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The Complete Dick Tracy #2
The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 2: 1933-1935
Presenting a deluxe hardcover collection of Chester Gould's timeless comic strip, Dick Tracy. The second volume of this multi-year project includes nearly 500 comic strips from May 1933 to January 1935. This special second volume also features an exclusive essay from Consulting Editor and longtime Tracy writer Max Allan Collins. Each volume will feature book design from award-winning designer/artist Ashley Wood. -The Library of American Comics is the world's #1 publisher of classic newspaper comic strips, with 14 Eisner Award nominations and three wins for best book. LOAC has become "the gold standard for archival comic strip reprints... The research and articles provide insight and context, and most importantly the glorious reproduction of the material has preserved these strips for those who knew them and offers a new gateway to adventure for those discovering them for the first time." - Scoop
352 pages, Hardcover
First published May 8, 2007
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About the author
Chester Gould
335 books23 followersChester Gould was a U.S. cartoonist and the creator of the Dick Tracy comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977. Gould was known for his use of colorful, often monstrous, villains.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 4, 2013
This volume starts off much as the last one left off. Having given Steve the Tramp and Stooge Viller separate encounters with Dick Tracy, Gould now teams them up in a jailbreak. The storyline would occupy the entire summer of 1933 before returning to themes of civic corruption and a revival of Big Boy. Gould's first parodies of celebrities make an appearance: Jean Penfield and Jimmy White are modeled off of Claudette Colbert and Jimmy Cagney respectively.
Gould is dipping into the same well frequently here, but by this time he's aware of who his strongest characters are. Steve would return yet again in the summer, as would Larceny Lu. But for the most part
Junior is often at the center of the plot in these stories, possibly to keep younger readers connected? On another note it's interesting just what Gould could get away with; Junior is tortured, beaten, or burned no less than four times in this volume.
But it's towards the end of 1934 that the strip begins moving in a new direction. After a brief story involving the strip's first true psychotic, Doc Hump, the Boris Arson plotline begins. Arson is both a clear imitation of Dillinger and a vague hint of a foreign agent/spy. Arson is the clearest example yet of a villain inspired not by urban crime but of the 30's country desperadoes who filled headlines. Arson's story will carry well over into Volume 3.
Gould is dipping into the same well frequently here, but by this time he's aware of who his strongest characters are. Steve would return yet again in the summer, as would Larceny Lu. But for the most part
Junior is often at the center of the plot in these stories, possibly to keep younger readers connected? On another note it's interesting just what Gould could get away with; Junior is tortured, beaten, or burned no less than four times in this volume.
But it's towards the end of 1934 that the strip begins moving in a new direction. After a brief story involving the strip's first true psychotic, Doc Hump, the Boris Arson plotline begins. Arson is both a clear imitation of Dillinger and a vague hint of a foreign agent/spy. Arson is the clearest example yet of a villain inspired not by urban crime but of the 30's country desperadoes who filled headlines. Arson's story will carry well over into Volume 3.
December 30, 2017
The second volume of only the greatest comic strip ever, in which we find out (among other thrilling tales): the background of Junior's parents (will he EVER meet his Mom??), the final fate of Steve the Tramp, and Tess Trueheart goes to jail...for murder!!
February 13, 2020
Volume 2 of The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy covers the period from May 1933 to January 1935. As Volume 2 begins, Stooge Viller and Steve the Tramp are both in jail. But not for long, as they make a daring escape and go on the lam. Stooge and Steve are both bent on getting revenge on Dick Tracy and his adopted son, Junior.
There were no sacred cows in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, and Junior’s father, the blind prospector Hank Steele, is one of the many innocents who meet their end at the hands of ruthless criminals. Stooge Viller shoots Hank when he has a chance encounter with Junior and Hank in Canada. It was probably inevitable that something was going to happen to Hank, so Junior would be able to live with Dick Tracy again. By September of 1933, Steve and Stooge are once again back in jail. And not a moment too soon, because their storyline went on a little too long for me. By the end, it seemed like even Gould was losing interest in the storyline.
The next six months of the strip concerns racketeers and political corruption. Many villains are introduced, and it’s the most complicated storyline Gould had yet attempted. There are some strong moments throughout the story arc. The strip gets an infusion of energy in January of 1934, with the introduction of the character of Jean Penfield, an aspiring author. Penfield’s subject is gangsters, and the political corruption in Tracy’s city. Jean is a young brunette with large eyes, and she becomes a romantic rival for Tess Trueheart, Tracy’s on-again, off-again fiancée. Tracy is even seen kissing Jean, which she takes to mean that they’re engaged. When Jean plants a story about their engagement in the newspapers, Tracy is outraged. So is Tess Trueheart, and when the women encounter each other on the street, they get into a hair-pulling fight.
Corrupt lawyer Spaldoni hears about Tess and Jean’s fight, and he writes letters to each of them, purporting to be from the other woman. He hopes to escalate their hatred, and as Tess and Jean fight again, Spaldoni shoots Jean with a gun he has planted Tess’ fingerprints on. Tess is arrested for Jean’s murder. But Tracy knows there’s more to the story, and Spaldoni makes a deathbed confession after being wounded by Tracy. And then, just as this excellent, months-long storyline wraps up with Spaldoni’s death and Tess’ exoneration, the strip goes seriously off the rails.
Spaldoni’s mother appears at his deathbed. It turns out that she’s British, and her last name is Bumpsted, which Spaldoni changed when he entered his life of crime. She also has another son, one who has become a famous European detective. Okay, that’s cheesy enough right there. But wait until you hear the name of her other son: J. Scotland Bumpsted. Even the other characters in the strip think he’s ridiculous. J. Scotland Bumpsted wears a monocle, calls his mother “mumsy,” and is a parody of a British detective. Then Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail again, and he teams up with Larceny Lu, a female villain who was first introduced in 1932. It feels as though Gould had used up all his creative energy on the racketeers storyline, and when that wrapped up, he had no idea what to do.
When Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail for the second time in 1934, I was just done with him. He was a great villain when he was introduced in 1932, but to use him in a third storyline was just too much. When Steve is on the lam in 1934, he’s seriously wounded, which results in his left leg being amputated—an early example of Gould’s obsession with amputees. After Steve goes back to jail, he doesn’t reappear in the strip until 1941, when he has reformed and is released from prison.
Larceny Lu isn’t a very exciting villain, but she does introduce us to Mary Steele, Junior’s mother. Mary was married to Junior’s father, Hank Steele, but she left him for Steve the Tramp, who was cruel and abusive to her. Steve then left Mary and took Junior with him. Larceny Lu plays off Mary’s maternal feelings and attempts to blackmail her into claiming half of Junior’s inheritance from Hank Steele. Mary meets Dick Tracy and Junior, and while Tracy learns her real identity, she asks that he not tell Junior that she is his mother. As Volume 2 ends, Junior still doesn’t know who Mary Steele is, but he’ll figure it out in Volume 3.
The last villain in Volume 2 is Boris Arson. Despite his name, he doesn’t go around setting fires. He’s the leader of a group that was planning on blowing up six major banks in the U.S. at the same time. Arson’s political goals are never clearly stated, but he seems like an anarchist type. Tracy works for the federal government during the Arson case, and sidekick Pat Patton gets to show off his skills as he apprehends one of Arson’s gang and recovers the stolen nitroglycerine that was going to be used to blow up the banks. At the end of Volume 2, Arson is about to be apprehended again, but, spoiler alert, it won’t last for long.
Volume 2 of Dick Tracy has its ups and downs, but at its best it demonstrates Chester Gould’s trademark mix of scientific police work and tense action sequences.
There were no sacred cows in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, and Junior’s father, the blind prospector Hank Steele, is one of the many innocents who meet their end at the hands of ruthless criminals. Stooge Viller shoots Hank when he has a chance encounter with Junior and Hank in Canada. It was probably inevitable that something was going to happen to Hank, so Junior would be able to live with Dick Tracy again. By September of 1933, Steve and Stooge are once again back in jail. And not a moment too soon, because their storyline went on a little too long for me. By the end, it seemed like even Gould was losing interest in the storyline.
The next six months of the strip concerns racketeers and political corruption. Many villains are introduced, and it’s the most complicated storyline Gould had yet attempted. There are some strong moments throughout the story arc. The strip gets an infusion of energy in January of 1934, with the introduction of the character of Jean Penfield, an aspiring author. Penfield’s subject is gangsters, and the political corruption in Tracy’s city. Jean is a young brunette with large eyes, and she becomes a romantic rival for Tess Trueheart, Tracy’s on-again, off-again fiancée. Tracy is even seen kissing Jean, which she takes to mean that they’re engaged. When Jean plants a story about their engagement in the newspapers, Tracy is outraged. So is Tess Trueheart, and when the women encounter each other on the street, they get into a hair-pulling fight.
Corrupt lawyer Spaldoni hears about Tess and Jean’s fight, and he writes letters to each of them, purporting to be from the other woman. He hopes to escalate their hatred, and as Tess and Jean fight again, Spaldoni shoots Jean with a gun he has planted Tess’ fingerprints on. Tess is arrested for Jean’s murder. But Tracy knows there’s more to the story, and Spaldoni makes a deathbed confession after being wounded by Tracy. And then, just as this excellent, months-long storyline wraps up with Spaldoni’s death and Tess’ exoneration, the strip goes seriously off the rails.
Spaldoni’s mother appears at his deathbed. It turns out that she’s British, and her last name is Bumpsted, which Spaldoni changed when he entered his life of crime. She also has another son, one who has become a famous European detective. Okay, that’s cheesy enough right there. But wait until you hear the name of her other son: J. Scotland Bumpsted. Even the other characters in the strip think he’s ridiculous. J. Scotland Bumpsted wears a monocle, calls his mother “mumsy,” and is a parody of a British detective. Then Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail again, and he teams up with Larceny Lu, a female villain who was first introduced in 1932. It feels as though Gould had used up all his creative energy on the racketeers storyline, and when that wrapped up, he had no idea what to do.
When Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail for the second time in 1934, I was just done with him. He was a great villain when he was introduced in 1932, but to use him in a third storyline was just too much. When Steve is on the lam in 1934, he’s seriously wounded, which results in his left leg being amputated—an early example of Gould’s obsession with amputees. After Steve goes back to jail, he doesn’t reappear in the strip until 1941, when he has reformed and is released from prison.
Larceny Lu isn’t a very exciting villain, but she does introduce us to Mary Steele, Junior’s mother. Mary was married to Junior’s father, Hank Steele, but she left him for Steve the Tramp, who was cruel and abusive to her. Steve then left Mary and took Junior with him. Larceny Lu plays off Mary’s maternal feelings and attempts to blackmail her into claiming half of Junior’s inheritance from Hank Steele. Mary meets Dick Tracy and Junior, and while Tracy learns her real identity, she asks that he not tell Junior that she is his mother. As Volume 2 ends, Junior still doesn’t know who Mary Steele is, but he’ll figure it out in Volume 3.
The last villain in Volume 2 is Boris Arson. Despite his name, he doesn’t go around setting fires. He’s the leader of a group that was planning on blowing up six major banks in the U.S. at the same time. Arson’s political goals are never clearly stated, but he seems like an anarchist type. Tracy works for the federal government during the Arson case, and sidekick Pat Patton gets to show off his skills as he apprehends one of Arson’s gang and recovers the stolen nitroglycerine that was going to be used to blow up the banks. At the end of Volume 2, Arson is about to be apprehended again, but, spoiler alert, it won’t last for long.
Volume 2 of Dick Tracy has its ups and downs, but at its best it demonstrates Chester Gould’s trademark mix of scientific police work and tense action sequences.
May 29, 2014
In volume two, Dick Tracy continues his eternal quest to catch the bad guys. It's very entertaining, and suprisingly brutal at times. The soap opera subplots continue, and there's all sorts of death-traps, double-crosses, and coincidences. But really, that's the fun! Gould keeps things moving at a ridiculously fast clip, and his storytelling is much smoother and more assured than in Volume One.
Well worth reading!
Well worth reading!
August 5, 2007
This is the early Dick Tracy, before Gould started with the grosteque villains with a gimmick. Still this early work is full of gripping, grim tales of devotion, death and crime that never pays. Junior and Tess comport themselves well and Dick remains as solid as ever.
November 23, 2024
A lot more Steve the Tramp heavy than anything has a right to be.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews