Before He Was Dick Tracy

The story as it is told

Chicago, 1931. Al Capone has the run of the city, and the cartoonist Chester Gould is angry about it. So Gould sits down and draws the cop he wishes the city had: an incorruptible detective in a trench coat.

He is born fully formed. Dick Tracy is Gould's answer to Capone, there on the page from the very first panel.

What we can confirm

Gould came to Chicago from Oklahoma in 1921 with, by 13th Dimension's account, a portfolio and fifty dollars. For ten years he worked in newspaper art departments and drew minor humor strips (Fillum Fables, The Radio Catts, The Girl Friends), all the while mailing ideas to Joseph Medill Patterson, co-publisher of the Tribune and head of its syndicate. The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum's timeline counts sixty rejected ideas before the one that worked.

That one was "Plainclothes Tracy," an honest cop fighting the rackets in a city where Al Capone had the run of things. Patterson wired back. 13th Dimension prints the telegram, dated Aug 13, 1931, as "YOUR PLAINCLOTHES TRACY HAS POSSIBILITIES STOP WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU WHEN I GO TO CHICAGO NEXT"; the museum quotes it as beginning "Believe 'Plainclothes Tracy' has possibilities" and dates the meeting Aug 15. At the meeting Patterson made two changes that stuck. The title was too long. "They call cops 'Dicks,'" he said, per the museum, "let's call him Dick Tracy." He also scripted the opening: Tracy, not yet a detective, has dinner with his girl's family, and hoodlums break in, rob her father and kill him.

Gould went to school for it. The museum says he enrolled in a Northwestern University course in ballistics and criminology, taught by the ballistics expert Calvin Goddard.

Dick Tracy first appeared as a Sunday page on Oct 4, 1931, in the Detroit Mirror, a Tribune-owned paper, with a small Gould humor topper, Cigarette Sadie. 13th Dimension notes it actually appeared a day early, on Oct 3, in the Detroit Mirror. The daily strip began Oct 12, 1931, in one paper, the New York Daily News. Lambiek dates the killing of Tess Trueheart's father to Oct 16, 1931, and says Patterson wanted the violence shown so that gangsters would not look glamorous. The first villain, Big Boy, was modeled on Capone (Lambiek).

The timing was close. A federal jury convicted Capone of income-tax charges on Oct 17, 1931, thirteen days after the first Sunday page and five days into the dailies (13th Dimension; the National Archives holds the signed verdict, catalog ID 628966).

The Tribune's own trademark registration picks Oct 12, 1931, the first daily, as the first use of the name DICK TRACY for a series of cartoons. That registration (No. 374044, granted Dec 26, 1939) is still live, renewed in 2020, and owned by Tribune Media Company. Gould drew the strip until Dec 25, 1977.

The facts

• 60 rejected ideas; the Patterson telegram; the "They call cops 'Dicks'" line; Patterson's suggested opening; the Northwestern ballistics course under Calvin Goddard; Oct 4, 1931 debut in the Detroit Mirror; Gould retired Dec 25, 1977. Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum, dicktracymuseum.com
• Telegram Aug 13, 1931; Sunday debut Oct 4, 1931 (out Oct 3 in the Detroit Mirror) with Cigarette Sadie; daily debut Oct 12, 1931 in the New York Daily News; Patterson wanted violence shown; Capone guilty Oct 17, 1931. Peter Bosch, "Dick Tracy: 95 Years...," 13th Dimension, Oct 4, 2026, 13thdimension.com
• "Plain Clothes Tracy" retitled by Patterson; Detroit Sunday Mirror Oct 4, 1931; Tess Trueheart's father shot (Oct 16, 1931 strip); Big Boy based on Capone; first Big Little Book Dec 1932. Lambiek Comiclopedia, "Chester Gould," lambiek.net
• DICK TRACY (stylized), Reg. 374044, filed Aug 28, 1939, registered Dec 26, 1939, "series of cartoons," first use Oct 12, 1931; LIVE, fifth renewal Aug 13, 2020; owner Tribune Media Company. tsdr.uspto.gov
• The National Archives at Chicago holds the Capone guilty verdict, National Archives Identifier 628966. archives.gov

Related: What enters the public domain in 2027

All sections · Pulp, Adventure and Early Sci-Fi