Analysis - Three Panels A Day

                I have several frustrations with the currently unfolding storyline in the Dick Tracy comic strip, which involves Abner Kadaver attempting to kill Dick Tracy. Kadaver has followed Tracy and his wife around Europe, eventually kidnapping Tess in order to force a confrontation with Tracy at Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland (the same place where Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty – who were real people in the Tracy-verse – had their final battle).

                In this article, I will only address the issue of pacing, and the decisions about what the readers are shown versus what they are not.

                The storyline’s (presumed) climax at the Falls has been especially drawn-out. Before this climax became the focus of the strip’s attention, readers were also shown Rikki Mortis (Abner’s assistant) fulfilling murder contracts on Abner’s behalf back in Dick Tracy’s city, and the attempts of the MCU to find out who she was and capture her. Just before the action shifted to the Falls, Rikki was shown driving her “vampire car” past police headquarters.

                In the strip for Sunday, August 28^th, Rikki was shown watching a news report about Abner’s disappearance at the Falls. The previous Friday’s strip indicated that she is still at large.

                That’s a problem- Rikki drove her LARGE, NOISY, UNIQUELY EQUIPPED AND EXTREMELY NOTICABLE VEHICLE RIGHT PAST POLICE HEADQUARTERS! The MCU, who were now aware of her identity, KNEW THAT SHE WAS THERE, DRIVING THAT CAR! And yet, somehow, she managed to avoid capture.

                This prompted me to post a comment on Facebook Dick Tracy Fan Club Page, in which I wrote “So, while all this is going on at the Falls, I'm assuming that Sam and Lizz have allowed Rikki to escape?” Admittedly, this is a bit of snark on my part, but is speaks to my general frustration with how often the dangerous criminals are allowed to escape (and how long they are shown to remain at large) under the current creative team. It happened with Mrs. Flattop, the Nitrates, Abner himself, Blackjack, and Mr. Bribery. The villain gets away, Tracy says “I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them”, and then on to the next adventure.

                Frankly, it makes our heroes appear incompetent. Rikki drives her murder car past police HQ, and readers aren’t shown that the police give chase. We don’t see how Rikki evades them. Does she have access to some secret roads/passages that the police don’t know about? Is she somehow able to disguise her car? Does she create a distraction or some other crisis that diverts police attention from catching her? The readers don’t know. All we know is that she’s still at large.

                This was confirmed by the strip’s writer Mike Curtis in a response to my comment. He wrote “No, but I can only show three panels a day. Rikki is still on the loose, but right now we're following Tracy.”

                This is immensely frustrating.

                I understand certain realities about the business of publishing a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip. For example, space is limited. Three panels a day isn’t much. This is why pacing, and deciding what to show and what not to show is so vitally important. 

                Yet, despite the limitation of only three panels a day (six on Sundays), readers were presented with a week of strips that consisted only of Tracy and Abner verbally sparring. It SEEMED to be building to a Sunday full-color reveal of Abner’s hideous real face, but readers only saw shadow and a bulging eyeball. Then, the week after Tracy and Abner disappeared, we got panel after panel of on-lookers explaining how they thought they were watching a re-enactment. We also got several panels of a new character – Bulwer Lytton – looking pensive.

                This is what readers were shown INSTEAD of Rikki’s exciting escape. We also didn’t see Tess being found, or escaping her bonds and finding help. That could have been very interesting, as it would have shown Tess’ resilience and resourcefulness in unfamiliar surroundings. But we didn’t see that.

                The strip from Sunday August 28^th consists primarily of the news reporter Helen G. Wells (wink wink) explaining what has happened over the past 2 weeks. It almost entirely reproduces the information from the previous day’s strip. If space is at a premium, then why so much repetition? I understand the value of building suspense, but I don’t find any of this suspenseful. It feels like stalling or padding. 

Of course, another reality of the daily newspaper publishing world is that fewer people read the newspaper on Saturday than on other days of the week. On the comics page, that often means that Saturday strips can’t have anything consequential happen, especially in on-going serialized story strips. In my opinion, though, that’s allowing the tail to wag the dog. Chester Gould stated in interviews that he believed that one of his main functions as a syndicated cartoonist was to drive sales of newspapers. Don’t read (that is, buy) the paper on Saturday? Then you miss an important part of the story. 

This mentality also fails to take into account one of the modern developments in the publishing world, which is the availability of online content. Various newspaper websites keep an archive of the daily comics, so readers can easily go back and catch up. Gocomics’ archive goes back many years. From a storytelling standpoint, there’s no reason to stall or draw out a story just so that readers don’t miss something. 

                As of this writing, it looks like the strip is going to flirt with the idea of how the characters react to the idea that Dick Tracy is dead. It’s unknown how long that will play out, or how the revelation of his survival will be handled. Will Tracy confirm (when he resurfaces) that Abner is deceased? Or will it be another case of “I didn’t see a body. He might be back”? Time will tell. My primary concern is about what we WON’T see in the meantime.