Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Tracy Timeline...

1931:  Chester Gould’s detective strip Dick Tracy debuts


1944:  First appearances of Gravel Gertie and Vitamin Flintheart


 1945:  First appearance of B.O. Plenty.  He and Gravel Gertie are wed the same year.


1946:  Debut of Diet Smith, Tracy’s wealthy industrialist friend who provides Dick with his newest technical innovations, beginning with the two-way wrist radio.


1947:  B.O. and Gravel’s daughter, Sparkle Plenty, is born Tracy conducts the first closed-circuit TV police line up.


1948:  Dick Tracy employs the Telegard, a portable, antennaless television burglar alarm Sam Catchem debuts as Tracy’s sidekick, replacing Pat Patton, who has become Chief of Police.


1948:  Tracy operates the first battery-powered TV camera.


1949:  Tess Truehart and Dick finally marry.

1951:  Dick and Tess’s daughter, Bonnie Braids, is born.


1953:  TV criminal show-up makes its first appearance.


1959:  Gould wins his first National Cartoonists Society “Reuben” award for Dick Tracy.


1962:  The Magnetic Space Coupe, the first engineless car, takes Dick to the moon.


1963:  Debut of Miss Moon Maid.


1964:  Two-way wrist TV.


1968:  Voice-o-Graph invented.  Matches criminal voiceprints.


1969:  Gould abandons his moon-oriented storylines as the Apollo missions show no life there.

1977:  Gould captures his second “Reuben” for Tracy, and retires from all but a consulting role on the strip at year’s end.  Max Allan Collins is named his replacement for scripting beginning with the new year.  Longtime Gould assistant Rick Fletcher to handle the art.


1978:  Moon Maid, now Junior’s wife and mother of his infant child, is killed by a car bomb meant for Dick.


1981:  Junior Tracy remarries, this time to Sparkle Plenty.


1983:  Fletcher passes away, and Dick Locher takes over drawing chores.


1985:  Gould dies in his adopted hometown of Woodstock, Illinois.


1986:  Two-way wrist computer makes its debut in the Tracy arsenal.


1988:  Sparkle Plenty, Jr. born to Junior and Sparkle.

5 comments:

Jim Kakalios said...

Greetings. I am the author of THE PHYSIC SOF SUPERHEROES and I'm writing a new popular science book quantum mechanics, showing how some of the predictions of science fiction pulps and comics turned out to be surprisingly accurate. Of course, I discuss Dick Tracy's 2-way wrist TV! I am having a surprisingly hard time finding an original image from which I can generate a high res scan for inclusion in the book. I have found an excellent image from the web, but the resolution is not publication quality. Could you e-mail me at kakalios@umn.edu and perhaps you could help me with this problem. I would of course give you credit in the book. Thanks. Jim

Jim T. said...

There are many comics archives to consult, as well as the circa-1970s Tracy large-size trade paperback collection across the room from me right now (blue cover, forgot the title). Might also be a MAD or PANIC image like that, too.

Helping Freindly said...

Hello there. I have an old Dick Tracy Poster that I've had since I was a baby but know nothing about it. I have searched all over the web but could not find anything like it. I know its vintage and it is pretty unique material. My Email is Sergdog82@yahoo.com and if you want me to send you a pic of it so you can take a look let me know. Maybe you could tell me something about it or would even be interested in buying it. Thanks..

rnigma said...

Now would be a great time to update your blog. Looks like Joe Staton and Mike Curtis will officially take over Dick Tracy, and not a moment too soon:

http://www.againwiththecomics.com/2011/01/dick-tracy-to-become-readable-viewable.html

Anonymous said...

Greetings,

I have a inquiry for the webmaster/admin here at hecollectsdicktracy.blogspot.com.

May I use part of the information from your blog post above if I provide a link back to this website?

Thanks,
John