Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for August 17, 2013

Quite a dilemma here.

Time to ’fess up, Mysta.

I love the pensive look in the last panel. Such a cute expression, though the colorist forgot she’s wearing gloves.

Maybe she can plead “Lunacy” :p

She has no choice but to help the Wheatons. It would be out of character for her to not help them.

Caught on the horns of a dilemma, Clone-Moon Maid is forced to face her own deficiencies. There is no easy answer; she must take her medicine….

I have been a Dick Tracy fan for 60 some years and I DO think it a bit sad that the new team has turned this story from a crime drama to a domesticated drama – in other words, a “soap opera.”A great many are bowled over and in love with the cute, little, perky MM. I believe that’s a tad juvenile and also a tad weird. They should get a life. And yes, the story is meandering around obviously for the sake of just lengthening a short story into a novella. Why? Because they can.All that said and off my chest, I will keep watching.

I have to disagree, De Hunt, I’ve been reading Dick Tracy since the early 60s when I was a kid, back then it always had “soap opera” elements in it, that’s what kept it so interesting, Chester Gould always developed the “bad guys” so that that they were more than just cardboard villains…I haven’t liked the stories in this new Dick Tracy until now, this is one that you can sink your teeth into…I say bring on more stories like this one with lots of twists and turns.

Someone said it earlier this week. i think Mysta is starting to look smaller and younger as the strip progresses. She is almost Honeymoon sized now. It may just punctuate her losing her powers, growing helplessness, her true identity, or what I believe is the inevitable end of her appearance in this strip.

It is kinda “soap opera”, come to think of it. But wasn’t it always? The difference is back yonder. Gould would keep it simple, with not-too-many sideshows going on at the same time. Team Tracy has a half dozen going…… If that bothers anyone, I suggest they redirect their time to reading MPH’s S&M. He operates a chat room under the artwork and is usually there moderating it himself. To each his own!

JPuzzleWhiz said, 2 minutes ago

You mean you’ve never removed a glove from your hand? Sometimes the reader has to fill in the blanks..Sometimes the colorist needs to fill in the blanks..

Mysta ponders her next move with an interesting echo of Méliès’ own question from last Sunday. Confronted with a dead Bardoll, missing Mysta, bungling Sail and reluctant Ghote, Méliès asks, “What shall we do?” Safe to assume he’ll answer his own question with moves both questionable and illegal. I strongly suspect that Mysta will answer her own question by doing the right thing. Such attention to detail and character is one of many smart and successful elements of this fantastic tale.

no puzzlewhiz… youre wrong.. the readers need EVERY LITTLE DETAIL spelled out for them, dont you know that by now? ;)

(and for all of those who DIDNT “get it”.. i was just kidding).

Mysta should be thinking that since Sparkle didnt recognize her at the Wheaton farm, and there was no physical evidence at the “scene of the crime” She is safe and go to Tracy. Besides she can always claim amnesia if confronted with Sparkles identity.Then the comments saying she seems smaller in stature as of late, Why havent Stelauna and Retik noticed anything?

I loved reading Stan Lee’s “Spider-Man” stories in which Peter Parker was having trouble with school bully Flash Thompson, trying to get the attention of his crush, Liz Allen, and fighting off a bad cold and his overprotective Aunt May so he could catch Dr. Octopus.“Soap opera”? Maybe, but more like the real lives (and fantasies) of the readers.This type of storytelling was revolutionary 50 (gasp!) years ago when Stan introduced it, but it’s standard stuff now, and I’d be surprised if comic books veterans like Mike and Joe wouldn’t use it.

I call it hypocrisy. De Hunt complains about this becoming a soap opera, yet says he’ll “keep watching”. Most people who don’t like a comic strip usually stop reading it.________________________

I wouldn’t go so far as to call hypocrisy. De Hunt is a long-time poster who has his opinions (and is entitled to them). This is my favorite comic strip but that does not mean that sometimes I am not critical of things that happen. Although I disagree with him on this point (because there are uncountable instances where Gould played the melodrama in the strip for every tear he could wring out of the domestic situations), he is free to like or dislike a particular story line without ceasing to read the strip.

I think it is interesting that throughout this arc Sparkle has been referred to as “Sparkle Plenty” rather than “Sparkle Tracy.”

I know Moon Maid’s memories would remember her as “Sparkle Plenty” because she believes herself to be “Mrs. Junior Tracy,” and Sparkle uses the name “Sparkle Plenty” as a professional name for her modeling and show business career. But Mike has only called her “Sparkle Plenty” in narration blocks and in the notation arrows.

I wonder if this is pertinent to the story or just the fact that she is more known in the strip as “Sparkle Plenty” than “Sparkle Tracy?”

Actually, I am probably making too much of this because instinctively I always call the character “Sparkle Plenty.”

Not if you like the comic itself. However before 2011 many hated the Loacher final years but love the comic. Same thing over at Alley Oop now.___________________

Locher often gets a bad rap on this board. I remember the days when this board first started and on a previous DT board before this one where the main topic of conversation seemed to be bash Locher (sometimes by me). But, in fact, Locher’s work was only weak during the last two or three years (out of his nearly 30 years on the strip). I have always admired Locher a great deal even though it was obvious during the last part of his tenure that he was old and tired. The freshness of Mike’s writing and the detail of Joe’s pencils made the contrast even more apparent. But none of this takes away from the majority of Locher’s work which was very good.

I also believe that Locher’s drawings and his use of black and white (the way the strip is meant to be seen) was the nearest to Gould of any of the artists who have drawn the strip. Although, I felt that Jim Brozeman’s inks during the last couple of years gave the characters too much of a cartoony look (even though Brozeman, who has drawn several characters thoughout his career, is generally very good at imitating the style of other artists—I always liked his Popeye covers) and this contributed to some of the displeasure against Locher. Still, when Locher took over both the writing and drawing, it was a bit overwhelming for his advanced age.

I have had friends who worked on daily strips and I can tell you that it is a never-ending grind. Novelists finish their books. Comic Books are published monthly. But a comic strip is DAILY. This means that the artists and writers of daily strips are never in a position where they are not thinking about the strip. It becomes like another person in their lives, constantly on their minds. Mike Curtis does not simply write Dick Tracy, he lives with him.

.I don’t begrudge anyone who works on dailies when they have an occasional bad arc or weak script. Those three small panels a day require more work and creative thought than you can imagine.

I am loving this Moon Maid arc and as Mike’s first long story, I find it completely absorbing and intriguing. Sure there may be quite a few threads going on at once but Mike is clever and now we are seeing some of the plots coming together with enough twists to still keep us guessing. Mike may need to get his “sea legs” a bit on telling the longer tales, but for his first epic-style outing I think he has crafted a story that definitely keeps me on the edge of my seat and anxious to read each day’s episode.

In part defense to De Hunt. One of the things we writers strive for, is to bring out a strong emotional response from our readers. Hence what your saying is just that.

But also remember. A soap opera brings out the other aspects of life. Things that is more realistic to the average reader. Home, friendship, family, love, loss, pain, play, children, parents. The soap opera aspect brings us into the strip because we can more relate to the characters.

Yes, Mysta is (possibly) an alien species. But if she was too alien, we couldn’t relate to her for we have no experience with aliens. All non-humans have always had some human aspects. Dr. Asimov’s robots had some emotions. Dr. David Brin’s Chims (his uplifted chimpanzees) or Pierre Boulle’s Planet of the Apes. They had simian characteristics, but still enough human for us to relate to them. Even ’Rise of the Planet of the apes I could understand Caesar for he had one strong desire; freedom. You could also see other aspects; pain, anger, but also humility. He could easily have ordered his apes to kill any human, and yet he went out of his way to /stop them, even the huge gorilla/

Gushing over a hot Moon Maid: Was a problem a few months ago, but we have moved on..A problem with tsull2121 may be his (and others) over-all objection to the return of the Moon Maid character in the first place. (Witness *tsull2121*’s postage stamp – Sparkle and Junior’s wedding).Doing the right thing: I have always felt that the Sparkle Zap was the absolute worst move made by, the poorest judgment shown by Mysta..Clearly, it has come back to haunt her..But, I suppose it does play well to the “soap opera” aspect of this story. Just think of it: Her best friend and perhaps the only person who might be able to help Mysta assimilate to her “brave new world,” and the first thing she does is “zap” her in a fit of blind jealousy!.Most curious note: In Mysta’s thoughts, she calls what she did an attack! I’m not sure whether any of us has gone quite that far in describing what she did..But I do think that some of us did call it an assault..Right now, Mysta needs some new batteries..Assault and Batteries?

The above comment was directed at De Hunt and NOT willy007. Willyoo7 is a great supporter of the strip, and I enjoy his comments.

Good afternoon fellow DT fans…

Hiya VB!

Question for you techies in the bleachers: my computer logs me out of the site when I am gone for an hour or more. Less than that, it keeps me logged in. What switch do I throw to keep it logged in? I use Windows 7 and Explorer. Thanks in advance.