The logo used by the comic strip in 2018 when its Green Hornet crossover arc was published
Dick Tracy is a daily American comic strip centering on the crime-fighting adventures of the titular police detective. It has been continually published since October 4, 1931, and was created by Chester Gould, who wrote and drew the comic strip until his retirement on December 25, 1977. In 2018, the comic strip ran a Green Hornet crossover arc, becoming part of a long line of Dick Tracy stories to feature popular characters from other franchises. At this time, the comic strip was written by Mike Curtis and illustrated by Joe Saton, with inking and lettering by shelley Pleger and coloring by Shane Fisher. Although Dick Tracy is portrayed as a normal human, and not a superhero per se, the comic strip shares many common elements with superhero fiction and has had a significant influence on the genre, such as Dick Tracy's recurring rogues gallery of colorful, gimmick-themed supervillains.
The comic strip typically runs three panels on Monday through Saturday and approximately eight on Sundays, with a single story arc often running for multiple weeks or even months. The Green Hornet arc lasted 49 daily installments and centered around Britt Reid, the wealthy publisher of Central City's Daily Sentinel newspaper, traveling to the nameless major city in which Dick Tracy is set. Reid is also secretly the masked vigilante the Green Hornet, who in reality is a masked vigilante dedicated to fighting crime, but is publicly believed to be a master criminal who ruthlessly wipes out any competition. Reid is accompanied on his visit by his assistant Lenore Case and his crime-fighting partner Kato, the latter of whom spends part of the story undercover in the household of gangster Cyrus Topper, whom Britt and his associates are on the trail of. Britt also alerts the local news media and police department as to the arrival of the Hornet and Topper in their city, and Dick Tracy is put on the case. Because of the Green Hornet's criminal reputation, he and Dick Tracy clash multiple times, but in the end, Topper and his gang are apprehended and Britt, Kato, and Lenore all return to their home city.
The arc's depiction of Green Hornet characters, both visually and in terms of characterization, draws heavily from the character's 1960s television series. However, while that series was set in Metropolitan City, the comic strip repeatedly refers to the Green Hornet being based in Central City. This is the only piece of media which references the Hornet being based in said city, and the name might stem from confusion owing to the comic book Green Hornet '66 Meets the Spirit, which had been published shortly before the Dick Tracy arc began, and which was set in the Spirit's hometown of Central City.