Revision 1004709 of "Moon_Maid" on enwiki

'''Moon Maid''' was a major character at one period in the ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' [[comic strip]], then drawn by [[Chester Gould]].

Gould, hoping to keep the strip evolving and changing with the times, slowly began changing the focus of the strip from what had seemingly become a routine [[crime]] drama, albeit one with exaggeratedly colourful, deformed [[villain]]s, into one whose primary focus was [[science fiction]].  Tracy had always been equipped with the latest, most up-to-date [[police]] equipment, including [[forensic]] science, but with the introduction into the strip of eccentric industrialist Diet Smith as Tracy's friend in the [[1950s]], Tracy began to have the assistance of devices that were still far from extant in the real world of that day, such as the two-way wrist [[radio]] (and later the two-way wrist [[television|TV]], remarkably similar to modern picture cell phones).  The logical extension of this was the introduction of space travel.  Smith invented the Space Coupe. With the use of this vehicle, Tracy and company landed on the moon in [[1964]], finding there an advanced race of humanoids whose high technology meshed remarkably well with that of Smith's.

Moon Maid was a member of the lunar [[royal family]], and served as a liason between her race and the humans.  She and her family became one of the strip's primary focuses for several years.  However, when the real life landing on the moon became imminent in [[1969]], it seemingly became apparent to Gould that the strip would need to focus on new material, and Gould slowly began to return the strip to the material that made it famous, Earth-bound crime. Whether the strip should ever have been allowed to develop in this direction, especially for as long as it did, has long been discussed by fans.  Some feel that it was an exciting twist needed to keep the strip fresh; others feel that it was a silly distraction from what should always have been the strip's main focus, and that it was never as good afterwards as it was prior to this story arc.  It is indisputable that the strip's following and syndication level, the number of [[newspaper]]s carrying it, peaked and began to decline around this period.  Gould's defenders note that no strip can remain on top forever, and that most have a period of growth followed by a plateau and a decline, and that Gould had probably slowed this process for several years by a unique turn in the strip.  Other factors were likely also involved, most notably Tracy's strong pronouncement of [[right-wing]] views, presumably mirroring Gould's own, which began to appear in the strip, making it controversial in some markets.

Gould's successors killed the Moon Maid character, which had continued to appear sporadically in a greatly reduced role, in [[1978]], seemingly to prevent any chance of the strip's focus from ever drifting in this direction again.

[[Category:Dick Tracy characters]][[Category:Fictional aliens]]