Dick Tracy - December 22, 2015

Dick Tracy - December 21, 2015
Artist: Joe Staton
Writer: Mike Curtis 

We wrap up the Dick Tracy/Mr. Magoo cross-over with one more strip:

A nice little domestic scene with Dick, Tess and their son Joe.

This illustrates the interesting aging process in comic strips, including "Dick Tracy."

Joseph Flintheart Tracy (middle name important!) was born in 1979, so he'd actually be 36 here in "real time," but he's obviously a tween at most. At an earlier point in the comic strip continuity, he had been a teenager, but was retconned back to slightly younger.

Dick and Tess would have been well into their sixties in 1979, so there's that too!

One last thing about this particular strip: I have no clue as to where the John Wayne quote comes from!

Dick Tracy - December 22, 2015

 Dick Tracy - December 22, 2015
Artist: Joe Staton
Writer: Mike Curtis

Now that intermission is over, we go back to the audience of "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" starring Vitamin Flintheart:



Interesting that Quincy Magoo refers to Vitamin as a young buck!

I always find it interesting how characters in long-running franchise types things age or don't age.
The characters in the "Dick Tracy" comic strip do age, but at a slow pace. 

I believe Vitamin Flintheart said he was 50 years old when he debuted in 1944, but he's obviously not 120 here in 2015!

Dick Tracy himself was originally presented as 21 when the strip began in 1931, but he's not 95 in this strip.

Quincy Magoo never seemed to age at all. He started off already old in his first cartoon, "The Ragtime Bear," which was released in 1949. He didn't have his standardized "look" yet, though.

Since we only seem him in shadow in these comic strips, we can't say for sure how old he is, but it's interesting to remember that he had first met Dick Tracy 50 years prior.

I do realize that they're fictional characters, of course, but it's fun to think about!

Dick Tracy - December 21, 2015

Dick Tracy - December 21, 2015
Artist: Joe Staton
Writer: Mike Curtis

After no daily strip on Sunday, we pick up the "action" with Vitamin Flintheart starring in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol" on Monday, December 21, 2015:

Fun! We see Vitamin backstage during intermission!

Of course, we know the song that Vitamin and his inappropriately young girlfriend (later wife) Kandikane Lane are discussing is "Alone in the World," a song that would indeed touch any audience!

Interestingly Kandikane Lane has hinted that she is the sister of both Margo Lane (from "The Shadow") and Lois Lane (from "Superman").

To which I say, "Awesome!"

Dick Tracy - December 19, 2015

Dick Tracy - December 19, 2015
Writer: Mike Curtis

Artist: Joe Staton

So, when Dick Tracy goes to see his friend Vitamin Flintheart perform in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol," who does he wind up sitting next to but Quincy Magoo himself!

What do they have to say to each other? Let's see:

Very fun!

The "Squinty Eyes" mentioned by Quincy is the gangster whom he impersonated while working with Tracy on the case mentioned a few panels ago.

What's next?

Dick Tracy - December 18, 2015

 Dick Tracy - December 18, 2015
Artist: Joe Staton
Writer: Mike Curtis

So, in early November, Vitamin Flintheart was telling Dick Tracy that he was playing the lead in a new production of "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol."

The strip carries on with Tracy's regular business until December 18, 2015, one week before Christmas.

Let's take a look:

Dick, Tess and Junior are at the sold out show, and who takes the one remaining open seat? Quincy Magoo himself! How awesome is that?

He's just shown in shadow, as I suppose there's some copyright issues  involved, but it's definitely him!

As Quincy points out, it's been years. Fifty in fact!

Here's a bonus color version of this strip:

What happens next?

Dick Tracy - November 5, 2015

Dick Tracy - November 5, 2015
Artist: Joe Staton

Writer: Mike Curtis

When we last left Dick Tracy and Vitamin Flintheart, Vitamin was telling "Richard" about his latest role: Scrooge in "Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol!"

Let's pick up the action in the next day's script:

So, in the Tracyverse, Mr. Magoo is a real person!

This is not a surprise, actually, because as Tracy mentioned, he had worked with Mr. Magoo on a case once.

That was actually 50 years before, as chronicled in the "Dick Tracy and the Mob" episode of "The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo" TV series in 1965.

That series was a spinoff of "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" in which Quincy Magoo is presented as a famous actor playing a variety of roles.

On the "Dick Tracy" episode, Tracy sought Magoo's help to infiltrate Pruneface's gang by impersonating the villain Squinty Eyes (as recapped by Tracy in the comic strip).

This meeting was presumably possible because UPA, the cartoon studio Mr. Magoo put on the map, had also produced the astonishingly non-PC "The Dick Tracy Show" cartoon series in 1961.

Another interesting, but no doubt unintentional, tie-in centers around Dick Tracy's voice. It was provided by veteran actor Everett Sloane, who had also done Tracy's voice on the earlier series.

Everett Sloane with Orson Welles in "Citizen Kane" (1941).

Everett Sloane being one of Orson Welles's cronies from the old Mercury Theatre radio days and the portrayer of Marley's Ghost in the famous 1939 Campbell Soup Playhouse broadcast starring Lionel Barrymore!

So, the 2015 Dick Tracy creative team of Joe Staton and Mike Curtis seems to be indicating that the TV episode is canonical, which is interesting because it features a bunch of classic Tracy villains, some of whom, such as Flattop and the Brow, had (SPOILER) previously met their demise in the comic strip years before.

But, hey, I think it's awesome to have a nod to that 50 years prior meeting of Tracy and Magoo!

Dick Tracy - November 4, 2015

Dick Tracy - November 4, 2015
Writer: Mike Curtis
Artist: Joe Staton

We turn from the Simpsons' spoof of "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol" to an actual cross-over of that show with the "Dick Tracy" comic strip!

"Dick Tracy" being like "Blondie" (discussed here) a crazily long-running comic strip. It was created by the one-of-a-kind Chester Gould back in 1931 and is still running!

We join the strip in 2015.

Here's the first strip that catches our interest (November 4, 2015):

It's interesting that the Mr. Magoo version exists in the Tracyverse and that composers Bob Merrill and Jule Styne do as well!

Fun to see longtime supporting character Vitamin Flintheart. 

Vitamin first appeared in the Tracy strip way back in 1944 when he got mixed up in the extremely popular Flattop storyline.

He wasn't really a villain, so he became friends with Tracy and would pop up over the years.

His persona as a (somewhat) washed-up ham actor always gave me a John Barrymore vibe. At least the popular conception of Barrymore in his later years when he often spoofed his own image. He was certainly not still at the height of his career, a level that Mr. Flintheart could only dream about!

I know some classic film fans are aghast at "The Great Profile" appearing in such unworthy vehicles as his last movie, billed under and much smaller than bandleader Kay Kyser in "Playmates," but I think he's having a good time.

In any event, I always wondered about the timing of Vitamin Flintheart's debut. John Barrymore had passed away in 1942, so was that too soon for a spoof of him? Or is it an homage? Or am I reading too much into it? Could be...

Getting back into the "A Christmas Carol" world, John was, of course, the younger brother of Lionel Barrymore, the brilliant Ebenezer Scrooge of the golden age of radio.

As mentioned during one of the zillion times I've talked about Lionel's annual portrayal of Scrooge, John substituted for Lionel on the 1936 broadcast, due to the sudden passing of Lionel's wife.

Unfortunately, no recordings of that show appear to exist. Too bad, as that would be awesome to hear, especially since John was supposedly imitating Lionel!

OK, on to the next Dick Tracy strip...