Chester gould biography

American cartoonist (–)

Chester Gould (; November 20, – May 11, )^[1][2] was an American cartoonist, best known as the author of the Dick Tracycomic strip, which he wrote and drew from to , 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.^[3][4] All four of his grandparents were pioneer settlers of Oklahoma.

One grandfather was a minister, and Gould and his family were members of the United Brethren Church.

A cousin, Henry W. Gould, is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at West Virginia University.^[7]

Gilbert Gould was an editor at the Pawnee Courier-Dispatch, which Chester would later credit for becoming a cartoonist.^[8][3] 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.^[3] While still a senior in high school, he was discovered by the yearbook staff at Oklahoma A&M University and was hired to make line drawings for the and editions.^[8]

Development

He enrolled at A&M himself in and drew editorial cartoons for the Tulsa Democrat and sports cartoons for The Daily Oklahoman.

He was an early member of Lambda Chi Alpha, the oldest fraternity on campus, becoming its 44th initiate.^[9] In he transferred to Northwestern University, drawn to Chicago by the Chicago Tribune and its support for syndicated cartoon strips.^[8]

For the next ten years, Gould submitted many ideas for comic strips to Joseph Patterson, publisher of the Tribune, but none were accepted.^[10] To support himself, he drew ads and cartoons freelance for the Chicago Daily Journal.^[8] After graduation, he was hired by the Hearst-owned Chicago Evening American, and got his first comic strips into print: Fillum Fables, a spoof of silent films, and Radio Catts, featuring an anthropomorphic family of cats fascinated by the radio.

The Hearst-owned King Features Syndicate syndicated both.^[8]

Gould met and married Edna Gauger in , and their daughter was born the following year. In , he joined the Chicago Daily News and launched his third comic strip, called The Girl Friends, while continuing to send ideas to Patterson.

Chester Gould was born to Gilbert R. A cousin, Henry W. Gilbert Gould was an editor at the Pawnee Courier-Dispatchwhich Chester would later credit for becoming a cartoonist. Over the next few years he entered various contests and enrolled in a correspondence course in drawing.

In June , 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.^[8]

Dick Tracy

Main article: Dick Tracy

Gould was hired as a cartoonist with the Tribune and introduced Dick Tracy in the Detroit Mirror on Sunday, October 4, He drew the comic strip for the next 46 years from his place in Woodstock, Illinois.

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 , and in , the closed-circuit television, both of which were later invented, though in somewhat different forms.^[13]

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 with a caisson. When Gould depicted Tracy addressing Gould personally and having the cartoonist magically extract him, publisher 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.^[14]

Later in the strip's Gould period, Dick Tracy was widely criticized for entity 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.

Chester Gould was an American cartoonist who created “Dick Tracy,” the detective-action comic strip that became the first popular cops-and-robbers series. Gould studied cartooning through a correspondence school, briefly drew sports cartoons in Oklahoma, then worked for the Chicago Daily News.

The late s also saw a newspaper readership growing less indulgent of Gould's politics.^[15]

For instance, Gould introduced a malodorous, tobacco-spitting traits, B.O. Plenty, with little significant complaint from readers in the s.

However, the s 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. 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");^[17] a notable villain was Bomb Deal with, a gangster whose head was a bomb.^[18]

Gould retired in , with his last Dick Tracy strip appearing in print on Christmas Day, December 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, at his home in Woodstock. He was 84 years old.^[2] Gould is buried in Oakland Cemetery in Woodstock.^[19]

Awards and exhibitions

Chester Gould won the National Cartoonists Society's Reuben Award in and , and was awarded the Inkpot Award in ^[20] The Mystery Writers of America honored Gould and his operate with a Special Edgar Award in In , the strip was one of 20 included in the Comic Strip Classics series of commemorative postage stamps and postcards.^[21]

Dick Tracy: The Art of Chester Gould was an exhibition in Port Chester, Fresh York, at the Museum of Cartoon Art from October 4 through November 30, The exhibition was curated by Bill Crouch, Jr.

From until , 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.

Contact Us Press Room. Chester Gould and Dick Tracy Because his father was a weekly newspaper editor, the younger Gould later stated that "it was probably that influence which got me into the frame of mind to become a cartoonist. In he transferred to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, where he majored in business administration.

Visitors to the Museum saw original comic strips, correspondence, photographs, and much memorabilia, including Gould's drawing board and chair. In , the Museum received a Superior Achievement Award from the Illinois Association of Museums, and in , it was given an Award of Excellence from the Illinois State Historical World.

The museum continues today as a virtual museum online.^[23]

In , 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.^[24]

A graduate of Northwestern University, Gould was honored with the naming of the Chester Gould Society for the School of Professional Studies donors.^[25]

Books

In , 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 ahead attempts during the s to get syndicated and the birth of Dick Tracy.

Chester Gould in his Tribune Tower studio in mid-February, On August 30, , a year-old man, lonely but full of ambition, arrived in Chicago by train. With $50 in his pocket, a suitcase and a portfolio, he was ready to hit the big time cartoon world.

These interviews became a major root when she wrote his biography, Chester Gould: A Daughter's Biography of the Creator of Dick Tracy, published by McFarland & Company in

The entire jog of Dick Tracy is creature reprinted in a book series by IDW Publishing.

The series began in The first volume includes the five sample strips that Gould used to offer his strip, followed by over strips showing the series' start (from October &#;– May ), along with a Gould interview, never previously published, by Max Allan Collins.

Twenty-six more volumes in this series have been published between and , bringing the continuity to July

References

Further reading

External links