Dick Tracy is a tough police detective who was created back in 1931. He was featured in a long-running comic strip for decades. He's also appeared in radio dramas and comic books, not to mention a really great movie from 1990 starring Warren Beatty and Madonna.
Alex Segura -- who not only writes, but does a day job as Archie Comics' co-president -- apparently inquired about the possibility of obtaining the publishing rights to the Dick Tracy character several months back and Tribune said that they wanted to get the character back out into comic book adventures again. One thing led to another and here we are!
Updated on 01/16/18: ... Or not. Archie Comics will not be publishing a DICK TRACY comic book series after all. Tribune apologized via tweet today and said that there is already a "preexisting licensing deal" in the works that prevents Archie Comics from publishing this title.
Archie Comics co-president and would-be DICK TRACY writer communicated on Twitter that he is "bummed" and that writing for DICK TRACY was a dream come true for him.