Dick Tracy St. Patrick’s Day Special #1: Twice the Crime

It’s two times the Dick Tracy action in Dick Tracy St. Patrick’s Day Special #1. The one-shot offers a pair of easy to read stories from two ends of the crime fiction genre, both with a bit of an Irish twist.

“The Short of It,” the backup story in Dick Tracy St. Patrick’s Day Special #1, doesn’t feature Dick Tracy all that much. Instead, Seeley opts for a lighter story featuring a very tall lady named Acres O’Riley. Acres isn’t truly a “down on her luck” character, but she does have a “can’t get ahead” quality. This works well for the first person narration that tells much of the story. Her personality injects a small measure of humor and makes the narration engaging. Though “The Short of It” is not a classic caper story, it shares some elements such as the offbeat main character and overly clever humor.

Isaacs does a great job with Acres O’Rlley’s design. She balances Acres’s size (a self-proclaimed nine feet) with softer facial features. Acres has more than a few closeups where Isaacs delivers cute expressions on the character. Isaacs’ art is most of what makes Acres a character worth rooting for as a reader. Seeley’s story and text give Acres depth, but there isn’t quite enough depth in that to make her a protagonist to root for. Isaacs makes Acres likable despite her checkered past and overall limited development.

The main story in Dick Tracy St. Patrick’s Day Special #1, “Irish Goodbye,” is a classic Dick Tracy hardboiled-esque pulp outing with a bit of a modern sensibility. Segura and Moreci conceive of the “Clover Killer,” a man murdering corrupt bankers, politicians, and company heads who aren’t necessarily breaking any laws but are earning their fortunes by taking advantage of and treating poorly the less fortunate. “Irish Goodbye” is told almost as much from the killer’s point of view as it is from Dick Tracy’s. In fact, the story opens with first person narration from the killer as he lays out his past and his intent. He’s unapologetic, never trying to rationalize that he isn’t a criminal. Indeed, he thinks he is a very good one. The killer’s added depth elevates what is a basic crime story premise–Can Dick Tracy stop the killer before he kills again?–into a somewhat more complicated drama.

Cermak’s art has a classic pulp detective feel to it, a style that is naturally at home in a Dick Tracy book. The women all have luscious curls that come down to their shoulders. Heavy shadows are a common sight. And Dick Tracy and his fellow detective possess jaws so square they were practically chiseled that way. The artwork feels at times like a period piece in the same way the story is.

Coloring for both stories uses a more vivid palette. Neither colorist plays too much with complicated shadows and implied light sources. This works well with both art styles (and especially Cermak’s in “Irish Goodbye”). There are many instances of very effective color contrast that highlight moments of action or import without having to make them explode off the page.

Brosseau uses a white bordered, black filled caption box with white font for the killer’s narration in “Irish Goodbye.” It’s particularly striking against Cermak’s art and Englert’s coloring. It far outshines the simple yellow caption used for Dick Tracy’s dialogue when he’s out of panel. The choice elevates the killer from the start–a kind of visual insistence that he is a worthwhile character and not some criminal easily dispatched in a one-shot.