George Chin Chillar was the husband of Notta Chin Chillar and a Space Coupe pilot. He and his wife worked on the Moon as employees of Diet Smith Industries. George and Notta had been together six years when they made their first appearance in Dick Tracy.
George married Notta Fallar when they were both 16 years old (2/7/1968). They resembled each other, but they were not related other than being married. George and Notta were heavy smokers and very affectionate with each other. Notta called George "Baby," and he called Notta "Doll."
George had a criminal background, and he was contacted on the moon by Mr. Bribery. Bribery was incarcerated at the time after attempting to kill his secretary (10/23/1966), but he was able to enlist the Chin Chillars' aid in recovering $100,000 in cash that was orbiting the Earth as a result of Bribery's aborted attempt to murder two Space Coupe pilots (7/3/1966).
At some point, the Chin Chillars were able to help Bribery escape from prison and replace him with a body double named Joie Packet (7/26/2015). The exact circumstances of when and how the switch took place have not been revealed.
Later, the Chin Chillars stole a police Space Coupe and used it to break Packet (the body double) out of jail. They attached a special wire cage to the Space Coupe that Packet had constructed in the prison workshop, which was used to capture the orbiting $100,000. Packet drank too much champagne to celebrate this achievement and passed out from intoxication. The Chin Chillars then returned him to prison, dropping him through the roof of a carpenter shop from a great height. The fake Bribery's body was not discovered until the following morning, and was so disfigured that it was not immediately recognizable (6/26/1967). "Bribery's" death (9/13/1967) allowed the real Mr. Bribery to continue his life of crime under the new identity of Mr. Bigg.
Fleeing in the Space Coupe[]
George and Notta gloated over their success, but the theft of the Space Coupe and "Bribery's" prison escape had not gone unnoticed. Soon the bearded couple found themselves being chased by Diet Smith and Dick Tracy in another Space Coupe. The Chin Chillars tried desperately to evade pursuit, to no avail. Their plight worsened when they discovered they had no food and a thermos only half-full of water, while Tracy and Smith were fully stocked with provisions (7/4/1967). Desperate, George threw the Coupe into a steep, high-speed dive into Earth's atmosphere (7/9/1967). This caused the wire cage "Bribery" had attached to the Coupe to catch fire, along with the money. Debris from the disintegrating cage damaged Smith and Tracy's Coupe, and they had to waylay their pursuit (7/15/1967). The Chin Chillars escaped, but the money was burned beyond recovery.
Desperate now for food, the Chin Chillars raided Shelter 733, one of the emergency supply stations on the Moon provided by Diet Smith Industries (7/20/1967 - 7/25/1967) and subsequently decided to go into hiding.
Hiding Out with Piggy[]
Chin Chillar piloted the Space Coupe to the farm of another one of his criminal associates, the brutal mob boss Piggy Butcher. In doing so, George was apparently acting on orders he had received from the real Mr. Bribery (7/26/2015). George and Notta pleaded with Piggy to provide refuge from the police (7/31/1967). Bribery had expected Piggy to murder the Chin Chillars, but Piggy took a fancy to Notta and was amused by George's earrings. Piggy decided to take in George and Notta, and disguised the Space Coupe as a silo.
Piggy took cruel advantage of George and Notta's vulnerability, forcing them to work all night removing the police markings from the Space Coupe, and to sleep in the stables. The Chin Chillars were now Piggy's slaves, and a subsequent attempt to escape in the Space Coupe failed (8/13/1967).
Piggy soon "promoted" the Chin Chillars, making Notta his "House Mother" and enlisting George in his car theft scheme (8/15/1967). Piggy forced George to pilot the Space Coupe under cover of darkness and carry an armored car to Piggy's secret underground smelting plant (8/26/1967), where it was stripped for parts and melted down for steel (9/2/1967). Piggy held Notta hostage to ensure George's cooperation.
Eventually, the police were able to track the Space Coupe to Piggy's farm. Late one night, while Tracy and Sam Catchem were surveilling Piggy's operation, the Chin Chillars flagged them down and offered to help them take out Piggy's operation (9/16/1967 - 9/17/1967). By this point, George and Notta preferred the prospect of jail over continuing their miserable existence in Piggy's service. Tracy and Sam agreed to help the Chin Chillars in return for their cooperation. Tracy later returned with a wrist TV, which the Chin Chillars used to communicate information that was needed to successfully raid Piggy's compound (10/1/1967).
Unfortunately for the Chin Chillars, one of Piggy's henchman discovered the wrist TV and reported it to Piggy (10/4/1967). Piggy was enraged by the couple's betrayal and demanded that they explain what they were doing with the 2-way TV, and that they make it work (10/8/1967). George managed to turn on the 2-way TV's microphone, allowing Tracy, Sam, and Lizz to discover that the Chin Chillars' cover had been blown (10/9/1967). Otherwise, George never got the 2-way device working again (which may have been deliberate), and Piggy responded by tying up the couple and forcing them to stand on their tiptoes in his bedroom until they agreed to cooperate (10/12/1967).
Help was on the way, for with Moon Maid's assistance, the police and FBI successfully raided Piggy's compound and ended his stolen car operation and steel mill. Piggy was stunned by Moon Maid's laser during the raid and was taken into custody (10/15/1967), though he was soon released on bail. The Chin Chillars were also taken into custody, and they, too, were eventually released on bail. George had sworn an oath to kill Piggy (9/29/1967) because the gangster humiliated Notta, forcibly shaving off part of her beard (9/22/1967 - 9/28/1967). Now free, the Chin Chillars were determined to get their revenge.
Revenge of the Chin Chillars[]
George Chin Chillar, deceased 1-22-1968
Piggy had suffered a string a of losses and had descended into alcoholism and depression. The Chin Chillars found him drunk and nearly unconscious on the street one night (1/17/1968), and they dragged him to their basement apartment home. They put a noose around Piggy's neck and hoisted him onto a table, intending to torture him before finally killing him (1/20/1968).
Meanwhile, Sam and Tracy had tracked down the couple for questioning. The police appeared at the Chin Chillars' apartment just as the couple was about to take their revenge against Piggy. This enraged George, who began shooting wildly through the apartment door (1/21/1968). Return shots were fired, and Tracy kicked down the door to find George dead on the ground (1/22/1968). Piggy was also discovered to be dead from strangulation, due to the noose. A sobbing Notta claimed that she and George had been trying to help Piggy because he was so hungry and cold (1/23/1968). Tracy didn't believe Notta's story, and she was taken into custody (1/24/1968).
Notes[]
A chinchilla is a small rodent native to South America that is highly prized for its fur. There does not seem to be any obvious connection between the animal and the Chin Chillar family.
It is unrevealed if "Chin" was George's middle name, or if "Chin Chillar" was some kind of compound surname. It was never shown to be hyphenated, but both names were always used. The given name "George" was not used until the character had already been in the strip for some time, leading some readers to assume that "Chin" was the character's first name until that time.
Regarding the Chin Chillars' appearance, the common thinking among many fans has been that they were supposed to look like beatniks or hippies. The evidence from the strip suggests a different reason. Per a conversation between the couple on 6/28/67, the Chin Chillars dressed in a way reminiscent of the "good old days" of the 1890s, also referred to in history books as the "gay nineties." Because of the apparent unhappiness of their lives, the Chin Chillars pretended that they were from a happier era and dressed as part of an escapist fantasy. For example, stylish women in the 1890's often wore high heel boots, choker necklaces, large dangly earrings, corsets to narrow their waists and accentuate an hourglass figure, and their hair in a puffy upswept style twisted into a coil at the top of the head. This explains Notta's costume and fashion choices, and why Tracy exclaimed, "Shades of the gay nineties!" when he first laid eyes on her (7/1/67).
