Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Shelley Pleger for December 14, 2021

An out of town hit man eh? Hmmm

“This is a nice city you have here. Be shame if something were to happen to it.”

Since Abner’s gone, we need a new eraser

Good morning™, everyone!

So, the Ace of Spades (and whatever is left of the Apparatus) runs part of the city. Maybe there is another section of the Apparatus that runs the rest?

It’s interesting that “America’s Top Cop” is “the most annoying cop” to the Ace. At least Mr. Bones hasn’t said that it’s an impossible task — he merely considers it “challenging,” so I guess he’ll have to plan a strategy.

Bones really looks creepy

I thought Columbo was the most annoying cop in America.

Is it just me or does Mr. Bones look like Roy Scheider in that last panel???

Good morning™, new gun in town !

I wonder what method he’ll come up with for removing Ace’s #1 splinter.

That is one creepy looking dude.

To me, Mr. Bones resembles Stanley Kamel from the first 6 seasons of Monk. He played Monk’s psychiatrist. Kamel died of a heart attack after the sixth season was finished and his character died with him.

Shelley’s first bad guy!

I’m seeing “Bones”, I’m hearing Peter Lorre……

Deja Vu. Some version of this conversation has repeated probably every couple of years since DT started! :-)

Is the Dick Tracy movie streamed on any of the big providers?Many years since I saw it, and I kinda liked it.

Will Mr. Bones suffer a fracture? We will see!

so far, he’s less flamboyant than Abner. Do you think Rikki will find him interesting?

Just found who he reminded me of. Harvey Levin, the founder of TMZ.

Quite a cool character. Nothing like Flattop, more — well /cold/

1-TRAVOLTA: So, you have a role for me to play? RATFACE: Maybe – cop a squat.

2-TRAVOLTA: I’ve recently played Santa Claus in a wildly successful commercial so – I still got “it”.

RATFACE: Yeah. I’ve seen it. You were good but I think Samuel L. Jackson might’ve carried you…

3-… Anyway , I need you to play a hitman in a little production I’m putting together starring you and Dick Tracy. We’ll, uh, be using hidden cameras to film it so passers-by won’t mug for the cameras and we, uh, won’t have to get release forms signed.

TRAVOLTA: I’m in. I played a hitman in Pulp Fiction you know. Will there be any dancing? I danced in that, Grease, Saturday…

RATFACE: Maybe at the end of a rope if you’re caught

TRAVOLTA: What? RATFACE: What?

quite humerus today

So, is the city nice because of Apparatus, or is it nice because of good cops and the Ace just wants to take credit for it?

The Ace sounds like a politician. Perhaps he is one who might make a statement like the one from O Brother Where Art Thou: “See, I belong to a certain secret society. I don’t believe I gotta mention its name, you know?”

One would think getting Briar Rose would be the priority. I mean, Tracy isn’t that great a cop. They pretty much handed him that last thing on a platter. And if theysucceeded, don’t you think it would be pretty bad news for them? Like Sam and Lizz and the rest would be working triple time to take them down after that. They are better off with Dick alive.

Is it just me, or does Bones’s demeanor remind anyone else of Fred Rogers?

“Nononono, you big grey goop! Lt. Frank Drebben! Or, if it’ easier, Sam.”

I know this guy. He operates a store in Newport News.

Ragnar13 alluded to the fact that if anybody did kill Dick Tracy, the rest of the department would move heaven and earth trying to capture the killer. This brings to mind a similar idea – didn’t the Apparatus have a strict policy against any attempt on Tracy’s life? Or is this even the Apparatus? Remember near the beginning of the just concluded story, this new Ace guy told a woman he was talking to that he was not necessarily friendly with the Apparatus. Maybe there are two shadowy groups lurking in the city.

We have been introduced to this “Bones” character during the week, so we have no official color for his face. The daily colorist has chosen to give him this ashy look. If a Sunday strip proves that this is his true color, would that mean that better communication is taking place between the colorist and the strip’s creative team?

Well, I guess it’s official.

This story is dead-fish-dead.

As in, having run totally out of gas.

Not even fumes.

Nothing left but yet another

Kew duh Twacy

Kew duh Twacy

Kew duh Twacy

Duh duh duh-duh!

(with apologies to Elmer Fudd’s Wagnerian opera)

No Bones about it: he’s right on this!……..

Bones: to eliminate Tracy? We’ll have to nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.

What’s that in the windows? Birds? Some kind of Hitchcock foreshadowing? Or just windows in the building across the street?

Watch out for the eraser ray eraser…

“Many a killer has tried; many a killer has died.”

No gunsel, no matter how weird-looking, has ever chopped down Dick Tracy. Tracy may take a beating, but he keeps on ticking. He may take a bullet, but he always gives better than he gets.

In other words, Mr. Richard Bonhomme, out-of-town hired assassin, a.k.a. Mr. Bones, you are doomed. Prepare to meet your Maker, courtesy of Dick Tracy….

How does a guy in a full face mask smoke a cigar?

Most annoying cop in America? Fearless Fosdick?

The outfit Bones is wearing…Herman Munster used to sport the same thing.

That’s what Johnny Snow said to Big Boy.And look where HE is.