Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 04, 2023

Boss hears voices in his head.

Just a worker, so I dread

To hear him speak to one not there

Newbies gawk. The vets don’t care.

Landline rings, “Four digits, please”

A gift is promised just to tease

The unsuspecting easy mark

For the scamming hungry shark.

Elsewhere, a train rolls down the tracks

Sprocket smiles, as shoes she lacks

A temp work gig is on her mind

Look for Fate to be unkind.

Send this Sunday to Quentin Tarantino

A temp job???

How freaking long is that book signing, 3 months?

He’ll sign one book a day??

Silly conversation.

Well, we see how the stories will connect now. Not a great job idea for someone on the lam from the cops.

Sprocket has a funky big toe in the first panel. It must be able to change position! LOL!

Looks like Neil lied to us, he DID exchange plot information with Mike at the furry convention!

What else was exchanged????

Good morning™, everyone!

Susan/Sprocket wanted out of the scam business, but it looks like she is going to accidentally go back into a different type of scam, only on the phone this time.

On a serious note, the timing of today’s strip is unfortunate given the tragic train crash yesterday in India.

Let’s pray for the survivors and for those who lost loved ones.

All his book signings for the next months are in the same city? Doesn’t he understand how book tours work?

seems like her mode of transportation is a pair of flip-flops when she’s not doing the barefoot thing… that’s a happy medium between going barefoot and not wanting your entire foot covered by shoe material…

Once again, Mike has written a strip that is about 5 to 10 years behind the times & has some questionable narrative features. Authors, for the most part, really don’t do lengthy book tours any more, the few newspapers that still exist really don’t have classified ad sections, & whoever heard of someone accompanying their spouse on a business trip & then deciding to spend their spare time on a temp job. They might as well have stayed home if they’re going to have that much free time on their hands. I guess Mike wanted to have Sprocket inadvertently find herself in the middle of some other con man’s scam operation & then see how she would react, which could make for a valid storyline — does she revert to her criminal identity, play along with it, or try to expose it & risk revealing her real identity to Adam? But as usual Mike seems to have taken an approach that undermines the whole plausibility of the story by being both overcomplicated & not really thought out.

Wow! The depiction of Adam is so different from last Sunday, today’s looks like the version that Neil said was Joe’s drawing of him that made him look older than last weeks where Shelley made him look younger.

When production of Adam’s book ramps up, what are the odds that the call center will try to grab a piece of the action?

Wait a minute, Susan will get a job at the call center. MCU, when they get wind of this will make her their criminal informant. Based on the ad, there must be a high turnover at that place.

The boss/supervisor who is having monologues with himself needs to get help to deal with that stress. Unless Susan wears her wedding ring, the guy is going to make a pass at her.

Ok, I have to say it, I LOVE that train!

Is she going to get a job working with Miss Cleo and join the Psychic Network? Can she do a fake Jamaican accent “Mon” ?

Well she’s certainly used to scamming people—you might say it’s the family business

I do have one nit-pick about the train – Amtrak doesn’t use “cab-cars” (passenger seating and a control cab all in one unit) on their long distance, cross-country trains. They have been using the GE “Genesis” locomotives for over 20 years, and they are now beginning to phase in new Siemens “Charger” locomotives. The characters are supposed to be going to our unnamed mid-west city from California. But it is still a very nice rendering of a passenger train.

Eh everyone notice me bear feets.

That’s a rather large Uber they’re in.

Wait til he finds out her name **ISN’T**Susan, and that she’s a wanted criminal

There’s male pattern baldness guy again.

And then Yeti ambles through, disguised as a conductor…

Reminds me of the Robert Parker song Barefootin

For your entertainment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azIytXgdggA

Somebody is a coward.Unacceptable in Tracyville! LOL!

Oooof: another “tailor-made for hippies” type job prospect! As “B.D.” once remarked to “Zonker” Harris: “Ah, dressed for failure, I see……”…….

OT: I took a tumble trying to be Spider-Man at one of my local Walmarts and banged my right hand and thumb. It’s hard to type as I’m right-hnded so I’m a little quiet (I know… HALLELUJAH!), but I’m still here “Liking.” Hopefully I’ll be back to yapping in a few days. Peace, my peeps!

A Feast for the Feet Freaks

1-CHAINRING: We would a been there hours ago if you weren’t so scared of flying.

2-ATOM: I’m flying in my mind, baby! CHAINRING: You must be if you think that combover is working for you.

3-…Hmmm. The Tracyville Times has a Swingers section.

4-ATOM: Yeah? Lemme see! CHAINRING: Oooh. I think I’ll give this one a call – Are your feet big and dirty? I wanna know you!

5-ATOM: HA! I placed that ad before we left! You’ll just be calling me!

CHAINRING: Oh you! I should’ve known. Now come on…give me some of foot! Oh yeah! That’s it. Ooh. Just like that. Wait. Are you wearing protection?

ATOM: Yes – my tan ones.

That sounds like a pretty temporary temp job!

I’m pleasantly surprised to see that we aren’t still sitting around the police station listening to Tracy, Sam, BO, and the chicken talk and cluck about what they are going to do. Maybe that will pick back up tomorrow. It looks like some movement in the plot, however little. The Nitrates, Sprocket at least, will have something to do with this slow-moving train of a story.

Avenger rightly pointed out Sprocket’s two left feet. That’s an oops from an otherwise stellar artist. Shelley got them right in the last pane.

Throw away that throwaway panel: Susan/Sprocket should not have two left feet (though both are drawn well)! Looks freakish.

Artsy-fartsy Adam author Austin, in his turtleneck, jacket, thin-rim glasses, and pathetic comb-over, is heading from “our house in the country” to “the big city” for (unquantified) book signings (plural). Responding to his question, Susan says maybe she’ll take a temp job, and is attracted to one (which we know to be the phone scam call center boiler room) in particular because it specifies no dress code, suiting her preference for being barefoot at all times. And she plays footsie with Adam, who has shed a loafer to join in with her….

So idyllic! What could possibly go wrong?

Advise Sprocket to work in a soup kitchen instead, feeding the homeless

Okay, with this flashback, we’ve seemingly established that phone center Susan is Sprocket, who apparently doesn’t like wearing shoes (or, even socks.)