Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 01, 2010

That paper that Sam Catchem’s holding appears to be almost perfectly straight on one side, yet folded and bent on the other. He must have gotten it from the Science Museum.

Lizz is looking very nonfetching today.

Pruneface did it. He hated 3-D because the guy married his mom.

Return it to me sunny boy. I’m not proud.

The “homeless” guy passing out $1,000 notes is none other than 3D himself. How the guy in the morgue got a copy of 3D’s tattoo, why 3D has staged his own disappearance, and what he gets for giving away his personal collection of 1969 vintage large denominational currency, will all eventually become as clear as most of the crimes Tracy solves these days. That is, clear as mud.

You heard it first right here!

One more day of nothing but repeats. TV reruns aren’t this bad. Are we caught in a loop?

Somebody should be giving each one of us a $1,000 bill for keeping this strip alive with our snide comments.

I thought Dicky was with Mrs. 3D yesterday? Tomorrow he’ll be back at her house.

Timmy and his mom appear to be scaling the side of different buildings

Unless Penny made a claim on 3D’s life insurance, is there a crime? Maybe 3D committed some sort of crime by securing a cadaver, but someone has to report it missing. Have they checked all the levitating drawers to see if one has been vacated?

So the murder investigation is going nowhere fast. How long will it be until Tracy says “Despite Sue Doko’s help, we’re back at square one?”

3 Months, BillThompson?

So to repeat the obvious, Tracy is satisfied that a tattoo is suficient EVIDENCE to “I.D.” the body.

So the whole police department stops looking for him and starts looking for a killer … and they STILL DON’T KNOW the cause of death ! (?) When will Tracy hear this ?

This sort of sequence must be written after a ‘close study’ of the Naperville Police at work

“David Dierdorf D’Buckworth Dead” sounds like the title of a Shel Silverstein song:

David Dierdorf D’Buckworth Dead Had millions of dollars stashed under his bed. He had lots of people he wanted to thank, So he withdrew many millions more from the bank. Then he sat on the corner and gave them away To any small child who wanted to play. But the children had parents who all screamed “EEEP! This David D’Buckworth is some kind of CREEP!” They called up the cops, and in a short while Dave was arrested as a pedophile! He screamed, “I’m D’Buckworth, a very rich man! You can’t arrest me!” They said, “Yes we can! And we’ll take out our nightsticks and clobber your head, Dick Tracy has proved that D’Buckworth is DEAD! So if you’re D’Buckworth, the thing we must do Is kill you and cut off that girlie tattoo! (for we cops all wonder what kind of a guy would put on his shoulder a big butterfly)” So they took him away and they smashed in his face In the hope that Dick Tracy could now solve the case. So the cops could go home to the friends they held dear If not by Thanksgiving, at least by New Year.

Sorry… I couldn’t resist trying to rhyme “pedophile.”

FLOOOOOOOM!!!!

Question: how many possibilities exists Locher leave the strip in December?

Or perhaps something in the style of Dr. Seuss…

I do not like D’Buckworth Dead I do not like his hands or head. I do not like him in the room, I do not like him with a FLOOOOOOOM!!!! I do not like him drinking Tab, I do not like him on the slab. I do not like his corpse of goo, I do not like his lame tattoo. I do not like his ugly crone, I do not like her funky phone. I do not like him, though I still Would take his thousand-dollar bill.

Didn’t you know its a Major felony to give kids 1000 dollar bills The Naperville police classify that as a Code 1022.5 - Unlawful Child Enrichment

If the guy did steal a cadaver and faked his death , whats the penalty for tattooing a dead body? Should he have gotten the body to sign a release form first? Were the tattooing implements certified and inspected by the states?

On a serious note , can you even tattoo a dead guy, doesn’t a new tattoo require some time to heal or else it would obviously look new on the dead body.

gillbillvolume1: “can you even tattoo a dead guy, doesn’t a new tattoo require some time to heal or else it would obviously look new on the dead body”

Excellent point. Tattooing is something you do to living skin, and indeed, you count on the skin to heal; otherwise all the ink will simply bleed out (the needles don’t close the holes they make). It takes a couple months or more for a tattoo to be fully healed and a part of the skin. During that time it has a distinct appearance–initially, very fresh and bright and superficial, followed by somewhat scabby (colorful scabs, as blood brings some ink to the surface), and finally slightly obscured by the healed skin above it. I imagine that if you tattooed a dead guy the ink would bleed out onto any rag you tried to wash the body with.

Good ones, puddleglum1066.

Did he have any enemies?

-Cougar :{)

Liz seems to have learned that D’Buckworth had many enemies. Maybe she should replace her lead detective. Enjoyed the poems, Puddleglum.

Does Naperville PD have a Diet Smith made transporter? Macy keeps going from HQ to 3D’s morphing manse in almost every other panel in this arc.

I thought the medical examiner found no evidence of foul play on the decomposed body with the tattoo that they assume is Mr. 3D. Why then are Tracy, Liz, and Sam treating this as a murder case?