Follow Us On
Facebook
|
CHESTER GOULD Dick Tracy daily (1951) Crewy Lou, Sphinx, & The King * NOT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE *
Price: $550.00
Sold Art
CHESTER GOULD • Dick Tracy daily (1951)
featuring 3 villains: Crewy Lou, Sphinx, and The King
No comic art collection is complete without a “Dick Tracy”
and this 1951 daily is an excellent example from a
high-profile sequence. Dick himself appears in the last
panel, but this strip stars an unusual trio of villains,
beginning with the hated Louise "Crewy Lou" Brown, a young
woman with blonde hair that she wore long in the back, but
with a short crew-cut style on top (hence her nickname).
Crewy Lou inadvertently kidnapped Bonnie Braids (baby
daughter of Tess & Dick Tracy) while being pursued by
Tracy, a continuity that had devoted “Dick Tracy” readers
on the edge of their seats for weeks. Later Crewy Lou died
falling from the window of an observation tower after
Tracy threw tear gas into it. In her last breath she told
Tracy where the baby was.
Background: Shortly after the
birth of Bonnie “Braids Tracy, Crewy Lou approached Dick
Tracy and Tess, offering to photograph the baby. Tess
(herself a skilled photographer) was impressed by Lou's
samples and agreed to let her photograph Bonnie despite
Dick's objections. Crewy Lou then used the photographs of
Bonnie (along with pictures of the babies of other
prominent citizens) to convince the wealthy new father
Fortson B. Knox to allow her to photograph his child. This
was part of a scheme by Crewy Lou and her safecracker
associate Sphinx (the man in the loud shirt and beret next
to Crewy in this original) to gain access to Knox's home.
Crewy Lou and Sphinx were able to steal jewels out of
Knox's safe, not realizing that Knox himself was part of a
criminal syndicate run by "The King." When Knox was killed
by his wife, The King comes to collect the jewels from
Brown and Sphinx, starting with his foreboding hand on the
doorknob opening this strip. Shortly after this July 18
sequence Sphinx was killed, and Crewy Lou ultimately
killed The King (prior to the Tracy baby kidnapping and
her own dramatic demise). The bodies piled up fast in
Chester Gould’s detective strip!
Medium/Size/Condition: Brush, pen, and ink
on Bristol board measuring 23¼ x 7¼ inches.
Provenance: From the collection of James
Kitchen.
|
|