Mort Walker on his inspiration for Gamin and Patches

Actually Gamin in some ways is patterned after a kid I met in Naples, Italy, who took me for $15 for a diamond ring. (Chuckles] He came up and said he wanted to sell me diamond ring, and I said I wasn't interested in a diamond ring. But he said, "This is my mother's diamond ring... look, I'll show you, it's a real diamond." He went over to a storefront and made a big scratch on the glass. All of a sudden that made me interested! So we went back in an alley and I still said, "Look, I don't really want to buy this, but how much is it?" He said it was $25 and I said I would pay no more than $15. He said, "OK!" [Chuckles] It was his mother's wedding ring, see? Well, the doggone thing turned green before I got back to the hotel, and the diamond was scratched. The "diamond" was piece of glass. And I thought, "Doggone it, this kid was smarter than I was!" He really pulled one on me, and I've been fascinated with those type of people ever since, and they're all over the place. In Jamaica I had a kid who took me up in the mountains and dumped me, and here I was again-outsmarted by a little kid!