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JAMES MITCHELL

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Full Name: Sir James Mitchell
Codename: Carnation
Nationality: British
Organization: The Men of Flowers
Occupation Spymaster

Creator: Unknown
Time Span: 1962 - 1962

ABOUT THE SERIES

Sir James Mitchell is a British spymaster.

He performs this onerous task during the incredibly stressful Second World War where getting the intelligence the various government agencies and military services so urgently need is the job for highly trained and dedicated men and women. It is Mitchell who has been tasked with leading one such group of operatives and it likely he who decided to hide the identity of those personnel using cover-names of flowers as their monikers.

"To protect their identity British agents operated under a code name ... the name of a flower". Those are the words used in our introduction to the organization that Mitchell created and heads. We are shortly thereafter allowed to visit "an ordinary-looking, but hush-hush house 'somewhere south of London'". "This innocent-seeming country mansion was the headquarters of [Mitchell] who under the cover name 'Carnation' controlled a group of super-agents, everyone called after a flower ... and deadly flowers they were!"

Thus we learn that Mitchell/Carnation is the head of the 'Agents of the Flowers', a name which does not quite have the gravitas that one might expect from such deadly and dangerous individuals. Mitchell takes the use of these cover-names quite seriously; we watch in the first recorded adventure him dress down Agent Poppy, "You never mention real names. You may be Colin Ransom to your girl friend and your mother. To us, you're just Number 17. In addition, [you will be given] your special codenames... We're dealing in flowers". In that lecture, Mitchell reminds the agent of another operative, Number 15, who slipped up and used a real name and was overheard and died as a result. Mitchell knows the dangers which is why he is such a stickler.

During that visit where we meet Mitchell, we see that he is a man likely in his late fifties, sporting tightly cut hair brushed back revealing a receding hairline. His face is still strong and determined, revealing a man who has served in harsh conditions for many years and lived to fight yet another day. Due to his age, however, he is no longer the right man for the field and so he uses his experience and his knowledge by training and then selecting the men who will head out into danger. Dressed religiously in tweed suitcoats and with a pipe seemingly affixed to his mouth, Mitchell makes the hard calls as to who to send on the next mission, well aware that that individual might never return.

COMIC BOOKS, GRAPHIC NOVELS, AND MANGA

Number of Stories:22
First Appearance:1962
Last Appearance:1962

1 Top Secret Top Secret
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #1, Apr. 1962
"Parallel with the British development of radar, was a similar device perfected by the Germans ... At any cost the Secret Service had to know what the enemy had invented. Just how successfully our secret agent operated you can see in this story."
Click here to read the story.

2 Seeds of Death Seeds of Death
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #2, Apr. 1962
"Showing the amazing deeds of the British Secret Agent who penetrated to the innermost secrets of vital German oil supplies, and of his courage in the most incredible and dangerous circumstances. One long continuous trail."
Click here to read the story.

3 Death in the Desert Death in the Desert
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #3, May 1962
[plot unknown]

4 Master Spy Master Spy
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #4, May 1962
[plot unknown]

5 Week-end Saboteur Week-end Saboteur
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #5, Jun. 1962
[plot unknown]

6 Massacre in the Mountains Massacre in the Mountains
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #6, Jun. 1962
[plot unknown]

7 Dreaded Gestapo Dreaded Gestapo
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #7, Jul. 1962
[plot unknown]

8 Snatch The General Snatch The General
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #8, Jul. 1962.
On an island held by the Germans, a particularly nasty general named Kleite is killing innocents including women and children and destroying whole villages for sport. An Australian Army Intelligence officer named Colin Driscoll is chosen to work with the Men of the Flowers to kidnap this leader and bring him in. 
Click here to read the story.

9 Train Busters Train Busters
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #9, Aug. 1962
[plot unknown]

10 Deadly Flowers of the East Deadly Flowers of the East
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #10, Aug. 1962
[plot unknown]

11 Operation Tiger Operation Tiger
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #11, Sep. 1962
[plot unknown]

12 Hell's Kitchen Hell's Kitchen
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #12, Sep. 1962
[plot unknown]

13 Hostages Hostages
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #13, Oct. 1962
[plot unknown]

14 Death at Dawn Death at Dawn
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #14, Oct. 1962
[plot unknown]

15 Tamarda Terror Tamarda Terror
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #15, Nov. 1962
[plot unknown]

16 Traitor Traitor
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #16, Nov. 1962
[plot unknown]

17 Shadow of Death Shadow of Death
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #17, Dec. 1962
[plot unknown]

18 Spy Trap Spy Trap
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #18, Dec. 1962
[plot unknown]

19 Spy in Paradise Spy in Paradise
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #19, Jan. 1963
The "Man of the Flowers" picked for this mission is Oleander and his mission was to lead the harassment of Japanese shipping in the Bismarck Sea. He was especially good at it such that the enemy made capturing him their top priority.
Click here to read the story.

20 Spy Behind Bars Spy Behind Bars
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #20, Jan. 1963
[plot unknown]

21 Alias Brote Alias Brote
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #21, Feb. 1963
When the German optics specialist sent to Switzerland to bid on a new prescription eye piece is murdered before Jock Saunders, Oleander, can snatch him, the agent is ordered to grab the man's replacement.
Click here to read the story.

22 They Gave All They Gave All
Published by Pearson Ltd.
Contributors: Unknown (writer and artist)
Copyright: 1962

Printed in Secret Agent Picture Library #22, Feb. 1963
[plot unknown]

MY COMMENTS

Gritty. That is the word I like best to describe this series meant for young men and told in 64-page, 2 panels per page, black-and-white adventures. Sometimes the artwork is, while always sparse, darn good and other times not so much. The tales, though, are relentlessly somber and do an excellent job of depicting just how dangerous and taxing the job of the undercover operative is.

Every mission calls for someone to be sent into that danger and it is Mitchell who makes that call but since the tales are about the mission and not the shot-caller,  we do not spend much time with Mitchell. Nevertheless, he makes his appearance in [likely] every assignment, it only for a brief moment.

GRADE

My Grade: B-

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