Dick Tracy Monthly #12

Dick Tracy Monthly delivers the square-jawed detective in full dramatic form — clad in his signature yellow trench coat and green hat, Tracy peers urgently over a wooden fence as a barn blazes behind him, a dark figure and a panicked horse silhouetted against the roaring flames. It's a vivid snapshot of the danger and urgency that made Chester Gould's creation a fixture of 1948 American pop culture. Dell's monthly format kept the adventures coming at a brisk ten cents, and this December issue looks like one you'd have grabbed straight off the newsstand.