Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 01, 2018

Fool him once, it’s shame on him. He won’t get fooled again

Must put the bite on Tracy. ‘Tis a deadly, mortal sin.

Place it all on Swampfire. Grimm bets the horse will win

Fears Sawtooth will overhear. Must call bookie again.

Grimm bets on the ponies. Sawtooth bets big on his bite

Pouch sells information if he deems the price is right.

Research and development do drive Smith Industries

Inventors run experiments, advancement not a breeze.

Outside in the parking lot look now to see two friends

Each has lost her mother. Some wounds heal, some never mend.

Moon Maid mother. Chimera another. Onee San unique

Changes ongoing. Friendship still growing. Answers they do seek.

Crystal has a cross to bear. Vile Uncle Bribery

Mother was a criminal. Foul fruit from family tree.

Girls do rise above the past, the future beckons now

Don’t look back. You do not lack the means to win somehow.

Good morning™, orphans!

It’s good to see Crystal’s hair in its proper shade finally. The recent daily strips were obviously wrong.

At first I thought Pretty Crystal was driving.

Does this have anything to do with Sawtooth …? ✨

Good morning™, BFFs !

Is that sarcasm in the last panel ?  That girl’s still got no eyes !  Should she even be operating an automobile ?

Some day will come the big reveal

Crystal, for sure, has wounds to heal

We would hope what is in store

That Crystal will see herself ugly no more!

I’m glad I was completely wrong for my theory that Crystal was in on Bribery’s plan and only befriending Honeymoon to get close enough to betray her. This warm-hearted friendship of theirs is a nice, ongoing contrast to the usual menace & mayhem.

An officer killed by a kid? Whatever happened to the days when kids and teenagers were good, honest, law-abiding citizens?

“I call her my Aunt Mysta.” It’s true that Honeymoon used to call Mysta her aunt, but that was years ago. More recently, they’ve often referred to each other as sisters, Imoto-Chan, “little sister,” and Onee San, “big sister.” That type of relationship has always seemed more natural to me since they are only about 8 years apart according to Mike Curtis. I am not saying the “aunt” reference is an error. I’m just surprised to see that word being used today because it seemed that Honeymoon and Mysta had long since moved on to regarding each other as sisters.

Good morning gocomics dwellers. Have an abundantly good day.

Panel Five: No, no, Honeymoon – you separate the two middle fingers. And the phrase is, “Live long and prosper.” (Junior, you never showed the kid any Star Trek re-runs? She might find them amusing…)

This is a little weird. Okay, the girls are in the back seat, probably because of their age. So in the last two panels, Honeymoon is outside the car while Crystal is still inside. Is Honeymoon just being “dropped off” at Smith Industries? If so, who’s driving the car? And why didn’t Crystal put the car window down to more easily talk to Honeymoon while finishing their conversation?

In the second to last panel, is that supposed to be blonde hair behind Honeymoon? Presumably Mysta’s?

Wonder if we will find out who Ugly Crystal’s really parents are? Will we ever see what she really looks like (bet she is actually pretty)?

That is a more depressing than usual First Responders Call of Honor.

Calling your own niece “ugly” is really low.

(>8-D3={

And now..back to “As the World Turns”

I’m never write sure about these Honeymoon/Ugly Christine strips, or who the audience is for them. I mean, I doubt very few if any pre-teen girls read Dick Tracy, & I have a feeling very few regular Dick Tracy readers are pre-teen girls. But I guess some readers enjoy them.

As the small car driven by Sparkle Plenty approaches the Moon Compound on the Smith Industries property, the two ‘tweens in the back seat commiserate. Then, the car having stopped, Honeymoon exits on the right and walks around to the left side, where she continues to listen to Crystal’s story, and we see Sparkle’s long blonde hair through the window behind Honeymoon. I suppose that, being on the left side of the rear seat of the two-door car, Crystal is waiting for Sparkle to exit first, so she can get out the left side also. In due course both girls, and maybe Sparkle too, will enter the Moon Compound building to meet and greet Diet Smith and maybe the ex-governor of the Moon. Revelations will surely follow.

Betimes, Sawtooth lays his plan for the redemptive offing of Dick Tracy….

Somebody ought to sock one of the, uh, ’gentleman’s parts’ right off Bribery’s chin for saying that to a kid!