From The Scoop: Dick Tracy's Rogue's Gallery

From the October 20 issue of Gemstone Publishing's The Scoop:

Classic comic strip detective, Dick Tracy, was one of the first comic heroes to fight crime with no superpowers, yet had one of the most unique and bizarre rogues galleries in comics history. Tracy's rogue's gallery is a diverse as is Batman and Spider-man's rogues, but appeared in a time when most heroes we're fighting nameless criminals or organizations.

With such characters as The Blank, a gangster who face was destroyed by a gunshot; The Claw, a violent criminal who made use of a hook that replaced one of his hands; Flattop, an assassin with a misshapen head; Haf-and-Haf, a criminal with half a scared face (a precursor to Two-Face, maybe?); Little Face, a jewel thief with a tiny face and large head; Mumbles, a deadly killer who has nearly incoherent speech; and Pruneface, a Nazi agent with a sun-damaged face, Tracy's rogue could hold their own with just about any villains in comics today.

Tracy's Rogue's Gallery began a phenomenon that continues to this day. Using eccentric characters with unique physical traits, Chester Gould was able to place his villains into the memories of his readers for the last 75 years.

The odd villains are not at the forefront of IDW Publishing's newly released The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy - Volume One, but one can readily see the workings of Gould's creative streak and how it would lead to the many memorable bad guys that would later populate Tracy's crime fighting career.

For more information on Dick Tracy, visit Tribune Media Services. For more information on IDW's new hard cover collected edition series, visit their site.

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