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.

Tunnel Vision...

Y'know, I really like the Random Acts of Tracy idea.  Since I have more items to expand on this here's another:

Not being a native New Yorker, I know little of the Freedom Tunnel so here's wiki's version:

"The Freedom Tunnel is the name given by urban explorers, graffiti artists, and a handful of  homeless people to the Amtrak tunnel under Riverside Park in Manhattan, New York City.  It is also the name of the legendary and constantly evolving graffiti pieces that cover the tunnel walls."

That will suffice for us as an into for this piece of Tracy goodness residing on those said walls.

It's from a storyline involving the Mole who first appeared 9-17-41.  Bet THIS Tracy has seen his share of illegal activity.

Y'ever notice that when Tracy is depicted on walls, sidewalks, barroom tables, and the like; he is always the Gould version.  Perhaps even the Fletcher version.  Never the Locher version.  Wonder why that is?  (...he said snarkily!)  If you find one, lemme see it.  I'm curious.

Dick Tracy as Legal Tender...

Since my camera is now almost officially Ka-put, I have something to show you that is not in my possession: 

a coin.   

It was a bit out of my price range but is very cool and unusual, nonetheless.

These are called hobo nickels.  It seems during the depression, many artists found themselves without a canvas on which to express themselves so they took to carving on what little money they had to create (sometimes) intricate masterpieces.  This is not one of the elaborate ones by any means.  It recently sold on ebay and has shown up here for the express reason that the artist behind this was obviously influenced by Chester Gould's then-young Dick Tracy strip.

Just look at that nose!

I realize this is dated 1930 and Tracy wasn't out yet.  The coin was just 'Tracy-ized" sometime in the 30's after Tracy had appeared.

This is a one-of-a-kind piece of art and I wish I'd have had enough coin to purchase it myself.

First picture...

Starting with an oldie but a goody:  Sometime in the 1930's, this once contained caramel of questionable taste (see the faces of Tracy and Junior!) and a card with a continuing story.  More you bought, the more of the story you could read.  Nice idea.  Coming out of the Great Depression, you needed to have an edge on the competition because a penny actually meant something.  The art is crude and at best was probably copied from a Chester Gould (Tracy's creator) panel.  I don't see as many for sale these days as I did a few years ago.