The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 23: 1966-1967

The Complete Dick Tracy #23

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. The series is ripe to introduce to crime prose readers who haven't previously ventured into comics.
Tracy is on the trail of the aptly-named Mr. Bribery and his equally grotesque sister, Ugly Christine, in a story that also features a substance-abusing witch doctor and a shelf of shrunken heads. Meanwhile, newlyweds Junior and Moon Maid enter the story, and Dick Tracy's troubles are compounded when he comes face to face with master criminal Haf-and-Haf, one side of whose face is hideously disfigured. Included are all strips from December 27, 1965 to July 2, 1967.

Genres: Fiction, Comic Strips, Mystery, Comics

264 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2017

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

[Stewart Tame · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the Sixties progressed, Gould seemed increasingly out of touch with the times. Very little in the way of current events are reflected in the strip, though Jeff Kersten’s concluding essay, “Hard as Hell -- Act One,” makes a case for there being references so opaque to the casual reader (or to this casual reader at least) as to amount to a secret code. They may have been more obvious at the time.

Gould also stubbornly insisted on doubling down on the more outlandish SF concepts introduced to the strip in the Sixties: the magnetic space coupe, inhabitants of the Moon which has a breathable atmosphere, etc. To Gould's credit, he makes good story use of all of this, but it put an increased strain on many readers’ suspension of disbelief.

He also seems to be laboring under the misconception that the legal phrase, “corpus delicti,” refers to an actual corpse, as opposed to the general body of evidence in a case. It's not just Mr. Bribery being mistaken. Other characters make the mistake as well, and it would seem that Gould himself was the source of this error. Ah well … nobody's perfect, and it's a common misconception.

All that said, Gould's art was looking better than ever. Haf-and-Haf is as fine a grotesque villain as Flattop, Pruneface, or any of the classics. And his use of solid blacks made the strip stand out on the comics page like no other. He may have been drawing things that the readers found harder to swallow than usual, but he was drawing them in fine style.

Yes, this volume does not represent Dick Tracy at its best, but I, for one, found it not nearly as bad as I’d been led to believe. Yes, this is not the best volume of the series to start with, but why would you start with volume 23 anyway?

[Paul Hasbrouck · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this volume of Dick Tracy's adventures, Tracy and crew bring the career of the evil Mr. Bribery to a end, with a large body count, a lot of more Moon Maid and Moon plotlines, a gang that uses jewel stealing crows and by the a murderous villain, former circus freak called Haf and Haf(think of another version of Batman's Two-Face). A second rate villain, that be came boring after weeks of being chased from the City to a mystery woman's mansion.
There are many attempts at Chet's humor-the comic strip of Sawdust(Peanuts?), the growing group of animals at police headquarters(a cigar-smoking cat, Little Dropout(a ape who paints), Clybourne, beret crow and any number of dogs).
So I can only give this volume 3 stars-
PS-In the current run the Dick Tracy strip, which I highly recommend, has brought MR Bribery back from the dead and has made Haf and Haf into a interesting new villain-Split Face.

[Carl Waluconis · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I know it might be interesting to try out my new .45 up here on the moon," says Dick Tracey in this collection. This is mild next to other mayhem such as Mr. Bribery and his sister shooting one of the twins in the eye from close range through his glasses. I never could figure out how Mr. Bribery was considered a powerful threat. After many other failures, he failed at cutting his own throat with a sardine tin. On Sunday, October 30, 1966, Gould's striking drawing of an electric chair greeted his readers. Gould's views were contradictory to popular views as he goes on and on about why trees need to be cut down in Chicago to prevent crime. "We all love trees, but we know now that most 'causes' hide treachery." At the same time there is wild satire. When Moon Maid zaps and paralyzes a killer grabbing and about to stab a woman, a news photographer raises his camera and says, "HOLD IT, MISS!" Well, Moon Maid has played the vigilante and killed with her zap. The moon is explored further, Diet Smith proclaiming, "Existence is where you find it! The moon is Earth-man's new world." Police fly around in long buckets controlled by magnetism. Maybe in his way Gould was trying to keep pace with the 1960's. The old-time Tracy fans seemed to hate the space stuff, especially bothered by the constant "He who controls magnetism will control the universe" labels on the strips. I found it imaginative and entertaining. The language of cartoons has always been the language of extremes. It is fun to see Gould let his imagination fly free in the 1960's as he neared the end of his career.

[Woody Chandler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviews by others of recent volumes in the series dunned Gould for his shift to the Moon, and I understand the outcry, but for me, these are all-new stories & ones that were originally published during my lifetime, beginning in February 1965. This collection, while touching on magnetism & space, was more rooted in the strip's roots with Tracy chasing down Bribery who comes to a gruesome death ala his sister, Ugly Christine. The introduction of Half-'n'-Half gives us a character who will reappear in the late-1970s/early-1980s. I am anxious for the release of the next volume, probably in June. I can hardly wait!

[LobsterQuadrille · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume seemed to have a higher volume of boring strips than the last. Chester Gould really, really wanted people to know that magnetism is the future and that trees facilitate crime. This got obnoxious very quickly. But there was still some entertainment to be had here. Standouts include a corpse in orbit and murder by stiletto heel. I got a bit bored of Mr. Bribery so Haf-and-Haf was a fun change of pace. Not bad, but I don't feel compelled to read more to find out what's up with Chin Chillar.

[John Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have thoroughly enjoyed each of the Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy volumes; they have been so entertaining, and I always loved Mr. Gould's artwork. However, this volume only gets three stars because I just didn't care much for the whole Moon Maid/moon adventure storyline. This makes the strips from that time period more of the science fiction genre than the detective stories that Dick Tracy was famous for.

[Yosef Shapiro · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Moon Era is not the finest of Gould 's run on his series. He became obsessed with magnetic power and life on the moon. Putting that aside, the non moon related continuities were average. I was especially underwhelmed with the Two Face look alike called Haf and Haf.

[Susan Molloy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot say much more than I have always enjoyed Dick Tracy comics, at least until Chester Gould passed away.