MIKE STONE

Full Name:	Mike Stone
Codename:	Lone Wolf
Nationality:	British
Organization:	British Military Intelligence
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Unknown
Time Span:	1963 - 1964

ABOUT THE SERIES

       Mike Stone is an agent with British Intelligence.
       It is likely, since his actions take place during WWII, it is with Military Intelligence but since I know virtually nothing about this individual, that is speculation.
       Interestingly, approximately five years before we are told of these two adventures of Mike Stone, one of which dealt with a "Secret Enemy" and the other with very large mechanized fighting machines apparently dubbed "Sand Spiders", there was released in another publication owned by the same company two tales nearly back-to-back about an agent codenamed Spy 13 who had to tussle first with a "Secret Enemy" and then with "Sand Spiders". Now only from the words about Spy 13 do we know that the first adventure dealt with finding a very powerful but very well hidden mole in British Intelligence, planted there years before WWII started, and that the second adventure had to do with a powerful weapon the Germans had for desert warfare. That said, I cannot say for sure whether Mike Stone had to go up against similar or the same adversaries and if they did, did one not get the job done well enough?
       All conjecture, of course.
       The only information we really have so far is Mike Stone is a Secret Agent and he is either blond (as he appears in the first picture) or strawberry-blond (as he looks in the second). He certainly looks like he is in very good shape and gives off the aura that he can take care of himself in the second picture, not so much in the first. Oh, he is right-handed, too.

COMIC BOOKS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS

Number of Stories:	2
First Appearance:	1963
Last Appearance:	1964

In 1963, Fleetway Publications unveiled a new title line, Valiant Picture Library(VPL), building off the name of another recently started line, Valiant, and a line existing for several years, Thriller Picture Library (TPL). Like that one, it would have one story per issue but would vary from issue to issue what topic and character would be presented.
I mention this because the two adventures of Mike Storm - Secret Agent would have connection to TPL in two ways. Not only would it appear in a magazine with a similar concept and a similar name, it would involve two stories which, going by the names, are rewrites of two stories in the other. In TPL there was a recurring operative named Spy 13 who had as his first challenge a "Secret Enemy" and who, two adventures later, went up against "Sand Spiders". Mike Storm did the same thing except he faced the Spiders one issue earlier.


1			Mike Stone and the Secret Enemy Published by Fleetway Publications Ltd. Copyright: 09/1963 From Valiant Picture Library #7 - [plot unknown]

2			Mike Stone and the Sand Spiders Published by Fleetway Publications Ltd. Copyright: 01/1964 From Valiant Picture Library #15 - [plot unknown]

MY COMMENTS

It is silly to write comments about something like this when so little information is available but I think I can surmise that this is just a retread of a couple of existing stories, refashioned to use a new agent's name so it will look like these are new stories. Why not use the old stories with the old character, that is a question I cannot answer. I mean, a half-decade had elapsed since the Spy 13 adventures came out and because these were aimed at teenage boys, that is enough time for them to have aged out, gone on to chasing girls, and a new swath of readers to come in who likely never heard and could not get their hands on Spy 13 adventures. Who knows!

GRADE

My Grade: B

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