IDW Publishing; $39.99

And we thought we loved this series before!

With this edition, The Complete Dick Tracy (formerly The Complete Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy) expands to the larger format of The Library of American Comics titles such as The Complete Terry and the Pirates and The Complete Little Orphan Annie, and it now also falls under the editorship of Dean Mullaney.

The format, and the addition of Jeff Kersten as essayist along side Max Allan Collins, really serve to simultaneously pull the reader further into the worlds of Dick Tracy and his creator, Chester Gould.

In all seriousness, we thought we couldn’t have been happier with the previous Tracy volumes (we have all six earlier ones), but the new format makes a startling amount of difference. The readability of the Sunday strips is so improved that it’s almost a revelation. Even though it will mean more expensive trips to the comic shop or book store, we look forward to the earlier installments being reprinted at this new, larger size.

In keeping with The Library of American Comics’ focuses of great strips, quality presentation, insight, and context, The Complete Dick Tracy – Volume Seven is another home run for IDW Publishing.