Phill from GCHQ and it's inspirations: Dick Tracy
For the last couple of month, actually parallel to my discovery of Steemit.com, I have been working on a comic that I have posted here on my Steemit blog, on my Diaspora page and on a website I wrote in PHP last month.
The comic about Phill from GCHQ was a loose idea I had this summer (2016). I made three pages and then decided to work on another idea (a dark fantasy story). I only continued because the good people at Diaspora liked it.
The next page in my comic is almost ready. I only need my proof-reader to finish, maybe he will today? But until then I thought that I might do a thing that I have wanted to for some time: to write a bit about making the comic, and about the style and the inspirations for it. It can be read to understand my comic but also simply as a bit of comic history.
Underground Comix
Phill (the protagonist of my comic) is a classic anti-hero in the tradition of some of my old heroes. First an foremost Gilbert Shelton, Robert Crumb and the Danish cartoonist Claus Deleuran, all more or less (in their own very idiosyncratic way), part of the counter-culture movement of the late sixties and the seventies.
Their comics (collectively the movement was called Underground Comix) was humorous portraits of pot-smoking, beer-drinking, pussy-hunting hippies and especially Robert Crumb went right over the border of western taboos. But even though they in many ways transcended the traditions of American comics they also build on to it, especially the ultra-conservative law & order police strip about Dick Tracy. And even though they did make fun of the right-wing views of Dick Tracy (see below) they were also very inspired by it. So in this post I will give a short introduction to Dick Tracy which is also one of my favourites (and often called the best comic in the world)
Dick Tracy
Just like Phill from my comic, the police sleuth Dick Tracy is on the side of the establishment. Contrary to Phill, Dick Tracy's cartoonist Chester Gould was also on the right side of the political spectrum. The comic depicts evil (and very colourful) criminals doing terrible deeds, but eventually their misdeeds only lead them to death or prison by the hands of the down to earth all-American team consisting of Tracy himself, his superior Chief Brandon, his sidekick Pat Patton, Tracy's fiancée and later wife, Tess Trueheart (yes, nothing to worry about there), Junior, Tracy's adopted son, and many more good-hearted US citizens.
But the series is most famous for it's villains - evil far beyond a simple child's comic strip and with twisted physical and psychological features. These grotesque characters can in many ways be compared to the villains of Bob Kane's Batman with which Dick Tracy share many traits. The violence, the uncompromising and stern view on crime and the noire atmosphere. Below is some of the early villains.
Each and every one of them a full-blown psychopath. Notice how much of their personality is implied in the way they are drawn and the beautiful but rather expressionists line art. In the edifying spirit of the comic they all receive due punishment in the end. Just look at this strip where Little Face not only goes to jail, but also suffers a physical punishment by the hand of fate. Crime doesn't pay!
Crimestoppers (and one of the ways I use Dick Tracy)
In every Dick Tracy page there is a Crimestopper textbook, a small window with an archive card containing advice as how to stop crime in daily life. Try for example to take a look at this page. I intend to make something similar in my comic, just, as it is about SIGINT, surveillance and internet snoopers, I have reinvented it as a privacy security advice. Below is the advice for the next page (coming up soon :)
How do I stop writing about this?
OK, this was not a short post. If you want to read Dick Tracy start with the oldest. The comic has been running since 1931 and Chester Gould continued until 1977, where others took over. But like so many other franchises it started to deteriorate over time. It is best before the sixties.
Next time I have a Saturday alone I will write about Gilbert Shelton the creator of The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Below is his rather vicious parody of the Dick Tracy cartoon. Notice the Crimestopper textbook in the upper right corner. The text says:
Crimestompers MeinKampf
Rookies! Remember, three or more people
together is a potential riot. Break them up
before they damage anyone's property.
Two people is merely a conspiracy. Ask
your superior what that means.
Tricky Prickears
I have used images from the following websites:
Comicsinfo.dk
Mistic Media Blog
The Dick Tracy wiki
the Lambiek Comiclopedia
and images taken by myself from the following books:
Dick Tracy: America's most famous detective.Plexus, London - ISBN 0-85965-191-6
The celebrated cases of Dock Tracy 1931-1951, The Wellfleet Press - ISBN 1-55521-620-x
The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers Omnibus, Rip Off Press, California - ISBN 9780861661596
And then of course my own stuff
Educational & Entertaining .. really great stuff! New Phill Fan right here!
Oh, thank you, I'm glad you like it. :)
Amazing post, so in depth, lots of classic comics love going on here and it shows in your own work, thank you for sharing this.
Yes, I have lots of classic comic love :) thanks for your comment.
Great post, I like to read about the inspiration of other artists. Also thanks for reminding me of diaspora (nearly forgot about it). I guess I will also try out krita. Looks very interesting.
Yea, me too. Everything involving the actual process of making art like poetics or the artists own analysis of other artists. I am not really interested in the personal life of artist like biographies and psychological explanations.
And for Diaspora I use it as my main social media. The good thing about it is that you can make as many profiles as you want and just as anonymous as you want. I have a family profile that is probably the one I use most, and then one used almost like a blog with free artwork, and the normal talk into the big nothingness of the internet-profile.
Excellent stuff! First, I grew up when Dick Tracy the movie came out and I absolutely loved it as a kid. I like how you explained a lot about the history and concept of the Dick Tracy comics - and I love how you have used certain elements like the advice blocks from the Dick Tracy comments and created your own - that is very creative and I think you did a great job working that format to make it your own. Your version of the advice strip is really funny and I think helpful to the modern day person! I look forward to seeing more - you are very talented!!