Dick Tracy: The Collins Casefiles

    (Checker, 2003-2004)
™ and © Checker Publishing

For someone who follows the current Dick Tracy comic strip, this collection will come as a terrible shock. I knew it was a sodden mess with only a passing resemblance to Chester Gould’s original, but being able to compare it with the works of Max Allan Collins and Rick Fletcher makes it seem so much worse.

While they never matched Gould when it came to either demented characters, invention, or fervid pacing, Collins and Fletcher brought talent to the table. Unlike its current caretaker, they kept to Gould’s patented formula: one part police procedural to two parts memorable villain to one part comic grotesque, seasoned with a pinch of sentimental soap opera and a dash of Crime Does Not Pay moralizing. And though, under them, Tracy was, as usual, overshadowed by the villains, Collins never forgot to leave a little of the spotlight for the taciturn detective and his supporting cast.

— S.A. Bennett
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#3


Cover Price: $17.95
1 copy available for $13.00 		Max Allan CollinsRick Fletcher