Better Dick?

After 32 (full-time) years, Dick Locher has retired from Dick Tracy. Some, myself included, would add finally to that.

Locher first started assisting strip creator Chester Gould on Dick Tracy in the late 50’s. He left Gould in the 70’s to draw editorial cartoons, but then returned to take over the strip in 1986. In 2009 Jim Brozman came onboard to do penciling.

Horrible penciling.

Take a look at the difference between Saturday (Locher and Brozman’s last daily) and yesterday’s ( Staton and Curtis’ first daily) strip.

Dick Tracy, March 12, 2011

There really is no excuse for Dick’s arm in panel 3. There’s style and there’s sloppy. Unfortunately, this has been typical of the strip for a long time.

Dick Tracy, March 14, 2011

Wow! Like going from Rob Liefeld to someone that can draw feet, huh?

Locher’s glacial pacing, even by serial strip standards, was also a major drawback. Dick Tracy makes Mary Worth look like MTV.

I’m already excited about the new team. In the first strip we have 3 things happening in 3 panels! Dick woke up, his “wrist geenee” rang, and we saw the caller summon him to the office. That’s an entire week of Locher strips, not counting the Sunday recap.

I was first introduced to Dick Tracy in the Sunday Daily News that I discussed once in an earlier post. I wasn’t a fan, being more drawn to gag-a-day strips and serials like Dondi that had characters I could empathize with more. (It also looks like I first saw the strip after Gould had started to experiment with goofy sci-fi a bit, and was on his way out.) Of course at this point I had already started reading Bronze Age Marvel comics, and was also comparing Tracy to the Hulk, Spider-Man, and the Fantastic Four.

But a few years later DC Comics (I believe?) reprinted some of Chester Gould’s classic strips, with the first appearance of villains like Flattop, Pruneface, and Breathless Mahoney. They assembled them like comics, which helped make the material more accessible for a young “Marvel Zombie,” but in addition, the strips were damn good. Gould had a punchy, simple style, with great pacing and characters that were iconic and archetypical without being too exaggerated.

Dick Tracy, around 1938

I also completely missed Max Allan Collins run on the strip which I have read good things about. Apparently with Collins writing and Locher pencilling, the strip was pretty good for a decade or so. I have a few issues of Collins’ Ms. Tree. Good stuff.

Hopefully the new team heralds another revival of what ought to be a good strip.

I’ll leave you with Locher and Brozman’s swan song.

Dick Tracy, March 13, 2011

For many, Dick Tracy looking at his wrist radio watch (later wrist TV watch) is the iconic Tracy image. That's why Locher/Brozman show it so often. You'd think that after a few year's of practice they'd have nailed, huh?

Nope.