Saturday, May 9, 2015
Interview with the Devil: Professor Moriarity...Part Two by John Pirillo
Interview with the Devil: Professor
Moriarity...Part Two by John Pirillo
As you know in the
first part of this interview I spent quite some time hunting down the legend of
the Black Hand, not for a moment thinking that it would lead me to the Master
Criminal, Professor Moriarity. But it did. And not in the middle of a huge
crime scene, but a humble shop dedicated to the Black Hand and run by of all
people, his own daughter.
After I recovered from his statement, I settled back down,
took a moment to sip the tea his daughter had brought me and let the statement
simmer in the back of my mind.
"My name is Morina." The girl told me, as if
reading my mind.
Upon my look of surprise, she giggled, just like a child
might, a look of extreme humor curling her lips. And I might add quite sensuous
lips at that. I must have been staring hard, because her father cleared his
throat, to bring my attention back to him. I looked that way and a hint of
amusement lit his eyes for a moment, before he settled into a more somber tone.
"So it's the Black Hand you're looking for?"
I nodded. "Yes, but it seems I've discovered much
more."
"Not really." He stated, as if I had just spoken a
bit of nonsense. He leaned forward in a posture I would grow quite familiar
with over the course of our interview. "You see, I founded it."
There it was. Another shock. I actually became quite scared
at that point, as the legends of the Black Hand were not pleasant ones, but of
brutality, rape and torture. He saw that in my eyes and actually laughed at me.
"Fools!"
I recoiled, not sure what he meant, then he wiped the smile
from his face and caught my eyes again in that magnetic glance of his. The one
thing I will always take from this interview is that stare, and how it drew me
in like a magnet draws iron fragments. "Fools. Whom?"
He gestured all about him.
Morina refreshed our cups, and then left us to speak alone.
"She's a lovely child."
I was caught off guard again. "Who?"
"My daughter." He caught my flush of embarrassment
and shrugged it off. "Don't worry; I've never killed a man for
appreciating my daughter."
I felt comfortable for the first time after that statement,
and then realized it was a veiled threat. Hands off!
I shook my head. "I'm just a simple author. I have no
desire to date anyone."
"Are you saying my daughter is not someone worth
dating?" He asked, a hint of menace in his voice.
"Sir." I said as I started to stand up. "I
can see this conversation is not going the way I had hoped for. Rather than
fumble with word games, I'd rather head for my hotel, pack up and return to
America."
He tapped the table, indicating for me to sit back down. I
hesitated. "That's not a request."
I sat back down. Hard.
I began to sweat profusely even though the room was not hot
in any way whatsoever.
"It's this way." He said. "Many a man has
assumed he has the right to court her, but only a few have that right in her
eyes, let alone mine."
"I see."
"No, you don't." He said fiercely. "She's a
Moriarity. We don't take lightly to fools or idiots!"
I snapped to attention. "And I...?"
He smiled thinly, revealing his sparkling teeth once more.
"That remains to be seen. Ask your first question, even though there have
been many already. I'm ready."
I set the cell phone in front of us, flicked the recorder
on.
"Mister Doyle..."
"Ah, Arthur, I knew him well. He worked for me a time
in my shop in Hampton."
"He worked for you?"
"Aye. He was quite young at the time and desperate for
work, hoping to pay for his medical training with some kind of craft he could
pick up while he worked."
"And you hired him?"
"But of course, I did. The man was brilliant." He
gave me an amused look. "And from what I've read of his adventures in your
Baker Street Universe, he's remained so."
I let that comment go. I had bigger fish to fry. "How
long did he work for you?"
"Long enough for me to train him in the art of the
science of deduction." He leaned forward again, his eyes filling with a
kind of mist as he slid back into the past with his memories. "He was
always the curious one, and when he saw me working on my various potions."
"Potions?"
He cocked an eyebrow in an unmistakable gesture that
would've made Sherlock Holmes proud. "I live in this world only part of
the time. The rest I live in mine. Where magic and science co-exist."
"But not in my Baker Street Universe?"
"Were I to disclose that, I might have to end our
interview...and..." Long menacing silence.
I hurriedly went on. "And so you are saying that he
learned how to do forensics from you?"
"Oh yes. And much, much more. My daughter..."
"Wait, you're saying that Morina was there as
well?"
"But of course she was, a daughter's place is by her
father, where he can keep her from harm and protect her from the ravages of
male hormones."
I laughed. "You don't sound so different from other
fathers in that respect."
"I should hope not. A father's role is sacred. Family
is always first."
"I agree. So you trained Mister Doyle..."
"Conan."
"Conan. Yes. In the art of forensics."
"Yes. And I brought him out on his first case."
Again I was shocked. "He never told me about this?"
"Why should he, he's not your Conan, but mine."
"Oh." I lapsed into silence a moment.
"One thing you must understand, Mister Pirillo, is that
science and magic are just different sides of the cup of life. One feeds the
other, as the other feeds the one. You have discovered the denizens of
your...uh...Baker Street Universe...and before you ask, yes I've been reading
your adventures. Could make them a bit longer, I might add. I just start
getting into them and they're over."
"That's because most Internet people don't have the
time, or are too busy to read much longer stories in one gulp."
"Yes. I suppose they are. Such a strange world this one
is. No magic and lots of science. Mad science from what I see in the
headlines." He leaned closer. "Do you think that Global Warming is
solvable?"
"I believe it is if we act as a whole of mankind,
rather than from petty needs and concerns."
"Such as collecting wealth and power?" He asked,
that amused look back in his eyes once more.
"Yes."
"Good luck to you then." He said, speaking no more
of it.
"Okay, as I understand it you trained Conan to become a
forensics expert, but what about his schooling?"
"That was is schooling. Do you truly believe that any
school can teach you thee practicalities of day to day life? Honestly, do
you?"
I have to admit, at the time I did not believe so. I'm not
even sure now. "I think it can, if a person is thirsty for the
truth."
"Bah." He cursed. "Most of the kids are so
self absorbed in their games and online chat rooms that they care for little
else."
I started to reply sharply to that, but then remembered my
own experiences as a teacher, and the children constantly stealing glances at
their cell phones for messages, videos and so on. So even though I felt angry
at what he said, inwardly, I sighed, because there was too much truth in it.
"I hope that one day they will get past that."
"As I." He said finally after some thought.
"For if they don't, this world will need another world to escape to."
At those words I was at a loss to understand him, but I
assumed it was just his own way of commenting on the dreads of our present
world....loss of income, global warming, and terrorism to name a few.
"Okay. First big question."
"Fire away." He said using a finger like a gun to
make a gunshot sound.
"Uh..." Momentarily caught off-guard, I quickly
recovered to ask. "What set you out on the road to criminality?"
He burst into laughter so long that at first I thought he
had gone mad, but finally he slowed down, and then shook his head. "Son,
you have me all wrong."
I considered my next words carefully. I didn't want to end
up in a concrete cube at the bottom of the Thames. "Uh...the Black
Hand..."
He slammed a fist onto the table, causing our cups to spill
their contents and blasted at me. "Dear God in Heaven man, have you heard
nothing I've been telling you?"
I dared not speak.
He calmed down, and then leaned closer. "The Black Hand
was the same as your own Baker Street Adventurers, but led by me. We were and
are a society of explorers and criminal experts who seek to right the wrongs of
the world."
I was flabbergasted by his comment. "Like?"
"Exactly like, except with no Sherlock, no Watson, no
Houdini."
"My God" I exclaimed. Unsettled by this
revelation. "Then why haven't I heard of you?"
"From whom would you have heard?" He asked.
"Your world always dirties the truth, or beautifies the ugliness so the
common person doesn't have to face reality. They can sit nice and comfy in
their air conditioned homes, watching TV, and absolutely thinking about
nothing, except the end of their work week, and eventually retirement."
"I don't think everyone's that way." I offered in
defense of my world.
He dismissed my words. "Too many, or else there would
be no Isis...terrorist groups...unjust wars, famine and disease ridden countries.
Your world would be at peace and kind to another."
"And your world is?"
He sighed, and then settled back in his chair. He shut his
magnificent eyes, and shook his head, striving not to let the passion take over
him again. "Like yours. Lost in the glamour of possessions and
control."
My cell phone began making a beeping sound. I shut it off.
"I need to recharge my phone."
Morina came back into the room. "We have a plug back
here you can use."
She must have been listening to everything. She gave her
father a worried look, and then assisted me in setting up my charger and phone
at the socket. She turned to her father. "I suggest we have a meal."
She looked to me hopefully. "I make a mean spaghetti."
I laughed. "I've never had one of those."
She laughed.
Professor Moriarity rose and stood between us, again a
warning to me to be careful. "I think Mister Pirillo might like some time
to meditate on what we've discussed so far. How about you and I doing the
cooking, while he sits here..." He eyed me for confirmation. I nodded.
"...And considers what his next questions should be."
And that is all of this part of the interview. I'll return
with Part Three and what happened during the brief meal and the interview
later.
The Author and Interviewer
John Pirillo
War of the Worlds: The Invasion --- Mankind is not ready for what is about to happen, but two close friends will take on the greatest menace the earth has ever faced. Jules Verne and H.G. Wells.
The Invasion has begun, but now it's up to Jules Verne and H.G. Wells to stop it. An exciting new take on War of the Worlds as told from the viewpoint of writers who actually lived during the time of the great war.
The Man with the Empty Face "A Cartoon Story" By John Pirillo
The Man with the Empty Face
"A Cartoon Story"
By John Pirillo
Johnnie went into the comic book store, his eyes hungry for
the first edition of X-Ray Man, an old golden but oldies comic book written by
Jacob Bentley, an unknown artist and writer, who funded the book on his own. He
was the forefather of modern comic book graphic artists, who own and do it all.
But back then in the thirties, such types didn't always end up on top, but
sometimes on the bottom, especially if it was the Great Depression.
X-Ray Man was a very strange hombre. He could see through
walls and also walk through them. He could transport himself at the speed of
light from one point to the other. The only problem was that sometimes he would
exit inside a wall or bridge, or car, or whatever. Being an X-Ray Man, it
wasn't devastating, but it was always funny...to others anyway...when he'd
materialize in a toilet bowl basin, with only his had poking out of it. Made
for some frightened people, as well as jokers who thought it funny to get stuck
inside a toilet.
Johnnie had no illusions that he could pull off such a stunt,
nor would he want to. Toilets just weren't his thing.
"And they better never be." Cartoon said into his
right ear, whispering so softly she made every hair on his body stand up. She
never failed to get him excited at her touch, or voice. She was a comic book
queen...literally...who glowed in the dark, could see in the dark...and had
magical powers, many of which she wouldn't tell him about, such as reading his
mind.
"Hey!" He complained, gently pushing her back from
him. She made a pouting look with her lips, and then giggled like a little girl
and went to search comic books in the Wonder Woman section of DC Comics.
"See you in ten." He told her.
She nodded, already lost in the fifteenth edition of Wonder
Woman and her exploits with her invisible jet.
Johnnie surveyed the comic shop's interior, looking for the
Oldies, But Goodies section he'd seen advertised on the Internet, then spied a
tall man with a hood over his head, thumbing through a stack in the corner.
Above him it read. "Oldies, But Goodies."
Johnnie went over there, ignoring the man's rudeness at
blocking most of the stacks. Instead, he reached around him and began sorting
through stacks too.
The man bumped into him roughly, almost knocking him down.
"Hey, cut that out!" Johnnie shouted at him.
The man turned around. Beneath the hood was a pair of
glowing red eyes, but nothing else. "Mortal!' Was all the face, if you
could call it that, said.
Johnnie wasn't about to get into a fight in a comic book
store, instead he backed away, the red eyes following him as he did so. He had
forgotten he had a comic book in his hand as he did. Suddenly, he felt the
shelving behind him, but instead of stopping there, he found himself looking
out from inside the shelving, part of him immersed in the stacks of comics, and
part looking out.
Several female customers and one man turned to look at him,
thinking it was some kind of stunt. They giggled, laughed and pointed.
"That's really emo!" One said, and then they went to the cash
register to check out.
The man with the empty face stared at Johnnie. "You're
the one."
"Maybe." Johnnie said, as he stepped back out of
the shelving.
"You're the one." The man with the empty face
insisted.
"Cartoon!" He said loudly. "I think it's time
to check out."
"I'm still reading about Princess Diana and the
Amazons." Cartoon said, ignoring his pleas.
"You're the one and you must come with me." The man
with the empty face said in such a tone that it made his blood freeze.
Johnnie side stepped the stranger and headed for the front.
He slapped down a twenty. The man at the checkout eyed the bill. "You'll
need eighty more."
Johnnie slapped down a hundred. "Keep the change."
"Thanks! " The employee said. "I will."
The man with the empty face came up and grabbed the
employee. "You will come with me too."
The employee grabbed the arms to break free, thinking it was
some kind of nerd joke, but when he looked up into the empty face, he screamed
and then his entire body turned to a ruby red smoke and was sucked into the man
with the empty face.
"Johnnie!" Cartoon shrieked from behind him.
He turned and saw a second man with an empty face gripping
her. She was kneeing him in the crotch, but he didn't budge. His grip held her
like a vise.
Johnnie stuck the comic book he had just paid for in his
back pocket and rushed the second man with an empty face. As he was about to
strike into him, his body shivered with a weird energy and he actually passed
through the creature. It shuddered violently a moment, then its entire body
deflated like a balloon, allowing a glowing red dust like substance to flow
into the shop.
Cartoon hurriedly backed away and Johnnie rushed to her, but
when he tried to touch her, his hand passed through her. She gave him a
surprised look. "I'm X Ray Man." He told her grinning, and then
turned to face the first man without a face. "You got two choices."
Johnnie held up one finger. "Actually, only one."
He rushed the man without a face and passed through it. The
man without a face roared like a dying lion, a fine red mist exploding from its
body and vanished as it deflated, leaving just a smoldering pile of red ashes
on the hardwood floor of the shop.
"You all right?" He asked Cartoon, as he turned.
She nodded. "What manner of creatures are these?"
He pulled out his comic book, flicked through some pages, and
then stopped, pointing a finger at a drawn figure there. She leaned over and
took a look. "It's the man without a face."
"Afraid so." He uttered, glancing nervously about
them.
"Let's get out of here while we can." He
suggested, concerned for her safety.
"But what if there's more. We can't just let them loose
in the world!"
"You're right." He answered, making a hard
decision as he spoke.
He ripped out the page from his comic book with the man
without a face, and then several more, until no more pages of the creatures
existed. As he did so, the back of the shop made a loud sound, like small
cannon shots, then a horde of men without faces erupted into the shop.
Johnnie glanced around, not sure if he could handle all of
them, and then spotted a Bic on the employee's counter. He grabbed it, flicked
it, and then lit the ripped pages. The men without faces closed in on them from
all directions. "You're the one. You will come with us!" They all
spoke in unison as they closed in.
"Not likely." Johnnie said.
"Cartoon."
She took the burning pages and tossed them into the horde.
They all screamed horribly as they caught fire, burning as furiously as the
comic book pages.
In moments there was nothing left, but piles of smoking red
ash.
Then the fire alarm blasted and water began pouring from
above.
=======================================================
Later as he and Cartoon walked home to his apartment, she
stopped him, alarmed at his silence. "You were hurt, weren't you?"
He looked at her and wiped a tear from one of his eyes.
"Yeah. Big time."
"Anything I can do to help?"
"Only if you can replace the Number One copy of Batman,
Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and a ton of other oldies but goodies that got washed
into oblivion by the sprinklers.
They continued towards his apartment, she in amazement at
how such trivial things could wound him, and he trying to figure out why he was
cursed with bringing pain and suffering to all comic book lovers and death and
dying to real people at the same time, while he transformed into various Comic
Book heroes or with their powers. It didn't make any sense, and then he relaxed
as Cartoon pulled him around and leaned into him, fixing a bright kiss on his lips.
"Cheer up, Johnnie, its only paper."
"So were you once." He said.
She smiled. "Was I?" She asked and got in the last
word, leaving him stunned and amused at his good fortune to be in love with
such a cool girl.
Dick Tracy vs. Crime, Inc. - Chapter 1 (1941 Serial)
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A criminal mastermind named The Ghost uses an invisibility device to kill Stephen Chandler, the third death belonging to the Secret Council that runs much of America. The Ghost then kidnaps a Geologist named Martin who reveals how to enundate New York city in a powerful tidal wave. Tracy is able to rescue Martin and prevents New York's destruction by crashing his plane into the tidal wave bomber flown by henchman Lucifer.
Dick Tracy the Movie, 1945
From Wikipedia:
Dick Tracy is a comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy[1]), a square-jawed, hard-hitting, fast-shooting, intelligent police detective. Created by Chester Gould, the strip made its debut on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror.[2] It was distributed by theChicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977.[2] Since that time, various artists and writers have continued the strip, which still runs in newspapers today. Dick Tracy has also been the hero in a number of films, notably one in whichWarren Beatty played the crime fighter.1.6 Plenty family1.7 Crimestoppers' Textbook1.8 Later years
Comic strip[edit]
Characters and story[edit]
 | The neutrality of this section is disputed. (May 2013) |
Although stories often end in gunfights, Tracy uses forensic science, advanced gadgetry, and wits, in an early example of the police procedural mystery story. Stories typically follow a criminal committing a crime and Tracy's relentless pursuit of the criminal. The strip's most popular villain was Flattop Jones, a freelance hitman hired by black marketeers to murder Tracy. When Flattop was killed, fans went into public mourning, and the Flattop Story was reprinted in DC's series of Oversize Comic Reprints in the 1970s[citation needed]. Reflecting film noir, the villains' small crimes led to bigger, out of control situations. Similarly, innocent witnesses were frequently killed, and Tracy's paramour Tess Trueheart was often endangered by the villains. As the story progressed, Tracy adopted an orphan under the name, Dick Tracy Jr., or "Junior" for short, who appeared in investigations until becoming a police forensic artist in his father's precinct, and cultivated a professional partner, the ex-steel worker Pat Patton, who gradually became a detective of skill and courage enough to satisfy Tracy's requirements.
 | This section possibly contains original research. (November 2014) |
Tracy characters were often caricatures of celebrities. Most famous of these was Breathless Mahoney, modeled after Lauren Bacall. Likewise, B.O. Plenty was inspired by George "Gabby" Hayes (with perhaps a nod to Al St. John also), Vitamin Flintheart by John Barrymore and Spike Dyke by Spike Jones. Others include villains like Rughead (Robert Montgomery), Oodles (Jackie Gleason) and Mumbles (Bing Crosby). Gould even parodied himself as the out-of-shape Pear Shape![citation needed]
Evolution of the strip[edit]
On January 13, 1946,[3] The 2-Way Wrist Radio, worn as a wristwatch by Tracy and members of the police force, became one of the strip's most immediately recognizable icons, and may have inspired later smartwatches. The 2-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a 2-Way Wrist TV in 1964. This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment. In a conspicuous coincidence, the idea of a radio built into a wrist watch played an important role in the story line of "Superman – The Talking Cat" broadcast on the Mutual Broadcasting System on January 9 through 28, 1946 (episodes 878 through 891).
In late 1948, a botched security detail led to the death of the semi-regular character Brilliant, the blind inventor of the 2-Way Wrist Radio (among other devices); whereupon Chief Brandon, Dick Tracy's superior on the police force and a presence in the strip since 1931, resigned in shame, and Pat Patton, heretofore Tracy's buffoonish partner, was promoted to police chief in Brandon's place. To take Patton's place as Tracy's sidekick, a new character, Sam Catchem, was introduced.
The 1950s[edit]
Gould introduced topical story lines about television, juvenile delinquency, graft, organized crime, and other developments in American life during the 1950s; and elements of soap opera depicted Dick, Tess, and Junior (along with the Tracys' baby daughter, Bonnie Braids), at home as a family. Depictions of family life alternated with the story's crime drama, as in the kidnapping of Bonnie Braids by fugitive Crewy Lou, or Junior's girlfriend, Model, being accidentally killed by her brother.
Gould incurred some controversy when he had Tracy, on a police officer's salary, live in an unaccountably ostentatious manner, and responded with a story wherein Tracy was accused of corruption and had to explain the origin of his possessions in detail. In his book-length examination of the strip, Dick Tracy – The Official Biography, Jay Maeder suggested that Gould's critics were unsatisfied by his explanation. Nevertheless, the controversy eventually faded, and the cartoonist reduced exposure to Tracy's home life.
With the exception of The Big Boy, the strip's first villain, a fictionalized version of Al Capone, and a few others, Tracy's cases incriminated independent operators rather than organized crime. In the 1950s, after events like the Kefauver Hearings, Tracy opposed a series of big-time mobsters such as the King, George "Mr. Crime" Alpha, Odds Zonn, and Willie "The Fifth" Millyun. As Tess faded into the background, Tracy assumed as assistant, the rookie policewoman Lizz Worthington.
From 1956 to 1964, the Dick Tracy Sunday page was accompanied by a topper humor strip called The Gravies and drawn by Gould and his assistants.
Space period[edit]
As technology progressed, the methods Tracy and the police used to track and capture criminals took the form of increasingly fanciful atomic-powered gadgets developed by Diet Smith Industries. This eventually led to the 1960s advent of the Space Coupe, a spacecraft with a magnetic propulsion system. This marked the beginning of the strip's "Space Period," which saw Tracy and friends having adventures on the Moon and meeting Moon Maid, the daughter of the leader of a race of humanoid people living in "Moon Valley" in 1964. After an eventual sharing of technological information, Moon technology became standard issue on Tracy's police force, including air cars, flying cylindrical vehicles. The villains became even more exaggerated in power, resulting in an escalating series of stories that no longer resembled the urban crime drama roots of the strip. During this period, Tracy met famed cartoonist Chet Jade, creator of the comic strip Sawdust, in which the only characters are talking dots.
One of the new characters, Mr. Intro, was only manifested as a disembodied voice. His goal was world domination in the vein of aJames Bond villain. Tracy eventually used an atomic laser beam to annihilate Intro and his island base.
Junior married Moon Maid in October 1964. Their daughter, Honey Moon Tracy, had antennae and magnetic hands. In the spring of 1969, Tracy was offered the post of Chief of Police in Moon Valley. However, Tracy ended up back on Earth when the Apollo 11mission in 1969 showed that the moon was barren of all life. Many of the accoutrements of the space period stories, such as the Space Coupe and much of the high-tech gadgetry, remained for many years afterward. Moon Maid receded from the storyline.
The stories of this period took an increasingly condemnatory tone pertaining to contemporary court decisions concerning the rights of the accused, which often involved Tracy being frustrated by legal technicalities. For example, having caught a gang of diamond thieves red-handed, Tracy was forced to let them walk because he could not prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that the diamonds were stolen. As he saw the thieves get off without penalty, Tracy was heard to grumble, "Yes, under today's interpretation of the laws, it seems it's the police who are handcuffed!"
1970s[edit]
In the 1970s, Gould modernized Tracy by giving him a longer hair style and mustache, and added a hippie sidekick, Groovy Grove. Groovy's first appearance in print, as it happened, occurred during the same week as the Kent State shootings. Groovy remained with the strip, off and on until his death in 1984.
Shortly before his retirement, Gould drew a strip in which Sam, Lizz, and Groovy held Tracy down to shave off his mustache.
At this time, the standard publication size and space of newspaper comics was sharply reduced; for example, the Dick TracySunday strip, which had traditionally been a full-page episode containing 12 panels, was cut in size to a half-page format that offered, at most, eight panels—these new restrictions created challenges for all comic artists.
In one of Max Allan Collins' first stories as the strip's writer, the gangster known as "Big Boy", whose gang members had killed Tess Trueheart's father years ago, learned that he was dying and had less than a year to live. Big Boy, still seeking revenge on the plainclothesman who sent him up the river, wanted to live just long enough to see Tracy's death. He put out an open contract on Tracy's head worth one million dollars, knowing that every small-time hood in the City would take a crack at the famous cop for that amount of money. One of the would-be collectors rigged Tracy's car to explode, but inadvertently killed Moon Maid instead of Tracy in the explosion. A funeral strip for Moon Maid explicitly stated that this officially severed all ties between Earth and the Moon in the strip,[4] thus eliminating the last remnants of the Space Period. Honey Moon received a new hairstyle that covered her antennae, and was ultimately phased out of the strip. Junior later married Sparkle Plenty (the daughter of B.O. and Gravel Gertie Plenty), and had a daughter named Sparkle Plenty Jr. In the 1990s, Tracy's own son, Joseph Flintheart Tracy, took on a role similar to Junior's in the earlier strips. During the late 1970s the strip was thought to have been drawn by a few other artists due to an ailing Gould.[citation needed]
Plenty family[edit]
The Plenty family was a group of goofy redneck yokels headed by the former villain, Bob Oscar ("B.O."), along with Gertrude ("Gravel Gertie") Plenty. Gravel Gertie was introduced as the unwitting dupe (accessory) of the villain, The Brow, who was on the run from Dick Tracy. The family provided a humorous counterpoint to Tracy's adventures. The Plenty sub-story was decades long, and saw Sparkle Plenty grow from an infant to a young married lady, eventually becoming a beautiful fashion model. Sparkle Plenty's May 30, 1947, birth became a significant mainstream media event, with spinoff merchandising and magazine coverage.[5]
The Plenty family appeared with Tracy in a story that occurred in a bank, where "B.O." found a way to prevent thieves from snatching an envelope of money from a counter.
In the April 24, 2011 strip, B.O. and Gertie had a second child, Attitude,[6] a boy who is as ugly as Sparkle is beautiful. His face has yet to be shown.
Crimestoppers' Textbook[edit]
Beginning in the early 1950s, the Sunday strip included a frame devoted to a page from the "Crimestoppers' Textbook", a series of handy illustrated hints for the amateur crime-fighter. This was named after a short-lived youth group seen in the strip during the late 1940s, led by Junior Tracy, called "Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers." This feature ended when Gould retired from the strip in 1977, but Max Allan Collins reinstated it, and it is still part of the comic strip. After Gould's retirement, Collins initially replaced the Textbook with "Dick Tracy's Rogues Gallery," a salute to memorable Tracy villains of the past.
Later years[edit]
Chester Gould retired from comics in 1977; his last Dick Tracy strip appeared in print on Sunday, December 25 of that year. The following Monday, Dick Tracy was taken over by Max Allan Collins and longtime Gould assistant Rick Fletcher. Gould's name remained in the byline for a few years after his retirement as a story consultant.
Collins wrote the 1978 death of Moon Maid, and removed other Gould creations of the 1960s and 1970s (including Groovy Grove, who was gravely wounded in the line of duty and later died in the hospital; Lizz married him before his death). Collins took a generally less cynical view of the justice system than Gould—Tracy came to accept its limitations and requirements as a normal part of the process he could manage. Extreme technology, such as the Space Coupe, were phased out in favor of more realistic advanced tools such as the 2-Way Wrist Computer in 1987.
New semi-regular characters introduced by Collins and Fletcher included: Dr. Will Carver, a plastic surgeon with underworld ties who often worked on known felons; Wendy Wichel, a smarmy newspaper reporter/editorialist with a strong anti-Tracy bias in her articles; and Lee Ebony, an African-American female detective. Vitamin Flintheart, the aged ham actor created by Gould in 1944, who had not been seen in the strip for almost three decades, reappeared occasionally as a comic-relief figure. The Plenty family (B.O., Gravel Gertie, and Sparkle) were also brought back as semi-regulars as well; following the death of Moon Maid, Junior and Sparkle were married, and soon gave birth to their own daughter, Sparkle Plenty, Jr.
Original villains seen during this period included Angeltop (revenge-seeking, psychopathic daughter of the slain Flattop), Torcher (whose scheme was arson-for-profit), and Splitscreen (a video pirate). Collins brought back at least one "classic" Gould villain, or revenge-seeking family member, per year. The revived Gould villains were often provided with full names, and marriages, children, and other family connections were developed, bringing more humanity to many of the originally grotesque brutes. "Flattop", particularly, had a number of relatives, all with his characteristic head structure and facial attributes, who one by one turned up to avenge their ancestor on Tracy.
Rick Fletcher died in 1983 and was succeeded by editorial cartoonist Dick Locher, who had assisted Gould on the strip in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Locher was assisted by his son John, who died in 1986.
In 1992, following a financial reorganization of their comic strip holdings, Max Allan Collins was fired from the strip, and Tribune staff writer and columnist Mike Kilian took over the writing. Kilian was paid less than half of what Collins was making per strip[citation needed], but continued until his death on October 27, 2005. Locher was both author and artist for over three years, beginning on January 9, 2006. On March 16, 2009, Jim Brozman began collaborating with Locher, taking over the drawing duties while Locher continued to write the strip.[7]
In 2005, Tracy was a guest at Blondie and Dagwood's 75th anniversary party in the comic strip Blondie. Later, Dick Tracy appeared in the comic strip Gasoline Alley.
On January 19, 2011, Tribune Media Services announced that Locher was retiring from the strip and handing the reins to artist Joe Staton and writer Mike Curtis.[8][9] The new creative team has previously worked together on Scooby Doo, Richie Rich, and Casper the Friendly Ghost.[10] Their first Dick Tracy strip was published March 14, 2011. Staton and Curtis are assisted by Shelley Pleger, who inks and letters Staton's drawings, along with Shane Fisher, who provides the coloring on the Sunday strips, and Chicago-area policeman Jim Doherty, who provides "Crimestopper" captions for the Sunday strips, and acts as the feature's technical advisor. Doherty also introduced a new feature, "Tracy's Hall of Fame" (which replaces the "Crimestopper" panel approximately once each month), in which a real-life police officer is profiled and honored.
They went on to reintroduce many of the characters of the forties through the sixties, including Mr. Crime and a reformed Mole, while introducing more deformed and grotesque villains like Abner Kadaver, Panda, and The Jumbler. They have also, starting in early 2013, brought back all the gadgets and plot elements of the 1960s space era. They have also done crossovers, with cameos from Popeye and Brenda Starr, and a long sequence involving Little Orphan Annie.
Awards and honors[edit]
The Mystery Writers of America honored Gould and his work with a Special Edgar Award in 1980. This was the first time MWA ever honored a comic strip.
In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps and postcards.[11]
On May 2, 2011, the Tennessee Senate passed Resolution 30, congratulating Mike Curtis and Joe Staton on their professional accomplishments, including Dick Tracy.
On September 7, 2013, at the Baltimore Comics Convention, Dick Tracy was awarded the Harvey in the "Best Syndicated Strip or Panel" category. Tracy was simultaneously the oldest continually running strip, and the first adventure strip ever to win the Harvey Award in this category.[12] On September 6, 2014, Tracy was awarded a second Harvey Award in the newspaper strip category, becoming one of only three strips to win in this category in consecutive years.
Other media depictions[edit]
Radio[edit]
Dick Tracy had a long run on radio, from 1934 weekdays on NBC's New England stations to the ABC network in 1948. Bob Burlen was the first radio Tracy in 1934, and others heard in the role during the 1930s and 1940s were Barry Thomson, Ned Wever and Matt Crowley. The early shows all had 15-minute episodes.
On CBS, with Sterling Products as sponsor, the serial aired four times a week from February 4, 1935 to July 11, 1935, moving to Mutual from September 30, 1935 to March 24, 1937 with Bill McClintock doing the sound effects. NBC's weekday afternoon run from January 3, 1938 to April 28, 1939 had sound effects by Keene Crockett and was sponsored by Quaker Oats, which brought Dick Tracy into primetime (Saturdays at 7 pm and, briefly, Mondays at 8 pm) with 30-minute episodes from April 29, 1939 to September 30, 1939. The series returned to 15-minute episodes on the ABC Blue Network from March 15, 1943 to July 16, 1948, sponsored by Tootsie Roll, which used the music theme of "Toot Toot, Tootsie" for its 30-minute Saturday ABC series from October 6, 1945 to June 1, 1946. Sound effects on ABC were supplied by Walt McDonough and Al Finelli.
Directors of the series included Mitchell Grayson, Charles Powers and Bob White. Cast members at various times included Walter Kinsella as Pat Patton, Helen Lewis as Tess Trueheart and Andy Donnelly and Jackie Kelk as Junior Tracy. Announcers were Ed Herlihy and Dan Seymour.
On July 8, 1945, during a New York newspaper deliverers' strike, New York mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia read a complete Dick Tracy strip over the radio.
The beginning of the May 1, 1945 episode ("The Case of the Empty Safe") was interrupted on the Blue Network for a "special news flash" relating that Adolf Hitler had "died of a stroke." Copies of this episode, complete with the mistaken news flash—Hitler had committed suicide the day before, not died of a stroke—still exist today. (See: Death of Adolf Hitler.)
On Feb.15, 1945, Command Performance broadcast the musical comedy Dick Tracy in B-Flat with Bing Crosby as Tracy, Bob Hope as Flattop, Dinah Shore as Tess Trueheart, among the cast. Dick Tracy's wedding is repeatedly interrupted as Tracy chases after one villain after another. In the strip, his marriage wasn't until 1950 and his honeymoon was disrupted by his going after Wormy.
Recordings[edit]
Jim Ameche portrayed Tracy in a two-record set recorded by Mercury Records in 1947. The record sleeves were illustrated with Sunday strips reprinted in black-and-white for children to color.[13]
Film serials[edit]
Dick Tracy made his film debut in Dick Tracy (1937), a 15-chapter movie serial by Republic Pictures starring Ralph Byrd.[14] The Spider Gang was on the loose, tired of Dick Tracy's cunning skills. Through the 15-chapter serial, 15 different cases were solved, all plots by the Spider Gang. Dick Tracy was also in search for his missing brother, Gordon Tracy (Carleton Young). The Dick Tracy character proved very popular, and a second serial, Dick Tracy Returns, appeared in 1938 (reissued in 1948). Dick Tracy's G-Men was released in 1939 (reissued in 1955). The last was Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. in 1941 (reissued as Dick Tracy vs. the Phantom Empire in 1952).
The sequels were produced under an interpretation of the contract for the first Dick Tracy serial, which gave license for "a series or serial". As a result, Chester Gould received no further money for the sequel serials.
In these serials, Dick Tracy is portrayed as an FBI agent, or "G-Man", based in California, rather than as a detective in the police force of a Midwestern city resembling Chicago, and, aside from himself and Junior, no characters from the strip appear in any of the four films.
However, comic relief sidekick "Mike McGurk" bears some resemblance to Tracy's partner from the strip, Pat Patton; Tracy's secretary, Gwen Andrews (played by several actresses in the course of the series, including Jennifer Jones under a variation of her real name, Phyllis Isley), provides the same kind of feminine interest as Tess Trueheart; and FBI Director Clive Anderson (Francis X. Bushman and others) is the same kind of avuncular superior as Chief Brandon.
Early feature films[edit]
Six years after the release of the final Republic serial, Dick Tracy headlined four feature films, produced by RKO Radio Pictures. Dick Tracy (aka Dick Tracy, Detective) (1945) was followed by Dick Tracy vs. Cueball in 1946, both with Morgan Conway as Tracy. Ralph Byrd returned for the last two features, both released in 1947: Dick Tracy's Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome. Gruesome is probably the best known of the four, with the villain portrayed by Boris Karloff. All four movies had many of the visual features associated with film noir: dramatic, shadowy photographic compositions, with many exterior scenes filmed at night (at the RKO Encino movie ranch). Lyle Latell co-starred in all four films as Pat Patton. Anne Jeffreys played Tess Trueheart in the first two, succeeded by Kay Christopher and finally Anne Gwynne; Ian Keith joined the cast as the actor Vitamin Flintheart for two films; Joseph Crehan played Chief Brandon. RKO stocked the films with familiar faces, creating a veritable rogues' gallery of characters: Mike Mazurki as Splitface, Dick Wessel as Cueball, Esther Howard as Filthy Flora, Jack Lambert as hook-handed villain The Claw; baldheaded, pop-eyed Milton Parsons, mild-mannered Byron Foulger, dangerous Trevor Bardette, pockmarked, gently sinister Skelton Knaggs.
Television[edit]
The strip has had limited exposure on television with one early live-action series, two animated series, one unsold pilot that was never picked up, and a proposed TV series currently held up in litigation.
First live-action series[edit]
Ralph Byrd, who had played the square-jawed sleuth in all four Republic movie serials, and in two of the RKO feature-length films, reprised his role in a short-lived live-action Dick Tracyseries that ran on ABC from 1950 to 1951. Additional episodes intended for first-run syndication continued to be produced into 1952. Produced by P. K. Palmer, who also wrote many of the scripts, the series often featured Gould-created villains such as Flattop, Shaky, the Mole, Breathless Mahoney, Heels Beals, and Influence, all of whom appeared on film for the first time on this series. Other cast members included Joe Devlin as Sam Catchem, Angela Greene as Tess Tracy (née Trueheart), Martin Dean as Junior, and Pierre Watkin as Chief Patton. Criticized for its violence, the series remained popular. It ended, not in response to criticism, but because of Byrd's unexpected, premature death in 1952. The series was filmed on a low budget, with many long hours and a rushed shooting schedule. Many episodes of this series have been released on various Public Domain TV Detective DVD sets.
Animated cartoons[edit]
Main article: The Dick Tracy Show
In the first cartoon series, produced from 1960 to 1961 by UPA, Tracy employed a series of cartoon-like subordinate flatfoots to fight crime each week, contacting them on his two-way wrist radio. Everett Sloane voiced Tracy and supporting characters and villains were voiced by Jerry Hausner, Mel Blanc,Benny Rubin, Johnny Coons, Paul Frees and others. These subordinates included "Go-Go" Gomez, Joe Jitsu, Hemlock Holmes and Heap O'Calorie. 130 five-minute cartoons were designed and packaged for syndication, usually intended for local children's shows.
Since UPA was also the production company behind the Mr. Magoo cartoons, it was possible for them to arrange a meeting between Tracy and Magoo in a 1965 episode of the season-long TV series The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo. In that episode, "Dick Tracy and the Mob," Tracy persuades Magoo (a well-known actor in the context of the Famous Adventures series) to impersonate an international hit man whom he resembles, and infiltrate a gang of criminals made up of Flattop, Pruneface, Itchy, Mumbles and others. Unlike the earlier animated Tracy shorts, this longer episode was played relatively straight, with Tracy getting much more screen time. Pitting Tracy against a coalition of several of his foes would be adopted more than two decades later in the 1990 filmmentioned below.
A second cartoon series, produced in 1971, was a feature in Archie's TV Funnies, produced by Filmation, which adhered more closely to the comic strip although hampered by cruder animation, typical of the studio's production standards, than the UPA shorts.
Live-action television pilot[edit]
In 1967, William Dozier, the producer responsible for the 1966 Batman television series, produced a pilot for a live-action Dick Tracy series, starring Ray MacDonnell in the title role. While the quality of the pilot ("The Plot To Kill NATO", featuring "Special Guest Villain" Victor Buono as 'Mr. Memory') was slightly above-average, the series was not purchased by either ABC orNBC as ratings for the Batman series were dropping, and a similar series featuring The Green Hornet had recently flopped. To the networks, the "Hero Camp" or Batmania craze was dying, and they chose not to take a risk on another series.
The pilot is notable for the non-appearance of the future Jan Brady (Eve Plumb) as Bonnie Braids. Although cast in the role, she only appears in the title credits at the opening of the show.
1990 film[edit]
Main article: Dick Tracy (1990 film)
In 1990, Warren Beatty directed and starred as the title character in a live action all-star cast film, along with Al Pacino, Dustin Hoffman, and Madonna.
Comic books[edit]
Tracy made his first comic book appearance in 1936 as one of the features included in the first issue of Dell's Popular Comics. As would be the case with most Tracy comic book appearances, these would be reprints from the newspaper strip, reconfigured to fit the pages of a comic book. Tracy would remain a regular feature in Popular Comics through the publication's 21st issue.
The first comic book to feature Tracy exclusively was the Dick Tracy Feature Book, published in May 1937 by David McKay Publications. McKay's Feature Books were magazines that rotated several popular characters from comics strips through 1938. Three more of McKay's Feature Books starred Tracy in the following months.
In 1939, Dell started a comic magazine series called "Black and White Comics," essentially identical to McKay's "Feature Books." Six of the 15 issues featured Tracy. In 1941, Dell's "Black and White" series was replaced by the "Large Feature Books," the third issue of which featured Tracy. As with the McKay series, the Dell "Black and White" and "Large Feature" series were abridged reprints of the strip.
In 1938, Tracy became one of several regular newspaper strips featured in Dell's regular monthly Super Comics, remaining a regular part of that publication until 1948. In 1939, Tracy was the sole feature in the very first issue of Dell's Four-Color Comics, which put out over 1300 issues starring hundreds of characters between 1939 and 1962. Tracy was featured in seven more Four-Color issues throughout the 1940s.
Tracy was frequently featured in comic books used as promotional items by various companies. In 1947, for example, Sig Feuchtwanger produced a comic book that was a giveaway prize in boxes of Quaker Puffed Wheat cereal, sponsor of the popular Dick Tracy radio series.
In January 1948, Dell began the first regular Dick Tracy comic book series, Dick Tracy Monthly. This series ultimately ran for 145 issues, the first 24 of which were published by Dell, after which it was picked up by Harvey Comics. Continuing the same numbering, Harvey published the series until 1961. As with most previous Tracy comic book incarnations, these were, with the exception of the last few Dell issues which featured original material, slightly abridged and reconfigured reprints of the newspaper strips.
Dick Tracy was revived in 1986 by Blackthorne Publishing and ran for 99 issues. Disney produced a series of three issues as a tie-in for their 1990 film. This miniseries, True Hearts and Tommy Guns, was drawn by Kyle Baker and edited by Len Wein. The third issue was a direct adaptation of the film.
Recent events[edit]
Media outlets reported a legal battle being waged over rights to the Dick Tracy character. Warren Beatty announced plans to make a sequel to his 1990 movie. At the same time, television producers announced plans for a new Dick Tracy TV series. Both sides claimed that they were the legal owners of the rights to Dick Tracy. In May 2005, Beatty sued the Tribune Company, claiming he has owned the rights to the Dick Tracy character since 1985.[15] Pressure from Beatty led to the cancellation of a proposed collaboration between artist Mike Oeming and writer Brian Bendis on a new serialized Dick Tracy comic.[16]
The lawsuit was resolved in Beatty's favor, with a US District judge ruling that Beatty did everything contractually required of him to keep the rights to the character.[17]
Books[edit]
Over the years, many reprints of Dick Tracy newspaper strips have been published. Beginning in 2007, IDW Publishing reprinted the complete strip in hardcover volumes. Other collections include:[18]
- The Exploits of Dick Tracy, Detective: The Case of the Brow. Rosdon, hardcover, 1946.
- The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, 1931–1951. Chelsea House, hardcover, 1970
- Dick Tracy: The Thirties—Tommy Guns and Hard Times. Chelsea House, hardcover, 1978.
- Dick Tracy: His Greatest Cases, No. 1—Pruneface. Gold Medal, paperback, 1975.
- Dick Tracy: His Greatest Cases, No. 2—Snowflake and Shaky plus The Black Pearl. Gold Medal, paperback, 1975.
- Dick Tracy: His Greatest Cases, No. 3—Mrs. Pruneface plus Crime, Inc.. Gold Medal, paperback, 1975.
Other editions:[18]
- The first Big Little Book was a Dick Tracy title and many subsequent ones in the series followed. Some were reprintings of newspaper strips and some alternate between text and original black-and white drawings.[19]
- Dick Tracy and The Spider Gang, a novelization of the Republic serial, Big Little Book #1446, the pages alternate between text and black-and-white photos from the movies.
- Dick Tracy, Ace Detective. Whitman, hardcover, 1943.
- Dick Tracy Meets The Night Crawler. Whitman, hardcover, 1945.
- Dick Tracy and the Woo Woo Sisters, Dell, un-numbered paperback with a pictorial back cover but not a mapback, 1947.
Filmography[edit]
- Dick Tracy (1937, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy (1937, watch the serial, 15 episode serial, starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy (1937, feature version of the above serial, starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy Returns (1938 serial, 15 episodes starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc.(1941, serial, 15 episodes, starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy (1945, film starring Morgan Conway)
- Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946, film starring Morgan Conway)
- Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947, film starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947, film starring Ralph Byrd)
- Dick Tracy (1950–1951, live action television series starring Ralph Byrd)
- The Dick Tracy Show (1961, animated television series with voices including Everett Sloane and Mel Blanc)
- The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo, "Dick Tracy and the Mob" (1965 animated half-hour TV episode with the voices of Everett Sloane and Jim Backus)
- Dick Tracy (1967, television pilot starring Ray McDonnell)
- Archie's T.V. Funnies, Dick Tracy episode, 1971
- Dick Tracy (1990, film starring Warren Beatty and Madonna)
Licensed products[edit]
In the 1960s, Aurora produced a plastic model kit of Dick Tracy sliding down a fire escape ladder into an alley, in hot pursuit with gun drawn. A Dick Tracy Space Coupe model came next. Also in the market were Mattel's Dick Tracy range of toy weapons.[20]
In 1990, Playmates Toys released a line of action figures called Dick Tracy: Coppers and Gangsters to coincide with the Dick Tracy movie. The figures were 5" tall, stylized with exaggerated comicy looks and came with lots of accessories.[21] Two figures in the line had limited availability; Steve the Tramp (called "The Tramp" on the package front) was pulled from the assortment after complaints of portrayal of a homeless person as a criminal. The figure of "The Blank" was added to the assortment well after the film's release to keep the secret of the identity of the character. As a result, only limited quantities made it to store shelves.
The Dick Tracy video game was developed by Titus Software in 1990. It was ported to many platforms including Amiga, Commodore and MS-DOS. Dick Tracy is a side scrolling action shooting game. Player controls Dick Tracy through five stages.[22]
There were also games made for the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990), Sega Master System (1990), Sega Genesis (1990), and the Game Boy (1991).[23]
In 2009, Shocker Toys released a monochromatic Dick Tracy action figure as an exclusive product for the San Diego Comic-Con. The figure appears in a suit with two-way wrist radio. There was also a variant figure released of Dick Tracy in his signature trench coat and fedora with a tommy gun accessory.[24]
In popular culture[edit]
- The superhero The Tick had several villains that made fun of the disfigurements of Dick Tracy villains, including Chairface.
- The artist Jess Collins used an X-Acto knife and rubber cement to reassemble Gould's strip into Tricky Cad. Gould threatened to sue if the Tricky Cad collages were published.[25]
- In Al Capp's satiric comic strip Li'l Abner, there was a long-running parody of Dick Tracy called Fearless Fosdick. An intermittent, strip-within-the-strip feature in Li'l Abner, Fosdicklampooned every aspect of Dick Tracy—from Fosdick's impossibly square-jawed profile to his propensity for bullet-riddled "ventilation." The style of the Fosdick sequences closely burlesqued Tracy, complete with outrageous villains, ludicrously satirical plotlines, and ramped-up cartoon violence. Whatever Capp really thought of Dick Tracy, he was always careful to praise Gould and his strip in conversation and in print, invariably referring to it as "Chester Gould's magnificent Dick Tracy."
- On February 15, 1945, Command Performance presented "Dick Tracy in B Flat," or "For Goodness Sakes, Isn't He Ever Going To Marry Tess Trueheart?" Billed as "the world's first comic strip operetta", it starred Bing Crosby as Dick Tracy, Dinah Shore as Tess Trueheart, and Bob Hope as Flattop Jones. The cast also included Jerry Colonna (police chief), Frank Morgan (Vitamin Flintheart), Jimmy Durante (The Mole), Judy Garland (Snowflake Falls), The Andrews Sisters (The Summer Sisters—May, June & July), Frank Sinatra (Shaky), Cass Daley (Gravel Gertie), and Harry Von Zell (narrator).The storyline has Dick Tracy's wedding with Tess Trueheart repeatedly interrupted by major villains putting Tracy in elaborate deathtraps.
- Dick Tracy is also spoofed in the comic strip Red Meat by Max Cannon. The character of Stacy is a down on his luck alcoholic kicked off the force.
- A classic Warner Bros. cartoon with Daffy Duck called The Great Piggy Bank Robbery spoofed Dick Tracy as "Duck Twacy". The cartoon was directed by WB legend Bob Clampett in 1946. Daffy wore Dick's yellow hat again in a Tiny Toons episode where Plucky Duck becomes the protagonist of a Dick-Tracy-themed dream sequence just like Daffy did in TGPBR. Also, in Easter Yeggs, Elmer Fudd says "I can't miss with my Dick Twacy hat!"
- The "Crimestopper's Textbook" was parodied in two editions of The Stan Freberg Show in 1957, both in a discussion sketch called "Face the Funnies." In the first, a self-proclaimedDick Tracy expert (voiced by Daws Butler) advised, "If vandals kidnap you, look for fingerprints on or about your person." In the second example, Butler said, "If someone shoots you in the chest, extract the bullet and look for small tell-tale bore markings on the slug, and then call a doctor."
- Mad once eulogized Tracy as having died from lead poisoning, which resulted from being shot in the left shoulder 47 times (noting Gould's repeatedly showing Tracy being wounded in that spot). Other issues of Mad showed Tracy identifying Pruneface despite a facelift (by viewing his still-wrinkled buttocks), or ranting in Doonesbury style about changing trends in police procedures. (In the latter, Junior suggests "There's always the CIA!") A parody of the 1990 film was also made, where Warren Beatty's Tracy is killed in the end by the Blank, who reveals himself to be the original comic-style Dick Tracy.
- In issue No. 5, October/November 1954, Mad's sister magazine, Panic, ran a full-length Tracy parody titled "Tick Dracy."
- Parody show Robot Chicken recently parodied the Dick Tracy strips labeling of villains based on their facial features. Tracy nicknames everybody, in an insulting way. It's later revealed that Tracy himself is named Dick because his head looks like the head of a penis.
- Parodying a period when Tracy was blind, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Underground comix books featured Tricky Prickears, a very conservative blind and deaf detective. These comic-within-a comic episodes appeared under the heading Crime Stoppers, Mein Kampf.
- Maxwell House's 'hug-a-mug' 80's TV commercials sometimes featured cartoon Dick Tracy cameos, including one where he's sitting at a live action diner counter along with some live action cops. As Tracy raises his coffee mug, his wrist radio sounds. He tilts his wrist to listen, only to have the coffee spill to the amusement of the cops.
- The February 1949 issue of The Yale Record (cover titled Record Comics) contains several full-color comics parodies, including the Dick Tracy parody called "Hotshot Stacy". In this two-page feature, the detective pursues "The Head", a man with a giant egg-shaped head, and corners him at the head, literally, an outhouse. During the strip, The Head puts "Bright Boy" through a meat grinder. The art is signed by Sylvester Goul, in the style of Chester Gould's signature. The whole magazine is a precursor to the comics parodies in early issues ofMad.
- In 1960, American Pop artist Andy Warhol made several paintings, each called Dick Tracy, reproducing Gould's hero in a faux Abstract Expressionist style.
- In the 80's, Spanish cartoonist Marti Riera updated the style with his graphic pastiche "The Cabbie", an even grittier take on Dick Tracy's world.[26]
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