Kings in Disguise

(Kitchen Sink, 1988-1989)
©1988 James Vance and Dan Burr. Cover ©1988 Steve Rude

It would be the severest of understatements to say that times were tough in 1932. Still, it was a place where two brothers, Albert and Freddy, could escape to the movies and buy dreams for the price of a dime. Sadly, their father’s dream had died when unemployment led to alcoholism. And when, to his shame, he admitted he could no longer support his family, he left Albert to care for his little brother, and went to find work in another town.

For a while, the boys got along all right, but the bad times were relentless. Albert went without food so his brother could eat, and eventually he tried to mug someone. Albert failed and was caught, and Freddy fled the house before he could be thrown into an orphanage. Out on his own, he came into the company of the hoboes: poor bands of people who hitched rides from town to town on passing railway cars. They were thought of as bums, and some deserved the title. But others were more like kings in disguise…

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