First Assignment

My mother’s patron was Rosana Pistolese, Director, Accademia di Costume e di Moda. Her brothers were publishers; one for the Democratic Press, and the other for the Communist Press. At a dinner party at the Pistolese’s home, the conversation at the table came to young Walter. I told the adults about my spy caper I started and the Brother with the Democratic paper, Francesco Pistolese, declared I must write a comic strip for his paper.

Bad Actor Needed Elimination

As I wasn’t an artist, one was commissioned for the comic strip. I storyboarded 6 months of the comic strip, did the stick figure action for each frame, and bubble dialogs. A couple of months later the comic strip was ready to go to press. The rub was, I wanted a Sean Connery-looking lead and the artist depicted an obvious American-looking spy. It wasn’t my vision and I rejected publishing the comic strip, age 15.