Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 08, 2023

‘they’?… ‘THEY’?…

Good morning™, everybody!

Tracy is talking about a book that was sold to a previous generation, if I remember right.

I’m going to disagree with avenger09 (nothing new there). I think that the drawing today is excellent. The backroom guy from the bookbinder place is particularly good.

I think the stress of illustrating this snorefest of a story has finally gotten to Shelley. Today’s drawings are terrible! Tracy’s whole face is distorted. Lee’s coffee lost it’s heat. Colors are dull(matches the story I guess)Not her fault, it’s hard for anyone to keep their eyes open reading this glop!

“Replaced I say! The humanity!”

No one in Tracyville will sleep soundly tonite with the rare book-binder replacer on the loose!

What was the binding replaced with? A knock-off? Chances are the average person would not know the difference.

Did good customer come on behalf of a company or just his or her self?

…..maybe our rich lady adding it to her 7 generation collection?

Was the book an early 20th century fake of a circa 1290 book?!

Aha. Me knews it. There more than one criminal involved in all this mediaeval manuscripts murders racket!

Many things suggest that milady is the perpetrator.Therefore, she must be innocent.

Many ancient books/manuscripts have been rebound a few times over the centuries. (So, if you’re first thought was, “Did the person who brought it in with an early 20th century binding want a 13th century binding?” the answer is no.)

Six months may seem a long time to remember a book, but they aren’t churning out several hundred new bindings a day, and the book was special. It would be remembered.

However, as I said must be the case, Lee must have told the shop owner the names of the books the police were interested in – the only way the workman would know. It is a little odd that kept the cover of the early 20th century binding for the book, and encased it in plastic. Why? Does he have a collection of discarded covers that have been replaced? If it says the name of the institute where Manutius worked he must have known it was stolen (‘cause institutes seldom cough up precious mss and it screams “This book is stolen,” – see yesterday’s comment on being an accessory after the fact).

I still say it’s all going to be revealed as an Art Dekko Scam…

From A to They, why the change in the noun ?

“They”? Why, they is the plain and fancy they, that’s who “they” is!

Forgers ! Fine art forgers ! That’s what’s going on and somebody double crossed somebody .

“With something RACIER! Poodles in a lustful clench in ancient Rome, with giant dinos rampaging beneath suggestively shaped UFOs. Gave us quite a giggle, I’ll tell you!”

Why is Tracy trying to find out when Caxton acquired the prayer book??? What could that tell him? As for the book binding, that suggests that old Manutius had been rotting in that chest for at least 6 months which returns us to the unnoticed stench factor.

1-DT: Yeah, I gotta work late again tonight…Don’t be like that, Tess. I know I haven’t seen you in a couple of years…My work is important…OK…Don’t wait up…

2-MORT: I used me peculiar talents on this yere book cover to cover up not a book …

3-…BUT A CRIME! Not that that makes me complicit mind you. I just do what I’m told.

LEE: Too bad. You’re under arrest because I need a win before my upcoming annual review. CASE CLOSED!

BOOK QUOTE

“Suppose I refuse to discuss this matter with you at all?”

“In that case”,Fernandez made answer, “Your throat shall be cut from ear to ear, your tongue torn out by its roots, your body dismembered, and the parts delivered to your father by the Express Company”

Dialogue from THE MURDER AT AVALON ARMS—1931

Obscure novel by Owen Fox Jerome—-a.k.a. Oscar J.Friend

Sadly, the sound of a net closing tighter and tighter isn’t loud enough for some people.

On Veteran’s DAY, let us remember that Tess Trueheart was a WAC===and somehow doesn’t look that old,

TRACY (continuing): Sold to some poor boob who bought it and then found out it was a 1953 local train schedule from Peoria. some HOURS, right?

Let’s throw the rare book at Libris

The “Little Old Pressman” book restorer (panels 2, 3) may not be the best groomed, but he is sharp. He recalls the book from its being brought in six months ago to have its early 20th century cover replaced, probably by something more fitting to its nature; is it perchance the very “Song of the Virgin” Hours of c. 1290 that Tracy is inquiring about on the phone in panel 1?

Adventures in Codicology! Codicology has sometimes been called “the archaeology of the Book” and is concerned with the physical reality of the book, including its construction and condition and binding, not to mention cover or covers. See https://tinyurl.Com/yp9ffk49