Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for July 03, 2021

“Round 2 …”

Good morning™, everyone!

It’s not so easy to leave as they thought, is it? Mysta and Vera, have been forced into the unexpected position of being allies against a common enemy. I must say that Brock is looking quite menacing in that last frame.

Now we see if he has his anti-zapping underwear on or not.

Use your Super Powers Moon Maid!

Good morning™, “My pets” !

Escape attempt #1 didn’t work. Waiting to see the zap damping field in effect. If their lives flash before their eyes, it will be a short photo style flash for Mysta.

Mysta then opened a hole in their host’s body!

Ummm….. Does this house not have any windows????

I suppose her Attenna not being surrounded by static charges SHOULD mean her fake powers are suppressed BUT that’s a common mistake in this strip SO we’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s or Sunday’s weirdly drawn strip to find out!

Crisis time- the start of a beautiful relationship!

Either that clown is stupidly arrogant or he has something truly spectacular up his sleeve……

The collector.

“Your only way out is through me”.

Our guys need a line backer buddy to break through the blockade, unless a “good” zap can accomplish the same thing.

When was the last time Bribery’s ring was used against Mysta? Cuz I’m starting to wonder if Archival has somehow collected it.

Does Archival want to stuff and mount them?

ZAAAAPP!!!!!

Knowing how Mike writes, we may see Honeymoon at the movies having her first kiss Sunday, a kiss interrupted by a telepathic cry for help.

What if Mysta can’t zap Archival because she’s been indoors all day and her real horns are covered up by the fake ones so she hasn’t had enough sunlight to charge up?

Bring back the giant spiders and sewers (connected to every building) large enough to march an army through. It made more sense than a comic art collector suddenly wanting to collect a comic strip artist and a woman who models a character.

WOW ! , She is very sexy in frame two . I wonder what he is up too ? I can see why he would want to keep her but not him .

time to strangle the man… or run through the door at lightning speed. :D

Steven King, it’s time to make an entrance

I like the A Trip to the Moon (1902) framed panels. Méliès was an innovative filmmaker. His namesake was a good villain who met a messy end at Ace Tower.

Isn’t it a bad idea to anger someone who can electrocute you?

He shouldn’t oughta said that

Watch, once they escape they will end up together and Vera will have Mars Maid killed off in his comic strip by way of car bomb so they will avoid anything like this happening again

Mysta’s determined to get out, and she’s already upset. Watch out, Archival!

Anyone else think Mike came up with this story after visiting an Escape Room?

Suddenly the light story turns dark!

1-STAN LEE: I found your attempts at “cheesecake” posing to be less than titillating. I refuse to pay for a half-hearted effort.

HORNY: NOBODY CALLS ME “LESS THAN TITILLATING!” LET’S GO, VERA…

2-…That’s the wall safe, Vera you idiot. * VERA SIMILITUDE: I know. I’m trying to get paid!

3-STAN: Geez Louise, one is trying to leave through the closet and the other is failing to get into a safe that only has a one digit combination.

HEY VERA! YOU DON’T DESERVE TO WEAR THE STEVE JOBS MOCK TURTLENECK YOU DUMMY!

Thirty seconds later: “Okay. Which way’s the front of this place, Alldid?”

Challenge accepted!

Does he have an invention that short circuits Mysta’s powers? Will we find out tomorrow? Will there be fireworks?

How long will it take for anyone to notice that they’re missing? How many days does Vera have something loaded into the Tracyverse version of goComics? Will they simply start reruns when he’s late?

ZAP!

Hmmm, when Joe Staton was providing art for his and Nicolai Cuti’s OC, E-Man, back in the ’80s for First Comics, one of their one-time bad guys was a mad comic book collector whose main James Bond baddie master plan was something akin to this… plus destroying the world outside of his comic dungeon/bomb shelter mansion.

So Staton is actually stealing from himself?

It looks like Mysta had better take care of things here. She won’t get much help from that pencil necked geek.

When the gloves hit the ground, any zap protection he has better be on. Something tells me he has that as it would pretty much end the story. It’ll be interesting to see how he knew Moon Maid’s powers so well he could get a nullifier built in a month or so.

Predictions here: Brock is prepared for Mysta. He’s not prepared for Honeymoon. I suspect she will come into her own in this story arc.

Somewhere, unseen by us the readers, Vera turns to Mysta. He says " We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do, we gotta get out of this place….make a better life for me and you…."

“They all are. Your only way out is through me”. Oh terrific! The windows in his house must be made from that glass you can’t break.

Back in style again….I could not help but notice that Archival and Vera both wear turtle neck shirts.

Mysta and Vera are going to need a miracle out of this predicament. What happened to their cell phones? Signal is probably jammed, so they cannot call out. Now am I going to be subjected to today and tomorrow watching them try every door in the house hoping to get lucky.

Who is that looking through the glass on the door?

Archival’s dialogue int he last panel kinda hints he may let them out … if they do something for him. Wonder what that might be?

Through you with a 12-guage magnum slug, Mr. Hotel California!

Challenge accepted!

What on earth does he think he’s going to do with them? Keeping people prisoner long term doesn’t usually work too well!

Or was that ‘gold’ statue outside a previous addition to his collection?

Now to find out how he stopes Mysta from zapping him.

On the bright side: Brock promises that Mysta and Vera will find it comfortable ’here" (imprisoned in his locked-down mansion).

But, their only way out is “through [him],” he intones ominously in panel 3. Maybe that can be arranged; but I expect that for some reason (rundown battery level, dampening field, magical ring; whatever) Mysta Chimera will not be able to exert her lunar powers, unless maybe to contact Honeymoon telepathically.

Round One to The Collector, on points. The match continues, however….

Does he know what Mysta is capable of?

Apparently, Mysta’s only power from her hands is zapping people with electricity. The original Moon Maid could control magnetism, heat, and cold with her hands. When Junior’s friends brought her a new dress for a party, she caused it to burst into flames. Mysta has not shown the ability, yet. Honeymoon displayed the ability to magnetically make paper clips stick to her fingers when she was a baby. But Mysta is not Moon Maid nor is she Honeymoon’s mother who could pass that trait on to her. We are not aware of how Moon-like Mysta actually is.