Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 24, 2023

Library of the Institute for scholars and elite

Located here in Midtown, north of 11th street.

Scrub and polish. Buff and dust. The office must be clean

The doctor has not been around, nor has he been seen.

Quiet here but have no fear, midnight oil it shall burn

Don’t miss a spot or you shall not be called on to return.

Mercy me! What can this be? Beneath the window seat

A corpse grown stiff. Avoid a whiff. Back off with quick retreat.

Good morning™, all!

It seems that the murders are spreading, although I’m not sure how this one relates to the other one. I wonder if Dr. Manutius was killed 11 months ago and they are just noticing now.

The location seems like a variation on the Pfizer Institute, slightly altered.

Missing for eleven months and all they bother about is cleaning his office? No call to Missing Persons bureau?

The Association of Apron-Wearing Assassins strikes again! First Ms. Caxton, now Dr. Manutius. The butler didn’t do it, the maid did.

Good morning™, grave discoveries !

Natch that we don’t get to see (what’s left of) the good doctor .. in this day of sanitized mayhem. Is the Comics Authority Code back in effect ?

With all the realistic functioning roboes that we see in vid clips how long before there is a lifelike police dog that can take slugs and keep on chasing ?

Stereotypical maids, straight out of a Jules Verne book.

So far, a very, “ho hum” of a story.

Greetings and salutations, Dead Fish Dead Doctor!

As Ashmael stated above, cleaning the deceased doc’s office is more of a priority than, say reporting the doc missing 10 months ago? Such loyalty and caring among peers is truly a thing to envy. What the hell’s wrong with these people?!

My gosh! What did the good doctor have in his office? Some kind of hope chest? Air freshener must have been used if the body gave off no odors. On second thought he might be hermetically sealed.

This case is getting off to a rousing start…two corpses already. How many more bodies will drop before its over?

Eleven months…someone thought Dr. Manutius was on a leave of absence. Well he is now…permanently.

Today’s art style makes me feel like there should be a text box indicating that it was in the 1800s by the maids outfits.

The old bat found her teeth missing since her passionate love affair in that office around the time of the discovery of electricity !!!

The moment when one of the maids discovered Dr. Manutius is really a vampire.

I guess they should have cleaned it earlier.

Surprised no one noticed the smell, or the flies!

“Arsenic and Old Lace”!

I’m going to guess that Dr. Manutius was one of those paranoid types who doesn’t allow anyone else in his office unless he’s there to supervise, even cleaning staff. The question is whether he was murdered just before he was supposed to go on a leave of absence, or the murderer forged a note from him saying “I shall be gone for some time.”

At least this lets Dr. Manutius off the hook for the murder of Ms. Caxton.

This story seems to be set in Tracyville’s ever-so-quaint British Quarter….

Okay, why the staff is wearing 19th century maid uniforms has been raised by several folk already. And the question of no one noticing the smell. You can only clean his office with the permission of Manutius? Usually the cleaning staff has carte blanche for where to clean. But we’ll kowtow to the writer and say we accept this mysterious rule to only clean with permission. However, we must then ask why his office must be cleaned now when it has already been gathering dust for almost a year?

Does Sam work tomorrow on Yom Kippor ?

quite the first responder roll of honor today:

The DOJ estimates that cops kill 25 to 30 dogs every day, meaning that as many as 10,000 dogs die at the hands of police annually.

I think we found Doctor Manutius!

So nobody even notice rotting corpse stinks for eleven months? Was they alls workings from homes all this while?

You’re a good dog, Roscoe. Reat in peace,

z z z z z z z z z z z

Nice design and detailing on the building.

“YOU PUT THOSE PANTS RIGHT BACK ON!!!”

“Get the stake!”

The Fisting Institute?

The guy behind the desk looks like Charles Laughton!

And I was just watching “Arsenic and Old Lace” last night.

Someone tell Teddy that there’s been another yellow fever victim.

My deepest sympathy to the brave dutiful police dog!! Amen!

No one noticed the smell?

cue the dark ambient music with discordant overtones which, although broadly tonal, is inflected with chromatic and polytonal passages representing the archetypal example of a florid, melodramatic style without being interpreted as an overly heavy-handed metaphor within the context of the thematic material a bit on the frenetic and frantic side

Oh geeze! He’s gonna be mostly mummified by now if he’s been stuffed in a chest for almost a year, maybe!

1- _The Pfister Institute was often mistaken for an institution that investigated odd sexual proclivities which brought many a strange visitor to their door…

2- PERFESSOR MOLDY: NO SIR! We are NOT currently undertaking a study of NECROPHILIA so your offer to volunteer as a test subject is NOT NEEDED! GOOD DAY!

3- UPSTAIRS MAID: I was a mere babe when me family came over on the Queen Mary! Me Da thought being in “steerage” meant that we would help steer the boat! The eejit!

4- …Ye ever wonder what Perfessor Manutius kept in here, Mrs. Broadbeam? MRS BROADBEAM: ‘Taint none a me business.

5-UPSTAIRS MAID: OH MY! HE’S DRESSED A SEX DOLL JUST LIKE US!

MRS. BROADBEAM: Don’t be flatterin’ yerself! Not “US” – ME! That’s one a me unwashed uniforms! tee hee!

Let’s hope they’ll explains how it was possible that no one was bothered by the smell.

My wonderful wife, who passed two months ago, was the only person who I ever heard use the word “shirty.” She was a Brit, of course.

He’s in hibernation…

Looks like we’ve switched continents. Eliminate the “H” in have, shirty?? I expect Miss Marple will arrive tomorrow.

don’t say ‘eliminate’ and ‘schitty’ in the same sentence…

it’s redundant…

Wait! Aren’t we supposed to get at least some type of clue? What is this?

The Pfister Institute is a research center, very old-fashioned, with British maids imported at great expense, for old fuddy-duddy researchers over-funded by big billionaire “charitable trusts” in search of tax write-offs. As such, there are no students that a randy researcher might want to run off with, nor is there any pressure for immediate results on a project. If Dr. Aldi Manutius were off an a research mission or as a Relic Hunter [currently enjoying the late night Tia Carrera reruns on H& I] for an extended period of time, no eyebrows would be raised until the time away became too noticeably bloated (likewise his body stuffed into that window seat!). Only then would the Institute decide to evict him/his stuff from his office….

Was his specialty Anatomy & Physiology? That’s one way to make sure no one suspected the smell of a corpse rotting!

he was found dead in a trunk….at the Princess Theatre…in Pocatello,Idaho…..