Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Four years ago Joe Staton and Mike Curtis took Dick Tracy’s reigns from the retiring hands of Dick Locher and what a thrilling four years it has been. We’ve seen villains new and old, mixed together in original and complex plots that challenge the full detective crew, their friends and family. We’ve seen history and character development that has long been absent and seen crossovers, tributes and homages that help to pull in new fans. Each summer we look forward to the now annual summer blockbuster and subsequent Harvey Award nomination and win. Mike has moved the stalled Dick Tracy story forward with unrestricted direction and purpose and Joe’s artwork far exceeds anything we could have ever hoped for.
On behalf of myself and the Depot (which is myself), a big thank you to my favorite comic strip duo and the whole Dick Tracy team, including Shelley Pleger, Shane Fisher and Jim Doherty. The last four years of skillfully crafted crime fighting adventure have been a pleasure and I fully expect to be celebrating this March 14th anniversary for many years to come.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With the Billion Dollars Limited train carrying the gold reserves of an entire small country scheduled to pass through Dick Tracy’s city I thought it only fitting to link the below Billion Dollars Limited Superman cartoon that Team Tracy is honoring. While I don’t know for certain, I have no doubt this story came out of Mike Curtis’s love of all things Superman.
This cartoon was the third of seventeen animated Technicolor short films featuring DC Comics Superman. This particular story centers around a train carrying one billion dollars in gold to the US mint, which is sabotages by robbers before Superman intervenes. The plot is beginning to sound vaguely familiar! This nine minute cartoon was released by Paramount Pictures in 1942 and can be watched below.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Time for a road trip. Our very own Mike Curtis will be a special guest at the 38th annual Lum & Abner Festival in Mena, Arkansas June 5th and 6th. Mike will be joined by “Snuffy Smith” cartoonist John Rose and Lum & Abner cartoonist Donnie Pitchford at the Ouachita Little Theater from 12-2 on Saturday the 6th.
These special guests and others will help perform a new “Lum and Abner” radio script with several famous characters joining the Lum and Abner cast. It should be a laugh and Mike will be joining the likes of Ned Wever, Matt Crowley and Bing Crosby in voicing our favorite detective. Also of note, Vitamin Flintheart’s adviser, Coffee (who has shown up in Lum and Abner and Gasoline Alley), will be played by the real life Coffee Jeff Sinsley. So if your in the area, mark you calendars.
And, if you need to remind yourself about Lum and Abner, let the experts help….
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Dick Tracy and Sam Catchem’s pursuit of the Billion Dollar Limited train robber Jimmy Choo Shooz is hitting an exciting climax on the shore of Lake Pratchett (we love you Terry!) The drilling rig disaster currently occurring on the beautifully named lake is like a history lesson, reminding us of the 1980 Lake Peigneur mining disaster in which an oil rig punctured the ceiling of a salt mine beneath Peigneur. Like a stopper pulled on a bathtub, the lake drained down a quickly expanding hole, creating a biblical vortex that dragged everything on the lake down with it. If it would have occurred today we’d have some fantastic footage, but alas we must make do with 35 year old coverage. Here’s a short five minute video on the event with the best video I can find.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Also, I want to remind those of you collecting IDW’s Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy books, the volume 18 edition, featuring dates December 15, 1957 through July 11, 1959 is now available for purchase. I’ve already got my hands on it. The collection is finally entering a period of lesser known stories, which I am thoroughly enjoying. IDW’s Volume 19 is available for pre-order on Amazon and the predicted publication date looks to be late September of this year.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Russ Burlingame of ComicBook.com broke the news that Little Orphan Annie will return to Dick Tracy in the near future to help young Honeymoon Tracy deal with bullying. This is a nice move by Curtis and Staton to help bring attention to a real issue for many kids. Anyone who has read Annie understands that the little orphan has dealt with bullies much of her life, making her the perfect guest star for a story of this sort. Russ’s article is a nice piece with comments by Mike and insight into the story development. I encourage you to give it a read!
I don’t have much to say yet, but after today’s strip, June 11, 2015 I’d thought you might like to see a portion of a Sunday from 50 years ago. Ray T. and Willy 007’s insights in the comments section of the above GoComics link do my job for me. Now I’ll wait to see how this all plays out!
Happy belated Father’s day to Dick Tracy readers. Fresh off having attended the Lum and Abner festival in Mena, Arkansas, Tracy writer Mike Curtis finally made the funnies with Snuffy Smith’s John Rose in last Sunday’s Father’s Day edition of Lum & Abner. Even better, you can listen to an audio adaption of Mr. Curtis with Sam Brown, Tim Hollis and John Rose reading the above comic strip here. Now we know the voice of Dick Tracy!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Shortly after I began working on the Depot I found myself collecting 1930’s and 1940’s era Big Little Books. With over two dozen BLB’s to find and a limited budget I focused on those BLB’s featuring stories not found in the daily comic strip. I first reviewed Dick Tracy on Voodoo Island last year and the book to the left, Dick Tracy and the Phantom Ship, is another such kids novel. Published in 1940 as part of Whitman Publishing second series, The Better Little Books, this thick hand sized book was taken directly from Ned Wever’s Dick Tracy radio broadcasts.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Sponsored by Quaker Puffed Rice and Wheat, these short radio shows usually ran a complete case in about a 15 episodes (3 weeks) and this particular case was sold in 1939 as a radio play called Dick Tracy and the Strange Case of the Ghost Ship. The Depot doesn’t have a copy of this script, but it can be found in the Ohio State University Library where a trove of Dick Tracy treasures from the Chester Gould family reside. In this book, the play has been novelized as a 13 chapter story complete with picture panels on each opposite page. While the artwork is unique to this Big Little Book, the dialog itself reads as if directly from the radio script itself and one can imagine the voice of Ned Wever (Tracy), Walter Kinsella (Patton) and Andy Donnelly (Junior) speaking from a sound stage.
The case begins with Dick Tracy receiving a request from a whaling captain friend named Billy the Kid (not the cowboy) who needs help with a troublesome racket taking place down in the Antarctic. Remembering for a moment we are in 1940 and whaling is an accepted past time, Tracy’s jaunt down to the Antarctic Ocean follows the global theme of other radio cases such as the Purple Rider in northern Canada.
Pat Patton, Junior and Dick fly themselves south, barely surviving bad weather and sabotage before landing and boarding a “Factory Ship” where they meet Billy the Kid and Captain Storm. The factory ship is the whale processing ship that finds and harvests whales caught and tagged by a fleet of smaller chase boats. Once aboard the investigators learn the tagged whales have been going missing and there have been several sightings of the cursed sailing ship, the Flying Dutchman.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Of course Tracy doesn’t believe in ghost ships and gives a morale boosting speech before he and Patton join the crew of a chaser ship and secret themselves away under a tarpaulin on a harpooned whale. Soon a motor powered schooner approaches in the dark, brigands arriving to steal the whale away before the Factory ship can arrive. Tracy and Patton surprise the crew and take control of the ship, named Vulture.
The brigands are led by a man named the Shark, who runs the criminal outfit out of the Cave of Whispering Winds, a hard to reach grotto protected by dangerous whirlpools. Tracy receives a communication from the cave radio operator seeking an update on the Vulture’s progress. Now knowing where to go, Pat and Dick set sail for Whispering Winds. Little does he and Pat know, their failure to sign off correctly has given away their ruse and radio operator Hank orders the Flying Dutchmen to sink the Vulture with all hands on board. In the dead of night the Dutchman attacks, ramming the Vulture to pieces and leaving the men to perish in the sea.
The Shark looks the park of a Gould-style villain.
Tracy heroically saves himself and Patton by clinging to debris and the pair wash up into the brigands hideout, unconscious. Surprisingly they are nursed back to health by the brigands before the Shark orders them placed in captivity on a high ledge over the main floor of their cavern hideout.
Back on the Factory ship, two men from the Vulture are pulled from the sea and they quickly rat out their former conspirators. Thinking the worst has happened to Dick and Pat, Junior and Captain Storm decide to do what Tracy would have wanted and head for the Cave of Whispering Winds themselves. On their approach they are attacked by the Flying Dutchmen, who hits their ship with a torpedo. The Captain drives the factory ship along side the Dutchmen and they attempt to board. The fighting is fierce (cue fisticuffs sound effect) but Junior, Captain Storm and his men are all taken captive aboard the Dutchman.
Inside the cave, Patton lures an armed guard in close with a series of taunts. Tracy cold cocks the guard, takes his rifle and fires on a cauldron boiling whale oil on the floor. The oil spills, sending men running. Lying flat, Tracy demands they surrender their weapons or he will flood the room with more oil. With no place to hide, the men agree and after a ladder is provided. Tracy and Pat take a dozen men prisoner, all except the Shark who barricades himself in the radio room, calling the Flying Dutchman for help.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Heeding the Shark’s call, most of the Dutchman’s crew embark in smaller boats for the hideout, giving Junior the opportunity to trick the man guarding the captives. Luring the guard to the bars with a note, Junior uses a jujitsu finger hold taught to him by Tracy and the guard gasps and pleads for release. Junior forces the guard to free Captain Storm and his crew and they quickly take control of the ship, but will they be too late? Inside the Cave of Whispering Winds, Tracy and Patton are captured by the crew of the Dutchman and the Shark prepares a firing squad to execute the meddlesome pair. Junior and his crew do arrive in the nick of time and after another large brawl, the Shark and his criminal band are captured. Junior who has saved the day!
Thanks to the well planned plot and cliffhangers of the 1938-1940 radio serial, Dick Tracy and the Phantom Ship really is a well done story. It is full of danger and excitement in a simpler, safer and more kid friendly style than Chester Gould’s newspaper strip. Gould of course did not write the story or provide the artwork, yet our heroes, Tracy, Junior and Patton feel accurate enough to keep us engrossed in the story and not looking for its flaws. This is a good Big Little Book and worth carefully peeking at the pages.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Good luck and congratulations for the third year in a row to Mike Curtis and Joe Staton who have been nominated for the 2015 Harey Award for Best Syndicated Strip or Panel. Team Tracy has won the award in both 2013 and 2014 and are only the 3rd comic strip to have won in consecutive years. We wish them luck as they try to make it three years in a row!
The Harvey Awards are a leading comic award dthat is presented each year at the Baltimore Comic-Com and recognizes outstanding work in comics and sequential art in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman (1924-1993). Nominations are chosen by and voted on by other comic book professions (i.e. those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, edit and otherwise create), meaning the honors are given out by peers in the industry.
The full list of nominees for “best Syndicated Strip or Panel” are,
Dick Tracy, Joe Staton and Mike Curtis, Tribune Media Services
Competition looks fierce this year with some well known challengers and balloting will continue until the end of August and this year the Baltimore Comic-Con will take place September 25-27th. I have not heard one way or another but in previous years Mike and Joe have both been in attendance.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Mr. Bribery’s return has been finally confirmed. Teased and hinted at for months, Bribery’s return comes nearly on the 50 year anniversary of his first appearance on July 3rd of 1965. Bribery was a clever and colorful villain with loads of personality and was behind most crimes and attempts on Tracy’s life between 1965 and 1967. He is certainly one of the most remembered villains of Chester Gould’s space period. His rather unexpected death with no body shown at the hands of the Chin Chillars in 1967 seemed to put an end to his career but the loose ends were never tied up, leaving open the possibility of a return.
Now unless you are a newspaper strip collector it can be difficult to re-read Mr. Bribery’s entire arc as they have never been published in their entirety. To help out the casual Dick Tracy reader, below is the Depot’s history of Mr. Bribery….if you need it. Enjoy!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Mr Bibery was introduced in 1965 as a well respected criminal boss in Dick Tracy’s city and he remained as such for over a year, finally meeting his assumed end in 1967. Bribery’s real name was Joie Packet (or was it) and he was a dope runner, blackmailer, confidence man, extortionist, pick-pocket and murderer. A small thin, weak looking man with a perpetual grin on his tilted face, Bribery led a band of criminals which included his sister, Ugly Christine, a head shrinking South American Indian named NahTey, his secretary Miss Deal and later Matty Square.
To the many politicians and petty crooks who visited him for “help,” Bribery appeared to be a friend, always willing to assist. However, as he provided them money with one hand he was picking their pockets to get it back with the other and every meeting was recorded on video tape and were used later to blackmail his victims.
Mr. Bribery and Matty Square
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.When small time boss Matty Square came to Mr. Bribery for assistance with the Moon Maid (who had recently dismantled his crew), Bribery extended his insincere hand while showing Matty Square his collection of shrunken heads of people who had crossed him. Mr. Bribery agrees to hire on Matty Square, although he forces Square to give up his cigar smoking cat. This hiring was the first step that would eventually pit Bribery against Dick Tracy. Tracy, who has found the strange cat’s pedigree in Matty’s old office uses this clue to locate Square and place a video camera in his car. Matty tools to various stops including one to Nah Tay, a South American rug weaver who also moves cocaine.
Lizz goes undercover to Nah Tay’s shop and returns with a drug sample she picked up with a piece of tape. Nah Tay though is suspicious and reports back to Bribery and determine Lizz was a policewoman. Nah Tay immediately moves out of his store ahead of a police raid, leaving behind a serious looking cooking cauldron. Bribery has Nah Tay pick up Matty Square and while returning they find the police video camera in his car. Things look dire for Matty and Nah Tay is very upset. Mr. Bribery forces Matty to take a lie detector test to prove he was not working with the police. Matty passes and is branded with the letter “B” between his eyes to prove he belongs to Bribery.
Square is given the job of killing Dick Tracy though Bribery himself comes up with the plan. They switch on the police video camera and give enough evidence to lure Tracy to a meat-packing plant that was to be Nah Tay’s new base of operations. There Matty is made to hide himself in a barrel with a tommy gun, lying in wait until Tracy arrives. A trapdoor is also installed that drops a victim down into a bubbling vat of boiling water. Matty is only required to fire on Tracy if he fails to be killed by the trap. Bribery and Christine set the trap and Matty hides away in his barrel, but Mr. Bribery, not much for field work, bumps the barrels on his way out and Square rolls down into the vat of water. With a pained scream Matty Square is killed.
Mr. Bribery and Nah Tay
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The police find Matty Square’s body and close the case on him, but are aware that Nah Tay and someone else was involved in a plan to kill them. Mr. Bribery is saddened to lose his latest employee but consoles himself in private conference with his favorite rose and takes ownership of Matty’s cat, Kitty, whom he forces to smoke cheaper cigars.
While the Tracy and their Moon relatives celebrate Thanksgiving together on Earth, Mr. Bribery hatches another plan to kill Dick Tracy. Nah Tay, who is revealing his shamanistic witch doctor side more and more refuses to cause harm to anyone from the Moon, holding the Moon Gods sacred. Bribery moves forward without involving Nah Tay and his sister Ugly Christine poses as a photographer wanting to take pictures of Junior, Moon Maid and Honeymoon in the snow of an observatory. Christine’s inability to operate a camera betrays her true motives though and Mr. Bribery leaps out of nowhere, attempting to gas Junior. Bribery, once again a failure in the field, forgets to pull the pin and is pushed away after which Moon Maid zaps the pair.
Junior and Moon Maid take Honeymoon back home to safety and though they try to keep it a secret at first eventually tell Tracy and the Moon Governor about the attack. Luckily for the two criminal siblings, Nah Tay shows up takes their frozen bodies out of the snow and revives them with the help of a Doctor A. M. Dawn at his home. Sam Catchem is staked out at Nah Tay’s home from a nearby building and although he did not see Bribery or Christine arrive, he does see the doctor visit. Nah Tay sees Sam as well, and attacks him from behind, taking Catchem’s hat off with a deadly knife throw. The two wrestle before Nah Tay leaps from the three-story rooftop and lands unharmed, escaping into the night.
During the fight, Mr. Bribery’s secretary Miss Deal arrives and helps him and his sister escape back to his office. Initially he fears Nah Tay was arrested but instead the South American arrives with a knife wound on his arm. Mr. Bribery finally asks that Nah Tay handle Dick Tracy and the witch doctor spends a week taking drugs and expanding his mind for the mission. This entire episode is captured on camera by Bribery so when Nah Tay decides to switch sides and kill Bribery instead, the boss acts.Diet Smith’s second space coupe pilot, a man named Maay is paid a handsome $5,000 to assist two of Mr. Bribery’s thugs who pick up Nah Tay with Smith’s newest space coupe and jettison the head shrinker into orbit.
Mr. Bribery and the Space Coupe
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.While Mr. Bribery spends several weeks singing a little “No More Corpus Delec-ti” tune to celebrate his genius method of eliminating bodies, Tracy and Diet Smith interview Space Coupe pilot Maay about his un-expected Space Coupe outing. Maay plays an innocent, only admitting to taking the Space Coupe for a spin to try it out. Diet has complete faith in the man’s answers but Tracy is more suspecting and he and Sam begin to shadow Maay. The high-flying pilot buys a hot rod with his ill-gotten gains and soon totals the vehicle and kills a female passenger while speeding at 180 mph.
Ugly Christine manages to draw Mr. Bribery’s attention away from his song and to the danger Maay represents and a pair of hit men are hired to take out Maay, who is in the hospital. The hit men arrive, disguised as attendants as Diet and Tracy grill the pilot for information. Maay is shot dead and one of the gunmen is battered by Diet before he is accidentally wounded by his partner. The second hit man runs through the hospital, gun drawn before he is shot dead in the head by Tracy.
The police recognize both of the hit men have branded “B”‘s on their foreheads, just as the now deceased Matty Square did and begin to wonder about this, “Mr. Big.” Sam and Lizz do their own investigation and find a hook that Maay had hidden away and match it marks on Nah Tay’s abandoned car. Putting two and two together they determine the Space Coupe was used to kill the South American and using a modified Space Coupe go up and retrieve the body.
Mr. Bribery is shook up following the loss of two good hit men and blames it on his cat Kitty’s bad cigar breath, a problem he tries to solve by masking the scent. Diet Smith spends some time showing off his newest creation, an atomic 18 million dollar fire fighting behemoth that could fight city-wide fires and Tracy visits Junior and Moon maid on the Moon, the later sending him back with more Sawdust gags to sell. It takes another stupid move by Mr. Bribery to get things moving again. Fed up with Kitty, Bribery and Ugly Christine tie the cat to Christine’s new hot iron and try to throw it into a water reservoir. That cat uses one of his lives and slips the collar, giving him a reprieve but a reservoir supervisor witnesses the event and thinks the pair are disposing of a weapon. Lizz, Sam and Tracy use a magnet to retrieve the gun and are surprised to find a hot iron and collar with a stylized “B” on it. This lucky clue leads to even more luck as Lizz investigates where the hot iron was sold and catches sight of Ugly Christine and her marked “B” forehead as Christine is purchasing another hot iron.
The women trade gunfire with Lizz losing an earring and Christine taking a shot in the arm. The criminal woman dives into a moving cab and points her gun at the cabbie, forcing him to drive. Lizz shoots out a tire and the vehicle spins out of control and crashes. Ugly Christine escapes just before Lizz can reach the crime scene and returns to her brother, who faints at the sight of her blood.
Having narrowly escaped the law, Ugly Christine and Mr. Bribery hires a pair of twin brothers to learn how to fly a Space Coupe using blueprints stolen by Maay. The twins learn while Bribery and Christine consult an Ouija board to see the results. The twins then pose as visitors from NASA and Diet Smith’s facility and steal a Coupe. Diet is aghast to have one of his space vehicles stolen again. Bribery and Christine take the twins out for a spin, promising them $100,000 in cash but with the intention of jettisoning them into orbit instead of. Mr. Bribery reveals he learned how to fly the Coupe when the brothers were learning.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The twins fight back and grab Christine’s gun, knocking her senseless and threaten to orbit the brother/sister pair instead. Mr. Bribery knocks the $100,000 cash into the ejection tube and the money dispersing into a cloud in orbit. He then offers his captors another $100,000 if they return him and his sister to Earth. This move saves their life, they return to Earth for the money and while one twin counts the cash, Christine causes a distraction and Bribery grabs a gun and shoots the observer dead. Christine dispatches the second twin with the stiletto heel of her shoe.
The world marvels and salivates at $100,000 cash floating in orbit and considers ways to retrieve it while Tracy and his team find the stolen Space Coupe, hidden away in the wilderness and stake it out, waiting for the culprits to return. Mr. Bribery and Ugly Christine do return, with a plan to net their $100,000 from space but return in the midst of a wicked storm that brings down a passenger jet with 62 people on board at the sight of the Space Coupe. They are forced to turn back but Tracy spots them and follows in a police air car, losing his wrist radio on a tree branch.
Bribery and Christine return to their penthouse building and Tracy observes, not wanting to lose his targets. He infiltrates the building and takes the blackmail film recordings that Mr. Bribery keeps and uses to control many aspects of the government. Tracy leaves to retrieve his wrist radio while Christine and Bribery find their film has gone missing. If the blackmail material gets out, Bribery is quite sure he’ll be dead in 24 hours and he begins to panic. The pair ambush Tracy as he returns to the penthouse rooftop. Bribery keeps Tracy pinned down with a machine gun until Christine attacks the detective with her knife. Tracy wins the wrestling match and Ugly Christine is placed into an air car, under arrest. She refuses to be taken alive and dives from the air car, falling to her death down a smoking chimney.
Mr. bribery meanwhile escapes with his secretary, Miss Deal through a secret passage in the building. They escape to an apartment with Kitty the cat and Bribery is more concerned about those he blackmailed than the police. Miss Deal leaves to withdraw $300 from her bank account but the account was under observation by Lizz who places a wire on Deal. Mr. Bribery freaks out as deal returns and tries to kill her but is brought low by Tracy who crashes through the apartment window in his air car. Both are arrested and Tracy promises Mr. Bribery will get the chair for murder. Kitty the cat is forced to give up smoking and joins the police animal menagerie.
Mr. Bribery’s End
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.With Bribery incarcerated in the state penitentiary, a man named George Chin Chillar was working at Diet Smith’s factory on the Moon with his wife Notta and they were contacted by Mr. Bribery. The clever criminal enlisted the pair in recovering $100,000 cash that had been left orbiting the Earth following his failed plot to kidnap Honeymoon Tracy. The Chin Chillars stole one of Diet Smith’s magnetic Space Coupes and used it to break Mr. Bribery out of jail and attached a special net to the back to snag the floating bills in orbit. Toasting their success with champagne , the Chillars drugged Bribery and dropped him off back at prison from a great height, seeming to kill him in spectacular fashion.
At this point Bribery’s story appeared to be over. At least that was the impression Chester Gould seems to have wanted to send, but it was pointed out by Dick Tracy historians (I’m referring to some of my favorite GoComics posters, Willy007, Ray Toler and Pequod77) that no character in the strip ever said that Mr. Bribery was actually dead and when Dick Tracy later confronted Notta with her crimes he did not mention the crime of murder, leaving the door open for a possible return.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Time to tune the car and find a map Dick Tracy fans. Mike Curtis dropped fantastic news today that he and Joe will be producing a comic book featuring the first story of Silver and Sprocket Nitrate which the pair plan to give away at their appearances. The comic book will likely debut when Mike and Joe hit the stage at the Baltimore Comic-Con where we are hoping the duo will win their third Harvey Award.
According to Mr. Curtis’s remarks on the Dick Tracy Fan Club page,
…Joe and I have wanted to have some of our TRACY work in print for years. Those of you who know me, know that Carole and I were comic book writers and publishers for 15 years.
It will have several pinups and new art, and a new poem by the noted Poet Laureate of Go Comics Tracy page, Pequod!
The pinups sound interesting and I wonder if we might have a nice one that looks a bit like this. The Depot is also super happy for Tracy poet Pequod getting recognized for his frequent skillful contributions on the Go Comics Tracy forum and here at the Depot as well. Congratulations Pequod! Now if some of you are like me and live nowhere near Baltimore, keep your eyes peeled for conventions closer to home so you can get a copy.
Hey Joe Staton fans, you don’t want to miss out on the current issue of the COMIC BOOK CREATOR which includes a very, very, very lengthy interview with both Joe and his wife Hilarie covering all manner of topics from their family and early inspirations through Joe’s many works including Green Lantern, Scooby Doo, The Huntress and of course Dick Tracy. This interview is not a page or two of questions and answers you might see elsewhere. Joe and Hilarie really spend their time with CBC and we are graced with roughly 40 pages of discussion complemented by Staton pictures and a well chosen samples of his artwork.
COMIC BOOK CREATOR is wise enough to provide a shareable sample of their interview, which you can read below. At the end you is a link to buy a copy of the full issue, in paper or digital (which is only $3.95). Cheers all!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.For those of you who are interested, Oklahoma Magazine has a nice “Life and Times of Chester Gould” article for your reading pleasure, including comments by Mike Curtis. I’ve always found the below story about Tess and Tracy’s marriage interesting.
Perhaps the reason Gould’s characters seemed so real to so many was that their creator viewed them in much the same way.
“Around Christmas of 1949,” says Curtis, “an interview with Gould came out in The Saturday Evening Post, and one of the questions the reporter asked him was, ‘Is Tracy ever going to get married?’ Gould said, ‘No, he doesn’t have time for it. He doesn’t have time to get married. So he never will.’
“Because of the prep time on articles, by the time it came out in the Post, Tracy had eloped with Tess Truehart. So the magazine contacted him again, asking him, ‘What about this?’ And Gould just shook his head, smiled, and said, ‘Tracy never tells me anything.’”
Magnetic Air Cars fly again today, unfortunately under the control of an escaping Mr. Bribery. While I usually resist a day to day discussion of the comic strip (I have a day job), the return of Air Cars, like the Space Coupe before them is far too tempting! A younger reader might be wondering what the heck is that flying thimble! That’s excuse enough for me to talk Air Cars.
The Air Car first appeared August 30th, 1964 and four were presented to the police department as a way for the Moon Governor to apologize for his horrid behavior towards Diet, Dick Tracy and Junior after he misguidedly tried to protect Moon Maid from harm by forcing her return to the Moon. Like the Space Coupe, Air Cars were magnetic powered, meaning they were fast, handled like a breeze and flew whisper quiet. Tracy happily accepted the Air Cars and immediately put them to use in the Chet Jade case and they saw use time and time again throughout the space period.
Mr. Bribery himself has had first hand experienced of the Air Car’s usefulness. Hiding out from police and those he had blackmailed, Bribery was finally captured when Tracy drove his air car through an apartment window and landed on top of the eccentric villain. This method of capture was a Gould favorite as Sam captured Posie Ermine (Mysta Chimera’s dad) in much the same way. It seems fitting that Bribery is now bursting out of a window, attempting to make his escape.
According to Diet Smith, all Moon tech was destroyed or returned to the Moon years ago after the Governor cut ties with Earth. As the Air Car shown was clearly labelled as a car belonging to the police force it will be interesting to see how Bribery has managed to procure it for his own personal use.
P.S. – I’d like to give props to Mr. Curtis for including Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die” lyrics in today’s strip. Live and Let Die was the title song of the 1973 James Bond movie of the same name, which, no surprise featured a villain by the named of Mr. Big (Bribery’s alias in 2015).
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The Depot is extremely excited and congratulates Joe Staton, Mike Curtis and their fantastic team for winning a third straight “Best Syndicated Strip or Panel” Harvey Award! The win was announced at the Baltimore Comic-Con‘s award ceremony where Mike and Joe were on hand to receive the award. Taking home the comic strip honors over the likes of Dilbert, Foxtrot, Get Fuzzy and Mutts is an amazing achievement.
Here’s a full list of the 2015 Harvey Winners:
Best Letterer: Jack Morelli for Afterlife with Archie, Archie Comic Publications
Best Colorist: Dave Steward, HELLBOY IN HELL, Dark Horse Comics
Best Syndicated Strip: Joe Staton and Mike Curtis for Dick Tracy, Tribune Media Services
Best Online Comics Work: The Private Eye by Brian K Vaughan, Marcos Martin and Muntsa Vicente
Best American Edition of Foreign Material: Blacksad: Amarillo, Dark Horse
Best Inker: Danny Miki, Batman, DC Comics
Best New Series: Southern Bastards, Jason Aaron and Jason Latour, Image Comics
Best New Talent: Chad Lambert for “Kill Me” from Dark Horse Presents, Dark Horse Comics
Special Award for Humor in Comics: Chip Zdarksy for Sex Criminals, Image Comics
Best Original Graphic Publication for Younger Readers: Lumberjanes, BOOM! Box
Best Graphic Album Previously Published: Mouse Guard: Baldwin the Brave and Other Tales, Boom! Studios/Archaia
Special Award for Excellence in Presentation: Little Nemo: Dream Another Dream, Andrew Carl, Josh O’Neill, Chris Stevens, Locus Moon Press
Dick Giordano Humanitarian Award: Prsented by Nelli Kurtzman, this award presented to Denis Kitchen.
Best Anthology: Dark Horse Presents, Dark Horse Comics
Best Domestic Reprint Project: Steranko Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD Artist’s Edition, IDW
Best Cover Artist: Fiona Staples, SAGA, Image Comics
Best Biographical, Historical, or Journalistic Presentation: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History, Andrew Farago, Insight Editions
Best Graphic Album, Original: Jim Henson’s The Musical Monsters of Turkey Hollow, Archaia/Boom! Studios
Best Continuing or Limited Series: SAGA, Brian K Vaughan, Fiona Staples, Image Comics
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hero Initiative: This award was given Russ Heath who is most well known for his DC Comics War Stories and Playboy’s Little Annie Fanny.
Best Writer: Mark Waid, Daredevil, Marvel Comics
Best Artist: Fiona Staples, SAGA, Image Comics
Best Cartoonist: Terry Moore, Rachel Rising, Abstract Studios
Best Single Issue or Story: “Breaking Out”, DARK HORSE PRESENTS #35, Dark Horse Comics
In addition to the above award winners, the second and third Harvey Kurtzman Hall of Fame Awards were presented to Jules Feiffer and Will Eisner, early American cartoonists. Will and Jules created The Spirit (1940-1952) which was noted for its experiments with content and form that proved to be a springboard for later comics.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Happy October Tracy fans, hope you are enjoying the wrap-up of the Blackheart case after an explosive finale. With the action easing up I thought you might be interested in a something a bit different and I might have just that with a Dick Tracy retrospective podcast.
Kelly and Johnny of Place 2 Be Nation have launched a monthly Imaginary Stories podcast where they discuss classic comic books and strips with an emphasis on history and lesser known bits of information. For their second podcast the boys are targeting the Dick Tracy comic strip and the pair spend a couple hours with a thorough retrospective.
Among the topics discussed on this show…
The story of the strip’s creation in 1931 by Chester Gould
A decade by decade look at the most memorable story lines and characters
An exploration of Tracy in other media over the years, including an in-depth look at the 1990 movie
And much much more at during the 3 hour broadcast.
So if you have some time, hop on over to their podcast page and enjoy a journey into the past.
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.The Sam that was this Sam sure ain’t
Speaks as a thug without restraint.
Should have stuck to a toothpick
For 88 the end comes quick.
Mirror, mirror on the wall
This world is strangest of them all.
Up is down and wrong is right
Villain Sam is an odd sight.
The Sam that was this Sam is not
I fear that Keyes shall soon be shot.
Tracy poet Pequod’s poem helps us kick off Dick Tracy’s next story, titled “Midnight Mirror” by writer Mike Curtis. The story title, also the name a local newspaper is key and this evil looking Sam Catchem accosting a man named Keyes has certainly opened some reader eyes. Has good and evil been flipped, are we in a dream sequence, can this all be explained with twin brothers? The theories are flying and we can’t wait to find out!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.Tracy and comic fans near Conway, Arkansas, this weekend, November 13th through the 15th, is ComiCon-way and will be your last chance to catch both Joe Staton and Mike Curtis together in 2015. You can expect at least one if not both to be in Dick Tracy garb and handing out their Dick Tracy Meets the Film Pirates comic featuring the first Silver and Sprocket Nitrate story! The Depot has gotten our greedy hands on one and it’s awesome!
The ComiCon-way is free admission so there’s no excuse, if your neighborhood you should stop by and tell the boys hello!
Update: Inker and Letterer extraordinaire Shelley Pleger will be at the Eugene Comic Con in Oregon with her husband Terry and they will have additional copies of Dick Tracy Meets the Film Pirates. Thanks for letting us know Terry, Oregon you’re up!
Image may be NSFW. Clik here to view.I have a confession that will surprise no one. I am a huge Ralph Byrd fan. Oh I wasn’t originally, but in my endeavors to learn everything there is to learn about Dick Tracy I quickly came upon the Dick Tracy Serials, Movies and Television all starring Ralph Byrd. I watched and collected everything I could find, I edited video, cleaned footage (to the best of my untrained eye) and documented each chapter of the adventure. I saw a lot of Ralph Byrd, and when I think of Tracy on film, I see Mr. Byrd in my mind’s eye.
So I’m excited to see a character honoring both Ralph Byrd and fellow Tracy portraying actor, Morgan Conway in today’s strip. I’ve seen Conway in his two movies as well, and there is nothing wrong with his performance. Chester Gould himself preferred Conway to Byrd, but Ralph is still Dick Tracy in my heart. I’ve been sitting on this biography for a while now, and I feel today is a good day to let it out.
For over fifteen years and three decades, actor Ralph Byrd played the role of Dick Tracy in film serials, movies and television and to the general public, Ralph was Dick Tracy. Portraying the detective with an easy-going demeanor armed with Tracy’s well-known investigative skills and relentless physical energy to battle crime, Byrd’s acting helped push Chester Gould’s comic strip hero to a broader market in its first three decades.
Ralph was born April 22, 1909 in Dayton, Ohio and after finishing school began his show business career as a Broadway singer. His film career began with bit parts in the mid 1930’s, including the Adventures of Rex and Rinty (Mascot, 1935), a serial where an uncredited Byrd portrayed a forest ranger helping the dog Rinty and horse Rex recover a lost child. His first credited performance was in Universal’s crime drama Chinatown Squad (1935; with Lyle Talbot).
For the first two years Ralph generally played professional figures (doctors, pilots, policeman) in these low budge films but he got his first real break in 1937 when Republic Pictures signed him for the title role of Dick Tracy. The serial’s plot pitted G-man (FBI agent) Dick Tracy against a gang of criminals called the Spider Ring. The Ring’s mysterious leader the Lame One orchestrated a wide variety of illegal activities and in the opening chapter captured Tracy’s brother Gordon and turned him into a brain-washed criminal and the Lame One’s chief lieutenant.
Although licensed from Chester Gould (for a pittance), Republic used very little material from Gould’s comic strip and focused on their own serial formula. Serial chapters required Byrd to perform many roles, interviewing victims, piecing together clues in detective fashion and engaging in lengthy fist-fights, chases and major action sequences.
Following his Dick Tracy success, Ralph kept busy with many film roles and starred in his next serial, SOS Coast Guard (Republic, 1937) as an atmospheric thriller featuring Byrd as Coast Guard Lieutenant Terry Kent who tracks down a gang of spies smuggling deadly gas and avenging his brother’s murder at the hands of their leader, Boroff, played by Bela Lugosi. The serial matched Dick Tracy in quality and united Ralph with his future Republic serial’s director, William Witney.
Only a year later (1938), Republic brought Dick Tracy back in Dick Tracy Returns, a new fifteen chapter serial. Except for Byrd himself, all other roles of the serial were recast and the unflappable G-man was pitted against a the murderous Stark gang of criminals headed by the cruel Pa Stark (Charles Middleton) and his five sons. Seeking justice for the murder of a rookie G-man in the opening chapter, Ralph’s Dick Tracy slowly dismantled the Stark’s vast criminal network and killed off the entire family of rogues.
The public loved the Dick Tracy serials and Republic quickly produced another, Dick Tracy’s G-Men in 1939. This time Ralph’s character was pitted against international spy and saboteur Nicholas Zarnoff (Irving Pichel). Following the formula of the past editions, Tracy battled his foe’s criminal endeavours chapter after chapter in a deadly game of cat and mouse before he put an end to the clever spy. Now old hat at Dick Tracy, Byrd still managed to keep his sincerity and energy for this faster paced serial.
Tracy (Byrd) plays it cool after his capture in the Dick Tracy’s G-Men serial.
After Dick Tracy’s G-Men, Byrd took a brief hiatus from Republic and spent the next year and half playing (1939-1940) playing small roles in big budge films like The Howards of Virginia while starring in smaller films like PRC’s Misbehaving Husbands (1940). Still, in 1941 he found himself back at Republic for the final Tracy serial, Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. This time battling the technological tricks of the mysterious Ghost out for revenge, Ralph (now 32) used his old bag of acting tricks that made him famous in previous serials. Despite the film using some footage from previous serials, this set of fifteen chapters was perhaps the best of the four with its primary villain directly involved in each chapter.
The U.S. joined World War II in 1941 following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and Ralph joined the Marines in 1943. During this time, RKO picked up the film rights to the Dick Tracy character and Morgan Conway assumed the role of Dick Tracy in Dick Tracy (1945) and Dick Tracy vs. Cueball (1946). After Byrd returned from the war, he was in a serious auto accident that sidelined his career even further. At this time RKO was wanting to produce additional Dick Tracy film’s but the public demanded Ralph Byrd be returned to the role. So after his recovery, Ralph returned to play the famous detective on the big screen in Dick Tracy’s Dilemma and Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (with Boris Karloff), both released in 1947. Quite different in tone from the Dick Tracy serials, this version of the crime fighter featured his battle against urban crime through dogged police work.
1947 also saw the release of Byrd’s final serial, Columbia’s The Vigilante. Produced by Sam Katzman (who also worked with Ralph on Blake of Scotland Yard), The Vigilante was one of the best of the late 1940’s serials with a good plot, strong case and skilled action scenes. Byrd played cowboy Greg Saunders who posed as the masked “Vigilante” to fight crime and behaved like an outgoing self-satisfied Hollywood actor to conceal his identity. (Much like Batman and Iron Man of today). The role allowed Byrd to relax his usual seriousness and take part in more comedy and sing a couple of Western songs.
Byrd as a Cowboy in the light hearted film, “The Vigilante”
After 1947, Byrd’s career began to tumble. He continued to play lead roles in low budge films and bits in larger movies his fame began to slide as he struggled to succeed outside of the Dick Tracy role he had become typecast to. When ABC launched the new Dick Tracy TV series in 1950, Ralph was an obvious choice to play the lead. ABC at the time was cash-strapped, struggling in last place and episodes were shot on a shoe-string budget as fast and as cheap as possible. ABC cancelled the series in 1951 but it made the shift to syndication for the following season and began producing additional episodes. The series came to an abrupt end when Ralph died of a heart attack on August 18, 1952 at the age of 43.
Ralph Byrd was survived by his wife of 16 years, actress Virginia Carroll (1913-2009) and a daughter, Carol Byrd. While many serial heroes have projected little personality, Ralph always had personality to spare. Determined, yet charming and personable, his characters always held center stage and his role as Dick Tracy will always be the role on which he gave us, the film watching public, his greatest gift.
Four years ago Joe Staton and Mike Curtis took Dick Tracy’s reigns from the retiring hands of Dick Locher and what a thrilling four years it has been. We’ve seen villains new and old, mixed together in original and complex plots that challenge the full detective crew, their friends and family. We’ve seen history and character development that has long been absent and seen crossovers, tributes and homages that help to pull in new fans. Each summer we look forward to the now annual summer blockbuster and subsequent Harvey Award nomination and win. Mike has moved the stalled Dick Tracy story forward with unrestricted direction and purpose and Joe’s artwork far exceeds anything we could have ever hoped for.
