Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy Volume 12 Hardcover – October 25, 2011

Another fantastic Tracy book. Great printing, good production values. I hear some of the later books are blurry, but this one has great reproductions. Gould in his prime. As a big fan I loved this and the previous books.

excellent book

it would be better with the Sundays in color like Li'l Abner edition

V e r y g o o d, h a p p y w i t h e v e r y t h i n g.

If you enjoy good plots, colorful characters, good artwork, you can't go wrong with Dick Tracy. Volume 12 is from a great era of an always great comic strip.

This volume continues with the introduction of the Dick Tracy Television Burglar Alarm. Chester Gould seems REALLY excited about his latest creation and really pushes it hard but so begins one of the lamest Dick Tracy adventures ever. Was a surveillance camera really that mind blowing even in 1948? Anyway, Dick Tracy invited hundreds of police captains to see a demonstration of the TV Burglar Alarm and in a monumentally stupid move announces to the crowd that no written records for the design of the device have been kept and they are all in the brain of the inventor. A crook named Big Frost had snuck into the crowd, heard Tracy speech and later kills the inventor. Stupid stupid stupid. Chief Brandon takes the blame for allowing in the killer but it was Dick Tracy who should be ashamed. Big Frost is a forgettable villain and the stories only saving grace is the interesting relationship between Frost and his crusading daughter who vows to bring the crook to justice.It's with the introduction of Sam Catchem as Dick Tracy's new partner that things really improve. Say what you want about Pat Patton he was absolutely as dull as dishwater and generally useless. Catchem has a much more vibrant personality and seems to actually know what he's doing. Sleet and her psychopathic mother as villains are also much more interesting than the generic Big Frost.Chester Gould is notorious for including highly unlikely coincidences in his stories but the Sleet story may take the cake. While trying to lay low from the cops, Sleet is walking down the street when a huge pane of glass smashes down on her body. She's taken into the house where the pane had dropped from and bandaged up but she inexplicably decides to stay at the house. Meanwhile, one of the workers who was replacing the window finds a bottle of distinctive perfume the Sleet was carrying but rather than return it he keeps it to give his wife. On his way home he stops and a dance club that Dick Tracy and Sam Catchem have staked out and opens the bottle to show his friend. Dick Tracy smells the perfume and recognizes it as Sleet's and has the worker tell him where Sleet is. Whew. These convoluted series of events are not uncommon with Gould but this one really stood out as insane.The headline villain of the book, Wormy, is surprisingly unmemorable despite getting a nice buildup in the books introduction. In my opinion Pearshape is a much more unique and interesting villain. He is precisely as his name implies, a man with a significant amount of weight around his hips and rear. The funny thing is, according to the introduction, Pearshape is Chester Gould poking fun at his own physique. Hilariously, Pearshape literally needs to use a mirror to see his own feet.This is not the greatest collection of Dick Tracy comics although Sam Catchem is a nice addition. Mutt, on the other hand, is not so great. He's a huge great Dane who rides on the roof of Dick Tracy's police car. If Chester Gould is trying to create a gritty, police drama having a dog literally sitting on Tracy's police car as he races after crooks is a bad way of going about it. Not my favorite volume but entertaining nonetheless. One final thought. It's always funny how no matter what stupid thing Dick Tracy does Gould never holds him responsible. He's the dumbbell who tipped off Big Frost that killing the inventor of the TV Burgler Alarm would wipe out the research but it's Chief Brandon who accepts the blame. I can't tell you how many times something Dick Tracy has done has led to tragedy and yet no one ever pins the blame on him. He is the hero who can do no wrong.

Doing the 50s and 60s I missed alot of the daily comics because of school and vietnam. I'm just trying to catch up. I love this comic strip.

The author at his best