Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 17, 2020

Good morning™, biological prey!

That’s a pretty fancy rig that Stokes has made. Now we know where all of Faith’s missing blood went.

Faith, you will note, has at least two sisters whose blood Stokes also wants to collect. (That would be a random student walking by in the hall outside Stokes’ office/lab, not one of the sisters, I’ve decided.)

The question is, why is he so intent on draining the blood of the Brown sisters? Also, the Apparatus needs an adjustment, I wonder what?

Days in the story so far: Dick Tracy 2, Brenda Starr 2, Annie and Honeymoon 3. Brenda hasn’t taken over yet, but the girls are significant. Also, Stokes 9, Faith Brown 6.

What’s he gonna do with that blood? ✨

Sisters? Huh. I joked the other day about Hope and Charity needing to be on the lookout. Might have stumbled into something! We shall see.

Good morning™, involuntary donors !

So, when he has all the sisters’ blood will he be done or become insatiable for the thrill of the moment they realize it’s lights out ?

Can somebody explain why Dr. Stokes is taking blood from Faith and her sister ?

I looked back at the other preceding strips and don’t see the connection beyond her murder…

Or will Annie and Honeymoon ferret out the details ?

This might be the most perverse and evil criminal in this strip since Staton & Curtis took it over….

He collects blood from his victims who he murders in a truly depraved fashion? Yikes…..

It’s not a random hit, it’s personal

“Fang and pump system?” Okay, now it’s getting a little to super-villain-y for my tastes. And if he isn’t laboring under some kind of vampire delusion, why the cape?

Theory: Faith is one of a set of triplets. Stokes has a thing for Charity but she’s dying so he’s planning to drain Faith and Hope as part of some crazy, medically dubious plan to cure her using what he assumes is their compatible blood.

Awwww … that was too soon! Joe & Mike, you gave up the whole storyline mystery in one panel!

Ya shouda had the girls visit him first and then let them discover his evil devices and the stored blood … then he kidnaps them, etc…etc…

Since he is a biologist, he might have done research on what leeches (or mosquitoes) do to suck blood without the blood clotting. His pump system would be clogged with clotted blood without the use of anticoagulant.

Wow, this guy is really nasty!

Isn’t he the bad guy from the Mechanical Monsters?

It appears Prof. Strokes isn’t drinking the blood he collects, like a true movie vampire would. So why is he doing this? He must have some plan for the blood, and, of coooooourse it isn’t to give to the local Red Cross.

He’s on a college campus; could be sorority sisters…..

He may not be a vampire, but he’s certainly a ghoul.

I’m sure why is going to be most interesting…

the certainty of this guy being the evil bad guy is the fact that his face is lit up from below.

It’s like holding a flashlight under your chin as the only light source in a dark room. EVIL!

A real creep. Looking forward to seeing Dick Tracy deal him some justice.

Perhaps the “Walking Dead” will creep in?

He’s collecting blood of the same rare type?

Maybe he wants to do controlled experiments using relatives.

They’re probably triplets. “Sisters’” is a plural posessive.

1-THE SHARP TOOTHED INSULT COMIC PROFESSOR: My Personal Pleasure Device invention is complete! The addition of those sharp pointy things for the masochists was a “STOKES” of genius! Ooh. That was clever. I better write that down…

2-Now to find someone willing to test it.

3-Hmmm. How about her? No. From the looks of her, even an indigenous resident of Alaska formerly known as an Eskimo would find her frigid. SAAA-NAAAPPP! STOP IT STOKES! STAY FOCUSED ON THE DAY JOB!!!

aw…he’s a collector.

How did he know that Faith would just happen to be standing in the alley? Since he obviously planned to get her blood as well as her sisters’ it was not a random attack. What was the purpose of the smoke and cape? Why did he want to terrify her?

So that whole week of wordless flourish was him inventing this, putting it on and using it to kill a woman?

I know we’ve killed the dead horse to death, but this is getting more Scooby-Doo with each passing day.

The villain appears to be deadly – but as noted above, we never know when the powers that be will knock the legs out from our chairs once again!

that’s…very disturbing

Keep the murder weapon right in your office … yeah, that’s smart. Prof. Stokes must be one of those nutty professors.

Some people collect postage stamps. Some people collect vintage cars. There are many things viewed as collectibles. Professor Stokes of the Biology Department collects large quantities of blood from the disposable Brown sisters, Faith and probably Hope and Charity. Nothing odd to see here, folks; please move on. —But wait! Who are those two young girls? Annie and Honeymoon, here to interview the good professor? Might he decide to add some of their blood to his collection of specimens, too? “Do not be afraid, little one. All I want is some of your blood.”

Ahh, the suspense!

Finally Gouldian type gruesome story, how is this getting by the censors, brings me back to the good old days

I’m really Stoked to see how this all turns out.

He was wearing this thing under that cloak? Reminds me of a Rube Goldberg contraption.