Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 27, 2023

Aldis, Thomas, Carol, Milo, George and X?…

So Aldus might have been coming to work and not signing in all this time?

Good morning™, all!

Dr. Manutius got his name badly scrambled in panel 1 to “Mantuis.” So, it looks like lots of people signed in and never signed out. I guess all of those were 11 months ago? I wonder if there are any more dead bodies, but I guess not.

I did not know that Gent’s first name was George.

Professor “Spectacles” there isn’t very original when it comes to making excuses for his fellow members. Either he’s involved in this, or he knows who is.

Good morning™, mysterious incomplete reader registrations !

So the doc was in at 11:35. That would be just earlier today and that’s why no overarching stinks. Did anyone, besides the killer, know Maltius was back in town ?

I love the first panel-How the “fellow” is all in shadow.

Before this story began we were following the Adam and Susan story (Again). Do we know if we will see the continuation of the Adam and Susan story?

They are staging a sit in at the library and nobody noticed!

X Libris signed the book, as in “Ex Libris” meaning “from the library”.

Regarding the paperwork, we had to sign in for our breakfast in tech on the list were Edgar Allen Poe, George Washington, Alfred Neuman, etc!

I’d hazardous a guess that the writer got it wrong in writing that he had been missing for 11 months, but in fact had not been seen for 11 months with is both his character and behaviour and caused no alarm to anyone when they haven’t seen or heard from him. In doing so caused confusion to the reader and making the reader believe that he had in fact been dead and in the chest for all of those 11 months. When in fact it’d most likely have been a day, that morning even, days or a week

heh X Libris…. has left the Library

“Aldus in the Window, Killed by Carol Spinnet?” (sorry Mame fans)

Looks like the list at our school where substitute teachers sign in but don’t check out. I guess we better start by checking out unusual odors on campus that we assumed were pranks by kids !!!

Manutius signed his name with all capital print letters. That is an odd way for an educated person to write their signature. It’s almost as if Dr. Manutius was….eccentric.

the Thomas signature below his seems to be same handwriting

“But who’s this ‘Kilroy’ who was here almost every day?”

Aldus left the library but was using his cloak of invicibility…..

…also there are pretty good erasers out there…..

Just what sortsa crooked institute this is be eh? They is not even keeps their books right.

1-DT: WAIT! I’m here to investigate a probable homicide and you’re making me read this book?!?

2-PERFESSOR MOLDY: No you imbecile! That’s the Captain’s Log, Star Date… ummm, I’d go with Doris Day for my Star Date. How about you Detective?

3-DT: Oh, Betty or Veronica. PERFESSOR: So you wouldn’t mind Archie’s sloppy seconds? Interesting.

DT: Hmmm. Good point. Well then – Lois Lane. I know Superman’s never “gone there” or else she’d be blown to bits when he e… PERFESSOR: I think Jimmy Olsen hits that – a lot.

DT: DANG! Aunt Fritzi then! She’s a hot old maid! PERFESSOR: Excellent choice!

MOVIE QUOTE—-

“I really HATE your spinach puffs!”

Eartha Kitt—THE EMPEROR’S NEW GROOVE—2000

We still haven’t learned how Manutius was killed. Hard to believe, if it was violent, that nobody else in the building heard anything.

That will make the plot thicker………

I’ve seen visitors logs in sky scrapers where the guards were similarly lax about writing in check-out times.They REmEMBERyou leaving and that’s good enough for them.

But if you grill them they next day,they’ve forgotten the time

And if it’s Flattop or Pruneface, who needs handwriting??

Heck I forget to sign out from WORK so I can totally understand these folks forgetting to sign out from their library!

Short Sweaty Director clues in Tracy. Many of us here seem not to see the different ways in which a “research institute” run largely on grants (from charitable philanthropies or from the government) is unlike a business-place of employment or even a school or university. It is a much more leisurely, casual, and often old-fashioned kind of creature! Signing in or out, timecards, regular paychecks, etc., are all ways of operating that may be alien to the Pfister Institute!

The old-style library ledger is an example of this. The names in it that we see along with Aldus on that page are quite a hoot, though: Thomas Tinkov and Carol Spinnet, signed in and out after Manutius; Milo Rhoade, George Gent, and X. [Xavier?] Libris, signed in but not out. On this ledger page, Aldus is the earliest sign in at 11:25 AM. and X. Libris the latest at 3:00 PM. (Neither signed out.)

How significant all this may be remains to be seen (I will discount Tracy’s mangling of the victim’s name in panel 1 as just accidental, poorly if at all proofread)….