The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, 1931-1951 [Hardcover]

Chester Gould (Author), Hern Galewitz (Editor), Ellery Queen (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1990

the celabrated cases of Dick Tracy 1931-1951

Product Details

• Hardcover: 291 pages
• Publisher: The Wellfleet Press (May 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155521620X
• ISBN-13: 978-1555216207
• Product Dimensions: 11.1 x 8.7 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,199,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The History of Dick Tracy!, August 8, 2003

By 

Melvin Hunt (Cleveland,, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, 1931-1951 (Hardcover)

This was an outstanding collection of comic strips that made up the career of my favorite crime fighter Dick Tracy.I began reading Dick Tracy comic strips at the age of 5 in the Beaumont Enterprise. Dick Tracy was the embodiment of forces of good crushing the forces of evil.I am now 50 and I still enjoy Dick Tracy. This book is the best of Dick Tracy. You have an early
history of the beginning of Tracy's crime fighting career.This
book features some of Tracy's most evil villains.You have the Blank,Mary X,Jerome Trohs and Momma,Little Face Finny,the Mole,
B.B. Eyes,88 Keyes,Flattop,the Summer Sisters,the Brow and Gravel Gertie,Breathless Mahoney,B.O. Plenty,Mumbles,and Pear Shape.This is a must buy for the serious Dick Tracy fan.This
is the finest of Dick Tracy.Read this and you will become a fan of Dick Tracy too.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Bible of All Dick Tracy Books, February 20, 2002

By 

"jazzbofun" (Pleasanton, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, 1931-1951 (Hardcover)

I searched high and low for this book until I found it for sale on line through Amazon. I first read this collection of Dick Tracy comic books at the age of 10 and have been hooked ever since. Reading through it a second time was even better because I now had a historical context to enjoy some of the references and greater awareness of some of the unfortunate racial stereo-types sometimes depicted. The cases include criminal minds like Flat Top, Pear Shape, Gravel Gerty & BO Plenty, The Blank, 88 Keys, Jerome Trohs & Mamma, Little Face Finny, The Mole, The Brow, Breathless Mahoney and Mumbles. Some color pages. This is a must read and must have for all Tracy fans and fans to be.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It was great in its day, but..., November 14, 2008

By 

Aaron Z. Snyder "Aaron Z Snyder" (CHESTNUT HILL, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Celebrated Cases of Dick Tracy, 1931-1951 (Hardcover)

I clearly remember when this was first published. I snapped it up and devoured it. This was the first time I had ever had access to these legendary pre-1950s Dick Tracy comic strips, and I kept hoping that more books like this would come. As it turned out, one did follow a decade later, covering the first two years of Dick Tracy (The Thirties, etc.), but none followed that one until the current comprehensive series of books. I'm now going on age 65, and I guess it was worth the wait, but boy! That was some wait!
There has always been a real downside with this book, and now that the complete strips are being published, this book is definitely obsolete. That downside is the fact that none of the Sunday strips is included in it. Therefore, there are major continuity gaps in the story, with the reader feeling frustrated about missing something every six strips. In fact, some of the stories end prematurely, e.g. The Brow appears to be heading off to jail in this book, whereas his real end comes when he becomes impaled on a flagpole (American flag flying from it -- very symbolic and graphic!). It's nice that the daily strips about The Blank have been colored in this edition, but once again lack of continuity ruins it for me.
My suggestion is to buy the current series of the complete strips and forget this relic. Starting with the upcoming Volume 7, the very best of the Dick Tracy strips will be published. These editions suffer from lack of color and small images for the Sunday strips, but they are complete!