Dick Tracy . . . and a Sprocket

There is a new set of villains on the Dick Tracy comic strip. If you follow Dick Tracy at all, you know that the names are often, um, original, and related to their crimes.

This new set includes Sprocket Nitrate, and she’s a barefooter.

Sprocket is actually the sister, and sidekick, of Silver Nitrate. His specialty, and hence his name, is fraudulently producing supposedly restored classic films. In the current Dick Tracy thread, that’s what he is doing.

You may recall that silver nitrate is used in photography and film-making (well, it was used before it all went digital). And of course a sprocket is a wheel with the teeth that feed an old-fashioned movie.

We start with Silver having produced a video of the very first appearance of Vitamin Flintheart (ya gotta love the names—Vitamin is a pill-popper), and he and Sprocket are at their headquarters, an old film theater.

When we see Sprocket, she’s draped over a theater chair talking with her brother. (I’m just showing the relevant panels of each individual strip.)

From Dick Tracy, January 7, 2014

She’s barefoot, but at this point we don’t know that she’s a barefooter—she may just be appropriately comfortable. (Oh, and the hyena? It’s a real hyena, and used to dispose of, er, dead bodies.)

We see a barefoot Sprocket again, when Silver is on the phone with one of the actors he used to reproduce an old video scene.

From Dick Tracy, January 22, 2014

That actor, Miles, shows up in the theater, and we see Sprocket barefoot (dancing) yet again.

From Dick Tracy, January 24, 2013

Miles does not survive the hyena. 🙂

Eventually, Dick Tracy gets involved (knowing only about the possible fraud) and shows up at the theater with his partner, Sam Catchem. That’s when we find out that Sprocket is a barefooter.

From Dick Tracy, February 9, 2014

(These are two of the panels of a Sunday strip.)

A couple of things here.

First, the second panel should be extremely familiar to a barefooter:

Save your breath, gentlemen. I’ve been trying to get her to wear shoes for years.

But what the heck is up with Dick Tracy? Yeah, it’s snowing outside, but they are in a warm theater. Why would he advise her to put on shoes because it is snowing outside? There was no hint that she was about to go out there.

But I guess we barefooters are pretty familiar with shoddie thinking, eh?

Anyways, Dick Tracy leaves, but eventually gets enough information to get a warrant. But meanwhile, Silver and Sprocket have left the theater. And Silver decides to take the train instead of driving his car. Why? Because the car is too easy to spot.

Instead, they have this happen at the train station.

Dick Tracy, February 18, 2014

Of course, we’re all familiar with ignorant police officers.

Obviously, Dick lives in some unknown (probably midwestern) city, but I’d be really surprised if any (or, maybe, more than a few) train station has a shoe rule. I’ve been in a number of them and have never seen one. (Amtrak does have a rule about wearing shoes on the train, but this is the station.)

I also liked her reason for going barefoot, which probably resonates with many of us:

You see, as Mother Earth’s creation, I must touch her . . .

On the other hand, the fraud part shouldn’t resonate at all.

And the solution? Pink bunny slippers. They don’t explain exactly how that gets around her need to touch Mother Earth. She acquiesces rather readily, and the next day’s strip shows her in her seat on the train (but no view of her feet).

The incident at the train station did not go unnoticed. In yesterday’s strip, the alert goes out.

From Dick Tracy, February 20, 2014

If they weren’t trying to be noticed, you’d think that she would go “incognito” and wear a (foot-)mask. That’s what we know that Machi did when he fought against the Pinochet government in Chile.

But that might actually be part of Silver Nitrate’s plan (we’ll have to wait to find out). Slightly earlier, when talking about why they weren’t taking the car, he did say

We need them to chase us one direction. Then we’ll double back for the car.

I think he was relying on the fact that her bare feet would be noticed. Then they’d double back surreptitiously.

In today’s strip they pick up their car (a restored classic of some sort). Interestingly, they have Sprocket driving (but no mention of her bare feet). I wonder if they’ll hit the barefoot driving trope?

Anyways, that’s where things stand right now. It’ll be interesting to see if bare feet play into the plot some more. If you’d like to see the whole series with Silver Nitrate, start here, on January 5^th.

And keep in mind: if she’s a barefooter she can’t be all bad. 🙂

(H/T: bfsailor)