Dick Tracy Monthly #18

Dick Tracy strides through a doorway in his unmistakable yellow trenchcoat and green fedora, cool and collected while a wide-eyed companion in a white hat and red bow tie reacts with clear alarm — and slumped over a table in the foreground is a man who appears very much out of commission. This June 1949 Dell issue captures everything that made Chester Gould's square-jawed detective a fixture of American popular culture: sharp style, a knack for walking into trouble, and the confidence to smirk about it.