The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 10: 1945-1947

The Complete Dick Tracy #10

by Chester Gould

Calling all law-abiding citizens! Witness the introduction of the famous Two-Way Wrist Radio, created by the aptly-named Brilliant! Enjoy an ever-expanding cast that includes Diet Smith, Themesong, and Christmas Early, as well as the return of Vitamin Flintheart and Snowflake, while the two most unlikely characters get married! Thrill to the capers staged by the villains Influence, Shoulders, Itchy, Nilon Hose, and Gargles! Edited and designed by Eisner Award-winner Dean Mullaney, with introductions by Max Allan Collins and Jeff Kersten, this collection contains all the Dick Tracy daily and Sunday comic strips published from September 20, 1945 through March 16, 1947.

Genres: Comics, Comic Strips, Crime, Mystery, Graphic Novels

364 pages, Hardcover

First published June 22, 2010

About the author

Chester 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.

Reviews

[Brent · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the great American daily adventure comics, this volume of Dick Tracy thrills and chills with villains and goofball supporting characters.
Highly recommended.
Thanks to IDW for publishing the Library of American Comics, editor Dean Mullaney, and to Fulton County Public Library for the loan.

[Ronald · Rating 5 out of 5]

featuring B.O. Plenty, Gravel Gertie, Vitamin Flintheart, Diet Smith among others; there are 2 panels missing from a previous volume where a couple of panels were duplicated, put at the end of this book

[Dan Blackley · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the edition with the continuation from Vl. 9. Itchy is featured in this book.

[Dominick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dandy stuff. There aren't any famous villains to speak of here, though the ones that do appear are the usual array of grotesques, and the stories are uniformly entertaining (well, mostly; Gould's propensity for trying "cute" fails here as it tends to generally, in the figure of the singing waif Themesong). One of the interesting things about Gould is how the grotesque villains and stark, almost surreal art (even the "normal" people are really physiological freaks, if you think about it for a moment) are so frequently put in the service of the depiction of the banality and venality of crime, as well as to elaborate and improbably convoluted plots. Here we have a pickpocket ring, a hoodlum selling knock-off mouthwash, a mobster grifting off a wealthy former actress, greed, selfishness, revenge, and a whole whack of basic human failings on display (not to mention a couple of suicides). There is some remarkable violence as well; one villain especially meets a particularly gruesome and sticky end. There's also amusing comic relief (in the form of B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie), some hints at satire/political commentary (there are a few rather Harold Gray moments, notably in the Themesong arc), and, not least, a key development in the strip, in the introduction of Diet Smith and the two-way wrist radio. Cartooning near the top of the field; well worth it for any fan or student of the medium, as well as for crime fiction buffs.

[Skjam! · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another exciting volume from Chester Gould at the height of his creative powers. This one covers the immediate post-war period with the nation and crime returning to business as usual. Highlights include the introduction of the wrist radio, the courtship of B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie (proof that not every crook in the Dick Tracy series was irredeemable) and Dick's impressive takedown of the hypnotically powered Influence.

For other comic strip reviews, see http://www.skjam.com/category/comic-s...

[David R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This set, representing the bulk of the years 1945-47 is populated with some of Gould's more bizarre creations: Influence, Gargles, and Itchy, among others. The B.O.Plenty-Gravel Gertie storyline is hilarious.

[David Rickert · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one better than the more famous stories in the previous volume. Incredibly violent - I can't believe there was a time when this was in the newspaper.