Kato (Dick Tracy comic strip)

Kato is a character who appears during the Green Hornet crossover arc in the Dick Tracy comic strip. He appeared in 11 of the arc's 49 daily installments. In his first several appearances, this iteration of Kato operates undercover using the alias "Skiyaki."

Role in the comic strip[]

Kato is the valet and confidante of wealthy Central City-based newspaper publisher Britt Reid. Reid is also secretly the masked vigilante known as the Green Hornet and Kato is his crime-fighting partner. Both criminals and law-enforcement agencies believe the Green Hornet and his partner to be hardened outlaws who are simply eliminating the competition, and the vigilantes perpetuate this belief as it allows them to better destroy the criminal underworld from within.

Kato while posing as "Skiyaki" in Topper's household

Britt and his executive assistant, Lenore Case follow gangster Cyrus Topper from Central City to Dick Tracy's City, where the villain hopes to join forces with the criminal organization known as the Apparatus. To facilitate Topper's capture, Kato goes undercover as "Skiyaki", a domestic servant. He is hired to work in Topper's household and feeds information to Britt and Lenore about Topper's activities and whereabouts. Topper demonstrates his callousness by eventually forgetting Skiyaki's name.

In Kato's absence, Lenore adopts the costumed persona of the Red Wasp accompanying the Green Hornet on his missions and serving as the driver of the Hornet's gadget-ridden car, the Black Beauty. Kato is able to direct heroes to the home of Lonnie Jarman, whom Topper is in the process of extorting. The Hornet confronts Topper, but their encounter is cut short by the arrival of detectives Dick Tracy and Sam Catchem of the city's Major Crimes Unit. The Green Hornet uses a smokescreen to escape and reunite with Kato. Together, they surprise Topper at his next target, Monzuma National Bank. However, Dick Tracy and Sam have beaten them there, and a brief altercation between the vigilante pair and detectives ensues. Eventually, the Green Hornet is able to render both the detectives and criminals unconscious with his Hornet Gun, and Topper and his gang are taken into police custody. With their mission complete, the Hornet and Kato make their way back to Central City. Kato questions why Britt had Lenore precede them back home in one of the spare Black Beauty cars. His partner responds that if Dick Tracy were to pursue them, it would only be a matter of time until they were eventually captured. However, with Lenore driving the Black Beauty in their hometown, the police will believe that the Green Hornet is back in Central City and therefore out of Tracy's jurisdiction.

Etymology[]

Kato's undercover name, "Skiyaki," is a reference to the Green Hornet radio series in which a recurring character of the same name appeared in a handful of episodes. That version of Skiyaki was a waiter and friend of Kato often who informed him of the various criminal plots he became aware of in his line of work.