Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 01, 2012

I believe you, honey!!This just gets better and better!!!

To all of you Moon Maid fans, I have posted this link before, but I thought I would post it again.The ilovecomix Archive – Dick Tracy – 1963The site will ask for your name. email, and a reason you’re there. It asks this EVERY time, it’s annoying, but after that…YOU ARE IN COMIC HEAVEN! So if you want some Dick Tracy – Moon Maid, or even some other comic, like Terry and the Pirates or Superman, go give it a look. I happen to know it will take hours to look at all of the strips of Moon Maid on this site.Have fun!

Good Morning Detectives!Today’s strip seems to support my story a little more. Of course, the way Mike replied to my post yesterday, kind of says “Good guess, but you’re wrong! We have another explanation!”

Anyway, this is one riveting storyline that’s coming out piece by piece and Chief Detectives Joe and Mike deserve props for the way it’s all coming out, making us want more and more!

Didn’t expect to see her again today, so this is sheer, unexpected pleasure!!! She’s absolutely gorgeous today, and the sight of those high heeled boots sends me to wonderful place.

So many possibilities! Even if the scarf comes off & we see Mrs. Chin Chillar’s beard (she was a Gould favorite!)…How spellbinding is this story?! I’m not speculating. Just enjoying!

Oh, I recommend downloading them as ZIP files to a directory for each year. You can get the entire years gallery of strips by clicking download and selecting All Available Originals. After un-zipping the ZIP file you will have all of the image files to view at your leisure. This way you can zoom and read at your own pace using a picture viewing software as opposed to trying to use a browser.

Unbelievable! Makes the guesses even harder, just who is this Moon Maid? Gotta Love it!!!!

LOVE THIS!! Some observations:1. She looks great in heels. More please!!2. Don’t care how big that hammer is, a woman would have to be exceptionally strong to decimate a gravestone so quickly. (hint: alien power, or she’s working out big time!)3. Her assistant calls her “Moon Maid.” Hmmmmmm.4. Is that Vitamin Flintheart on security detail?!?!

She says “good” but then she does get in the car. Why doesn’t the driver tear out of there? And why can’t Moon Maid tell the guard herself?

This not Moon Maid. Who, or what, she is, I’m not sure. The clone idea is attractive (better than my robot suggestion, I think). The underlying problem, however, is the identities and motivation of the creepy couple commanding the getaway car!

Very dramatic third panel.

Love how Joe Staton has isolated on her from different angles. Very Gouldian! And very appealing!!

Oh thanks. I actually did a little reimagining of Friday’s third panel and can post it here if anyone would like to see it.

Do you think her 2 handlers are also moon people?

Love seeing her gloved hands in each panel. All perfectly proportioned, which was no simple task. Another indication that Joe Staton is drawing Moon Maid with great loving care, which I so appreciate. And did I mention how incredibly adorable her boots are in panel one?!

I want it to be Moon Maid…. I want it to be Moon Maid!

It’s really her??

Right now Dick has no reason to believe this is his late daughter-in-law. First, she’s dead, and Dick Tracy knows dead when he sees it. Second, the only evidence for Moon Maid’s resurrection consists of two interventions in muggings and one vague statement by a masked vandal. From Dick’s point of view, the most likely explanation would be that Moon Maid is dead and some criminal is staging a hoax to get at him.

If this is the real Mysta, why would she run around as a masked avenger, performing random acts of weirdness? You’d think her first impulse would be to go straight to her daughter and husband. Anyone who tried to stop her could get a laser blast where the full moon don’t shine.

From what we readers have seen, there are any number of explanations other than Moon Maid lives again. Maybe Retik developed his own space coupe technology, and the woman is a Lunarian who believes she is Mysta.

Bill Thompson is quite right—Tracy knows dead when he sees it. BUT . . . Moon Maid is (I think) the only Moon person who has died in the strip, and is it possible that Moon people don’t “die” as Earth people do, and are able to regenerate somehow?

I ask this only because I really, really, really, REALLY hope that this is the real Moon Maid . . . even though such a situation would make poor Junior’s life very “interesting.”

Good morning all you nice, nice people! This Moon Maid has the looks, the strength, and the powers of the original. If it’s her, why this connection to a couple of “handlers?” If she did survive the car blast, could she have lost her memory and been found (or rescued) by these two and is now being taken advantage of in some sort of evil plot? Hmm. I will agree with all who have mentioned her arrival is going to make for some very interesting, and perhaps uncomfortable, family dynamics to come.

I….AM…SPEECHLESS!!!

I’ve been rejoicing all weekend over Moon Maid, and now this. I can’t hardly explain what I’m feeling right now. Pure ecstasy that a fantasy woman who made me tremble with excitement for so many years is now back in Dick Tracy, looking so astonishingly hot, making me tremble with excitement once again, flooding my mind with joy, causing me to obsess over her beauty, delighting my heart with news that we’ll see her more and more in months to come. It’s such a rush. I don’t want it to end. I love you, Moon Maid.

Okey doke, here you go. Hope this is okay with Mike and Joe. My reimagination of the Friday scene with Moon Maid:

Great suspenseful storytelling. Since Mike has said that this storyline will be like the Mr Crime one and slowly build over many months, I think it’s going to be really hard to wait and see how this all plays out.

The shadowy security man reminds me of the ABC Sunday Night Mystery Movie opening; the ever-approaching figure shining his flashlight on Columbo, McCloud, etc. Another shout-out to the mystery-theme?

I’m not sure if the idea has been made before, but Moon Maid’s scarf or mask might be just to hide damage from the car blast. Although, the rest of her appears in be in excelent shape.

if you look closely enough at panel three you can ALMOST make out her lips and chin/jawline thru the bandages (mike said they were bandages first, dunno if they have been changed to a scarf or not.. i will wait on mikes official word on that, so until then i am calling them bendages). it almost looks as if she is frowning. one of my theories before (after my hope of it being angeltop lol) was that MAYBE back before the explosion her father had found some way to transport her from the car the moment before it exploded and took her back to the moon to be rehabilitated and the bandages were to cover the remaining scars from some sort of reconstructive surgery to her face.. which could lead to her current bitterness IF it is indeed moon maid. her family was just willing to accept her as dead and not investigate it any further than the smouldering remains of the car in tracy’s driveway. its as good a motive for her current actions as any. it would also explain the “jagged word balloons” used for her speech… if there was severe damage to her face and throat (the only parts that have not yet to be revealed completely) then there could also have been damage to her larynx which would have affected her speech/speech patterns as well. i’m thinking the jagged edges are being used “artistically” to show her anger and some sort of underlying physical pain perhaps a strain of some sort on her vocal chords. either way, i am RIDICULOUSLY thrilled with the current subplot and cant wait to see what the next main story is gonna be. btw did anyone here mention mike’s list of characters for the next year? he posted it in the yahoo group.. i can repost it here if you want

C’mon, morrow – don’t bait the troll.Just walk away.

Late yesterday I posted my theory, and I’ll throw it back here again (theory 2.0) -This is Moon Maid, the original. She was in the car, but the explosion didn’t kill her – she’s darn near invulnerable to heat and explosive force. She may have been blown clear, or pulled herself from the wreckage, but either way, she wasn’t seen by the Tracys (the flames obscured her).The two in the car – Retik and his companion – may have found her. (Either way, they’re part of a ‘moon cult’) They would have recognized her – those eyes and horns are pretty distinctive. It would have taken time for her to recover, and during that time, they took advantage of her by feeding her false information. She probably had a concussion and was touch-and-go for a while after the blast, so when she recovered, they were able to convince her the Tracy’s weren’t concerned about her, hadn’t gone looking for her, had been using her, etc. etc.And now they’re getting ready to use her powers. SInce they want her to think she’s still a good guy, they let her zap a few petty thieves (also, a good test run).And they let her vent her anger by smashing the headstone erected ‘to fool the public into thinking the Tracys were concerned about her.’And now they’re getting ready for their job…And their target might be one of Diet Smith’s Space Coupes.Comments?

Oh, quick addendum:Retik and his friend were near the blast scene (and able to rescue Moon Maid) because they had been following her (like papparazzi).

Joe, Mike, Shelley and Shane gave us a truly great Sunday strip … just wanted to say that since I didn’t do it yesterday.

I agree with you. Morrow was way out of line with that remark.

Comments retracted and deleted. Sorry, folks.

How does she manage to keep those purple stockings from sliding down?

I remember Moon Maid from the 60’s. She disappeared after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. She was allegedly from the “Dark Side of the Moon”, a region we had not seen until the moon landing days.Welcome back, MM. I see that you kept your figure.

@DrSid1: Re your yesterday’s comment:Of course there’s a big difference between killing a fictional character as opposed to a real, live person. I still stand by my statement but I also realize it’s difficult to get my point across. [Can one really compare Jay Maeder to Adolf Hitler because he considered it compassionate to bump off Moon Maid?]I, of course, wasn’t calling Maeder a murderer. It was just his attitude that was highly suspect, an attitude that came across in his particular choice of words and phraseology [quoted here again so anyone else can see and judge for themselves.]:" "Bumping off Moon Maid was the single most loving and reverential action any Tracy devotee could have taken, and if Collins never wrote another line he would still be living in memory for having done the strip this affectionate good turn.”To me that is cold, callous, and utterly unfeeling. Yet it masquerades as being very compassionate. I see it as very similar to a Nazi praising Dr. Mengele because the good doctor always provided a seat for his elderly mother as she watched him vivesect the patients.Extreme and far-fetched this comparison may be [and I’m not accusing Maeder of anything in real life other than a very poor choice of words] but if you saw a young child viciously tear apart a doll or use an X-Acto knife like a surgeon’s scalpel, on said doll [all the while wearing a ghoulish expression], even though nothing living was harmed, wouldn’t you feel that little kid needed some kind of help?Granted also I’m reacting only upon what I read in that one paragraph. Maybe the whole book was tongue in cheek. Maybe in context I’d get a completely different impression. But I feel that if his comment was not meant to be taken seriously, then he failed miserably to communicate that. At this point I can only go by that statement, and I find that statement to be in incredibly poor taste.Some years ago I picked up a book entitled something like “How to finish your first novel in ninety days” [or something like that]. I wish I knew his name so I could hold him up as a perfect example of what not to be. The book was bad.At one point he’s describing a method of creating a character [toss in a bunch of different characteristics and a character should pop out]. He goes on to illustrate this by doing just that, and he calls her “Aunt Tillie.” Now his method wasn’t particularly bad. He could have actually made her a viable character in some story. But at the end, when his lesson is over [and he has no more need of the character] he goes, “Now let’s wad her up and throw her away.” Sure, she was only a non-existant fictional character. But to me, it was incredibly callous. He created this character to be thown away. As a writer this is something I could never do. It’s not possible to create believable, realistic characters without having some kind of feelings for them. And if you can just callously toss any kind of character in the garbage it shows there was never any feeling for that character in the first place.What I’m trying to say [though it’s very difficult to prove] is that I find such attitudes to be extremely suspicious. And that even though we’re only talking about fictional characters, I’d be really careful before I’d let any of my kids [if I had kids] around the likes of that “how to” author, or around Jay Maeder.

@ mrbribery – I think Moon Maid is telling the guard to spread the word that she’s not dead.

I guess it all means she is no0t ready to “go public” with the news she is not dead. This may have implications. Why now? Why not X years ago? There’s more on the horizon.

Top Seven Things I Love About the Last Three Days of Moon Maid:7. Big hair on Sunday – Granted it was in silhouette, but the sight of those impossibly long blonde tresses is d@#~ exciting. Please keep it long like that and show it often!!!!!6. Full Moon – Hinted at her origin (alien?!) and that of her accomplices (work for moon ppl?)5. Color coordination – Love the matching colors of her boots, gloves AND scarf. Sets off her bunny outfit so pleasingly and tells me this dame has some serious style!!!!!4. Those Eyes – They’re big, bold, and beautiful, and I can’t get enough of them!!!!!!3. That Sledgehammer – At first I thought it was odd, then kind of fun, and then when I finally realized it was the symbol of her great power, it became exciting. There is something incredibly satisfying and enjoyable about seeing her wield that thing. Like someone said, beauty plus power equals intoxication.2. That Body – It’s firm, it’s curvy, it’s impossibly fine, it’s wildly exciting. What’s not to love!! 1. Those Boots – Moon Maid’s trademark boots still put me in orbit after all these years!!!!!

Is this a new record for the number of comments posted? It can’t be Moon Maid… think of the problems it would cause with Junior and his marriage.

Good afternoon fellow DT fans…

I don’t think it’s really Moon Maid, but someone who has been hypnotized into thinking that she is…just a hunch!

@andyh40I agree. Thinks she is, been hitting the P90 X, too.

The position of her hands on the handle of the hammer changed between panel 1 and 2. I think that indicates she was getting ready to take another swing, and so she could have stepped around the grave marker (what’s left of it) and thus changed her position relative to the van.

I can still rememberMeeting my first loveShe wore a little black suitThat fit her like a glove.

Neither cold nor heat could harm herShe had powers to astoundShe sent my heart a racingShe spun my world around.

I could never wait to see herImpatient, I would sighCounting every hour‘Til to the Moon I’d fly.

A woman without guileBest mother, wife and friendI was not alone in weepingTo learn of her tragic end.

The seasons changed, the years did passI put away childish thingsNever daring to have hopeIn what tomorrow brings.

At first a distant rumorSoon the news did spreadBetter than my wildest dreamsMy first love wasn’t dead.

Life is filled with wonders‘Tis easy to lose sightNot all mistakes are finalSome wrongs can be put right.

So if you hear me singingOr see me dancing like a loonI haven’t lost my sensesI’ve found that Maiden from the Moon.

No one’s said anything about this, so I will. This is for those who’ve suggested Moon Maid is really Mrs. Chin Chillar.On the third panel of today’s strip, we see the side of Moon Maid’s face. Look carefully at the shadow below her chin, touching her fingers. Do you see what I see? Possible this is a subtle visual clue provided by Staton?One other thing I noticed in the panel is the shape of Moon Maid’s nose under her mask. It’s clearly an upturned pug nose — which is exactly the kind of nose Notta has. Now this isn’t necessarily a big deal, because Mysta’s nose was also a pug shape, though I checked, and it was less pronounced than Notta’s. The masked girl’s pug shape seems more pronounced like Notta’s.But IMO the more significant “clue” (if it IS supposed to be a clue!) is the shadow under Moon Maid’s chin.What do you all think?

Wow, great analysis. The way Moon Maid seems to peek from around the corner at us, holding the hammer out for us to see, is a powerful image. Her beauty and power jump right into your senses. Captivating.

Sorry, I saw your earlier post and didn’t understand it. The woman in today’s strip is Moon Maid, or at least that’s what we are being led to believe. The original Moon Maid was introduced to the Dick Tracy strip back in 1963. She was a beautiful woman from the moon who eventually came to earth and married Junior Tracy. She had magnetic powers that she used to fight crime. In 1978, the same year after her creator retired from the strip, the new artists decided to kill off Moon Maid. She hasn’t been seen since, until some recent appearances on August 1 & 2 and September 7 & 8 of this year (and now this past Saturday-Sunday-today). You might want to check out those August and September dates to catch up. Much debate has ensued about her identity, and a record-setting level of interest about her identity is being recorded here on the gocomics comments pages. But so far we don’t know yet if she is the original Moon Maid, or a clone, or an android, or an imposter. Highly recommend you read this Wikia page on Moon Maid:http://dicktracy.wikia.com/wiki/Moon_MaidAlso, check out the first two comments under today’s strip by Tarry Plaguer. They provide great info and will show you how you can read the original Moon Maid stories from 1963 and onward. Happy reading! As for your grandpa, I have no reason why he hasn’t told you who Dick Tracy’s enemies and friends are. Can you ask him?

There you go again_, that ‘SIGH’ . . .* is like a well known signature._

I think Mysta would be a rockin’ Bond girl!!!

Glad you’re getting up to speed on this beautiful character, ryku7. Moon Maid’s been around nearly FIFTY years ( hard to believe), though from 1978 until this year she was presumed dead (and may still be dead). Don’t hesitate to ask more questions about her. There are obviously plenty of fans here who love to talk about her! Personally, right now, I think she’s a moon woman, and probably Mysta. But that could change at any time!! :)

And to get back to more important subjects, YES, it certainly does look like Moon Maid is pulling up on the top of her left boot.Great, Tommygunner, now I won’t be able to look at that awesome panel anymore without staring at the top of her boot and wondering about that.Just kidding, I’m actually delighted because it gives me something else about Moon Maid to obsess about!! :)

As we turn out the lights on this 3-day Moon Maid lovefeast, here are some final thoughts:Moon Maid ROCKS!!The fans LOVE her!!We can’t stop TALKING about her!!We want MORE of her!!We want her to stay around FOREVER!!Mike, give us MORE, MORE, MORE of this awesome lady!!Please make her a regular character in the story!!And please don’t give one more thought to writing her out for good when the current story finally wraps up!! (That would be a bigger mistake than killing her off in 1978!!)Thank you for THRILLING us with the return of Moon Maid!!

…many have been #1…but how many can say they’ve held spot # 118? lol……… Anyways if Moon Maid is real, her marriage to Junior would have been annuled by now, reducing her to somewhat of a Moon Mistress, which may be part of why she is steamed…..hard to imagine anything in the future topping the interest here that Ms. Maid has inspired…and some were just saying the Mr. Crime episode would be a tough act to follow!!!.

@ryku7Try Googling the term; you’ll find lots of information.

I can still remember meeting my first love

She wore a little black suit that fit her like a glove.

Neither cold nor heat could harm her, she had powers to astound

She sent my heart a racing, she spun my world around.

I could never wait to see her. Impatient, I would sigh

Counting every hour‘Til to the Moon I’d fly.

A woman without guile. Best mother, wife and friend

I was not alone in weeping to learn of her tragic end.

The seasons changed, the years did pass, I put away childish things

Never daring to have hope in what tomorrow brings.

At first a distant rumor. Soon the news did spread

Better than my wildest dreams. My first love wasn’t dead.

Life is filled with wonders. ‘Tis easy to lose sight

Not all mistakes are final. Some wrongs can be put right.

So if you hear me singing, or see me dancing like a loon

I haven’t lost my senses. I’ve found that Maiden from the Moon.