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Photo, Print, Drawing Dick Tracy. The ultimatum "What did you find out, Tracy?" / Chester Gould.

[ digital file from original drawing ]

Full online access to this resource is only available at the Library of Congress.

About this Item

Title

  • Dick Tracy. The ultimatum "What did you find out, Tracy?" / Chester Gould.

Summary

  • Four-panel comic strip shows Dick Tracy, a plain clothes detective in a trench coat, reporting to his boss that he has overheard a conversation in which a young woman is threatening to spill the dirt about ex-politician Dubbs if he doesn't put up "twenty grand bond" to get her out of jail. This is one of the earliest strips of Dick Tracy, featuring the tough but honest detective, pioneered by Chester Gould on October 4, 1931. The stories were inspired by the gangsters and hoodlums so often in the news during the 1930s. The strip later featured grotesque villains and the latest in technological devices such as the famous two-way wrist radio. Gould drew the strip until he retired in 1977. He was succeeded by other artists and the strip is still popular more than 70 years later.

Names

  • Gould, Chester, artist

Created / Published

  • c1931 December 18.

Headings

  • -  Detectives--1930-1940
  • -  Criminals--1930-1940

Format Headings

  • Comics--American--1930-1940.
  • Ink drawings--American--1930-1940.

Genre

  • Comics--American--1930-1940
  • Ink drawings--American--1930-1940

Notes

  • -  Title from item.
  • -  Caption label from exhibit Cartoon America: Dick Tracy, lacking some of the technological devices that he later used but sporting his trench coat, reports to his boss in one of the first strips. Chester Gould modeled the chisel chinned cop after Sherlock Holmes and cashed in on the growing popularity of detective stories. He kept readers intrigued with a combination of dialogue and alternating perspectives on the scenes. Gould drew several comic strips before hitting on his award-winning Dick Tracy in 1931. Although Gould retired in 1977, the comic strip is currently being drawn and written by Dick Locher and Michael Kilian.
  • -  Copyright 1931 by News Syndicate Co. Inc.
  • -  Forms part of: Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress).
  • -  Exhibited: Cartoon America: Highlights from the Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature, Library of Congress, 2006-2007.
  • -  Unprocessed in WOOD/Gould.67
  • -  Sources: Don Markstein's Toonopedia [on line]; 100 years of American newspaper comics, p. 95 ljr

Medium

  • 1 drawing : ink with scraping out over graphite underdrawing, with paste-on ; 18.4 x 58.3 cm (sheet)

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:055-4 [item] [P&P]

Repository

  • Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

Digital Id

  • ppmsca 07736 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.07736

Library of Congress Control Number

  • 2005677334

Reproduction Number

  • LC-DIG-ppmsca-07736 (digital file from original drawing)

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image

Additional Metadata Formats

Rights & Access

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  • Rights Advisory: Rights status not evaluated. For general information see "Copyright and Other Restrictions...," https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/195_copr.html
  • Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-07736 (digital file from original drawing)
  • Call Number: Unprocessed in PR 13 CN 2001:055-4 [item] [P&P]
  • Access Advisory: ---

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Gould, Chester, Artist. Dick Tracy. The ultimatum "What did you find out, Tracy?" / Chester Gould. , ca. 1931. December 18. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677334/.

APA citation style:

Gould, C. (ca. 1931) Dick Tracy. The ultimatum "What did you find out, Tracy?" / Chester Gould. , ca. 1931. December 18. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2005677334/.

MLA citation style:

Gould, Chester, Artist. Dick Tracy. The ultimatum "What did you find out, Tracy?" / Chester Gould. December 18. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2005677334/>.