Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy),^[1] a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror,^[2] and it was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977,^[2] and various artists and writers have continued it. Dick Tracy has also been the hero in a number of films, including Dick Tracy in which Warren Beatty played the lead in 1990. Tom De Haven praised Gould’s Dick Tracy as an “outrageously funny American Gothic”, while Brian Walker described it as a “ghoulishly entertaining creation” which had “gripping stories filled with violence and pathos”.^[3][4]

Comic strip

Basing the character on U.S. federal agent Eliot Ness,^{[5][better source needed]} Gould drafted an idea for a detective named “Plainclothes Tracy” and sent it to Joseph Medill Patterson of the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate. Patterson suggested changing the hero’s name to Dick Tracy, and he also put forward an opening storyline in which Tracy joined the police after his girlfriend’s father was murdered by robbers. Gould agreed to these ideas, and Dick Tracy was first published on October 4, 1931. The strip was instantly popular and was soon appearing in newspapers across the United States.^[4] The strip’s popularity also resulted in the creation of numerous Dick Tracy merchandise, including novelizations, toys, and games. In April 1937, a poll of adult comic strip readers in Fortune voted Dick Tracy their third favorite comic strip after Little Orphan Annie and Popeye.^[4] However, Dick Tracy was also attacked by some journalists as being too violent, a criticism that would dog Gould throughout his time on the strip.^[4]

Evolution of the strip

Dick Tracy and the famous 2-Way Wrist Radio.

On January 13, 1946,^[6] the two-Way Wrist Radio was introduced; it would become one of the strip’s most immediately recognizable icons. This radio wristwatch, worn by Tracy and members of the police force, inspired Martin Cooper‘s invention of the mobile phone and may have inspired later smartwatches.^[7] The two-Way Wrist Radio was upgraded to a two-Way Wrist TV in 1964.^[8] This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment.

In late 1948, a botched security detail led to the death of the semi-regular character Brilliant, the blind inventor of the Two-Way Wrist Radio (among other devices) whereupon Chief Brandon, Dick Tracy’s superior on the police force and a presence in the strip since 1931, resigned in shame and Pat Patton was promoted to police chief in Brandon’s place on Tracy’s recommendation after declining promotion himself, previously having been Tracy’s buffoonish partner. A new character was introduced named Sam Catchem to take Patton’s place as Tracy’s sidekick.^{[citation needed]}