On this day, Oct. 4, in 1931, sharp-shooting detective Dick Tracy made his comic strip debut.
The cartoon in the Detroit Mirror, created by artist Chester Gould, was a new comic concept. Tracy was a hard-hitting police detective who fought colorful thugs like B.B. Eyes, Flattop Jones and Pruneface.
The strip reflected the real life violence of Al Capone’s Chicago while staying current with crime-fighting techniques, forensic science and advanced gadgetry.
In the early 1950s, the strip introduced Crime Stoppers, a feature that offered hints for amateur crime fighters. The idea became the inspiration for the Crime Stoppers used by thousands of police agencies around the globe today.
Gould drew the strip until 1977. He died in 1986 at age 85.
-Scott McCabe
