Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for June 19, 2013

Aww, those kids are liable to make me a Sparkle fan.

Good morning fellow DT fans…

Please note that Honeymoon called Sparkle “mom.”

What the HECK is with this daily colorist??? On May 8 Gertie had white hair and Sparkle and Jewel had brown hair… then May 28 all three had honey blonde hair (like Sparkle and Honey today) but today Jewel has red hair like her dad’s?!?

I’m a little perplexed about the change that’s come over Honeymoon. I’ve read others discuss it, and now I’m seeing it, too. We’ve witnessed a number of scenes of Honey in her room with the big “Mom” picture, we recall the certainty she expressed in the Space Coupe that her mother was alive and how she was going to prove it, and we saw how she organized her friends and sent them out to track Moon Maid’s appearances, presumably to prove her hypothesis. Now she seems to have distanced herself from all that. Treating Mysta with skepticism, using their meeting to cooly gather evidence, the detached reference to “this Moon Maid” — it’s baffling. She said to Mysta, “I still don’t think you’re my real mother, you know.” Actually, I didn’t know that. When was it ever signaled to us that Honeymoon is convinced Moon Maid is not her mother? I know as a Tracy she has to be a good detective, but all of her instincts were pointing one way before, and now suddenly they’re pointing the other way?

There is no “correct coloring” on a daily strip.

It’s 8 AM in the Junior Tracy household, and breakfast is not the happiest meal for Junior, who is manning up for his kids, nor for Honeymoon and Jewel (—bless her little heart!), who miss and are worried for their Mom, the one who raised them, nurtured them, and loved them all their years….I hope Sparkle is found and returns soon. In the meantime, Clone-Moon Maid has a lot to answer for, and could end up, if she lives, in prison. I believe that the real Mysta’s behavior would not be so looney (pardon the pun)….

I agree with Willy007 that Honeymoon’s change in attitude is perplexing. The shift from believer to skeptic is unexplained and unexpected. Also inexplicable is Sparkle’s dirt nap. Mysta has been thwarting criminals on the street for some time with nary a mention of lasting ill effects. I suppose it is necessary for Sparkle to slumber until the truck reaches its destination, as this will serve the subplot.Mysta is clearly not a clone, as a clone would be about six years old, while having no need for facial surgery. We know that Ghote and Sail are charlatans, so what was the “grunt work” performed by Ghote and how, exactly, is Sail “in charge” of Mysta? What we know about Lunarian physiology is that they have extensive longevity, extraordinary powers—both physical and mental—and are impervious to extreme temperatures. What we don’t know about Lunarian physiology is a lot. What would be unnatural or impossible for a human may be standard biological functioning for a Lunarian. Mysta’s physical recover appears complete (and how!). Is her mental recovery still a work in progress?

sad but wonderful strip today.

I think the author has the license to change the moods of the characters quickly. This is a strip not a novel. It’s not uncommon for a young girl to fly back and forth emotionally. It could be a case of woman’s intuition, where Mysta just didn’t feel right to her. I don’t know.

Yesterday’s posts:

Willy007: One of those more emotional non-Moon Maid fans wrote between our posts – almost immediately after mine, for that matter. One thing you have to admit – Mysta is bringing out the emotions!

Ray Toler: The great struggle over whether a fake Mysta would be a sympathetic character is toward the end of your paragraph: “You are now a non-person with no connection to anyone…You are a stranger to everyone you once (thought you) knew.”

It is this precise condition that makes her ripe to be a villain. Those who ought to be sympathetic to her (in the story line, that is) will push her away. And unless she goes away on her own, her tendency will be to butt into other people’s lives – people who won’t want her to be around.

So, even if she doesn’t start right out as a villain, the harshness of her life (if she doesn’t take the hint and go away) will likely harden her into a criminal.

Which is why I believe it is so important to non-Moon Maid fans for Mysta to be a replicant, a clone, or some other kind of fake.

Not the original, very disposable, and if she doesn’t take the hint and go away, likely to be turned into a villain.

And that post that I have obliquely referenced from yesterday seems to fall right in line with these thoughts.

Good morning VB and all. One thing for sure – reading the comics keeps moving up earlier and earlier in my daily routine, thanks to Mike and Joe.

This might be more effective than a clock with two same sized hands! LOL!!!

Just saw “Oblivion" with Tom Cruise. Interesting how the clone theme parallels the questions this story is bringing out about this current MM.

Once again, I must express how nice it is that someone gave Jewel a more sensible name than “Sparkle Plenty Junior Tracy,” as she was originally named.

In my opinion, Honeymoon’s “Change of heart” has nothing to do with Sparkle, who’s been her Mom since the real MM died, but with the fact that after meeting the new MM, is going with her instinct that the new MM is not the MM who gave her birth. And frankly, I trust her instincts.

I think everything about this strip (the attitude change, the “this Moon Maid,” the body language…) all suggest that the speech baloon has been misdirected. It should be Jewel making the comment, not Honeymoon.

Yes, it’s possible that that dialogue was meant for Jewel, although I suspect both girls may be thinking the same thing.

nightshade, except that honeymoon might be feeling guilty for her supposed natural mother harming her half sister’s biological mother and junior is comforting jewel because it IS her natural mother that is missing. which would explain why honeymoon is the one who asked the question and not jewel.

Honeymoon knows that her supposed natural mother is out there somewhere, and when they were alerted to sparkle’s disappearance, honey put one and one together (and like i suggested yesterday, she put it together before junior) and came up with the idea that maybe moon maid lite had something to do with sparkle’s dilemma

I gotta think Sparkle will be fine in the end, but darn it if Mike Curtis isn’t making me feel bad about what happened to her. I’m reluctant to feel too bad because no matter who Mysta is, she’s an incredibly sympathetic character. ^^Your reasoning doesn’t really make much sense, the entire family is suffering, no one more than Honeymoon. Even if this really is MM (Which seems to be a 20% chance at this time), she hasn’t spent 6 years mourning HER Mother; MM isn’t sympathetic, she’s acting aggressive and very selfish. Has either Junior or Honeymoon expressed any desire to go live on the Moon?

That was my point exactly.