Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 07, 2023

Well it’s hope

That helps me cope

Each and every day

As I wait

Without any hate

For the strip to find it’s way

My heart is at ease

One day all the Zzz’s

Will have to come to an end

No longer a bore

Excitement will soar

With action just around the bend

Lee’s got to ease up on the coffee!

Good morning™, everyone!

The man with the rolodex (!) has records going back forever. I suppose that authenticity requires tracing all the previous owners of an item such as a rare medieval book.

Meanwhile, at the clandestine rendez-vous at the diner, a bookplate is being handed over. I wonder whose.

Deb’s Diner isn’t packing in the joint, are they?

Doesn’t Lee know the pink stuff is bad for you?

How I wish Lou Costello was the guest writer!

Nothing personal, Eric.

The year dot. I think that’s the last time the Jets made the play-offs.

Good morning™, connector links !

I know Shelley had as much fun doing the graphics as I have looking at them. Significant bits are coming together to hopefully bring an end to vengeful’s eternal snooze. I hope that guy doesn’t get shot leaving the diner.

Ex Libris eh. No surprise here eh.

Is Lee cheating on her leprechaun girlfriend ?

Graphics are terrific!

The shadowy figure is female, whom might she be?!

He is handing Lee a bookplate that he has taken out of a book as part of the restoration project on the book. It will belong to one of the individuals who was killed (or the Institute where body-in-the-window seat was found).

If it is the Institute it would have raised red flags immediately for the workman. It would mean the book is clearly stolen and the thief want to remove the evidence. (IDIOT THIEF ALERT – letting someone else know you’re giving them a stolen book to work on. Ms. Libris would have the knowledge to ungum the bookplate herself.)

Asking to have a bookplate removed is a little unusual. They are usually left in the book and help show the provenance. (I say as a proud member of the American Society of Bookplate Collectors and Designers for 50 years.) Of course, some sneaky bookplate collectors have been known to steam old bookplates out of library books. Unusual, but not as big a red flag

If the bookplate bears the name of one of the murdered individuals… Well, would be restorer have any idea about the two murders the police uncovered in their records? Lee didn’t tell the owner of the restoration store the names of the victims (unless you trot out the cliché that everything important happens off-panel.) The book for Manutius would have been done months before. Caxton’s murder was so recent, and so in the news that it would have set off red flag if it appeared. (IDIOT THIEF ALERT – letting someone else know you’re giving them a stolen book.)

Am I the only one who doesn’t know what “…the year dot…” means?

Things are falling into place .

So this auction house is implied to have British roots (1783) not quite as old as Sotheby’s (1744) and Christie’s (1766). Mason and Woods must also have been where Ms. Caxton’s grandfather puchased the 1290 prayer book.

…and he says, with a bouyant smile “Oh, but this won’t cost you anything….consider it a gift.” (Godfather II flashback scene….)……….

Soooo, book plates belonging to a former libra? (gasp) ;)

‘Dot’? As in the year Little Dot was first published, or ‘Hah! Dot’s a goot von’?

The icon, if one can call it that, on those front pages looks familiar. Hmm…where have I seen it before?

With what he gave Lee can give this case a nudge. Truth be told it has been plodding along like the slow drip from a water faucet.

Interesting that the book binder should have “EX LIBRUS” book plates

Besides the cord, you think that phone has a dial, too?

1-MOTT BALZ: Write what with my left hand, detective? Ok…I…M…STU…PEDASSO. How are you spelling that, detective? What’s so funny?

2-LEE: OVER HERE! IT’S ME – THE PERSON WHO WAS JUST IN YOUR STORE LOOKING FOR CLUES TO A COUPLE OF MURDERS!

3-MORT: Geez! I know! You’re the only one here! Here’s those French Postcards you wanted. How will they help you solve the murders?

LEE: Huh? What…oh. That’s confidential. OOH LA LA!

Lee’s getting the dirt on Miss Snootypants.

Pictures of tarot cards?

Mr. Brown Bow Tie in panel 1 is being extraordinarily cooperative with Tracy. You know [quoting him]. I would have expected a rather more evasive response from anyone at an auction house dealing in the art market, where secrecy and anonymity are among the most cherished traditions.

Meanwhile, in panel 2 ‘the little old pressman" approaches Lee Ebony, seated in Deb’s Diner and (panel 3) nursing a cup of coffee (sweetened with that “pink packet poison”). He hands over an “ex libris” bookplate, but the name of the ostensible owner is too tiny to be anything but obscure for now. Chances are, this will be evidence of the original owner of a book he is working on, and one of the murder victims; his current client is a prime suspect for being the murderer….

The year dot?

To quote Bette Davis—“What a dump!”

Where’s a nice girl like Lee doing in a place like this?