Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 16, 2020

Brenda puts the pieces together. Hopefully she remembers the meeting he has scheduled with Hope.

Brenda is right on top of things!!

Good morning™, everyone!

Well, her strong suspicions are confirmed. She has Mark B. Stokes book on her desk, apparently. So, no, his first name is not John as he told Hope on the phone.

Faith was killed at approximately 9 p.m. I believe this is new information to us. Someone tell Shelley that “approximately” is supposed to have a double p.

That looks like a Facebook page with the ad for Protect My Car. Nice picture of Faith and Hope!

Dick should just go on a vacation because Brenda’s got this case solved!

Good morning™, killer trackers !

Bren’s is zooming right in and will be placing the call any day … or week now next story preview introductions withstanding.

The pieces are beginning to come together!

So the professor’s name is Mark B. Stokes. Hmmm…

Mark – A reference to “Mark of the Vampire”, which reunited “Dracula” director & star Tod Browning & Bela Lugosi in 1935?

B. Stokes – Bram Stoker, author of “Dracula”?

I suppose that it’s an ethical thing to double—check everything, but really, Brenda knows who Stokes really is and that he was faking it as an insurance agent….

The red flags are flying.

Aha you have been discovered Markie Mark and the Fang group!!!

hmm, me thinks he’s busted.

This comic makes me wish they’d bring back Brenda Starr and Orphan Annie. In the hands of someone competent, who had respect for the strips, of course (which may be too much to ask for).

She threw to pre-teen girls right at this monster.

Brenda is in a travelling mood as she has her cuppa steaming morning Joe. She decides to kick it up a notch and make Cafe Ole!, also known as Spanish coffee, with a splash of the tiddle instead of milk. She starts digging into the murky past of the alleged Mr. Stokes.

“Hmmm…looks like I got a potential scoop here…may be worth getting a crackerjack PI as another pair of eyes. I wonder if that Jim Rockford guy is out of the hospital yet. Not gonna use that Barnaby Jones guy ’cause he was about 100 the last time that I called him and he wound up coming back with nothing but pictures of fire hydrants and donuts shops when he came back from his last stakeout. What to do, what to do….Annie would know. I wish that I could have those two months in that hotel room back.”

And so it goes, by gar, by gar…

One of these days, Tracy and the MCU crew might get around to looking up the sisters of the murdered woman and doing some detective work, too. Pretty sad that Brenda is doing more investigation than all of the crack detectives. I know the MCU has a lot of stuff to do like laughing at the Happy Hangman.

But I guess I ought to be happy that we’re finally seeing some actual detective research.

RED: Hello I MEAN HELLO. This is Mark Stokes, aka THE SHARP TOOTHED INSULT COMIC PROFESSOR. Oh. You’ve heard of me. I’d like to order your most expensive Protect My Car plan for my old girlfriend, Brenda Starr. It’s the least I could do for all the happy months she gave me. Yes, bill me care of the University.

A joke? Ummm, sure. Uh, why do comics prefer blondes? Cause blondes can be easily convinced that a comic’s “funny bone” needs to be tickled before every show? Yeah, well, I’m not good at impromptu. Just get that policy! CLICK

This is how reporters do detective work. No wonder criminals hate them – no badges, but bust them anyway.

Voilà!

In one panoramic panel, Brenda has done or is doing pretty much all the necessary detective work. She has Vampirism Today with the big full-color author portrait on the front cover; we see that the professor’s full name is Mark B. Stokes. We see a copy of The Daily next to it, telling Brenda and us that Faith Brown was killed in the Museum District, 18 September, at “aproximately” [oopsie!] 9:00 PM. Passing her cup of steaming hot coffee [the everyday researcher’s Best Friend], her laptop screen displays two windows, one for the real Protect My Car company including a telephone link among others, and another for a Social Media page belonging to the late Faith Brown and wishing her sister Hope a happy birthday, with pictures of both (so that there is no doubt about coincidental names). And she is simultaneously on her cellphone to Protect My Car, confirming that there is no “agent John Stoker” employed there.

Now all that’s needed is one more phone call, to Tracy, “hopefully” before Hope is drained of her blood.

Incidental BTW: I too prefer using separate computer windows, as Brenda does, rather than tabs. I find it more convenient….

Someone above said this comic makes him wish they’d bring back Brenda Starr and Annie. This comic makes me wish they’d bring back Dick Tracy

RING! RING!

“Hello?”

“Is this Brenda Starr, ace reporter and the arch-nemesis of Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Wowsa. Got a hot tip for you, Toots.”

“Okay, go ahead.”

“Colonel Mustard in the library with a candlestick. Got that?”

“You betcha! This could make the front page if it pans out!”

“Yeah, get a Clue, Toots. Get a Clue.”

CLICK!

“Wow! My lucky day!”

Karl Kolchak had a hard time getting his stories printed when they were big, messy and touting the impossible as real.