Character Spotlight: Gruesome

A character who's been around as long as Dick Tracy is bound to have some canon immigrants, so I don't know why it took me this long to learn about them. But I found a few that we'll talk about over the next several weeks.

This week: Gruesome!

Gruesome originated as the villain in Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947), the last picture in the RKO Dick Tracy film series. As played by Boris Karloff, Gruesome is essentially Tim Burton's version of the Joker: a professional criminal who gets a distinctive face because of a botched plastic surgery job.

In October 2014, Gruesome made his debut in the Dick Tracy comic strip, complete with a reference to the actor that played him - a double reference, in fact, since the line quotes a character in Arsenic and Old Lace that was originally played by Boris Karloff.

He has since appeared many times, and he's far from the only character from this movie to do so. Come back next Wednesday for another example!