KENT BLAKE

Kent Blake is an agent with the Secret Service.

Prior to the Second World War, Blake had been a police officer in New York City and was well on his way to making a name for himself as a man who got results.

Shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the U.S.'s entry into WWII, Kent Blake was drafted. His assigned duties took him to McDill Airfield to train in a bomber squadron. One of his missions resulted in his aircraft being hit and the team he was in parachuting into enemy territory. Captured, he was tortured for information while in a POW campe from which he was finally able to escape. A man he broke out with was killed in the attempt but passed to him a message to be delivered to the man's boss back in Washington.

Doing so brought Blake to the attention of a man named Kruger who would see a potential agent in Blake and offered him a job, resulting in his becoming an agent with the Secret Service. More importantly, he was given a job of Special Secret Agent and answered directly to Kruger, head of the agency.

With the end of hostilities, Blake's missions moved from fighting Nazis to combating the increasing threat of Communists in both Europe and Asia. It is in that activity that most of the recorded adventures take place.

Blake is single and shows no interest in settling down - certainly the demands of his job would make that impossible and his love of adventure is shown to be too strong to consider anything else.

He is likely in his mid 30s during most of the stories about him, based on his having been a cop for a few years prior to 1941, placing his likely birth year around 1918. He has rugged good looks and an athletic build. His hair is brown with a slight wave to it.

This is the sort of spy comic series I love to sink my teeth into. It has a lot of depth to it and gives the character a lot of room to operate. I learn enough of the character to know I want to know even more and the idea of "leave 'em wanting more" fits. Unlike many series from this decade and most from the previous one, we actually discover quite a bit about the character before he becomes a secret agent and that helps a lot in liking the guy and wanting to follow him.

The story writing is darn good. Many of the tales are short so putting in enough data to make it all make sense is tough but it is done story after story and I doff my hat to that kind of skill.

There are not many comic spy series that had me wishing someone would write an actual book about the character(s) but Kent Blake is one I would have readily put money down for.