Character Spotlight: Mel O. Dee

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: Mel O. Dee!

Mel O. Dee first appeared in the film Dick Tracy Meets Gruesome (1947), which may sound familiar to you if you regularly follow this blog, only his name was Melody. Melody was a former criminal turned pianist at a club called The Hangman's Knot, who's pulled back into a life of crime to be Gruesome's getaway driver.

When he appeared in the strip for October 27, 2014, his name was changed to Mel O. Dee. I'm not sure if that is to give him a more masculine first name or if it's because he's not a musician anymore, but either way, Mel remains a former associate of Gruesome's, only now he's a fellow actor and they perform in Arsenic and Old Lace together.

To learn about the significance of Arsenic and Old Lace, visit Gruesome's entry!