Today's Dick Tracy, the 8th in the Minit Mystery tango arc, contains a handful of clues. Only one shot was fired, very close range, to Milonga's forehead. There were powder marks on the back of Milonga's fingers. Also, only two sets of footprints can be seen on the freshly waxed floor, a man's prints, going to and from the chair Milonga sat in.

The clues being presented most ably by Leo Batic.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/18

I was looking at the revised GoFundMe for  dragoneer, which as of this writing (8/17/24) is $167,000 or so out of a goal of $221,000. Impressive, that.

Though I did look at the update, and a number of things jumped out at me that make me raise an eyebrow.

A number of expenses cropped up after the start of the GoFundMe, which include:

* $38,400 for services provided to FA, but which had not been paid for;
* $32,000 for a working capital loan (from whom?) taken out to cover FA expenses (supposedly);
* $11,300 for further medical expenses (not a huge surprise, there, but...);
* $10,000 for an emergency reserve for hardware costs (not really specified what those might be);
* $ 6,500 additional medical examiner expense and cremation -- I don't know what the breakdown of this is;
* $6,000 for back taxes from 2022 -- and that's just the IRS, and 2023 from state and feds isn't known;

To my lawyer-mind, this raises all sorts of worries. Overdue tax bills and unpaid services bills are definite warning signs that a business may be in trouble. It would be interesting to know from whom that loan was taken out, and what the interest rate is -- I've got a hunch it's at or near armbreaker levels. And some of those expenses are baffling. I wonder just how much the ME is charging, and what kind of expenses the cremation firm are running. Both of my parents were cremated, and I'm not 100% certain it ran quite that much. And I hope someone is jawing down the hospitals on the expenses (as others have suggested)

In the 7th installment of the tango-related Minit Mystery, the testimony of the key witness (the cleaning lady at the tango establishment) concludes. She returned to the establishment with a Buenos Aires police officer, only to find "Milonga," the great tango dancer, dead, and with a gun next to him.

Art (including great camera angle) by Leo Batic

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/17

In the 6th episode of the current Minit Mystery, the witness that Dick Tracy is interviewing reveals that the dead man was turning a gun over and over in his hands in his despair. The sight of this causes her to stop work, take off her foot coverings, and leave to find a policeman...

Art by, of course, Leo Batic.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/16

In today's Dick Tracy, the 5th day of the Minit Mystery story arc, the cleaning lady recounts how she was going about her business -- polishing the wooden dance floor -- when she saw "Milonga," the tango dancer who would later die, do something that she says worried her...

Art by Leo Batic; note, by the way, that he even gets the reflections on the shiny, polished areas of the floor. Craftsmanship!

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/15

In today's Dick Tracy, the fourth day of this Minit Mystery arc, Tracy continues to speak (via an interpreter) with a key witness, the cleaning lady at the nightclub where the dead tango dancer worked. The cleaning lady notes the aftermath of the argument between the dancer and his partner; the break-up of the act caused him much mental anguish. A driving force for events?

Art, as usual, by my friend Leo Batic.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/14

I will note that Leo made the mistake of looking at the comments on GoComics; I'd warned him about those. It certainly shook him, and I had to give him a little pep talk. Happily, the pep talk seems to have taken. &^%$#@ Stymphalian Bird-commenters.

In today's Dick Tracy, the 3rd day of this Minit Mystery, we start to hear from a key witness; in fact, the only witness to the ferocious argument that broke out between the dead tango dancer Lassiter (stage name "Milonga") and his partner, Celestine. (Note, by the way, that the witness is speaking in Spanish.)

"Seis Esquinas" is a play on "Las Cinco Esquinas," a famous Buenos Aires bar frequented by the great Argentine writer Borges (the name coming from a quirk in the street grid layout).

The names of the cleaning lady and the deceased tango dancer are an homage to Randle McKay and Lassiter Wren, the co-authors of "The Baffle Book" series of mini-mysteries from the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Art by that genius from Buenos Aires province, Leo Batic.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/13

Today's Dick Tracy, the second episode in the Minit Mystery arc, tees a few things up. For one, the Buenos Aires police inspector will translate for Tracy (which explains how Tracy will find out things from people who do not speak English). We also know that the police surgeon is on the job, so it's off to talk to a key witness.

Art by my chum Leo Batic.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/12

I got (and get!) a real charge out of today's Dick Tracy, since it's the start of a two-week Minit Mysteries arc with a friend of long-standing, the one, the only Leo Batic doing the artwork.

Something of a departure for the strip, since the action takes place in Buenos Aires (Leo tips us off to that in the drop panel, showing a street scene with the Obelisco in the background). A famous tango dancer has been found -- dead! Dead by a gunshot to the head. A senior uniformed officer thinks it suicide, but the very shrewd detective inspector on the Buenos Aires force has his suspicions. He is able, however, to call in a famous colleague, in town for a conference -- the celebrated Dick Tracy!

Oh, that artwork in the second panel, showing the dead tango dancer dancing the tango with his partner!

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/11

Today's Dick Tracy is the last installment in a mini-arc/coda. We see a very badly frightened Silver Nitrate (sharing a cell with The Jumbler) wide awake, late at night, hearing ominous whispers around him (well, one of the whispers isn't ominous). Charles Ettinger was very effective in showing the menace inherent in Nitrate's situation; he actually put a twist on my script and made not just the speech bubbles, but the text in dotted lines, in dashed lines.

For once, Josh Fruhlinger (Comics Curmudgeon) actually managed to grasp a hint of what I was trying to do in the mini-arc. Blind pigs/acorns, stopped clocks, &c.

The Minit Mystery that starts tomorrow is something I've been looking forward to for a while, now!

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/10

In today's Dick Tracy, it looks like Silver Nitrate is thinking about talking to the guards about what he's been hearing. Unfortunately for him, Double-Up has guessed what might be on his mind...

Art by Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/09

A few different things going on in today's Dick Tracy. The first is a cultural reference in panel 1; Silver Nitrate, being a film fan, is getting a book germane to his interests, a well-known book of film criticism by James Agee, who had reviewed films for Time and The Nation in the 1940s. (The librarian, by the way, is the crooked bookbinder from the X. Libris storyline; evidently, he went to prison for his actions.) B.B. Eyes approaches Silver Nitrate, and is clearly fishing for Nitrate's views on a possible...escape? The poem he's quoting from (unusual for a mobster) is the source of the famous quote "stone walls do not a prison make nor iron bars a cage" (cited in at least two WB cartoons). Nitrate doesn't seem interested, much to B.B. Eyes' annoyance.

Some solid art here by Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/08

In today's Dick Tracy, once again we see events at the penitentiary from the point of view of Silver Nitrate. Apparently, he has a job in the license plate shop. Mumbles, carelessly (?), rejects one plate as defective. Whether it is or not, someone is taking advantage of where the plate ended up...

Art by Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/07

In today's Dick Tracy, the 2nd day of the 6-day mini-coda, there's a call-back to one of the iconic scenes in MGM's 1930 prison flick "The Big House." The prisoners, here, are eating one of their meals. Silver Nitrate is seated next to Aquarius (another of Mike Curtis' villains), and can't help but notice that Aquarius is secreting a spoon -- likely to be used for nefarious purposes. Art by Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/06

Today's DT is the first in a short, 6-day arc, and acts as a coda to "The Recording Angel." Interestingly, this is a case where colour enhanced Charles Ettinger's work, with the "panning shot" coming across very nicely. Silver Nitrate, one of Mike Curtis' recurring villains, is in the foreground in panel 3, being given the stink-eye by B.B. Eyes. Mumbles can be seen in panel 2. I got a very large laugh from the way Charles depicted Double-Up's greedy-gutness.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/05

Today was the last day of the "Recording Angel" story-arc I did for Dick Tracy. I had a lot of fun writing this story, including the closing gag. (Pravuil Gabriel's minions, red-head Cherry Bimm and blonde Sarah Phym, have gone into hiding at his orders; they've sent a coded message to him that they're all right -- and greedyguts Double-Up sees only that Gabriel has received cherry fudge and blondies.) "Fletcher" is a reference to Rick Fletcher, one of Charles Ettinger's predecessors as artist on the strip (that's his signature on the box). Speaking of whic,h Ettinger did a fine job on the art, and I found him very easy to work with. (He also slipped in a subtle gag in Gabriel's prisoner number which made me laugh.) In fact, I've had good luck with all five (!) of the artists I've worked with on Dick Tracy. "Hold!" you say, "you've had only four stories published, so far." Indeed. "So far" being the operative words. Keep tuned.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/08/04

This, in today's "Comics Curmudgeon," by Josh Fruhlinger, regarding today's (7/31/2024) episode of Dick Tracy:

"Hey, remember that guy who was being blackmailed over some salacious photos and was paying his mustachio’d blackmailer in cryptocurrency? Well, it turns out he owns a baseball team, or runs some other kind of “enterprise” for which he reports to the Commissioner of Baseball. Would that have made this storyline more interesting, if we had learned it earlier, before the MCU arrested all the bad guys? Maybe! But I guess we’ll never know, now."

Fruhlinger managed, in the course of this "analysis," to miss:

May 26, where the Knights baseball club is mentioned by one of Gabriel's minions, and there's a specific tie to the "Curse of Nuremoh" story arc from some months back;

June 8, where Miss Schott, the secretary to Joe Borden, makes a specific reference to the office being for the "Knights baseball club";

June 9, where you see baseball material in the drop panel and in panel 4 in the reception area to Borden's office;

Note also June 8 and June 9 tie Joe Borden directly to the Knights -- see his office door, for example;

June 16, where you see another reference to the Knights with the baseball bobblehead in panel 4;

June 22, where in panel 2 Joe Borden is called out as being "of the Knights," tying in with June 8 and June 9;

June 23, where in panel 4 Pravuil Gabriel threatens to reveal information to the Commissioner -- a direct reference to the Commissioner;

July 12, where you see the baseball bobblehead, again, and it's clear it's Phil Demain, the villain from "The Curse of Nuremoh"; and

July 16, where you see baseball memorabilia scattered on the floor of Borden's office after a fight.

I mean, okeh, I get it, "Comics Curmudgeon" is largely snark and comedy, but you'd think at least the snark would have some remote resemblance to accuracy. I pointed out all but the July 16 entry to Fruhlinger in a polite letter (more polite, I think, than he deserved), and we'll see if he has the balls to acknowledge it. Vegas line says he won't.

Word just came over the wires that legendary comedian Bob Newhart has passed away at 94. Leaving behind an incredible body of work; it's hard to think of another comedian that had such long-running success as he had on television.

In today's Dick Tracy (7/15/2024), I ventured a joke based on an allusion to Raymond Chandler. In the midst of planning for a confrontation with Pravuil Gabriel, Sam Catchem observes (after Tracy notes plans for backup) that "blackmailers don't shoot." Tracy, with a smile, tells Sam "don't believe everything Raymond Chandler writes." The allusion, of course, being to the title of a well-known Raymond Chandler short story.

Of course, some damn idiot on GoComics comes up with: "Why the snark against Chandler? At least he can write a concise story." Thus, of course, missing the entire point of the joke in their haste to sneer.

Sheesh.

Today's Dick Tracy had a nicely staged catfight in the last of the five panels. And, of course, one prominent jerk who comments/spews regularly on the GoComics site had massive butthurt because the catfight was only one panel. Sheesh.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti.....;utm_term=240702&utm_campaign=the_brink

Apparently, Basic Fun, a firm that inter alia owns Care Bears, Tonka, Tinker Toys, Lincoln Logs, Lite Brite et. alia has filed for bankruptcy.

Food for thought for folks of my age and older.

Got a bollicking, dismissive comment today re the current DT. Likely Peanut Gallery feels same.

In today's Dick Tracy, Lizz Worthington-Grove (who I've had as the research whiz on the MCU team) gets two nuggets of information: precisely who had requested a key document from the FDIC (the document that drove a blackmailed banker to suicide), and where the requester actually works. (CeeVee being my version of LinkedIn.)

Art by Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/06/17

In today's Dick Tracy, we see how the blackmailers at Tip Top Town Topix are getting raw material from a disgruntled employee at the Knights baseball team -- one that used a hidden camera to capture that raw material. A hidden camera that used a bobblehead of Phil Demain, the villain in one of my previous Dick Tracy stories...

Art by, as usual, the excellent Charles Ettinger.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/06/16

Today's Dick Tracy shows that Mr. Gabriel, the proprietor of the scandal rag that has salacious information on the owner of the Knights baseball team, intends to press his advantage, especially since Sarah Phym, Gabriel's assistant, is on the verge of getting more information.

Art by Charles Ettinger, who does a nice job with the white-and-gold "angelic" look.

https://www.gocomics.com/dicktracy/2024/06/13