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Dick Tracy Volume 22 on Pre-Order

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Forgive me for some mercantilism, but Dick Tracy comic collectors can get a look at the next volume (22) of IDW’s Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy collection now available for pre-order on amazon with a scheduled release date of June 17th.  Volume #22 includes years April 13th, 1964 to December 26th, 1965.  Active readers following the ongoing exploits of mastermind Mr. Bribery and the computer A.I. Matty Squared may be excited to buy this volume for the original Matty Squared and Mr. Bribery cases from 1965.    Also included will be Moon Maid’s first foray’s into vigilantism, Chester Gould’s own parody of himself, Chet Jade, and the mystery of Lita Flite.

Also, I would be remiss to mention that the Moon Maid graced volume #21 of this collection was due out last month but delays have pushed its release date to the end of January.  The price on that one has dropped as it approaches the release date and now may be the right price to pick it up if you are waiting for a deal.

In other Tracy news, Chris Sims at the Comics Alliance is written a great article on the current Dick Tracy / Spirit crossover.  If you have time I suggest you give it a read!

 

Happy Veterans Day

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We here at the Depot would like to wish all our veterans a wonderful Veterans Day and thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all that you do or have done.  Thank you!

Detective Tracy and creator Chester Gould have long had a special affection for those in the military and this was never more apparent than during World War II.  While the top cop battled Nazi forces like Pruneface stateside, he transcended the newspapers to sell war bonds, take part in Armed Forces Radio, and frequently make his way to the battle-front by way of postcards, operation names and dropping bombs.  Browse a quick Veterans gallery of pictures and video below, to see what we’re talking about.

In addition to our best Veterans day wishes, the Depot would like to congratulate Mike Curtis and Joe Staton for winning the 2016 Akron Comiccon Excellence Award for their work on Dick Tracy.  The duo was presented with the award while at their Nov 6th panel in Akron.  Well done gentlemen!

Dick Tracy to meet the Spirit

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tracyandspiritThe Baltimore Comic-Con has come and gone, leaving us excitedly looking ahead to the next Dick Tracy crossover!  With all four members in attendance (handing this out!), the Dick Tracy creative team unveiled the awesome poster to the left, teasing an incredible future meeting with The Spirit!  Coordinating and getting permissions for these crossovers is no doubt a exhaustive effort and credit to Mike for making these things happen!

“So”, some of you might be asking, “I know the name, but who is the Spirit?”  The Spirit was created by Will Eisner at the behest of newspapers looking to get in on the emerging comic book market in 1940.  Eisner’s new crime fighter was a 7-8 page comic insert inside of newspapers called “The Spirit Section”.  The artwork and writing for these comics was top notch but due to specialized printing requirements and costs, the Spirit was only carried by a select group of newspapers.

thespiritsectionThe Spirit himself was a young detective by name of Danny Colt who was presumed killed in the first pages of the premiere story but awakens from suspended animation (for reasons) in the Wildwood Cemetery where he establishes a base and begins fighting crime while wearing a small domino mask and fedora hat.

Originating but not tied to his home city, the Spirit’s adventures took him around the globe where he met all manner of upper and lower class citizens, bringing his own form of justice to all of them.  The story style and tone frequently changed as Eisner’s interests led him to explore different genres but certain themes remained constant: the love between him and Ellen, the annual “Christmas Spirit” stories and his arch-nemesis, the Octopus, a criminal master of disguise.  According to Eisner,

“When I created The Spirit, I never had any intention of creating a superhero. I never felt The Spirit would dominate the feature. He served as a sort of an identity for the strip. The stories were what I was interested in.”

The Spirit slid away into the night around 1952 although comic reprints are common.  In any case, I’ll stop regurgitating Spirit information you can probably find on Wikipedia.  The exciting part is the Spirit and Dick Tracy will be meeting this coming January!  It will be very interesting to see what foe (foes?) the pair will match wits with and how deep the crossover goes.  Will we get a Fearless Fosdick style mini-story or a full on Little Orphan Annie length crossover?  I’d wager somewhere in between, but we’ll find out together!