Cultural heroes

Literal tastemakers, they make our city second to none as a culinary destination.

From the clubs to the recording studios, these heroes create the sounds of Chicago.

In books and in pictures, our literary history lives on thanks to these ink-stained artists.

While trodding the boards at storefronts and stages, they make us laugh, cry and think.

Whether they're creating a skyscraper or local institution, they make the city work.

For one of the world's most revered film critics and his steadfast wife, naming their Chicago heroes begins and ends with each other.

From Dick Tracy to Punky Brewster, these fictional Chicagoans are hereby inducted into the city's nonexistent hall of fame.

They may be gone, but their legacies are not forgotten.

Our editor-in-chief, Frank Sennett, talks about how our heroes list came to be, and the 40th anniversary of Time Out.

Did we miss your favorite? Think our list is crap? Tell us who would be on your list of Chicago's cultural heroes.