Dick Tracy-- Jumping the Shark?

[furtech]

...Or just written by idiots?



There was a time when the daily newspaper strip, Dick Tracy, made a sincere effort to base the comic on science and police procedure. The two-way wrist (tv?) radio was its biggest gimmick-- but was a plausible prediction. Since the L.A. Times does not carry DT, I only read the strip on the odd occasion when I have another paper at hand.

I can't believe how little effort is put into this strip: the current plot line is simplistic and unimaginative. The worst offence is Tracy's current dilemma: the crooks have locked him in a gasoline tanker partially filled with gasoline. And he didn't die in seconds from the fumes. And now Liz joins him. The line, "Don't strike a match. You'll blow us sky high!" was the last big nail in the coffin: idiotic and over-used, even the dialogue is scraping the bottom of the barrel.

How the mighty have fallen!

Too bad: I used to be an avid reader...and even if the police procedures were most entertainment, at least the characters (even the villains) were bold and memorable. Considering the public's interest in true crime (like CSI and all the law shows), DT could have remained interesting.

Definitely a strip that should join the likes of "Andy Capp" and "L'il Abner" in the cancelled archives.

Comments

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Uh, what's up with that last panel? o_O

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's the side-storyline: some crazy (harmless) guy thinks he's Don Quixote and the hilarity that ensues. Ironically, I only found this story weak and ridiculous (and easy to ignore)-- my anger flared at the clueless, ignorant bit with Tracy being trapped inside a half-filled gasoline tanker, and Liz suddenly so stoopid that-- with gasoline fumes at a suffocating level, thinks she might light a match...

[c-eagle.livejournal.com]

...or how little goes into so many other strips too. :|
the sunday comics are near desolation *sigh*

thank goodness for online ones.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

There are still a few decent paper strips. More often, certain strips will have story lines that grab me (like the recent Boondocks and the grandfather going to see the "manly" movie, "Brokeback Mountain"). I'm embarrased to admit that I was/am an avid Rex Morgan and Mary Worth (before they dropped Mary) reader. And I still can't figure out what happened in "Sally Forth".

[whiteyfawks.livejournal.com]

Silly fool, most tanker trucks are filled with feathery-light pillows and doe-eyed puppies!

Or perhaps you should light that match afterall. In a morbid twist, Dick chooses to end his monumentally boring senior life in a ball of pastel fire and hair-nets.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Lighting the match -would- be the humane thing to do. Put that strip out of its misery!

[cooner.livejournal.com]

It would be kind of funny if they would write the strip to portray Dick Tracy as the 99-year-old geriatric he should be by now. Hobblin' around on his walker, still catchin' the bad guys ...

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Now, -that- I would read!