Editing Dick Tracy (section)

===Creation and early years===
Basing the character on U.S. federal agent [[Eliot Ness]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.atf.gov/our-history/eliot-ness |title=Eliot Ness |publisher=[[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives]] |access-date=September 27, 2019}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=Source provides no substantiation for claimed connection to Dick Tracy. Primary source reference from Tracy creator Chester Gould needed.|date=November 2021}} Gould drafted an idea for a detective named "Plainclothes Tracy" and sent it to [[Joseph Medill Patterson]] of the [[Tribune Content Agency|Chicago Tribune New York News Syndicate]]. Patterson suggested changing the hero's name to Dick Tracy, and he also put forward an opening storyline in which Tracy joined the police after his girlfriend's father was murdered by robbers. Gould agreed to these ideas, and ''Dick Tracy'' was first published on October 4, 1931. The strip was instantly popular and was soon appearing in newspapers across the United States.<ref name="bw" /> The strip's popularity also resulted in the creation of numerous ''Dick Tracy'' merchandise, including novelizations, toys, and games. In April 1937, a poll of adult comic strip readers in ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'' voted ''Dick Tracy'' their third favorite comic strip after ''[[Little Orphan Annie]]'' and ''[[Popeye]]''.<ref name="bw" /> However, ''Dick Tracy'' was also attacked by some journalists as being too violent, a criticism that would dog Gould throughout his time on the strip.<ref name="bw" />