Dick Tracy, the great mystery solving gumshoe, is back in The Complete Dick Tracy from Clover Press and the Library of American Comics. The newspaper strip is collected for the first time in softcover, will be organized by year, and features new covers by contemporary artists. The book is now seeking supporters on BackerKit.

Cartoonist Chester Gould created Dick Tracy, introducing the hardboiled detective in October 1931. The yellow trench coat wearing Dick Tracy faced a litany of strange criminals while puzzling through tough cases. Gould wrote and drew the strip until 1977, and various cartoonists have worked on the strip since then.

Years ago, the Library of American Comics collected and remastered the strip in a hardcover collection, and many of the volumes are now out of print. For this project, the Library worked with Clover Press to bring the collection back to print in the new softcover format.

Each volume in The Complete Dick Tracy will reprint the strips from January 1 through December 31, will measure 11” x 8-1/2”, and be packaged in a vertical slipcase. This first offering collects the strips from 1941 to 1944 and will feature covers by Jerry Ordway, Stewart Kenneth Moore, John K. Snyder III, and Juan Jose Ryp.

The four-book bundle early bird special is $90, then the regular price will be $110. Add-ons include a set of four prints, two sticker sheets with 26 unique characters, 36 trading cards, and a lithograph reproducing a piece Gould did for LIFE Magazine. The books and set of prints is $135, the bundle with books, prints, sticker sheets, and trading cards is $199, and there’s a retailer tier.

The BackerKit campaign is seeking to raise $5,000, and will run through September 30, 2025.