Dick Tracy: The Comic Strip That Was Too Violent For Children
By | July 10, 2022
Chester Gould's Dick Tracy. (amazon.com)
The comic strip Dick Tracy, which follows the adventures of the title detective as he works to put an end to organized crime, debuted in 1931 when newspaper reports of criminals like Al Capone and John Dillinger were commonplace. Chester Gould, the creator of Dick Tracy wanted to depict the efforts of police officers, detectives, and federal agents to clean up criminal activity and put the bad guys in jail. However, many people were critical of Dick Tracy when it first came out because, unlike the cheerful and upbeat comic strips of the day, this one was darker and more realistic. Despite this, fans of Dick Tracy have been following the tough-as-nails, square-jawed detective for decades now.
Chester Gould with his most famous cartoon character. (okhistory.org)
Creating a Comic
Chester Gould took one of those correspondence courses you read about in the back of magazines and learned how to draw comics. It helped, of course, that he was a naturally gifted artist. But he learned enough about the ins and out of comic strips to be hired as a cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune in 1931. While employed there, Gould read more and more about the criminal underworld and the role of detectives. He formulated his basic idea for a comic strip that centered on a handsome, Elliot Ness-like detective and his efforts to thwart gangsters, robbers, murderers, and the like.
Gould sent a draft of his comic strip, which he called Plainclothes Tracy, to Chicago Tribune publisher Joseph M. Patterson. Patterson suggested dropping the “Plainclothes” and replacing it with “Dick”. He also suggested that Gould write a backstory for his title character. Gould took both suggestions. The comic strip was renamed Dick Tracy and Gould explained to readers that Tracy joined the police force after the vicious murder of his girlfriend’s father. The revised and polished comic strip was sent out for syndication and made its print debut in the Detroit Mirror on October 4, 1931. It was picked up by other publishers and ran in newspapers around the country.
A Non-Traditional Comic Strip
Most of the popular comic strips of the 1920s and 1930s were much more upbeat and humorous, whereas Dick Tracy could best be described as a drama. This marked the first time that a serious drama comic ran on the funny pages. The comic strip started with a bang … literally. To set up the motivation for Tracy’s unrelenting crime fighting, Gould’s comic strip depicted the very first comic strip murder. In the scene, Jeremiah Trueheart, the father of Tracy’s sweetheart, Tess Trueheart, is gunned down in his own restaurant by crooks in a botched robbery. The death shocked readers, many of whom complained that Dick Tracy was too violent and gruesome for the average reader. Despite these complaints, the comic was an almost instant hit, especially among adult comic strip readers.
Dick Tracy was fairly accurate, except he was ahead of his time with that smartwatch. (amazon)
Those Zany Villains
Chester Gould worried that his readers would get tired of the same criminals in the comic strip. He also believed it reflected poorly on Dick Tracy’s skills as a detective to have the same criminals running around causing trouble instead of being arrested for their crime waves. For those reasons, Gould routinely killed off his bad guys and introduced new ones. Each villain had a colorful and descriptive nickname, often reflecting some quirk or trait. Among the more popular ones were the Mole, the Brow, Flyface, Flattop, and Pruneface. The causes of death for these villains were particularly violent – one was torn apart by a band of rabid dogs, another was boiled alive in a Turkish bath, and another one was impaled on a flagpole. When critics expressed their shock about the violent deaths, Gould reminded them that police officers regularly dead with horrific scenes that are much bloodier than what he included in his comic strip.
Chester Gould Knew His Stuff
Chester Gould’s goal was to make Dick Tracy as realistic as possible. To accomplish this, he stayed abreast of advancements in policing and detective work. He learned the lingo. He even enrolled in real police courses to learn about forensics, fingerprinting, and ballistics. The terms and techniques he incorporated into Dick Tracy were based on actual police work … with two notable exceptions. Police officers of the time did not have wrist watches that allowed them to communicate with others. And, there is still no police force on the Moon.
A boy and a girl sitting on a wall and looking at a comic, USA, circa 1935. The comic features a Dick Tracy story. (Photo by FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images)
The FBI Got Involved
Even though Chester Gould passed away in 1985, the Dick Tracy comic continues on with a new team of creative writers and cartoonists, led by Mike Kilian and Dick Locher. In 1999, the FBI teamed up with Kilian and Locher to profile Most Wanted fugitives in the comic strip. In 2002, they also included missing children. In both cases, Dick Tracy readers were advised to contact the FBI if they knew the whereabouts of the people featured in the comic strip.
American actor, director and producer Warren Beatty on the set of his movie Dick Tracy. (Photo by Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)
Branching Out
The Dick Tracy characters and storylines have branched out from comic strips to nearly every other form of entertainment. There have been movies, television shows, books, radio programs, songs, stage shows, and more. Dick Tracy has tackled many of the tough issues facing today’s police detectives, including police brutality, cybercrimes, and more. It is a testament to the character that Gould created in 1931 that it can stand the test of time.
