Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 31, 2023

any predictions as to how much longer all this will continue?…

Thanksgiving, perhaps?…

Lee, the real question isn’t; “How’d it get there?”

The real question is; Will this snorefest of a story ever end???"

Good morning™, everyone!

Good technical procedure, as much as I know about it. I have no guesses as to what the shelf with blood on it indicates.

Dick’s ears seem especially floppy today, while Sam’s seem ready for liftoff!

Tracy, having just released a massive, silent fart, has totally tuned out Lee as he contemplates how long it’ll be before Sam’s massive nose smells it.

There, I’ve just created some actual suspense!

Perps blood.

Good morning™, diligent lab workers !

Is that Lee doing some actual equipment handling, like other MCU members used to do ?  Eric’s got this one true to Tracy form. Resume usual story-is-dragging repartee tomorrow.

As I think on Lee’s question, my guess is the killer forgot to bring a rag or handkerchief to wrap up the weapon. Manutius could have inflected a few blows of his own on the perp before checking out.

Luminol works on traces of blood that old. But Luminol only indicates traces of blood, it will not tell you whose, or when it was deposited. The blood outside the office could be from someone with a paper cut six months later than the murder (or a month before). Let’s assume the droplets are from Manutius, how does it tell us who the killer is (although I guess the fact they are outside the office shows the killer left the scene of the crime rather than sticking around to be found at the scene of the crime). Or, let’s assume the droplets were from the killer cutting him/herself while committing the murder – if the DNA in the drops hasn’t degraded it could indicate the identity of someone with a paper cut. It could be significant if it is the same person who sneezed on the cup at the other murder scene.

While this may turn out to be important (and I’m sure it will be) the presence of a drop of blood at some spot in a public building shouldn’t be surprising. And, at the moment, there is insufficient reason to link bloodstains in the office to a trace droplet outside the office.

Outside of his office? So they is puts this luminolous liquid all over the building?

I get nose bleeds quite often. Mostly at home, rarely in public.

Sorry for the 60s reference, but this story line is brought to you by Heinz, the slow ketchup…….

UV taggers strike again.

….it looks like Lee (we haven’t exactly seen what Lizz came up with,yet…) did some of the most interesting work on this biz so far (notwithstanding Snow Queen’s brandishing the biz end of a letter opener at D.T…….)…….pretty, too!….there, I made nicey-nice already, and my morning Joe STILL has yet to kick in……..WHOOPIE!!!

MOVIE QUOTE—

MOE:“Turn on the radio”.

LARRY:“Are you kidding?This is ancient times!”

MOE:“This is an ancient radio”

SQUAREHEADS OF THE ROUND TABLE—1948

I wonder if Dick and Ben Grimm are related . I see a family resemblance there .

To continue a previous discussion from another day:

The more detailed the story becomes, the more it seems that it would’ve worked better as a graphic novel.

It is not a bad plotline. The characters are pretty interesting and fleshed out. The entire MCU Team is involved. The police work is depicted.

It is just that in a daily comic strip the story is very slow. However, if you go back to September 17th, when this story began, and read the strips in sequence like a graphic novel, the pacing, the complicated clues to remember, the use of silent panels depicting character’s reactions, it is very much in the style of a mystery movie or graphic novel. The tension and suspense flow when read in sequence. Slow inhales of breath become quick gasps when read in order.

I think pretty much everything is good about this story except that is suffers from being told in the wrong medium. The story and scope is much more expansive than 3 panels a day.

1-LEE: I was going to dress up in a hazmat suit for Halloween only to find out everyone in the Station had beat me to it…

2-…Then I thought to put on a blank, unknowing expression and go as Sam but I couldn’t manage to look that vacant. SAM: Wait – it’s Halloween? I thought that came on December 25th! (SAM SLAM!)

3-…ANYWAY, so long as I had the suit on, I thought I’d check the evidence room for signs of who keeps earmarking pages of the Hustler magazines that we confiscate for some reason. I’ll just say that spurts of DNA were everywhere.

DT: So that rules you out! SAM: Yeah! Uh…why? (SAM SLAM!)

I’m impressed by the hazmat suits. Suggests that the MCU has a budget that enables it to do its job right.

I’m thinking back to the original MR.CRIME story(1952-53) where they were tracingthe rifle that Tonsils 1st snipered Tracy with.A whole week was devoted to a detailed explanation of how to bring out fadedserial numbers with acid etching.Very educational.

Maybe Manutius managed to get a lick or two in on his attacker?

This is a comic strip; for all those who just can’t wait, why don’t you watch a video instead, lol? Y’all act like the few seconds it takes to read it ruins your whole day….

So that would mean that the murderer would take advantage of that fact that Pfeister members would often forget to sign out the LOGBOOK by not trying to so that and accidentally spill blood on it :)

Most of the Comments here are useless and a waste of time, not to mention coarse. But a few Commenters actually have something to say about the comic strip, bless their hearts!

The luminol revelation of some bloodstains outside the Manutius office will certainly be found significant in some way, though that is not yet evident (so to speak).

Though there have been some slow passages, in general I find this story intriguing and the pacing adequate. Good work by both author and illustrator….