Fading in the eyes of an icon

Ethan Switch - Wednesday, 11 June 2003 - 08:29:53 - print it raw

Dick Tracy first appeared in a newspaper comicstrip back in 1931. Born from the hand and mind of veteran cartoonist, Chester Gould, he's been spent most of his time in the fight against crime. In 1990 Warren Beatty brought to life the hard nosed detective in a gloriously strong yellow trenchcoat.

Glaringly more colour faithful than Billy Zane's The Phantom the film featured the fashion styles of cool cats wearing hot hats mixed with bold hues. While the actual tone of the yellow trenchcoat in question remains a baffling and dismissed notion of the aftereffects of long draws of air, the strikingly vivid colours and combinations of Dick Tracy's outfit would lead one to seriously consider the ramifications of washing the outfit with strong detergent.

So, like the fading years ahead of him, a man not old enough to be a doyen or senile nor young enough to be going through a mid-life crisis, has been seen around town donning a full length trenchcoat and fedora in faded yellow. His movements would have gone unnoticed if it were not for the fact that an orchestrated movement in the audience of a dejected crowd was met with sheer contempt and deafening silence.