{"id":32852,"date":"2025-05-12T13:56:15","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=32852"},"modified":"2025-05-12T13:56:15","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:56:15","slug":"the-dick-tracy-casebook-favourite-adventures-1931-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/05\/12\/the-dick-tracy-casebook-favourite-adventures-1931-1990\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dick Tracy Casebook – Favourite Adventures 1931-1990"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy Chester Gould<\/strong>, selected by Max Allan Collins<\/strong> & Dick Locher<\/strong> (St. Martins\/Penguin)
\nISBN: 978-0-31204-461-9 (HB) 978-0-14014-568-7 (PB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

Lost in all the landmarks and events of the moment, I\u2019d intended to commemorate and memorialise the anniversary of a true comics giant yesterday, but missed my shot. On May 11th<\/sup> 1985, Chester Gould passed away. On that same day in 1953, latterday Dick Tracy<\/strong> scribe Mike Curtis was born. He wrote the latest exploits of the unflinching super-cop, as collected in Calling Dick Tracy!<\/a><\/strong>. Justice may be slow sometimes, but if the comics are anything to go by, cannot be deferred forever… <\/em><\/p>\n

All things considered, comics have a pretty good track record on creating household names. We could play the game of picking the most well-known fictional characters on Earth (with Sherlock Holmes<\/strong>, Mickey Mouse<\/strong>, Superman<\/strong>, James Bond<\/strong> and Tarzan<\/strong> usually topping most lists) but you\u2019ll also see Batman<\/strong>, Popeye<\/strong>, Blondie<\/strong>, Charlie Brown<\/strong>, Tintin<\/strong>, Wonder Woman<\/strong>, Spider-Man<\/strong>, and not so much now – but once upon a time – Dick Tracy<\/strong> there as well.<\/p>\n

At the height of the Great Depression cartoonist Chester Gould was looking for strip ideas. The story goes that as a decent guy incensed by the exploits of gangsters (like Al Capone who monopolised front pages of contemporary newspapers) he settled upon the only way a normal man could fight thugs: Passion and Public Opinion.<\/p>\n

Raised in Oklahoma, Gould was a Chicago resident who hated seeing his home town in the grip of such wicked men, with far too many honest citizens beguiled and seduced by the gangsters\u2019 power and charisma. Boy, if they could see how politics today exploits that self-destructive tendency…<\/p>\n

Gould decided to pictorially get it off his chest with a procedural crime thriller championing the ordinary cops who protected civilisation. He took \u201cPlainclothes Tracy<\/em>\u201d to legendary newspaperman\/comic strip Svengali Captain Joseph Patterson, whose golden touch had blessed such strips as Gasoline Alley<\/strong>, The Gumps<\/strong>, Little Orphan Annie<\/strong>, Winnie Winkle<\/strong>, Smilin\u2019 Jack<\/strong>, Moon Mullins<\/strong> and Terry and the Pirates<\/strong> among others. Casting his seasoned eye on the samples, Patterson renamed its stark, stern protagonist Dick Tracy<\/strong> and revised his love interest into steady girlfriend Tess Truehart<\/em>. The series launched on October 4th<\/sup> 1931 through Patterson\u2019s Chicago Tribune Syndicate and rapidly became a huge hit, with all the attendant media and merchandising hoopla that follows.<\/p>\n

Amidst the toys, games, movies, serials, animated features, TV shows et al, the strip soldiered on, influencing generations of creators and entertaining millions of fans. If you\u2019ve never seen the original legend in action this collection – still readily available and originally released to accompany a movie adaptation in 1990 – is a great introduction.<\/p>\n

Selected by successor scripter Max Allen Collins & Dick Locher, who worked on the strip after Gould retired in 1977, it re-presents complete adventures from each decade of the strip\u2019s existence to date, offering a grand overview of the development from radical, ultra-violent adventure to forensic Police Procedural, through increasingly fantastical science fiction and finally back-to-basics cop thriller under Collins\u2019 own script tenure.<\/p>\n

From the 1930s comes the memorable and uncharacteristic \u2018The Hotel Murders\u2019<\/em> (9th<\/sup> March – 27th<\/sup> April, 1936) wherein the terrifyingly determined – some might say obsessed – cop solves a genuine mystery with a sympathetic antagonist instead of the usual unmitigated, unsavoury, unrepentant outlaw.<\/p>\n

Whodunits with clues, false trails and tests of wits were counterproductive in a slam-bang, daily strip with a large cast and soap-opera construction, but this necessarily short tale follows all the ground rules as Tracy, adopted boy side-kick Junior<\/em>, special agent Jim Trailer<\/em> and the boys on the beat track down the killer of a notorious gambler.<\/p>\n

The best case of the 1940s – and for many the best ever – was \u2018The Brow\u2019<\/em> (22nd<\/sup> May – 26th <\/sup>September 1944) in which the team hunt down a brilliant but ruthless Nazi spy. As my own personal favourite, I\u2019m doing you all the favour of saying no more about this compelling, breathtaking yarn, and you\u2019ll thank me for it, but I will say that this is a complete reprinting, as others have been edited for violence and one edition simply left out every Sunday instalment – which is my own definition of police brutality.
\n\"\"
\nBy the 1950s Gould was at his creative peak. \u2018Crewy Lou\u2019<\/em> (22nd<\/sup> April – 4th<\/sup> November, 1951) and \u2018Model\u2019<\/em> (23rd<\/sup> January – 27th<\/sup> March, 1952) are perfect examples of the range of his abilities. The first is an epic of minor crimes and perpetrators escalating into major menaces whilst the latter is another short shocker with the conservative Gould showing social ills could still move him to action in a tale of juvenile delinquency as Junior grows into a teenager and experiences his first love affair…<\/p>\n

As with many established cartoonists in it for the long haul, the revolutionary 1960s were a harsh time. Along with Milton Caniff\u2019s Steve Canyon<\/strong>, Dick Tracy<\/strong> especially foundered in a cultural climate of radical change where popular slogans included \u201cNever trust anybody over 21\u201d and \u201cSmash the Establishment!\u201d. The strip\u2019s momentum faltered, perhaps as much from the shift towards science fiction themes (Tracy moved into space and an alien character – Moon Maid –<\/em> was introduced) as any old-fashioned attitudes.<\/p>\n

In the era when strip proportions had begun to diminish as papers put advertising space above feature clarity, his artwork had attained dizzying levels of creativity: mesmerising, nigh-abstract monochrome concoctions that grabbed the eye no matter what size editors printed it. \u2018Spots\u2019<\/em> (3rd<\/sup> August – 30th<\/sup> November) 1960 comes from just before the worst excesses, but still displays the artist\u2019s stark, chiaroscurist mastery in a terse thriller demonstrating the fundamental secret of Tracy\u2019s success and longevity… Hot Pursuit wedded to Grim Irony…<\/p>\n

The 1970s are represented by \u2018Big Boy\u2019s Open Contract\u2019<\/em> (12th<\/sup> June – 30th<\/sup> December 1978) by Collins & Rick Fletcher. Although officially retired since 1977, Gould still consulted with the new creative team, and the third outing for the new guys saw the long-awaited return of Big Boy<\/em>, the thinly disguised Capone analogue Tracy had sent to prison at the very start of his career, and whose last attempt at revenge tragically cost the dutiful hero a loved one whilst forever changing the strip. Despite a strong core readership the series had stalled, especially as improbable, Bond<\/strong>-style villains were utilised to beef up its perceived \u201cold-fashioned\u201d attitudes. Even the introduction of more minority and women characters and hippie cop Groovy Groove <\/em>couldn\u2019t stop the rot. However, the feature soldiered on regardless…<\/p>\n

When Gould retired, 29-year-old author Max Allen Collins (Road to Perdition<\/strong> Nathan Heller<\/strong>, Mike Mist, Ms. Tree<\/strong>) won the prestigious writer\u2019s role, promptly taking the series back to its crimebusting roots for a breathtaking run, assisted by Gould\u2019s insights as his chief artistic assistant Rick Fletcher was promoted to full illustrator. After 11 years, in 1992 Collins was removed and replaced by Mike Kilian – who apparently worked for half the author\u2019s price – until his death in October 2005, whereafter Dick Locher took over story and art, with assistant Jim Brozman assuming drawing duties from March 2009.<\/p>\n

On January 19th<\/sup> 2011, Tribune Media Services announced Locher\u2019s retirement and replacement by a new team – Mike Curtis and Joe Staton. You already know where to find them…<\/p>\n

Representing the 1980s, the final tale here is \u2018The Man of a Million Faces\u2019 <\/em>(October 5th<\/sup> 1987 – April 10th<\/sup> 1988) by Collins & Locher. Like Fletcher, this illustrator was an art assistant to Gould who took up the master\u2019s mantle. Despite the simply unimaginable variety of crimes and criminals Tracy has brought to book, this sneaky story of a bank robber and his perfect gimmick proves that sometimes a back to basics approach produces the best results.<\/p>\n

Dick Tracy<\/strong> is a milestone strip that has influenced all popular fiction, not simply comics. Baroque villains, outrageous crimes and fiendish death-traps pollinated the work of numerous strips and comics such as Batman<\/strong>, but his studied use – and startlingly accurate predictions – of crimefighting technology and techniques gave the world a taste of cop thrillers, police procedurals and forensic mysteries decades before TV made those disciplines everyday coinage.<\/p>\n

This is fantastically readable, and this chronological primer is a wonderful way to sneak into his stark, no-nonsense, Tough-love, Hard Justice world.
\n\u00a9 1990 Tribune Media Services, Inc. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Chester Gould, selected by Max Allan Collins & Dick Locher (St. Martins\/Penguin) ISBN: 978-0-31204-461-9 (HB) 978-0-14014-568-7 (PB) This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times. Lost in all the landmarks and events of the moment, I\u2019d intended to commemorate and memorialise the anniversary of a true comics giant yesterday, but missed my … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “The Dick Tracy Casebook – Favourite Adventures 1931-1990”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[80,90,75,225,127,107,156],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adaptations","category-cartooning-classics","category-crime-comics","category-mystery","category-nostalgia","category-science-fiction","category-world-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4AFj-8xS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32852"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32856,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32852\/revisions\/32856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}