Totally Admirable Spies! Part One

 Howdy you Truly Adventurous Souls!

Well, life goes on and I hope it's treating you well, and that you're ready for more adventure!  I know I am!  And we're in luck because, as I've said before, adventure comes in all shapes and sizes!  Today I'd like to ramble on about spies...so I will!

Now, I'm not here to talk about real life spies.  I'm sure they have very exciting and adventurous moments, but my understanding of real life spies is that most of it is actually very tedious and boring.  So we're going to talk about spies in fiction who, generally and theoretically speaking, have more excitement in their lives.

Spies and secret agents have inhabited fiction...probably for as long as there have been fiction stories!  Well, I'm just going to Talk About Some, and in no particular order.  

I've got to start someplace, so I'll start with old pulp magazines.  There were all sorts of spies in those old pulps!  There were several spies in the old pulps.  Operator #5 is the most obvious example.  He was an American agent with a sword hidden in his belt who fought against oppressive foreign powers.  His magazine featured a 13 issue story arc called "The Purple Invasion", an interconnected epic written by Emile C. Tepperman, which is considered by aficionados to be the "War and Peace" of pulp stories!

G-8 was a heroic aviator and spy during World War One and had 110 issues of his own magazine, "G-8 and his Battle Aces".  He constantly fought against Herr Doktor Krueger and the Steel Mask and their many schemes which involved weird scientific devices or supernatural elements.  You want WWI biplanes Vs Giant Bats or a whole squadron of Zombie Pilots?  G-8 fought them!

Secret Agent X (from the magazine of the same name) started off as an agent who worked for a group of anonymous millionaires who funded his missions, but eventually he became a government agent.  He was ALWAYS in disguise, and even his own allies never saw his true face!  He usually dealt in crime right here in America, but always tinged with sci-fi elements like super weapons or mad scientists.  Not only was he the man with 1,000 faces, but he was armed with a gas gun that put his foes to sleep! 

Kerrigan, Murdock, and Klaw were better known as The Suicide Squad who featured in "Ace G-Man Stories".  This trio of FBI agents were the best of the best of the best!  Whenever the FBI had a job that could NOT be done they called up these guys.  This team took on every suicide mission the FBI could find, and always came back for more!

Secret Agent X-9 (not to be confused with Secret Agent X above) was a newspaper comic strip originally written by Dashiell Hammett (author of "The Maltese Falcon" and creator of Sam Spade) and drawn by Alex Raymond (creator of Flash Gordon)!  Is that heck of a pedigree, or what?  Of course, these duties were eventually taken up by other writers and artists.  But Secret Agent X-9 was pretty popular, even got to star in two different serials!

Spy Smasher was a comic book hero, a "wealthy Virginia sportsman" who was also a skilled detective armed with a wide array of gadgets and specialty vehicles.  Sort of like Batman, but before Batman.  I think technically Spy Smasher was a super-detective (again, like Batman) but he often fought against an enemy spy ring led by a figure known as The Mask, and got a LOT of government intel from his fiance's father, who was a high ranking Navy Admiral.  Spy Smasher also got his own serial.

Dick Barton--Special Agent started off as a radio show presented in 15 minute episodes, but was also a trio of films by Hammer studios, and a television show, and even a stage play!  Dick Barton and his trusty sidekicks fought against Nazis who wanted to poison Britain's water supply, and spy rings that tried to take over England with an army of psychopathic criminals.  He rescued kidnapped scientists and dismantled death rays all for Queen and country!

Secret Service agent Jim West and Artemis Gordon patrolled "The Wild Wild West" and battled a wide array of mad scientists and supernatural threats on behalf of President Ulysses S. Grant and the United States of America.  Artemis Gordon was the master of disguise, who used at least one per episode; and Jim West had these Swiss Army Boots that seemed to have whatever gadget he needed conveniently hidden in the heel. 

You know what?  I've thought of more spies than I expected to, and my deadline is fast approaching!  I think I'll stop here for now and continue in my next post!   

Until then, I wish you all...

Good Adventuring!
Timothy A. Sayell