Saturday Comic

The past two Saturdays I’ve departed my usual pattern of stand-alone comics by taking some strips from the Dick Tracy serial. I am going to do that this week, too.

You can see the past two Saturdays here and here. We are following the exploits of the grifters Silver Nitrate and his sister, Sprocket. Sprocket is a real barefooter.

Last time we saw Sprocket and her brother being sprung from jail by another criminal, Public Domain, who wanted to use their talents. The very first thing Sprocket did was take off the hated shoes from the jail.

The next time we encounter Sprocket’s bare feet is when we are being given a bit of a back story. It turns out that Sprocket and Silver are not really sister and brother: they were both adopted (by grifter parents). This makes their obvious affection for each other slightly less creepy. But we get to see Sprocket as a child.

Dick Tracy, August 25, 2017

It looks like she started early!

[Click on the pictures for larger, more readable versions.]

Farther along, Public Domain and Silver Nitrate need to go into town to get some stuff for the scam they’re pulling. Sprocket wants to go along, but Public Domain forbids it. Why?

Dick Tracy, August 31, 2017

Barefooters really do tend to stand out and are remembered. When I go out on organized hikes, everybody seems to remember me but I only vaguely (if at all) remember them until we’ve hiked together many times. (In fact, that just happened yet again this morning.)

Later, when Public Domain and Silver Nitrate are heading out to pull the scam, Public Domain wants to know more about Sprocket.

Dick Tracy, September 15, 2017

I suspect this is true for many barefooters, or something similar. (Both the reason to go barefoot and the derision from those who don’t get it.)

At this point, the plot hasn’t advanced much further, so there have been no more barefoot moments. But stick around—I’m sure they’ll be more coming.

 

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The Barefooted Farmer Boy

George Peck was a late 19th, early 20th century humor writer. The following is from his Sunbeams: Humor, Sarcasm and Sense, published in 1902. The book is made up of stories that originally appeared in Peck’s newspaper, The Sun.

There’s a lot of essential truth in the story.

 

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Saturday Comic

Last week I did a Saturday Comic that was a bit different in that it had a few strips from the serial comic Dick Tracy. It has those strips from a 2015 plot line with the characters Silver and (barefooter) Sprocket Nitrate.

As I showed last time, the end of that plot line had Sprocket arrested and in the City Jail. She was not happy.

From Dick Tracy, March 22, 2015

A new plot line with the Nitrates started this year. It picks up where the old one left off. Sprocket and Silver are about to be transported to court for their trial. Guess which one is Sprocket?

Dick Tracy, July 26, 2017

But they don’t make it to the trial. Another character named “Public Domain” (yes, the writers of Dick Tracy always have fun with names) decides he wants to spring the Nitrates loose.

The first things Sprocket wants to free herself of are

Dick Tracy, July 28, 2017

And we get to witness the reunion of Sprocket and Silver. Feet come first; brother comes second.

Dick Tracy, July 29, 2017

Public Domain has sprung them for help in conducting a special scam for him. So there’s more, which we’ll see some other time.

 

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Saturday Comic

Today’s Saturday Comic is a bit different. Usually the comics I show are stand-alones. But today’s comic (actually, comics), come from a serial: Dick Tracy. Dick Tracy has plot lines that last months. I’m going to pick out a few strips from a 2015 plot line starring Silver Nitrate and his sister Sprocket as movie business scam artists (hence their names).

Sprocket Nitrate is a barefooter.

I’ve written about them before (but not as part of a “Saturday Comic”). Take a look at Dick Tracy . . . and a Sprocket followed by The Return of the Nitrates?.

We’ve seen Sprocket dealing with issues barefooters are familiar with.

People thinking our feet are cold (even inside):

From Dick Tracy, February 9, 2014

Being tossed from public accommodations:

Dick Tracy, February 18, 2014

At the end of that older 2014 plot line, they drove their car into a pond and everybody thought that was the end of them.

Except.

Except that Sprocket is a heck a mechanic and when they dragged the pond the car was missing.

So, for our first hint of the return of the Nitrates, and Sprocket the barefooter, there is this strip from December 8, 2014.

Dick Tracy, December 8, 2014

I’ve gone out picking Christmas trees barefoot. Haven’t you?

Here we see them where they are holed up (an old theater, of course).

Dick Tracy, January 27, 2015

Still barefoot.

This plot line ends with them getting arrested. Do you wonder about what Sprocket thinks about shoes in jail?

From Dick Tracy, March 22, 2015

Of course.

 

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Saturday Comic

Here’s a comic from May 20, 1947. It’s from the strip Barney Google and Snuffy Smith, which takes place in hillbilly country. Oddly enough, the strip rarely shows the characters barefoot, but this is one of them.

Snuffy Smith, May 20, 1947

[Click for larger, more readable version.]

I had to look up “swow” (and even that had very few hits). It is supposedly a dialectal form of “swear”, so “I swow” here is “I swear”, meaning something like “Oh, my goodness” or “I had no idea”.

 

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Saturday Comic

Today’s comic is really, as far as I’m concerned, an anti-comic. It appeared a week ago (August 26) in the strip Six Chix. This particular one was drawn by Stephanie Piro. It really annoys me.

Six Chix, August 26, 2017

The thing is, if she was unaware of all those things as a kid, maybe it’s because they (mostly) aren’t there. And when they occasionally were, her feet were more than able to cope with them. (And since when are rocks and sticks “icky”?)

And maybe she thinks flip-flops are without the ick and the ouch, but she’s just traded for a more hidden ick and ouch. Isn’t it icky to realize she is treading on all the dead skin that’s come off her feet and embedded itself on the top of the flip-flop? And the ouch comes from the diminished proprioception of her soles that means that she’s OK walking with an odd gait that can affect her core all the way up through her back? (Flip-flops also aren’t all that much “protection” from sharp objects that can penetrate the rubbery sole; and by the time you feel it, you’ve already put all your weight on it—unlike when you are barefoot and feel the hazard immediately.)

The only thing that’s good about people wearing flip-flops is that it provides a bit of cover for those of us who really go barefoot. I’ve heard the pelmatophobes say to barefooters: “Nobody wants to see your feet.” Yet, they are perfectly OK with flip-flops and don’t complaint about seeing feet with them, illustrating perfectly their irrationality. Also, the flip-flop look helps barefoot sandals do their thing. So in some ways flip-flops help make going completely barefoot more acceptable.

 

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