A Sicilian in East Harlem By Salvatore Mondello

Sicilian Folklore and American Comics

Saturday nights were special. Louie Jap and I went to a kiosk on the corner of One Hundred and Fifth Street and Second Avenue to buy the Sunday edition of the New York Daily News. We liked to follow the exploits of Dick Tracy as he battled criminals who were so evil that they were usually physically deformed in some unique way. In late December 1943 and continuing into early the following year square-jawed Tracy and his partner Pat Patton were battling Flattop, an assassin with a flat head and droopy eyes. Flattop was a caricature of Peter Lorre, a popular actor at the time. There were moments when the comic-strip detective looked like a goner but he managed to survive against the odds. In the end Chester Gould, the cartoonist, ended Flattop’s life in a drowning.

We took our comics seriously and enjoyed following their adventures. (During a newspaper strike in New York City, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, knowing how important comic strips were to kids, read the Sunday funnies on radio.)

Before I was introduced to comic strips and comic books, I was