The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy

The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy is a series of 29 hardcover books published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing, that bring together every Dick Tracy comic strip in chronological order, both black-and-white dailies and Sunday strips, written and drawn by Chester Gould from its premiere on October 4, 1931, until December 25, 1977.

Format

Volumes 1–6

Originally, these volumes measured 9.5 inches x 7 inches with approximately 350 pages per volume. The books were edited and designed by Ted Adams, with cover design by Ashley Wood and introductions by Max Allan Collins. The books feature an interview with the creator, Chester Gould, conducted by Max Allan Collins.
More recently, these volumes are being re-released by Clover Press and The Library of American Comics in a larger format consistent with volumes 7-29.

Volumes 7–29

These later volumes measure 11 x 8.5 inches, with about 250-300 pages per volume. They are edited and designed by Dean Mullaney, with introductions by Max Allan Collins and essays by Jeff Kersten.
After the publication of the first six volumes of the series, it was handed over by its editor and the CEO of IDW Publishing, Ted Adams, to the IDW imprint The Library of American Comics. Dean Mullaney became the new editor of the Dick Tracy reprint series. As this transition happened, it was decided that the size of the volumes would be increased to match the other LoAC book lines. Even though this meant that the Sunday strips were printed 40 percent larger in this new iteration of the series, the daily strips were actually printed smaller compared to the size they had in the first six volumes, since there were now three strips to a page instead of two. A new cover design was also introduced, the introductory essays grew to become broader and more extensive, delivering a more complete history of the strip and its creator Gould. Contact was established with the Gould family, the Dick Tracy Museum and the Shel Dorf collection to obtain more archival material, such as art and photographs. Jeff Kersten began to contribute afterword essays which place the Dick Tracy strip in historical context and elaborates on its cultural impact.

Volumes

Volume	Release date	Title	Period	Page count	ISBN
1	2006-?	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 1	1931–1933	364
2	2007-05-08	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 2	1933–1935	380
3	2007-12-01	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 3	1935–1936	352
4	2008-05-06	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 4	1936–1938	344
5	2008-08-15	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 5	1938–1939	352
6	2009-01-29	The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 6	1939–1941	346
7	2009-05-26	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 7	1941–1942	288
8	2009-08-17	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 8	1942–1944	264
9	2010-01-26	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 9	1944–1945	266
10	2010-06-22	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 10	1945–1947	266
11	2011-02-15	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 11	1947–1948	266
12	2011-10-25	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 12	1948–1950	276
13	2012-05-29	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 13	1950–1951	252
14	2013-01-15	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 14	1951–1953	256
15	2013-07-09	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 15	1953–1954	256
16	2014-04-08	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 16	1954–1956	276
17	2014-10-14	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 17	1956–1957	276
18	2015-05-12	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 18	1957–1959	276
19	2015-11-24	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 19	1959–1961	276
20	2016-05-31	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 20	1961–1962	272
21	2017-01-31	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 21	1962–1964	272
22	2017-06-27	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 22	1964–1965	288
23	2017-12-19	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 23	1966–1967	264
24	2018-05-22	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 24	1967–1969	296
25	2019-01-15	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 25	1969–1970	296
26	2019-06-11	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 26	1970–1972	296
27	2020-01-14	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 27	1972–1974	296
28	2020-06-23	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 28	1974–1976	288
29	2020-12-08	The Complete Dick Tracy: Dailies & Sundays - Vol. 29	1976–1977	288

Reissued and reformatted volumes

Beginning in 2023, the six initial volumes originally published by IDW which were released in a smaller format were reissued in a reformatted version by Clover Press to match the larger format of the later volumes in the series, to make a fully coherent book suite.