  | Book Details Title: Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy Volume 27 |
Book DescriptionAbout the Author Chester Gould (1900-1985) was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, the son of a newspaperman and grandson of a circuit-riding preacher. He attended Oklahoma A&M (now Oklahoma State University) before transferring to Northwestern University in Chicago, from which he graduated in 1923. He produced the minor comic strips Fillum Fables and The Radio Catts before striking it big with Dick Tracy in 1931. Originally titled Plainclothes Tracy, the rechristened strip became one of the most successful and lauded comic strips of all time, as well as a media and merchandising sensation. He was twice accorded the “Cartoonist of the Year” Reuben Award by his peers. Gould continued to write and illustrate Dick Tracy until his retirement in 1977. Read more Customers Review: If Chester Gould were alive today, I am quite sure he would be an ardent Trump supporter. This was a man who was an unapologetic supporter of Richard Nixon during Nixon’s worst moments. There were some very tough years where Gould allowed his personal politics to spill into his comics and things got ugly enough that newspapers were dropping the strip. Not only did Gould express his fascist views and dreams of a police state in private, he basically turned Dick Tracy and Chief Patton into fascists. If you think I’m exaggerating, I suggest reading volumes 24 and 25. Even Gould’s successor, Max Allan Collins, admitted that Gould had turned Tracy into a fascist. Combine this with Gould’s obsession with the moon and moon people and we have a very bleak period in the history of Dick Tracy.Chester Gould would have been 72 in 1972 and when you’re that age it can be very hard to reverse course but reverse course he did. For the most part, Gould keeps his worst instincts private even though crimes being investigated by Dick Tracy do tend to end in the deaths of the criminals. It does make for a more exciting story when it ends in a gun battle, so I’ll grant Gould that. Although the moon stuff wasn’t completely eliminated, it was pushed way back even as Dick Tracy would still occasionally use the ridiculous Space Coupe. As Max Collins himself would admit, this definitely is not the best of Chester Gould but it’s also far from the worst. It’s also obvious that Gould has checked out with regards to the current (circa early 70’s) culture. Not only did it feel like these stories could have come from the 40’s or 50’s but Gould seemed to have lost all track of the value of money as he seemed to think a family could be rescued from financial misery with $1000 or a dent in a car could be repaired for $3.Chester Gould has always had some glaring flaws in his writing style, but the guy was a creative genius. Some ideas would work, and some would fail spectacularly. At one point in this volume, Lizz is shown to have ESP and as quickly as she acquires her sixth sense it’s gone, never to be mentioned again. The title of Max Allan Collins introduction is a quote from Chief Patton saying, “I hope we’ve heard the last of Peanutbutter.” This is a reference to the young, crime fighter wannabe, Peanutbutter, who was the latest in a long line of annoying child characters. Peanutbutter does pretty much disappear about halfway through the book but it is amazing how many times Gould would try to create his next Sparkle Plenty.The first memorable villain is The Button, and quite frankly I’m not even sure why he’s called that. This is a throwback story where a villain is captured, escapes and Gould has fun torturing him for an extended period of time. Button is the only villain I can recall that ever escaped twice. We have a villain that is referred to in the introduction as Karate Freak but I’m not sure he’s ever called that in the actual story. The next story involved an arsonist scheme. It’s a very derivative story but quite good. The Rinkles story is interesting but has one series flaw. Grandma Rinkles tries to knock out Lizz and, I assume, decapitate her with guillotine but since the lie detector says she didn’t commit a crime for which she was being investigated she’s let go. The story has all the classic feel of Gould making it up as he goes along. The final story featuring Big Brass is insane but very creative and a lot of fun.What I like about the introductions by Max Allan Collins is his honesty. He was a fan of Chester Gould’s work long before he took over as Gould’s replacement, but he seems to have few illusions about who Gould the man was and where the quality of his work stood. Personally, I find Gould’s politics deplorable, but it’s mostly kept under wraps this time around. There is an occasional mention that when a criminal is killed it saves the taxpayer some money, but this is a far cry from where things were a few years back. Perhaps the worst moment in the entire book is the second to the last strip where a doctor advocates for killing all kidnappers even as the American Medical Association logo hovers over his shoulder. If you can separate the artist from the art, this is one of the best volumes in a long time.
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