![Happy :)](./images/smilies/icon_new_smile.png)
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Beginning in 2011, Dick Tracy was passed to the creative team of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton (with Sunday assists by Shelley Pleger). For the past year or so, they have been teasing readers with the possible return of Moon Maid..!
![Image](http://yafh.com/image/ac1079b7-DickTracy_2013-05-31.jpg)
Moon Maid had been tragically killed-off by writer Max Allan Collins, shortly after Dick Tracy's creator Chester Gould retired from the strip -- the victim of a car-bombing that had been meant for Tracy. Her death signalled the end of Gould's 'space era' (roughly 1964-1978, during which the strip had a distinct 'science fiction' overtone .. with police hovercraft, rayguns, and other impossible contraptions). Collins quickly returned the strip's focus onto Tracy's 'down-to-earth' pursuit of generic crooks and hoodlums, and (of course) the occasional 'grotesque' villain .. with strictly traditional police detective techniques.
One of the problems with Collins' attempt to 'erase' Moon Maid from existence was that Gould had woven her fairly thoroughly into the Dick Tracy cast. She fell in love with, and married Junior Tracy -- making her Dick's daughter-in-law. Further, she'd had a daughter with Junior: Honeymoon Tracy (the first baby born in space!), who continued to appear in the strip -- although her 'extraterrestrial' origins were simply brushed-aside and unmentioned, from then on. Junior has since re-married, to longtime sweetheart Sparkle Plenty.
The genius of Curtis and Staton's decision to revisit Moon Maid lies in the "is she, or isn't she, the 'real' Moon Maid?" question .. which they have deftly kept from answering conclusively, to date. There are multiple parties involved in her revival -- some of whom seem sincere, and others who seem to have ulterior criminal motives.
![Image](http://yafh.com/image/c47d9e3c-DickTracy_2013-07-27.jpg)
Is this Moon Maid a clone..? Or a different female Lunarian (or surgically-altered human), implanted with false memories? Or was she, perhaps, never actually truly 'dead' .. but only in a coma, or something..?
The newest addition to the cast may have the answers -- a villain who, in his singular introductory panel from yesterday -- is (IMO) an instant contender for the most fantastic post-Chester Gould Dick Tracy 'grotesque':
![Image](http://yafh.com/image/472b98b2-DickTracy_2013-08-10.jpg)
Simply brilliant..!
![Laughing :lol:](./images/smilies/icon_new_laugh.png)