''The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy'' (also known as ''The Complete Dick Tracy'') is a series of 29 hardcover books published by

The Library of American Comics Library of American Comics (abbreviated as LoAC) is an American publisher of classic United States, American comic strips collections and comic history books, founded by Dean Mullaney and Bruce Canwell in 2007. History Background Dean Mullaney ...

, an imprint of

IDW Publishing IDW Publishing is an American publisher of comic books, graphic novels, art books, and comic strip collections. It was founded in 1999 as the publishing division of Idea and Design Works, LLC (IDW), itself formed in 1999, and is regularly recog ...

, that bring together every ''

Dick Tracy ''Dick Tracy'' is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy (originally Plainclothes Tracy), a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould. It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the ''Detroit Mirror'', and it ...

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

in chronological order, both

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white in a continuous spectrum, producing a range of shades of grey. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, and as technology improved, altered to color. ...

dailies and Sunday strips, written and drawn by

Chester Gould Chester Gould (; November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985) was an American cartoonist, best known as the creator of the ''Dick Tracy'' comic strip, which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains. Ear ...

from its premiere on October 4, 1931, until December 25, 1977.

Format

Volumes 1–6

These volumes measure 9.5 inches x 7 inches (242 mm × 178 mm) with approximately 350 pages per volume. The books were edited and designed by Ted Adams, with cover design by Ashley Wood and introductions by Max Allan Collins. The books feature an interview with the creator, Chester Gould, conducted by Max Allan Collins.

Volumes 7–29

These later volumes measure 11 x 8.5 inches, (280 mm × 216 mm) with about 250-300 pages per volume. They are edited and designed by

Dean Mullaney Dean Mullaney (born June 18, 1954) is an American editor, publisher, and designer whose Eclipse Enterprises, founded in 1977, was one of the earliest independent comic-book companies. Eclipse published some of the first graphic novels and was on ...

, with introductions by Max Allan Collins and essays by Jeff Kersten. After the publication of the first six volumes of the series, it was handed over by its editor and the CEO of IDW Publishing, Ted Adams, to the IDW

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

The Library of American Comics (LoAC).

became the new editor of the ''Dick Tracy'' reprint series. As this transition happened, it was decided that the size of the volumes would be increased to match the other LoAC book lines. Even though this meant that the Sunday strips were printed 40 percent larger in this new iteration of the series, the daily strips were actually printed smaller compared to the size they had in the first six volumes, since there were now three strips to a page instead of two. A new cover design was also introduced, the introductory essays grew to become broader and more extensive, delivering a more complete history of the strip and its creator Gould. Contact was established with the Gould family, the Dick Tracy Museum and the Shel Dorf collection to obtain more archival material, such as art and photographs. Jeff Kersten began to contribute afterword essays which place the ''Dick Tracy'' strip in historical context and elaborates on its cultural impact.

Volumes

Upcoming volumes

The six initial volumes published by IDW which were published in a smaller format are planned to be reissued in a reformatted version to match the larger format of the later volumes in the series, to make a fully coherent book suite.Kurtis Findlay & Bruce Canwell, The Library of American Comics & EuroComics' Podcast, Episode 014 with special guest Rich Handley - 10:56–15:00
Retrieved 2019-05-12

References

External links

Publisher website - IDW Publishing - The Library of American Comics - ''The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy''

The Library of American Comics' YouTube channel - ''Inside look: Dick Tracy - Vol. 7: 1941-1942''

The Library of American Comics' YouTube channel - ''Inside look: Dick Tracy - Vol. 8: 1942-1944''

Preview - ''The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy - Vol. 20''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Comic strip collection books Dick Tracy The Library of American Comics publications