Review: ‘Dick Tracy’ #17 May Be Mentally Unwell
by Benjamin Hall
Summary
Detective Dick Tracy’s integrity is coming under fire because of accusations of corruption. There are also accusations of mob boss Lips Manlis being Tracy’s secret boss. Can Tracy clear his name before he loses everything and ends up facing arrest? Also how is his mental health standing up to this amount of stress?
Overall
8.5/10The creative team consists of writers Alex Segura and Michael Moreci, main cover and interior artist Gerlado Borges, colorist Mark Englert, creative consultant Chantelle Aimée Osman, letterer Patrick Brosseau, and variant cover artist Veronica Fish.
This issue’s execution displays extreme competency. Yet, it is not without flaws. The one most will notice is a missing word in an otherwise complete and correct sentence. While the other flaw is at least one page layout breaking the one-eighty-degree rule with its final panel. For those who don’t know or remember this rule, it is important in both movies and comics mainly to keep consistent visual orientation. In other words, editors Christina Harrington and Sarah Brunstead should do better on future issues when it comes to watching for these problems.
As for what makes the script so great, it is how quick yet dense the narrative arguably is. The internal monologuing is also brilliant since the thinker’s identity is rather shocking. This is partly because of the actions they took in prior issues. As for the plot, it is a bit formulaic during some of the action scenes. However, these specific scenes also serve differing purposes besides displaying emotional and violent beats. Some social commentary exists in certain scenes, which assist in making the story more intelligent.
The majority of the art and colors remain similar to the past work on this series by Borges and Englert. Arguably, the only key difference is that Borges is having to display significantly more depth in the interiors because of the designs of the page layouts.
Debatably, Brosseau’s lettering is what makes the whole thing work in any form. This is because of how without correctly placing and sizing the text elements, the visual flow would read faster than the words.
Lastly, the variant cover by Fish’s style evokes legendary artists Chester Gould and Darwyn Cooke in the best of ways. It even suggests that with the right script, Fish may be able to someday draw the most excellent Dick Tracy comic of a whole decade.
Dick Tracy #17 sees release from Madcave Studios on May 20th.
