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Dick Tracy is a comic strip detective and a popular character in American pop culture. The character of Dick Tracy is a hard hitting, fast shooting, and supremely intelligent police detective who has matched wits with a variety of often grotesquely ugly villains. Dick Tracy was created by cartoonist Chester Gould in 1931 for a newspaper comic strip also entitled Dick Tracy. The strip, which made its debut appearance on October 4th, 1931, was distributed by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977.

The comic strip

Early years

Chester Gould introduced a raw violence to comic strips, reflecting the violence of 1930s Chicago. Gould also did his best to keep up with the latest in crime fighting techniques and, while Tracy often ends a case in a shootout, he uses forensic science, advanced gadgetry, and plain hard thinking to track the bad guy down. It has been suggested that this comic strip was the first example of the police procedural mystery story. Others have noted that actual mystery plots were relatively rare in the stories since the comic strip format is a difficult one for that kind of plot. The real focus, they argue, is the chase with the criminal seen committing the crime and Dick Tracy figuring out the case and relentlessly pursuing the criminal who becomes increasingly desperate as the detective closes in.

The strip's villains are arguably the strongest appeal of the story. Tracy's world is decidedly black and white where the bad guys are sometimes so evil, their very flesh is deformed to announce their sins to the world. The evil sometimes is raw and coarse like the criminally insane Selbert Depool ("looped" spelled backwards, typical Gould). At other times it is suave like the arrogant Shoulders, who can't help thinking that all women like him. It can even border on genius like the Nazi spy Pruneface who is not only a machine design engineer but also dabbles with a chemical nerve gas.

However, by far the most popular villain was Flattop Jones, a freelance hitman who had a large head that was as flat as an aircraft carrier's flight deck. In a classic storyline, Flattop was hired by black marketeers to murder Tracy and he came within a hairsbreath of accomplishing that before deciding to blackmail his employers for more money before he did the deed. This proved to be a fatal mistake since it gave Tracy time to signal for help and he eventually defeated his assassin in a spectacular fight scene even as the police were storming the hideout. When Flattop was eventually killed, fans went into public mourning.

Reflecting some of the era that also produced film noir, Gould tapped into the existential despair of the criminals as small crimes lead to bigger ones and plans slip out of control and events happen sometimes for no reason at all because life can be unpredictable and cruel. Treachery is everywhere as henchmen are killed ruthlessly by their bosses, bosses are betrayed by jilted girlfriends and good people in the wrong place at the wrong time are gunned down.

Evolution of the strip

Gould changed Tracy with the times, sometimes with mixed results as with the introduction of science fiction elements such as the two-way wrist radio which proved to be the first of a variety of personal wrist communicators and other futuristic gadgets provided by the eccentric industrialist, Diet Smith. This eventually led to what Gould thought was the logical conclusion in the 1960s of the Space Coupe, a spacecraft with a magnetic propulsion system. This started a much-derided series of stories, known informally as the strip's "Moon Period," that saw Tracy and friends having adventures on the Moon and meeting Moon Maid, the daughter of the leader of a race of humanoid people living in what was called "Moon Valley,in 1964. This in turn led to an eventual sharing of technologies, with Moon technology becoming standard issue on Tracy's police force. This meant, logically, the villains had to be even more exaggerated in power, resulting in an escalating series of stories that completely abandoned the urban crime drama roots of the strip. Finally, the escalating scope and scale of the stories led to the advent of the character known as "Mr. Intro," only ever seen as a disembodied voice, whose goal was nothing short of world domination in the vein of a James Bond villain; Tracy eventually had to resort to an atomically-powered laser beam to annihilate Intro and his island base. Many readers felt that this effectively spelled the end of storytelling in Dick Tracy, as if Tracy had this kind of power at his disposal, it was left to be wondered exactly how any Earthbound foe could ever believably challenge him again.

Despite the fact many believed Gould to have written himself into an inescapable corner with the Moon stories, he kept on with them. By 1968, after an on-again-off-again romance, Junior actually married Moon Maid, and the couple eventually produced a daughter, Honey Moon Tracy, who had antennae and magnetic hands. Not long thereafter, Tracy was offered the post of Chief of Police in Moon Valley, meaning the strip was likely to soon abandon Earth entirely if Gould had continued unabated.

And then, reality intervened. The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 put an end to the Moon Period, as Gould felt obligated to bring his ostensibly reality-based strip back down to Earth when the Moon was found to be barren of all life. However, the accountrements of the abandoned Moon stories, such as the Space Coupe and much of the high-tech gadgetry, remained for many years afterward (and Junior and Moon Maid were still married, although the latter greatly receded from the storyline).

In the 1970s, Gould even less successfully tried to modernize Tracy by giving him a longer hair style and mustache, adding a supposedly "hip" sidekick, Groovy Grove.

Later, during one of Max Allan Collins' first stories as the strip's writer, the gangster known as "Big Boy," whose gang members had killed Tess Trueheart's father years ago (making him, effectively, the first Dick Tracy villain of all) learns that he is dying and has less that a year to live. Big Boy, still seeking revenge on the plainclothesman who sent him up the river, decides he wants to live just long enough to see Tracy precede him in death. To this end, he puts out an open contract on Tracy's head worth one million dollars, knowing that every small-time hood in the City would take a crack at the famous cop for that amount of money. One of the would-be collectors rigs Tracy's car to explode, but inadvertently blows up Moon Maid instead (she had to use Tracy's car to run an errand). A funeral strip for Moon Maid explicitly states that this has officially severed all ties between Earth and the Moon, thus formally and permanently eliminating the last remnants of the Moon Period. (The lone exception was Honey Moon, who recieved a new hairstyle to cover up the antennae that betrayed her extraterrestrial origins, and was never again referred to as being anything more than a normal human girl; eventually she was phased out altogether.) Junior later marries Sparkle Plenty (Daughter of B. O. and Gravel Plenty) and has a daughter named Sparkle Plenty Jr. In the 1990's Tracy's own son Joseph Flintheart Tracy take on a role similar to Junior in the earlier strips.

More successful was the decades-long substory of the Plenty family, a group of goofy redneck yokels headed by former villains, Bob Oscar "B.O." Plenty and Gravel Gertie. The family provided a humorous counterpoint to Tracy's adventures. Their daughter, Sparkle Plenty, first gave the strip an infant character, and later a pretty young adolescent girl character; unlike most comic strip children, including Dick Tracy's own Junior for many years, she was allowed to grow up (albeit slowly) and eventually marry. Another successful addition was that of Lizz the Policewoman (she was never given a full name) as one of Tracy's sidekicks. She proved be to an active and formidable female character in a manner that was groundbreaking for comic strips of that era.

However, the later stories were often shackled with a stubborn grousing condemnation of the rights of the accused which often involved Tracy being frustrated by criminals because of legal technicalities and proselytizing about it. A not at all atypical sequence from this period saw Tracy, having caught a gang of diamond thieves red-handed, forced to let them walk because he could not prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the diamonds were in fact stolen. As he saw the thieves get off scot-free, Tracy was heard to grumble, "Yes, under today's interperetation of the laws, it seems it's the police who are handcuffed!"

Gould's plots had also started to meander beginning in the late 1960's, often going off on odd tangents (that had nothing to do with the main story being told, Gould including them mainly because he thought they were amusing) and featuring characters whose motivations and goals seemed to change from strip to strip. Since Gould usually did not plot Dick Tracy stories in advance, feeling that if he himself could be surprised at the twists and turns of a given plot then the reader would be as well, this was most likely unintentional on his part. Further working against him was the sharp reduction in size and space of newspaper comics that occurred around this period; for example, the Dick Tracy Sunday strip, which had traditionally been a full-page episode containing twelve panels, was drastically cut in size to a half-page format that offered, at most, eight panels. Gould never really adapted to these new restrictions, and Tracy plotlines, heretofore usually lasting months, could be told in weeks or even days as he struggled to tell meaningful stories within the limits imposed on him. All of this combined to make comics stories that, while still somewhat entertaining when read in daily installments, do not read nearly as well when brought together as a collection.

Beginning in the early 1950s, the Sunday strip included a frame devoted to a page from the "Crimestoppers' Textbook", a series of handy illustrated hints for the amateur crimefighter. This was named after a short-lived youth group seen in the strip during the late 1940s, led by Junior Tracy, called "Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers." This feature continued until Gould retired from the strip in 1977, though Max Allan Collins would later reinstate it (and it continues to this day). After Gould's retirement, Collins initially replaced the Textbook with "Dick Tracy's Rogues Gallery," a salute to memorable Tracy villains of the past.

Later years

Gould retired from the strip in 1977 and Dick Tracy was taken over by Max Allan Collins and longtime Gould assistant Rick Fletcher. Collins reversed some of Gould's science-fiction changes by having the character Moon Maid killed off in 1978, as well as doing away with other Gould creations of the 1960s and 1970s, and generally taking a less cynical and simplistic view of the justice system. Rick Fletcher died in 1983 and was succeeded by Dick Locher, who had assisted Gould on the strip in the late 1950s, early 1960s. In 1992, Tribune writer and columnist Mike Kilian took over the writing; Kilian died on October 27 2005. Since January 9th, 2006 Dick Locher has been receiving sole credit on the strip, meaning he is now drawing and authoring the storyline.

Awards and recognition

Chester Gould won the Reuben Award for the strip in 1959 and 1977. In 1995, the strip was one of twenty included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps.

Other media depictions

Radio

Dick Tracy had a long run on radio, from 1934 weekdays on NBC's New England stations to the ABC network in 1948. Bob Burlen was the first radio Tracy in 1934, and others heard in the role during the 1930s and 1940s were Barry Thompson, Ned Wever and Matt Crowley. The early shows all had 15-minute episodes.

On CBS, with Sterling Products as sponsor, the serial aired four times a week from February 4, 1935 to July 11, 1935, moving to Mutual from September 30, 1935 to March 24, 1937 with Bill McClintock doing the sound effects. NBC's weekday afternoon run from January 3, 1938 to April 28, 1939 had sound effects by Keene Crockett and was sponsored by Quaker Oats, which brought Dick Tracy into primetime (Saturdays at 7pm and, briefly, Mondays at 8pm) with 30-minute episodes from April 29, 1939 to September 30, 1939. The series returned to 15-minute episodes on the ABC Blue Network from March 15, 1943 to July 16, 1948, sponsored by Tootsie Rolls, which used the music theme of "Toot Toot, Tootsie" for its 30-minute Saturday ABC series from October 6, 1945 to June 1, 1946. Sound effects on ABC were supplied by Walt McDonough and Al Finelli.

Directors of the series included Mitchell Grayson, Charles Powers and Bob White. Cast members at various times included Walter Kinsella as Pat Patton, Helen Lewis as Tess Trueheart and Andy Donnelly and Jackie Kelk as Junior Tracy. Announcers were Ed Herlihy and Dan Seymour.

Early films

The popularity and success of the Dick Tracy’s comic strip also spread to movie serials. Ralph Byrd first played Dick Tracy in a movie of the same name in 1937. Byrd’s career continued through a series of B-grade Tracy movies. The best known of the films is Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome, with the title's villain played by Boris Karloff.

Television

The strip also had limited exposure on television with a short-lived live action series and two animated ones. In the first cartoon, Mel Blanc voiced several characters including a junior detectives named Go-Go Gomez which was essentially a human version of his famous fast mouse Speedy Gonzales and Jo Jitsu a specialist in combat and very intelligent; although a parody of Charlie Chan many elements of Chinese and Japanese Culture were mixed into the character. Tracy would simply sit back and let Gomez and his other subordinate flatfoots mop up crooks like Pruneface, Itchy, Mumbles, Flattop, Cheater Gunsmoke, B.B. Eyes, and Tracy's other idiosyncratic villains. The show has not been seen in years because of its slightly racist undertones and use of ethnic stereotypes and accents, but recently resurfaced on pay-view digital cable channels. The second exposure to television was a feature in Archie's TV Funnies, produced by Filmation, which adhered more closely to the comic strip. There was also an unsuccessful television pilot from the producers of the live action Batman television series.

1990 film and video games

In 1990, Warren Beatty revived some interest in the character with his film Dick Tracy. Beatty directed the movie and starred as Tracy. In the film, Beatty was after a surreal comic strip-inspired world with only primary colors, restyled automobiles, and extensive makeup treatments for Tracy's famed villains. However, some people complained that the weak storyline was slightly overwhelmed by the casting which included stars such as Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino,Charlie Korsmo, Dustin Hoffman, Dick van Dyke, and R.G Armstrong as well as many other notable cameos. Madonna's soundtrack album Music from and Inspired by Dick Tracy spawned two top-ten hits including "Vogue" and "Hanky Panky". Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim wrote several songs for the film, including "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)" which won the Academy Award for Best Song. There were also several other unreleased Madonna songs that were recorded for the film but not used at all, and several in the film whose versions were changed for the album. The track "Back in Business" in the movie is not at all related to "Back in Business" on the album, for example.

Disney had designed a ride for their Disney MGM Studios theme park in Orlando, Fl. called Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers, which would have introduced the interactive dark ride technology used in Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Alien Attack!. The ride was killed by several factors: one being the financial disappointment of the movie's run in theaters and the second being that Eisner was not keen to the idea of tourists "shooting up" bad guys.

In August 1990, Bandai America, Inc. made Dick Tracy into an NES game loosley based on Beatty's film. It was also released in 1991 on the Game Boy. Sega also made a Dick Tracy video game for the Sega Genesis and Master System in 1991 as a side-scrolling arcade action adventure game.

Recent events

Media outlets recently reported that there is a legal battle being waged over just who owns the rights to the Dick Tracy character. Warren Beatty has announced plans to make a sequel to his 1990 movie. At the same time, television producers have announced plans for a new Dick Tracy TV series. Both sides claim that they are the legal owners of the rights to Dick Tracy. A lawsuit is pending.

Although the comic strip's public profile has diminished since the 1990 Beatty film, it is still run in several newspapers. Apart from that, it is a common allusion in North America for unusual-looking criminals often to be described as resembling the strip's grotesque villains, while the lead character's wrist communicator is a typical example used when the possibility of an actual communication device being developed along the lines of something from science fiction is raised.

Filmography

  • Dick Tracy (1937, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
  • Dick Tracy (1937, feature version of the above serial, starring Ralph Byrd)
  • Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
  • Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.(1941, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
  • Dick Tracy (1945, film starring Morgan Conway)
  • Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946, film starring Morgan Conway)
  • Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947, film starring Ralph Byrd)
  • Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947, film starring Ralph Byrd)
  • The Dick Tracy Show (1961, animated television series with voices including Everett Sloane and Mel Blanc)
  • Dick Tracy (1967, television pilot starring Ray McDonnell)
  • Archie's T.V. Funnies, Dick Tracy episode, 1971
  • Dick Tracy (1990, film starring Warren Beatty)

At no charge, most of the old serials and films with Ralph Byrd are legally available to download here.

Trivia

Listen to

See also

External links

Dick Tracy | Dick Tracy characters | Fictional detectives | Comic strips | Film serials

Dick Tracy | Dick Tracy | Dick Tracy | Dick Tracy | Dick Tracy

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Dick Tracy".

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