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{{work|wppage=Dick Tracy}}
[[File:dicktracy_8252.png|link=Andy Warhol|frame|Dick Tracy, [[Dissonant Serenity|contemplating the violence that he will no doubt be inflicting]].]]
One of the most well-known [[Newspaper Comics]] of all time, Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, is about the cases of a tough as nails police detective. Inspired as a [[Take That]] towards organized crime in the 1930s (indeed, the strip's first major villain, [[Big Bad|Big Boy Caprice]], was an [[Expy]] of Al Capone) the series followed Detective Dick Tracy as he fights crime, as a modern day [[Sherlock Holmes]] but with a lot of emphasis on forensic methods/police procedures and the occassional space-age gadget (most notably the character's famous two-way wrist communicators).
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However, the strip [[Dork Age|went awry]] starting the 1960s with Tracy getting a spaceship called the Space Coupe and eventually going to the moon to meet the Moon People. When the series returned to Earth, with futuristic Moon people technology like ray guns and air cars that look like flying trash cans, Gould struggled to adapt the strip to modern times. Concessions included introducing a hippie sidekick for Tracy and briefly having Tracy grow a moustache; the former stuck around for nearly a decade before being killed off, the latter was forcibly shaven off within several months of it being grown. But most notably, the strip became bitter and cynical, as Gould used Tracy to condemn Supreme Court rulings that expanded the rights of the accused, which Gould (via Tracy) condemned as handcuffing police officers from beating the shit out of criminals and suspected criminals in order to force them to confess.
Finally, Gould retired in 1977 and mystery writer Max Allan Collins took over writing and did his best to restore the best of the strip's past. Silly characters like Moon Maid and the above mentioned hippie sidekick were [[Killed Off for Real]], legacy versions of popular (and deceased) villains were introduced (and in the cases of some, like Pruneface, flashback stories were written to bring them back) and the gadgets were scaled back to a more reasonable level. In addition, he also had Tracy get his complaints about reforms to due process out of his system when he temporarily resigned from the force to become a private detective. Sadly, Collins [[Executive Meddling|was forced off the strip]] in the 1990s, leading to the series descending to being [[So Okay It's Average]] under succeeding writer Mike Kilian, and then going ''[[Snark Bait|completely and totally insane]]'' when Kilian died and longtime artist Dick Locher took over the writing duties, as [http://joshreads.com/?cat=54 some have observed].
In 2011 Locher retired and a new team headed by writer Mike Curtis and DC/Marvel artist Joe Staton took over the strip. The restart already has fans talking of a [[Growing the Beard|renaissance]], and it's hard to dispute that. Staton & Curtis have [[Continuity Creep|placed a strong emphasis on continuity]] and [[Character Development]], and tied all ages of the strip into the main canon --- [[Rescued from the Scrappy Heap|even the Moon Age]] -- during a recent storyline arc. In addition, ''Dick Tracy'' has crossed over with multiple comic strips, most notably ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', thus opening up an [[Expanded Universe]]. Toss in the artwork (not a surprise, given Staton's pedigree) and it could be argued that Staton & Curtis have done to ''Dick Tracy'' what [[Russell T. Davies]] and [[Steven Moffat]] have done to ''[[Doctor Who]]''.
The strip has been depicted with numerous media adaptations: movie serials, the 1961/1962 TV series, [[The Dick Tracy Show]], cartoons, and a full-length 1990 [[Dick Tracy (film)|theatrical film]] starring Warren Beatty, whose specific tropes are discussed here.
{{tropenamer}}
* [[The Blank]]
* [[Affectionate Parody]] - A long-running feature in Al Capp's ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' is that Abner's hero is a Tracy pastiche called Fearless Fosdick.▼
** And there's the classic [[Looney Tunes|Daffy Duck]] cartoon "The Great Piggy Bank Robbery," in which Daffy dreams he's [[Disney Acid Sequence|"Duck Twacy."]]▼
{{tropelist}}
* [[Affectionate Parody]] - Quite a few throughout the years:
▲*
*** Dick Tracy even mentions ''Fearless Fosdick'' as his favorite comic strip, either as a meta-reference to "Li'l Abner" or as a placement of both comics in the same universe.
*** Vera Alldid's [[Show Within a Show|Comic Within a Comic]] "J. Straightedge Trustworthy," which itself also seems to pay homage to ''[[Li'l Abner]]'s'' "Fearless Fosdick." The strip becomes exceptionally popular throughout the city, so much so that an unamused Tracy threatens legal action against Alldid, but later comes to enjoy reading the comic himself.
▲**
** A few storylines in ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' featured Calvin fantasizing himself as noir private eye "Tracer Bullet." Originally a one-shot character, [[Word of God|Bill Watterson enjoyed it so much]] that he gave Tracer a few more appearances.
* [[And Knowing Is Half the Battle]] - The Crimestopper's Textbook in the Sunday strips
* [[Anyone Can Die]] - Moon Maid, Groovy Grove, Model Jones, Jean Penfield, the Summer sisters, Brilliant.
** Collins once said that, since he's the main character, you know Tracy will make it out alive, but you could never be sure about ''anybody else.'' He believed this was essential for a credible sense of drama.
* [[As Himself]] - Jim Doherty, a Chicago policeman who serves as the main technical advisor to ''Dick Tracy'', makes appearances in the comic itself from time to time.
* [[Author Existence Failure]] - Three times. Rick Fletcher, who replaced Chester Gould as artist, died in 1983, and writer Mike Kilian died in 2005. Probably the most tragic instance came in 1986 with the premature death of John Locher, who was in the process of taking over the strip's art duties from his father, ▼
* [[Ascended Fanon]] - Staton & Curtis launched a ''Dick Tracy'' tribute website prior to Tribune Media Services hiring them as the strip's creative team. Included in the website were several (at the time) fan-fiction storylines... almost all of which were adapted into the comic itself.
▲* [[Author Existence Failure]] - Three times. Rick Fletcher, who replaced Chester Gould as artist, died in 1983, and writer Mike Kilian died in 2005. Probably the most tragic instance came in 1986 with the premature death of John Locher, who was in the process of taking over the strip's art duties from his father
* [[Author Filibuster]] - Gould's rants about the restrictions of due process
* [[Badass Longcoat]]
* [[Bald of Evil]] - The Brow
* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]] - Generally played straight, though there have been exceptions (the various Mahoney women for instance). Dick Locher also tended to draw much more normal-looking villains than the other artists did.
* [[Berserk Button]] - Junior, of all people, experienced this once. Right after his first wife is murdered (by a bomb meant for Tracy himself), the first thing he does when he finds out who was responsible is [[Took a Level
* [[The Blank]] - The Blank
* [[Book Safe]]: Flattop is hiding out in a boarding house and decides keeping his loot on his person is too risky. So, when he sees an old thick photo album under a table that looks rarely used, he decides to cut out the inner pages and hide his money in it. As it happens, the kid blackmailing Flattop has drowned while ice skating on expensive skates bought with the shakedown money. Those skates led Tracy to the boarding house where he requests the boy's mother to get a photo for the newspaper and so they go to the photo album and the money is discovered. When Tracy asks where this money came from, the mother guesses it must be from her boarder and Tracy proceeds to Flattop's room while the crook is frantically trying to escape.
* [[Brain Uploading]] - Memory Banks, in one of Collins's more offbeat stories.
* [[Butter Face]] - A number of recurring female characters.
* [[The Cameo]] - Used a lot with Staton & Curtis. Characters from ''[[The Shadow]]'', ''[[Popeye]]'', ''[[wikipedia: On Stage, Mary Perkins|Mary Perkins]]'', ''[[wikipedia: Gasoline Alley|Gasoline Alley]]'', ''[[Terry and the Pirates]]'', ''[[wikipedia: Brenda Starr|Brenda Starr]]'', ''[[Lum and Abner]]'', ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'' and even ''[[Barney Google and Snuffy Smith]]'' have either paid a visit or proven central to a major storyline. Considering Staton's background at DC and Marvel, this probably shouldn't be surprising.
* [[Canon Discontinuity]] - The strip's [[Dork Age|moon period]] of the 1960s was completely phased out and regarded as non-canon for years (punctuated by the death of Moon Maid). Staton & Curtis, however, began making occasional references to it in-strip in what originally looked to be a [[Discontinuity Nod]]; however, a 2012-2013 storyline arc now officially regards the entire period as canon (that arc also tied in the key scene from Dick Locher's last storyline).
* [[Captain Ersatz]] - 1970's art thief Art Dekko looks an ''awful lot'' like [[Lupin III]]. On the other hand, an anime homage way back in the 70's is pretty cool in and of itself.
* [[Captain Obvious]] - the narration box. In 2009 the narration box over a drawing of a character playing solitaire blared, "SOLITAIRE".
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* [[Cloning Blues]] - After faking his death (for the second time!), Mumbles returns years later with a shady biologist in tow, claiming to be a clone of the original Mumbles. It's all an elaborate scheme to swindle research money from Diet Smith. Tracy exposes it and Mumbles goes to jail, naturally.
* [[Contract on the Hitman]] - Fearing the police's eventual retaliation when Big Boy Caprice offered a one million dollar open contract on Tracy's life, [[Big Bad Ensemble|other criminals]] offered a similar contract on the life of whoever claims the prize on Tracy's life.
* [[Creator Breakdown]] - Gould actually thought turning a strip about an urban cop into a science fiction series on the moon was a good idea. Then again, given the sheer volume of contempt Gould had towards various 1960s Supreme Court rulings regarding due process rights all criminals have, Gould probably thought turning the book into a sci-fi strip would be better for his mental health.
** Judging by the decline of the strip's artwork quality from 2006 to 2011, some fans consider Dick Locher to have suffered one of these, most likely because he experienced both the death of both his son (John Locher, who was co-artist in the mid-80s) and one of his closest friends (Mike Kilian, who was the writer between 1992 and 2006) while working on the strip.
* [[Creator Cameo]]: Dick Locher made an appearance in his final strip as artist, thanking Tracy for "32 years of high speed excitement." Whether this counts as a heartwarming moment or egotism depends on whether you prefer to remember Locher for his good artwork until 2005, or his terrible artwork and worse writing from 2006 onwards.
** Chester Gould once created a villain named Pear-Shape who was a parody of himself.
** And a late 2011 storyline (part [[homage]], part [[Origin Story|origin story]]) concluded with Gould as the medical examiner in the city morgue looking over the deceased Big Frost. "It's like I said for years... They can't win."
* [[Crossover]]: The 2014 storyline that helped conclude ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'', which was abruptly cancelled four years earlier [[No Ending|in the middle of a storyline]] where Annie was kidnapped, held hostage, [[Downer Ending|and presumed dead to everyone but the reader]].
* [[Dead Man's Chest]] - 88 Keys hides a corpse in his grand piano.
** A tree surgeon, after committing murder, hides the body inside a tree trunk that had been split by weather. The tree heals around it and the body goes undiscovered until the tree is cut down, decades later, when the murderer is an old man.
* [[Death Trap]] - Only Tracy often needed rescue to fully escape them.
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]] - "Broadway" Bates '''does''' look an awful lot like The Penguin.<ref>To be fair, "Broadway" debuted in 1932, nine years before The Penguin's first appearance. Plus "Broadway" only appeared in one ''Dick Tracy'' storyline up to that point, so the similarities are likely coincidental.</ref> So Staton & Curtis reintroduced "Broadway" as someone who moved back into Tracy's city after living with his brother Oswald... because Oswald, also into organized crime, has had to contend with [[Batman|a costumed vigilante]] intent on apprehending him, and then discovering two costumed vigilantes in Tracy's city. The last strip in "Broadway's" storyline did feature Oswald in sillouette form... clutching... a very distinctive umbrella. Oh, and The Penguin's actual first name? {{spoiler|Oswald.}}
* [[Executive Meddling]] - Tribune Media Service's 1991 firing of lead writer Max Allen Collins, ostensibly because of his salary, would count as such.
* [[Expanded Universe]] - Almost bordering on "Tommy Westphal Universe" levels. ''Dick Tracy's'' universe is now connected to multiple other comic strips thanks to in-canon cameos and storylines. The extended crossover arc with ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'' is especially notable because it effectively merged ''that'' strip's entire universe and canon into ''Dick Tracy's''.
* [[Everyone Knows Morse]] - Tracy escapes from Flattop by tapping out Morse code with his foot to communicate with the WAC-in-training living in the apartment below.
* [[The Faceless]] - Spots
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]] - People regularly die in perverse (and graphic) ways, such as getting run over by a steamroller, or having [[Eye Scream|their eyes gouged out]]. And this is all printed on the comics page.
** Better yet, the steamroller death [[Did I Mention It's Christmas?|took place on Christmas Day]], and ''in the same frame'' the writers wished their readers "[[An Asskicking Christmas|Happy Holidays from Dick and the gang!]]"
** Gould himself said that the worst death of all went to The Brow, who was impaled on a flagpole "bearing the flag of [[America Wins the War|the country he tried to harm]]" so hard that he went [[Nightmare Fuel|ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE GROUND]].
** Or the 1932 villain Kenneth Grebb, who was crushed to death by an avalanche. If he survived, he was maimed and died of asphyxiation.
** Or Selbert [[De Pool]], who was crushed alive on a CHILDREN'S PARADE FLOAT.
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* [[Femme Fatale]] - Sleet
* [[Fiction 500]] - Diet Smith
* [[Forgotten Phlebotinum]] - Most of the Moon Period technology was never mentioned again after Moon Maid's death. Later explained (when the Moon Period was brought back into canon by Staton & Curtis) as intentional; Diet Smith had the technology and the moon colony - save for one last Moon Coupe - completely destroyed.
* [[Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind]]
* [[Gadget Watches]]
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* [[Heel Face Turn]] - Vitamin Flintheart, B.O. Plenty, and Gravel Gertie.
* [[American Accents|Hillbilly Accent]] - B.O. Plenty.
* [[Hippie Chick]] - The ''always barefoot'' Sprocket Nitrate, who insists on not wanting to "upset Mother Earth..." even when she's standing on a lineolium floor in a train station.
* [[Hitman with a Heart]] - The Iceman, who falls for Sparkle Plenty. He dies a [[Karmic Death]], but does a minor [[Heel Face Turn]] at the last minute, for her sake.
* [[Hobos]] - Steve the Tramp was a murderous hobo.
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* [[The Hyena]] - 'Laffy' Smith
* [[Improbable Hairstyle]] - Crewy Lou, although all the characters do think it looks odd.
* [[In the Blood]] - Flattop's big extended family, though some of them reform.
* [[Informed Judaism]] - Dick's partner Sam Catchem was introduced as a Jewish guy, which was pretty progressive for the 1940's. It rarely has any bearing on the storylines, though, and so isn't mentioned much.
* [[Karmic Death]]: The main villain of some storylines suffer one, usually of the [[Cruel and Unusual Death|"Cruel & Unusual"]] variety.
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* [[Magic Plastic Surgery]] - Dr. Carver, plastic surgeon to the underworld.
* [[Master of Disguise]] - Puttypuss
* [[Meaningful Name]] - Pretty much everybody. However, a few minor characters who got promoted to series regulars wound up permanently stuck with names that only related to the plotline which introduced them. Poor Vitamin Flintheart!
* [[Money, Dear Boy]] - Whenever the intros to the Dick Tracy books and articles regarding Tracy talk about Chester Gould, they tend to point out that Chet did not see himself as an artist creating a fictional narrative to entertain audiences, but rather as a businessman creating a product designed to sell newspapers.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Quite a few in the Staton & Curtis era:
** A series of strips in 2013 featured [[George Takei]] (as "George Tawara") and his husband, Brad Altman.
** [[wikipedia: Scott Shaw|Scott Shaw!]] in a spring 2014 storyline, as an animator, no less.
** Gruesome even had plastic surgery that resulted in him looking like [[Boris Karloff]] in a late 2014 storyline.<ref>Note that Boris Karloff originated the character of "Gruesome" in the 1940s RKO picture ''[[wikipedia: Dick Tracy meets Gruesome|Dick Tracy meets Gruesome]]''.</ref>
* [[Nice Hat]] - The ol' yellow fedora.
* [[The Nondescript]]
* [[Official Couple]] - Dick and Tess had a very, very long engagement. When they finally announced one day that they had just eloped, the entire cast was stunned.
* [[Off-Model]] - The strip's artwork tended to veer into this in Gould's later years, although given that he was prone to experimentation in this period, some of it may have been a conscious choice on his part. Played ''very'' straight with Dick Locher's work from 2006 to 2009; Jim Brozman's efforts between 2009 and 2011 were a bit better, but not by a whole lot. Which made the transition from Locher & Brozman's last strip to Staton & Curtis' first strip even more visually jarring.
* [[Papa Wolf]] - Tracy, when Crewy Lou kidnaps his infant daughter.
* [[Plaguemaster]] - Captain Cure
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* [[Spotlight-Stealing Squad]] - B.O. Plenty and Gravel Gertie.
* [[Street Urchin]] - Junior, before his adoption by Tracy.
* [[Tech Marches On]] - While some of the extreme examples like the Space Coupe with its magnetic propulsion system are straight examples, Tracy's various wrist communicators have always felt reasonably in line with the times with occasional upgrades over the years.
* [[Those Wacky Nazis]] - Pruneface and the Brow
* [[Throwing Off the Disability]] - The Mayor's invalid wife rises from her bed to shoot Mrs Pruneface and save her daughters.
* [[Train Escape]] - Shakey does it to lose the pursuing Tracy in his climatic attempt to escape.
* [[Tunnel King]] - The Mole
* [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future]] - Even before it got ridiculous with the space period and after it pulled back, Dick Tracy has an ample supply of futuristic gadgets, especially with his various wrist communicators.
* [[Two-Faced]] - Haf-and-Haf
* [[The Ugly
* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]] - Subverted with Pruneface and Mrs. Pruneface. Played ''very'' straight with Abner Kadaver and [[Goth|Rikki Mortis]] (although they live together, their relationship hasn't been specified as of yet).
* [[The Unintelligible]] - Mumbles and later Merky.
* [[The Vamp]] - Breathless Mahoney.
* [[Vapor Trail]] - Happens to Measles
* [[Video Phone]] - Dick's "2-Way Wrist TV" that carries this function and is used to communicate with police headquarters.
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* [[Worthy Opponent]] - I think Big Boy Caprice admits this much of Tracy at the end of the NES game.
* [[Would Hit a Girl]] - well, Dick would hit a homicidal female as large as himself, anyway.
* [[Write What You Know]] - Current head writer Mike Curtis and technical advisor/"Crimestoppers/Tracy's Hall of Fame" scribe Jim Doherty are the first two people involved with Dick Tracy to have actual law enforcement experience.
* [[Writing by the Seat of Your Pants]]: Standard writing style of Chester Gould, although he did write himself into a corner at least once.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Dick Tracy]]
[[Category:Police Procedural]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics]]
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[[Category:Radio]]
[[Category:Print Long Runners]]
[[Category:
[[Category:
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1950s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1960s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1970s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 2000s]]
[[Category:Newspaper Comics of the 2010s]]
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