American manga: I drew Superman in the Great Depression

In this era, the media is the true ‘uncrowned king’.

Understanding this, Colin's idea of ​​changing the direction of the Courier became a little stronger.

Click, click...

As noon approached, the sound of Old John typing the paper gradually became quieter.

After stretching his aching shoulders, he finished the last row of content and repeatedly checked whether there were any errors in the typesetting. Then Old John breathed a sigh of relief, got up and left from the typesetting machine.

On the side, little John, who was already hungry, took out the lunch he had prepared in advance.

Affected by the snowy weather, he was unable to go out to collect information, so he had to stay in the newspaper office to help Old John.

Use a knife to cut the pink bread into slices, spread a small amount of peanut butter on it, and pair it with coffee brewed with hot water. A simple employee meal is completed.

"Boss, your lunch."

Taking out the piece of bread with the most peanut butter on it, Little John brought it to the desk along with the coffee.

"Thanks."

Looking down at the lunch brought by Little John, Colin casually thanked him.

Put down the old newspaper in your hand, open the drawer and take out a can of salad with only one-third left in it, open it, and pour half of the amount from it onto the plate. In this way, the whole lunch becomes meat and vegetables.

There is bread.

He sighed silently and stuffed the bread into his mouth.

The taste of the pink bread slices is very strange, with a rustling and delicate feeling, and occasionally you can taste the aroma of beans or grains. After repeated chewing, you can taste a little fishy smell of internal organs.

Too much peanut butter can't cover up the taste.

The fact that a small piece of bread can produce such a responsible and weird taste is naturally closely related to the raw materials used to make it.

Pork liver bread, also called pork liver roll, pork liver cake.

It is a kind of meat bread made by pureeing pork liver, adding beans, oats, tomato paste and other accessories, and baking it in a mold into the shape of a long loaf. It is also what Colin said is the meat in lunch.

One of the sources.

During the Great Depression, the price of offal was cheap, and pork liver bread became the first choice on the dining table of families who could not afford common meats such as pork, beef, and chicken.

At the same time, it has also become one of the standard side dishes for the Courier newspaper’s lunch ‘meal’.

He pinched his nose and stuffed the remaining pork liver bread into his mouth, and swallowed it with the help of coffee. After savoring the weird taste of the bread, Colin couldn't help but shudder.

"Perhaps, Old John should be asked to exclude pork liver bread from the lunch list. This thing is a very dark dish."

With a sad face, he looked at Old John and his son in the newspaper office.

The two of them were eating bread calmly, with nothing too abnormal on their faces.

For people living during the Great Depression, being able to fill their stomachs was the most important thing. As for the taste, that was something only the rich would consider.

While eating pork liver bread, Little John opened the newspaper and flipped through it to find the part he was obsessed with, and immediately devoted himself to it with all his concentration.

The fifteen-minute lunch time seemed extremely long to Colin.

After drinking the last sip of coffee in the cup, he tidied the few tableware on the table, got up and put the dinner plate next to the stove where the water was boiling. The rest was Little John's job.

The good thing about being a boss is that you don't need to worry about trivial matters.

Especially during the Great Depression, workers would become particularly diligent, fearing that they would lose valuable job opportunities due to their own negligence.

Reducing the need for wrongdoing was a common practice among workers during the Great Depression. In order to maintain important financial resources, they learned to accept low-paying and unfair jobs.

At the same time, the boss will often remind workers that if they slack off, there are many people willing to take their place.

If it weren't for the bad economy, perhaps the Great Depression would have become the era that all capitalists yearn for.

He shook his head and swept away the inexplicable thoughts in his mind.

Lifting the coffee pot on the stove to refill the empty cup, Colin held the coffee in one hand and passed where Old John and the two were, and his eyes inadvertently glanced at the contents of the newspaper.

What Little John saw was not a news report as he thought, but a comic strip that was very characteristic of the times.

After swallowing the last piece of pork liver bread in his mouth, he watched Colin stop behind Little John. Old John blinked his eyes behind his brass reading glasses and opened his mouth to remind the other person.

"Shh."

Putting his index finger on his mouth to stop Old John's reminder, Colin looked at the comic in Little John's hand.

The content of the comic is not complicated. It mainly tells a detective story about fighting against crime.

The protagonist wears standard private detective equipment and shoots at criminals when they disagree. This is obviously different from the traditional image of a detective who relies on his intelligence to arrest and solve crimes.

"What comic is this?"

After briefly scanning the storyline of the comic strip, an inspiration suddenly flashed in Colin's mind, and he quickly asked Little John.

""Dick Tracy"..."

When he heard the inquiry from behind, Little John subconsciously replied.

Then he reacted belatedly and looked up at Old John, who was shaking his head at him across the way. He turned to look at Colin behind him with a stiff face, and said with a bewildered expression on his dull face: "...

Hug, sorry, boss, I didn’t mean to look... I didn’t know you were here..."

"Don't be nervous, it's lunch break time."

Looking at Little John who was at a loss in front of him, Colin comforted him. At the same time, he pointed at the newspaper that was crumpled due to nervousness in his hand, and continued to ask: "I'm just curious about the comics you read. Can you tell me this?"

What kind of comic is it?”

Hearing that Colin had no intention of pursuing him in this matter, Little John couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. At the same time, Old John on the other side couldn't help but let go of his worries.

Following the direction Colin pointed, he glanced at the wrinkled newspaper in his hand. Little John quickly spread it out and said, "It's "Dick Tracy", which is a detective serial that was recently serialized in the newspaper.

The comic tells the story of the protagonist Dick Tracy fighting criminals to bring them to justice..."

"Serial comics."

After repeating a sentence, Colin looked at the black and white cartoons printed in the newspaper and asked the most important and key question in his heart.

"So, is Dick Tracy popular?"

"this?"

Facing Colin's question, Little John glanced down at the cartoon protagonist on the newspaper, and then replied in an uncertain tone.

"It must be popular, otherwise "Dick Tracy" wouldn't have been serialized in newspapers..."