Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 17, 2023

Good morning™, everyone!

So, presumably this is the backroom workman from the book bindery, but this would mean that the uncooperative front desk guy talked to Xaviera Libris (assuming she is the killer) and he is somehow in league with her.

“Hmm, sounds like a common mugger.”

like we didn’t know what happened and who the vic was…

no real anticipation in this story…

except when it’s going to end our collective misery…

Good morning™, stark confirmations !

How could anyone not see it coming ?  Shelley and MC did P. 1. real good. The lamp glow really makes this one.

I was hoping for a cross-over with Quincy, M.E.

“This story died from a dull, repetitive plot plunged deeply into the heart!”

Here’s today’s “Goat Joke of the Day!” to help you survive the latest episode of; “As the Worm Inches Along!”

What do you call a baby goat that’s sleeping?

A kid-napper.

Tune in tomorrow, Same goat time, same goat channel!

Hmmm, I can’t decide what would be worse;

For this story to continue plodding along until it’s conclusion,

Or to just pull the plug on it now and consider it a mercy kill.

Opinions?(Other than wanting me to disappear! LOL!)

I had this Libris dame pegged from the get-go.

After seeing that she will go for a “stiff” drink!

This has been a well done tale so far….I’m hoping there’ll be a twist ending. Libris as the serial killer seems too obvious.

Will there be another trip to where the deceased worked? One of the standard questions which will be asked, do you know if he had any enemies?

Did they find the hat?

Ok….let’s see if somebody…ANYBODY…. can tell me, aside from the murders what is the crime that’s being investigated here? A stolen book? A refurbished book cover? A backed up colon on the blond gestapo woman? Yes, theres a lot of “movement” going on, but it’s all CIRCULAR! and this story is just flat out BORING…theres zero intrigue whatsoever and the characters are completely uninteresting

I keep getting Bon Jovi’s “You give love a bad name” song in my head. But, that’s “Shot through the heart” so not applicable here. Still.

Nothing like yet another murder after you’ve already been fingered as the prime suspect to establish your innocence. Makes as much sense as sharing proof of your crime with others by asking them to remove the bookplate you could have removed yourself. Killing someone is easier than removing a bookplate? What a prune… (Line from the 1929 Prune song, “No matter how young a prune may be, he has a heart of stone.”)

And my guess is it will conclude with Ms. Libris stabbing Tracy who will be wearing a metal protective breastplate or device of some kind, one up on her……

I guess he’s been rebound into a new Edition

I look at some of the older scripts from a few decades ago. What a major disappointment today! Avenger09…I feel your pain!

Over at the L’il Abner strip, they’re running the time Fearless Fosdick went up against Chairface Chippendale.

“I’m here to arrest you, criminal! What do you mean, the statute of limitations has expired? What year did I start this?”

Backroom Guy told Lee she would never see him again, but now the ME is letting Lee play peek-a-boo with him.

“Yes, its Zippy The Pinhead. Guess THIS derails his run for the Presidency.”

they should be able to tell if it’s the same weapon as did the old lady.

Will uncooperative front desk guy be the next victim?

When is this going to one panel a day ? That would drag it out longer .

Well in the time it’s taken for this storyline to inch along, I wrote my thesis and solved world hunger….What have you been up to?

..the shape under the sheet sure looks like back room guy……….

If it comes to some kind of showdown between Tracy and X.Libris, it should be remembered that Tracy is no stranger to sword fighting. He also studied fencing in college.

Once, Vitamin Flintheart and the actor Barry Moore were performing in a production of the mystery play Sleuth. Putty Puss had killed Barry Moore and taken over his identity. Tracy and Tess attended opening night of the play but when Tracy saw Putty Puss’s face beginning to melt, he jumped up onto the stage in the middle of the play to confront him. The setting for the play is in a rich man’s private library which, besides books, has puzzles, games, and memorabilia collected by the owner including several displays of swords and other weapons on the walls. Putty Puss and Tracy grabbed swords mounted on the walls and began to sword fight in front of the audience. Vitamin Flintheart attempted to get the audience to leave the theatre and get out of danger, but the audience believed it all to be part of the act (they thought it was brilliant marketing to have Tracy appear onstage for the opening night of a mystery), so they sat and enjoyed the action as PP sliced a stage rope, droped a sandbag on Tracy’s head to knock him out, and escaped.

https://i.postimg.Cc/Dz6Z2sst/Putty-Puss-01.Jpg

the plot thickens

1-LEE: OH MY GOSH! SOMEONE CARVED A HUGE “Y” FROM HIS CHEST TO HIS… ME: That was part of our examination, ma’am.

2-LEE: I dunno, Tracy. The ME tried to pass the wound off as an “examination”. I think he’s part of this. A big part…

DT: Good work! Follow up on that AND my excellent lead in finding that the Caxton’s and Libris-es, uh… Librissss…whatever…were chums a hundred years ago. There’s something there – I’M SURE OF IT OR MY NAME ISN’T DICK! Which has made me the object of ridicule since childhood…sniff.

Bingo! We have a loser!

Lee Ebony identifies him positively. It must be her newly acquired snitch (now, even more newly lost), that Little Old Pressman (a.k.a. Backroom Guy). Cause of death, a stab wound to the heart with an edged weapon. If that description is truly accurate, we can rule out such stabby things as ice picks, screw drivers, and most if not all letter-openers (because they are not truly edged unless one has been customized by sharpening an otherwise relatively dull side: they are good for opening envelopes but without a sharpened edge not for slicing or cutting anything even the least bit resistant). But maybe Lee is using the term “edged weapon” in a looser sense.

I’ve lost count of the victims at this point. Five? Six? Whatever the exact number, it’s high enough for the MCU to characterize the perp as a “serial killer,” IMO. And that means Tracy and team better get rolling, or Mayor Armstrong and Wendy Wichel will be having fits at his expense!…

Here’s today’s

“Goat Joke of the Day!”(To continue until there’s one honest to goodness panel of real, slam bam ACTION!)

to help you survive the latest episode of;“As the Worm Inches Along!”

Q. What reality show did the goat go on to find love?

A. The Baaaa-chelor!

Tune in tomorrow,

Same goat time, same goat channel!

A nice tribute to Chester Goulkd,who s pecialized in gruesome morgue scenes that the Syndicate censors kept yelling at him to tone down.

The Addie Gothorn story in 1936 had the cops poking around inside a hole in the back of his head;the censors yelled bloody murder.

I remember Sam Catchem taking off Rughead’s wig as he lay stone cold dead on the slab.

Dick Tracy moves at light speed compared to the old days. In the ‘50s and ’60s Tracy was slower than Alley Oop. I was there and there are times I would like the strip to pick up the pace, but, I’m sure we’ll arrive there at the same time Tracy does. Patience, Padawan.