1983: A familiar Dick Tracy foe returns

Dick Tracy meets Pruneface after the Nazi agent has been thawed out, 1983.

The Dick Tracy comic strip created by Chester Gould (1900-85) has been around for nearly a century. Gould retired at the end of 1977 and successors including writer Max Allan Collins have penned new adventures. (Collins also wrote the novelization to the 1990 Dick Tracy feature film.)

One of the most notable tales occurred in 1983, when Nazi spy Pruneface (who appeared to perish in 1942) was revived.

Pruneface, as it turned out, had been in suspended animation, thanks to Dr. Kryos Freezdrei.

Tracy was skeptical. Earlier in the post-Gould era, the detective solved a case involving a scam supposedly involving a clone of Mumbles. But Pruneface was, indeed, the Nazi operative who had been frozen. In the 1940s, Tracy says, “We had an electric chair to thaw him out.”

Pruneface even appears on a Phil Donahue-like talk show where he’s reunited with Tracy. The Nazi remarks that Tracy looks great for his age. “I love my work,” Tracy replies.

Still, you can’t keep a bad Nazi down. Pruneface and Dr. Freezdrei trap Tracy and freeze him. The criminals plan to get out of the U.S.

Throughout all of this, there’s a mysterious figure keeping an eye on events. The mysterious man contacts Tracy associate Sam Catchem that he better move fast to rescue the intrepid lawman.

Pruneface goes to an airfield while Freezdrei tries to wrap up things at his base of operations. Catchem gets the drop on Freezdrei. The criminal scientist better thaw out Tracy — or else.

Tracy is revived and Catchem gets him out of the Freezdrei complex. Just then, an explosion occurs. Freezdrei is killed.

Meanwhile, Pruneface is on a private jet, awaiting takeoff. The mysterious man surprises Pruneface. There has been a change in the flight plan. Pruneface is alarmed when he sees the mysterious man’s arm is shown to have tattoos, similar to prisoners of Nazi extermination camps.

As Freezdrei’s complex burns to the ground, it turns out there is a chamber with a familiar figure inside: Adolph Hitler. Tracy and his associates discuss what happened to Pruneface. They suspect Pruneface won’t be seen again.