Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for September 29, 2023

a-HA… the clue of the missing Volume IV…

and I finally realized who the guy that Dick was speaking with in yesterday’s installment reminds me in a way of old-time actor, Henry Travers…

OMG.. it just hit me… LEE!…

I’d say if ME chick (same one from the MM?) can tell it’s a stab wound, then probably not an 11-month-old corpse.

Good morning™, everyone!

Lee Ebony is on the job! Your prayers have been answered, those who were missing her. It might only be a cameo, but at least she is there. We’ll see if she has more to do in this investigation. I wonder what was in volume IV. Maybe (I hope) we’ll find out later.

So… a stab wound to the chest. Ms. Caxton was also killed by stab wounds to the chest. It does seem like the same M.O.

Good morning™, Good talking heads day !

Continuity from yesterday to current looks good.

Sunday’s strip showed one of the maids dusting off the bookcase, so there goes the fingerprints, assuming the killer wasn’t wearing gloves. As to Number 4 …. wasn’t that A New Hope?

Maybe climbing ivy will be the next victim.

Maybe the ambulance people put him on IV.

Me thinks I spotted a clue !

Thank doG the room hasn’t been touched in eleven months for the evidence to be intact.

Hmm. Dr. Manutius’s book on intravenous drips seems to be missing.

What good will sealing the office do after 11 months? Especially since the corpse was stuffed in a steamer chest

“He’s dead, Jim.” I don’t think an IV is going to do him any good.

Or maybe he was an IV leaguer.

Things might get loud because they’re looking to turn up the volume.

A missing volume of what, I wonder :O

I find it impossible to believe the body wasn’t discovered much sooner. The smell a decomposing corpse makes is unbearable.

If I’m ever murdered, I wonder which missing volume some detective will think is a clue.

“Dick, the MAD magazines from 1956-1958 are missing….”

There are some attractive women working around DT HQ. Just sayin…

Lee notices the obvious, volume IV is missing from the shelf.

“Time to brush up on my Roman numerals.”

The comments are wild today . You guys have a party last night .

1-M.E. CHICK: Wanna peek? It’s really gruesome!!! M.E. DUDE: Gotta tie ya down tight – don’t want ya to run off – HA HA HA!

2-LEE: Nah. I’m good. I’m going to count the books in this room.

3-…One, two, three…uh…where was I? HANG ON! Somebody checked out a book. We find the borrower – WE FIND THE KILLER! TO THE CHECK OUT RECORDS!

So, IV is missing? Or is it IIII? The suspense is killing me. Yawn.

MOVIE QUOTE—

“We stole The Statue of Liberty. The small one,from Las Vegas!”

DESPICABLE ME—2010

Welcome back,Lee Ebony.This case is “real”.The Minit Mysteries never use her.

The murderer is….Brainerd Brown

Hmm, yeah, pretty suspicious that there haven’t been any complaints of a foul smell coming from the office.

Wait. They’re not going to autopsy an 11 month old corpse. I think this would be the tea lady who just got murdered.

Today’s strip is sponsored by the number 4.

BE WITH US ON SUNDAY

When Nah Tay sings “It’s A Small World After All”

may the fourth be with you

In truth, somewhat unexpected, but nonetheless it is good to see that Detective Lee Ebony is on this case along with Tracy (and presumably Sam). The Medical Examiner’s assistant gives her a preliminary reading on the cause of death; her recognizing a likely stab wound to the chest supports the notion that the Manutius Murder happened more recently than the eleven months ago since he was last seen around the old Richardsonian Romanesque (see https://tinyurl.Com/yrwy4qic ) HQ of the Pfister Institute. Then Lee instructed the uniformed officer (panel 2) with the checker-banded cap (in the Chicago style) to lock down and seal the office once the techs are done with their jobs. In panel 3 she is inspecting the bookshelves, where she observes that Volume IV of something is missing from its place. I’m not sure that those volumes are really books strictly speaking: they may instead be filing boxes for papers or manuscripts (like magazine filing boxes but with fully closable lids). If so, what papers or manuscripts might have been stored in “IV”?

The missing volume Lee notices, will it tie into the murders? This story might turn into a who done it.