Presenting: The Crossover of the Century!

[lbd_nytetrayn]

When you stop to think about it, crossovers have become sort of mundane, at least in comics. Sure, seeing Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor together on the silver screen is enough to make one giddy, but that's in movies. In comic books, seeing them together is not only normal, but practically expected. Same for Superman, Batman, and the DC Universe, Transformers and G.I. Joe, or pretty much any pair of characters/properties who share the same owners.

Though crossovers are fairly routine occurrences in comic books, they're a bit less common in the comic pages, i.e. the newspaper. Recently, however, a most unexpected crossing of paths has begun taking place. But first, we need to turn the clock back four years...

On June 13th, 2010, Annie-- star of the long-running 1924 comic strip of the same name, also known as "Little Orphan" Annie-- found herself in a most dire way as she had been thrown to the sharks by a group of Mexican drug lords, only to end up saved by an escaped war criminal...



Appearing in less than 20 newspapers by this point, the axe finally fell on the Annie comic strip, leaving her to her fate while Oliver Warbucks and what readers were left to wonder what fate would befall the young girl. It seemed that no answers would be forthcoming, though...

That is, until recently. March 26th, 2014; in another time and place...



...Tracy? Could they mean...?



Indeed it is! Who better to solve such a case than the comics page's greatest and most well-known police detective, Dick Tracy?

At the time, Tracy was embroiled deep within another case, but as that wrapped up with the start of the month of June, Warbucks and his companions arrived to meet with the Chief of Detectives and gain the assistance of the Major Crimes Unit in locating there whereabouts of Annie.





















And this is basically where we are. There are some other subplots carrying on throughout the strip alongside this one, but I've left those out.

Honestly, though I've never read Annie or Dick Tracy at length, reading about the ending of Annie's strip years ago left me intrigued, and learning of this crossover has had me checking over the last couple of months of Dick Tracy's strip (the last story arc even featured noted artist Scott Shaw! in a guest role) to see what happens next.

It's weird; something about this particular crossing makes me giddy, perhaps because I knew that Annie ended in such an unexpectedly dire place.

Interestingly enough, though, this isn't the first time Warbucks has appeared in Dick Tracy's strip, though earlier appearances were a bit lower key.

Of further interest, though-- particularly to this community-- is something I just came across when trying to dig up Warbucks' first appearance in Dick Tracy's strip for this post. On January 1st, 2013, Tracy was just coming to the end of a case involving one Broadway Bates, an old foe of his dating back to 1932. As the following events unfold...



Hmm... Oswald? That's an unusual name...







...wild, huh? I wouldn't mind seeing a team-up between those two detectives.

All told, I'm getting into this, and I thought/hoped that maybe some others here would as well.

At the very least, the cost of admission is cheap (free!), and if you want to follow it day by day or go looking through the archives, you can find lots more of Dick Tracy here at GoComics.

Side note: I don't know if we have/can add any tags for this, but some which may apply if so: Title:Dick Tracy, Character:Dick Tracy, Creator:Joe Staton, Creator:Mike Curtis.

And it's been so long since I've actually created a post here, I hope I'm not forgetting/overlooking anything...

Comments

[dewinged]

I've been reading DT on GoComics for the last few years. It's been amazing, and the Annie search is this summer's big storyline. It's going to be fun!

[doctor_spanky]

This is wonderful! It reminds me of Bill Watterson drawing for Pearls Before Swine earlier this year (good S_D post?)

Also the Batman shadow on the second-to-last strip is neat

[icon_uk]

I've been meaning to post the Bill Watterson thing, thanks for the reminder! :)

[simiansyndicate]

Last time I read Dick Tracy a few years ago, the art was total ass. When did it get downright amazing again?

[skjam]

When Dick Locher retired and the new team took over a couple of years ago. It also pepped up the writing considerably. They still have a problem with rushed endings, and there's a lot more loose threads than in Gould's prime, but it's much better than it used to be.

[icon_uk]

Joe Staton's art is always worth a look at.

[lieut_kettch]

Nice. Even the Dick Tracy wiki mentions that "Bates" may be an alias, and his real last name could presumably be Cobblepot.

[icon_uk]

But was it updated before or after this reveal that he was Oswald's brother?

[lieut_kettch]

Definitely after, since it cites Bates' most recent story arc from 2012-2013 as proof that he and The Penguin could be brothers.

Interestingly, the entry on Bates' moll Belle mentions that she's friends with a "Harley" who works with a "Mr. J."

[skemono]

Some further notes:
The Great Am is an old recurring character in Little Orphan Annie who's been hinted may be God (his name being "I AM", get it?).

Am says Tracy looks like someone named Alley, from long ago. This may be a reference to Alley Oop, a caveman in the comic strip of the same name. While this could sneak in how Am is millions of years old (or, given Alley's time-traveling proclivities, maybe a few centuries), Alley doesn't really look anything like Dick. But all mortals probably look alike to Am.

[stubbleupdate]

That isn't Lying Cat in Revival so I don't know how you think you can call it best crossover.

[cricharddavies]

...wild, huh? I wouldn't mind seeing a team-up between those two detectives.

Only if they ask Max Alan Collins to write it. Nicely. Very nicely.

[silverzeo]

Off subject. Any opinions on the new Orphan Annie movie?