Tag Archives: espionage

Back to Slough House

Posted on December 5, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Having recently read what may very well be my favorite Mick Herron novel so far, The Secret Hours, I was going to write one of Gotham Calling’s occasional pieces about spy yarns without pictures inside… Between this and catching up … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged Cold War, espionage, John le Carré, Mick Herron, politics, Slough House | Leave a comment

Even more Batman movies without Batman – cult movies edition

Posted on October 24, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

I get a huge kick exploring various connections within pop culture, including the thematic and stylistic links between Batman comics and cinema. To be fair, many of the comics are quite open about their influences, to the point that one … Continue reading →

Posted in WEBS OF FICTION | Tagged Cold War, espionage, horror, movies, noir | Leave a comment

A couple of offbeat spy novels

Posted on October 10, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

When I’m not compulsively watching spy shows on TV, spy fiction tends to occupy a sizeable portion of my reading time, so I thought I’d share a few impressions on a couple of novels that approach the genre in very … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged 54, Cold War, espionage, G.K. Chesterton, politics, The Man Who Was Thursday, Wu Ming | Leave a comment

Third Gotham Calling Manifesto

Posted on September 19, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Detective Comics #483 I started this blog a decade ago in the spirit of entertainment – for others as much as for myself. I spent much of my life reading and thinking about Batman comics, so I wanted to share … Continue reading →

Posted in MANIFESTO | Tagged Brendan McCarthy, David Lopez, Erica Henderson, espionage, movies, politics, science fiction, western, Will Pfeifer | Leave a comment

More thoughts on 21st-century spy shows: Cold War edition

Posted on May 23, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

When I wrote about the TV series Slow Horses, last month, I mentioned how one of the departures from the source novels was that the show didn’t take advantage of the potential of sleeper agents to act as metaphors for … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged A Spy Among Friends, Agent Carter, Alfred Pennyworth, Cold War, Deutschland 83, espionage, Glória, John le Carré, Kathryn Immonen, movies, Pennyworth, politics, Rich Ellis, Spy/Master, The Americans, The Game, The Sleepers, The Sympathizer, Vietnam | Leave a comment

Some thoughts on 21st-century spy shows

Posted on April 17, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Secret agents and international intrigue have really come back with a vengeance in the past decade or so. The War on Terror and, later, the renewed tension between the West and Russia seem to have stimulated the public’s appetite for … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged Citadel, Claudia Giuliani, Dearbhla Kelly, espionage, Francesco Segala, Homeland, James Bond, Killing Eve, movies, Philip Kennedy Johnson, politics, science fiction, Slow Horses, The Bureau, The Diplomat | Leave a comment

COMICS CAN BE AWESOME (1 April 2024)

Posted on April 1, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

The subgenre of super-spies seems especially suited for comic books, where there are no budget constraints in terms of depicting gonzo gadgets and glamorous globetrotting, so it’s no wonder we’ve gotten such a long history of James Bond comics, not … Continue reading →

Posted in AWESOME COVERS | Tagged Annie Wu, Barry Windsor-Smith, Bill Sienkiewicz, Black Widow, covers, espionage, Frank Miller, Junggeun Yoon, Phil Noto | Leave a comment

Spotlight on the Unknown Soldier, 1997

Posted on March 20, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

After being absent from the stands for about eight years, in 1997 the spy/war comic Unknown Soldier got the Vertigo treatment. By then, the Vertigo imprint had come to specialize in getting edgy (usually British) creators to reimagine third-tier DC … Continue reading →

Posted in SPYCRAFT & WARFARE | Tagged Axel Alonso, Cold War, espionage, Garth Ennis, James Sinclair, Killian Plunkett, politics, Tim Bradstreet, Unknown Soldier, World War II | Leave a comment

Gotham Calling’s 120 Cold War movies – part 12

Posted on February 15, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

We’ve arrived at the end of Gotham Calling’s long-running Cold War cinema retrospective… And if you think depictions of the conflict were winding down in the final years, you’re in for a surprise. This is probably the bloodiest – and … Continue reading →

Posted in COLD WAR CINEMA | Tagged Cold War, espionage, horror, movies, politics, science fiction, Vietnam | Leave a comment

Gotham Calling’s 120 Cold War movies – part 11

Posted on February 1, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

We are now entering the final stage of Gotham Calling’s mega-list of Cold War cinema… and we are firmly in Reaganite territory, including an obsession with foreign intervention along with a vigorous resurgence of nuclear panic. 101. Threads (UK, 1984) … Continue reading →