Mister 8

One year ago today, I made the first post at Mister 8, knowing that I didn’t have an audience, in which I established what I believed to be the goals of the site. Those goals have changed a bit over the past 12 months, but I thought, if you’ll allow, I might look back on those goals, revisit some of my favorite posts over the past year, and lay out some ideas for the next year at Mister 8.

My goal with Mister 8 is the following:

Publish a weekly comic detailing the adventures of agent Martin Queen, aka the titular Mister 8. Still in the planning stages, Mister 8 will combine the feel (though, sorry to say, not the artistic majesty) of traditional adventure comics by Caniff, Raymond and Sickles with a touch of contemporary humor. That’s the plan, leastwise.

Well, this one went by the wayside fairly quickly. I realized two things shortly after posting the first few strips. The first was that the story I wanted to tell with the Mister 8 comic was vastly more intricate than my art skills or the webcomic medium would allow. The second was that putting out a comic strip, even one only seen once a week, was hard work.

Still, I’m working on a series of scripts and pitch for a comic series from my original ideas, that I’ll hopefully start submitting to editors next summer.

Discuss spy-fi music — the themes of John Barry, Lalo Schiffrin, Jerry Goldstein, Henry Mancini, Ron Grainer, Laurie Johnson, etc. — and provide tablature for the songs that I’m capable of picking out.

I’ve certainly posted a good bit of tablature. And one of my favorite posts from the last year discussed Spy-Fi music with a capital S (and F)…an interview with Tom Pervanje of the spy-surf band Spy-Fi. One of the things that I didn’t get to do this year, but wanted to, was to record versions of the songs for which I was figuring out the tablature. Though I had a few posts, during surf-spy month, and in the post for the IPCRESS File theme, where I shared some music, in the next year, I hope to provide much better quality songs — maybe even an album?

Talk about the genre on film and television — from the camp of Derek Flint to the cutting edge of the Prisoner and the Avengers to the serious takes of John Le Carre. Also, yes, inevitably, James Bond.

In the past year, we’ve scarcely talked about Flint, The Avengers or John Le Carre! But we’ve talked plenty about Bond.

We’ve also discussed my all-time favorite television show, The Prisoner, sadly quite a bit after the passing of Patrick McGoohan. We also cast a spotlight on I-Spy after running into Robert Culp in New York. And of course, the Harry Palmer Files took up much of the summer!

Spotlight the genre as represented in comics — Nick Fury, Sarge Steel, Tara Chase, King Faraday, Super Spy…the list of secret agents working in a world normally reserved for superheroes is extensive.

Thanks to our readers, we’ve been able to share bunches of out-of-print comics, and we also spotlighted a number of costumed adventurers who cross the boundary between spy and superhero.

Analyze random aspects of spy-fiction — Gadgets, tropes, cars, and whatever else comes to mind. In fact, I think I’ll start things off soon with a posting about fonts used in spy fiction.

And I did! I also covered typography in The IPCRESS File, discussed machines and technology in spy films and television, and talked about setting the scene in spy novels.

One of the best things to come from my publishing a blog about spy fiction this year was meeting so many other fantastic bloggers, with whom I formed a loose sort of union with a lousy name — The Coalition Of Bloggers wRiting About Spies — or COBRAS, for short. I hope to do more collaborative work with these guys in the future, and look forward to seeing what they come up with in the next year.

So…goals for the next year — I guess we’ll check back in on these next November:

1. Complete scripts for and sell a publisher on the idea of Mister 8 the comic!
2. Expand the web presence of Mister 8.com  and the COBRAS!
3. Share more spy-related music!
4. More interviews!
5. Finish the Harry Palmer Files!
6. Talk about the Avengers, Man From UNCLE, Mission Impossible, and other classic 60s espionage shows!
7. Become more acquainted with the Eurospy genre!
8. Answer the question: Who is Eidolon?
9. Offer more contests and fun giveaways!
10. Bring in more regular readers and commenters! Please comment!

Thanks to everyone who has visited the site in the past year! I hope you’ll keep coming back!

Yours truly,

Armstrong Sabian