Dick Tracy (Pacific Comics)

(Pacific, 2003-2004)
™ and © 1937, 2003 Chicago Tribune Syndicate

The 1930s witnessed to the rise of many real life notorious and infamous criminals, like Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde and John Dillinger. Al Capone was convicted of tax evasion and served prison time, eventually dying at his home, but the villains in the Dick Tracy comic strip in the 1930’s generally reflected the violent demise of John Dillinger. Artist Chester Gould capitalized on the public fascination with these racketeers using by his straight–arrow cop to relate gruesome morality plays. Dick Tracy routinely disrupted the machinations of criminals with his police revolver, a solid right cross and his justifiably suspicious nature.

This series reprints the daily and Sunday comic strips of this long–running crime drama from the mid–1930s through the end of the decade. Stories with titles like “The Purple Cross Gang,” “The Death of Dick Tracy,” and “Trainload of Death” leave little doubt about what readers could expect to find in their “funny pages.”

— George Haberberger

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