Dick Tracy and American Culture: Morality and Mythology, Text and Context

by Garyn G. Roberts

In October 1931, Dick Tracy made his debut on the pages of the Detroit Mirror. Since then America's most famous crime fighter has tangled with a variety of protagonists from locations as diverse as the inner city and outer space, all the time maintaining the moral high ground while reflecting American popular culture. Through extensive research and interviews with Chester Gould (the creator of "Dick Tracy"), his assistants, Dick Locher (the current artist), Max Allan Collins (who scripted the stories for more than 15 years) and many others associated with the strip, Dick Tracy as a cultural icon emerges. The strips use of both innovative and established police methods and the true-to-life portrayals of Tracy's family and fellow cops are detailed. The artists behind the strip are fully revealed and Dick Tracy paraphernalia and the 1990 movie Dick Tracy are discussed. Dick Tracy's appearances in other media--books, comics, radio, movie serials, "B" movies, television dramas, and animated cartoons--are fully covered.

350 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1993

Reviews

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

On the one hand, this book takes the Tracy phenomena too seriously. If you take it so seriously, you should have profound ideas to back it up. Roberts does not. There is some good information here, but for my interest it was a let-down in the area of Gould's research into areas other than police procedures. How did he learn about the bits of literature, disease, and legalities that he dropped so superficially into his strip? Roberts does not tell us.