Recommendations for Cold War spy comics

[tib2d2]

I've read Velvet and loved it. I love the cold war era espionage stories. Anything else I should check out that is in the same era and genre? Are the James Bond comics any good?

[MRP]

I've read Velvet and loved it. I love the cold war era espionage stories. Anything else I should check out that is in the same era and genre? Are the James Bond comics any good?

The Bond comics are hit and miss depending on creative team. The more recent stuff from Dynamite has a modern, not a Cold War setting. I do like some of the Grell and Gulacy Bond minis from the 80s/9s put out by Dark Horse, and some of the adaptations done as strips in the UK in the 60s and 70s are good too.

Also not Cold War era, but a great espionage comic is Greg Rucka's Queen & Country from Oni Press. It deals with British agents, MI6 nd the like.

Chaykin & Tischman's American Century from Vertigo deals with cold War espionage & politics in Central America but they are the back drop not the main focus of the book.

Wally Wood's Cannon might be of interest.

If you like Brubaker espionage stuff, check out he and Sean Phillips' Sleeper for the Wildstorm imprint. Not Cold War, but great stuff in the genre.

If you like the female spy angle of Velvet, look for some of the collections of Modesty Blaise strips. I think Titan has some available, but Comics Revue did some small collections in the 80s-90s that aren't too hard to find.

Marvel's Master of Kung Fu has Cold War espionage at its core for much of the Moench/Gulacy run of the 70s, as Shang Chi and his supporting cast were all affiliated with MI6.

Steranko's Nick Fury stuff is also super-spy espionage stuff, sort of a souped up James Bond with Hydra, AIM and the like playing the baddies in it.

But I can think of a lot of stuff like Velvet that is set in the milieu of the Cold War espionage without either mixing in other genres, or being products of their time and reading more like propaganda than fiction. It is an underserved genre in comics.

-M

[BigLbo]

Winter Men from Wildstorm is pretty damn cool.