Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 30, 2013

Well, now, this is a surprise.

Hoo boy!

Oh my!

Step away from the child you lunar looney…

Looks like we’re past the slow buildup phase.

HOLY MACKEREL! I was all set to comment on yesterday’s strip, signed in, and the saw this. Shades of The Shining!

I don’t think MM is evil, per se, but thing she will have an epiphany by the end of the storyline. I see her taking an exit a la the original Gwen Stacy clone in the original clone storyline in SpiderMan.

There was a time where Dick Tracy was “water cooler” talk. Since then, I know other means of media have taken over, plus how one attains media; but geez. If this type of storyline happened in the heyday of DT, this woulda been the talk of the town. And I KNOW Team Tracy were planning this all along (their earliest strips showed Diet with his moon travelling stuff, kinda like a foreshadowing), and I can only hope that with the new cabal of villains that they introduced us to before this storyline kicked into high gear, that they give the same care with it that they do with this one.

Honeymoon and Mysta together again — wow!

Honeymoon was wanting to find her mom. Now you know what they say. Be careful what you wish for…..

Boy, did this hit the fan all of a sudden

I have a hunch this meeting will be a lot friendlier than the last two days.

Hoo boy, didn’t see this coming! Yeah, this should be friendlier. Looks like Mysta’s intending only a quick visit. Wondering though if Junior will show up? That would make things really interesting.

Honeymoon and her mother reunited after all these years. I was thrilled to see that Curtis and Staton were making Honeymoon a central figure in the strip, but bringing Moon Maid back is beyond anything I ever expected. This is like a dream come true for this Moon Babe fan! I am it is going to be so emotional for the both of them.

Holey Moley! I’d have sooner expected a surprise visit by Haley’s Comet than this!What’ll Honeymoon do? Slam the door? Greet her mom? Run?And there’s no telling how Mysta will react… (whatddaya mean, I’ve gotta wait 22 hours to find out!)

Honeymoon will be able to tell she’s a fake….perhaps MM’s “powers” will turn out to be manmade or something….

Then again, since we’ve all been alerted she’ll be in future stories guess I’m wrong….grrrrr…

I don’t think Honey was prepared for THIS Moon Maid sighting…..

Huh. We knew this meeting would come at some point, but I always thought it would be as a result of Honeymoon finding Moon Maid. Regardless, this should be interesting!

This just isn’t right. That Clone-Moon Maid is too wacko to be trusted around the child she thinks of as her daughter! I have a feeling this will go south as a result of Honeymoon’s response to the unexpected visit.

After thinking about it for two days, I still don’t think what Mysta did to Sparkle was out of tune with what the original Mysta might have done. Extreme yes, but should we be shocked that she used her powers to warn Sparkle to get away from Junior? I don’t think so. Which is why I don’t think there’s anything weird about this meeting.

On the other hand, remember how in the old days of TV they would turn the camera angle askew when something weird was going on, or if something wasn’t what it appeared to be? See panel three! A clue?

Rigt now I wish this was an ‘hourly’ rather than a daily!

GASP!

Wow! Took me by surprise…

To quote a certain Doctor, “Run”!!"

In tears as the Space Coupe was returning from the moon, Honeymoon said she believed her mother was alive and she was going to prove it. I’m surprised that it was not Honeymoon who found her mother through her own detective work. I hope the reunion goes well, but don’t understand why Mysta should care when or if she is missed by Retik and Stellaluna. Why this lack of autonomy? What sort of constraints is she under and why? So much to ponder in this rich and complex story. I’m loving it.The art in panel three is especially excellent. Another memorable day in Tracy Land, thanks to Team Tracy.

Good morning everyone…

I wasn’t expecting this! What a day to be late!

@Willy007

It seems the speculation that you made yesterday has come true in today’s strip.Do you have a “Little Bird” sitting on your shoulder whispering secrets in your ear?…8>)

Whoa!

Did anyone notice " this MM" is able to drive a car? Methinks if she were a clone, she would have to relearn many everyday tasks the rest of us take for granted…

Just an observation…

#1: As far as having to learn how to drive a car, wouldn’t a clone have to “relearn” their memories, too?

#2: Maybe MM is an “evil” clone. We’ve certainly seen enough of those, including the 1970’s Spider-MAn series.

Doesn’t Honeymoon know she should see who is at the door before opening it?

Well, that escalated quickly.

stay tuned everyone.. for THE BATTLE OF THE MOON PEOPLE!!!

Honeymoon, in self defense, uses her magnetic fingertips to whack moon maid lite with the car, moon maid lite in retaliation, zaps Honeymoon. Honey turns out to be immune to mml’s powers and wraps a street lamp around her, mml freaks out and begins frying everything in sight..KATIE BAR THE DOOR, IT’S A PIER SIX BRAWL DOWN THER!!!

and in case you NEED it to be spelled out for you.. I AM JOKING!!!

and yes, ray..sdmphav09 or willy or whever decides to comment.. i DID see my typo but i aint gonna fix it… so there! :P lol!

I’m still a little frustrated by the events of the last two days. Is it possible Sparkle won’t tell anyone about Mysta’s warning and will figure out a way to leave Junior for other reasons? I suppose anything’s possible at this point but somehow Mysta being regarded as a villain and hunted down like a criminal isn’t what I expected. I sure don’t want that to happen, I know that. Besides, how would the police take her into custody? And what would they do with her if they did catch her? She’d have to be kept under permanent sedation or in a steel vault or something.

On a different note, I’m happy to see the mother daughter reunion!

This is interesting—a clone with all the memories of the original. Doesn’t really work that way…

As for Moon Maid being a villain…

From the point of view of the police, she probably is doing something illegal. From their point of view, the real Moon Maid is dead and these MM sightings must be some vigalante disguised as MM. At this point in the story, the police have no idea about Dr. Ghote, Dr. Sail, and the meeting they had with Diet Smith.

Many of the most popular characters in Dick Tracy have at one time or another been on the wrong side of the law (B.O., Gertie, the Mole, etc.). Actually, this is a pretty standard plot device. How many times have we seen an episode of Star Trek where one of the main characters turned bad for some reason? Yet in the end everything was explained and things were back to normal the next week. I anticipate that this will be the situation here.

When MM first came to Earth she was placed under guard and declared by the government to be extremely dangerous. She was complicit in a plot with her father to kidnap Tracy, Diet, and Junior and hold them in an electronic prison on the Moon. She has stolen a Space Coupe. So for those who think Moon Maid is an angel, think again.

As for Junior…His troubles may just be starting. But he has never had a tremendous amount of luck with women.

Given the way “time flies” in Tracy land, it is very possible that Mysta’s assault on Sparkle occurred during this same outing in which she sees Honey! I’m no child safety expert, but I echo the alarms from others – Moon Maid fans and foes alike – I am not comfortable with her being around Honey at this moment in time.

Likely, because Sparkle’s assault and this visit occurred during the same outing, Honey is as yet unaware of the assault on the woman she has since come to know as “mom.”

And the hurt goes on…

This visit is the moment many of us, myself included, have been looking forward to for so long.

It should have been sweet – but the events of the last couple of days (or, more likely, minutes) have made this event more bitter than sweet.

On a completely different note, the other day, I happened across some You Tube videos of Archie’s Dick Tracy. It’s helping me understand the apparent hostility that some have toward Mysta (other than her actions of the last couple of days or minutes).

One, can a Dick Tracy “scholar” out there help me – I think I’ve heard that some member(s) of the present Dick Tracy team were involved in Archie – was it the teevee show? If so, that would explain a lot of what’s going on this summer in Tracy land!

Two, more to the point: The Archie cartoons were rife with the excesses of the Space Era. Not only were there the “flying garbage cans,” apparently not even liked by Mysta fans, but Tracy seemed to have an improbable electronic gadget precisely for whatever caper was going down.

Voicing was horrible, as well.

This, in addition to cases being solved in five to ten minutes, instead of dragging on from spring to fall.

Three, perhaps the biggest caution I can see is the current Dick Tracy strip turning into a “sequel” of the sixties’ Dick Tracy strip.

After Star Trek burned us out with Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, et al, now Hollywood has “reboot” Star Trek and gone back to the original Star Trek characters. We have seen the same with Star Wars and numerous other sixties and seventies teevee shows that have become 21st century films.

At the moment, it seems as if Mike and Joe may be doing the exact same thing – reassembling the same cast of characters as existed in Dick Tracy during the sixties.

What next? Groovy Grove? So, yes, Moon Maid foes, I think I understand your angst.

In the mean time, if they are bringing back Moon Maid, they are not making it “easy.”

Is this really our Mysta? We’ve been given enough behavioral clues to question that. And yet, the argument for a “clone” Mysta (Moon Maid Lite, as tsull2121 likes to call her) is even weaker – especially since Mysta’s “doctors” have webbed feet and make funny noises when water rolls off their backs.

So, let’s enjoy the “Mysta-ry” for now – and hope Mike and Joe can keep things under control!

One thing tsull2121 may have “nailed” on the head – I’m wondering whether we will finally see whether Honey has Mysta’s “horns”! Granted, Gould never showed her as having them, but he and subsequent artists have always drawn Honey’s hair such that said “horns” could still be there, just hidden!

Hmmmm, is Honeymoon’s left hand holding the door in a weird way or is it raised in front of it?Doesn’t she love her "mom"Sparkle? Even thought she might be excited to meet her natural mom why does anyone think she would leave the life she’s now a part of?

Just asking.

A few months ago I found and uploaded to youtube two of the Archie’s TV Funnies cartoons featuring Moon Maid. Gotta love MM’s crazy voice! Sounds like she’s been sucking too much helium.This first one features Mumbles, Sam, Pat, Tess, Junior, and our favorite alien lady. The story is completely nutty of course. Tracy can’t spy out Mumbles’ hideout because he would be spotted right away. Makes sense, but what does he do instead? Sends in Moon Maid! That’s right, Mumbles would never ever suspect her with those horns and that costume — not to mention the X-ray goggles she was wearing. Ha! Strange, too, that Mysta never uses her powers to escape:Dick Tracy vs MumblesThis second one features Flattop, Junior, and Tracy, while Moon Maid has only a bit role. Love the ray guns and laugh tracks!Dick Tracy vs Flattop

This has to be the fastest moving story so far.

JB2K: From the sounds of it, Jane Webb was Filmation’s June Foray – another woman who single-handedly voiced all females at Warner Brothers and other animation companies, even appearing in Hanna-Barbera cartoons, even the voice of “great moose’” little pal!

Perhaps it was You Tube and the quality of the sound track that caused me to say that the voicing was horrible. To me, it seemed as if everyone pretty much sounded like Moon Maid – except Tracy – and even his voice didn’t seem to match the character I had tracked since I was a kid.

Hello, Honey! How would you like to go out for some giant escargot?

I can just imagine the look on Honeymoon’s face.

Kind of like Honeymoon who has human and Moon DNA. I’ll bet she could lay waste to a city.