Editing Chester Gould

{{Short description|American cartoonist (1900–1985)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2016}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Chester Gould
| image       = 
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1900|11|20|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Pawnee, Oklahoma|Pawnee]], [[Oklahoma Territory]], [[United States|U.S.]]
| death_date  = {{Death date and age|1985|5|11|1900|11|20|mf=yes}}
| death_place = [[Woodstock, Illinois]], U.S.
| education   = [[Northwestern University]]
| occupation  = [[Cartoonist]], writer
| spouse      = Edna M. Gauger
| children    = Jean Gould O'Connell
}}

'''Chester Gould''' ({{IPAc-en|g|uː|l|d}}; November 20, 1900 – May 11, 1985)<ref>''[[Comics Buyer's Guide]]'' #1636 (December 2007); p. 135</ref><ref name="Klassiekers">{{cite book |last1=De Weyer |first1=Geert |title=100 stripklassiekers die niet in je boekenkast mogen ontbreken |year=2008 |publisher=Atlas |location=[[Amsterdam]] / [[Antwerp]] |language=nl |page=215 |isbn=978-90-450-0996-4}}<!--|access-date=June 19, 2009 --></ref> was an American [[cartoonist]], best known as the creator of the ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' [[comic strip]], which he wrote and drew from 1931 to 1977, incorporating numerous colorful and monstrous villains.

==Early life and education==
Chester Gould was born to Gilbert R. Gould and Alice Maud (née Miller), in a log cabin outside [[Pawnee, Oklahoma]].<ref name="okpedia">{{cite encyclopedia |url=https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=GO017|title=Gould, Chester (1900–1985)|last=Payne |first=Adam A.|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture|publisher=Oklahoma Historical Society |access-date=2023-06-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Reynolds|first=Moira Davison|title=Comic Strip Artists in American Newspapers, 1945–1980|year=2003|location=US|isbn=978-0-7864-1551-9|pages=67|url=http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-1551-9|access-date=December 14, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170507155302/http://www.mcfarlandbooks.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-1551-9|archive-date=May 7, 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> All four of his grandparents were pioneer settlers of Oklahoma.{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|pp=13–18}} One grandfather was a minister, and Gould and his family were members of the [[Church of the United Brethren in Christ|United Brethren Church]].{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|p=18}} 

A cousin, [[Henry W. Gould]], is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at [[West Virginia University]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.math.wvu.edu/~gould/vita.html |title=Biography |website=[[West Virginia University]] |access-date=January 7, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223065712/http://www.math.wvu.edu/~gould/vita.html |archive-date=December 23, 2017 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Gilbert Gould was an editor at the ''Pawnee Courier-Dispatch'', which Chester would later credit for becoming a cartoonist.<ref name="okmag">{{citation|url=https://okmag.com/blog/the-life-times-of-chester-gould/|title=The Life & Times of Chester Gould|first=John|last=Wooley|date=August 31, 2015|magazine=Oklahoma Magazine|access-date=2023-06-23}}</ref><ref name="okpedia" /> When he was 8, a Supreme Court lawyer bought a drawing Gould had made when the lawyer was in town for a political event. Over the next few years he entered various contests and enrolled in a correspondence course in drawing.<ref name="okpedia" /> While still a senior in high school, he was discovered by the [[yearbook]] staff at [[Oklahoma State University–Stillwater|Oklahoma A&M University]] and was hired to make line drawings for the 1918 and 1919 editions.<ref name="okmag" />

==Development==
He enrolled at A&M himself in 1919 and drew editorial cartoons for the ''[[Tulsa Tribune|Tulsa Democrat]]'' and sports cartoons for ''[[The Oklahoman|The Daily Oklahoman]]''. He was an early member of [[Lambda Chi Alpha]], the oldest fraternity on campus, becoming its 44th initiate.<ref name="ocolly">{{citation|url=https://www.ocolly.com/oldest-osu-fraternity-still-growing/article_0adc7ff1-2475-56e6-be93-f0f3bca2d099.html|title=Oldest OSU fraternity still growing|date=April 15, 2005|newspaper=The O’Colly|publisher=The O’Colly Media Group|access-date=2023-06-23}}</ref> In 1921 he transferred to [[Northwestern University]], drawn to Chicago by the ''[[Chicago Tribune]]'' and its support for syndicated cartoon strips.<ref name="okmag" />

For the next ten years, Gould submitted many ideas for comic strips to [[Joseph Medill Patterson|Joseph Patterson]], publisher of the ''Tribune'', but none were accepted.<ref name="ct">{{citation|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1997-02-09-9702090405-story.html|title=Dick Tracy|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=February 9, 1997|access-date=2023-06-23}}</ref> To support himself, he drew ads and cartoons freelance for the ''[[Chicago Daily Journal]]''.<ref name="okmag" /> After graduation, he was hired by the Hearst-owned ''[[Chicago American|Chicago Evening American]]'', and got his first comic strips into print: ''Fillum Fables'', a spoof of [[silent film]]s, and ''Radio Catts'', featuring an anthropomorphic family of cats fascinated by the radio. The Hearst-owned [[King Features Syndicate]] syndicated both.<ref name="okmag" />

Gould met and married Edna Gauger in 1926, and their daughter was born the following year. In 1928, he joined the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'' and launched his third comic strip, called ''The Girl Friends'', while continuing to send ideas to Patterson. In June 1931, by Gould's account, he was listening to a radio series based on [[Sherlock Holmes]] stories and reading a newspaper account of Chicago's most powerful mobster, [[Al Capone]]; he was inspired to create a strip about a heroic detective fighting organized crime and corruption in the city. After rejecting 60 submissions from Gould, Patterson accepted his 61st.<ref name="okmag" />

==''Dick Tracy''==
{{main|Dick Tracy}}
[[File:BrightlightsbradyGould30.jpg|right|thumb|Proposed comic strip drawn by Chester Gould one year before creating ''Dick Tracy''.]]
Gould was hired as a cartoonist with the ''Tribune'' and introduced ''Dick Tracy'' in the ''[[Detroit Mirror]]'' on Sunday, October 4, 1931.{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|p=5}}  He drew the comic strip for the next 46 years from his home in [[Woodstock, Illinois]].{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|pp=96–100}}

In order to keep informed of police methods, Gould took courses in forensics and investigative procedures. He was later proud of having introduced the two-way wrist radio for Tracy in 1946, and in 1947, the [[closed-circuit television]], both of which were later invented, though in somewhat different forms.<ref>{{cite news |last=Terry |first=Clifford |date=June 10, 1990 |title=SIX DECADES OF BATTLING BADDIES IN THE COMIC PAGES |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1990-06-10-9002170166-story.html |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |access-date=March 13, 2018}}</ref>

Gould's stories were rarely pre-planned, since he preferred to improvise stories as he drew them. While fans praised this approach as producing exciting stories, it sometimes created awkward plot developments that were difficult to resolve. In one notorious case, Gould had Tracy in an inescapable [[deathtrap (plot device)|deathtrap]] with a [[Caisson (engineering)|caisson]]. When Gould depicted Tracy addressing Gould personally and having the cartoonist magically extract him, publisher [[Joseph Medill Patterson|Joseph Patterson]] vetoed the sequence and ordered it redrawn. The strip also drew protests from those who felt that Gould's depiction of crime was too gruesome, that he poured on too much gore and carnage.<ref>{{cite news |last=Krebs |first=Albin |date=May 12, 1985 |title=Chester Gould, Cartoonist, Dies at at [sic] 84 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/12/us/chester-gould-cartoonist-dies-at-at-84.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=March 13, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180501163529/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/12/us/chester-gould-cartoonist-dies-at-at-84.html |archive-date=May 1, 2018}}</ref>

Later in the strip's Gould period, ''Dick Tracy'' was widely criticized for being too right-wing in character and as excessively supportive of the police. A handful of critics thought Gould ignored the [[rights of the accused]] and failed to support his agenda with an adequate storyline. The late 1950s also saw a newspaper readership growing less indulgent of Gould's politics.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brunsdale |first=Mitzi M. |date=2010 |title=Icons of Mystery and Crime Detection: From Sleuths to Superheroes |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2zTtMxkExgC&pg=PA678 |location=Santa Barbara, California |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |page=678 |isbn=978-0-313-34530-2}}</ref>

For instance, Gould introduced a malodorous, tobacco-spitting character, B.O. Plenty, with little significant complaint from readers in the 1940s. However, the 1960s introduction of crooked lawyer Flyface and his relatives, surrounded by swarming flies, created a negative reader reaction strong enough for papers to drop the strip in large numbers.{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|pp=159–160}} There was then a dramatic change in the strip's setting, leaving behind the strip's origins as an urban crime drama for science fiction plot elements and regular visits to the Moon. An increasingly fantastic procession of enemies and stories ensued. The [[Apollo 11]] Moon landing prompted Gould to abandon this phase. Finally, ''Dick Tracy'' was beset by the overall trend in newspaper comics away from strips with continuing storylines and toward those whose stories are largely resolved within one series of panels.

Gould, his characters, and improbable plots were satirized in [[Al Capp]]'s comic strip ''[[Li'l Abner]]'' with the ''[[Fearless Fosdick]]'' sequences (supposedly drawn by "Lester Gooch");<ref>{{cite book |last=Roberts |first=Garyn G. |date=2003 |title=Dick Tracy and American Culture: Morality and Mythology, Text and Context |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K-OCBcT1O4UC&dq=fearless+fosdick&pg=PA289 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |page=289 |isbn=9780786416981}}</ref> a notable villain was Bomb Face, a gangster whose head was a bomb.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2009615723/ |title=Caroline and Erwin Swann Collection of Caricature and Cartoon |website=[[Library of Congress]] |access-date=October 10, 2011}}</ref>

Gould retired in 1977, with his last ''Dick Tracy'' strip appearing in print on Christmas Day, December 25. The strip continued with Gould's longtime assistant artist, [[Rick Fletcher]], producing the artwork and [[Max Allan Collins]] as writer.

==Death==

Gould died of congestive heart failure on May 11, 1985 at his home in Woodstock. He was 84 years old.<ref name="Klassiekers" /> Gould is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Woodstock.<ref>{{cite news |last=Kunzer |first=Jami |date=February 18, 2015 |title=Woodstock natives honor Dick Tracy creator Chester Gould with documentary |url=https://www.kcchronicle.com/2015/02/18/woodstock-natives-honor-dick-tracy-creator-chester-gould-with-documentary/ahjumm5/ |work=[[Kane County Chronicle]] |access-date=May 4, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180504091625/https://www.kcchronicle.com/2015/02/18/woodstock-natives-honor-dick-tracy-creator-chester-gould-with-documentary/ahjumm5/ |archive-date=May 4, 2018}}</ref>

==Awards and exhibitions==
Chester Gould won the [[National Cartoonists Society]]'s [[Reuben Award]] in 1959 and 1977, and was awarded the [[Inkpot Award]] in 1978.<ref>[https://www.comic-con.org/awards/inkpot Inkpot Award]</ref> The [[Mystery Writers of America]] honored Gould and his work with a Special [[Edgar Award]] in 1980. In 1995, the strip was one of 20 included in the [[Comic Strip Classics]] series of commemorative postage stamps and postcards.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.trussel.com/detfic/tracy.htm |title=Detective Fiction on Stamps: United States 1995: Dick Tracy |website=Trussel.com |access-date=April 27, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170621170054/http://www.trussel.com/detfic/tracy.htm |archive-date=June 21, 2017}}</ref>

''Dick Tracy: The Art of Chester Gould'' was an exhibition in [[Port Chester, New York]], at the [[National Cartoon Museum|Museum of Cartoon Art]] from October 4 through November 30, 1978. The exhibition was curated by Bill Crouch, Jr.

From 1991 until 2008, the art and artifacts of Gould's career were displayed in the Chester Gould-Dick Tracy Museum that operated from the Woodstock, Illinois, Old Courthouse on the Square.{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|pp=196–198}} Visitors to the Museum saw original comic strips, correspondence, photographs, and much memorabilia, including Gould's drawing board and chair. In 2000, the Museum received a Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois Association of Museums, and in 2001, it was given an Award of Excellence from the Illinois State Historical Society. The museum continues today as a virtual museum online.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dicktracymuseum.com/ |title=The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum |website=The Chester Gould Dick Tracy Museum |access-date=April 27, 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170305114724/http://www.dicktracymuseum.com/ |archive-date=March 5, 2017}}</ref>

In 2005, Gould was inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame in [[Pauls Valley, Oklahoma]], by [[Michael Vance]]. The Oklahoma Cartoonists Collection, created by Vance, is located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.actionfiguremuseum.com/occ_bios.htm|title=OCC Bios|access-date=April 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160624020320/http://www.actionfiguremuseum.com/occ_bios.htm|archive-date=June 24, 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref>

A graduate of [[Northwestern University]], Gould was honored with the naming of the ''Chester Gould Society'' for the School of Professional Studies donors.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Chester Gould Society |url=https://wewill.northwestern.edu/s/1479/282-giving/grid-campaign.aspx?pgid=7409&gid=282 |website=wewill.northwestern.edu |access-date=11 October 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

==Books==
In 1983, two years before Gould's death, his only child, Jean Gould O'Connell, recorded extensive interviews with her father, who spoke at length about his early attempts during the 1920s to get syndicated and the birth of Dick Tracy. These interviews became a major source when she wrote his biography, ''Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy'', published by [[McFarland & Company]] in 2007.{{sfn|O'Connell|2007|p=iv}}

The entire run of ''Dick Tracy'' is being reprinted in a book series by [[IDW Publishing]]. The series began in 2006. The first volume includes the five sample strips that Gould used to sell his strip, followed by over 450 strips showing the series' beginning (from October 1931&nbsp;– May 1933), along with a Gould interview, never previously published, by [[Max Allan Collins]]. Twenty-six more volumes in this series have been published between 2006 and 2020, bringing the continuity to July 1974.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |last=O'Connell |first=Jean Gould |date=2007 |title=Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DJai9JCtYhoC |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |isbn=978-0-7864-2825-0}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040130152441/http://www.pawneepolice.com/pawnee/dick_tracy_muriel.htm Commemorative Mural in Pawnee]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060106021759/http://www.reuben.org/ncs/awards.asp NCS Awards]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070919210748/http://crossandcrescent.com/2006/10/dick-tracy-turns-75 Article "'Dick Tracy' Turns 75"]
* [http://mystericale.com/index.php?issue=072&body=file&file=like_em_tough.htm/ Article "75 years of Continuous Crime-Stopping"]
* {{IMDb name|332333}}
* [https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=GO017 Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: Chester Gould]
* [https://www.tcj.com/a-tricky-cad-the-gravies-sawdust-and-chester-gould/ Essay on "The Gravies" and other Gould creations]

{{Dick Tracy}}
{{Inkpot Award 1970s}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gould, Chester}}
[[Category:1900 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:American comic strip cartoonists]]
[[Category:Chicago Tribune people]]
[[Category:Dick Tracy]]
[[Category:Edgar Award winners]]
[[Category:Inkpot Award winners]]
[[Category:Northwestern University alumni]]
[[Category:People from Woodstock, Illinois]]
[[Category:People from Pawnee, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:People from Stillwater, Oklahoma]]
[[Category:Reuben Award winners]]
[[Category:Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Old Right (United States)]]