Just one month after it was announced, a licensing snafu put the kibosh on a potential Dick Tracy comic book from publisher Archie Comics.
In December, a story in The Hollywood Reporter announced that Archie Comics would reboot comic strip detective Dick Tracy, with a new comic book focusing on his early days as a detective. The book was planned for an April 2018 debut, co-written by Archie Comics co-president Alex Segura and Michael Moreci, with art by Thomas Pitilli.
While the square-jawed hero was a staple of newspaper funny pages for decades, the character has been mostly absent from the pop culture bubble since the 1990 movie starring Warren Beaty and Madonna (which was recently included in the RETRO MOVIE NERD column). In the December article, Segura called the project “a dream come true.”
“I have vivid memories of being completely obsessed with Dick Tracy as a kid when the movie hit, and that sent me back to explore the amazing Chester Gould strips up through Max Allan Collins’ superb work and the current, excellent dailies by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton. In my eyes, Tracy is an iconic character on par with Batman and Superman, and it makes perfect sense for another 75-year- old, iconic brand in Archie to be bringing him back to monthly comics.”
Unfortunately, the new comic was apparently not meant to be. Segura responded to a now-deleted tweet from Tribune Content Agency, which owns the rights to the character, Tuesday to say that the project had been scrapped.
https://twitter.com/alex_segura/status/953308878325862400