Chester Gould's Dick Tracy Three Early Adventures is a booklet reprinting the three first cases from October 1931 - February 1932. It is immediately apparent that Tracy's famous hatchet-shaped nose was normal at first. The first case is how Tracy became a police officer.

ADVENTURE ONE:

Dick Tracy goes to Emil Trueheart's delicatessen to have dinner with his pretty girlfriend, Tess, and her nice parents. Little do they know that the parents' keeping their bedroom curtains pulled back means that gangsters know they have a safe under the bed. As we learn, Emil has not only paid off the mortgage, but has $1,000 left over. That's the equivalent of $19,857.63 in 2023. 'Crutch' and the other gangster burst into the Trueheart home just as Dick and Tess are telling her parents they're engaged. Emil is shot dead and Dick is punched hard twice to knock him out. Pretty Tess is kidnapped while Dick is out cold.

The first thing Tracy does is call the police - and a doctor for Mrs. Trueheart. He swears to get vengeance and Tess back.
If you're wondering why Mr. Trueheart kept so much money at home instead of in a bank, this is the Great Depression. As Tracy tells the Police Chief that Emil Trueheart lost over $500 in small bank failures in the last year. $500 in 1930 would be $9,037.01 today. I'd be upset over that.

The chief suggests that Tracy join the Plain Clothes Squad to help track down the thieving killers/kidnappers. Tracy accepts. He's driven part of the way by Milligan, the cop who came to the Trueheart home. Tracy gets to be 'Joe Smith,' just a guy renting a room in gangland. Don't be so surprised that Tracy is using what was probably a suspiciously obvious alias even then. He's pretending to be a small time crook interested in taking on bigger crimes.

Tracy rents a room for $4.50 a week ($82.96 today) from gangster 'Ribs' Mocco's Ma. Macco and his friend, 'Spike', like 'Crutch' and his unnamed partner, work for Big Boy, a gangster boss. Big Boy is the one poor Tess has been taken to see. Tess is no weak 'little woman'. When Big Boy comes on to her, she slaps his face. Luckily for Tess, Big Boy has a forceful dame who won't stand for him committing hanky panky with the lovely blonde.

Both Tracy and Tess are to be used in a payroll heist. How can Tracy save the day and his beloved?

ADVENTURE TWO:

Big Boy wants revenge! Ribs Mocco, whom Big Boy's mouthpiece (lawyer), Magern, has bailed out, has to redeem himself by killing Dick Tracy. Meanwhile, Mrs. Trueheart is ready to go home from the hospital. Tracy wants her and Tess to stay at his little apartment until things are settled. Mrs. Trueheart wants to go home, re-open the delicatessen, and run it as her husband did. Apparently, the ladies do, which may not have been helpful. As the police chief tells Tracy, his life isn't worth two cents after what he did to Big Boy's boys. As we readers find out, the gangsters know where Tracy lives.

The attempt on Tracy's life ends with Tracy wounded, Mocco in the hospital, and the gangster who murdered Emil Trueheart dead.

Big Boy is reassuring a gangster, possibly Spike, Mocco's pal, that Tracy is just a sad sap when the boss man's gun moll. Texie Garcia, runs in to tell them there's a raid coming to the place. Big Boy tells his three gangsters to scram. Texie is tasked with making sounds that should convince the cops she's Big Boy while her man is waiting by the door to shoot.

A cop named Pat Patton is wounded and Big Boy gets away, but Texie is arrested. There's a bad moment after Tracy and the other cops find out how Big Boy and his boys scrammed, but Tracy saves the day.

Big Boy leaves town until the heat is off, which leaves Texie languishing in a cell. She gets bailed out though, thanks to some dirty secrets she knows. Her bond was $20,000, which is $397,152.63 in 2023 money. Tracy knows that the man she's been blackmailing plans to kill her. He and other cops rush to prevent Texie's murder. Will they be in time?

There's a subplot involving Tess believing Dick doesn't trust her because he won't tell her about the secret police business he's on. Further, *gasp* Dick is skipping out on Christmas Eve with Tess to go prevent a murder. Tess sobs.

ADVENTURE THREE:

Dick Tracy's nose is almost its familiar hatchet shape in this one. He and Tess are having dinner at a fancy restaurant when Officer Pat Patton interrupts because the Chief wants to see him.

It's a very important job that's being entrusted to Tracy. Big Boy and 16 other big shot gangsters from around the US are gathering in a flat on 63rd Street. Two other uniformed police officers besides Milligan are named in this adventure: Mueller and Hendricks.

This time Tracy has given in to Tess's claim that he doesn't trust her. He tells her about the big job he's on. Too bad Tess told a friend whose boyfriend has the biggest mouth in town. The raid is a bust and so is Tess & Dick's engagement. I wish Tess had just angrily slapped her ring into his hand instead of what she did. Interestingly, the name of the friend Tess admits that she told shortly before the break up is not the same name as the friend with the blabbermouth boyfriend.

Dick Tracy is so upset that he's not performing well at work. Pat goes to Tess to try to fix the problem, but she's not interested. Sadly, the strip below that one has a black shoeshine man named George who is drawn as a racist stereotype,

Tracy is demoted to uniform duty in the tenth precinct, a subdivision that might as well be the countryside. Tracy feels the job is beneath him, but does it anyway. He's no disgruntled about it that he almost kicks a dog.

There's a bit of cheesecake for the readers as Pat calls Tess while she's taking a bath. The parts that couldn't be shown in polite company are safely under water, but Tess was showing a lot of leg that she was scrubbing. Pat takes her out to dinner He's removed the eye patch, so it's nice to know that his eye wasn't blinded in adventure 2.

Tess thinks a man who is at the restaurant looks familiar. She eavesdrops. Recalling that he's one of the men who held her captive in adventure 1, she slips a note under Tracy's door, then gets injured in an accident half a block away.

The tip Tess left leads to an big arrest. Yes, it helps Tracy's career. As for the problem with Tess; Pat, her mother, and Tracy's chief take care of that.

Mrs. Trueheart has hired someone to run the delicatessen for her. He's Heinie Stueben, a Dutch-American who was her husband's boyhood friend, and who lost his business to the Great Depression. Dick jokes with her about that.

Slang used in the booklet:

cackle berries (also cackleberries): eggs

chiseled out of: cheated out of

[it's] curtains [for you]: in this case, the end of your life

dolled: short for dolled up, as in wearing fancy clothes and make-up

dope out: figure out

drill you: severely hurt or murder

flat foot (plural, flat feet): police officer

gayety: 'gay' is being used in the old meaning of joy or happy

grip: short for 'gripsack', a small bag or suitcase

harness cop: uniformed policeman

Hauling hips: escape, run off, old version of haul a@@.

hunky dora: hunky dory, or everything is fine

[the] jug: the jail

knucks: short for brass knuckles

old duck: old man

on the hook: owe money or be in a bad situation

on the square: be honest and open

pulling wool over my eyes: fooling me

razzing: make fun of someone

rub out: kill

rubber head: someone who doesn't know what he's doing at work or can't do his job properly

shoot the works: go all out, or spend all of one's money or make the biggest effort one can

sinkers: doughnuts

slewfoot: police officer

spunk: has courage and determination

Squawk: protest

Stools: short for stool pigeons, police informants or a person who is a decoy

tommy guns: short for the Thompson submachine gun

toot sweet: mispronunciation of 'tout de suite', which is French for 'immediately' or 'at once'

I grew up reading the Dick Tracy comic strip. I also watched the cartoon show when I was a child. It was interesting to see his first three adventures. They are action packed, even if they do suffer from the sexist and racist stereotypes of the time. ( )