Queen & Country Cover

Found this while going through storage. One of the best comic book covers ever:

Today's Reading: Velvet by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting

Spy Comics

The best spy literature I am reading right now is in the comics medium.

  Nathan Edmondson came out of the gate strong with Who Is Jake Ellis?:

Jon Moore is the most sought after spy-for-hire in Europe's criminal world. This is because of Jake Ellis, a psychic man who is invisible to everyone except Moore. When a deal goes bad, the only one who can protect Moore from Europe's most dangerous criminals is Jake Ellis. No one but Moore can see Jake Ellis. But Jake Ellis can see everything.

Now he has an ongoing series called The Activity about a real life special unit of the military:

And soon Edmondson will have another espionage comic called Dancer:

Also, I am currently reading Pigs which is about a sleeper cell of KGB agents kids who have come to America to complete the mission their parents started:

When the second generation of a loyal KGB sleeper cell is given the signal, they must finish the mission that they have been raised their entire lives to complete: overthrow The United States of America, no matter what it takes. Writers Ben McCool (CHOKER, MEMOIR) and Nate Cosby (Jim Henson’s Storyteller) are the creative minds behind this new ongoing series from Image Comics, a character-driven modern espionage thriller entitled PIGS.

You can also never go wrong with heading back to Greg Rucka's Queen & Country which is heavily isnpired by the British TV series The Sandbaggers:

 And finally, I came across Brian Michael Bendis' book Fire:

The story, a spy thriller, is centered on a young Jewish-American man named Benjamin "Ben" Furst, who is initially introduced as a college student studying political science. After passing several tests, including a fake mugging, he is recruited by a beautiful young woman named D. D. into the Central Intelligence Agency and told that he is going to be the first agent of Project Fire (hence the title of the comic), an experiment to test whether training agents out of ordinary citizens can be successful.

AMC The Prisoner Teaser

Yuki 7 - A Kiss From Tokyo Trailer

More on the project here.

Another Way to Die

The new Bond tune for the movie Quantum of Solace by Jack White and Alicia Keys.

Another ringer with the slick trigger finger for Her Majesty
Another one with the golden tongue poisoning your fantasy
Another bill from a killer turned a thrill into a tragedy

Chorus
A door left open
A woman walking by
A drop in the water
A look in the eye
A phone on the table
A man on your side
Someone that you think that you can trust is just
Another way to die

Another tricky little gun giving solace to the one that'll never see the sunshine
Another inch of your life sacrificed for your brother in the nick of time
Another dirty money, heaven sent honey turning on a dime

[Chorus]

Another girl with her finger on the world singing do you whatcha wanna hear?
Another gun thrown down and surrendered took away your fear
Hey! Another man that stands right behind you looking in the mirror

[Chorus]

Suit 'em up, bang bang!

It Takes a Thief

The Prisoner - AMC

AMC's site for their new version of The Prisoner is up

Best CIA Book

A bloody library worth of books here and through the links.

FBI Surveillance Techniques

Something to remember for the re-write of Twenties coming up:

FBI Surveillance Team Reveals Tricks Of The Trade

by Dina Temple-Raston

The FBI has an entire army of people whose sole job is to do surveillance. Whether they are tracking a terrorist suspect or mobster or potential spy, the secret isn't about being a master of disguise. Instead, it is all about blending in.

Turn on any cop show, and the surveillance always seems pretty straightforward. There are always a couple of guys in a van and maybe another two in a car outside some apartment building. But the truth is, real surveillance is much more subtle.

The Special Agent-in-Charge of the Special Operations Division of the FBI in New York is Todd Letcher. He says if his team is doing the job right, you won't even know they are there. "When a target comes out of the bodega with a cup of coffee, they don't see where we are, or they don't see our people," he said. "Our people look so ordinary, they just look over them."

Portishead - To Kill A Dead Man

New Links - Intelligence

New section added under links: Intelligence. This is probably going to grow, as I check out more and find the ones I like and give me information. I will be sifting through this to find more.



The ones listed I have already used/stolen for research with Corruption/Care Forgot. After I finish that and Twenties I think Spooks will be next and it will be drawing heavily on blogs for up to date info.

Look at the US Intelligence Community. And that doesn't include the DEA which does a lot of work overseas or the ATF or Secret Service or any of the other US law enforcement agencies.



Spooks I am looking at as a series in the tradition of The Sandbaggers, Queen & Country, John Le Carre (the British do spies and mysteries so well). Also inspired by shows The Shield and The Wire.

Quantum of Solace Teaser

The Quantum of Solace teaser trailer is out now:



Official site.

4GW - Tonight's Reading

OODA Loop

Original 4GW paper.

4GW at Wikipedia

Another paper on 4GW.

4GW primer


DIY Drones