Tuesday, June 23, 2009

200 Characters from Dick Tracy 1931-1977


"Dick Tracy The Art of Chester Gould" was an exhibition at the Museum of Cartoon Art from October 4 through November 30, 1978. Coordinated by Bill Crouch, Jr., the exhibit at the Museum in Port Chester, NY encompassed not just the newspaper comic strip, but the popular phenomenon, the artistic style of the strip, controversial violence, and Chester Gould himself.


Above: 3 of the 200 DICK TRACY characters.

It's the gallery of 200 characters from DICK TRACY 1931-1977, put together by Matt Masterson in the back of the exhibition catalog, that's a standout. Here is his introduction, followed by the scans of his amazing compilation:

"I completed this compilation of 200 DICK TRACY characters [in] October 1977 as a tribute to Chester Gould when he reached his 46th anniversary of drawing the strip. The original paste-up hangs in Chet's conference room at home and he tells me he refers to it quite often. His first reaction to it was that he had no idea he had created that many!

"To make this paste-up of 200 characters, I went through every strip in my TRACY collection from Oct. 1931 thru Oct. 1977, approximately 17,000 daily and Sunday strips, and picked out the one panel I thought best represented that character. A reduced stat was then made of each one, and then mounted on a large piece of gray matte board along with each character's name and year each appeared. It was a labor of love.

"Some of Chet's early characters from the 30's are easily recognized as popular movie stars of that era; James Cagney (Jimmy White), Claudette Colbert (Jean Penfield), Marlene Dietrich (Marro), Wallace Beery (Stud Bronzen). In the late 90's, some characters names were invented by spelling words backwards, such as Nuremoh, Kroywen, Natnus, Wolley, and Prof. Emirc.

"In the 1940's, characters were to spill from Gould's prolific imagination an an unparalleled rate. Characters such as the Mole, B-B Eyes, Pruneface, Flattop, Brow, Shaky, Gravel Gertie, B.O. Plenty, Vitamin Flintheart and Mumbles were to be household names and are remembered vividly by all who read DICK TRACY in those years. If a poll were taken, Flattop would probably garner the most votes as the most famous villain. At a time when most villains expired from the strip in 12 weeks, Flattop ran TRACY ragged for 5 months.

"... When I asked Chet Gould where he got the names for some of his characters, he told me he used to ride the train from his home in Woodstock, Illinois to his studio in Chicago and sketch various people he observed on the train. He would exaggerate upon certain features or characteristics. The name would follow, with he one exception being Flattop, whose name came from the popular aircraft carrier of World War II. Imagine an hour train ride with the likes of Itchy, Flyface or B.O. Plenty!

"In 1975, Max Allan Collins, current writer of the DICK TRACY strip, was to become the inspiration for the villain, Bulky, and in 1977, I popped up as Leyden Aigg. In answer to the question, 'Has Chet Gould ever put himself in the strip?' Yes! He IS DICK TRACY."






19 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is terrific. - D

Courier Service said...

Pretty neat stuff to see this history.

PapayaSF said...

Very nice, but one minor nitpick: "flattop" wasn't a "popular aircraft carrier of World War II" but a nickname for any aircraft carrier.

Jym said...

Fantastic! Thank you for this. helps me to appreciate the original material and forget that crappy Warren Beatty movie.

Mike Lynch said...

I have a couple of TRACY items for sale at my eBay store this week, including this particular museum catalog:

http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/opigus

Anonymous said...

I think B.O Plenty was just as famous as flattop.

JJ

kai said...

looks like i got a new series to freak

Tommer Peterson said...

Moon Maid...Pruneface...Sparkle Plenty..this is a trip down memory lane. What I remember most was the "Crimestoppers Textbook" a small panel at the top of each Sunday's strip that gave you ideas how to prevent crime in your town.

Tommer Peterson said...

Moon Maid...Pruneface...Sparkle Plenty..this is a trip down memory lane. What I remember most was the "Crimestoppers Textbook" a small panel at the top of each Sunday's strip that gave you ideas how to prevent crime in your town.

Anonymous said...

Some shower curtain mfrer should license these.

Mr Volco said...

That's a great collection. What style. One thing i noticed, MIDGET and MAMA (1940) wasn't his name Jerome Trohs?

Octopussoup said...

Great stuff. I loved reading Dick Tracy. I wonder who came first though Half and Half or Batman's Two Face.

BO Plenty was more famous that Flattop. He was just a regular character in often showing up in the 80's. Heck Pruneface showed up more than Flattop.

Gretchen Emery said...

My family and I were avid followers of Dick Tracy; back in the early 50's, I had a best friend who had a younger sister - my father always called her Hecki Noki (Hecky Noki?) after, what I have grown up believing, was the baby daughter of Gravel Gertie and BO Plently (actually, I always remembered Sparkle Plenty as BO's wife, and this Hecki Noki was their daughter); my dad called this little girl Hecki Noki because she looked like the comic strip character - short dark hair and thick bangs; I've been reading the history of the strip and the list of characters, but have not come across anyone named Hecki Noki; did I just dream this? can anyone help; my curiousity has really peaked.
Thanks to you all for your comments - so much fun, as many of you have said, to travel done this memory lane.
Gretchen Emery

Littcrit said...

Lovely to be re-united with BO Plenty. Remember Hair Face? We used to do this, combing our hair over our faces and putting on sunglasses. And then there was Eggy Plates – always a favourite.

Littcrit said...

Lovely to be re-united with BO Plenty. Remember Hair Face? We used to do this, combing our hair over our faces and putting on sunglasses. And then there was Eggy Plates – always a favourite.

Manetoys said...

Epic compilation. As a big fan of the '90 movie, it's cool to see not only the movie characters in their original style but to see the many characters that didn't make it into the film. :D

james a carlin jr said...

anyone have a picture of B O Plenty spitting??

Consumer Activist said...

12/2/17 Did I remember incorrectly or was there an 'un-named' character just now and then in the background of a panel, a guy in a trench coat, and hat, with a dark cloud over him raining on him? No name, just a minor figure in the background under a dark cloud getting rained on. consumer2014@aol.com

Unknown said...

Does anyone remember a character that had a dirt cloud over him?