Pete Poplaski — White-Collar Rogues

Original Art and The Artists

Corporate Crime #2, April 1979

Pete Poplaski turns ordinary looking white-collar criminals into a rogues’ gallery suitable for Dick Tracy in this terrific cover for the short-lived “underground” comic, Corporate Crime. (Two issues, two years apart in 1977 and 1979.)

I’ve said plenty about Pete previously, but it deserves repeating:  It’s amazing how he manages to capture so many classic art styles, so well.  His originals (and I’m grateful that I own a few) are astonishing.

Seeing this cover for the first time a few months ago made me wistful that we (IDW Publishing) never pitched DC a Batman / Dick Tracy crossover set as a period piece in the 40s. Not sure if Pete would have been up for illustrating an entire series, but I certainly would have hired him for the covers.

I believe Mad Cave currently has the Tracy rights: Guys, it’s never too late.

If you want to sample the golden age of more “traditional” crime comics (1948-1954) you have plenty of opportunities with a plethora of terrific modern collections . Coincidentally, Poplaski also drew the cover for the Crime Does Not Pay sampler from Dark Horse Comics. (The original for that cover also came up for auction recently, but it was too graphic for my own taste.)