Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 26, 2023

Good morning™, everyone!

Now a second nameless character says that Manutius was eccentric! Well, at least they agree.

the same thing that was stated yesterday being stated today that the doc was eccentric…

what a waste…

The word eccentric again, why do I have the impression that they are hiding something?

Tracy pointing gun like Jules in Pulp Fiction “Say eccentric another time I dare you @$#&”

Good morning™, anguished academicians !

That poor man’s going to be off his game for the rest of the day. If he turns out to be the killer then I would at least call him a great actor as I see him as genuinely affected by the loss of a contemporary.

With this global warming heat it was bound to be some “aroma” in that office

For those who missed the comment from prrdh yesterday, the Pfister Institute is almost certainly named after Albrecht Pfister (c. 1420 – c. 1466), one of the first European printers to use movable type, following its invention by Johannes Gutenberg. He was the first to print books in the German language, and the first to add woodcut illustrations to printed books.

This solidifies my idea that this story is all about books.

Hard to believe, even in a comic strip world, that someone could go completely missing for close to a year with nobody noticing — apparently Manutius had no family, relatives, friends, landlords, whatever. The big question is how this is related to the Claxton murder, assuming that it is, & the guest writer isn’t giving us one story with two completely separate crimes.

Is this the Institute of MORONS ??? and 11 months without smelling a thing !!!

Like me is point out before, that ain’t no excuse for no reporting missing person. Arrest this crook officer!

This look like the kind of story for which me is use me special word to describe it : preposteridiculudicrous.

Eccentricity runs in the faculty.

The desk guy well depicted!

Nice portrait of Tracy in panel 2.

It should have been obvious by now that the Pfister Institute (established 1906 if Sweaty Shorty in panel 1 is talking our Real Time) would allow its research associates a great deal of freedom to pursue their projects wherever required, and for extended periods of time. This regret-filled little Director (if such he is; panels 1 and 3) is sorry that he did not become more concerned sooner than eleven months after last seeing Dr. Manutius. we still have no real determination for how long Manutius has been dead!

It does seem likely that there will turn out to be some bookish connection between the murders of Caxton and Manutius, however….

“He was a bit of an asteroid.”

“An asteroid?”

“He had an eccentric orbit. He only came close to the Institute every 217 days. He was overdue and we assumed he had crashed into the sun.”

There were rumors he was tracking down the Lost Ark, or the Holy Grail…

“We were afraid that if we said anything, he’d come back!”

Did I hear an echo?

What more was this strip about than yesterday’s? I don’t mind a bit of repetition but when everybody uses the same word (“eccentric”) it doesn’t say much for the vocabulary of all of these learned men.

Talking heads, we’ve had enough of. Lets get down to some story movement.

It seems like R. Manutius was well known by those who knew him to have somewhat of an unknowable mind!

AHA! Come ON, Tracy! They’re feeding you the murderer’s name! It’s obviously ‘Axe’ Centric, the maniacal statistical researcher nd part-time woodsman who works next door. In the easy chair, in the dark, with the enormous mousetrap!

If Sam hadn’t already pocketed the cheese, it’d be case closed!

The bottom line is Manutius has assumed room temperature; the details “remain” to be seen!

Was someone cashing his paychecks all this time?

Indiana Hones type, maybe?

Sorry, mis-spelled the name. meant Indiana Jones type.

MOVIE QUOTE

“Well,here I am. The answer to a moron’s prayer”

Bob Hope—THEY GOT ME COVERED—1943

1 PERFESSOR MOLDY: OWWWW! DON’T HIT ME AGAIN! I TOLD YOU EVERYTHING I KNOW!

2 DT: Yeah well, you understand I had to be certain. I choose to believe you – mainly because I can’t deal with working TWO murders at the same time.

3 PERFESSOR MOLDY: Oh? So you believe my story that Manutius took a nap in that blanket chest and ran out of air?!?! Wow! I mean, GREAT!

Dick is rapidly approaching the migraine stage.

And he’s thinking that compared to t his bunch, BO Plenty is positively normal.

Sophia Loren has broken her hip. Anybody volunteer to go to Italy and take care of her?

Didn’t we see this strip yesterday?

What I want to know is how come no one noticed the smell of a dead body in there.

What I want to know is “What Happened to Maxine Viller”?

BTW, Dicko’s been working inside for about a week. Who wears a trench coat and hat inside that long?. Maybe Dick is just eccentric that way?

Waiting to find out what Dr. Manutius’s first name is. The pun is usually the key to the story.