Chester Gould, creator of the comic strip Dick Tracy, was born in Pawnee, OK, in 1900 living there until 1921 when he transferred from Oklahoma State University to Northwestern University. He graduated in 1923 and took a position with the Chicago Tribune.
After toying around with some ideas for comic strips, Gould drew inspiration from his surroundings in mobster-controlled Chicago. He felt that, instead of the "glorified gangster" image prevalent at the time, there should be a hero with a badge.
What Gould came up with was a square-jawwed, mackintosh-clad detective he called "Plainclothes Tracy". He was destined to defeat a number of supervillains including "Pruneface", "the Mole" and the bad-guy evryone loved to hate--"Flattop". His publisher suggested the change to "Dick Tracy" and "the rest, they say, is history.
Gould retired from the strip in 1977 but some of his close aides picked up the gauntlet and continued on.
