The legendary funny page detective is back with his own comic book series from IDW, and Big Boy is on the attack! 

Dick Tracy 1 
Written by Lee & Mike Allred
Pencils by Rich Tommaso
Inks by Mike Allred
Colors by Laura Allred 

Earlier this year, it was announced that a planned DICK TRACY series from Archie Comics had to be cancelled because the rights to the character were a little muddier than previously expected. Eight months later, instead of a series from Archie comics co-written by Alex Segura and Michael Moreci, we get a new four-issue series from IDW. 

I admit I was a little disappointed when I lost out on a Dick Tracy series all those months ago, but I clearly wasn’t paying attention when this was announced, because it kind of snuck up on me until I saw the listing in Previews last week. I would have picked it up anyway, because Dick Tracy is a great character (that MOVIE notwithstanding…), but seeing that Mike Allred was involved just made this an instant pick up. 

The solicit for the issue says that the square-jawed detective was “reimagined for the 21st Century with a retro lens,” whatever that means. It’s been a while since Tracy has been an important part of popular culture, so the new take could have probably gone in any number of directions and it still would have been great to see a new incarnation. But the Allreds do the character justice, I think. 

Tracy, here, has just nabbed a huge collar – a Silicon Valley internet billionaire – and it once again got him fired. But because Dick Tracy always lands on his feet, he gets an offer from “the city by the lake” to be a cop because mob boss Big Boy was feeling the heat from a governor he didn’t control. The plan, of course, backfires on the boss and Dick Tracy ends up getting his whole corrupt infrastructure arrested in his first day on the job, even sending Big Boy to the electric chair! That’s an action-packed issue! No decompression here! 

Of course, there’s more to set up the following three issues in the miniseries. And Dick Tracy has a colorful array of bad guys to choose from. We didn’t really touch on the rest of his rogue’s gallery here, so the Allreds have room to work. 

This should be a great series, and I hope it kicks off a few more miniseries following it (like what the publisher does with GHOSTBUSTERS). There’s a lot of potential here, and I am looking forward to what else is coming.