BOLO Alert: New Regular Dick Tracy Artist – Confirmation Update

D. D. Degg February 18, 2024 1 minute 8 comments

Original February 15 item:

It seems that a new artist will take over the Dick Tracy comic strip soon.

Possibly right after the current Minit Mysteries arc ends on February 25, 2024.

The Dick Tracy page at Tribune Content Agency already lists Charles Ettinger as Mike Curtis‘s artistic partner.

Charles doesn’t have the Dick Tracy bona fides that Shelley Pleger had when she took over the daily chores from Joe Staton back in 2021, but he is no stranger to the Dick Tracy comic strip.

Charles first showed up as a guest artist for a Minit Mysteries story from November 19 – 26 in 2017 (the week long mystery was rerun January 16 – 23, 2022). Soon after that he reappeared as a guest inker filling in for Shelley at the beginning of 2018.

Shelley’s credits* go back to the beginning of the Curtis/Staton reboot.

Pleger inker/letterer March 14, 2011 – October 24, 2021

Pleger guest artist April 10, 2017 – June 1, 2017

Pleger artist (pencils/inks/letters) October 25, 2021 – February 10, 2024

* Shelley had some away time during her run when guest artists drew a few short stories.

Did Shelley head over the horizon with Fata and Ricki on February 10?

_{Commenters at the GoComics page have been notified and are reacting, but my hat tip goes to David McC.}

February 18 Update:

Shelley Pleger has confirmed that her last Dick Tracy strip was February 10, 2024, and Charles Ettinger takes over after the current Costello/Fish Minit Mysteries whodunnit. Charles will be the regular artist beginning February 26, 2024. Shelley also noted that Dee Fish had previously assisted her with inking a couple Dick Tracy stories.

This is not wrong. A good fellow and former inker from times past, Charles Ettinger will make his debut as the new Dick Tracy artist on 2/26. In the meantime, I hope everyone is enjoying the work of Dee Fish on the current Minit Mystery. She was a great help to me on the Sprocket story and X Libris as an inker. : )

(The Sprocket and X Libris stories ran in 2023: June 19 to August 26 and September 12 to December 24.)

Comments ⁸

Len Mardeusz

looking at Charles’ art of Dick Tracy I am impressed. I think he
will be a great add to the Dick Tracy team. Good Luck!

Darryl Heine

I wish Dee Fish did work on the Dick Tracy strip.

Carlo Coratelli

I like Shelley Pleger on Dick Tracy. She is one of the best artist in the last years.

Donnie Pitchford

Shelley Pleger has done an outstanding job on “Dick Tracy”! Thank you, Shelley, for your exceptional work! Best wishes to Charles Ettinger as the new illustrator!

Mario500

“BOLO”?

D. D. Degg (admin)

https://www.quora.com/In-police-terms-what-does-bolo-mean

Feb 18,2024
JPuzzleWhiz

“Be On the LookOut”.

Feb 19,2024

MARK MATHES

Congratulations and a tip of the detective’s fedora to the new creative team of Dick Tracy and all who came before them! A terrific pleasure to edit Tracy, 1994-99 W. Pulitzer winner, Dick Locher, and writer Michael Killian, Washington, correspondent of the Chicago Tribune and prolific author. Lotta fun working with them as editor of international syndication at Tribune in the more prosperous years when the syndicate sold and distributed 32 daily strips and 12 editorial cartoonists. Tracy was Tribune-owned, like Brenda Starr, Annie, Gasoline Alley and Gil Thorpe. A balancing for creators to bring these classics into the next century while respecting the roots of creators like Chester Gould and even publisher Robert McCormick who valued comics and hired several cartoonists.

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