Chester Gould

Chester Gould was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma. His father didn't support his artistic ambitions, and sent him to law school. While studying however, Gould started his career drawing sport cartoons for the City Daily Oklahomian between 1921 and 1923. For the Hearst papers, he did 'The Radio Lanes' and later 'Fillum Fables', which replaced Edgar Wheelan's 'Minute Movies'.

In 1931, Chester Gould's career got a boost when he sold his comic strip idea about the hard-nosed plain-clothes detective Dick Tracy to the Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News. After 1931, he devoted his life to writing and drawing the daily 'Dick Tracy' comic. Between 1956 and 1964, the 'Dick Tracy' strip was accompanied by the funny animal topper, 'The Gravies'.

Aided by the engineer Al Gross, Gould introduced numerous inventions which in the story that provided a foundation for developments in the future and established working models for anti-criminal aids for policemen, such as the video security camera, handheld video camera, and wrist video camera.

Gould's work has inspired a lot of other cartoonists, like Milton Caniff and Alex Raymond. He also received the Reuben award, one of the most important awards in the comics drawing field. Gould retired in 1977, and Rick Fletcher and Alan Collins took over 'Dick Tracy'. In 1981, Gould wanted his name removed from the 'Dick Tracy' motion picture credits because he was dissatisfied with the direction the movie had taken.