What do you think?
Rate this book
Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 29
This last volume in the series completes the iconic comic series by Chester Gould. The adventures of this iconic square-jawed detective fighting a menagerie of grotesque villains remains one of the highlights in the history of not just comics but crime fiction in general.
After 46 years-two months-and-twentyone-days writing and drawing Dick Tracy Chester Gould retired at the age of 77. In these historic final strips, Gould pits his dynamic detective against the latest in a long line of grotesque villains--Pucker Puss, the hitman who literally spits death at his opponents. Tracy, meanwhile, takes his law and order campaign to television, while his past catches up to him when a criminal he helped convict twenty years ago puts the detective on his "to kill" list. To round out this volume, the squadroom is kept busy with two members of B.O. Plenty's extended family who are anything but law-abiding--Perfume Plenty and her larcenous cousin Dade. All this and more in the ultimate volume of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy , collecting strips from March 15, 1976 to December 25, 1977.
The series is ripe to introduce to crime prose readers who haven't previously ventured into comics.
After 46 years-two months-and-twentyone-days writing and drawing Dick Tracy Chester Gould retired at the age of 77. In these historic final strips, Gould pits his dynamic detective against the latest in a long line of grotesque villains--Pucker Puss, the hitman who literally spits death at his opponents. Tracy, meanwhile, takes his law and order campaign to television, while his past catches up to him when a criminal he helped convict twenty years ago puts the detective on his "to kill" list. To round out this volume, the squadroom is kept busy with two members of B.O. Plenty's extended family who are anything but law-abiding--Perfume Plenty and her larcenous cousin Dade. All this and more in the ultimate volume of Chester Gould's Dick Tracy , collecting strips from March 15, 1976 to December 25, 1977.
The series is ripe to introduce to crime prose readers who haven't previously ventured into comics.
- GenresComics
288 pages, Hardcover
Published February 16, 2021
6 people want to read
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 4, 2022
And, with this volume, Chester Gould's tenure on Dick Tracy comes to an end. Twenty-nine volumes, encompassing forty-seven years' worth of continuity.
I discovered Tracy at a young age, and it was long my dream to be able to read the strip from beginning to end. I never thought that it would actually become possible.
And, technically, it still isn't, since the strip continued long after Chester Gould retired. As of this writing, no further volumes have been published. Supposedly the publisher is or was in negotiation with the Tribune syndicate about the rights to reprint the Max Allan Collins era of the strip. I'm hoping that the fact that no new volumes have appeared in over a year is due to Covid's impact on business rather than a failure of negotiations.
As to the contents of this volume, well, Gould's art is as idiosyncratic and dynamic as ever. His writing is … passable. The strip peaked in the 40's and 50's. And, while there's a faint whiff of the great villains of the past in Pucker Puss, the stories are largely forgettable. If you're new to this series, please don't take this volume as an indication of what the rest are like. And, if volume 30 ever appears, rest assured that it will be better.
As a series, Dick Tracy is highly recommended! As a single volume, this book is best left for determined fans only.
I discovered Tracy at a young age, and it was long my dream to be able to read the strip from beginning to end. I never thought that it would actually become possible.
And, technically, it still isn't, since the strip continued long after Chester Gould retired. As of this writing, no further volumes have been published. Supposedly the publisher is or was in negotiation with the Tribune syndicate about the rights to reprint the Max Allan Collins era of the strip. I'm hoping that the fact that no new volumes have appeared in over a year is due to Covid's impact on business rather than a failure of negotiations.
As to the contents of this volume, well, Gould's art is as idiosyncratic and dynamic as ever. His writing is … passable. The strip peaked in the 40's and 50's. And, while there's a faint whiff of the great villains of the past in Pucker Puss, the stories are largely forgettable. If you're new to this series, please don't take this volume as an indication of what the rest are like. And, if volume 30 ever appears, rest assured that it will be better.
As a series, Dick Tracy is highly recommended! As a single volume, this book is best left for determined fans only.
March 12, 2021
The Library of American Comics, through IDW Publishing, embarked on their project of reprinting all 46 years of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy in 2006. The project finally wrapped up with the 29th volume in the series, released on February 16, 2021. Volume 29 covers the period from March 15, 1976 to December 25, 1977, when Chester Gould’s last Dick Tracy strip appeared. Gould had written and illustrated Dick Tracy for more than 46 years, from October of 1931 to December of 1977.
1976 isn’t the peak year of Dick Tracy, but really, what comic strip peaks in its 45th year? No one says, “Oh, you like Peanuts? Well, the best place to start is definitely in 1995. That was when Charles Schulz was really hitting his peak.” Volume 29 features Gould’s trademarks of bizarre villains and scientific police work combined with his latter-day enthusiasms for science fiction and contempt for anyone or anything standing in the way of law and order.
By the time of Volume 29, newspaper space for comics had shrunk. Gould’s audience had also shrunk. From 1960 to 1974, the number of newspapers carrying Dick Tracy went from 550 to 375. (Dick Tracy: The Official Biography, by Jay Maeder, p.199) Due to the shrinking size of the comics, by 1976 there was simply less story Gould could get through in a day. The pacing throughout Volume 29 is sometimes just odd, as Gould repeats himself, or the narration tells us about off-stage action that would have been a dramatic scene. These narrative lapses are more evident reading the strips in a book collection, which was obviously not how the strip was meant to be consumed and read.
In Volume 29, Gould seems less interested in the kind of “classic” pursuit stories that were a hallmark of Dick Tracy. Gould was a master of the claustrophobic chase, where the net slowly closes in on the criminal, who becomes increasingly desperate as their options become more and more limited. Many times in the strip, the villains become literally stuck as well, as when Shaky took refuge under a boardwalk, but then found himself trapped as he was frozen in by an ice storm. I don’t know if Chester Gould was claustrophobic, but if he wasn’t, he sure knew what would strike terror in the hearts of many readers, myself included.
Gould’s humor was always something of an acquired taste. There was terrific black humor and sharp irony throughout Dick Tracy, especially evident in Gould’s character designs. But Gould’s attempts in the strip at actual jokes were usually puns and old-fashioned groaners. For years before he came up with the idea for Dick Tracy, Gould wrote humor strips like The Radio Catts and The Girl Friends. There are plenty of jokes in Volume 29, but don’t worry if you can’t tell if someone’s telling a joke or not—the other characters will hugely oversell their reactions, telegraphing to everyone for miles around “This is a joke! This is where you laugh!”
Gould’s least successful attempt at humor in Volume 29 is the singing group the Gallstones. Comprised of two brothers and a sister, the Gallstones specialize in golden oldies like “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” written in 1873. Throughout the summer of 1976, Chester Gould was obsessed with the Gallstones’ album, titled I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl. Gould draws the album cover repeatedly during the Gallstones’ story, as though without the album cover we would forget who they were. Granted, the storyline is about record bootlegging, but still, from June 23, 1976 to September 13, 1976 Gould drew their album cover 39 times on 34 different days during those 3 months! Clearly, Gould was highly amused by the Gallstones, but the general reader will probably be less entertained. The notion that their records are popular enough to be bootlegged seems pretty ridiculous.
As always throughout the 46 years that Chester Gould drew Dick Tracy, the artwork in Volume 29 is stunning. By the 1970’s, Gould’s style was heavily reliant on thick black lines, and it was visually simpler than the look of the “classic” Dick Tracy strips from the 1940’s and 1950’s. There are still striking visual tableaus throughout the final year and a half of Gould’s drawing, especially in his masterful and expressionistic handling of shadows.
I’ll recap the stories in Volume 29, and rank each story on a scale of 1-5. (5 being the best.)
Pucker Puss: Introduced in Volume 28, the aptly named Pucker Puss shoots people through a customized set of dentures, using his mouth as a gun. Ewww. Also, probably not actually physically possible, but hey, it’s a comic strip. Pucker Puss has an interesting character design, but he’s not a very interesting character himself.
Lizz the policewoman does the majority of the work in the Pucker Puss storyline. If you’re a fan of Lizz, you’ll most likely appreciate the fact that she wears a bikini for most of this story. There’s even one panel where we see Lizz from behind wearing a thong bikini. Introduced to the strip in 1955, Lizz quickly established herself as a strong woman who could kick butt and look beautiful while doing so. As the fashions of the 1960’s changed and miniskirts became popular, Gould never wasted an opportunity to show off Lizz’s figure. Reading these strips now, it’s clear that Lizz is Dick Tracy’s “work spouse,” and although their relationship is always strictly professional, Lizz gives Tracy a kiss on the cheek after she shaves his mustache off. 3 stars.
The Gallstones: As mentioned above, this is a dull storyline, plus the Gallstones are just not as funny as Gould obviously thinks they are. It turns out their manager, Bolo, runs a bootleg record processing plant on the side. 1 star.
Perfume Plenty/perfume thieves: Yet another relative of B.O. Plenty and his wife Gravel Gertie. (Although Perfume is Gertie’s cousin, so her last name shouldn’t be Plenty. Oh well.) Perfume is a beautiful young woman who has unfortunately met the wrong types of people. As in, the types of people who would send B.O. and Gertie on a vacation and then use their house to establish a bootleg perfume operation. Oddly, the two perfume thieves remain nameless throughout the story. Perfume is a successful character design, and she will play a large role in the final year of Gould’s strip. 2 stars.
Perfume Plenty/DaMill/Tanya: This is barely even a storyline, as we follow Perfume as she gets discovered by a TV commercial director, DaMill. (Cue laughter.) DaMill is shot and wounded by Tanya, a model who used to work for him, and resents Perfume taking her place. There’s no real villain as such, and this continuity feels like just filler. 2 stars.
Zero Nought/Leyden Aigg: An improvement over the last few stories, this is a slightly more conventional story. (Although in a world as bizarre as Dick Tracy, is there ever a truly conventional storyline?) Zero Nought is seeking revenge on everyone who sent him to prison 20 years ago, and of course one of those people is Dick Tracy. Nought isn’t a truly great villain, but he’s at least moderately interesting. A more humorous character design is Nought’s unwitting accomplice, the perfectly named Leyden Aigg, a bald, bespectacled amateur photographer whose head looks like, well, an egg. Leyden is quite funny—he’s of indeterminate age, but he still lives at home, and he’s clearly a Mama’s boy.
There are several lasts in this storyline, as we get the very last of Chester Gould’s backwards named characters—Nought’s accomplice Dale Elad. Zero Nought’s biggest claim to fame is that he’s the very last villain to be shot and killed by Dick Tracy during the Gould years. This storyline also sees the final appearance of the air car, the last hint of Dick Tracy’s “Moon Period” of the 1960’s.
Gould’s humor is on better display in this storyline. As things start tightening for Nought, he has the odd idea of going to the Aigg’s house and handcuffing himself to Leyden and his mother. I’m not sure what Nought’s end game plan is, but it leads to some oddly humorous moments as the three handcuffed characters eat meals together. (Note sure how they used the bathroom, though.) Leyden gets the idea to attempt an escape by buttering his wrist to slide it through the handcuff, which leads to one of Gould’s hilarious explanatory captions: “still buttering his wrist.” 3 stars.
Dade Plenty/the Governor: Gould’s last continuity of Dick Tracy begins with the introduction of Dade Plenty, who is yet another Plenty relative. Dade is nabbed by the police in a sting targeting subway purse thieves. It turns out Dade has studied dress designing, and Tracy arranges for Dade to have a drafting table and fabric available to him in his prison cell. (A nice gesture for a detective who loudly complains about the rights of the accused.)
The story is an interesting one, centering as it does on the subject of possible criminal rehabilitation. The Governor of the state becomes a major character in the story, as his wife picks one of Dade’s dress designs to wear to a ball. When a photo of the Governor’s wife kissing Dade on the cheek hits the newspapers, the Governor becomes enraged that the political fallout is hurting his chances at re-election and his campaign to focus on rehabilitation for criminals. On August 10th, we see the Governor making a speech, saying, “And I say to you, unless we rehabilitate these people, our penal system is DOOMED!” A few days later, on August 14th, the Governor is arguing with a Senator, asking “Is rehabilitation a dishonorable word to you Senator?”
These are interesting sentiments for Gould to examine, since he was clearly on the side of the police and of “law and order.” Gould’s attacks on any kind of criminal protection greatly increased during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Suffice it to say, you weren’t going to learn the Miranda warning from reading Dick Tracy. However, throughout the long history of the strip, Gould did occasionally portray criminals who had been successfully rehabilitated. One of the final images of his last story is Dade Plenty with tears in his eyes at the Governor’s funeral, kissing the Governor’s face and saying to himself, “The only friend I ever had. He believed in me.” (December 12, 1977)
There’s a lot going on in this story, and at times it feels rushed, perhaps as Gould knew he was working on his final deadlines. Dade and the Governor are complex, multifaceted characters, and the story affords the opportunity for real depth. The storyline could easily be expanded into some other medium. (If Warren Beatty is reading this, call me and let me pitch you my idea for a Dick Tracy mini-series, with each season focusing on a different period of the comic strip.)
Because Gould is obsessed with Perfume Plenty, she ends up coming into the storyline after the Governor’s wife is murdered. The Governor and Perfume are carjacked by hoods who want the Governor to pardon one of the friends. When the Governor refuses, the hoods leave him and Perfume stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel in the middle of a freezing snowstorm. Like so much in Dick Tracy, the Ferris wheel sequence is an example of a truly odd scene that is quite terrifying. Gould’s artwork was always outstanding when using the elements of nature, and here he is, using a snowstorm, one last time. The sequence is a final testament to Chester Gould’s superb imagination. 4 stars.
After the Governor’s death, Gould had a couple of weeks left to run out the string. He fills them with an odd mini continuity highlighting Perfume Plenty. It’s odd and a little sad to have Dick Tracy himself so absent for the last weeks of Gould’s run. On December 24, 1977, Dick and Tess look back at the very first Dick Tracy daily strip, from October 12, 1931, and thus the Chester Gould years come full circle. Except there was one more day of the strip to run. The December 25, 1977 strip shows us Perfume Plenty’s latest TV commercial. And on that unlikely note, Chester Gould headed toward the exit, after 16,878 Dick Tracy strips. Gould’s name continued to appear on the strip until 1982 as an emeritus contributor, but that was merely a sign of respect and homage rather than an indication of the role he played.
Dick Tracy continued on, with Gould’s longtime assistant Rick Fletcher handling the artwork, and mystery writer Max Allan Collins taking over the story. Collins was only 29 years old when he was tapped by the syndicate to continue Dick Tracy. A huge fan of the strip, Collins knew Gould, but it doesn’t seem as though Gould had any say in Collins’ selection. And now Dick Tracy continues, just months away from it’s 90th anniversary in October 2021. Dick Tracy has now been written and illustrated by people other than Chester Gould for more than 43 years, a fact that would no doubt fill Gould with pride.
1976 isn’t the peak year of Dick Tracy, but really, what comic strip peaks in its 45th year? No one says, “Oh, you like Peanuts? Well, the best place to start is definitely in 1995. That was when Charles Schulz was really hitting his peak.” Volume 29 features Gould’s trademarks of bizarre villains and scientific police work combined with his latter-day enthusiasms for science fiction and contempt for anyone or anything standing in the way of law and order.
By the time of Volume 29, newspaper space for comics had shrunk. Gould’s audience had also shrunk. From 1960 to 1974, the number of newspapers carrying Dick Tracy went from 550 to 375. (Dick Tracy: The Official Biography, by Jay Maeder, p.199) Due to the shrinking size of the comics, by 1976 there was simply less story Gould could get through in a day. The pacing throughout Volume 29 is sometimes just odd, as Gould repeats himself, or the narration tells us about off-stage action that would have been a dramatic scene. These narrative lapses are more evident reading the strips in a book collection, which was obviously not how the strip was meant to be consumed and read.
In Volume 29, Gould seems less interested in the kind of “classic” pursuit stories that were a hallmark of Dick Tracy. Gould was a master of the claustrophobic chase, where the net slowly closes in on the criminal, who becomes increasingly desperate as their options become more and more limited. Many times in the strip, the villains become literally stuck as well, as when Shaky took refuge under a boardwalk, but then found himself trapped as he was frozen in by an ice storm. I don’t know if Chester Gould was claustrophobic, but if he wasn’t, he sure knew what would strike terror in the hearts of many readers, myself included.
Gould’s humor was always something of an acquired taste. There was terrific black humor and sharp irony throughout Dick Tracy, especially evident in Gould’s character designs. But Gould’s attempts in the strip at actual jokes were usually puns and old-fashioned groaners. For years before he came up with the idea for Dick Tracy, Gould wrote humor strips like The Radio Catts and The Girl Friends. There are plenty of jokes in Volume 29, but don’t worry if you can’t tell if someone’s telling a joke or not—the other characters will hugely oversell their reactions, telegraphing to everyone for miles around “This is a joke! This is where you laugh!”
Gould’s least successful attempt at humor in Volume 29 is the singing group the Gallstones. Comprised of two brothers and a sister, the Gallstones specialize in golden oldies like “Silver Threads Among the Gold,” written in 1873. Throughout the summer of 1976, Chester Gould was obsessed with the Gallstones’ album, titled I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl. Gould draws the album cover repeatedly during the Gallstones’ story, as though without the album cover we would forget who they were. Granted, the storyline is about record bootlegging, but still, from June 23, 1976 to September 13, 1976 Gould drew their album cover 39 times on 34 different days during those 3 months! Clearly, Gould was highly amused by the Gallstones, but the general reader will probably be less entertained. The notion that their records are popular enough to be bootlegged seems pretty ridiculous.
As always throughout the 46 years that Chester Gould drew Dick Tracy, the artwork in Volume 29 is stunning. By the 1970’s, Gould’s style was heavily reliant on thick black lines, and it was visually simpler than the look of the “classic” Dick Tracy strips from the 1940’s and 1950’s. There are still striking visual tableaus throughout the final year and a half of Gould’s drawing, especially in his masterful and expressionistic handling of shadows.
I’ll recap the stories in Volume 29, and rank each story on a scale of 1-5. (5 being the best.)
Pucker Puss: Introduced in Volume 28, the aptly named Pucker Puss shoots people through a customized set of dentures, using his mouth as a gun. Ewww. Also, probably not actually physically possible, but hey, it’s a comic strip. Pucker Puss has an interesting character design, but he’s not a very interesting character himself.
Lizz the policewoman does the majority of the work in the Pucker Puss storyline. If you’re a fan of Lizz, you’ll most likely appreciate the fact that she wears a bikini for most of this story. There’s even one panel where we see Lizz from behind wearing a thong bikini. Introduced to the strip in 1955, Lizz quickly established herself as a strong woman who could kick butt and look beautiful while doing so. As the fashions of the 1960’s changed and miniskirts became popular, Gould never wasted an opportunity to show off Lizz’s figure. Reading these strips now, it’s clear that Lizz is Dick Tracy’s “work spouse,” and although their relationship is always strictly professional, Lizz gives Tracy a kiss on the cheek after she shaves his mustache off. 3 stars.
The Gallstones: As mentioned above, this is a dull storyline, plus the Gallstones are just not as funny as Gould obviously thinks they are. It turns out their manager, Bolo, runs a bootleg record processing plant on the side. 1 star.
Perfume Plenty/perfume thieves: Yet another relative of B.O. Plenty and his wife Gravel Gertie. (Although Perfume is Gertie’s cousin, so her last name shouldn’t be Plenty. Oh well.) Perfume is a beautiful young woman who has unfortunately met the wrong types of people. As in, the types of people who would send B.O. and Gertie on a vacation and then use their house to establish a bootleg perfume operation. Oddly, the two perfume thieves remain nameless throughout the story. Perfume is a successful character design, and she will play a large role in the final year of Gould’s strip. 2 stars.
Perfume Plenty/DaMill/Tanya: This is barely even a storyline, as we follow Perfume as she gets discovered by a TV commercial director, DaMill. (Cue laughter.) DaMill is shot and wounded by Tanya, a model who used to work for him, and resents Perfume taking her place. There’s no real villain as such, and this continuity feels like just filler. 2 stars.
Zero Nought/Leyden Aigg: An improvement over the last few stories, this is a slightly more conventional story. (Although in a world as bizarre as Dick Tracy, is there ever a truly conventional storyline?) Zero Nought is seeking revenge on everyone who sent him to prison 20 years ago, and of course one of those people is Dick Tracy. Nought isn’t a truly great villain, but he’s at least moderately interesting. A more humorous character design is Nought’s unwitting accomplice, the perfectly named Leyden Aigg, a bald, bespectacled amateur photographer whose head looks like, well, an egg. Leyden is quite funny—he’s of indeterminate age, but he still lives at home, and he’s clearly a Mama’s boy.
There are several lasts in this storyline, as we get the very last of Chester Gould’s backwards named characters—Nought’s accomplice Dale Elad. Zero Nought’s biggest claim to fame is that he’s the very last villain to be shot and killed by Dick Tracy during the Gould years. This storyline also sees the final appearance of the air car, the last hint of Dick Tracy’s “Moon Period” of the 1960’s.
Gould’s humor is on better display in this storyline. As things start tightening for Nought, he has the odd idea of going to the Aigg’s house and handcuffing himself to Leyden and his mother. I’m not sure what Nought’s end game plan is, but it leads to some oddly humorous moments as the three handcuffed characters eat meals together. (Note sure how they used the bathroom, though.) Leyden gets the idea to attempt an escape by buttering his wrist to slide it through the handcuff, which leads to one of Gould’s hilarious explanatory captions: “still buttering his wrist.” 3 stars.
Dade Plenty/the Governor: Gould’s last continuity of Dick Tracy begins with the introduction of Dade Plenty, who is yet another Plenty relative. Dade is nabbed by the police in a sting targeting subway purse thieves. It turns out Dade has studied dress designing, and Tracy arranges for Dade to have a drafting table and fabric available to him in his prison cell. (A nice gesture for a detective who loudly complains about the rights of the accused.)
The story is an interesting one, centering as it does on the subject of possible criminal rehabilitation. The Governor of the state becomes a major character in the story, as his wife picks one of Dade’s dress designs to wear to a ball. When a photo of the Governor’s wife kissing Dade on the cheek hits the newspapers, the Governor becomes enraged that the political fallout is hurting his chances at re-election and his campaign to focus on rehabilitation for criminals. On August 10th, we see the Governor making a speech, saying, “And I say to you, unless we rehabilitate these people, our penal system is DOOMED!” A few days later, on August 14th, the Governor is arguing with a Senator, asking “Is rehabilitation a dishonorable word to you Senator?”
These are interesting sentiments for Gould to examine, since he was clearly on the side of the police and of “law and order.” Gould’s attacks on any kind of criminal protection greatly increased during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Suffice it to say, you weren’t going to learn the Miranda warning from reading Dick Tracy. However, throughout the long history of the strip, Gould did occasionally portray criminals who had been successfully rehabilitated. One of the final images of his last story is Dade Plenty with tears in his eyes at the Governor’s funeral, kissing the Governor’s face and saying to himself, “The only friend I ever had. He believed in me.” (December 12, 1977)
There’s a lot going on in this story, and at times it feels rushed, perhaps as Gould knew he was working on his final deadlines. Dade and the Governor are complex, multifaceted characters, and the story affords the opportunity for real depth. The storyline could easily be expanded into some other medium. (If Warren Beatty is reading this, call me and let me pitch you my idea for a Dick Tracy mini-series, with each season focusing on a different period of the comic strip.)
Because Gould is obsessed with Perfume Plenty, she ends up coming into the storyline after the Governor’s wife is murdered. The Governor and Perfume are carjacked by hoods who want the Governor to pardon one of the friends. When the Governor refuses, the hoods leave him and Perfume stuck at the top of a Ferris wheel in the middle of a freezing snowstorm. Like so much in Dick Tracy, the Ferris wheel sequence is an example of a truly odd scene that is quite terrifying. Gould’s artwork was always outstanding when using the elements of nature, and here he is, using a snowstorm, one last time. The sequence is a final testament to Chester Gould’s superb imagination. 4 stars.
After the Governor’s death, Gould had a couple of weeks left to run out the string. He fills them with an odd mini continuity highlighting Perfume Plenty. It’s odd and a little sad to have Dick Tracy himself so absent for the last weeks of Gould’s run. On December 24, 1977, Dick and Tess look back at the very first Dick Tracy daily strip, from October 12, 1931, and thus the Chester Gould years come full circle. Except there was one more day of the strip to run. The December 25, 1977 strip shows us Perfume Plenty’s latest TV commercial. And on that unlikely note, Chester Gould headed toward the exit, after 16,878 Dick Tracy strips. Gould’s name continued to appear on the strip until 1982 as an emeritus contributor, but that was merely a sign of respect and homage rather than an indication of the role he played.
Dick Tracy continued on, with Gould’s longtime assistant Rick Fletcher handling the artwork, and mystery writer Max Allan Collins taking over the story. Collins was only 29 years old when he was tapped by the syndicate to continue Dick Tracy. A huge fan of the strip, Collins knew Gould, but it doesn’t seem as though Gould had any say in Collins’ selection. And now Dick Tracy continues, just months away from it’s 90th anniversary in October 2021. Dick Tracy has now been written and illustrated by people other than Chester Gould for more than 43 years, a fact that would no doubt fill Gould with pride.
March 30, 2021
This last volume of comic strips written and drawn by Chester Gould is throughout, first-rate, with an intriguing group of storylines and the usual colorful bunch of villains and good people. And there's a nice blend of humor in places, particularly when his colleagues coerce (force!) him to shave off the hideous mustache that he had grown. All in all, this was a solid way to end one of my very favorite comic strips ever. So, I feel sad that there won't be any more volumes, but glad that I bought most of the books and can now go back and re-read the adventures of the great detective and the interesting, to say the least, group of criminals, acquaintances and fellow members of law enforcement who he met and dealt with over the 46+ years of the strip.
March 9, 2023
I loved everything about this book, except that it is the end of the series. It covers the final run of Chester Gould's last few criminals - Pucker Puss, Zero Nought, & Dade Plenty. As a person who started with volume 1, the art here is amazing, incredible. Gould was truly a master of his profession. And the stories themselves were fun, maybe a little dated - Max Allen Collins, in his introduction, claims the material was dated when it came out - but that did not in any way diminish my enjoyment. Sure these are the not the best stories, nor the most gripping, the chase scenes - which was Dick Tracy at its best - were almost non-existent, but this is still a fun farewell to a man and strip who shaped modern comics in many significant ways.
May 27, 2021
The end of an era!
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews