Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 18, 2013

Well, what luck!

Is it, as a few have speculated, that they are headed to a rendezvous with the Moon Folk?

Good morning all…

They wanted the space coupe and they got it!

What, what luck….

Good morning, VB!

I’m pretty sure the creative team is going to cliffhanger us here.

Good morning, fellows!Are we talking planet alignment here? Earth, Mars and Jupiter all in the same row? This is getting quite interesting! Wonder if Lunarites (or Ganymedites) will intercept them? Or maybe it’s Europans. Or Callistans. I will exclude IO, too volcanic. Thoug, ending up in an IO vulcan…what a way to go! Fit for Gould’s way of treating villains,Ithink.

A collision course with Jupiter eh? I was thinking they’d be destroyed by an asteroid but getting destroyed on Jupiter will work just as well. Or maybe Flash will get lucky and actually regain control or kill them all before they die on Jupiter……

They cannot die “on” Jupiter, gas giants have no solid surface. They will plunge in the clouds until high pressure will crush them, if they don’t fry from heat, first.

Coincidentally, the last conjunction between Mars and Jupiter was last July 22, when they were less than a degree apart in the dawn sky.

How is that “lucky”??? o.0

I hope we get to see some Jupiter aliens

Maybe that’s where the moon people went when they left the moon.

Dr. Sail looks extremely angry in Panel 1 (great art, again). I think he’s used to always getting his own way. This may be the last we ever see of the Coupe and it’s passengers, unless there is another brief recap on Sunday (likely, I think). I don’t see any place here for the Moon Valley people to intervene. As AtomivDog says, it will be a quick and painless death.

We should be seeing Abner Kadaver again on Saturday and Sunday. Is there a change his prison sentence is finished or will he have to break out? I missed in previous appearance during my self-imposed exile from the strip.

Tune in next time when we’ll hear Dr. Sail say, “I knew we shoulda taken that left toin at Albukoikee.”

Maybe they’ll crash into the Monolith.

As I said yesterday, travelling in space you don’t even pass within sight of a planet unless someone programmed the course very carefully. This is all according to Diet’s script. Whether he meant it for an occupied of unoccupied SC is yet to be made clear, but he looked pretty furtive whenever it was discussed, and he doesn’t have much of a poker face.

The Space Coupe is powered by magnetism, surly it would automatically keep iron-rich meteors at bay.

We need not assume a straight-line course was programmed into the Space Coupe control-system. Maybe Mr. Smith (I’m using the same appellation as Mysta Chimera used) programmed the ship to track to the new Lunarian colony, the location of which he somehow knew. As I said yesterday, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over!

Jupiter has a rather large magnetic field, it will either capture the coupe or disable it, then they can control it.When they return to Earth, there will need to be a LOT of explaining to do, not only from Ghote and Sail, but from Diet.

wow

JUPITER?!?!?! Oh fer crying out loud! Just END THIS already!!!

They are going REALLY FAST – the fastest we’ve ever gotten a probe to Jupiter is 13 months.

I still have a hard time imagining that Diet Smith has become judge, jury, and executioner, though, in spite of Sunday’s comment by the narrator, we seem to have circumstantial evidence that this is the case..If, as someone above surmised, Dietrich is sending the three stooges to the relocated Moon colony, how the sam hill does Smith know where they are? Even more important, last Christmas, when Diet took Tracy and Honey to the moon, why didn’t he take them to the new Moon colony instead?.This new angle, though interesting, is very, very confusing.

It may seem like a collision course right now to Flash, but I’m hoping the Coupe ends up at Europa or another moon of Jupiter, where the Moon People are now living.

@amalisThe Coupe apparently travels with constant 1g acceleration most of the time (that’s why its passengers aren’t floating around the cabin) which results in very, very high speeds. (now Gould played a bit loose with the concept, in terms of the orientation of the passengers within the vehicle, but if you buy into the idea that the Coupe can tap into magnetic power pervading space, constant 1g acceleration isn’t any great stretch. This is, of course, post hoc rationalization.

Is this the end of the space coupe? How disappointing.

Glad to see they’re not leaving this as a loose end. They’re lucky Diet didn’t turn off the air and heat systems to save energy on the coupe’s long voyage.

I am starting to think Diet Smith knows where the Lunarians are, but is feigning ignorance. He wants to rid himself of the Space Coupe but doesn’t want to destroy it (sentimental reasons?). So he programmed it to rendezvous with the relocated Lunarians so they could add it to their fleet.

The moon Europa seems to be a likely candidate because, as a few posters have commented, it has water. Europa is one of the few places in the Solar System that real-life scientists believe could support life.

who would have thunk that travelling in a straight line would leave earth, just miss Mars and then be on collision course with Jupiter? He better buy a lottery ticket.

I recommend the low budget sci-fi film, Europa Report. While not without flaws, it boasts better science than most films in the genre. The characters are astronauts doing their job, willing to make sacrifices for science without melodrama. Even better is Gravity, which is a film not to be missed.The only hope for the three rouges aboard the Space Coupe is if the Lunarians have indeed relocated to Europa. Otherwise, their goose is cooked, as I don’t believe Diet Smith provided round-trip tickets for the boys.

A reminder – with all the symbolism embedded in Mike and Joe’s Tracy-verse, if something bad happens to the space coupe, that does not bode well for Junior’s current wife….The space coupe’s name is the Sparkle Plenty!

I remember this movie—The Neverending story. It had about 4 intermissions. Maybe there should be a “you write the finale” contest and wrap this puppy up.

I remember this movie—The Neverending story. It had about 4 intermissions. Maybe there should be a “you write the finale” contest and wrap this puppy up.

Some one cue the theme music to “Lost in Space!” Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

Enjoy, Dr. Sail. You finally got what you wanted.

Yes, play the theme music from season 3 of Lost in Space, its awesome! : )

seanyj, here you go!Lost in Space Season 3 opening theme

I don’t think there is a dining section in the Coupe, as I stated previously, nor a restroom to powder their noses. Looking at Elvis, he musta snuck aboard a case of Twinkies, as he looks like he could pass up a few meals. I’m sure that coming into Jupiter’s city limits, there will be a McD’s on the right. I bet they fight for the front of the line at the Men’s Room. Elvis already looks like he needs some Gas-X.

Lucky….because they’re going to use the gravitational sling-shot effect to u-turn around Jupiter & head back to earth?

“Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me…”

@gMIKE52Actually, Titan is a moon of Saturn but that’s a great idea! The Cassini probe is there and might snap a photo of the Space Coupe.

In the background of Panel One, between the two doctors, there appears to be a pair of Cookie Monster eyes. I’m sure Elvis is craving a few cookies about now.

Can’t be headed for Europa…..the “black monolith” guys won’t let ’em land there. Oh, where is Dave Bowman when you need him?? Hal? HAL!!!!!

I think this is the definitive end to the space stories that the death of Moon maid was supposed to signal…..

Splashdown? Jupiter doesn’t have a solid surface