Book Review: Dick Tracy: The Secret Files edited by Max Allan Collins and Martin H. Greenberg
In 1990, the venerable Dick Tracy comic strip got a movie adaptation, Dick Tracy, starring Warren Beatty and Madonna. To cash in on the publicity, the then-writer of the strip, Max Allan Collins, was asked to do both a novelization of the film, and work with veteran anthologist Martin H. Greenberg to create this collection of short stories featuring the sharp-jawed police detective.
The 16 stories are arranged by time period they’re set in. “Origins” by Mike Resnick is set before the Dick Tracy comic strip even began, as starving cartoonist Chester Gould tries to come up with an idea for a comic strip that newspapers will buy. HIs obnoxious neighbor is the only fan he’s currently got, and that’s not helping. But that neighbor’s nefarious activities do lead Gould to a certain police officer that serves as inspiration.
“Not a Creature Was Stirring” by Max Allan Collins closes out the volume with a story set in December 1989, as Tracy and the Major Crimes Squad investigate a series of killings of little boys. It, like some of the other stories in this volume, goes more hard-edged than was allowed in the newspaper comics at the time. Add this to the pile of “bad Santa” stories.
Also of particular interest:
“Dick Tracy Goes Hollywood” by Ron Goulart in which Detective Tracy serves as a consultant on a movie about himself, and solves an actress’ apparent suicide on the side. Dick isn’t the protagonist in this one, hack writer Mr. Hix is. He’s an okay investigator in his own right, but strictly amateurville, which very nearly gets Hix in a fatal amount of hot water.
“The Cereal Killer” by Rex Miller uses product tampering as its crime, which had been a headline topic a year or two before this book came out. Someone is putting poison in breakfast foods. Do they just enjoy killing people, or is there a larger scheme at work? This one focuses on Junior, Tracy’s adopted son and Crimestopper in his own right.
“The Curse” by Ed Gorman is the most distinctive story in the volume. Dick Tracy is pursued by someone seeking revenge. Unusually, they get exactly what they wanted. It’s a stripped down story devoid of nicknamed criminals or bizarre crimes.
“Whirlpool, Sizzle and The Juice” by Ric Meyers, conversely, leans heavily into the deformed criminals with catchy nicknames of the title. It’s also heavy on the gruesome death of crooks motif. Three young men kidnap an actress, but can’t quite agree on what to do with her.
Most of the continuing supporting cast gets a look in–two stories where wife Tess Trueheart Tracy is attacked in their home! The one I noticed missing was Bonnie Braids Tracy, his oldest daughter, who somehow didn’t make it onscreen in any story.
Very much missing is the entire Moon Maid era, a time towards the end of Gould’s career when the strip took a more sfnal turn, including the afore-mentioned alien. Many of the readers at the time strongly disliked this direction, including Mr. Collins, who summarily killed Moon Maid off and scuttled the more science fiction elements when he took over the strip.
The Dick Tracy comic strip had and has a strong “law and order” political bent, so rights for suspects and criminals tend to be seen as an obstacle to justice, not part of how justice works. There’s a reason why many of the cases end with the crooks dead one way or another.
Content note: gruesome, often lethal violence, including the death of children. Suicide. Illegal drug use. Child abuse. A bit of racism, including by cops, though Dick Tracy himself disapproves.
Overall: An average anthology, no real clunkers. Mostly of interest to die-hard Dick Tracy fans like myself.
And hey, here’s a look at that movie I mentioned:
