Comics for the Blind: Dick Tracy

Showing posts with label Dick Tracy. Show all posts

2014-09-17

Action Thisday: Boring... predictable... HOLY SHIT!

Shit is about to get real in Dick Tracy as the team have arrived to put a stop to Axel's plans, but right now they're just waiting for morning. Anyone else feel like this story has dragged on too long? Early in their run Staton and Curtis were accused of rushing through their stories too quickly, but if that was a problem then, they've over-corrected. Personally I loved the fast pace and quick resolutions, but I guess maybe they were burning through their story ideas too quickly? Whatever the reason, I'm ready for this to be over.

Remember how Mandrake the Magician had been kidnapped and brought to the distant future by one of the rulers of Earth? It turns out she wanted him to put on a magic show for her. To start with she got a robot version of Luciphor (called Cobra) to attack him, and he blasted it with magic, which she loved. Then he got pissed off and "gestured hypnotically" to make her appear to be a child, to demonstrate what he thought of her.

Mandrake the Magician, 2014-09-13.

"Marvelous magic-- made me think I am a little girl" says the Bozz, looking into a mirror.
"Yes--" says Mandrake, "a naughty girl-- who should be treated as such--"
He picks her up and puts her over his knee.
"50,000 years ago-- this was called-- a spanking."
"!" says the Bozz.

Well, that's taught her a lesson. Or not, because it turns out she loved it. And the other two rulers want a spanking too. Seriously. I think this is the point where Mandrake becomes a fetish comic?

At least we can always count on The Amazing Spider-Man being hilariously incompetent. In order to test his suspicions about Doc Ock, Spidey broke into the jail cell where Ox was being held and "tricked" him into revealing that he was hired to commit a crime, possibly by Octavius.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-09-15.

"Ox gave me info he didn't know he had." says Spidey to no-one as he swings away. "Now I'm positive Dr. Octavius is up to no good!"
Meanwhile...
"I wanna tear Doc Ock limb from limb from limb." says Ox, gripping the bars of his cell's window. "But even I can't bend them cars like Spider-Man did."
Suddenly he stops, looking more closely at the bars.
"But — looks like he might've loosened one when he bent it back in place!"

So now Spidey has accidentally helped a criminal break out of prison. Good job, Peter!

And finally, James Allen shows us again that the new Mark Trail can be as good as the old (although for different reasons). It all started on Sept 9 when "Dirty", fleeing in his car, encountered some rhinoceroses The next day they attacked, and it just got better from there. Actually, don't even bother clicking those last two links, here they are in all their glory:

Mark Trail, 2014-09-12.

Mark Trail, 2014-09-13.

And then Mark dragged him from the flaming wreck.

Mark Trail, 2014-09-17.

Mark, Lori and Taurus are rushing Chris Dyer to the nearest hospital
"We'll be there soon Chris — just hang on!" says Mark.
"Mark, I was only trying to to make things right for me and Lori!" says Chris. "I never meant to ..."

God dammit, Mark, call him "Dirty"!

2014-08-26

Action Tuesday: What sound do guns make?

Dick Tracy is still stuck in the past (or whatever), but the rest of the team have finally figured out where he was going when he disappeared and are now researching the island.

Dick Tracy, 2014-08-22.

"Lex Associates holds Thunder Island?" says Tess.
"Fritz Ann, can you tell us about them?" asks Patton.
"Pardon me, Chief Patton, but I think we have all we need to know." says the Asp. "Lex Associates, when partially erased and reversed..."
He takes a marker and begins writing on the whiteboard.
"...spells Axel. He is our primary foe."
"Our records list Axel as missing presumed dead." says Fritz Ann.
"If only, Ms. Dietrich."

And everyone is just going to accept tht as though it means something. Wait a second, Dick Tracy left by car. Cars have wheels, connected by... Axles! Axle... Axel... am I the only one seeing this?

And Doc Ock still hasn't revealed his nefarious plan yet and continues to act as a far better super hero than Spider-Man ever was. In fact, he just foiled a bank robbery.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-08-26.

"Always glad to help, officer, when I can spare time from my research." says Octavius.
"Yeah?" says the police officer. "What're you workin' on these days, Dr. Octopus?"
"I fear I'm not at liberty to say... but I can guarantee it will shake things up a bit."
"Why is my spider sense suddenly tingling?" wonders Peter.

Good question, Peter. It's really hard to figure out what will or won't set it off. I thought the basic premise was that it was a sort of proximity warning, but the number of times you've been hit on the head (both by villains and by inanimate objects just falling on you) tells me that can't be the case. And in the past I've seen it go off because there was some important paperwork nearby, and because someone was talking about you. And not even someone nearby where you could have subconsciously overheard them.

In this case though, it's pretty obvious that Doc Ock is building some kind of earthquake machine. For crime. He's not even being subtle about it.

You know who else could use some help spotting the blatantly obvious? Mark Trail. He has finally discovered Dirty's poaching though, and rather than going to the police decided to just confront him about it. In the middle of nowhere, with no witnesses. Well, Lori and Taurus are there, but seriously, dumb move.

Mark Trail, 2014-08-25.

"You've interfered long enough, Trail!" says Dirty, tackling Mark to the ground and drawing a large knife.
"Chris, wait!" pleads Mark, totally forgetting to call him "Dirty".
KAPOW
Taurus holds a smoking rifle in his hands.
"Taurus!?" exclaims Dirty. "What are you doing?"
"I can't let you do that, Chris - now drop the knife!"

Since when does a gunshot sound like "kapow"? And why won't anyone call him "Dirty"?

And we have a new daily story in The Phantom this week, which is already off to a much better start than the last one. We meet two new characters, Barker and Shotgun, criminals who have a "hijack job" to do in the morning. Surprisingly, Shotgun is the more reasonable of the two, advising his partner not to get too drunk the night before.

The Phantom, 2014-08-26.

Barker and Shotgun walk past an alley and notice a homeless man with a shopping trolley walking along it.
"Hey, Shotgun!" says Barker. "Watch this guy flop!"
With that he pulls out his gun and shoots the homeless man.
"Are you out of your mind!?" asks Shotgun, aghast.

I guess they really needed to make this guy super-evil, just so the Phantom would look like the good guy by comparison.

2014-07-29

Action Tuesday: Call me "Dirty"!

It didn't take long for Jane's World to get back to more of a soap-opera style, but since I didn't post when it happened, here's how that cop flashback ended up.

Jane's World, 2014-07-11.

"This is unit 16 calling for back-up." says Chelle into her radio. "Officer down, one suspect dead.."
The dead man lies in the doorway, his gun on the floor beside him. Chelle's hat has also fallen onto the floor. Jill grimaces as she clutches at the bullet wound in her right arm.
".. Second suspect fled through the open window. He's armed, over." says Chelle.
"10-4..." replies the dispatcher. "Black and white dispatched. Ambulance en route. Over"
"Officer James is conscious and on the second level." says Chelle, checking on Jill. "I am pursuing secong suspect on foot... over."

You're tried to apprehend an armed criminal and he just shot your partner, so now you're going to chase after him by yourself, on foot, with no idea how far away your backup is? Chelle was a terrible cop.

Not a lot's happened in Spider-Man, Doc Ock is still pretending to be a super hero and JJJ is still funding him in exchange for the "free" publicity of being able to publish pictures of him doing so. Most recently the Ox has showed up and kidnapped Morton Q Pierport (whose name alone tells you that he's rich), supposedly for ransom money. But he let slip that he's actually acting on orders. Who could they possibly have come from, I wonder? Surely not Doctor Octopus, he's a hero now!

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-07-28.

"Spider-Man and Dr. Octopus are hurrying toward the kidnap scene..." says a television reporter, showing live footage of the chase (which casts serious doubts on the value of Peter's photos).
"Why's that wall-crawler trying to butt in on Octavius' heroics?" demands Jameson, through gritted teeth.
"He's a crime-fighter, Jonah. He fights crime." says Robbie, as though explaining to a child.
While...
"Can't let Doc Ock beat me to the Ox." says Spider-Man to no one, as he swings through the city.

Of course, Spidey and Ock show up at exactly the same time, and I can't wait to see how Peter screws this up. Also, I couldn't let this delightful panel of Peter being put in his place by Jameson slip by without notice.

Panel from The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-07-09.

He's got you there, Peter.

Dick Tracy has been a bit slow of late as well. Punjab and the Asp managed to track down the Butcher of the Balkans by following the guy they were previously interrogating and then Punjab did some kind of magic thing and made the Butcher disappear somehow. See if you can make any more sense of it than that.

Back in 1944 (or the place that someone is trying very hard to make look like 1944), Annie has discovered that the "Belinda" radio show seems to have a hypnotic effect on everyone, so she's asked Dick to meet her "junior commandos" club.

Dick Tracy, 2014-07-28.

Simmons Corners
"Annie, I'd like to meet your junior commandos, but I have another meeting to attend..." says Dick.
"They'll be here soon, Officer Tracy." says Annie.
"Ye gods!" says Dick, looking at his watch. "It's 4:40. 'Belinda' will be on the radio in 5 minutes!"
"Don't worry, you can miss it this once!" says Annie.
"I..." says Dick, standing up and holding a hand to his head. "I don't think I should."
"I bet your watch is fast." says Annie, jumping to her feet. "Sit down and I'll get you some water."

And then she threw the water on him and his memory came back. I think this comic made more sense when it was about moon people.

Mark Trail is still in an undisclosed country in Africa, and travelling around with Chris and Lori, some people he met in the airport. Turns out Chris is into Lori, but she doesn't feel the same, and for some reason Chris has decided that the only possible explanation for that is that Lori must have fallen for Mark. In the few days since they met. Why she didn't return his feelings before meeting Mark is clearly still a mystery.

So Chris decided to take Mark aside and kill him, then try to make it look like an animal attack. But first, get to know him a bit.

Mark Trail, 2014-07-15.

"What's on your mind, Chris?" asks Mark.
"Mark, please call me 'dirty'! My good friends call me Dirty!" says Chris, and this conversation's suddenly gotten a lot more entertaining.
"Mark," continues Chris (aka. Dirty) "I've known Lori for several years now... and I can tell you that I have grown quite fond of her!"
A nearby elephant laughs, presumably at the phrase "call me 'Dirty'!"

James Allen, you're all right.

Panel from Mark Trail, 2014-07-15.

2014-07-08

Action Tuesday: Time Travel, Flashbacks, Ghosts and Mysterious Deaths

Alley Oop and Ooola have travelled to the future (which is, from our perspective, still the past) and have arrived at Paravox Studios, which Alley believes to be the company that made the first film adaptation of Frankenstein.

Alley Oop, 2014-07-07.

Oop and Ooola have travelled to the Paravox movie studio in 1942 Hollywood in hopes of seeing the filming of "Frankenstein." Instead, they find that the movie was filmed in 1931...
"Let's just go home, Alley!" says Ooola.
"Say, don't leave, though!" says a man who apparently works for Paravox. "You've both got jobs as extras here if you want it!"
"Really?" says Ooola, suddenly interested.
"What's th' movie?" asks Alley, less enthusiastically.
"I'm directing a picture called 'Prehistoric World!'" says the man.

This is such a weird comic.

Dick Tracy is still stuck... wherever (or whenever) he was last week, so now we're back with the rest of the team and Sam's taken Warbucks to meet an informant.

Dick Tracy, 2014-07-08.

"You transported 'The Butcher' and Annie to your boss, but can't remember where?" asks Warbucks angrily. "Did you pilot the boat blindfolded, man?"
"Warbucks!" says Sam, holding him back.
"I -I dunno any more!" says the informant.
"I'll help you." says Warbucks. "The Great Am has told me about your boss, Axel! Where is he?"
"The Am knows?" says the informant, sweating as he begins to panic. "No! I can't say! I ca.. Nnggh!"
Suddenly he convulses and falls off his chair.
"What the...?" says Sam, standing up. "We need a medic!"

Was the informant just killed remotely by some sort of supernatural power? Actual time travel is starting to look more likely.

Jane's World is doing a flashback, as is so often the case, but this time I think I actually know how it relates to the current plot and I sort of know who the people involved are.

Jill and Chelle were meeting up somewhere, but somehow two criminals knew about it and were waiting. They kidnapped Jill and demanded money from Chelle. Apparently the four knew each other from some past interaction, and I think this flashback is that. It seems that Jill and Chelle were both cops at some point, and this flashback concerns a time when the two of them were investigating... some place. At night. I guess the kidnappers will show up at some point and this will all link together. But it's Jane's World, so maybe not.

Jane's World, 2014-07-07.

"Come on!" whispers Chelle.
Jill squeezes through the gate behind Chelle... .. and they move quickly to the darkened stairway...

It's moving a little slowly, but it's holding my attention so far.

Panel from Jane's World, 2014-07-04.

And as I mentioned last week, the Phantom managed to get to the president in time and beat up the Python's followers.

The Phantom, 2014-07-04.

"I need to get up to the wire and defuse an armed staring contest!" says the president, helping to tie up one of the terrorists.
"Good idea!" says the Phantom, tying up the other. "Before someone does something stupid!"
"No skull-marks?" asks the president.
"I was never here! Your prisoner, Mr. President! I'll see you soon, old friend! In Mawitaan!"

And then the president got to lead the terrorists out of there at gunpoint and look like a total badass. Of course, they know that the Phantom was there, so they could easily say as much. And at least three members of the Jungle Patrol know that the Unknown Commander was there. Some people could very easily put two and two together here. The Phantom is so cavalier about his secret identities.

2014-07-01

Action Tuesday: Mystery and Deception

Dick Tracy, having received a coded message somehow sent out by Annie, has gone off by himself to look for her in the middle of the night with no backup and no wrist wizard. I'm not sure if he even owns a mobile phone, given that he normally uses the wrist wizard, but it's probably safe to say that he didn't bring one of those either. So of course he's been knocked unconscious and taken to an unknown location.

Dick Tracy, 2014-06-29.

A calendar on the wall reads "June 1944" and rather than a picture the inside cover bears the slogan "Loose Lips Sink Ships". Dick wakes up in an unfamiliar bed. A woman wearing an old-fashioned nurse's uniform stands beside his bed. Her eyes are white, no pupils or irises.
"Is it morning already?" asks Dick. "Where am I?"
"Officer Tracy!" says the nurse. "You're finally awake!"
"Who are you?"
"I'm Nurse Pardene. You're in the hospital at Simmons Corners. You used to be our police officer. Don't you remember?"
"No..." says Dick, clutching his head.
"You enlisted the day after Pearl Harbor. You were sent home when you were injured at Anzio."
Nurse Pardene opens the door.
"Maybe some fresh baked cookies will make you feel better."
Dick looks up as a young red-haired girl comes into the room.
"Annie?"
"Hi, Officer Tracy!" says Annie, apparently totally at ease with her surroundings. "Have some cookies?"

What does this mean? I'm assuming it's not time travel (although given the moon people, clones, space ships, etc. it's not totally out of the question), but why is someone going to all this trouble to make Tracy think it's 1944? Why is Nurse Pardene drawn with Annie-style eyes? If she's an existing character, I don't think she went by this name before since I couldn't turn anything up on Google. Are they still on the island that Dick traced Annie to? What is going on here, and why?

The Phantom, 2014-06-30.

"The Phantom is rough on roughnecks!" - Old Jungle Saying.

Some of those old jungle sayings just don't sound very impressive. There's some awesome violence to distract us in that strip though. Also in today's. The Phantom is so cool.

On the other end of the super-her spectrum, Spider-Man is still being made to look stupid by the apparently reformed Doc Ock. Peter, J Jonah Jameson and Otto were in a car together as JJJ and Ock discussed their proposed business relationship. Jonah hates Spider-Man, but he apparently doesn't have any problem with suddenly repentant super-villains.

Anyway, as they drove they encountered a fleeing carjacker and Octavius decided he'd go after it. Peter tried to convince Jonah to let him out of the car too so that he could take pictures, but JJJ was quick to point out that that was a stupid idea as there was no possible way for a photographer on foot to keep up with a high-speed car chase.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-06-30.

Dr. Octopus goes after the carjacker...
"You wanted me to garner publicity for your paper, Jameson," says Ock, climbing out of the moving car, "will this do?"
"It sure will!" calls Jonah. "Well, what're you waiting for, Parker? Chase after him and take some pictures!"

See, it was a dumb idea when Peter suggested it, but now that Jonah is suggesting it it just makes Peter look even dumber, so everyone wins.

2014-06-17

Action Tuesday: Police Brutality

Dick Tracy is finally on the case, looking for Annie. He kind of started last week, but this week the whole team's on board. Leapin' lizards!

Dick Tracy, 2014-06-15.

The search for Annie is on!
"Warbucks, I'm assigning your men to work with members of the Major Crimes Unit while you and I check out leads. There'll be more for you after we meet with Am's informant." says Tracy. "Punjab, I'd like you to accompany Lizz and Lee. The informant they'll be interviewing isn't normally cooperative."
"Ha! Isn't getting info from Pouch always a walk in the park?" says Lizz, referring to Pouch's job as a balloon-seller in the park.
"It will be my honor to escort you both to meet this 'Pouch'." says Punjab, bowing.

City Park
"Balloons!" calls Pouch. "Get yer balloons here!"
Punjab approaches him holding a sword that seems little more than a knife in his hands.
"Memsahib Lizz," he says, "is this the miscreant you wish to question?"
"Yi!!" gasps Pouch as the terrifying giant leans over him.

And Mark Trail is in Africa! No specific country, just Africa.

Mark Trail, 2014-06-16.

"Jacob Hickman has disappeared..." says Kaden, an African man, to Mark. "We found his truck — it had been run off a cliff... he wasn'tr inside! I'm afraid we fear the worst!"
He reaches down to take Mark's suitcases.
"Sorry to greet you with such disappointing news... I can take you to a good hotel with fine dining if you wish!"
Later
Mark sits at an outdoor table.
"Poachers may have gotten Jacob because of his conservation work..." he thinks. "Now I'm stuck here!"

He seems somewhat vexed by the news of his colleague's death. It's a real inconvenience for him.

And this week, The Phantom jumped out of a helicopter and almost hit another helicopter on his way down, but managed to miss it by losing some altitude and made it over the fence.

The Phantom, 2014-06-17.

"What was that?" asks one guard.
"You heard it too?" asks another.
A dog growls.
"Well, something was flapping around up there!" says a third.
"If you say so." says a fourth.
As this speculation continues, the Phantom opens his parachute to land unseen beyond all of them.

And remember how Alley Oop left his dinosaur, Dinny, in the middle of nowhere when he went to rescue Ooola? And then they both rode her dinosaur, Pterry, out of there? Yeah, Alley hasn't even spared Dinny a thought since then.

Alley Oop, 2014-06-13.

"Foozy had a great idea!" thinks Alley. "Ooola's gonna love this! Now, I just hafta find her!"
Suddenly he notices Dinny on the road ahead of him.
"Dinny!!" he calls. "Buddy, I'm glad to see you made it back t'Moo!!"

Glad, perhaps, but not so glad that he bothered to do anything to help.

2014-06-11

Action Tuesday: Africa⁉

Dick Tracy is finally investigating Annie's disappearance! After teasing it for so long, Staton and Curtis finally had Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks meet with Tracy yesterday, and today they're going to meet with someone who Warbucks believes has information on Annie's whereabouts.

Dick Tracy, 2014-06-10.

The city's finest hotel, The Siam.
"You staying here, Warbucks?" asks Tracy.

"Heh-heh! I can't afford it!" says Warbucks.
"Welcome, Mr. Warbucks, Mr. Tracy." says a hotel staff member. "I'll summon him."
"Tracy, this is my friend, The Great Am." says Warbucks, introducing a man with a long white beard.
"So this is Dick Tracy!" says The Great Am. "Your face is very familiar."

There's a hotel that Oliver Warbucks can't afford to stay in? Oliver Warbucks the "multi-zillionaire"?

Spider-Man's latest story is off to a pretty good start too, with Doc Ock apparently turning over a new leaf and preventing a prison break.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-06-09.

Spider-Man finally reaches state prison...
"That mini-quake didn't do this wall any good." says Spidey to no one. "But I'll make sure no prisoners escape."
"No need, Spider-Man." says the warden. "Dr. Octopus ended the breakout."
"As you might have done..." says Ock, "had you arrived in time!"

Fighting crime and showing up Spider-Man, he'll fit right in with the rest of the city's heroes.

Mark Trail is going to Africa!

Mark Trail, 2014-06-10.

Mark Trail, 2014-06-10.

"My editor, Bill Ellis, wants me to go to Africa!" says Mark.
"Africa⁉" says Cherry, crossly.
"Africa?" says Rusty. "Oh boy ... Mark, can I go?"

Ha ha ha. Of course not, Rusty. Of course not.

And saving the best for last, Judge Parker continues to deliver. After another week of Katherine continuing to negotiate with the man holding her captive, as though she were the one in the superior bargaining position, Alan showed up. Remember how he wandered off earlier? Yeah, he went to find Katherine. And succeeded.

Judge Parker, 2014-06-08.

"You're the man from the ship!" says Flaco.
"That's right..." says Alan. "And that woman is my wife! I demand that you release her at once!"
"What is it with you people making demands all the time?" asks Flaco, understandably confused at the Parkers' utter obliviousness to danger.
"Untie my wife before somebody gets killed!" says Alan, presumably not referring to himself even though he's the one with a gun to his head.
"You have no gun!" says Flaco.
"I don't need a gun!" says Alan, cryptically.
"Flaco, my husband is a novelist!" says Katherine, as though that explains everything. "Perhaps you've heard of him... Alan Parker! He just wrote a best-seller!"
"Alan Parker?" says Flaco, clearly losing control of the situation. "The same Alan Parker who wrote 'The Chambers Affair'? I loved that book! I finished it on the ship just before Li Hai disappeared!"
"I'm glad you enjoyed it!" says Alan. "We're writing the movie script now!"
"You know," says Flaco, "I thought it would make a wonderful movie!"
Meanwhile, nearby a mercenary watches all this unfold.
"Now we have Mr. Parker in the picture!" she says. "What now?"
"Stay on target..." says a voice over the radio. "Wait for Abbott!"

And then Flaco asked Alan for some advice on writing before surrendering to Katherine. Judge Parker is my favourite comic right now.

2014-05-14

Action Tuesday: That's why they call him "dick".

This week, Dick Tracy has been looking into police corruption.

Dick Tracy, 2014-05-07.

"What's up, Tracy?" asks Sam as Dick pores through stacks of papers. "I haven't seen you hit the files like that since..."
He pauses for thought.
"Heck, I've never seen you hit the files like that. Lizz, Lee and I usually do the digging."
"I don't like what happened with the Kolossal case, Sam." says Dick.
He's probably upset that someone died horrifically and he wasn't there to see it.
"And I like what I'm finding in these related case histories even less." he continues. "I think Tabby Angus may be getting away with murder!"

So we learned that Dick Tracy really doesn't pull his weight. He just shows up in time to watch some criminals die and then leaves the paperwork for his co-workers.

The stalemate in Judge Parker hasn't really moved since last week, everyone's just been caught up on what's going on. And we found out that Flaco's wife, Li Hai, wasn't murdered by April on the cruise ship. Now Abbott's on the radio with Flaco and April's still in the jungle with her hostage.

Judge Parker, 2014-05-13.

"Li Hai's in Acapulco?" says Flaco over the radio. "I don't believe you."
Beside him Katherine is bound and gagged.
"She was detained on the ship and placed in custody in the brig!" replies Abbott. "Travelling under a phony passport is illegal in Mexico, Flaco! I assure you, Li Hai is quite safe with my federale friends!"
Hidden in the jungle listening to both sides on her stolen radio, April smiles.

And J Jonah Jameson has had the most temporary change of heart imaginable. Mere moments after shaking hands with Spider-Man he's begun thinking of ways to spin the story to put Spidey in a bad light.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-05-13.

"What'll the public think when the Bugle's headline denounces Spider-Man —" asks Robbie, holding up the photo of Jonah and Spidey shaking hands, "— above this photo of you two shaking hands?"
"That J. Jonah Jameson's a big enough man to salute a foe —" says Jonah, gesticulating, "— before I expose him for the hypocritical fraud he is!"
"Spidey's a hypocritical fraud!?" thinks Peter.

I know Peter's thought is supposed to be "look who's talking" type of thing, but I like to imagine he's just reacting to Jonah's statement as though it's actually a shocking revelation. "Really, Spider-Man is a hypocritical fraud? But I'm Spider-Man! Does this mean I'm a fraud?"

2014-05-06

Action Tuesday: Trust and Friendship

Dick Tracy still hasn't followed up on the disappearance of Little Orphan Annie, but the story we're getting instead is starting to look interesting.

Dick Tracy, 2014-05-06.

"What's going on, chief?" asks Dick.
"Tracy, it's about that death at Kolossal studios." says Patton.
"Are the results back from forensics?"
"Maybe." says Patton, narrowing his eyes. "I don't know because the case was reassigned."
"Reassigned?" exclaims Dick, jumping to his feet. "But the studio is within city limits. That's in our jurisdiction!"
"The higher-ups gave it to Jeff Clark over at county, Tracy. It seems he gets all cases connected with Tabby Angus."

Police corruption! Are we about to see Dick Tracy gun down a corrupt officer? I hope so.

Meanwhile, Popeye has forgotten all about his shameful surname (which we never got to hear) and is now focused on the problem of the toolshed that seems to be locked but shouldn't be.

Popeye, 2014-05-06.

"I told ya it was locked!" says Swee'Pea. "I has ta git the spade!"
"The door mus' be jammed..." says Popey. "I'll have to smash it in!"
Suddenly Swee'Pea leaps into the air in amazement. The spade is leaning against the outside of the shed where moments before there had been nothing.

And shit is getting real in Judge Parker as April heads into the jungle to try to find the men who are attacking the... secret jungle hospital compound thing.

Judge Parker, 2014-05-02.

"Flaco, I have the compound in sight..." says a man wearing night-vision goggles. "The party is winding down!"
"Stay put..." replies Flaco over the radio. "I'm circling to the west!"
"Copy that! I see Abbott standing on the terrace!"
"Look for the girl! She knows what happened to Li Hai!"
Unnoticed, April sneaks up behind the man, knife in hand...

And after that Katherine got captured. Both sides now hold hostages.

And I thought the fun was over in Spider-Man, now that Jonah's lost the Iron Man armour, but I was so wrong! See, it turns out that the reason Jonah hated Spider-Man was simple envy, Spider-Man has the love of the people and Jonah hated him for it, but now Jonah realises that his enmity is misplaced. Spider-Man wasn't keen on reconciliation, but Robbie talked him around as well.

The Amazing Spider-Man, 2014-05-06.

"Robbie's right." says Spidey, abashed. "You reached out your hand in friendship — — and I slapped it down."
"Really —" says Jonah, "I'm the one who should —"
"Jameson..." says Spider-Man. "Jonah... Put 'er there!"
He holds out his hand to shake. Jonah pauses and the world holds its breath...

2014-04-16

Action Tuesday: Inappropriately Casual Reactions

A while back in Dick Tracy, before the Little Orphan Annie stuff I mentioned recently, some villains stole the space coupe, Diet Smith's spaceship, and were last seen flying off into space where they would presumably die when their oxygen ran out. Or possibly of dehydration, whichever comes first. These things happen when you're a criminal in Dick Tracy.

Dick Tracy, 2014-04-15.

Two shadowy figures sit in a dark room.
"Dick, when I learned what Dr. Ghote had done to re-create Mysta, I was horrified." says Diet Smith. "His research had to be stopped and the doors to the moon closed for good."
He cracks his knuckles and puffs on his cigar.
"So, I bought him out and decided to purge all our moon tech, including the space coupe. I lied to you about its fate in the storm."
"I know." says Tracy.
"I used the remote to send the coupe into deep space." says Smith. "After the storm, Dr. Ghote and Dr. Sail vanished. I think they may have been on board."
"It looks that way, Diet." says Tracy.

Dick Tracy showing his usual level of compassion there.

Mark Trail, 2014-04-10.

Lost Forest
"Marlin will be going to jail for a long time for poaching sea turtles that lived on the island!" says someone.

"I sure do feel sorry for poor Jessica!" says someone else.
"She'll be fine ... I spoke with her and she told me that she's going to continue her work with injured birds!" says Mark.

She'll be fine. Her husband turned out to have been committing crimes behind her back for years and has been sent to jail, but she's still got those injured birds. Mark Trail honestly cannot understand what she could possibly have to be upset about.

And this, it seems, is the last Mark Trail story by Jack Elrod. Starting on the 11th the dailies are credited to James Allen, whose name I just can't approve of. "Eddodd" and "Jackelrod" both work perfectly as single words, but what can you do with "James Allen"? Nothing. As to whether the comic will get better or worse, that remains to be seen.

And this week in Spider-Man, Iron Jonah lost control of his armour and started flying about erratically. Spider-Man is attempting to save him but there have been hints that he'll prove to be his usual incompetent self and it will end up being up to Robbie Robertson to save his former employer. It's one thing when Spidey is shown up by other super heroes, but for him to be shown up by a grey-haired newspaper editor will be even better.

2014-04-02

Action Tuesday on Wednesday: Better Late Than Never

Last week the Dick Tracy team teased us with the promise of resolving the final Little Orphan Annie cliffhanger as Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks made a cameo appearance to announce that he had decided to seek Tracy's help, but since then all we've seen is Dick grumbling about Vera Alldid's J Straightedge Trustworthy comic strip, so for the moment I'm pretty much just waiting it out until something interesting starts happening again.

Starting with bragging extensively about his vast cache of stolen treasures, The Phantom seems to be going out of his way to make himself look like the villain of his own strip. After drugging Lara Bell, the woman who found her way to the skull cave with memory-erasing "ancient Bandar medicine" he had some of his pygmies deliver her back to Mawitaan, but on the way there they discovered that her memory hadn't been as fully erased as planned so they brought her, still unconscious, back to the deep woods, along with her guide, Rick Grubber, (on whom the drug seems to have worked as intended).

"For him, our original plan!" says the Phantom, pointing at Rick. "To Mawitaan!"
"Phan...tom..." murmurs Lara in her sleep.
"This one's going to Wambesi-land!" says the Phantom, adding kidnapping to his list of crimes.

And on Saturday the action kicked off in Mark Trail. When Mark demanded to see the contents of Marlin's bag, Marlin decided that enough was enough and punched him right in the face.

Mark lets fly with a mighty uppercut, knocking Marlin backwards and causing him to drop his bag. The bag falls to the floor, spilling a large number of round, white objects.
"Sea turtle eggs!" says Mark, grimly.

But after that Marlin ran away, so there might still be some more punching coming up. Hopefully.

2014-03-25

Action Tuesday: More comics about comics

When I last brought you up to speed on Dick Tracy, the Nitrates were leading the police on a high-speed chase, and since then things have progressed more-or-less predictably. The disastrous end was assured, but one small twist was that Sprocket actually drove into a lake on purpose as a form of self-destructive revenge against Silver, who apparently had been hitting her off-screen. Tracy and Sam were right behind and witnessed the car going into the lake.

"Tracy?" asks chief Patton over the wrist wizard. "What's happened to the Nitrates?"
"The drove into the lake, chief." replies Tracy. "The Flattop car broke through the ice and sank like a stone!"
"Is there a chance they survived?"
"We'll need divers and a recovery rig to reach them, chief, but I'd say no. No chance at all."

That said, we'd just seen the Nitrates still alive and talking in the car, so I won't believe it unless I see a body. If they do reappear though it probably won't be soon since the next we see Dick he's heading back to police headquarters to read some comics, specifically a satirical comic clearly based on him called J Straightedge Trustworthy. What is it with comic strip characters reading comics lately?

An interesting thing about this is that J Straightedge Trustworthy is clearly an homage to Fearless Fosdick, which Dick Tracy said was his favourite comic, which means that within the world of Dick Tracy there are actually now two separate comic strips making fun of him. He likes one, but we don't know how he feels about the other yet. Well, I think it's interesting.

Mark Trail, meanwhile, has discovered that Marlin is a poacher and has gone to look for some evidence, but while snooping around Marlin's workshop he was caught by Jessica.

"Jessica, I need to ask Marlin some questions about his business!" saus Mark, utterly failing to explain why he broke into the workshop.
"Maybe I can help you!" says Jessica, suspiciously.
"Jessica, did you knwo that Marlin is involved in poaching?" asks Mark. It's well-known that a criminal can't lie if you just ask them a straight question like that.
"What!?" demands Jessica indignantly. "That's ridiculous ... why would you say something like that?!"

And Peter Parker's vow to hang up the Spider-Man costume for a while lasted about as long as one might expect. He turned on the TV and saw some people in trouble. It's one of my favourite things about Spider-Man that he so often finds out about people in trouble only because of how much television he watches.

In this case he saw some construction workers hanging dangerously from a girder and felt that he couldn't rely on Iron Jonah (or any of the numerous other super heroes in New York) to save them so he had to get out there. Having managed to get both men to safety he was faced with the further problem of keeping the girder from crushing a bus that just drove under it for some reason.

"Spider-Man's swinging into that girder's path!" narrates an onlooker.
"What's he gonna do — try an' catch it?" asks a passing Canadian.
"No!" calls someone else. "He swung right under it — and now he's stuck his webbing to that sculpture!"
"What good'll that do??" asks a fourth bystander.

It's good to see the utter lack of faith the people of New York have in him.

2014-03-11

Action Tuesday: Iron Jonah and Lena the hyena

Well, it happened, Iron Jonah smashed a tank while Peter Parker stood around watching. The Amazing Spider-Man is the best comic.

"Mr Jameson — is that your image on the robot's helmet?" asked Peter, incredulously.
"Nope! I'm really inside this thing!" answered Jonah, holding the two criminals up by their shirts and hovering a couple of meter in the air. "Quick, Parker — take a photo! This is front page news! Just imagine the headlines when Iron Man crushes Spider-Man!"
"Frankly, I'd rather not!" thinks Peter, obediently taking several pictures.

Today's strip reminds us that going faster than the speed of sound in the Iron Man suit is a bad idea, and Jameson dismisses the advice once again, so that should be good.

Dick Tracy had been a little dull lately, but the action's picked up now with Silver Nitrate and Sprocket leading the detectives on a high-speed chase across the country in their heavily modified car (a call-back to the classic Chester Gould Dick Tracy story featuring the son of legendary villain Flattop Jones). The car is outfitted with various gadgets, including weaponry. After ploughing through a police roadblock, the villains took shelter in a barn, where their hyena, Lena, escaped — yeah, they have a hyena too — so Silver went out to recapture her.

"Holy cow!" said Silver, grabbing Lena's leash. "So that's what was upsetting you, Lena! Sprocket! Get dressed, we gotta run!"
"But I'm not finished showering!" called Sprocket.
"Then it'll be a clean arrest." said Silver. "The cops are coming!"

So no one's been mauled to death yet, but this is Dick Tracy so it's almost guaranteed at some point.

2013-03-07

Improving Dick Tracy

Based on this recent Dick Tracy strip.