DICK TRACY CASES

New release: The Sunday Press continues its mission to archive and celebrate our comic strip heritage with classic titles gloriously archived at their original print size. For their new edition they have turned to Chester Gould's detective strip, Dick Tracy! Tracy's world is filled with fast-pace action, grit, gadgets, and the most colorful rogue's gallery of villains. From the press release: "In the early 1930s, Chester Gould dramatically altered the comics landscape with a new style of gritty realism torn from Chicago's headlines. With this new kind of storytelling came a new way of coloring comics, a style as bold and vibrant as the stories themselves. Now for the first time, Sunday Press presents Dick Tracy in the original colors and full tabloid size-and just in time for Tracy's 85th birthday. This collection of Sunday newspaper comics from 1931 to 1939 features Gould's most infamous villains of the decade in four complete stories, plus forty more fabulous Sunday pages. Experience the adventures of the world's most famous comic strip detective just as they appeared more than three-quarters of a century ago." Oversized HC. More info at Amazon and Sunday Press. If you like Dick Tracy, check out the contemporary graphic novels by the maestro of macabre mystery, Richard Sala, at Fantagraphics Books (see our interviews and spotlight links below). In other news, my next episode on Cocktail Nation is coming up! In the meantime, you can hear Episode #1 (Danger Man) and Episode #2 (The 10th Victim), Epsiode #3 (On Her Majesty's Secret Service). In each segment I do a short introduction to a film or TV series and share some classic (often rare) music. Don't miss the James Bond caption contest from Ian Fleming Publications (ends June 18th)! Related posts: Ralph Byrd is Dick Tracy, Dan Dunn, Violent Girls, Super-Enigmatix Interview, In a Glass Grotesquely, Adventures of Richard Sala Interview, Rogue's Galleries, Invisible Hands, The Hidden, Richard Sala Comics. Enjoy!

Selected Spy Vibe Posts: 1960s Pop Models, Batman Gallants, Adam West R.I.P., Village Triangle, Roger Moore R.I.P., Spy Vibe Radio 3, Sgt Pepper 50th, Satanik Kriminal OST, 60s Overdrive, Make Love in London, Spy Vibe Radio 2, Spy Vibe Radio 1, James Bond Strips, Propaganda Mabuse, Fahrenheit 451 50th, Interview: Police Surgeon, XTC Avengers, 1966 Pep Spies, Batman Book Interview, Exclusive Fleming Interview, Avengers Comic Strips, Robert Vaughn RIP, UNCLE Fashions, Thunderbirds Are Pop!, Interview:Spy Film Guide, Lost Avengers Found, The Callan File, Mission Impossible 50th, Green Hornet 50th, Star Trek 50th, Portmeirion Photography 1, Filming the Prisoner, Gaiman McGinnins Project, Ian Fleming Grave, Revolver at 50, Karen Romanko Interview, Mod Tales 2, Umbrella Man: Patrick Macnee, New Beatles Film, The Curious Camera, Esterel Fashion 1966, Exclusive Ian Ogilvy Interview, 007 Tribute Covers, The Phantom Avon novels return, Ian Fleming Festival, Argoman Design, Sylvia Anderson R.I.P., Ken Adam R.I.P., George Martin R.I.P., The New Avengers Comics, Trina Robbins Interview, The Phantom at 80, 007 Manga, Avengerworld Book, Diana Rigg Auto Show, The Prisoner Audio Drama Review, David McCallum novel, Andre Courreges R.I.P., Who's Talking on Spy Vibe, UFO Blu-ray, Avengers Pop Art.

DAN DUNN

It was a super busy week at the Spy Vibe lair! My students had their annual art show on Thursday, so my days have been filled with editing, printing, matting, hanging work, moving furniture, etc. The highlight of the 2017 gallery walk for me was that my Photography students could finally make giant poster-size prints. Their pieces looked fantastic! All of my photographers, filmmakers, and drawing students exhibited and they had a good turn-out. Now we wind down for the final weeks of school, finals, and meetings. One notable item crossed my Spy Vibe radar this week. IDW just published a volume of Dan Dunn, Secret Operative 48 comic strips from the 1930s. From the press release: "Considered the first comic book with original material ever produced, 1933’s Detective Dan, Secret Op. 48 was a landmark. It only lasted one issue before morphing into the Dan Dunn newspaper strip. A blatant copy of Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy (Norman Marsh had been an art assistant to Gould), Dan Dunn was a rough and tumble Secret Service agent who exacted violent retribution on any criminal who dared cross his path. This book reprints the entire first year of daily comics." More info at Amazon. Dan Dunn was also adapted into Big Little Books and later comic reprints. The original comic book cover from 1933 below. Enjoy!

Selected Spy Vibe Posts: Make Love in London, Spy Vibe Radio 2, Spy Vibe Radio 1, James Bond Strips, Propaganda Mabuse, Fahrenheit 451 50th, Interview: Police Surgeon, XTC Avengers, 1966 Pep Spies, Batman Book Interview, Exclusive Fleming Interview, Avengers Comic Strips, Robert Vaughn RIP, UNCLE Fashions, Thunderbirds Are Pop!, Interview:Spy Film Guide, Lost Avengers Found, The Callan File, Mission Impossible 50th, Green Hornet 50th, Star Trek 50th, Portmeirion Photography 1, Filming the Prisoner, Gaiman McGinnins Project, Ian Fleming Grave, Revolver at 50, Karen Romanko Interview, Mod Tales 2, Umbrella Man: Patrick Macnee, New Beatles Film, The Curious Camera, Esterel Fashion 1966, Exclusive Ian Ogilvy Interview, 007 Tribute Covers, The Phantom Avon novels return, Ian Fleming Festival, Argoman Design, Sylvia Anderson R.I.P., Ken Adam R.I.P., George Martin R.I.P., The New Avengers Comics, Trina Robbins Interview, The Phantom at 80, 007 Manga, Avengerworld Book, Diana Rigg Auto Show, The Prisoner Audio Drama Review, David McCallum novel, Andre Courreges R.I.P., Who's Talking on Spy Vibe, UFO Blu-ray, Avengers Pop Art.

RALPH BYRD IS DICK TRACY

Calling Dick Tracy fans. Spy Vibe salutes actor Ralph Byrd. Born on this day in 1909, Byrd is best remembered for playing detective Dick Tracy in four Republic cliffhanger serials, two feature films, and the Dick Tracy TV show in the early 1950s. Byrd got his start in a number of thrillers in the mid-1930s, including Chinatown Squad (1935) and The Adventures of Rex and Rinty (1935). The first Tracy serial was produced in 1937. Mining cartoonist Chester Gould's developing "rogue's gallery" of fiendish villains and gadgets, the cliffhanger used memorable conventions like a deformed mystery baddie and a sic-fi style flying wing (a proto-stealth bomber). Byrd returned to the role to fight spies and saboteurs in Dick Tracy Returns (1938), an evil scientist back from the dead in Dick Tracy's G-Men (1939), and organized crime in Dick Tracy vs. Crime Inc. (1941). Feature films followed with Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947) and the fun vehicle for co-star Boris Karloff, Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947). 

Although there were Tracy features without Byrd, he was a public favorite and seemed to embody the character for the screen. Ralph Byrd returned to play the famous detective on TV in 48 episodes from 1950-1952. He passed away from a heart attack at the age of 43 in 1952. Chester Gould's comic strip was an intoxicating cocktail of hard-boiled narrative and gritty violence wrapped in a stylish cartoon package. Ralph Byrd helped to bring that recipe to motion pictures and television for almost twenty years and he is fondly remembered. Stay tuned for more Dick Tracy on Spy Vibe soon.

Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about spy soundtracks, The Saint, Op Art, Thomas Allen pulp art, The Shadow, Operation Kid Brother (MST3K), 1960s espionage writers, my review of SKYFALL, 007 at the Intnl Spy Museum, and more. Spy Vibe is now on Pinterest! Check out our image archives and follow us here.

Ian Fleming on Spy Vibe: recent posts include Ian Fleming Music Series links: Noel Coward,Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, and our Ian Fleming image archive link here.

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