Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for May 27, 2013

A peaceful Memorial Day to you all.

Memorial Day… a day of remembrance.

Good morning everyone…

Mysta’s motives concern me.

Uh, oh! That’s Sparkle’s photo!

Mysta’s looking fine, but seems to have plans for Sparkle. Eek!

Mysta is beautiful! Staton’s take on her goes above and beyond any of my expectations. This is going to be an exciting week for sure.

This is taking some diabolical directions it would seem……

“Outfits?” That’s nice, but the one you have on is just fine, thanks.

Uh-oh. That picture of Sparkle, suggesting that she is among the things Clone-Moon Maid deems “business” to be taken care of before “returning” to the Moon, is ominous. Something will have to give when (if) wife meets wife….

Uh oh is right. Not sure I’d want to be Sparkle just now.

And this, boys and girls, is where everything begins to fall apart…Unless you think she’s going to ask Sparkle for an autograph.

I’m looking forward to this week. And Joe Staton’s Moon Maid is exceptional, no matter who she might be!

yeah right !!

The art today is exceptional. Mysta is beautiful as always, plus Stellaluna, the clothes, and I really like the orbiting planets on the walls. Here’s another way the scenes were colored, which I like because it makes everything pop.

Mike has treated the Moon era of the strip with respect and updated it without it seeming to be dated, or taken to extremes with what Grant Morrison did with Batman’s space era.

Wow! Homerun today. Mysta is such an incredible cutie pie, but what does she have in mind for Sparkle? Whatever it is, she seems awfully pleased with herself.

That “earthbound business” line bodes ill for Junior and his family. I don’t see any way that this plot line is going to end well.

Whoa Nellie! What is Mysta up to? She looks exceptionally nice without the mask FWIW.

Unless she’s planning on telling the Tracy’s that Sparkle makes a great wife for Junior and wishes them well before leaving.

But that would be too neat a wrap-up.

…..I’ve got a bad feeling about this……

Another day of fabulous art. While the photo speaks for itself, who is going to tell Mysta that Moon Valley is deserted? More trials and tribulations are headed her way.

Some kind of voodoo?

“The land of the free, because of the brave”

Mysta is “putting some outfits together.” What? She’s been out shopping enough times to fill a closet full of all sorts of expensive looking clothes, and Stellaluna never noticed before? And where did Mysta get money for her shopping spree?

It now appears that this Mysta thinks of herself as the original Moon Maid. Perhaps she is, but I hope Mike and Joe have a reasonable explanation as to how she escaped the explosion.

The two questionable “Drs.” seem to be trying to make Diet Smith think she is the product of a cloning experiment. After Diet’s first experience with Zy Ghote, you would think he would be very wary indeed if the same “Dr.” comes to him again with a similar story.

My sincere admirations to your skill gentlemen for the shear beauty that you gifted to Mysta. As much as I enjoyed Gould’s work, especially in the 70s, Mysta is even more lovely than she was back then.

This idea however of her having some business with Sparkle is scary to think of. Let us hope the compassion that she showed in the 70s is still there however.

This thread I see is what makes me wonder if this is the real Mysta.

Skipped a few days and came back. Was that a mistake or not? If I intended to be a daily commentator, I suppose it was. And Saturday, the first day I took a breather, was a pretty heavy day to have missed.

But I find that I seem to enjoy seeing several strips together at one time, rather than just three panels at a time. Getting a little better feel for the story.

Saturday: I had to love the way Diet Smith put it: Show and Tell!

As for the eyebrows, I agree – I’ve been thinking great moose and squirrel since Christmas! As for the the Diet Smith Look-Alike Contest, especially at Christmastime, I kept thinking Bob Keeshan and Captain Kangaroo!

Again, I have to take back everything good I once said about Doctor Sail. While Sail once seemed to show compassion for Mysta, for now, I have nothing good to say about our pair of docs.

As for who this Mysta really is, Mike and Joe are painted into a corner – politically, not necessarily sci-fi or fantasy –wise. Storywise, they can pretty much make up anything and voting will probably fall right along “party lines,” with Mysta fans liking it and Mysta foes not.

But politically, a clone Mysta, or any other kind of fake Mysta would be a lose-lose proposition. Mysta foes have already been alienated; a fake Mysta would just alienate the rest of the Dick Tracy audience.

Hence, my vote that this Mysta is real.

Last, and certainly least: Whether Mysta intends ill for Sparkle will tell a lot as to who this Mysta really is. Headstrong, naïve, not in tune with earth culture, Moon Maid may have been all of these things – but someone who intended to harm others was not one of her traits.

I’m thinking MoonlitKnight hit it right on the head – this is the real Mysta, and she knows Junior has a new wife. Furthermore, Sparkle and Mysta were close friends, as close to family as she had on earth. Probably, this is why she wants to go back to the moon – she knows her earth life is over.

What she doesn’t know is that her moon life is over, too!

But what did you want? This is Dick Tracy! There will be no neat wrap-ups!

Sure and I got bridge in Brooklyn that I have to sale.

What if current team left to develop Moon Maid strip? Would that lose current “viewership”? Replacement team= Andrew Helfer/Kyle Baker?

tconstantine900: I’ve thought that myself – why not Moon Maid in her own comic strip? Much as I think this is the real Mysta, much as I want her to be the real Mysta, another commentator said Sunday that Moon Maid might not fit well into the current Dick Tracy storyline.

One thing for sure – she remains as controversial today as she was back in the sixties!

Why haven’t Mysta’s doctors told her she is a “fake” instead of a real moon person? What’s their scheme here, that they can’t let her in on it? Don’t they realize that she could ruin the whole scam, if she thinks she’s really Moon Maid and starts contacting Junior and Honeymoon?

She will be very disappointed, she’ll them and see strangers.

There are dark glasses and wig among those “outfits” she is putting together. It seems she plans to go disguised.

I love today’s strip. The progression of panels with Mysta getting closer to us in each one fits with the progressive dialogue. 1st, she’s putting together outfits, just everyday stuff. 2nd, a little closer where she gives her stated agenda, return to the moon. 3rd, she’s closer still and we learn she has a secret agenda involving Sparkle. Staton brings her closer to us so we can learn her intimate thoughts. Powerful images.

Very good points, Ray Toler.

Late enough in the day, don’t know who might see this. I may re-post this tomorrow. We’ll see.

Also overlooked is that Mysta’s very existence in this version of Tracy land is all heartache. Husband gone (and I’m pretty sure she knows it) and moon home gone (which she probably does not know just yet).

That she may be a “clone,” not the “real deal,” and not know that, either, would be even more tragic!

The Doctor Who episode is intriguing; I didn’t see it, so I can’t comment on it. When it comes to clones, I base most of my assumptions on “nature’s clones,” identical twins, which are, by definition, what I think most people speculate about when they talk about “clones,” or people who have originated from the same DNA.

A “clone” Mysta back as a “regular” character (especially once she “knows” she has no claim on Junior or Honeymoon)? Interesting thought. My previous assumption has been that a “fake” Mysta would pretty much end her character once she was “found out.” But I could be wrong.

But it has also been speculated that, even if Mysta is the “real deal,” she still doesn’t fit into the present Tracy universe. How much more so if she is a “fake”? Hence, my previous assumption that a “fake” or “clone” Mysta might exist to provide a new “villain.”

Last thoughts for now: While “No one is safe in the hard-crime world of Dick Tracy,” certain deaths were perceived as more malicious than others. Glad you mentioned Groovy Grove, whose death was very similar to Moon Maid and (believe it or not) Diet Smith’s “deaths.”

Okay, so Diet Smith didn’t “die” in the conventional – or Tracy – sense of the word. But it is my belief that the original Doctor Zy Ghote story was to “write” Smith “out of the story,” same as Mysta and Groovy Grove.

Why?

Because all three characters represented the so-called Space Era and Fletcher-Collins wanted all references to that period removed!

I’m not sure if any other Tracy “death” has had those kind of overtones, whatsoever.

Okay, so I have one more last thought: One reason Mike and Joe may be able to “swerve” their readers is that we are here commenting on the strip on a daily basis! Not sure of their lead or lag time in production, but I’m pretty sure they can see a “consensus” building in the comments – which would make it “time” to “swerve” the story!

In other words, I don’t consider it unlikely that we are the ones who make it possible for them to “swerve”!

As Mike has a fondness for some of the classic discontinued strips ie. Terry & The Pirates, Annie…perhaps a spin-off “super-team” strip which Moon Maid would continue in. Believe King Features did something along these lines in 90’s w/ Lee Falk’s characters. I have vague memory of actual animated cartoon w/ The Phantom, Mandrake The Magician.

I love Mysta! I thought she was so pretty when I was a girl but now, wow!