Dick Tracy #16: Hop on for the Gang War

Dick Tracy takes a bit of a backseat in Dick Tracy #16. The issue is concerned largely with positioning bad guys for a new story arc. Indeed, the series’ titular character doesn’t make his first appearance until eleven pages in. This works well as the beginning of the new story, though. In some ways Dick Tracy is a known quantity regardless of how he responds to various specific threats. As a result, the most interesting part of how this new arc begins is the amount of time Segura and Moreci spend building up the villains.

That said, the gang war Dick Tracy #16 is laying the groundwork is done via proxies. The assorted gang members talk about gang leaders Lips Manliss and Big Boy Caprice, but the reader never meets them. It’s a clever way of positioning the two as the top of a pyramid that Tracy can only get to after fighting his way through the underlings.

The most striking of those underlings is the brutal Flattop. He appears early on in Dick Tracy #16, toting a Tommy gun that he unloads on a boatful of men from the other gang. Borges’s design for Flattop blends the idea behind the character’s name with a true sense of menace. Yes, Flattop’s hair is parted in such a way that it sits flat atop his head. But the rest of him is unnerving. Borges draws a light grin when he shoots the other gang members. His eyes are uncomfortably wide and, paired with the slight grin, give him an overall disturbing countenance. Flattop is something very different than all the other gang members the creative team introduces.

Segura and Moreci don’t just set up a wide, violent gang war, though. They also tie developing events into Tracy’s personal life and even hint to connections in his past. It’s an effective way to start exploring the series’ main character for new readers while heavily investing in the beginning of the new story arc.

Tracy is almost the polar opposite visually from everyone else in Dick Tracy #16. His face is almost perfectly rectangular. His jaw is square. His eyes are intense, but never wide or squinting with too much emotion. No matter Tracy’s expression–and Borges still draws him with a wide range of expressions–he always possesses a sense of reasonableness.

Englert’s coloring adds a nice sense of dimension to all the characters. Borges’s work makes for expressive characters, but the level of detail through line work is relatively low. Englert creates greater depth when he throws parts of characters into light shadow, suggesting where light sources are coming from and what part of the character is highlighted by it.

Brosseau’s sound effect placement is effective throughout the issue but works particularly well during a hand to hand fight (more a beating) where he places the sound effect where the fist or foot connect with the victim.