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64-555: Dick Tracy is an American comic strip featuring Dick Tracy , a tough and intelligent police detective created by Chester Gould . It made its debut on Sunday, October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror , and was distributed by the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate . Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977, and various artists and writers have continued it. Dick Tracy has also been

128-558: A "racket squad" within the United States Department of Justice ; the establishment of a permanent Crime Commission at the federal level; the expansion of the jurisdiction of the Judiciary Committee to include interstate organized crime; federal studies into the sociology of crime; a ban on betting via radio, television, telegraph, and telephone; the establishment of state and local crime commissions; and

192-418: A detective named "Plainclothes Tracy" and sent it to Joseph Medill Patterson of the Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate . Patterson suggested changing the hero's name to Dick Tracy, and he also put forward an opening storyline in which Tracy joined the police after his girlfriend's father was murdered by robbers. Gould agreed to these ideas, and Dick Tracy was first published on October 4, 1931. The strip

256-480: A direct response to the committee's recommendation. Senator Kefauver served as the committee's first chair. Kefauver relinquished the committee chair on April 30, 1951, and Senator O'Conor assumed the chairmanship until the committee folded on September 1, 1951. The television broadcast of the committee's hearings attracted huge public interest and educated a broad audience about the issues of municipal corruption and organized crime. An estimated 30 million people in

320-525: A few exceptions, such as Big Boy , a fictionalized version of Al Capone and the strip's first villain. Tracy contended with a series of big-time mobsters in the 1950s, such as the King, George "Mr. Crime" Alpha, Odds Zonn, and Willie "The Fifth" Millyun, after events like the Kefauver Hearings . As Tess faded into the background, Tracy took, as his assistant, the rookie policewoman Lizz Worthington,

384-409: A financial reorganization of their comic strip holdings, and Tribune staff writer and columnist Mike Kilian took over the writing. Kilian continued until his death on October 27, 2005. Dick Locher was both author and artist for over three years, beginning on January 9, 2006. On March 16, 2009, Jim Brozman began collaborating with Locher, taking over the drawing duties while Locher continued to write

448-553: A long run on radio, from 1934 weekdays on NBC's New England stations to the ABC network in 1948. Bob Burlen was the first radio Tracy in 1934, and others heard in the role during the 1930s and 1940s were Barry Thomson, Ned Wever and Matt Crowley . The early shows all had 15-minute episodes. On CBS, with Sterling Products as sponsor, the serial aired four times a week from February 4, 1935, to July 11, 1935, moving to Mutual from September 30, 1935, to March 24, 1937, with Bill McClintock doing

512-492: A longer hairstyle and a mustache and added a hippie sidekick , Groovy Grove, to appeal to young audiences. Groovy's first appearance in print, as it happened, occurred during the same week as the Kent State shootings . Groovy remained with the strip on and off until his death in 1984. Shortly before his retirement, Gould drew a strip in which Sam, Lizz, and Groovy held Tracy down to shave off his mustache. At this time,

576-548: A nationally recognized figure, and the committee enabled him to run for President of the United States in 1952 and 1956 (his runs failed, but he became his party's vice presidential nominee in 1956). Many of the Kefauver Committee's hearings were aimed at proving that a Sicilian-Italian organization based on strong family ties centrally controlled a vast organized crime conspiracy in the United States, but

640-408: A new hairstyle that covered her antennae and she was ultimately phased out of the strip. Junior later married Sparkle Plenty (the daughter of B.O. and 'Gravel' Gertie Plenty), and they had a daughter named Sparkle Plenty Jr. Sparkle had been divorced by her cartoonist husband Vera Aldid, who was thus also removed from the cast. Collins felt that their original marriages were a mistake on Gould's part. In

704-559: A normal part of the process which he could manage. Extreme technology was phased out, such as the Space Coupe, in favor of more realistic advanced tools such as the Two-Way Wrist Computer in 1987. New semi-regular characters introduced by Collins and Fletcher included: Dr. Will Carver, a plastic surgeon with underworld ties who often worked on known felons; Wendy Wichel, a smarmy newspaper reporter/editorialist with

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768-539: A number of films including, from 1990, Dick Tracy , which starred Warren Beatty as the titular character. Kefauver Hearings Organized crime was the subject of a large number of widely read articles in several major newspapers and magazines in 1949. Several local "crime commissions" in major cities and states had also uncovered extensive corruption of the political process by organized crime. Many cities and states called for federal help in dealing with organized crime, yet federal law provided few tools for

832-424: A number of relatives, all with his characteristic head structure and facial attributes, who turned up one by one to avenge their ancestor on Tracy. Rick Fletcher died in 1983 and was succeeded by editorial cartoonist Dick Locher , who had assisted Gould on the strip in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Locher was assisted by his son John, who died in 1986. Max Allan Collins was fired from the strip in 1992, following

896-467: A photographer who becomes a highly capable police officer, which was a rare female character type for its time. From 1956 to 1964, the Dick Tracy Sunday page was accompanied by a topper humor strip called The Gravies and drawn by Gould and his assistants. The 1950s are often considered the strip's artistic and commercial prime, which is thought to come to an end with the 1959 story with

960-571: A police officer's salary, and he responded with a story wherein Tracy was accused of corruption and had to explain the origin of his possessions in detail. In his book-length examination of the strip, Dick Tracy – The Official Biography , Jay Maeder suggested that Gould's critics were unsatisfied by his explanation. Nevertheless, the controversy eventually faded, and the cartoonist reduced exposure to Tracy's home life. Tracy's cases generally incriminated independent operators rather than organized crime—with

1024-697: A request that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute 33 named individuals as suspected leaders of organized crime in the United States. The committee's work led to several significant outcomes. Among the most notable was an admission by J. Edgar Hoover , Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation , that a national organized crime syndicate did exist and that the FBI had done little about it. Legislative proposals and state ballot referendums legalizing gambling went down to defeat over

1088-443: A significant mainstream media event, with spinoff merchandising and magazine coverage. The Plenty family appeared with Tracy in a story that occurred in a bank, where "B.O." found a way to prevent thieves from snatching an envelope of money from a counter. In the 24 April 2011 strip, B.O. and Gertie had a second child, Attitude, a boy who is as ugly as Sparkle is beautiful. His face has yet to be shown. Beginning September 11, 1949,

1152-532: A strong anti-Tracy bias in her articles; and Lee Ebony, an African-American female detective. Vitamin Flintheart reappeared occasionally as a comic-relief figure, the aged ham actor created by Gould in 1944 who had not been seen in the strip for almost three decades. The Plenty family (B.O., Gravel Gertie, and Sparkle) were also brought back as semi-regulars. Original villains seen during this period included Angeltop (the revenge-seeking, psychopathic daughter of

1216-489: A third Harvey in the same category, becoming one of only three strips to win in three consecutive years. On November 6, 2016, at their panel at Akron Comicon, Mike Curtis and Joe Staton were each presented with an Akron Comicon Excellence Award. The inscription on the plaques reads: "2016 AKRON COMICON EXCELLENCE AWARD PRESENTED TO MIKE CURTIS AND JOE STATON FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO ONE OF THE LONGEST RUNNING NEWSPAPER STRIPS IN THE HISTORY OF NEWSPAPER COMICS!" Dick Tracy had

1280-441: Is repeatedly interrupted as Tracy chases after one villain after another. In the strip, his marriage wasn't until 1950 and his honeymoon was disrupted by his going after Wormy . Jim Ameche portrayed Tracy in a two-record set recorded by Mercury Records in 1947. The record sleeves were illustrated with Sunday strips reprinted in black-and-white for children to color. Tracy made his first comic book appearance in 1936 as one of

1344-530: Is still part of the strip. After Gould's retirement, Collins initially replaced the Textbook with "Dick Tracy's Rogues Gallery," a salute to memorable Tracy villains of the past. Chester Gould retired from comics in 1977; his last Dick Tracy strip appeared in print on Sunday, December 25 (Christmas Day) of that same year. The following Monday, Dick Tracy was taken over by Max Allan Collins and longtime Gould assistant Rick Fletcher . Gould's name remained in

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1408-671: The Baltimore Comics Convention , Dick Tracy was awarded the Harvey in the "Best Syndicated Strip or Panel" category. Tracy was simultaneously the oldest continually running strip and the first adventure strip ever to win the Harvey Award in this category. On September 6, 2014, Tracy was awarded a second Harvey Award in the newspaper strip category, becoming one of only three strips to win in this category in consecutive years. On September 26, 2015, Tracy won

1472-727: The Reuben Award for the strip in 1959 and 1977. The Mystery Writers of America honored Gould and his work with a Special Edgar Award in 1980. This was the first time MWA ever honored a comic strip. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps and postcards. On May 2, 2011, the Tennessee Senate passed Resolution 30, congratulating Mike Curtis and Joe Staton on their professional accomplishments, including Dick Tracy . On September 7, 2013, at

1536-608: The Senate Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce already claimed jurisdiction over the issue. A compromise resolution was substituted which established a special committee of five Senators, whose membership would be drawn from both the Judiciary and Commerce committees. Debate over the substitute resolution was bitter and partisan, and the voting on the resolution extremely close. On May 3, 1950, Vice President Alben W. Barkley , sitting in his role as President of

1600-514: The U.S. government to do so. In particular, many cities and states were concerned with the way organized crime had infiltrated interstate commerce, and how it threatened to hold the American economy hostage through labor racketeering . On January 5, 1950, Senator Estes Kefauver ( D - Tennessee ) introduced a resolution that would allow the Senate Committee on the Judiciary to investigate organized crime's role in interstate commerce. However,

1664-458: The rights of the accused and any new restraint on police practices no matter how justified, while his grotesque style for his villain characters began to alienate contemporary readers enough to prompt newspapers to drop the strip. As technology progressed, the methods that Tracy and the police used to track and capture criminals took the form of increasingly fanciful atomic -powered gadgets developed by Diet Smith Industries. This eventually led to

1728-419: The rights of the accused , which often involved Tracy being frustrated by legal technicalities. For example, having caught a gang of diamond thieves red-handed, Tracy was forced to let them walk because he could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the diamonds were stolen. As he saw the thieves get off without penalty, Tracy was heard to grumble, "Yes, under today's interpretation of the laws, it seems it's

1792-419: The 1940s. Dick Tracy (character) Dick Tracy is a fictional police detective in the American comic strip Dick Tracy created by Chester Gould in 1931. Tracy is a tough and intelligent detective who uses forensic science , advanced gadgetry, and wits in his relentless pursuit of criminals. The Dick Tracy comic strip made its premiere on October 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror . The strip

1856-493: The 1950s; elements of soap opera depicted Dick, Tess, and Junior (along with the Tracys' baby daughter Bonnie Braids) at home as a family. Depictions of family life alternated with the story's crime drama, as in the kidnapping of Bonnie Braids by fugitive Crewy Lou, or Junior's girlfriend Model being accidentally killed by her brother. Gould incurred some controversy when he had Tracy live in an unaccountably ostentatious manner on

1920-654: The 1960s advent of the Space Coupe, a spacecraft with a magnetic propulsion system. This marked the beginning of the strip's "Space Period," which saw Tracy and friends having adventures on the Moon and meeting Moon Maid , the daughter of the leader of a race of humanoid people living in "Moon Valley" in 1964. After an eventual sharing of technological information, Moon technology became standard issue on Tracy's police force, including air cars, flying cylindrical vehicles. The villains became even more exaggerated in power, resulting in an escalating series of stories that no longer resembled

1984-484: The 1990s, Tracy's son Joseph Flintheart Tracy took on a role similar to Junior's in the earlier strips. In addition, Collins removed other Gould creations of the 1960s and 1970s (including Groovy Grove, who was gravely wounded in the line of duty and later died in the hospital; Lizz married him before his death). On a more philosophical level, Collins took a generally less cynical view of the justice system than Gould; Tracy came to accept its limitations and requirements as

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2048-584: The Friendly Ghost . Their first Dick Tracy strip was published March 14, 2011. Until Staton's retirement in October 2021, Staton and Curtis were assisted by Shelley Pleger, who inked and lettered Staton's drawings, along with Shane Fisher, who provides the coloring on the Sunday strips. After Staton's retirement, Pleger took over his artist duties, too, having previously substituted for him in 2017. Pleger

2112-696: The Jumbler. They also brought back all the gadgets and plot elements of the 1960s space era, starting in early 2013, although the reintroduced Moon Maid is not the same as the original; rather, she is a human genetically modified to resemble the original Moon Maid and, thus, is christened Mysta Chimera and placed under Diet Smith's care. They have also done crossovers, with cameos from Popeye , Brenda Starr, Reporter , Funky Winkerbean , Fearless Fosdick , The Spirit , The Green Hornet , For Better or For Worse , Friday Foster , and several long sequences involving Little Orphan Annie . Chester Gould won

2176-406: The Sunday strip included a frame devoted to a page from the "Crimestoppers' Textbook", a series of handy illustrated hints for the amateur crime-fighter. This was named after a short-lived youth group seen in the strip during the late 1940s, led by Junior Tracy, called "Dick Tracy's Crimestoppers." This feature ended when Gould retired from the strip in 1977, but Max Allan Collins reinstated it, and it

2240-723: The United States Senate, cast the tie-breaking vote, and the Special Committee to Investigate Crime in Interstate Commerce was established. Barkley, as President of the Senate, was empowered to choose the committee's members. They included: Kefauver; Herbert O'Conor ( Maryland ), Lester C. Hunt ( Wyoming ), Alexander Wiley ( Wisconsin ), and Charles W. Tobey ( New Hampshire ). The Kefauver Committee held hearings in 14 major cities across

2304-457: The United States tuned in to watch the live proceedings in March 1951 and at the time 72 percent of the population were familiar with the committee's work. The tremendous success of the broadcast led to the production of a cycle of "exposé" crime films dealing with the dismantling of complex criminal organizations by law enforcement. The first one of these was The Captive City (1952), which had

2368-813: The United States. More than 600 witnesses testified. Many of the committee's hearings were televised live on national television to large audiences, providing many Americans with their first glimpse of organized crime's influence in the U.S. Among the more notorious figures who appeared before the committee were Tony "Joe Batters" Accardo , Louis "Little New York" Campagna , Mickey Cohen , Willie Moretti , Frank Costello , Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik , Meyer Lansky , Paul "The Waiter" Ricca , Virginia Hill (former Joe Adonis – Chicago Outfit messenger and mobster Bugsy Siegel 's girlfriend), and four of Irish mob boss Enoch "Nucky" Johnson's former policemen in Atlantic City were also called forth. Kefauver became

2432-401: The blessing of senator Kefauver himself: Director Robert Wise took a print of the film to D.C. to show the senator, who not only endorsed it but even appears in the prologue and epilogue, cautioning audiences about the evils of organized crime. Other notable examples of exposé films inspired by the hearings include Hoodlum Empire (1952) and The Turning Point (1952). The committee report

2496-461: The byline for a few years after his retirement as a story consultant. In one of Collins' first stories as the strip's writer, the gangster known as "Big Boy" learned that he was dying and had less than a year to live. Big Boy was still seeking revenge on Tracy, who had sent him up the river to prison,?and he wanted to live just long enough to see Tracy's death. He put out an open $ 1 million contract on Tracy worth, knowing that every small-time hood in

2560-466: The city would take a crack at the famous cop for that amount of money. One of the would-be collectors rigged Tracy's car to explode, but inadvertently killed Moon Maid instead of Tracy in the explosion. A funeral strip for Moon Maid explicitly stated that this officially severed all ties between Earth and the Moon in the strip, thus eliminating the last remnants of the Space Period. Honeymoon received

2624-476: The committee never came close to justifying such a claim. Rather, the committee uncovered extensive evidence that people of all nationalities, ethnicities, and religions operated locally controlled, loosely organized crime syndicates at the local level. The committee's final report, issued on April 17, 1951, included 22 recommendations for the federal government and seven recommendations for state and local authorities. Among its recommendations were: The creation of

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2688-800: The features included in the first issue of Dell's Popular Comics . These were reprints from the newspaper strip, reconfigured to fit the pages of a comic book, as was the case with most Tracy comic book appearances. Tracy remained a regular feature in Popular Comics through the publication's 21st issue. The first comic book to feature Tracy exclusively was the Dick Tracy Feature Book , published in May 1937 by David McKay Publications . McKay's Feature Books were magazines that rotated several popular characters from comics strips through 1938. Three more of McKay's Feature Books starred Tracy in

2752-523: The following months. In 1939, Dell started a comic magazine series called "Black and White Comics," essentially identical to McKay's "Feature Books." Six of the 15 issues featured Tracy. In 1941, Dell's "Black and White" series was replaced by the "Large Feature Books," the third issue of which featured Tracy. As with the McKay series, the Dell "Black and White" and "Large Feature" series were abridged reprints of

2816-566: The former villain Bob Oscar ("B.O."), along with Gertrude ("Gravel Gertie") Plenty. Gravel Gertie was introduced as the unwitting dupe of the villain the Brow, who was on the run from Dick Tracy. The family provided a humorous counterpoint to Tracy's adventures. The Plenty sub-story was decades long and saw Sparkle Plenty grow from an infant to a young married lady, eventually becoming a beautiful fashion model. Sparkle Plenty's 30 May 1947 birth became

2880-413: The hero in a number of films, including Dick Tracy (1990) in which Warren Beatty played the lead. Tom De Haven praised Gould's Dick Tracy as an "outrageously funny American Gothic", while Brian Walker described it as a "ghoulishly entertaining creation" which had "gripping stories filled with violence and pathos". Basing the character on U.S. federal agent Eliot Ness , Gould drafted an idea for

2944-460: The music theme of "Toot Toot, Tootsie" for its 30-minute Saturday ABC series from October 6, 1945, to June 1, 1946. Sound effects on ABC were supplied by Walt McDonough and Al Finelli. On February 15, 1945, Command Performance broadcast the musical comedy Dick Tracy in B-Flat with Bing Crosby as Tracy, Bob Hope as Flattop, Dinah Shore as Tess Trueheart, among the cast. Dick Tracy's wedding

3008-517: The next few years due to revelations of organized crime's involvement in the gambling industry, and more than 70 "crime commissions" were established at the state and local level to build on the Kefauver Committee's work. The Kefauver Committee was the first to suggest that civil law be expanded and used to combat organized crime. Congress responded to the call, and in 1970 passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act as

3072-629: The police force and a presence in the strip since 1931, resigned in shame and Pat Patton was promoted to police chief in Brandon's place on Tracy's recommendation after declining promotion himself, previously having been Tracy's buffoonish partner. A new character was introduced in December of 1948 named Sam Catchem to take Patton's place as Tracy's sidekick. Gould introduced topical story lines about television, juvenile delinquency , graft , organized crime , and other developments in American life during

3136-464: The police who are handcuffed!" The strip was criticized for advocating violence. For instance, Moon Maid, incensed at a woman being attacked by a criminal and no one helping her in an obvious reference of the Murder of Kitty Genovese , becomes a mysterious murderous vigilante to Dick Tracy's open approval in violation of his profession's ethics In 1968. On June 7 — the day after Senator Robert F. Kennedy

3200-494: The slain Flattop), Torcher (whose scheme was arson-for-profit), and Splitscreen (a video pirate). Collins brought back at least one "classic" Gould villain or revenge-seeking family member per year. The revived Gould villains were often provided with full names and marriages, as well as children, and other family connections were developed, bringing more humanity to many of the originally grotesque brutes. "Flattop", particularly, had

3264-539: The sound effects. NBC's weekday afternoon run from January 3, 1938, to April 28, 1939, had sound effects by Keene Crockett and was sponsored by Quaker Oats, which brought Dick Tracy into primetime (Saturdays at 7 pm and, briefly, Mondays at 8 pm) with 30-minute episodes from April 29, 1939, to September 30, 1939. The series returned to 15-minute episodes on the ABC Blue Network from March 15, 1943, to July 16, 1948, sponsored by Tootsie Roll , which used

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3328-619: The spring of 1969, Tracy was offered the post of Chief of Police in Moon Valley. However, he ended up back on Earth when the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 showed that the moon was barren of all life. Many of the accoutrements of the space period stories remained for many years afterward, such as the Space Coupe and much of the high-tech gadgetry. Moon Maid receded from the storyline. The stories of this period took an increasingly condemnatory tone pertaining to contemporary court decisions concerning

3392-471: The standard publication size and space of newspaper comics was sharply reduced; for example, the Dick Tracy Sunday strip , which had traditionally been a full-page episode containing 12 panels, was cut in size to a half-page format that offered, at most, eight panels—these new restrictions created challenges for all comic artists. The Plenty family was a group of goofy redneck yokels headed by

3456-435: The strip. In 1938, Tracy became one of several regular newspaper strips featured in Dell's regular monthly Super Comics , remaining a regular part of that publication until 1948. In 1939, Tracy was the sole feature in the very first issue of Dell's Four-Color Comics , which put out more than 1,300 issues starring hundreds of characters between 1939 and 1962. Tracy was featured in seven more Four-Color issues throughout

3520-456: The strip. In 2005, Tracy was a guest at Blondie and Dagwood's 75th anniversary party in the comic strip Blondie . Later, Dick Tracy appeared in the comic strip Gasoline Alley . On January 19, 2011, Tribune Media Services announced that Locher was retiring from the strip and handing the reins to artist Joe Staton and writer Mike Curtis . The new creative team has previously worked together on Scooby-Doo , Richie Rich , and Casper

3584-533: The urban crime drama roots of the strip. During this period, Tracy met famed cartoonist Chet Jade, creator of the comic strip Sawdust , in which the only characters are talking dots. One of the new characters, Mr. Intro, was only manifested as a disembodied voice. His goal was world domination in the vein of a James Bond villain. Tracy eventually used an atomic laser beam to annihilate Intro and his island base. Junior married Moon Maid in October 1964. Their daughter Honey Moon Tracy had antennae and magnetic hands. In

3648-472: The villains The Fifth and his colleague, Flyface. In that story, The Fifth was Gould's criticism of the constitutional right to silence with the gangster invoking that right for any question, which his cohort and legal representation, Flyface, was a caricature of lawyers as a repellent man constantly swarmed by flies as was most of his family as well. In that story, Gould's creative weaknesses began to become more obvious with his vitriolic overlong condemnation of

3712-512: Was also attacked by some journalists as being too violent, a criticism that would dog Gould throughout his time on the strip. On January 13, 1946, the two-Way Wrist Radio was introduced; it would become one of the strip's most immediately recognizable icons. This radio wristwatch, worn by Tracy and members of the police force, inspired Martin Cooper 's invention of the mobile phone and may have inspired later smartwatches . The two-Way Wrist Radio

3776-478: Was distributed by Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate . Chester Gould both drew and wrote the comic strip until 1977. Since then other writers and artists have continued to produce the strip, which is still running in newspapers to this day. The character of Dick Tracy has been featured in the 1930s–1940s radio series Dick Tracy , with Tracy voiced by Bob Burlen, Barry Thompson, Ned Wever and Matt Crowley . The character of Dick Tracy has been featured in

3840-464: Was in turn succeeded by Charles Ettinger in February 2024. Chicago-area police sergeant Jim Doherty provided "Crimestopper" captions for the Sunday strips and acted as the feature's technical advisor . Doherty also introduced a new feature, "Tracy's Hall of Fame" (which replaces the "Crimestopper" panel approximately once each month), in which a real-life police officer is profiled and honored. Doherty

3904-455: Was instantly popular and was soon appearing in newspapers across the United States. The strip's popularity also resulted in the creation of numerous Dick Tracy merchandise, including novelizations, toys, and games. In April 1937, a poll of adult comic strip readers in Fortune voted Dick Tracy their third favorite comic strip after Little Orphan Annie and Popeye . However, Dick Tracy

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3968-436: Was killed by an assassin — the strip's final panel announced, "Violence is golden, when it's used to put down evil." The strip was obviously prepared weeks before the assassination, but the timing of the strip's publication attracted negative attention. Some newspapers dropped the strip as a result. From 1960 to 1974, the strip's newspaper coverage dropped from 550 to roughly 375 In the 1970s, Gould modernized Tracy by giving him

4032-421: Was replaced in 2016 by police lieutenant Walter Reimer, who introduced the "First Responders Roll of Honor", which honors real-life police officers, firefighters, and paramedics who died on duty. Staton and Curtis reintroduced many of the characters of the ‘40s through the ‘60s, including a second Mr. Crime and a reformed Mole, while introducing more deformed and grotesque villains such as Abner Kadaver, Panda, and

4096-505: Was upgraded to a two-Way Wrist TV in 1964. This development also led to the introduction of an important supporting character, Diet Smith, an eccentric industrialist who financed the development of this equipment. In late 1948, a botched security detail led to the death of the semi-regular character Brilliant, the blind inventor of the Two-Way Wrist Radio (among other devices) whereupon Chief Brandon, Dick Tracy's superior on

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