Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 04, 2013

Venus, like a fly trap, devourers helpless preyDistracting with her beauty, she tends to have her way.Legs so long and shapely, they reach down to the floorHeels so high and mighty, her suitors beg for more.Méliès a trusted danger, always comes well-armedSkilled in dealing damage and terror to those harmedBy the schemes of Venus who hatched the Moon Maid projectTo secure the Space Coupe with profits as her object.Now the Coupe is purloined, Ghote and Sail take flightTo rendezvous with the lady who has beauty, brains and might.Smith is robbed, yet pays no mind to thieves up in the skyInstead he comforts Mysta, knowing who and how and why.

She’s going to do away with the apparatus, ’eh?

Wow, another mysterious character. This is getting deeper and deeper.

Good morning, DT fans!Soon we’ll know who was employing Melies and Dr Sail, and why! Venus is an apt name, judging by what we see! But who is this lady, a Lunarite? Stay tuned!

Satellites? What orders would those be, exactly….since the space coupe would obviously have been stolen. Advertising would be a little tricky, too. Think they need to come up with a Plan B, lol.

So now we know why they wanted a Space Coupe! The plan makes perfect sense.But – the “Moon Maid Project”? That sounds pretty ominous, and doesn’t bode well for Mysta!

If the Apparatus ganglords keep smoking the way they do, Venus may be right!

Just realized something – we don’t have any dead bad guys!I was expecting the Munro Brothers to become a singles act between B-B Eyes’ crew and the rats in the granary, and at least Hy Pressure down in the mud.Gosh, all that build up and no shoot out!

Odd he believes they’ve successfully stolen the Space Coupe. With that remote Diet Smith has, I wouldn’t be so sure about that.

Over at the Yahoo board, I’ve posted my own thoughts about Mysta. You can see it here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DickTracy/message/17380

What is going on in the background of the first panel? It looks as if large blocks of masonry are crashing down. That’s more than a storm or gunfire would cause I think.

Is Munro permanently surprised? Or has he just had a shock in the last panel? Maybe the SC stopped moving or is turning around?

Melies’ SMG looks pretty nasty, and explains a lot of the gunfire earlier. Not a man to manage from the rear it seems.

Curiouser & curiouser

Another good strip but I have to just say: Melies’s facial pose made me burst out laughing. Love the character but- I got the case of the giggles.

The plot, as they say, thickens. It now seems as though Méliès was the source of the automatic weapons fire we heard; he carries what I think we are supposed to understand as a Mini-Uzi. Sputnik Munro seems to be holding up some of the crumbling ruins of the granary, but he is in any case very wary. Venus is new, apparently very high up in the Consortium (though not its head). I would not underestimate the Apparatus, but they do seem to be up against a more formidable foe than they have faced in the law. Things down on the farm are moving along—except maybe the Space Coupe, which Diet should be able to control with his override-device. —And yet only minutes in Tracyverse time have passed since all sides converged at Wheaton Farm….

Good morning everyone…

Is that the grainary Méliès is in?

I guess Venus is The Queen of Hearts.

Mary Tyler Moore cameo in panel 2?

Hmmm … Venus like the planet or Venus from Fireball XL5???

http://memberfiles.freewebs.com/64/54/58255464/photos/fireball-xl5-and-supe/cap108553%20copy.bmp

Venus?? I likey!!Also, great rhyme Pequod77!!

This is an interesting turn of events. The “Moon Maid Project,” eh? Sounds more and more like it’s a cynical scam, which would kind of fit with Willy007’s theory. Looking like Venus is the mastermind of that whole operation, too.

(evil anime female laugh)Yes it is I, Sailor Venus! I have grown tired of playing second string to Sailor Moon and have devised an evil Moon Maid Project to remove her once and for all!Once that is done I may spread the power of love to all of humanity, making them all worship me!(evil anime female laugh)

oh for cryin out loud… ANOTHER new character to add to this never-ending storyline?!?!

this is getting to be like the Winchester House in California (?)

what would be funny, however… is if venus has no arms and he last name is DiMilo, lol

stilldamatt… shhhh…dont tell anyone but the scuttlebutt around tracyville is that a “fan favorite character” will soon be returning to his old ways and he’ll have a new henchman referred to by the MCU/MCS as “The Troll”.. who will have a collie following him around at all times, saving him from danger :)

I’m just wondering if this Venus is another moon maid?Wouldn’t that be a surprise.

Careful SDM. That cat gif. might get you a “Bad Boy” e-mail from GoComics. 8>)

I wonder – did Sputnik just see those mutant rats?

Thanks again, SDM. I’ve finally seen a funny cat video!

SDM, I speak from experience.

OK. Plot inquiry…The Consortium launches Project Moon Maid just to use her as bait to steal a space coupe to put black market satellites into orbit? If they can replicate Lunarian Powers, that kind of a soldier would be lethal and worth more than any satellite delivery service ever could be, non?On that subject, why create a lethal Lunarian who could easily just turn her powers against her creators? Or, do they have their own remote control? Not likely. Consortium steals a space coupe from Diet Smith, titan of industry, friends of heads of states, etc. Consortium tries to use it. Wouldn’t governments just destroy it?

brine: Loved XL5 when I was a kid (not sure if I would want to admit that these days) – great reference to a childhood memory for me..boboscar: Perhaps the most well stated argument for Mysta’s identity and perhaps a rival for willy007’s Franken-Mindy theory (though Willy has gone to great lengths to document his).There are days when the comments are better than the strip, and this is one of them..Even Still Da Man! comments!

Hmm,just seeing the legs, reminds me of Miss Intro,a.k,a.: “The Painted Lady”

what about crash davis’ laundry list of things he loves… dont THEY count?!?!? :) lol

nonono stilldamatt… re-read what i said.. it wasnt a jab at YOU at all.. trust me on this one :)

Dadgummit! Im cleaning diet coke off my laptop!

Panel two reminds me of the good old days of the comic strips. Gould, Andriola and Caniff were infamous for teasing the readers with art like this. GOOD JOB JOE!

Thanks coldsooner, 60sFan and mkzdad. Much appreciated.Méliès is cool under fire, and I’m loving the introduction of the latest villain, Venus. You’re right, tarabuff, she does bring to mind The Painted Lady. Team Tracy draws deep from Gould’s good works, much to our advantage. The Romans renamed Aphrodite in one of many appropriations of Greek mythology, but I don’t think they gave her those high heels. Clearly, the Goddess of Love can be very much like a Venus fly trap. The hearts on her curtain is a nice touch.

jpw if youre referring to flattop’s widow, her name is stilett**A**… also, her skin pigment is a lil bit darker

Some other things have just occurred to me. Venus is not in a position to be killed in the crossfire and probably is not a prime candidate for arrest, since her involvement (and location) is not well known (yet). There is almost always some foreshadowing of the next story towards the end of any Dick Tracy story. It could be that Venus is part of a future story as well, maybe even the next one. (I’m sure that tsull2121 will be miserable if there’s a character named after a planet in the next story, but it could happen.)

I think I was the one who started writing consortium with a capital C, as if it were a proper name, but I’ve re-thought that. “Consortium” implies more that one organization or more than one individual or a combination of both. Chances are good that this whole thing is more complicated than it appears. The Apparatus is clearly in line for elimination, but they’re not going to take such a threat lying down. I feel that we may not soon see the end of Venus and her group. As some people have pointed out, she may not be the top dog. I don’t know. So far, we have only seen parts of feet and legs, definitely a Gouldian way of introducing a new character. If guess we expect Méliès to be wiped out by something in his eye, but I don’t see any way that Venus will be killed in this story.

Sputnick does seen to be witnessing something alarming. I suspect that Diet has done something to the Space Coupe with his remote control. Spunick and Méliès need to keep watch in both directions in case of more trouble (which there almost certainly will be) so they are not both seeing whatever it is.

That means you need to retract your ill-humored barb you threw at me, SDM.

As was earlier posted, where are all the bodies? With Melies talking about the “thugs”, and there are certainly no shortage of them, machine gun fire and all that, is everyone that bad a shot? Is Doubleup throwing misses with his whip?

HAPPY 82nd ANNIVERSARY DICK TRACY!

I didn’t red flag you….. why should I? What did you do that required red flagging? Scratch that last question.

(I hate the way Go Comics arranges comments – almost impossible to research, even on the same day!).I think it was tsull2121 who corrected someone else, was it JPuzzleWhiz about Stiletto (heels) and the character Stiletta (Flattop’s wife). He mentioned that the skin color of the leg we are shown is incorrect..But we all know that the Go Comics colorist never gets these things right. In his favor, however, is that Venus has yet to be shown on a Sunday panel (where correct coloring is expected)..Late in the day; don’t know if anyone will notice, anyway.

Sadly, none for me — gotta watch my sugar intake. (Type 2 diabetes.)******************Me too, Whiz, but my resistance isn’t as strong as yours. Luckily the cake is virtual so the damage done will be too :-)

Her name might “Diamond Lady”

Since it was said early on that all of the characters appearing after a certain date in this story would play a part in it, is it possible that “Venus” is actually Notta Chin Chillar?