Lawless days like the mid-1930s needed the toughest policemen to dispense justice-men like Dick Tracy! In Volume 3 of his long-running series, the bold detective tangles with Zora Arson, her escaped-con brother, Boris, and the evil Cutie-who gets cute by springing a death trap involving two famished bobcats! Clover Press and The Library of American Comics are re-presenting Chester Gould's earliest Dick Tracy stories in the larger format used throughout most books in the series, so Tracy's battles against gangsters look bigger and better than ever. The action hits closer to home when the Tracy family's acquaintance, Toby Townley, learns that justice is blind after the small grift she runs makes her realize that prison stripes are the new black. Then Dick Tracy tries an experiment in reform, transforming hardened criminal Lips Manlis into straight-arrow Bob Honor - but is it true there's no Honor among thieves? This new edition of Dick Tracy Volume 3 puts Chester Gould's great stories into a great package!
Faceless foes bookend the stories in Dick Tracy Volume 4, the latest entry in the Clover Press/Library of American Comics reissue of the original six Dick Tracy volumes in the larger format that became the series standard. The intrepid detective and his friends tackle invisible enemies when they square off against the notorious Purple Cross Gang and their masked leader. Later, Tracy and Pat Patton come to grips - and blows! - with The Blank, whose look predates The Question, whose name predates The Shining, and whose unmasked face harkens back to Lon Chaney as Quasimodo! Sandwiched between those two tales, Tracy is caught in a web of intrigue along with three amoral young girls, millionaire wastrel Johnny Mintworth and his mother, plus the powerful mobs fronted by Collie Vinsso and Danny Supeena. Chester Gould puts menace in every shadow and death around every corner in Dick Tracy Volume 4!
Dick Tracy Volume 5 kicks off with a human trafficking story that could be torn from today's headlines, as the dauntless detective encounters a captive woman who bears a striking resemblance to real life sex symbol Dorothy Lamour! That woman, Noana, is just one of the lively characters Chester Gould introduces as Clover Press and The Library of American Comics continue to re-release the original six Dick Tracy volumes in the larger size that will allow the entire series to exist in one uniform format. In these exciting tales, Tracy goes undercover to bring down the elusive mobster Ramm; joins forces with Junior and bumbling newcomer Brighton Spotts to foil the plans of wanted man Jojo Nidle; and pays a heavy price as he teams with G-Man Jim Trailer to thwart the schemes of an international criminal named Karpse and his icy sweetheart, Marro-but what does it take to stop the criminal rampage of that deformed gunsel, Scardol? Savor the larger-size, non-stop action in Dick Tracy Volume 5 to find out!
The 1930s give way to the '40s and Chester Gould makes things personal in this sixth volume of the Dick Tracy series. First comes a story of broken hearts and wilted flowers, as Tess Trueheart jilts her detective boyfriend for an ex-ballplayer who schemes to inherit millions, and he'll kill anyone who gets in his way - including Tess! An encounter with small-time dognapper puts Tracy on the trail of a gang of fur thieves, and then hardened criminal Stooge Viller softens up, thanks to his young daughter, but not before he drops Dick Tracy into a dastardly death trap! The detective, meanwhile, crosses paths with an abandoned infant and an amnesiac chanteuse and sees that crime is for couples when the diminutive Jerome and his hulking bride, Mamma, sew death and destruction from city streets to the western plains, while the suave mastermind Krome decides to part ways with his traitorous girlfriend by permanently parting her hair! This book paves the way for the debut of The Mole and the Great Grotesque Villains who follow and completes the Clover Press and Library of American Comics transformation of the first six volumes of the Dick Tracy series into the larger-sized, standard format of the series.
In the early 1930s, Chester Gould dramatically altered the comics landscape with a new style of gritty realism torn from Chicago's headlines. With this new kind of storytelling came a new way of coloring comics, a style as bold and vibrant as the stories themselves. This selection of Dick Tracy Sunday comics from 1931 to 1939 features Gould's most infamous villains of the decade, four complete stories plus forty more fabulous Sunday pages, reprinted for the first time in the original colors, and in full tabloid size. Experience the adventures of the world's most famous comic strip detective just as they appeared more than three-quarters of a century ago.
Highlights from Dick Tracy's long and storied career, as chosen by comics historian and comics writer Jay Maeder. This 128-page trade paperback contains the Best of the Best sequences from the 1930s through the 1970s, and is a great introduction to the character for new readers and old ones alike. Featuring such villains as Doc Hump, The Blank, B-B Eyes, Flattop, The Brow, Shaky, Mumbles, T.V. Wiggles, Model, Rughead, and Flattop Jr.!
