see what he looks like….dead.

And underneath the mask is…… a skeleton. She just ripped off his face. Hellraiser style.

Well Rikki, you’re going back to prison for the rest of your life with no one to help you escape this time.

Good morning™, kollared and killed !

Game over, Rikki. Maybe the jailer will leave a key in a door for your next escape.

The Big Reveal!

Tracy: “There’s… nothing there!?”

Rikki: “Bu-bye, coppers!”

Kind of touching, Rikki’s concern!

I think Rikki is in for a shock….

It’s Tom Cruise!

Next panel: It’s… VITAMIN FLINTHEART! What a magnificent actor!

Turns out he’s really Thomas Tracy, Dick’s Ne’er Do Well Brother

The cliffhanger!

Don’t trust her. It’s some kind of trick to help them escape.

Oh, no! It’s Cary Grant!

Meanwhile, Ten of Spades gets to keep his mask.

Wow, I didnt see that one coming… The Sweatbox Express pulled into the station like a ninja in the night! Geez… what a let down

Btw, the arrow seems to have moved to Tracy’s elbow today

“MR. BONDS, THE FRIENDLY BANKER!” If Sam says ‘zoinks,’ I’m going to throw up.

It’s probably Johnny Depp.

Right now, besides Abner, the best friend Rikki’s got in life is Dick Tracy.

Hasn’t Tracy been poisoned? Why is he standing around?

I would put 2 pairs of handcuffs on that 10 of Spades

Why am I thinking of the Kane face reveal from the WWE?

Drum roll, please……………

“Ye Gods! It’s Cruella De Vil!”

It turns out that he’s really Flattop.

Luke….I’m your father!!

This story should have been titled, “Fooled Y’all.”

I suspect, as usual, the strip will switch to a different scene, or the next situation….. bet ya!

Russian nesting dolls come to mind. Maybe it will be masks all the way down.

Drum roll, please…

The unmasking of a Dick Tracy villain usually means we’ve seen the last of him.

1-RIKKI: You don’t need to cuff him. I think he’ll come along peaceably.

TEN: WHY YOU ARRESTING ME? I was just defending myself and others from the mad arrow-shooter! You know – Standing My Ground! AND I have a permit to “Crotch Carry” a weapon. It’s in my crotch holster! Take a look!

DT: Cut him loose. He’s right. President DeSantis and Vice President Matt Gaetz made that the law of the land.

2-RIKKI: I wish you had lived to see the glorious world our new administration has created even though it kind of led to your death.

A.B.: HANG ON NOW! I AIN’T DEAD YET!

RIKKI: Really? AWH SHOOT!

TEN: MOVE OVER! I’LL DO IT!

DT: DANG COP WANNABEES!!! EVERYBODY STAND… TEN: BLAM BLAM BLAM!

DT: …down.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I happen to be in Florida now which explains the tenor or today’s ALTERNATE TAKE! I could’ve just as easily written about heat and humidity and crowds. Maybe tomorrow…

Tomorrow’s strip: Rikki turns to the audience and breaks the fourth wall: “YOU THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO SHOW YOU ABNER’S FACE, DIDN’T YOU?” SORRY!!! lol j/k

Let’s see….Lon Chaney Sr.?…Clayton Moore?….Bruce Wayne?? Oh the tension, the tension. ..BTW, once again, an astute Wick observation. Will the Case of the Wandering Dart in Dick end at last.?

Abner isn’t going to die from the gunshot. But maybe HE’LL FLIP ON THE APPARATUS! Tracy will have to protect Abner and Rikki!

IT’S A MASK?

As for Abner wearing a mask… In one his last appearances, Rikki is answering the phone while Abner is taking a shower and his mask was hanging from the back of a chair…

Like everyone else… I’m looking forward to seeing who is under the mask… As the old Foster Grant sunglass commercial says : “Who’s that under those Foster Grants ?”

Wait… that was a MASK?!

Will someone pull that rediculous dart out of Tracy’s arm now?

I started this yesterday, but didn’t have a finish. So now;“How many times must old Abner die, before he truly is dead?“Yes, and how many times will the colorist err, before he learns blood is red?“And what does it matter that Rikki is cute, since a murderous life she has led?“The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.“The answer is blowin in the wind.”

Re removing the dart; as has been pointed out, you want to wait until you’ve got time to do it right, since the dart is (mostly) plugging the leak. (And if the head was barbed, it’s going to do more damage coming out.) But the other angle is that if Tracy is active while having the dart stuck into him, he’’s running the risk of knocking the shaft against door frames, seatbacks, etc., which is likely to be quite painful!

Anakin Skywalker, perhaps?……..

“It’s the Old Caretaker!”

“And I would have gotten away with it if weren’t for you meddling kids!”

“Uh, we’re not kids.”

“You are to me! Didn’t you see that capital ‘O’ on ‘Old’?”

This strip reminds of a Night Gallery episode, where Leslie Nielsen played the Phantom of the Opera. After he had lured a young singer down to his lair beneath the opera house, Nielsen, as the Phantom lit several candles, then tried to blow out the wick, but it wouldn’t go out, because Nielsen was wearing the mask. So he was waving it around, trying to extinguish the flame, while staying in character & delivering his lines. Ah, the days of one-take television.

The first time I saw Abner, he was in jail and he looked like he does here. In other words, he was wearing a mask while incarcerated! What jail would allow that?

I have an uncomfortable feeling that, under the mask, he looks like a craggy Karloff, which makes little sense in his having an intimate relationship with Rikki. Unmaskings are always iffy, as there will be people who go with it and others who will be disappointed. It’s the finest of tightropes. Just PLEASE don’t make it Wacky Funnyman Rip Taylor!!

Flattop? Prune Face?

He probably looks a lot scarier with the mask off!

As for wearing a mask, it does explain how Abner can talk even though he has no lips. Does Tracy know he’s wearing a mask?

Don’t tell me! She takes the mask off him and he looks like a movie matinee idol.

By the look on his face, Abner has as they used to say, “bought the farm” or “kicked the bucket”.

Smoke still in the theater? Open all the exit doors! How else can the crime scene tape be put up if everybody is tripping over each other?

For the next three months, Tracy’s arm will be in a sling. Liz, Lee and Sam will do the heavy lifting. Tracy gets desk duty and will hate it. He’ll come down with a case of RLS. (Restless Leg Syndrome)

It would behoove Ten of Spades to do the time for the crime. He does not want to bring undue attention to the Apparatus.

The Temptress teases, but we shall not see the real Face of Abner. The convenient pause by Tracy and his back-up to give Rikki “a minute” also provides her with time for some sleigh of hand, perhaps passing Abner a key (for handcuffs) or a weapon of some sort.

Nevertheless, I expect Kadaver is past his “use by” date and will finally become dead fish dead. His schtick is old tophat by now. Rikki may live to commit another crime another day (after escaping prison), however.

Ten’s male. Okay; it was just yesterday’s art that made me wonder if he might have been a woman. Tomorrow is Saturday, probably main story’s end. Sunday would be good for a denouement (see Ray Toler’s post about 3/4s of the way above, in the long string of replies to Neil Wick), but I’m not holding my breath….

Come Monday, Joe and Mike should have some new villains to bring out of the bull pen. Some Generation Xers or Millennials. Wasn’t Honey Moon and Crystal taking Criminal Studies? They could infiltrate some circles. Sort of Mod Squad and A Chance to Live, the show where David Cassidy played an undercover police officer.