Chester
Gould's villains are what made Dick Tracy a successful ongoing serial. Gould's "bad
guys" are sometimes so evil, their very flesh
is deformed to confirm their sins against the
world. Gould's excellent characterization is evident
in the criminally insane Selbert Depool (that's
looped, spelled backwards) or the suave, yet arrogant
Shoulders, who can't help thinking that all women
adore him, or bordering on genius like the Nazi
spy, Pruneface who is not only a machine design
engineer but also dabbles in chemical nerve gas.
Trace tackles bicycle thieves, con men, pickpockets,
gangsters, saboteurs, kidnappers, hit men, arsonists,
junkies and more on his detective adventures.
Gould changed Tracy with the times, with decidedly
mixed results. With the introduction of science
fiction elements, such as the two way wrist radio
came a variety of personal wrist communicators
and other futuristic gadgets. This led to a much
derided science fiction period, which saw Dick
Tracy and company visit the moon and meet
the Moon Maid in 1964. The villains were increasingly
exaggerated in power to face Tracy's technological
advances, and the story veered away from its original
urban crime drama beginnings. The Apollo 11 moon
landing saw Dick Tracy return to earth and by
the 70's Gould modernized Dick Tracy by giving
him longer hair, a mustache and a hip new associate,
Groovy Grove.
The
sub story featuring the Plenty family, was successful,
featuring a family of redneck yokels head by former
villains and provided comedy relief to Tracy's
adventures. And the introduction of Lizz the Policewoman,
who was a formidable, progressive female character,
was groundbreaking in comic strips. Fans went
into mourning when, Gould's most popular character,
Flatop, a hit man with a contract on our Dick
Tracy, came to his end over greed.
Chester
Gould retired from the strip in 1977 and Dick
Tracy was taken over by Max Allan Collins and
Rick Fletcher.
Dick
Tracy's success expanded to include both radio
and movie serials. Ralph Byrd first played Dick
Tracy in the first movie of the same name in 1937.
A series of B-grade Dick Tracy movies followed,
the best of which was when Dick Tracy meets Gruesome,
with Boris Karloff playing the villain.
In
1990, Warren Beatty revived some interest in Dick
Tracy with his movie version that included Madonna
as Breathless Mahoney and an all star cast that
almost overwhelmed the film.
While
the comic strip's appeal has diminished since
the 1990 Beatty film, it still runs in newspapers
and is slotted for a new upcoming animated television
series. |
