Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 10, 2022

Was once a valley on the Moon. Tight-knit community

Believed this was their home and hearth for all eternity.

Tremendous woman, friend to all. Her murder caused much pain

Cessation of relationships did not erase the stain.

Oxygen did dissipate, which caused great misery

Life now unsustainable. From home soon forced to flee.

Moon folk love low temperatures. To Antarctica they flew

Frigid wind an icy friend. The community it grew.

Isolation has a cost. At last they welcome guests

Can be no progress without risk and all that that suggests.

The Coupe it lands. Loud clapping hands. “Warm welcome to our home!

Necessity did bring us here. So grateful we could roam.”

A pink suit is so weird! LOL

“Instant family!”

Tracy, get the heck out of there!

I see trouble brewing…

Where is the new Governor? Or is Ambassador is the new title of the Moon Governor?

Ye Gads how I hated the moon stories!

Looks like there’s a little problem with acceptance

Good morning™, everybody!

If Ro-zan is second in command, I suppose that that the Ambassador is still the “first in command.” It looks like a large welcoming committee, but I think that Ro-zan is unsure if he really wants to welcome them or not (“and yet…”).

I think the colouring got messed up again. I’m pretty sure that the pink should be darker red than the other part of the fabric. I hope Shelley has a better version available.

Good morning™, Welcome Wagons !

I see a bunch of “horn y” people in panel 1. P.2. I have never seen guvass look so angelic. P.4. The earnest looking young man has valid questions. I hope he doesn’t go predictably rogue. :-|

Ro’s brother is Tar.

and NOW we have the villain of the story… Roseanne… he seems to be infatuated with the original Moon Maid and her memory and since Mysta is the next best thing, he’ll want her… and since Honey is Moon Maid’s Lunarian child, he feels that she should be raised among the fellow Lunarians… and THAT’S when the you-know-what hits the fan and will refuse to let either return home… and there you have it…

I think I detect the ulterior motive in the invitation to visit New Moon Valley

Something cooking here! Interesting to see where this is going!

With such nice hair, shouldn’t his name be Ro-Gain?

Does Ro-zan turn into a Lunarian by saying “Shazam”?

“So, Detective, you will naturally be inquisitive on OUR methods of law enforcement. This way to the dung…er…totally innocent Time Out Room.”

Cute yellow high viz snow suit.

So, can Ro-Zan run really really fast?

It appears that the moon people’s faces in the last two panels are in a wide variety of colors.

I’m sure that Superman enthusiast Mike Curtis liked being able to give a Kryptonian-style name to an alien character :)

Where on Earth or in the Heavens are we? On the Darkside of the Moon or in a crater in Antarctica?

So – Ro-Zan is about to get the hots for (hopefully) Mysta, and the attentions of lawyers for DC Comics for that red suit with the lightning bolt. (“One Shazam! outta him, and we’ll own the moon!”)

What are the odds Tracy has checked out Mr. Bribery’s ring from the evidence locker? I sure would in his situation.

The Lunarians seem to be addicted to cosmetic plastic surgery

He thinks…the young girl looks like one of our own…..trouble ahead!

I’m afraid the moon people has some weird plan in their minds.

1-GOVADOR: FELLOW LUNARIANS! LUNARIANS: PIPE DOWN! WE CAN HEAR YOU! OWWW, MY EARS!

2-GOVADOR: Awh, well of course. Anyway, this here is BRO-ZAN – the only one of us still alive with viable Moon Sperm. LUNARIANS: WE KNOW! SHOW OFF! BEAT IT YA BUM!

BRO-ZAN: Thank you. I’m humbled by your applause.

3-GOVADOR: My mission to bring back potential equally fertile moon-based mates with which to repopulate our race has been successful.

MYSTA: Wowzers! I can’t wait to help! What a hunk! HONEY MOONS: I’m only 10! What the?

DT: GLAD TO HELP!

4-RO-ZAN: An Earth Man??? I think the Govador has forgotten how these things work. Oh well. Worth a shot – so to speak…

5-…Welcome and thank you for volunteering for helping us repopulate our species! Honey Moons – we’ll put you in reserve for a few years. Mysta – I find your creation in a laboratory a bit off-putting. So Dick – you’re up…so to speak.

DT: GLAD TO HELP!

…the day glow hues of the “citizens” standing behind Ro-Zan is a nifty touch!……….

“Ro-Zan” spelt backwards is Nazor! Haha, you can’t fool ME!

You all have a weird sense of what “pink” is….light red maybe but no where near pink.

I wonder if Rozan is going to fall for Mysta….

Wasn’t RoZan briefed on the backgrounds of Mysta, and, Honeymoon? Also, wouldn’t Moon Maid have had a proper Lunarian name?

His brother Ro-Gain is the hairy one in the center.

The writer should have delayed their arrival, so someone could have told Tracy there’d be a…

New moon on Monday

And a fire dance through the night

I stayed the cold day

With a lonely satellite

Was Moon Maid really addressed that way among her own people? I thought her name was “Mysta.”

LOL Second in command is Roseanne!

In these strips, Diet Smith explains some of the capabilities of the Space Coupe.

https://i.postimg.cc/NjzSHHrh/19620902s.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/fT56MFzR/19621206.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/gkGCFdP7/19621227.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/1zVTc3p8/19621230s.jpg

Tracy is all bundled up against the cold, which makes sense. But Honeymoon has an Earth-Human father – shouldn’t she at least have to wear a light coat?

Ro-Zan’s private thoughts show him thinking of Junior’s first wife as “Moon Maid”. However, as WilliamVollmer pointed out above, she must have had an actual name. It was the people of Earth that nicknamed her “Moon Maid”. Lunarians thinking of her as “Moon Maid” would be somewhat like Kryptonians thinking of Kal-El as “Superman”.

Shazam!

all I know is I’m enjoying this sequence with the Moon people and Tracy going there—it’s like candy to the early-science-fiction reading little boy who still lives within me. And just more fun than the usual…I swear, Chester Gould just Did Not Care if people thought it was outrageous. He would just PUT IT IN THERE. I love that. THe distinctiveness of ol’ Gould lives on…

No one will be seated during the riveting Introduction scene!

I was no fan of the original “Moon Era” strips, and still am not. But this arc has potential to be entertaining. Ro-Zan does seem to have made himself our most likely candidate for Villain so far.

We’ll see, I’m sure….

I have a feeling before this story is over, Ro-Zan will an attachment to Mysta. To paraphrase a song by the Average White Band " It’s only a Lunar Crush".

Today they landed…tomorrow comes the guided tour.

I wonder where are the souvenir shops?

If that’s Roz-An Barr,we’re in big trouble

Maybe Moon Governor HOPED Tracy would come along because he’s starting to smell a mouse where his No.2 man isconcerned.

I might also point out that the original Moon Maid had a YOUNGER SISTER.

She was in a few background shots in the 1964 original visit,and she was never seen again.

I need a family tree to figure out the backstory…Honeymoon Tracy? Who is Sparkle? Is Mysta their daughter? I’m so confused.

Junior marries Moon Maid No,1

She gives birth to Honeymoon.

Moon Maid No.1 killed by car bomb meant for Tracy.

JUnior remarries Sparkle,they have two more children.

Mysta was a petty teen criminal who was abducted by mad scientists and infused with the original Moon Maid’s stolen DNA.But she inherited the original’s honest nature and became a friend an ally of Tracy’s.