WARNING #2: The panel depicted below may startle, unsettle, or otherwise discombobulate unsuspecting readers accustomed to the funnies of today.
With those warnings out of the way, let me present the conclusion to the trilogy of Dick Tracy Panel Discussions (the others are here and here).
Here we saw counterfeiter, framer, and all-around scoundrel Stooge Viller trying to off himself before the coppers haul him to the pokey. I'm no comic strip historian, and for all I know in 1932, it was common to see Andy Gump try to jump off a bridge, or for Jiggs to try to hang himself from a chandelier, but I'd wager that even in the rough-and-tumble world of Depression-era funnies, actual "on-camera" suicide attempts were rare and carried some shock value.
Can you imagine seeing this in the paper today? Well, maybe in "The Lockhorns," but otherwise, even the few so-called adventure strips still around don't have this kind of excitement, do they?
In this particular case, Stooge might not even be facing capital charges, but he still tries to off himself. He has spent weeks framing Dick Tracy for passing counterfeit bills and getting him in dutch with local merchants and his own chief, and that's what Tracy says he's gonna jail him for. Oh, of course, Stooge also shot Tess Trueheart and tried to shove Tracy in front of a moving passenger train, but he hasn't been charged with those offenses yet.
Come to think of it, this happens several times in this book: Criminals race to kill themselves before they can be taken in. This begs the question: Just what the heck goes on after Tracy hands these thugs over? What kind of treatment do they get that makes death the better option?
I guess Dick Tracy is running a Good Cop/Bad Cop system, taking on the noble defender of justice role and finding it easy to be calm about turning over the perps he apprehends. He finds it easy to do so because he knows they'll get pummeled with a bag of doorknobs before they even get an attorney.
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