STONE OF THE SECRET SERVICE

Full Name:	Mike Stone
Nationality:	British
Organization:	British Secret Service
Occupation	Agent

Creator:	Ted Kearon
Time Span:	1972 - 1972

ABOUT THE SERIES

Mike Stone is an agent with the British Secret Service.

More specifically, he is attached to the Special Security Department of that agency. How that sub-agency differs from the overall organization is never mentioned, just that it is special in the jobs it is given.

The year of his activities is 1972 and Britain and the West are very much involved in competition with the agents from the "other side" although no actual names are mentioned. While there will also be a couple of adventures outside the border of England, most of the activities that occupy Stone in the handful of recorded adventures take place inside the U.K.

His immediate supervisor at the department is a white-haired aged man with a thick mustache and an obvious liking of Stone. The two men maintain a professional but very friendly relationship.

Stone is a tall, slender man likely in his early 30's with black hair worn fairly short for that time period. By and large he comes across to all who work with him as a pretty easy going fellow, quick with a grin or a quip and polite to all. His opponents do not find him quite so friendly, especially if they start the conversation by trying to kill him; he finds that objectionable and goes out of his way to show them that.

We never learn anything about Stone outside his work. Obviously he has a personal life but he does not show any signs of letting it take any role in his professional one. Or he just lives for his exciting career, which would explain why he seems to happy and eager to leap into any mission.

Since most of the missions we have of Stone require a fair amount of investigation, either he is quite good at it or he is very proficient at waving a flag at his opponents daring them to come get him. Considering how many of them actually do just that, the latter seems a safe bet.

COMIC BOOKS, GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND MANGA

Number of Stories:	0
First Appearance:	1972
Last Appearance:	1972


1			'The Matter of the Ski Jump' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #569, January 15, 1972 - 3 pages. Mike Stone is in the police state of Bratzia undercover with the British ski jumping team taking part in the International Championship. His real purpose is to get a list of all the missile sites in that country from an insider. Once he has them, however, the authorities are out to make it impossible to get them out. One other little matter. he has to make a ski jump to prove he is legit and he has never done that before. Click here to read the story.

2			'The Matter of the Nuclear Scientist' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #570, January 22, 1972 - 3 pages. A noted nuclear scientist kept under guard in the East has managed to slip his minders and is hiding in Barcelona. That is where Mike Stone finds him but the matter now is getting him to England while avoiding those out to kill him. Click here to read the story.

3			'The Matter of the Avalanche' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #571, January 29, 1972 - 3 pages. Playing bodyguard to a space research scientist attending a conference in Canada, Mike Stone has to deal with a sudden snow storm and some very nasty and determined foreign agents out to kidnap his protectee. Click here to read the story.

4			'The Matter of the Missing Thief' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #572, February 5, 1972 - 3 pages. In Scotland with a team of police officers, Mike Stone is responding to a tip that a space research facility in that area was about to be attacked to give enemy agents a chance to steal intelligence. In the melee that follows, one of the agents gets away and Stone is determined to uncover him. Click here to read the story.

5			'The Matter of the Hunted Traitor' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #573, February 12, 1972 - 3 pages. When the Special Security Department learns that information was being leaked from the Mallinson Experimental Trust facility, they send Mike Stone to figure out who and how. He is to meet with the traitor who will fess up if the price is right. The man's foreign agent contacts want him dead. Click here to read the story.

6			'The Matter of the Open Sesame' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #574, February 19, 1972 - 3 pages. When the body of a fellow agent was found in a car out on a moor, it was initially ruled a suicide. Mike Stone and his boss are suspicious since the deceased had been following a suspected master-spy. Click here to read the story.

7			'The Matter of the Professional Killer' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #575, February 26, 1972 - 3 pages. The arrival in England of a professional Killer named Vegal has Mike Stone suspicious so he starts trailing him. Whatever Vegal is up to, it is worth killing for, which he tries to do to Stone, first with a car accident and then with a cobar! Click here to read the story.

8			'The Matter of the Germ Warfare Expert' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #576, March 4, 1972 - 3 pages. Mike Stone is vacationing in the Greek Isles when he spots a helicopter landing on a small island. Curious, he investigates and finds people not at all open to visitors. Now very interested, he sneaks back and discovers a British germ warfare expert who was just kidnapped in London and flown to the island. Click here to read the story.

9			'The Matter of the Bazooka Killing' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #612, November 11, 1972 - 3 pages. The murder of an aircraft designer in his car by a bazooka gets the attention of the British Secret Service and Mike Stone. Since the man had access to vital secret information, the question of why he was killed and by whom is Stone's job to learn. There would be other deaths to come. Click here to read the story.

10			'The Matter of the Mobile Rocket Launcher' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 A fellow Secret Service agent was shot at close range in his car while coming from the town of Hambourne. The only discernable clue was a fountain pen with his fingerprints on it. The man had been tasked with watching a notorious American gunman visiting the country. Now it is Mike Stone's job to learn why and to bring the killers to justice. Click here to read the story.

11			'The Matter of the Blue Star' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #614, November 25, 1972 - 3 pages. The death of an old man in a wheel chair from falling off a cliff brings Mike Stone in to investigate. The deceased had once been the Chief of Police for a Middle Eastern sheikh. It is suspected his murder had been a ruse to pull the leader in for the funeral but what was the end goal? Click here to read the story.

12			'The Matter of the Stolen Rocket' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, #619, December 30, 1972 - 3 pages. The theft of a top-secret rocket from its base gets the Secret Service to send its top agent, Mike Stone, to find it and those who took it. Click here to read the story.

13			'The Matter of the African Civil War' Published by DC Thomson Contributors: Ted Kearon (artist) Copyright: 1972 Published in The Victor, Book For Boys, 1973 - 8 pages. Rebels in a civil war in the African nation of Gabwana are causing a lot of trouble for the beleaguered government there. Since trade with that nation was deemed vital for Britain's interest, Mike Stone is sent to lend a hand. Click here to read the story.

MY COMMENTS

The baker's dozen stories about Mike Stone are all entertaining but hardly noteworthy. This is mostly due to the fact that except for the long tale in the annual, all are given but three pages to set up the situation, allow Stone a chance at finding and then defeating the opposition, and then a panel or two getting congratulated by his boss.

The artwork is good but just like the stories, largely unworthy of remembering. The backgrounds are quite well done but the faces and the figures of the people are very wooden and subpar.

GRADE

My Grade: B-

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