Dick Tracy Meets the Punks

In 1980, Tempo Books published a single comic issue that brought Chester Gould’s legendary detective face-to-face with the gritty counterculture of the late 1970s. Written by Max Allan Collins (credited as Max Collins) and illustrated by Rick Fletcher, this one-shot pits the square-jawed Tracy against a new breed of streetwise anarchists, blending classic newspaper-strip crime-fighting with a decidedly punk-era edge. A curious artifact of its time, it captures the moment when a timeless icon met a fleeting subculture.