Detective Tracy (Selected Works from the 1970s-80s) (Selected Works from the 1970s-80s)

Author: Chester Gould
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-07-01
Features: The diverse and novel portrayal of villains in Tracy, the Detective is its highest artistic achievement. Like the gangster antagonist in Tracy, the Detective, who was inspired by Al Capone, most of the villains Tracy encounters are drawn from contemporary society, nearly all of them figures who had appeared on the front pages of newspapers at the time. For example, the escape method of Boris Aliston in Gould's work mimics the methods of the outlaw Dillinger, and the villainous characters in works like Bonnie, Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, and Lamont Cranston can mostly be traced back to real-life figures from society at the time. During the early years of the Great Depression in the United States, the power of the underworld was rampant. After the Chicago mob led by Al Capone was dismantled, there was widespread relief, and Chester Gould was inspired to create the pioneering American crime-comics strip Tracy, the Detective in 1931. The character of Tracy the Detective was modeled after Sherlock Holmes, and the strip achieved enormous success upon its debut, running for 72 years to date and becoming a household name in America. This collection is compiled based on Tracy, the Detective Cases, published by Forum Communications Services in 1990 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the strip's creation. It includes one representative work from the 1970s and one from the 1980s of this masterpiece.