Mister 8

Despite the dearth of posts lately, Mister 8 is not dead. Sadly, we did lose one of the renowned television spymasters yesterday with the passing of Peter Graves, Mission: Impossible‘s Jim Phelps. I have to admit that despite seeing every episode of most of the other 60s spy television shows, I’ve only seen a handful of M:I episodes. Perhaps this is a good time to rectify that, in memory of Graves.

Armstrong and Robert Culp...not the best picture of either of us.

It’s a bad month for 60s spies. While I confessed to not knowing much about Mission: Impossible with the passing of Peter Graves, I became a fan of I Spy after meeting Robert Culp last year at the New York Comic Con. I was quite sad to read at Spy-Fi Channel that he’d passed away today at the age of 79.

There are a variety of posts on Culp, and especially his character Kelly Robinson, in the archives of Mister 8.

Sarge Steel Who's Who

Dick Giordano was an amazing comic book artist and editor who oversaw some of the richest periods in mainstream comics history. He passed away this morning at the age of 77.

You’ll read plenty at other sites about Dick’s work with Charlton, where he supervised greats like Steve Ditko and Joe Gill as they created heroes like Blue Beetle (the Ted Kord version), Captain Atom, The Question (my favorite comic hero ever), Thunderbolt, Peacemaker, and the rest of the Action Heroes that later became the inspiration for The Watchmen, which was published later during Dick’s era as editor-in-chief at DC Comics.

Comic writer / all-around-niceguy Mark Evanier writes of Giordano that, “He was good at finding talent, good at leaving it alone to do what it did best, good at stepping in when necessary. Writers and artists generally liked working with Dick. Most found him honest, helpful and willing to gamble on new things.”

When I first began Mister 8, I’d planned a series of theme weeks, and one of the first ideas I had was to cover one of my all-time favorite comic secret agents, Sarge Steel, whom Giordano had a (steel) hand in creating while at Charlton. I approached Dick about a potential interview, and he was kind to respond to a first round of questions, before, I suspect, being too busy with conventions and prior engagements to answer the rest. So, to get Mister 8 back on track, and to honor the memory of Dick Giordano, I hereby declare Sarge Steel Week in effect.