Beginning in 1931, comic strip detective Dick Tracy began his relentless pursuit of bizarre and disfigured criminals. For decades, readers have been thrilled with the strip's mix of highly stylized and almost abstract artwork, realistic police procedural elements, breathless pacing, and brutal violence.

Cartoon detective Dick Tracy fights crime with the help of his handy two-way wrist radio. AP/Wide World Photos. Reproduced by permission.

Chester Gould (1900–1985) aspired to be a cartoonist since his boyhood days in Oklahoma. In 1921, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, and worked for several newspapers while attempting to create his own comic strip. He eventually developed an idea for a daily adventure strip that would reflect the gangland violence that was overrunning Chicago during the Great Depression (1929–41; see entry under 1930s—The Way We Lived in volume 2) and Prohibition era. Unlike other adventure strips of the period, such as Tarzan (see entry under...