I’ll try this one more time (If you didn’t notice, okay…If you didn’t care, okay, too:
I must confess that, as much as I love this strip (and I’ve been reading it since the early sixties), I kind of lost track of it during the Max Allan Collins era (maybe around the time of the 1st appearance of Putty Puss), which I think is about the same time that it was dropped from the Detroit Free Press comics pages. There was no internet & I didn’t think to get a subscription to the Chicago Tribune, so I was Tracyless. But when I heard that this current team would be taking over the helm, I did indeed make an effort to find this strip on GoComics, and I enjoy it to this day.That being said, I want to say that I have diligently read each readers’ comment over the past year+, and I find myself compelled to say something about Dick Locher.Being curious (brought about by so many comments made about the gentleman’s tenure), I decided to use some of my spare time to read as much of his work as history would allow (10 years –or- more).Now, I will freely admit that some stories did seem to drag on, and while most Sunday strips seemed to be a re-cap of the week, Monday strips seemed sometimes to be a re-cap of Sunday.But, for all those years that this gentleman had control of the Dick Tracy comic strip, he never gave up. He kept it running with his own interpretation. He obviously had a love of the character. As I understand it, the gentleman went through his own real & personal losses. But, he never gave up on Tracy.My point is this: What if he HAD quit, just let this strip go & there was no one waiting in the wings at that time to take over. What are the odds that someone would have RE-STARTED Dick Tracy after an absence of a few years . I don’t think it could have been done. But the fact that this gentleman kept going, kept the concept alive until Mike & Joe were ready to take the reins should be applauded.So I say, Thank You, Mr. Locher, for you dedication, and for all you did that allows us to read this great strip today.
I’ll try this one more time (If you didn’t notice, okay…If you didn’t care, okay, too:
I must confess that, as much as I love this strip (and I’ve been reading it since the early sixties), I kind of lost track of it during the Max Allan Collins era (maybe around the time of the 1st appearance of Putty Puss), which I think is about the same time that it was dropped from the Detroit Free Press comics pages. There was no internet & I didn’t think to get a subscription to the Chicago Tribune, so I was Tracyless. But when I heard that this current team would be taking over the helm, I did indeed make an effort to find this strip on GoComics, and I enjoy it to this day.That being said, I want to say that I have diligently read each readers’ comment over the past year+, and I find myself compelled to say something about Dick Locher.Being curious (brought about by so many comments made about the gentleman’s tenure), I decided to use some of my spare time to read as much of his work as history would allow (10 years –or- more).Now, I will freely admit that some stories did seem to drag on, and while most Sunday strips seemed to be a re-cap of the week, Monday strips seemed sometimes to be a re-cap of Sunday.But, for all those years that this gentleman had control of the Dick Tracy comic strip, he never gave up. He kept it running with his own interpretation. He obviously had a love of the character. As I understand it, the gentleman went through his own real & personal losses. But, he never gave up on Tracy.My point is this: What if he HAD quit, just let this strip go & there was no one waiting in the wings at that time to take over. What are the odds that someone would have RE-STARTED Dick Tracy after an absence of a few years . I don’t think it could have been done. But the fact that this gentleman kept going, kept the concept alive until Mike & Joe were ready to take the reins should be applauded.So I say, Thank You, Mr. Locher, for you dedication, and for all you did that allows us to read this great strip today.