Book Review: The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 2: 1933-1935, by Chester Gould (2007)

Cover of The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Volume 2: 1933-1935, published by IDW Publishing in 2007.

Volume 2 of The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy covers the period from May 1933 to January 1935. I reviewed Volume 1 of The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy here. As Volume 2 begins, Stooge Viller and Steve the Tramp are both in jail. But not for long, as they make a daring escape and go on the lam. Stooge and Steve are both bent on getting revenge on Dick Tracy and his adopted son, Junior. 

Dick Tracy flattens Stooge Viller,and perhaps coins a famous phrase, September 6, 1933.

There were no sacred cows in Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy, and Junior’s father, the blind prospector Hank Steele, is one of the many innocents who meet their end at the hands of ruthless criminals. Stooge Viller shoots Hank when he has a chance encounter with Junior and Hank in Canada. It was probably inevitable that something was going to happen to Hank, so Junior would be able to live with Dick Tracy again. By September of 1933, Steve and Stooge are once again back in jail. And not a moment too soon, because their storyline went on a little too long for me. By the end, it seemed like even Gould was losing interest in the storyline. 

Jean Penfield fixes her huge eyes on Dick Tracy, January 22, 1934.

Jean Penfield, relaxing at home, and inviting Dick Tracy over, January 28, 1934. Jean was an interesting character, and obviously a way for Gould to work a cute female into his strip.

The next six months of the strip concerns racketeers and political corruption. Many villains are introduced, and it’s the most complicated storyline Gould had yet attempted. There are some strong moments throughout the story arc. The strip gets an infusion of energy in January of 1934, with the introduction of the character of Jean Penfield, an aspiring author. Penfield’s subject is gangsters, and the political corruption in Tracy’s city. Jean is a young brunette with large eyes, and she becomes a romantic rival for Tess Trueheart, Tracy’s on-again, off-again fiancée. Tracy is even seen kissing Jean, which she takes to mean that they’re engaged. When Jean plants a story about their engagement in the newspapers, Tracy is outraged. So is Tess Trueheart, and when the women encounter each other on the street, they get into a hair-pulling fight. 

Jean Penfield and Tess Trueheart fight over Dick Tracy, March 31, 1934.

Corrupt lawyer Spaldoni hears about Tess and Jean’s fight, and he writes letters to each of them, purporting to be from the other woman. He hopes to escalate their hatred, and as Tess and Jean fight again, Spaldoni shoots Jean with a gun he has planted Tess’ fingerprints on. Tess is arrested for Jean’s murder. But Tracy knows there’s more to the story, and Spaldoni makes a deathbed confession after being wounded by Tracy. And then, just as this excellent, months-long storyline wraps up with Spaldoni’s death and Tess’ exoneration, the strip goes seriously off the rails.

J. Scotland Bumpsted, May 13, 1934. It's never a good sign when other characters in the comic strip make fun of your name.

Spaldoni’s mother appears at his deathbed. It turns out that she’s British, and her last name is Bumpsted, which Spaldoni changed when he entered his life of crime. She also has another son, one who has become a famous European detective. Okay, that’s cheesy enough right there. But wait until you hear the name of her other son: J. Scotland Bumpsted. Even the other characters in the strip think he’s ridiculous. J. Scotland Bumpsted wears a monocle, calls his mother “mumsy,” and is a parody of a British detective. Then Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail again, and he teams up with Larceny Lu, a female villain who was first introduced in 1932. It feels as though Gould had used up all his creative energy on the racketeers storyline, and when that wrapped up, he had no idea what to do.

Pat Patton uncovers a "clew," October 10, 1934. Gould used this spelling variation for years. According to a blog post, the Chicago Tribune, the home of Gould's syndicate, used odd spellings like this from the 1930's until the 1970's. This was at the behest of publisher Robert McCormick, cousin of Joseph Medill Patterson, who accepted Chester Gould's submission of Plainclothes Tracy in 1931.

When Steve the Tramp breaks out of jail for the second time in 1934, I was just done with him. He was a great villain when he was introduced in 1932, but to use him in a third storyline was just too much. When Steve is on the lam in 1934, he’s seriously wounded, which results in his left leg being amputated—an early example of Gould’s obsession with amputees. After Steve goes back to jail, he doesn’t reappear in the strip until 1941, when he has reformed and is released from prison. 

Chester Gould's narration asks one of the oddest questions in the history of the strip, December 6, 1934. Why, no, I never have seen the inside of a nitroglycerine plant!

Larceny Lu isn’t a very exciting villain, but she does introduce us to Mary Steele, Junior’s mother. Mary was married to Junior’s father, Hank Steele, but she left him for Steve the Tramp, who was cruel and abusive to her. Steve then left Mary and took Junior with him. Larceny Lu plays off Mary’s maternal feelings and attempts to blackmail her into claiming half of Junior’s inheritance from Hank Steele. Mary meets Dick Tracy and Junior, and while Tracy learns her real identity, she asks that he not tell Junior that she is his mother. As Volume 2 ends, Junior still doesn’t know who Mary Steele is, but he’ll figure it out in Volume 3. 

Pat Patton threatens a hoodlum, December 8, 1933. Needless to say, panels like this haven't aged very well.

The last villain in Volume 2 is Boris Arson. Despite his name, he doesn’t go around setting fires. He’s the leader of a group that was planning on blowing up six major banks in the U.S. at the same time. Arson’s political goals are never clearly stated, but he seems like an anarchist type. Tracy works for the federal government during the Arson case, and sidekick Pat Patton gets to show off his skills as he apprehends one of Arson’s gang and recovers the stolen nitroglycerine that was going to be used to blow up the banks. At the end of Volume 2, Arson is about to be apprehended again, but, spoiler alert, it won’t last for long. 

Volume 2 of Dick Tracy has its ups and downs, but at its best it demonstrates Chester Gould’s trademark mix of scientific police work and tense action sequences.