After a false start late last year involving a licensing snafu that kept Archie from publishing a Dick Tracy comic, the fedora-wearing detective is back in a new series from IDW Publishing.
Michael Allred, Lee Allred, Rich Tommaso and Laura Allred will team up for Dick Tracy: Dead or Alive, a four-issue miniseries launching in September. Lee and Michael will co-write the series, while Tommaso will draw it.
“Dick Tracy is an instantly recognizable old-school icon, like Mickey Mouse and Superman, but he’s been out of the spotlight awhile and due for a curtain call. We want to shake it up and show the glow in the 21st Century,” Michael Allred said in a statement. “I always get a big kick working with my first-ever collaborator and big brother, Lee Allred, as well as my favorite colorist and favorite wife, Laura. But I’m crazy excited about working with Rich Tommaso! He is one of the most innovative and thrilling cartoonists working in comics. I’m lit up with giddy shock that he’s letting me slop ink on his beautifully rendered pencils, keeping me on my toes to do the work justice on this thrilling series!”
Tommaso has some experience with yellow trenchcoat-wearing heroes, as fans of his Spy Seal series can attest. And the Allred clan recently worked together on Bug!: The Adventures of Forager from DC’s Young Animal and a Batman/Legion of Superheroes crossover.
“I am thrilled to try my hand at drawing this legendary, pulpy, hardboiled crime classic,” Tommaso said. “Along with Roy Crane, Milton Caniff, Noel Sickles, Jack Cole and Alex Toth, Chester Gould is a cartoonist that I am perpetually inspired by when I’m working on my own crime stories. So, this is a project that I feel is well within my wheelhouse. The Dick Tracy cast of characters makes this comic so much fun to draw on a daily basis. I only hope we can all bring something great to the comic ourselves while, simultaneously keeping true to its origins. Not an easy feat to be sure, but I feel it’s damn worth a try.”
“Dead or Alive pits Dick Tracy, champion of Law and Order, against not only brutal crime bosses but the corrupted forces of the Law itself,” said Lee Allred, who has been having fun on Twitter sharing “true facts” about Dick Tracy. Every hand, cop, and crook will be against Tracy as he battles the enemies of true justice. With Rich, Mike and Laura as the art team, classic crime drama has never looked so good.”
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