Dick Tracy by Mike Curtis and Charles Ettinger for November 15, 2019

And there he is!!

Switcheroo? Pssst – into the box Splitface.

Good morning™, deliverers!

Well, it looks like Splitface is enjoying playing in the snow (not!).

Good morning™, escape clauses !

My ticket out of this joint.

YE GODS – it’s SPLITFACE!!!!!

Is that innocent looking delivery man actually one of his henchmen springing him from the asylum?

Okay. Now who is that character with the strange face?

Is that a statue in the box? Is one coming & one going?

Wertham Woods is a proud client of Whattev Security Systems LLC, the first name in Tracyville bargain security services since 2008. Their motto is “Whattev… We’re Sure It’ll Be Fine!”

~ Your leader in substituting fake plastic cameras instead of wiring expensive surveillance systems. “Whattev… We’re Sure It’ll Be Fine!”

~ Progressive “Ex-Con Hiring Program” with absolutely no time-consuming background checks. “Whattev… We’re Sure It’ll Be Fine!”

~ Forward-thinking “Honor System Gateless Entry” leverages trust-priority protocols in place of old-fashioned, redundant “fail-safe” measures. “Whattev… We’re Sure It’ll Be Fine!”

Is anyone else concerned about the statue of an angel holding a bazooka?

My guess is that Splitface will be swapped in the ’’EMPTY’’ box and the statue will take his place on the chair.

Direct from Amazon, just in time for Christmas;

Recycled villains in a box!

And here it is, the escape!

I thought Splitface got killed off at the end of his last appearance

It’s the old switcheroo trick!!!

Something evil this way comes.

The old “Trojan Horse” trick?

So this delivery guy says he has a statue in his crate, but what he actually has is a stuffed dummy resembling Haf-n-Haf, who is waiting for him outside, in the cold and snow, similarly wrapped in a blanket. (Note the stitching in the “head” of the dummy.) The angel statue is already on the property, so the asylum is not really expecting any statue delivery. But our cracker-jack security team just blithely waves him on in, not checking any paper work or anything. OK. . .

“Fragile”— the statue must have come from Italy.

1- Candygram for Mongo!

2- Doh…

3- …Dee Doh

The only question is if the delivery man is a confederate of Splitface or an unwitting victim about to participate in the pending escape. That there is going to be an escape is not in doubt, I’m sure. But given that the fountain already has statuary (not to mention that it’s winter and the fountain appears to be off) it would seem that the entire thing is a set up to help Splitface escape…

Interesting.

So, most here are thinking the item in the box is a statue…. possibly a replacement for the fellow in the black chair (Splitface?).

One question, though… might the item in the box be an actually living character who is just secretly entering the mental facility? To me, it looks like what is in the box might be a real person….. or is the drawing style here always more detailed for the living characters and that is how we can safely assume it is a statue?

It looks like the “New Villain” spigot has run dry for these “storytellers”. But I guess it’s better than a Nancy Sluggo crossover.

Aw, heck. I thought this was going to be The Return of STATUEFACE!

Artwork significant to those who live and work in a fortified area conceals an invading force. Holy Trojan Horse, Batman!

Wonder if he’s going to Arkham Asylum to talk to someone much like him?

This is why very few people install decorative fountains in their front yards these days. You never know when some statue or other is going to turn out to be something more sinister!

Still not sure what’s going on; might this be an infiltration of a dummy in anticipation of breaking-out Splitface? How lax can the gatekeepers possibly be?!

You’d think the guards would notice this "fountain statue " is light enough for one guy to push on a hand cart.

It might be easier to install a fountain when the water is not turned off and there is not snow on the ground.