Dick Tracy

After months of anticipation, Downtown Naperville's Riverwalk soon will welcome a crime fighter unlike any it has ever seen: fictitious police detective and funny-pages fixture Dick Tracy.

A 78-year presence in the comics who also has been portrayed on TV, in cartoons and on the silver screen, Tracy can add a new line to his resume: He's the subject of a nearly nine-foot, 2,000-pound bronze sculpture, which Naperville leaders will dedicate Sunday.

And while Naperville's criminal element doesn't match the hardscrabble characters that Tracy spends his time nabbing in a gritty big city, Naperville is an ideal setting for the sculpture, because Dick Locher, who writes the comic strip's story line, has lived in the city since 1969. Locher assisted the strip's creator, Chester Gould, in drawing the strip from 1957 until 1961, then returned as the sole cartoonist in 1983 He retired from drawing the strip last year but continues to write its story line.