Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for October 14, 2013

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    cpalmeresq  over 10 years ago

    Looks like Mindy is the right answer…I couldv’e sworn it would be Cheater Gunsmoke!

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    holiday76  over 10 years ago

    Good call Willy

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    jonahhex1  over 10 years ago

    Wow….looks like Sparkle missed a horrible fate by sheer luck.

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    60sFan  over 10 years ago

    Glenna aka Mindy Ermine was 2nd to Sparkle in that Moon Maid lookalike contest. Willy007 was right!

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    SKJAM! Premium Member over 10 years ago

    Wait, that means Mr. Wallet was their choice for replacing Vitamin Flintheart! Thank goodness they were stopped in time!

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    Ashmael  over 10 years ago

    Good morning, DT fans!Come on, any learned DT fan can name her! By the way, that explains the facial surgery, too!

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    margueritem  over 10 years ago

    Guess I wasn’t reading the comics back then.

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    W H H  over 10 years ago

    I hope there’s an explanation soon about why the space coupe was the target of a hijacking.

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    Chris-One  over 10 years ago

    Fun fact: In 1964 there was a nation-wide contest to find a “real-life” Moon Maid. It was sponsored by the strip’s syndicate, and the final judging took place in Hollywood, CA.

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    favm  over 10 years ago

    I don’t remember that contest.

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    gouldstandard  over 10 years ago

    What’s really sad is they could’ve written the story so the real Moon Maid returned, instead of this morbid turn of events. I mean, it’s a comic strip, right? If we can have moon people in the first place…..Something along the lines of Moon Maid having been declared dead, but scientists having kept her brain intact and separate and unburied, and discovering moon people regenerate some organs after awhile….and then inserting the real deal into a clone, you know, whatever….it sure would beat this.

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    seismic-2 Premium Member over 10 years ago

    So Junior’s second wife won a contest to find who most resembled his first wife? That sounds like a recipe for a really healthy marriage.

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    Ashmael  over 10 years ago

    What a ghastly being Dr Sail was! Mindy Ermine was not a pleasant person, but this is awful! But why Dr Sail had to go to all that trouble to steal the Space Coupe?

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    Ashmael  over 10 years ago

    But where did the Lunarians go?

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    willy007  over 10 years ago

    Mindy Ermine is Mysta! Mike Curtis and Joe Staton did give us several clues about this (obscure as they were), as I detailed in my Yahoo group posts. I first got turned on to the possibility back in July, when Mysta chose Mindy as her alias while hiding out with the Wheatons. It was fun putting all the little clues together, and in the end, I’m glad I wasn’t just seeing things!

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    cripplious  over 10 years ago

    http://dicktracy.wikia.com/wiki/Glenna this is the page about Mindy

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    Ashmael  over 10 years ago

    Kudos to you, Willy007!

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    fredville  over 10 years ago

    ……B-I-G plot hole…….if the space coupe merely “blew away” it would surface somewhere here on Earth…..sorry, but Diet needs to turn it back around or join Abner in a jail for life sentence (although we all know the latter will soon be using a get-out-of-jail-free card, lol)

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    Llewellenbruce  over 10 years ago

    Does anyone know why all the starting Red Soxplayers have beards? I don’t think it’s just acoincidence>

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    daedalusomega  over 10 years ago

    Now it’s official: Willy007 has really been right on the money!! Bravo!!!!!

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    PatrickDC202  over 10 years ago

    Question NOT A CRITICISM: how is it possible that Mysta has Lunarian eyes? Her pupils have always been white and the blue is twice as large as a human’s eyes.

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    Vista Bill Raley and Comet™  over 10 years ago

    Good morning everyone…

    What do Messieurs Staton and Curtis have planned for the ‘new’ MM/Mysta in the future? Meanwhile we have three of the characters visiting outer space and Abner out of jail.

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    coldsooner  over 10 years ago

    Spoken like a true Yankee fan. I root for Team Tracy myself.

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    Major Matt Mason Premium Member over 10 years ago

    Heh. Today’s Comics Curmudgeon is going to town on today’s DT… :D

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    retropop  over 10 years ago

    Anyone expect her to be sent off to live on the Wheaton farm never to be seen or heard from ever again in the strip?

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    ratnyhc  over 10 years ago

    Meanwhile Dr Ghote is on a runaway space coupe with a gunshot wound that doesn’t look like it’s going to be treated anytime soon and will most likely will get a burial in space.

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    William Weedman  over 10 years ago

    So when was this look alike contest? I don’t remember Moon Maid as a kid in the early 70s but remember the flying garbage cans…the local paper dropped DT in the early 80s and I finally rediscovered it about 18 months ago on Go Comics?

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    Sisyphos  over 10 years ago

    Congratulations to Willy007 for deducing the true identity of “Moon Maid” from a series of easily-overlooked clues! —And now that Diet has revealed this nasty secret, it will be very interesting to see how Mindy Moon Maid reacts and how those most involved react (e.g., Junior and Honeymoon). Will Mindy wish to continue as “Moon Maid” with limited, artificial powers, or will she seek to re-establish her own identity?There is a lot of story-telling left, and both the pro-Moon Maid side and the anti-Moon Era side can find something to hold as “victory” in this clever yet nefarious outcome (nefarious in that Mindy Ermine’s personhood, however flawed, was stolen from her: in a sense, Mindy was murdered).

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    davidf42  over 10 years ago

    First, hats off to Willy007 for calling this one correctly!

    Second, an observation. Diet is not saying that Ghoat and Sail kidnapped Mindy. He is saying that they could not kidnap Sparkle. That’s two different things. It remains to be seen whether or not Mindy was actually kidnapped or if she consented to be the guinea pig.

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    marvee  over 10 years ago

    Diet is pulling some papers out of an envelope. He may have some documentation of what happened or perhaps it’s an agreement for Mysta/Mindy to sign to agree to live in quiet retirement and not bother the Tracy family.

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    Stagger Lee  over 10 years ago

    I know SDM will bring it up. “Mindy Maid” lost her left glove between panel 1 and panel 2. . . 8>)

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    436rge  over 10 years ago

    DT has now become as realistic as his animated tv series back in the 60’s. I expect the appearance of an English accented bulldog police chief.

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    Cheapskate0  over 10 years ago

    marvee: Very good point. Yesterday, I noted that, since this is not Mysta, that continued contact between her and the Tracy family is not healthy. She never was Junior’s wife and she never was Honey’s mother. No good can come from continued contact between them..Several have commented on the kidnapping angle just revealed by Dietrich. A few thoughts:.The only way for Diet to know about the kidnapping is if Ghote told him. This would seem to contradict an apparent assertion that Ghote was trying to wash his hands of Sail’s illegal proceedings (though, what they did to Mindy was far worse, a thought that the rest of you will bash about for the rest of today)..It would be one thing if Sail presented Ghote with a patient and said, “Do your thing.” It is quite another if Sail and Ghote said to each other, “Guess we need a patient; let’s go out and get one!”.Of course, neither are available at this point to offer any clarification….gouldstandard: I agree. Preserved brains inserted into other Lunarian bodies is a bit gruesome, as well..I would have been more than happy with a real Moon Maid who was mistakenly declared dead – or perhaps nefariously declared dead by a crooked coroner before she was kidnapped..And getting that sample DNA had at least one of you speculating along my lines of the existence of a crooked coroner..Last, and certainly least: While a lot is being said about Mysta’s DNA taking over Mindy’s body, that would beg one big question: Why doesn’t Mysta’s DNA dominate Honey’s body? After all, Honey has a lot more of Mysta’s DNA than Mindy could certainly have…

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    tsull2121  over 10 years ago

    willy, i bet you feel bad for stealing mike’s thunder lol

    inspired piece of detective work willy, congrats.

    \however, i STILL cry foul on the whole “gathering remaining tissue samples after the explosion that killed moon maid” theory… in an inferno THAT intense, there wouldnt have been ANYTHING left

    if we then extrapolate this whole theory, then pretty much ANY tracy villain that was killed in an explosion can now be brought back to life…. sweatbox, angeltop, torcher… anyone else?

    i am also STILL clinging to the theory of measles not be ing dead just in a medically induced coma from the overdose. hell, if they can implant (nonexistant) dna into mindy ermine to make her become moon maid lite, then measles can still be alive as well

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    tsull2121  over 10 years ago

    gweedo, i am convinced that NOTHING tarry says is simply speculation. he DOES have “the inside track” remember ;)

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    tsull2121  over 10 years ago

    gleeb, read a little MORE into it. sparkle won first place, but look who was SECOND.

    mindy ermine wasnt gonna win any beauty contests, so if THAT was 2nd place, pretty much ANYONE coulda won first

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    Cheapskate0  over 10 years ago

    A couple weeks ago, Willy Carlson figured out WHO Moon Maid really was. But he had no idea HOW..Yesterday, Diet Smith, the only cast member to know, told us HOW Moon Maid was made, but he didn’t tell us WHO..Today, Dietrich told us WHO..All that is left is to tell us WHY..How about a new rookie detective on the MCU force? Mike and Joe could name him Carl Wilson in honor of the only one of us to figure out WHAT they did!

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    Morrow Cummings  over 10 years ago

    Congrats (again), Willy! Like you, I noticed MML came up the name “Mindy” at the Wheaton farm. That caught my attention and I remembered Mindy Ermine for a second. But I never continued with the clues. I’m going to cash in my $10 Win ticket on you! I understand it pays 100:1 ! And don’t anyone think Diet doesn’t know who is on the Coupe right now !

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    bks253  over 10 years ago

    Mindy Ermine will love her new looks. As I recall she had a nice body, but a rather hideous face, bad teeth, etc. I’m sure she can be reprogramed to recall her past (not that her past was very good). Without the real Moon Maid around, Junior, Sparkle and Honeymoon can get on with their lives. Now, back to fighting “real” criminals!

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    Weegel  over 10 years ago

    Gleeb,.“The implication here is that Junior married a woman who looks just like his murdered first wife. That’s creepier than Les Moore.”.Actually, since he knew Sparkle long before he knew MM, it’s more correct to say that Junior married a girl who looked just like Sparkle..Sparkle was several years younger than Junior at the time of Junior’s romance with MM, sand he’d watched her grow up, so he probably thought of her as kind of a kid sister. He and Sparkle went from friends to romantic partners while they were both on the rebound, Dick Jr. from MM’s irreversible murder, and Sparkle from Vera’s infidelity and his having divorced her. Watching them slowly come together as they mutually healed was actually a fairly realistic and touching sequence..Just for the record, Dick Jr.‘s first serious romance, Model Jones, was also a slender blonde with the same kind of “girl-next-door” beauty as Sparkle and (sans horns) Mysta, so all it really says is that he’s attracted to “girl-next-door” types, and to blondes..Given that his adopted mother is also a “girl-next-door” blonde, and that she’s really not that much older than Junior (certainly not old enough to be his actual mother), that’s not all that surprising..JIM

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    Karl Hiller Premium Member over 10 years ago

    There was a painfully contrived bit in the Spider-Man comics where Aunt May was brought back from “death” in the form of a surgically-altered actress with fake Aunt May memories or something. But that was a big stupid retcon cobbled together to bring the real Aunt May back. Moon Misty appears to have been meant to be a fake/chimera from the start.

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    Stagger Lee  over 10 years ago

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    Jonathan K. and the Elusive Dream Girl  over 10 years ago

    Like JPuzzleWhiz says, it’s about happen.http://gocomics.com/dicktracy/2013/10/10

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    Ray Toler  over 10 years ago

    A hearty handshake, a pat on the back, and the warm glow of victory goes to Willy for his theory and detective work.

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    JB2K  over 10 years ago

    “Cheater Gunsmoke” was a villain created specifically for the Dick Tracy cartoon put out by UPA, in the early 1960s…he sounded a lot like the Yosemite Sam character…

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    ewalnut  over 10 years ago

    If she takes her gloves off, where does the power go?

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    Trainman  over 10 years ago

    Please continue the Moonmaid Mindy in the series, as she is the best looking of all the females and dresses appropriately! She can be Dick Tracy’s secret agent on very difficult cases!

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    willy007  over 10 years ago

    Thanks to all for the kind comments about my figuring out the Mindy connection. It was fun piecing together the clues, even though in my heart of hearts I didn’t really want Mysta to be Mindy. Honestly, I had been hoping like crazy that Mysta was the original, but once Mike nixed that idea a few months ago in the Yahoo group, I finally got past it and started considering other options, which finally led me to Mindy.Also, major kudos to Mike Curtis for putting together such a compelling Mysta-ry. No matter what people might think of how it’s ending, it’s certainly kept us riveted, hasn’t it? Combined with Joe Staton’s beautiful work on Mysta, this story has been a very pleasant distraction for the past 14 months. Considering all the buzz Mysta has created, the way people have obsessed over her identity (and everything else about her) for more than a year, and all the fans she’s made, I would say the Moon Maid Revival has been a roaring success.And despite Mysta not being Mysta after all, I’m thinking there’s still a lot of potential left for this provocative young lady. Mike has spent a lot of time developing her character. Joe has made her gorgeous and extremely sexy. Her costume is as iconic as it is scorching hot. It’s obvious from reading their comments that her fans are deeply invested in her. And if we had to pick only one reason why Curtis and Staton recently won the Harvey Award, I would guess Mysta is probably the biggest one. She has stirred up interest and excitement for Dick Tracy like nothing else has in the last 20 years. And considering the way Moon Maid shared top billing with Tracy in Joe Staton’s sensational new poster, I suspect Team Tracy has big plans for her. Because Mysta has become such a hit, I think Mike and Joe have good motivation to develop her character further, and to not close off the connection to space. It just makes good business sense. Why go to all the bother of reintroducing this character and get people in such a froth about her if you’re only going to put her on the shelf? Mysta has already undergone a profound genetic transformation, her moon eyes being good evidence of this. She already thinks and acts in most respects like Moon Maid. What if the transformation continues, and she starts showing signs of authentic lunar powers, and even begins to “remember” things that weren’t programmed into her brain? I can’t conceive of her going back to being Mindy, even if she wanted to do that. I’m guessing her character will continue to grow and develop toward being Moon Maid II, the beautiful and awesome queen of crimefighters. And who knows, she might even become a mentor of sorts for Honeymoon, though that would have to be handled delicately. She will certainly be a key player if we ever hear from Moon Governor and his people.Whatever happens, we do have Mysta back, just not the way many of us might have preferred. In some ways, being Mindy makes her an even more interesting and certainly a more tragic and sympathetic character. After all, a young woman has apparently been kidnapped, had her mind blanked, her body surgically altered, and her brain reprogrammed, probably against her will. (It’s possible Mindy the Moon Maid Wannabe willingly subjected herself to certain aspects of the transformation, but we’ll probably never know to what extent, if any.) Mysta has lost virtually all connection to her previous life (probably not a bad thing in her case) and is set adrift in a world that sees her as alien and other-worldly. How could we not wish her to overcome all that and find her way to a happy and productive life in the Dick Tracy universe?

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    Ray Toler  over 10 years ago

    Here is Mindy Ermine, second place winner of the Moon Maid Lookalike Contest sponsored by Sunny Wheat (sponsor of The Sounds of Plenty)

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    Ray Toler  over 10 years ago

    Gertie in Moon dress:

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    Ray Toler  over 10 years ago

    Mindy Ermine was also a rich spoiled brat prone to temper fits. She tried to stab Lizz with a pair of scissors and then when Lizz arrested her, she began crying like a baby and insisting she was a “minor” and shouldn’t be handcuffed, arrested, etc. She was definitely not a sweet young thing.

    I think we have seen glimpses of Mindy’s temper emerging in the bashing of the tombstone, the Sparkle Zap, the temper fit at Honeymoon’s house, and the uncontrollable zapping of Hy Pressure.

    Evidently there are two conflicting personalities in the same body just as there are two conflicting genomes of DNA. Time will tell which will become dominant in both cases.

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  52. I m me mysta chimera
    TJ000  over 10 years ago

    I’m feeling a little better today about what’s happened. I’m still a little shocked, but reading the comments has helped. The bottom line for me is what somebody else said. We have Moon Maid back. That’s the main thing. I also find myself feeling sorry for her, which I didn’t expect. Mindy may have been a very bad person, but she didn’t deserve to have her life taken away. The two doctors are way more cruel than I ever imagined. They’re murderers really, and I won’t feel bad at all if they end up drifting forever in space. As for Mysta, I hope her lunar DNA is dominant and she transforms completely into a moon woman. Here’s hoping!

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    Ken in Ohio  over 10 years ago

    Thank you for the heads-up. Although I live in the Cleveland area, I sent Mr. Brown an e-mail, just to let him know that the Tracy strip is closely linked to the Tribune in the minds of readers everywhere. I hope it helps.

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    Pequod  over 10 years ago

    Moon Maid is absolutely Dick Tracy. Gould’s work makes it so. The period from the introduction of Moon Maid until the end of the decade marks one of the high points of Gould’s creativity. The tales with Moon Maid, Mr. Bribery, the Chin Chillars, Piggy Butcher, Purdy Fallar and Haf and Haf represent one of strongest group of stories in the history of the strip, imo. I’ll keep my opinion on when the strip “jumped the shark,” and under whose stewardship to myself, as that dead horse has been badly beaten.What’s “typical” in Dick Tracy now is whatever Curtis and Staton decide it is. I shared my thoughts yesterday on why I feel the current developments mark the end of the beginning of Mysta’s return to the strip, rather than the beginning of the end. What seems clear is that this story has pleased most fans immensely.

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    Ken in Ohio  over 10 years ago

    I already got a response from Mr. Brown at the Chicago Tribune. He asked me to please tell him where I heard that Tracy might be pulled from their line-up, and said he wished to “nip such rumors in the bud” I directed him to this web site and you initial comment on the subject.

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    Cheapskate0  over 10 years ago

    Pequod77: I would gladly like to know when you think the strip “jumped the shark,” but will respect your desire to not share it in this group..Would you care to correspond off-line?.The George Carl Coach of the Year award for comics:.The notes from Jim Doherty are strongly suggestive of what happened to the Denver Nuggets coach last year..George received the Coach of the Year award, not even two months before the Nuggets sacked him as coach!.What Jim is suggesting at the Trib is not unlike last year’s basketball fiasco: Just a few months after winning the Harvey, the Tribune sacks its signature comic strip!.But before we cry too hard over this, How many of us read this strip in the Trib?.Dick Tracy may be alive and well – it’s the newspaper world that is in trouble!

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    jrankin1959  over 10 years ago

    Does the new Diet Smith remind anyone else of Captain Kangaroo (with a cigar)… or is it just me?

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  58. Mmdash6
    Pequod  over 10 years ago

    Ray is spot on about the superiority of the dailies in black and white. Those who don’t subscribe to the Trib can get them for free at the Houston Chronicle site:Glorious Black and WhiteI’m hoping that Volume II of Calling Dick Tracy! will come with the ability to view the dailies in black and white.

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    Morrow Cummings  over 10 years ago

    What’s happened? Somebody needs to patent that troll spray! By golly, it worked!

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    Ray Toler  over 10 years ago

    Comics facing changes (October 14, 2013)

    By Geoff BrownOctober 14, 2013

    Sometimes you try something new and it pays off … for a while. But then, when it’s no longer shiny, it no longer has the same appeal. That’s what happened with Comics Carousel, whose original mission was to reserve space for new cartoonists who might not otherwise gain exposure.

    Readers embraced the concept at first: Voting totals reached a high of more than 167,000 in 2011. But in the last few smackdowns, readers weren’t nearly as charmed by the opportunity to vote, and the numbers began to fall. In addition, national features syndicates are introducing precious few comic strips anymore, meaning the pool of candidates has dried up. So we’ve decided to give the Carousel a breather.

    But good new cartoons are still around. When a promising strip arrives, we’ll find a spot for it. In fact, we’ll be updating the regular Sunday cartoon lineup in November.

    —Geoff Brown, associate managing editor for entertainment

    __________________________

    I think you were over reacting.

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    Ken in Ohio  over 10 years ago

    Jim:You said:Tell him his article in last Sunday’s Trib.Actually, he sent me the link to the article. Although he didn’t say it in exactly these words, I feel his intent was to reassure us that Tracy is safe at the Tribune. I was very pleasantly surprised at how quickly he responded to my query.

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    cpalmeresq  over 10 years ago

    146 comments in under 24 hours…a new DT record?

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    boboscar  about 6 years ago

    Over 4 years after it ended (and nearly 5 years after it started!) The Return of Moon Maid saga still stands out as a landmark in the history of Dick Tracy, where a rotten 33 year policy of quickly butchering and ignoring an important era was reversed, delighting Moon Era fans, arousing interest in people like me who hadn’t been exposed to it but were inclined to take the haters’ word for it, and even gaining appreciation from fans who didn’t like the Moon Era, but liked this story.

    And what a great story it is! It’s still Mike’s longest story, but it never drags, is often exciting and suspenseful. The highlight is the Sparkle Zap that quickly led to MM’s meeting with Honeymoon, a meeting that was now suddenly terrifying. Then, there was Mysta’s slow path to redemption from her only truly bad act. This is definitely a great story.

    But, man, do I still hate this final week.

    I’m afraid I was swayed by Moon Maid’s fans into believing that anything less than the original MM would be a letdown, and I still feel that’s precisely what this final week is: a letdown. I was born after the Moon Era ended, so I’m not as broken up about it as Cheapskate0 was, but I am still disappointed.

    So we have 6 months of an exciting, brilliant epic…wrapped up in a weak, anti-climatic, deflating, and utterly disappointing final week.

    I’m going to post 3 more retro-comments (one more rant and two bits of praise) during this final week.

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