This is the October 5, 1944
Dick Tracy daily. The villain Shaky's men had drugged Snowflake Falls in an unusually elaborate and boneheaded plan. Snowflake stops Tracy's car instead of the one she was supposed to. The 20-year-old Snowflake later married the 50-year-old Vitamin Flintheart (Jim Carrey take note), arguably Tracy's best friend (Vitamin called Tracy his best friend in this story). She became a continuing character until she passed away off camera in 1950 when Vitamin moaned that, among his other trevails, his wife has died. Snowflake was portrayed by Judy Garland in a memorable all-star radio broadcast. The Snowflake and Shaky story was reprinted as volume 2 of 3 in the mass market paperback series,
Dick Tracy His Greatest Cases. The cover is below, note how similar the shot of Snowflake is to the one in my daily.
1944 was Tracy's best year, it featured the climax of the Flattop story, introduced Vitamin Flintheart, Gravel Gertie, and Breathless Mahoney, and The Brow, among others.
Whatever his failings in artistic technique, Chester Gould presented a compelling vision to the reader. Your eye is drawn to his work like that of few other artists. This is illustrated by the noirish scene here, especially the last panel with Tracy's razor-sharp profile, fedora and embroidered shirt along with the classic junior on the edge and Snowflake's magnificent blank stare.
