A recent Bob Harvey article has started a rumor that Tribune Media Services might be ending the Dick Tracy serial comic strip at the end of the year when its current writer/artist Dick Locher retires from editorial cartooning. The rumor has spread to the Gaylord Herald Times and then echoed by the Comics Reporter, but Mary Elson, the comics editor at TMS, flatly states that the rumors are untrue and “there are no plans to shutdown the comic.”
The rumor may have initially started out of an interview that Dick gave to the Telegraph Herald (Dubuque, IA) that hinted that he was looking forward to “retirement cake.” Mary also said that she wasn’t aware of any retirement plans by Mr. Locher whose editorial cartoons are distributed through TMS as well.
UPDATED: From Mary, I received an email with the official statement from TMS regarding this rumor: “TMS has no plans to discontinue the Dick Tracy comic strip; nor is the company seeking a new creator for the strip.”
Actually, to be painfully precise, I didn’t “start” the rumor: I merely reported a rumor already in existence.