Where's Moon Maid?

[Ray Palm]

What happened to Moon Maid and all those moon people in the
Dick Tracy comic strip? I've seen reprints of the strip
from the early 1960s where Dick and Diet Smith travel to
the moon via some sort of magnetically-propelled hot water
tank and they discover a civilization of humanoid
life-forms. Each "moonie" had weird eyes and a pair of
antennas growing out of his or her forehead.

Didn't Junior hook up with Moon Maid and didn't they have a
Moon Baby? Genetically speaking, how did *that* happen?

I have a feeling this stuff was too wild for even a strip
featuring characters like Pruneface and B.O. Plenty and so
it was quietly dropped. Also, did the Apollo landings help
to kill off the Moon Maid madness?

Best,

Ray

[Ukulele Ike]

Chester Gould kept up the Moon Maid nonsense for as long as he was running "Dick Tracy," although the Moon People appearances waned after Gould realized what a fool he was making of himself.

Max Allan Collins, who took over the writing duty after Gould retired, made no references to the Moon Folk while Gould was still alive. After Gould died, Collins quickly had Mood Maid slaughtered (I think she blew up in a rigged automobile). Junior was despondent for a while, but got over it. The Moon people were so pissed off at her death that they vowed to have no more dealings with Earth, and went over to the dark side. Collins was then able to pretend the whole Moon thing never happened.

[Ray Palm]

Uke,

Thanx for your reply. You wrote: <The Moon people were so pissed off at her death that they vowed to have no more dealings with Earth, and went over to the dark side.>

You mean the dark side of the moon, right? (Not the Force... <g> )

Do you remember around what time Moon Maid was blown up, rough dates? I could look at the strip from that time on microfilm.

Best,

Ray

[Eve]

Moon Maid met her end well after I'd stopped reading the strip (when I went away to college in '75, maybe?). I was REAL pissed-off (like the Moon people) when I found out about this years later. Moon Maid had the most flawless blonde flip hairdo, so I was a big fan.

Remember Brenda Starr's dykey friend Hank O'Hare? Another of my favorite characters . . .

[Guy Propski]

According to http://www.comicspage.com, she first appeared December 31, 1963, and was killed in an exploding car meant for Tracy in 1978.

[Guy Propski]

A footnote from http://www.comicspage.com: for some reason, Junior and Moon Maid's daughter Honey Moon is listed in the Rogue's Gallery! She was born in 1965, but there's no note about her leaving the strip. I would assume it was not longer after her mother's death.

[stuyguy]

Dear, God, what is going on?!?

Just this Friday I was at the giant flea market they hold in Brimfield, MA. There I saw an old kid's Moon Maid Haloween costume -- you know, the cheap, nylon kind that was probably more flammable than lighter fluid.

I stopped dead in my tracks and said, "Jesus, Moon Maid! I haven't thought about her for probably thirty years straight."

And now this thread pops up!

Amazing coincidence.

[Guy Propski]

Okay, folks, we've got to be more careful. Stuyguy is beginning to catch on to our plans......shhh, he's watching, act natural.


<whistle>

[Eve]

Yep, 1978, that sounds right . . . I was busy discoing my groove thing off, studying for finals, trying on Jordache Jeans. Little did I suspect that Moon Maid was meeting her Moon Maker.

[Ray Palm]

Thanx for the replies everyone.

So there's a Moon Maid halloween costume out there? Any other toys around? With eBay they must be worth $$$$.

And as I thought there was a Moon Baby, i.e. Moon Honey. So what happened to her? Doesn't Junior miss her?

I like the way comic strip/book creators can just forget or overlook continuity like this.

Best,

Ray

[JBENZ]

Junior's kid showed up for quite a while. After the Moonie phase ended her little antennae became wierd little top of the head pigtails.

[Earl Snake-Hips Tucker]

I remember watching in the 70s "Archie's TV Funnies," where Archie and the gang would play other cartoons featuring well-known comic strip characters like Smokey Stover, Barney Google, etc.

I think that Dick Tracy was also one of the cartoons that they showed, and I always wondered who and what Moon Maid was, not being a newspaper comic reader.

Didn't have any trouble understanding Gravel Gertie, though.