Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for December 23, 2012

Pop, Zoom, to the MOON!!

Good morning all…

Appears as though Honeymoon will spend Christmas on the Moon.

who the heck is Frank Borman, and, Honeymoon looks WEIRD!!!

This looks better VVV

Did they remember their passports?

I have a hard time believing that a machine shaped that way, with large magnets sticking out of it would be anything CLOSE to “stealth technology” haha

Mornin’ all!I found myself staring at today’s strip, remembering Sundays so long ago, when I lay on the floor with the Sunday NY Daily News comics spread out in front of me, reading Tracy and company on their way to the moon.Yes, I think this is where I came in…Thanks, Mike, Joe, Shelley, Shane and Jim.(Oh, one more thing – the ride is still a lot of fun.)

Frank Boorman was on APOLLO 8, which circled the Moon in 1968 at Christmas. The astronauts read from the Gospel of Luke while in orbit.

I hope that they have a safe landing.

Frank Borman was commander of the Apollo 8 spacecraft – the first manned vehicle to leave earth orbit and actually go to another ‘world.’The flight took place over the Christmas holiday in 1968, and they read part of the Book of Genesis during one of there public broadcasts.They also took a famous photo of the earth rising over the horizon of the moon.

Wow, I’m so clueless, I thought Frank Boorman was a character from"2001: A Space Odyssey." I thought this was another case of Staton and Curtis dropping references to other franchises.

I think I must have juxtaposed “Frank Poole” and “David Bowman” in my mind. Mix those two names together and you almost wind up with something like “Frank Boorman.”

Herp derp.

in panel 6 he should have answered yes you moron do you realize that we are on a ship headed to the moon what do you’d expect me to do?

and I am glad you put that nasty smoke out.

Thank You Team Tracy for returning Dick Tracy and Diet Smith to the moon. And now reuniting Honeymoon with her mother’s moon family. I haven’t been this excited since the early days of the space coupe’s first flights to the moon. Great work Team. Keep up the great work on the strip.

When I built my Aurora model kit of the Space Coupe a hundred years ago, I was frustrated by the question of scale. The kit included tiny figures about one inch tall, but that didn’t match anything Gould showed us.In fact, interior views show the Space Coupe as having a roomy flight deck, but exterior views show passengers appearing in the window as much larger (just as Joe has here!)So just how big or small IS that thing? (And don’t tell me it’s bigger on the inside than the outside; the Coupe is many things but it is not dimensionally transendental.)

Night-Gaunt49 said, 13 minutes ago

@Tarry Plaguer

I can’t get the Space Coup Interior to open up.-Was there only one type of space coup or were there at least two sizes, but the same configuration.^^I can’t open the link either

I hope this voyage to the moon aboard the Space Coupe “Sparkle Plenty” is worthwhile. I don’t relish the idea of resurrecting the dead, but if instead there is somehow confirmation that the “Moon Maid” sightings are not genuine, then this science-fiction interlude will satisfy….

Night-Gaunt49 said, 24 minutes ago:“Was there only one type of space coup or were there at least two sizes, but the same configuration.”Here’s the Magnet 100, a passenger coupe (from 11/6/1969):Interior of the Magnet 100. Looks pretty roomy!

Thank you, Team Tracy for this great Christmas gift. Dick, Diet, and Honeymoon headed for luna — it’s where I came in, too. Keep up the great work!

This is the classic Dick Tracy I remember. I love the space coupe and hope we find out more about Moon Maid on this trip!

Ecstasy!

Merry Christmas to you also, Team Tracy. Nice to see a tip of the hat to one of my favorite astronauts, Frank Borman. He was the first to seriously speak of seeing a UFO while in orbit. Believe what you want, but being a credible source all of his life, I believe he either did, OR totally believed he did.

nice!

Wonderful!!!

Happy Holidays, All!

I’m not hating this as much as I thought I would. Team Tracy has shown it can ‘compartmentalize’ its stories well enough so that the flights of fancy (see the Phishface story for example) don’t spoil the canon. I can enjoy this while I wait for the next hard-boiled yarn. Oh darn, that’s right, THAT will be the 2nd half of the silly cosplay arc. Okay, while I wait for the NEXT next one, then!

I continue to be in the minority around here. I still don’t want the return of the moon people. BUT Team Tracy is doing a magnificent job with the reintegration of this part of Tracy history. It’s particularly fine that they show us what’s going on without being all wordy about the amazing power of magnetism (one of the problems I have with Gould in the moon period.)

So I repeat what Honeymoon says: This is amazing, Poppa Smurf! (Sorry, couldn’t resist that…)

Beautiful artwork yet again. I’m excited to see if we’ll see Moon Maid’s family again after 40 years.

Delighted to see Diet Smith looking “Gould-like”, at last!

Thank you, Team Tracy! This is great!

‘Twas the night before Christmas, the Space Coupe took flightAscending in stealth mode, so none would take fright.There on the bridge stand Smith, Tracy and HoneymoonOn a lunar trajectory at a speed to arrive soon.“Wow! This is amazing,” Honeymoon did exclaimShe’d been here before, yet it wasn’t the same.They’d shown her the pictures: treasures in a scrapbookSometimes in the moonlight she’d retrieve it to lookAt her beautiful mother, holding her close and tightThe days before violence, all peaceful and right.Transfixed by the starlight, she puts on a brave faceNo time now for nerves, only courage and grace.Ahead the moon looms, soon they’ll be descendingWould questions be answered, vexing mysteries ending?Tragic loss reminds her of all this life is worthTracy says, “God bless all of you on this good earth.”Honeymoon declared, as they flew out of sight,“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”

What a great strip today!!! I am so happy to see the coupe and them going to the moon!!!

I was a couple weeks shy of my fifteenth birthday when Apollo 8 orbited the moon and Frank Borman read the first ten verses from Genesis as the whole world saw the moon’s surface close-up on TV. It was one of the things that pushed me into a career in high tech. (Sigh) We sure did dream big in those days…

Earlier this month we passed the fortieth anniversary of the last moon landing, Apollo 17. At the time, of course, we all thought this represented a temporary hiatus, that we’d be back on the moon within five years and on Mars before 1990. Instead, we spent the next thirty years taking the shuttle bus up and down to our dinky space station. Now we can’t even do that. (Bigger sigh) We sure do dream small these days….

From the webcomic xkcd, a depressing graph: Number of living humans who have walked on another world

What a joy to see Diet and Tracy and Honeymoon riding off into space. It’s been what, forty years since we’ve seen something like this in Dick Tracy? Entirely too long in my opinion. But hey, this is no time for recriminations and regrets. It’s time to CELEBRATE!! Thank you Team Tracy for taking us back to the moon!

Honeymoon must be too young to remember when she used to shuttle between the earth and the moon all the time.

Bravo, Joe Staton and Mike Curtis! You’ve made me very happy!

I hope Honeymoon didn’t pack any video games or Air Jordans to show the moon folks what idiots we are here.

Do you think that the Lunians (native inhabitants of the Moon) will subject Tracy and company to full body cavity searches after they land and try to get through customs? After all, the Lunians don’t really know what these “Earthlings” are carrying.

I really dont think the strip should return to the moon, but there they are. Im along for the ride. The new Tracy team will make it a good story, im sure.

I will be interested to see the Moon Governor’s demeanor upon seeing both Earth people and his granddaughter. As I recall, he was not the type who embraced earth people or customs very well.

Outstanding artwork today by Joe. The inking was also phenomenal today particularly on the star field backgrounds. Shane’s choice of purple for the shining lights of the sign on top of Diet Smith’s building seemed odd when he did so well with the coloring of the city lights in last Sunday’s strip. Still the gradient colors on the Space Coupe were very good.

Very Gouldian-looking strip today. The last panel looks as if Gould himself could have drawn it.

Great artwork and I agree with Carlo, it’s very nice to see Diet Smith looking very much like his old self.

There is something way cool about Dick Tracy heading towards the moon in his trade mark yellow over coat and fedora.Merry Christmas Messers Curtis and Staton.

I’ m relishing every panel today. Thanks so much for this return to the moon and for making Dick Tracy so much fun to read again.

This is so good. And something kind of hit me just now. As fun as it is to see the space coup in action again, it feels a little anticlimactic because we kind of knew all week this was coming. But now we have no idea what is in store for Tracy and gang on the moon. So the REAL fun starts TOMORROW!

I’ve been enjoying tooday’s strip so much, I almost forgot to say how great the art is! Wow!

I love the audacity and creativity of Team Tracy. Taking the Space Coupe out of moth-balls was a gutsy call, and I’m loving it. Gouldian elements abound, and Diet Smith indeed looks more like himself and less like Captain Kangaroo. Bravo, Team Tracy!

Yesterday, Gweedo and others were talking about “old-timers” in rock-n-roll. Many of whom are gone, but a few still are in business. How about the Moody Blues? Three original members are still touring with four other accomplished musicians. They are quite good. And there is a tie in with the moon -“Cold hearted orb that rules the night. . .”Graeme Edge says that it was Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon that inspired him to pen “Higher and Higher” I always thought that “Gypsy of a Strange and Distant Time” was about space travel.All of this comes to mind because I saw them in concert earlier this month.I’m still not a big fan of space travel stories in Dick Tracy, but I’ve got to admit, this art is pretty spectacular.

Uh no. Frank Borman never walked on the Moon. Apollo 8 was his second and final space mission. His colleague Jim Lovell would later be named Mission Commander on Apollo 13. The last man to walk on the Moon was Gene Cernan from the Apollo 17 mission.

I really love today’s strip…the artwork and the message. Thanks, Team Tracy, and everyone have a very peaceful and Merry Christmas!

The Space Coupe flies once again. Somewhere Chester Gould is smiling right now!!!! Merry Christmas to Team Tracy, thanks for making a very entertaining and interesting trip back for fans of the strip!!!

….no way of knowing of course, but with this strip usually have been written so far ahead of publication, I kind of wonder whether the current storyline was always planned, or due to the incredible popularity of Moon Maid’s “re-appearance”, Mike called an audible and inserted in what’s happening now as a crowd pleaser for all his loyal fans..

Is the world in general aware of the moon people in the Dick Tracy Universe?

Astronaut yes, but never walked on the moon, just orbited it.

“For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you”.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.”

Jim Lovell:

“And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Frank Borman:

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.”

“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”

Does anyone remember what they called the single person magnetic lift things they had in the ’60s strips? They looked like tall garbage cans with pairs of crutches ducted taped inside.

Lots of great pics today, guys, thanks!

And if ANY Dick Tracy installment deserves a 100th post, it is THIS one! I LOVE IT!!

‘Twas the night before Christmas, the Space Coupe took flight

Ascending in stealth mode, so none would take fright.

There on the bridge stand Smith, Tracy and Honeymoon

On a lunar trajectory at a speed to arrive soon.

“Wow! This is amazing,” Honeymoon did exclaim

She’d been here before, yet it wasn’t the same.

They’d shown her the pictures: treasures in a scrapbook

Sometimes in the moonlight she’d retrieve it to look

At her beautiful mother, holding her close and tight

The days before violence, all peaceful and right.

Transfixed by the starlight, she puts on a brave face

No time now for nerves, only courage and grace.

Ahead the moon looms, soon they’ll be descending

Would questions be answered, vexing mysteries ending?

Tragic loss reminds her of all this life is worth

Tracy says, “God bless all of you on this good earth.

”Honeymoon declared, as they flew out of sight

“Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.”