Kent Blake of the Secret Service 1-14

[StrayLamb]

KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 1 (MAY 1951)

Story 1: “The Actual, Uncensored StoryBehind the Origin of… Kent Blake” by Tom Gill and Hank Chapman

Characters: Kent Blake, Special Secret Service Agent, Badge 234 (also in FB); Walter H. Kruger, Chief Executive of the Secret Service (also in FB); Congressman Rogers; Mr Bellard, Head of Defense Production; Red Spies; Members of the Defense Committee; a Police Officer; US & German Soldiers (in FB)

Flashbacks: Mid-February 1942: Kent Blake is assigned to the 49th Bombardment Group, the Flying Fortresses, and ordered to report to McDill Field, Florida, in 21 days.

Mid-August 1942: Six months after being assigned to the 69th Bombardment Group, Blake joins a crew as a photo-gunner on an air-raid out of England, when his plane is shot down over Germany. Blake is captured by Nazis and tortured in an attempt to learn Allied secrets, but he refuses to talk. Paired with Capt Ralph Strong, the two men break out of prison, digging a tunnel out of the camp. As they flee, Strong is fatally shot by the Nazi guards, but not before he has Blake promise to bring his shoe back to a man named Kruger in Washington.

Sept 17 1942: Blake returns Strong’s shoe to Mr Kruger, who explains there were important microfilm slides in the heel, along with a note recommending Blake for duty as a Secret Service agent.

Synopsis: Washington DC, Sept 28 1950: Congressman Rogers is kidnapped by Communist spies and replaced with a look-alike agent. Next day, the agent attends a Congressional Defense Committee meeting, where he vetoes the resolution to begin production of super-tanks, capable of firing atomic missiles. Realizing that one of the Congressmen is a traitor, Kent Blake is assigned to investigate, posing as a reporter. Suspecting Rogers, Blake takes him to his supervisor at the Pentagon, Walter H. Kruger, Chief Executive of the Secret Service, where he exposes the Congressman as an imposter. When the spy pulls a gun, Blake shoots him dead. After meeting Mr Bellard, Head of Defense Production, Blake heads out to find those behind the substitute Congressman.

When Blake leaves, Bellard enquires about Blake’s background, and Kruger explains that Kent Blake was the New York City cop who captured the payroll robbers in 1939, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he joined the army.

After giving Bellard a run down on Blake’s activities as a New York cop, and in the army during WW2, Kruger tells him that Blake excelled their best men in every class and every mission, and that today he hold the only position of its kind, Special Secret Service Agent.

Later that night, a spy breaks into Kent Blake's home and seemingly stabs him to death while he sleeps, but next morning, Blake turns up alive and well and exposes Bellard as the leader of the Communist spies. Bellard pulls a gun, but Kent attacks, and as Bellard tries to escape, Kent shoots him dead.


Story 2: “Slaves of the Soviet” by Tom Gill and Hank Chapman

Characters: Kent Blake; Ivan & Wladek, Russian coastal patrol crewmen; Lts. Petrov & Astof, Officers of the Red Army; Max Novack, a scientist and prisoner; Kotlas, a prisoner & scholar; a US Sub Commander and Crewmen

Synopsis: November 22 1950: Kent Blake is taken by sub to the Okhosk Sea and takes a dinghy to Siberia on a secret mission to expose the great Russian slave camp at Kolyma. Next day, after narrowly avoiding a patrol ship, Blake buries his raft on the beach and Heads to the nearby city of Madagan, where pretending to be drunk, he accosts a pair of Russian officers, Petrof and Astof, who beat him up. Blake is sent to Kolyma, the slave camp he’s been sent to find. He’s informed by one of the prisoners, a scholar named Kotlas, that the slaves are being forced to work for the Delstroy Project, which has them digging for gold, to finance the building of atom bombs. Kotlas shows Blake a prisoner being whipped, telling him the man is Max Novack, a scientist who has done something wrong. The guards kill Novack, and he’s being carried out, Kotlas tells Blake that’s the only way anyone ever leaves Kolyma.

December 21 1950: Having been working in the miserable conditions of the mines for weeks, which gnawed years from his life-span, Blake uses a micro-film camera to photograph proof of the conditions, along with his notes on the situation, while Kotlas takes a special interest in him and his note taking. Kent is beaten again to within an inch of his life by Petrov and Astof. While tending his wounds, Kotlas realizes that Blake is really an American, and agrees to help him escape.

Blake fakes his death and is carried out of the slave camp in a coffin. Left in a mass grave, Blake breaks free and manages to return to the sub in time for the rendezvous.


Text Story: “A Man and His Dog”

Story 3: “Are You a Detective? Starring Detective Skip McCoy”

Note: This is a reprint of the story appearing in Crime Can’t Win 5/4


Story 4: “Red Blood Over Berlin” by Tom Gill and Hank Chapman

Characters: Kent Blake; Hank, an American Pilot; Maria Murphy; Volkof, a Soviet Agent; a US Colonel; a Russian Major; Crash Investigators; Newspapermen

Synopsis: April 10 1947: An unarmed American B-17 passenger plane is shot down over Berlin by Russian planes. Officials from both countries meet, the Russians insisting that the B-17 fired on the Russian planes, which the Americans find impossible as the plane was not armed. At the crash site, Kent Blake poses as a newspaperman. Remaining after the other reporters have gone, Blake examines the wreckage, finding engraving plates for American currency. Blake waits to see who comes to recover them, when a woman arrives and takes the plates. Blake learns from one of the guards that she is Maria Murphy, the secretary to one of the crash inspectors, who claimed that he had lost his wrist-watch there earlier.

Rolling out his hidden Jeep, Blake follows the woman as she roars into the city, when two men run her off the road and kidnap her. Blake follows them to a small home near the Brandenburg Gate and attacks them, but is overpowered by the Russians. The spies reveal that they intend to use the engraving plates to flood America with false currency. The spies attempt to toss Blake into the etching acid, but grabbing a handful of metal scraps, he flings them into the nitric acid, splashing it into Volkof’s eyes. Banging their heads together, Blake tosses the spies into the vat of nitric acid, killing them, and frees the woman, who reveals she’s a US Treasury Agent. Maria Murphy then asks “Mind if a gal gets her paws around a guy for helping her?” Blake replies “Help yourself Baby, you’re the law around her!”


Story 5: “Mission Accomplished” by Jack Keller

Characters: Mischa Kepikoff, Russian Secret Service Agent 229, who also poses as Constanti Metrovich; Agent X-5, a US Agent, who also poses as Vasili Zaroff; Serge Ospensko, a waiter; Alexei; Russian expatriates

Flashbacks: October 5 1949: Mischa Kepikoff, Russian Secret Service Agent 229, is assigned to uncover top US agent X-5's identity. Posing as Constanti Metrovich, he hangs out at Russian restaurants in Washington DC, where he meets a waiter, Serge Ospensko.

Mischa Kepikoff has the word spread about him being a loyal Russian in order to draw out Agent X-5.

A few days later, one of the waiters, Serge Ospensko, asks Mischa if he would mind sharing his table with Vasili Zaroff, as they are rather crowded. Mischa agrees and strikes up a conversation with Vasili, whom he quickly realizes is X-5.

November 1949: Mischa attempts to elicit information on Vasili from Serge Ospensko, but he refuses to divulge Vasili’s address. Another man, Alexei, tells Mischa he knows where Vasili lives, but Serge tells him to be silent. Alexei gives Mischa the address, and as he leaves, Alexei tells Serge that the two men are friends, and he’s seen them together many times. Ransacking Vasili’s apartment, Mischa uncovers X-5’s real name, when Vasili returns home and pulls a knife, but Mischa shoots X-5, killing him.

Synopsis: November 1949: Mischa Kepikoff, Russian Secret Service Agent 229, reports to Comrade Ivanoff, dictating a message to Commissar Danelo Petrovich, stating that he has uncovered the identity of Agent X-5, but before he can reveal X-5’s identity, a knife is hurled thru the window at his back by an unseen assassin, presumably Serge Ospensko, killing him.

NOTE: The dates given in this story don’t match up. Mischa is given his mission on Oct 5 1949, but reports at the end of the mission in November 1951. Given the pace of the story, which seems to take place over no more than a few weeks, it’s highly unlikely that the mission took two years to accomplish, especially since it was a time-sensitive mission to uncover the true identity of X-5. Also, the issue was published in May 1951, so i believe the November 1951 date to a misprint, and have assumed the correct date to be November 1949.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 2 (JULY 1951)

Story 1: “The Death Trap”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger (Voice Only); Herbert Maxwell, National Board Chairman; Christopher Trotter, a DA; Ivan, a Russian Agent; a Judge, Court personel, Jurors and others at a Courtroom


Synopsis: January 14 1951: Having been working a case in the US for some months, Kent Blake smashes a Soviet spy ring. Next morning, the tabloids run headlines to the effect that National Board Chairman Herbert Maxwell is to be the star witness in the trial of the spies, but when he testifies in court, Maxwell declares the four men to be true and loyal Americans, and innocent of the charges.

Two days later, Maxwell speaks at a pro-Red meeting sponsored by the Comrades of America, and his former close friend, DA Christopher Trotter, vows to bring him up on formal charges.

The next day, Kent Blake is put on the case. After seeing Trotter leaving Maxwell’s house, Blake questions Maxwell over his relationship with Trotter. Disguising himself, Blake stakes out Maxwell’s home, learning that Trotter is making regular visits to Maxwell, doping and brain-washing him into admitting that he stole the secret papers from the National Board files. Blake follows Trotter from the house, when he’s bushwhacked by two of the spies, who tell Trotter he’s Kent Blake, and has been following him since he left Maxwell’s home.

Trotter has the men bring the unconscious Blake to their hideout. As Trotter briefs his men, Blake wakes up and finds some hypodermics containing drugs, which he empties out and fills with water, before playing possum. Trotter orders Ivan to inject Blake, who then pretends to be brain-washed, and is released.

February 7 1951: On the morning of Maxwell’s trial, Trotter puts Blake on the stand to testify against Maxwell, but he denounces Trotter as the traitor. As Trotter runs, a guard shoots him in the shoulderr, but he falls onto one of his hypodermics, which goes straight thru his heart, killing him. Maxwell’s name is cleared and he returns to his position on the National Board.

NOTE: Kent Blake is said to been working on this case for months, but it’s only been three weeks since he returned from his ordeal in the Russian slave camp, and prior to that he hadn’t had a break of more than than a week since Nov 22 1950, so i assume this case must have been something he was working on between Oct 1 and Nov 22 1950, during which time there were no missions reported, and that since then he had been pulled off the case for a series of more urgent assignments.


Story 2: “Merchants of Death”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; Captain Barto; Squinty and other crewmen; a Barman

Flashbacks: Kent Blake is tasked with investigating American profiteers who are supplying armaments, truck parts, and medicines into Red China, which make their way down thru Manchuria into North Korea.

Next day, Blake takes a flight to San Francisco, checks into a hotel, and hangs around the docks, dressed as a seaman. A week later, the Raven docks and unloads a cargo of pigs. That night, in the Bloody Bucket Saloon, Blake makes friends with Squinty, a crewman from the Raven, and asks him about the pigs, when Captain Barto belts Squinty, warning him to shut his mouth about the cargo. Blake belts Barto, who offers him work aboard the Raven.

Six days later, the Ravens sails out of San Francisco. A week out to sea, Blake sneaks into the hold, discovering gunpowder in crates marked powdered eggs, when he’s koshed by Barto, who orders Squinty to place Blake in irons.

Blake is still in the brig when the Raven docks in China, and the cargo is exchanged for more pigs. Breaking port the next day, Barto brings Blake his last meal, telling him he’ll be dumped overboard once they’re out to sea.

Captain Barto orders Squinty to shoot Blake thru the head and throw his body overboard, or he’ll be fed to the sharks himself. Once Barto’s gone, a shot rings out, and Squinty tosses a large heavy sack overboard, containing a dead pig. Barto then orders him to go below and clean out the Brig, where he tells Blake that the Captain didn’t suspect a thing.

Blake stows away with the pigs for the rest of the return voyage to San Francisco, when he discovers Barto throwing plastic pellets filled with dope into the pigs food. The night before they dock, Blake and Squinty sneak into the radio room, and Blake contacts the Coast Guard. When they board the Raven, Blake has Barto arrested.

NOTE: The entire story, apart from the first inset panel of page 1, is a flashback, narrated by Kent Blake from one of last year’s files. This mission most likely takes place during August and September of 1950.


Story 3: “He Laid Down His Life!” by Jay Scott Pike

Characters: Eric Schalk; Major Kane Bishop; Comrade Klein; Comrade Voltov; Frederick and other saboteurs

Flashback: November 6 1950: Major Kane Bishop of the Secret Service interviews Eric Schalk, a senior student at Metropolitan University and an athlete of renown in collegiate circles, who has reported to police that he’s been approached by members of a foreign party because he’s of foreign descent. Bishop explains that they want to get a man into one of the anti-American organizations, but warns him it will be extremely dangerous, and if he’s discovered, he will be disavowed.

Schalk accepts the mission, and after a week of intensive training, he’s approached once again by Comrade Klein, this time agreeing to join the Foreign Athletic Social Club.

December 5 1950: Having been forced out of college for his seeming foreign party sympathies, Schalk has become a full-fledged party member. During a party meeting, they are informed that tomorrow New York will be bombed, and they have been selected to ensure the city is crippled ahead of the attack. Comrade Voltov then explains the plan in detail. Telling his friend Frederick that he’s feeling ill, Schalk heads to the adjoining office to alert Bishop, but finds the lines have been cut, when Frederick appears and pulls a gun on him. Schalk knocks him out, but the gun goes off, so he races down to the cellar.

Synopsis: Schalk lights the fuses on some of the stored dynamite. The party members race in, shooting him, when the dynamite explodes, destroying the entire house, and killing everyone in it, except for one man, who survived long enough to tell Major Bishop what happened.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 4 & 5 of page 3.


Text Story: “The Secret”

Story 4: “The Chosen Few”

Characters: John Wilkes Booth; Abraham Lincoln; Mary Todd Lincoln; Heinrich Friedrich Albert (BTS); Calvin Coolidge (BTS); Harry S. Truman (BTS); Oscar Collazo; Griselio Torresola; Leslie William Coffelt; Donald Birdzell; Joseph Downs; actors; Secret Service Agents; other incidental unnamed characters

Flashback: The Secret Service is formed in 1864 to gain intel on disloyal persons in the North during the Civil War.

Synopsis: April 14 1865: President Abraham Lincoln is shot and killed while attending Ford’s Theater in Washington DC, after having signed legislation earlier that day, creating the US Secret Service. A few weeks later, the Secret Service is tasked with guarding the President and his family.

July 5 1865: The Secret Service is made a division of the US Treasury Department.

1898: The Secret Service smashes a Spanish spy ring.

1905: The Secret Service uncovers a huge land fraud.

1917: The Secret Service exposes German sabotage plans directed by Dr Heinrich Albert.

1924: At the request of President Coolidge, the Secret Service exposes the Dome Oil Scandal.

November 2 1950: The Secret Service foils an assassination attempt on the life of President Truman.


Story 5: “The Man Without a Face”

Characters: Kent Blake (also as Lefty Raftis); Walter H. Kruger; Lucien Lorant; Lulu Pastel; Louie; other incidental unnamed characters

Synopsis: February 9 1951: Kent Blake investigates counterfeit currency, tracing it to Lucien Lorant in State Pen. With less than a month to live due to a heart condition, Lorant refuses to divulge his accomplices.

After a month of fruitless investigation, Blake obtains $50,000 of US Treasury funds, with a plan to draw out the counterfieters. Blake then spends another month in San Francisco, building a reputation as a big spender under the name of Lefty Raftis, before returning to New York, where he meets club owner Lulu Pastel.

After a pair of T-Men call on Lulu, telling her they’re investigating some phony fifties that were passed in her club, she gets dollar signs in her eyes for Lefty. Next morning, a pair of tough gunnies call on Lefty, and the trap begins to close. A week later, Lefty is picked up in a black sedan, while Secret Service men follow behind until they’re blocked off by Louie. When they arrive at the warehouse, the gang leader calls, alerting his boys to the fact that Lefty’s a Fed. Blake gets koshed, and Lulu Pastel arrives, telling her boys to scram, but just then the SS men arrive. Blake chases Lulu to the roof, and as they struggle, she falls to her death. Learning of his daughter Lulu’s death, Lucien Lorant dies of a heart attack. Crime does not pay!

NOTE: This story takes place from Early February to Late April 1951.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 3 (SEPTEMBER 1951)

Story 1: “Terror in Tibet”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; his Secretary; Great Llama; Great Llama II/Llama Nei Dalai (note the LL spelling); Wu, a Communist agent (impersonates the Great Llama); Krevitt, a Secret Service pilot; Tibetan people

Synopsis: October 16: Two Communist agents parachute into Tibet and murder the Great Llama, then Wu takes his place.

December 15: Kruger calls Blake into his office and tells him that two months ago the Great Llama in Tibet began preaching a holy war against the West, and tasks him with convincing the Great Llama to call off the Jehad.

Next day, Kent takes off with his pilot, Krevitt, in an unmarked plane. As they fly over Tibet, they are shot down by Chinese fighters. Krevitt is killed, but Blake makes it out of the crashed airplane before it blows, then passes out.

Blake regains consciousness a few days later, to find himself in the midst of a procession of Tibetans, led by the Great Llama’s brother, Llama Nei Dalai, who tells Blake they are journeying to the mountains near Llasa, where his brother will address the tribesmen tomorrow at dawn, and they hope to reach him before then, in the hopes of turning him from his mad scheme of blood and war.

Arriving at the camp of the Great Llama, Nei Dalai denounces him as an imposter. Blake gets in two lucky shots, killing the two Communists, then he convinces Nei Dalai to take the place of his dead brother, and become the new Great Llama. A plane comes to find Blake, and he returns to home.

NOTE: This story is taken from Kent Blake’s files of past missions. The dates given place this story between Mid-October and Late December 1950, but it has already been established that Blake was interned in a Siberian slave camp during this time, so i have assumed this should be placed in 1949.


Text Story: “Treason”

Story 2: “The Stolen Plans”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; The Cat (as Paul Lavalle); Adrian Corbett; a spy; passengers on a train

Synopsis: Kent Blake and Walter H. Kruger meet with Adrian Corbett to discuss last night’s murder of her employer, Dr Barnett, designer of a new tank weapon, when an assailant takes a shot at Miss Corbett. Blake acts quickly, but the gunman gets away. Blake offers Miss Corbett a cigarette to calm her nerves, but she tells him she doesn’t smoke.

Later, back at Kruger’s Pentagon office, he tells Blake they have reason to believe it’s the work of a famous international spy in the pay of the Communists, known as the Cat, and working out of France. Just then Paul Lavalle, an agent of the French Government arrives to assist Blake.

For a week Blake and Lavalle keep watch on the Hotel Metropole, a known hang-out for foreign agents in downtown Washington. Noticing that a top foreign spy takes a pack of cigarettes from a vendor without paying, Blake suspects it’s a drop for microfilm and follows the spy, who pulls a gun on him. Blake shoots the spy, who tells him he’ll never catch the Cat, when Blake’s koshed from behind.

Lavalle finds Blake and shows him a ticket to Canada he found on the ground near the body, and a pack of cigarettes in the hand of the man who got away. They return to Kruger’s office, where they learn that another attempt has been made on Miss Corbett’s life. She tells them she’s going to Montreal to stay with family where it’s safe, and they agree to take the night train together.

Two hours later, aboard the Montreal Express, Blake suggests they step out on the platform for a cigarette, where he grabs a pack of cigarettes from Miss Corbett’s bag, and reminds her she told him that she doesn’t smoke. Lavalle puts a gun in Blake’s back, admitting that he’s the Cat, explaining that he killed the real Lavalle and took his place, and that Miss Corbett is his accomplice. Blake tosses the cigarette pack over the side, then belts the Cat, who falls from the train. Miss Corbett gives Blake the cigarettes containing the microfilm, which she had taken from the pack, and sidles up to him, suggesting they could have a lot of fun together, but Blake isn’t so easily swayed, and promises to visit her in prison.


Story 3: “The Man Who Had To Die” by Al Eadeh

Characters: Steve Farren; his pilot; Jules, and other members of the French Resistance; members of the German Gestapo

Flashback: Early July 1944: Just before the Normandy Invasions, US Secret Service Agent Steve Farren is flown to France under cover of darkness to make contact with the French underground leaders. Landing at a pre-arranged meeting place on the coast, Farren alights, arranging for his pilot to return for him at 1AM. As they pass the chateau where the Gestapo are quartered, the resistance leader tells Farren that the place is rigged to blow at midnight.

Arriving at a hut, Farren memorizes the names of the various French Resistance leaders, while the others return to watch the chateau. As Farren burns the last of the lists, German soldiers blast their way into the hut, blinding Farren in the grenades.

Farren is dragged to the chateau and beaten by the Gestapo.

Synopsis: After using cattle prods on him, Farren is tied to a rack and tortured for his intel on the Maquis leaders, but he watches the clock on the wall, knowing he only has to hold out for a few more minutes, then as it strikes twelve, the chateau is blown to bits.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 1 & 2 of page 3.



Story 4: “Under the Red Flag!”

Characters: Charles Wing; US troops; Communist troops

Synopsis: Acting on intel received from North Korea, US forces destroy a camouflaged Red army massing for a push on Seoul, when they discover the message was sent by Charles Wing, a Chinese-American Secret Service Agent; after making his report and having a good meal, Wing returns behind the Communist lines.


Story 5: “Nightmare in China”

Characters: Kent Blake; Sam Bancroft; General Wing; Captain Wong; Communist troops

Synopsis: Kent Blake has been dispatched to make contact with the undergound guerilla leader General Wing of the Chinese Nationalist Government, but his sub was spotted, and there’s an all-out search for him. Eluding the search parties, Blake is met by his contact, Sam Bancroft, a soldier of fortune, who leads him to General Wing.

Blake promises US help with supplies in return for skirmish attacks by his forces against the Reds in Korea. Wing agrees, and Blake gets some sleep, but he’s awakened by exploding shells. Racing to the shore, he sees his sub being blown up. Planes then begin bombing Wing’s hidden camp, and they realize they have a spy in their midst. General Wing rders Captain Wong to arrest Sam Bancroft and redy him for execution, when they hear bombs falling on the tanks hidden to the east. Realizing that Bancroft wasn’t in the room when the location of the tanks was being discussed, Blake realizes that Wing himself is the traitor, and stops the execution. With bombs exploding all around them, Wing makes his getaway in the only remaining plane, but Blake and Bancroft jump onto Wing’s wings and shoot him. Bancroft agrees to take Wing’s place as the guerilla leader, and parachutes out, while Blake flies back to safety.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 4 (NOVEMBER 1951)

Story 1: “Terror Underground!”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; Jules Beltram (also in FB); Johnson, his assistant; Karl Standrin (in FB); a New York cabbie; Communist spies; FBI Agents; other incidental unnamed characters

Flashback: Karl Standrin calls on Jules Bartram of the Special Records Bureau in New York, admitting that he’s become involved in a plot to cripple the city’s underground utilities, when he’s shot and killed from across the street.

Synopsis: July 1950: Walter H, Kruger introduces Kent Blake to Jules Bartram, who has brought them serious news that must be acted upon immediately. After the situation has been explained to him, Blake takes the next flight to NYC, studying the city’s utilities blueprints on the way.

Followed from the airport, Blake gives his cabbie a note to pass on to the FBI. Blake heads into an underground station, where he’s shoved onto the tracks by a foreign agent, but he slips into a safety area as the train passes. The spies pursue Blake along the tracks, and they exchange gunfire as a train approaches. Blake gets tagged in the arm but escapes as the train passes between them.

As the cabbie finally gets around to calling the FBI, Blake enters the main underground power supply system and traces the sabotage wiring, cutting it at intervals as he traces it to its source, where he’s jumped by the saboteurs and tied up. They repair the wires, but the FBI arrives just before they can blow the system.

Next day, Kruger tells Blake they rounded up the entire gang except for their leader, when Blake points to Beltram, saying he’s the only one who knew he was on the plane to New York.

NOTE: This story is from Blake’s case files.


Text Story: “Spy Trap”

Story 2: “A Spy Is Among Us”

Characters: Mac Kinder; Frank Slade; Major John Hanley; Pete, the Night Watchman; US Soldiers and factory workers

Synopsis: Monday April 23 1951: Frank Slade, Chief research worker for the Aztec Iron Works, reports to his superior, Mac Kinder, that he can’t find the files on Compound B. Kinder reports the loss to Major John Hanley, in charge of the Intelligence Unit assigned to the plant, who places the plant into lockdown. After his men have searched everyone, Hanley tells Kinder the files have gone, pointing out that the perpetrator has had all weekend to get away.

That night, Slade stays back after hours to recreate the files on Compound B, but as he leaves, he’s stopped by Hanley and Kinder, who order him to hand over his bag, but Slade is shot and killed as he attempts to escape.


Story 3: “Jaws of Justice”

Characters: Kent Blake; Seminole Indians; Slavin and other members of the US Coast Guard; Communist agents

Flashback: Late November 1947: Kent Blake is dispatched to investigate rumors of strange activity off the Florida Keys. Sailing with the Coast Guard, Blake investigates a ship purportedly searching for treasure. Donning a diving suit, Blake discovers lead containers on the ocean floor, and tangles with a diver from the ship, who cuts Blake’s airline. Blake stabs him, and makes it back aboard the Coast Guard boat.

After a brief rest, Blake learns the ship has anchored off a cove, and that most of the crew went into the swamps carrying boxes. Blake follows the foreign agents into the Everglades, discovering the spies are unloading rifles for the Seminole Indians in hopes of fomenting an uprising. Blake is captured, but the Seminoles tell the Reds to hand him over to them so they can sacrifice him to their crocodile god. Blake is tied to a tree, and the Seminoles take the spies back to their village as the crocs move in.

Synopsis: A group of Seminoles, who have stayed behind, watch as the crocs move in, then rescue Blake. They explain that they’re a civilized, educated people, and the President is due to vacation with the Seminoles in two weeks time, and they were just playing along in order to learn the spies plans. Blake tells them he needs to notify the Coast Guard to round up the Reds, but he’s told that won’t be necessary, as by now they’ve all been thrown to the crocodiles (so not so civilized?!).

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 1 & 2 of page 5.


Story 4: “The Call of Duty!”

Characters: Roy Osborne; an unnamed Secret Service Agent; Crewmen of the Sea King; Longshoremen

Flashback: May 9 1949: Roy Osborne, First Mate aboard the Sea King, oversees the loading of supplies for the army of occupation in Japan. Noticing a discepancy in one of the crates, one of the longshoremen defies the Mate’s orders and boards the ship.

Synopsis: He starts to jimmy open the crate, even though the Mate warns him to get away from it. When he refuses to stop, the Mate warns him that if he continues, he will trigger a bomb inside. Identifying himself as a Secret Service man, the longshoreman arrests Osborne.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 2 & 3 of page 2.


Story 5: “The Limping Man”

Characters: Kent Blake; General Pedro De Barranza; Ernesto De Rodriguez; Maria De Rodriguez; Charles Prentiss; his staff and guests; Joseph, Manuel, Fernandez and other Communists

Synopsis: January 4 1951: A car picks up Kent Blake from the Madrid Airport and takes him to the home of Charles Prentiss, Aide to the US Ambassador, where he’s supposed to pick up some documents. Half a mile from his destination, a black sedan overtakes Blake’s car, shooting at it as it drives past, and killing the driver. Blake’s car runs off the road, hits a tree and bursts into flame. Blake escapes from the burning wreck just before it explodes and continues on foot.

Prentiss greets him at the door, mentioning they haven’t seen each other since college. Blake tells Prentiss what happened, but Prentiss asks him not to mention it to his guests. He then introduces Blake to his guests, including General Pedro De Barranza, the wheelchair-bound Ernesto De Rodriguez, and Ernesto’s daughter, Maria.

Courteously withdrawing to the study, Prentiss opens the safe, handing Blake a pouch containing plans for a revolution, and the names of Spanish Communists within theUS, and the leaders in Spain, except for the leader of the whole thing, known only as the Limping Man.

Prentiss has a car brought round, but seeing a gunman, he takes a bullet for Blake, who’s koshed from behind. Blake wakes to find himself in a room with Communist agents. He fights his way out, but finds the pouch is empty. Hearing the limping footsteps of a man receding down the hall, Blake recognizes him as General De Barranza, but still groggy, the General gets away into the night.

Blake makes his way to the road, when the General’s car pulls up, and he is invited to join the General at the Hacienda del Torros. Playing along, Blake accompanies the general to his hacienda, where he finds the lovely Senorita Maria. Shown to a guest room, Blake has romantic thoughts about Maria, when he hears the Limping Man approaching. Blake opens the door to discover the Limping Man is Ernesto De Rodriguez. He pulls a gun on the Limping Man, but Maria does the same to him. She has Fernandez search Blake for the documents, but when they’re not found on him, Maria lunges at him. Blake ducks and twists, and Maria falls over the balcony. Blake punches out Fernandez, and as the Limping Man pulls a gun, he’s shot by General De Barranza, who hands over microfilm of the documents to Blake, explaining that when Prentiss was killed, he knew Blake would not hand over copies of the documents to the Spanish Government, and that he has a rranged for a plane to take him home.

Blake returns to Washington with the microfilm, still thinking of Maria.


KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 5 (JANUARY 1952)

Story 1: “Condemned To Death!”

Characters: Kent Blake (also as Palopolas); Walter H. Kruger; Captain Danos; Demitrios, his driver; Warden Skouras; Charnoff; Bascombe (also as Tedescu); Helos; Prison guards; Communist Agents; Greek citizens

Flashback: March 27 1950: A train carrying US Marshall-plan food and medical supplies is wrecked outside of Athens, Greece. A week later, Walter H. Kruger tells Kent Blake that the Reds are sabotaging their Marshall Plan aid to Greece, and that Captain Danos of the Greek Special Police believes something big is brewing, and since Blake speaks fluent Greek, he’s sending him to meet with Danos and a British Agent, Bascombe.

Late April: Kent Blake debarks from a ship in Greece, posing as a tourist, but he receives a frosty welcome from the locals. Capt. Danos meets Blake and outlines a plan to have him placed into prison with a known Red leader, Charnoff, under the name of Palopolas, a political prisoner about to be hanged.

Two days later as Palopolas, Blake is handed over to Warden Skouras at the Athens Jail, with orders for him to be hanged for political murder on May 1st, when Capt. Danos is shot and killed, leaving only Demitrios knowing Blake’s true mission and identity.

Days pass with no word from either Demitrios or Bascomb, and Blake begins to despair that they may also have been killed, while he watches the scaffold being constructed outside his cell for his hanging tomorrow. Blake is brought to the warden’s office, to find that he, Charnoff and his men, Tedescu, Helos and others, are all Communists, who tell him they know he’s an agent planted by Capt. Danos. Charnoff orders Helos to tie Blake to the door bars.

Synopsis: Charnoff has Blake whipped, but he insists he’s Palopolas, a political prisoner. Charnoff has Blake returned to his cell, as he’s due to be hanged in the morning anyway, but as he’s taken away, Blake overhears Skouras telling Charnoff that the Red leaders have all been contacted, and are ready for tomorrow’s revolution. The rest of that day and night, Blake lays in agony, both physical and mental.

Blake wakes next morning to find Demitrios calling his name, but Charnoff and the others appear, revealing Demitrios to be their leader. Tedescu snarls at Blake thru the bars, but slips him a gun. When they open the cell door, Blake makes his move, aided by Tedescu, who reveals he’s really Bascombe. A few days later, Blake boards a ship bound for home.

NOTE: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 2 & 3 of page 5.

NOTE: This story is taken from Kent Blake’s case files. Dates given in this story are first given as March 27 1950, then April 1951, but it would not have taken an entire year for Blake to get from the US to Greece. Since it has already been established that Blake was posing as Lefty Raftis and working on a counterfeiting case during March and April of 1951, i’m taking the 1950 dates to be correct.


Text Story: “Fugitive at Large”

Story 2: “The Man With Two Faces”

Characters: Kent Blake; Lawrence Carter; Kurt Dorashek; Tolstan Fernack; Magda Kallescu; Stephan Kallescu

Synopsis: Kent Blake is sent to the small, Plutonium rich independent Balkan nation of Holtzenburg to determine the cause of the trouble that has threatened to disrupt the supply of the element to the US. He’s met by US Ambassador Lawrence Carter, who explains that Stefan Kallescu, the nation’s dictator, is leaning to the left, while Tolstan Fernack, his opponent in the upcoming election, favors democracy under US guidance.

Carter takes Blake to meet with Fernack, when Dictator Kallescu appears, however Fernack explains that it’s really actor Kurt Dorashek. Warned that Kallescu won’t see him, Blake nonetheless heads to the Dictator’s palace, but his car is run off the road before he gets there.

Blake enters the palace under cover of darkness, where Kallescu confides that he’s been drugged and tortured under orders of his wife Magda, a staunch Communist supporter. Blake spends the night quietly talking to Kallescu, restoring the broken man’s self-confidence on the morning of the election. When his wife enters, Kallescu orders her to leave Holtzenburg and never return.

As Kallescu prepares to deliver a speech to his people, he’s shot from behind and killed, but Blake places a call to Fernack, outlining a plan. Half an hour later, Magda Kallescu steps out on the palace balcony to address the cheering crowds, bringing them sad news of her husband’s death, and promising to give them his last message herself, when Kurt Dorashek appears, dressed as Stefan. Screaming that she killed him, Magda backs away and falls from the balcony. Dorashek, still impersonating Stefan, tells the people that Magda was a traitor, that he’s retiring from office, and to vote for his friend Fernack at the polls.


Story 3: “Destination: Death” by Robert Sale

Characters: Private Tod Collins; his commanding officer; Red Chinese Agents

Synopsis: Private Tod Collins is on lone guard duty along a stretch of coastline that’s part of the US Army Air Force secret testing grounds, when he alerts the shore gunners to an incursion by a three-man Red Chinese sub.

Story 4: “Final Decision” by George Tuska

Characters: Mr Davids; Elwin Chalmers; Miss Fuller; a newspaper vendor; a security guard

Synopsis: Mr Davids buys a newspaper and heads to the National Chemic Building, where Miss Fuller passes him thru security to meet with Elwin Chalmers, VP of National Chemic, who checks his credentials, then hands over the latest formulae in chemical warfare. Davids then places Chalmers in handcuffs, but he takes a cyanide pill rather than face prison.


Story 5: “Dangerous Vacation”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; Joseph Cantrell; Jason Grant; Olga Grant; Gale Whitney; Commander Chang Wu; Captain Lu Tan; Police Officers

Synopsis: Kent Blake drops by Kruger’s office before heading off on vacation, where his boss tells Blake that the latest case he’s working on involves a leakage of information on jets and missiles, with head of department Jason Grant under suspicion.

Two days later, Blake drives out to Gale Whitney’s house on Long Island. After telling her she’s as lovely as when they went to school together, Blake is introduced to Gale’s other guests, Jason and Olga Grant, and Joseph Cantrell. Grant invites Blake up to his place before he heads back to Washington.

Gale shows Blake the old lighthouse, and asks him about his work, mentioning that he’s been seen in far-off lands. Blake tells he her he’s in the import business and wonders if she’s him pumping him for information.

Unable to sleep, Blake walks down to the shore, when he notices a strange beacon from the lighthouse, but when he investigates, he’s koshed from behind. He wakes to find Gale has followed him, and becomes suspicious of her, then he picks up a cigarette lighter with the initials JG engraved on it. He asks Gale to return to the house and fix them a couple of drinks, telling her he’ll follow very shortly, then he heads over to Grant’s house, and listens outside the window as Olga and her brother Joseph hypnotize him to extract secrets.

Blake follows Joseph and Olga as they return to the lighthouse, where they signal to a Red Chinese sub. Olga and Joseph get the drop on Blake, as Commander Chang Wu and Captain Lu Tan come ashore and join them in the lighthouse. The Chinese officers buy the papers from Olga and Joseph, then decide that Blake must die, but just then Jason appears with a gun, and orders the officers to drop their weapons. Just then Gale returns, and a fight ensues, resulting in Joseph and Olga being shot and killed, while Blake and Jason capture the Reds. Blake tells Gale to return home and phone for the coast guard. Watching from the lighthouse, they see the US planes destroy the sub, thren the captives are handed over to the police.

A few days later, Blake returns early from his vacation.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 6 (MARCH 1952)

Story 1: “Tunnel of Death!”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; “Frank Belden”; Herman Schendel; New York Police; Red spies; Coney Island Patrons

Synopsis: July 14 1951: Kruger assigns Blake to locate Herman Schendel and smash his counterfeiting gang. Blake takes a plane to New York, where he’s met by T-Man Frank Belden, who makes a call to report on Blake’s safe arrival, and then drives him to the Greenwich Village apartment Schendel was using before he disappeared. The place has been trashed, but Blake finds a clue pointing to Coney Island, when three thugs enter, and Blake is koshed from behind.

Blake wakes to find himself tied up in the workings of a carousel. He breaks free and follows Belden into the Tunnel of Horror, discovering him to be part of the gang. Beldon belts him, and tells Blake he killed the real T-Man. Tying up Blake, they head out into the bay to their ship in a small boat, and drop Blake over the side. He manages to get to the surface, where he’s helped out by Herman Schendel, who explains that he was kidnapped by the gang and forced to make plates for them, but he escaped before they took off with the phoney money.

Blake sends Schendel to call the FBI, and waits for the counterfeiters to return, where he holds them for the FBI, while the Coast Guard takes care of the ship.


Text Story: “Copy-Cat Crime!”

Story 2: “Blood on the Sand!”

Characters: Kent Blake; Walter H. Kruger; Lt. Farnham; John Preston; airport staff; Army Intelligence Officers; US Soldiers; Red Soldiers

Flashback: July 21 1951: Now in uniform, Kruger meets Blake at the airport as he returns from smashing the counterfeiting ring in New York. He tells Blake he’s Colonel Kruger now, and that Blake has been given the rank of Captain, as they’ve been transferred to G-2 Army Intelligence. He says he hopes Blake remembers how to fly a jet, as he taking off for Korea in three hours.

Two hours later, Blake is sworn in as a member of Army Intelligence, Secret Unit No. 5, before taking off for Korea with his co-pilot, Lt. Farnham, who briefs him on their mission en route. Farnham explains that a scientist, John Preston, has invented a hand-held atomic weapon, and was studying actual battle conditions in Korea in reference to its use, when he was captured yesterday. He adds that some of the heaviest fighting is in the area they have to pass through.

They land in Korea at dusk the next day, and set out for enemy lines with a protective patrol, when they come under fire from enemy shells, decimating the patrol. Making a break for it, the survivors are pinned down by an enemy patrol. Wounded and dying, Farnham tells Blake to make a break for it while he and the others hold off the enemy.

Blake circles around the Red patrol and makes it to the house where Preston is being held.

Synopsis: Blake watches as a squad of soldiers passes the gate. Taking out a Russian officer, Blake changes into his uniform and enters the house, where he finds Preston being whipped, but then he’s koshed from behind and thrown in the corner.

Waking a few minutes later, he finds Preston couldn’t take any more and has given them his designs. Blake tells Preston that every man has his breaking point, and he’ll see to it that the info they got from him does them no good. Taking out the radio operator, Blake contacts American lines, ordering them to bomb the house asap. Shooting their way out, Blake and Preston run for the woods, while the house is blown to bits behind them.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 5 & 6 of page 5.


Story 3: “The Black Bag”

Characters: Colonel Ferris; Communist Spies

Flashback: April 4 1950: A car is sent to collect Colonel Ferris from La Guardia Airport, but the driver is a Communist spy. While waiting for the Colonel, the driver is plagued by a small fat man, who tries to insist on getting into his car. A Communist spy gets into the car with Ferris, and holds a gun on him, while they drive into the country, when Ferris reveals the real courier was the little fat man, and he’s just the decoy. When the spy takes his black bag, Ferris warns him not to open it.

Synopsis: The spy triggers the device, destroying the car and everyone in it.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 5 & 6 of page 3.



Story 4: “Mission at Midight”

Characters: Bart Crale; Andy Crale

Synopsis: As Secret Agent Bart Crale thinks about his family and his brother Andy as he creeps closer to a hut in Korea, where a spy is giving vital intel to the Communists. Kicking in the door, Bart shoots and kills the spy, only to find it’s his brother, Andy.


Story 5: “Deadlier Than the Male!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Fran Marlo; Karl Marlo; US Soldiers

Synopsis: At a US base camp in Korea, on the Sea of Japan, Karl Marlo and his sister Fran entertain the troops with a vaudeville act as the Mystic Marlos. After the show, Blake meets Fran for a romantic interlude, when a soldier who apologizes for the interruption, but tells Blake the Colonel wants to see him immediately. Blake tells the soldier he should be sorry, and tells Fran he’ll see her later.

Col. Kruger tells Blake that the fourth convoy in as many days has been wiped out, and that the enemy has knowledge of their routes, and that communication beams were detected emanating from the camp yesterday, but they weren’t able to pin down the source. He adds that the communication was sent during the Marlos’ performance, and it can’t be a coincidence that they arrived four days ago. Blake tells Kruger that Karl Marlo was held captive for six months when the Reds rook over Hungary, and he may have been turned.

Blake checks out the Marlos’ equipment, when he’s koshed from behind. He wakes to find himself in Fran’s arms, and she asks if he came to finish their kiss, but he tells her he came because he thinks her brother is a Communist agent. Pulling a gun on him, Fran tells Blake she thought Karl was hasty in knocking him out, as she thought he may have just come to see her. She tells him that Karl is only her assistant, and shoots at Blake, grazing his forehead. Thinking him dead, the Marlos’ take off in a Jeep. Blake follows on a motor bike, and with enemy shells exploding all around them, Blake leaps into the Jeep and struggles with Fran, disarming her. Blake kisses Fran and promises to visit her in jail.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 7 (MAY 1952)

Story 1: “Doom Mountain”

Characters: Kent Blake (and in FB); Col. Walter H. Kruger (in FB); Capt. Barbara “Bobby” Farrell (and in FB); Col. Hartnett (in FB); Major Cutler (unnamed in story); a US Medic; UN Troops and officers (in FB); Red Soldiers (and in FB)

Flashback: Capt. Kent Blake and young Capt. Farrell, an atomic weapons expert, are sent by Col. Kruger and Col. Hartnett to investigate a camouflaged area atop Doom Mountain, which the Reds have been tenaciously defending for several days, suspecting it to be an atomic power source.

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake and Capt. Bobby Farrell are escorted to Doom Mountain thru enemy gunfire, then under cover of darkness they climb up, taking out Red patrols along the way. Reaching the top after a gruelling climb, they find the Reds dismantling the installation, when Farrell tells Blake there’s a missile primed for launch, equipped with an atomic warhead, and that the whole mountain is a mass of Uranium and Pitchblende, explaining that if the rocket is shot off, it will set off a chain reaction, destroying the entire mountain, and the US forces below. Blake tells Farrell it would also destroy the entire installation.

Taking Farrell by the arm, Blake says to walk boldly into the camp, as they’re working without light, and aim the rocket out to sea. Farrell tells Blake they’ll be killed, but he says it’s a price they may have to pay, but to run like the devil and climb back down the mountain as fast as they can once the missile’s launched.

They put the plan into action, then race down the mountain, slipping and sliding, as the ground begins to heave and crumble beneath them, and the sky above turns red.

Later, as Blake’s wounds are being tended, he asks where Capt. Farrell got to, when he’s introduced to Capt. Barbara “Bobby” Farrell. Blake borrows a Jeep from Major Cutler and takes Bobby to the Officers Canteen.


Text Story: “Plans for Disaster”

Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Lt. Avon; Major Cutler; Lt. McKay; Capt. Sears; Lt. Trask; Red soldiers

Synopsis: Close to Yanggu, near the enemy lines, the G-2 Frontline HQ has been bombed twice in three days. Crushed and dying beneath a beam in the debris, Major Cutler tells Blake there’s a traitor amongst them, somehow relaying their position to the enemy. A radio communique warns the five survivors that the enemy is approaching fast, and to destroy all documents and get out fast.

Escaping the enemy patrols, Blake tells them that one of them is a traitor, and for each man to watch the one next to him. They crawl their way south, narrowly skirting enemy patrols, until Lt. Trask approaches one of the patrols, warning them the G-2 men are in the bushes, but he’s shot and killed by the Reds. Tossing grenades and shooting, Blake and the others battle their way thru the patrol, leaving Trask’s body with the enemy.


Story 3: “Prisoner of War”

Characters: Joe and other US Soldiers; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Six US soldiers are taken prisoner by Red soldiers, robbed of their valuables, and marched for five days on mouldy rice. Sick with Dysentery, they arrive at a prison camp, where one of the guards tells them that he’s a US G-2 officer. He tells them that the US troops have pushed to within a few miles of there, and he has vital intel for them to get to G-2 HQ for him. He helps them to escape, but gets killed himself.


Story 4: “Journey Into Terror”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake (also as “Major Ivan Petroff”); Col. Walter H. Kruger; Major Cutler (unnamed in story); General Carter-BTS; Major Goletov; John Kelter; General Wong; Charlie, a Pilot; UN Troops; Red Troops

Synopsis: A massive bombardment of UN troops near G-2 Frontline HQ, promts Major Cutler to ask Capt. Kent Blake if he has any idea what brought it on. On the road to HQ, a Jeep is held up by the shelling, prompting John Kelter, one of America’s top atomic scientists, to complain that he’ll be late for his appointment with General Carter. A Red plane flies over, and three paratroopers jump out. Landing behind the Jeep, they shoot the troops and take Kelter captive, but a dying GI gets a message thru to HQ.

Col. Kruger explains that John Kelter has invented a hand-held atomic weapon, and was conducting research under actual battle conditions in Korea in reference to its use when he was captured, and that he must have been taken to Huichon near the Manchurian border, and that Blake will have to and get him back.

Looking thru his files, Kruger finds that a Russian Major Petroff was recently shot down, and tells Blake that will be his disguise to get into Huichon. Kruger sends Charlie to pilot Blake into North Korea, disguised as Russian officers.

Landing at Huichon, Blake introduces himself as Major Ivan Petroff of Russian Counter-Intelligence, and demands to see the camp commandant, General Wong, asking if he’s had any success yet with John Kelter. As Wong takes him to see Kelter, Blake tells him he has orders to transfer Kelter to Manchuria.

After seeing the prisoner, Wong takes Blake to his quarters for tea and rice cakes. Disappearing momentarily, Wong returns, telling Blake that he’s contacted Unsan to tell them he’s coming, and that his friend Colonel Golotov is flying to the camp from Unsan to renew their acquaintance.

Realizing that Wong is suspicious, Blake asks to interview the prisoner in private while they wait for Golotov to arrive. Wong agrees, and Blake orders the guards to leave the cell unlocked while he’s with the prisoner. Blake unties Kelter, telling hin he’s a G-2 Agent, but that they have to bluff it out to get to his plane.

Blake helps Kelter out of the cell, and tells the guards he’s taking him to the commandant, when General Wong appears with Major Golotov, who immediately exposes “Petroff” as Kent Blake of the US Secret Service. Blake gets the drop on General Wong, and holding him at gunpoint, he and Kelter get to the waiting plane and take off.

NOTE: This story takes place between KBSS 7 & 7/2.

NOTE: John Kelter, one of America’s top atomic scientists, is said to have invented a hand-held atomic weapon, and was conducting research under actual battle conditions in Korea in reference to its use when he was captured. The same thing was earlier said of John Preston in KBSS 6/2. It’s possible the two men were working together on the same project, and an unfortunate coincidence that they both were captured and tortured, and both had to be rescued by Kent Blake.

[StrayLamb]

KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 8 (JULY 1952)

Story 1: “Passage to Peril!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Col. Carey; Soldiers of K Company; Red Soldiers

Flashback: K Company is ordered to take and hold Kuwong at all costs, as it’s the key to their supply route north, but before they can dig in, the enemy sends shells and planes to bombard them. Col. Kruger and Capt. Blake watch the slaughter from a nearby hill, noting that this is the third time in as many days that a company has been sent against Kuwong, only to be driven back.

Kruger tasks Blake with rooting out the traitor who’s passing intel to the enemy, warning him that he only has a thirty minute window of opportunity, due to the way the enemy os notified the moment their own troops are clear from shell fire.

Company B is due to attack Kuwong within the hour, and Blake joins them, disguised as a Private, while the enemy steals back into the village. Company B attacks, and by nightfall, Kuwong is again taken by the Americans, when Blake finds an old man, who he’s told always stays thru the shelling, no matter which side takes the village. Col. Carey orders the men to dig in, and for each platoon to remain to itself in a given area.

Already five minutes into his allotted thirty, Blake prowls around and starts to follow the old Korean, when Col. Carey orders him back to his platoon, but as soon as Carey’s out of sight, Blake circles back around, and follows the old man, who enters a secret tunnel and meets up with confederates, who have a radio transmitter. Just then, Blake is faced with a swarm of rats, of which he has a mortal fear.

Synopsis: As the Rats climb up Blake’s legs, he starts shooting at them, alerting the Reds to his presence. As they start shooting, Blake slips on the rats, avoiding the bullets, and gets the drop on the Reds, killing two and forcing the third to send a message that the US forces have bypassed Kuwong and to hold the barrage. The man then shoots himself to save face, and Blake hastens up the tunnel to get away from the encroaching rats, then tosses in a grenade behind him.

Later, at G-2 HQ, Blake reports to Kruger that he got the rats, human and otherwise.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 2 & 3 of page 6.


Text Story: “Out-of-Date Spies”

Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; a Red Agent (impersonates Lt. Arthur James); US Soldiers; Red Soldiers

Flashback: Stolen US Sabre jets and bombers have been atacking US troops, when Kruger sends Blake to Kang Wi airstrip as a fighter pilot, in order to locate the hidden airstrip being used by these aircraft.

When he arrives, Blake meets his co-pilot, Lt. Arther James, and they fly missions together for two days. On the third day, they are scrambled to intercept some MiG-15’s, when James knocks Blake out, and strafes US troops.

Synopsis: A young GI is killed during the strafing run. Coming to, Blake threatens to shoot James unless he tells him who he really is and where he’s taking the plane. James admits he’s really a Red, whose papers and commission were taken from a pilot he killed, and he’s supposed to fly to a hidden airfield north of Kiu Sae, where all of the stolen Allied planes are being held.

Blake has the pilot fly to the hidden airfield, then knocks him out, but when he fails to give the correct signal, the other planes are scrambled and take off after him. As he flies for home, he meets up with a squad of Sabre jets, who take out the pursuing aircraft, and destroy the airstrip.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 3 & 4 of page 4.


Story 3: “One Is a Traitor”

Characters: A Red Agent (as Capt. Kelsey); Barney, Frank, Hugh, and Jim; UN Soldiers; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: The 17th Division, Infantry, mounts a surprise attack to drive back an enemy thrust which threatens to disrupt supply lines, but they find the enemy is expecting them. In a camouflged radio shack, high in the hills, four men receive news of the mission’s failure, when the radio operator discovers the frequency being used by the Reds.

He attempts to relay the intel to HQ, but can’t raise them, when they’re joined by Captain Kelsey from G-2, who tells the men that one of them is a traitor. After initially suspecting each other, but when Kelsey mentions that they tuned in on the enemy’s band, Frank realizes that Captain Kelsey is the Red Agent, as weren’t able to relay that intel to HQ.


Story 4: “The Unseen Death!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H, Kruger; Lee Tsui; Lo San; Carson; a Red scientist; UN Soldiers; Red Soldiers; Korean peasants and members of the underground

Synopsis: Ordered to report to Col. Kruger at a camouflaged hut at the edge of the woods, Blake and his squad come under heavy enemy fire. Ordering his men to return to their command post, Blake goes on alone, narrowly avoiding shells. Thirty minutes later, Blake makes his rendezvous with Col. Kruger, who introduces him to Miss Lee Tsui, who is to lead him to his objective, a factory where the Reds are cultivating plague bacteria for germ warfare.

Kruger gives Blake a time-bomb with a ten-minute fuse, and Miss Tsui hands him faked papers and Korean peasant clothes, telling Blake they’ll travel together as peasants by train thru the Red Zone, and warns him that it will be extremely dangerous, but he counters that being with a lovely woman is always dangerous.

Several days later, Blake and Miss Tsui are travelling by ox cart, as she explains that the Reds had forced her people to work at the germ factory, but she escaped. Near the Manchurian border, they abandon the cart in the woods and board the train, jumping off when it stops for water near the factory.

Arriving at the gate, they present their forged passes to the guard and gain entry, planting the bomb in the main lab, when a scientist enters, forcing them to hide until he leaves. With little time left, Blake and Miss Lee run for it, shooting the guard, and escaping just as the lab explodes.

They rendezvous at an old temple with Lo San and other members of the Korean underground. Blake sleeps until morning, but when he wakes, he learns that Lee Tsui died during the night from exposure to the deadly bacteria while she had worked at the factory.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 9 (SEPTEMBER 1952)

Story 1: “Death in His Hand!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Grant, Talon, Berg, Crowley and other news reporters; Lt. McKay); UN Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Winter in Korea: While troops battle on the front, high ranking officers from both sides meet for pesce talks, while reporters wait outside, chaperoned by Capt. Kent Blake. The talks fail once again, and are rescheduled for the following day.

As Blake returns the reporters to base camp, they’re intercepted by Col. Kruger, who takes Blake aside and explains that some time ago at the New Mexico atomic plant, a new element was discovered, designated Element X, the most powerful explosive yet discovered. He tells Blake that a sample of Element X and a micro-film of the formula was stolen, they believe by one of the reporters at the peace talks. Blake considers the four men under his supervision, Grant, Talon, Berg, and Crowley, wondering which of them could be a traitor.

Three days later, Blake offers to take the reporters out to see the battle terrain, and drives them out to a small bombed-out village near the front. Lt. McKay warns Blake that he’s pulling his troops out, as the Reds are massing two divisions to attack. Blake takes his time and smokes a cigarette, when Crowley and the others start to worry about the nearby shelling, which is coming closer. He tells them that one of the them is a traitor and they won’t be going anywhere until that man confesses. Talon makes a break for it, warning Blake that his fountain pen contains the sample of Element X and the micro-film. Blake shoots Talon, wounding him in the side. Talon tosses the pen, but Blake catches it. Talon races towards his confederates, but is shot and killed by the Reds. As the enemy coloses in, Blake throws the pen containing Element X at them, destroying them, and escapes back to camp with the other three reporters.

NOTE: The Lieutenant isn’t named here, but he appears to be Lt. McKay from the previous issue.


Text Story: “The Pipes of War”

Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; PFC. Wong Haru; Allan Day; Simon Day; a US Sergeant; UN Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Fresh troops from Manchuria pour into Korea, outnumbering the Allied troops by a hundred to one. Col. Kruger tells Capt. Blake that this new army must be stopped by cutting off their supplies, explaining that their Agent, PFC. Wong Haru, is travelling with the Red Army, and will deliver a map of its supply route to Blake at a designated rendezvous in the bombed-out village of Samchon. Kruger tells Blake he’s sending two other agents with him, his old friends Simon and Allan Day, to better the odds that at least one of them will get through with the information they need.

That night, the three agents make their way to Samchon, arriving a day early for the rendezvous. Two days later, a seriously wounded Haru staggers into the village, having been found out and escaped. He warns the agents that there are patrols out searching for him, gives them the map and tells them to leave him as he’s done for. Leaving a pistol for Haru, the three agents head out, but as they make their way thru the woods, Allan is shot and brutally killed. Blake and Simon hide in a hollowed-out tree trunk until the Reds finally give up the search, and make their way back to HQ with the map.


Story 3: “Last Request” by Norman Steinberg

Characters: Maj. Kuo; Lt. Harold “Hal” Robinson; B-29 crewmen; Red Soldiers

Flashback: November 1951: A B-29 Bombing Group plasters a Red airfield fifty miles south of the Manchurian border, with the loss of one aircraft. Bombardier Lt. Hal Robinson manages to parachute from the burning aircraft just before it explodes, but is quickly captured by the enemy, and is brought before Red Intelligence Major Kuo.

Synopsis: Hal is hooked up to a lie detector. Seeking the whereabouts of Allied munitions dumps, Kuo reads from a list of South Korean towns, having Robinson answer yes or no to each question, but unseen by Kuo, Hal burns himself with a cigarette to influence the results, giving Kuo the impression that Tsi Laoshan is the location he’s seeking. Kuo then shoots and kills Robinson, and orders a bombing run on the town at dawn, but the Red squadron is cut to pieces by the heavilly-fortified Allied defenses of the town.

Note: This story begins with an action prologue splash panel that takes place between panels 5 & 6 of page 3.


Story 4: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Maj. Peter Ormsby; Lt. Soong; Lt. McKay; Corp. Kenneth Ormsby; UN Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Allied troops begin converging with other platoons for a surprise attack on the strategic Kaesung Hill, held by the Reds. A few miles from the rendezvous, a well-hidden Red listening post notices the build-up of UN troops. At G-2 HQ, Capt. Kent Blake renews an old friendship with Maj. Peter Ormsby, who shows him a photo of his son, Kenneth, telling Blake he has the makings of a fine soldier. Blake is called into Col. Kruger’s office, where he meets G-2 Officer Lt. Soong, who has located the Red listening post that’s been intercepting their messages, within a large culvert.

Blake and Soong are tasked with destroying the listening post before the Allied converge on Kaesung Hill, and Maj. Ormsby chooses five men to accompany them, including his son, Corporal Kenneth Ormsby. Lt. McKay complains to Blake about taking young Ormsby along, as he’s a coward, and will let them down. Blake tells McKay that the boy’s from a fine military family, and he’ll take a chance on him.

As they head deep into the woods, Blake keeps Ormsby close by him. When Ormsby’s yellow streak begins to show, Blake tells him to stop snivelling and remember he’s a soldier. When they reach the culvert, Blake tells the men to stay on one side, while he takes Ormsby with him to the opposite side, but when some Red guards come near to them, Ormsby stands up and surrenders.

Blake is knocked out with a rifle butt, and wakes to find himself a prisoner in the radio room, with Ormsby about to tell all he knows. Blake springs into action, knocking down a guard, and shooting Ormsby, before backing out of the room, shooting as he goes. He finds himslef facing a machine gun, when McKay lobs a grenade, killing the gunner. They kill the rest of the Reds and destroy the listening post.

Returning to HQ, Blake tells Major Ormsby that his son died a hero, then Ormsby leads the attack on Kaesung Hill.

NOTE: The unnamed Lieutenant here once again appears to be Lt. McKay.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 10 (NOVEMBER 1952)

Story 1: “The Traitor”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; General Carter; Captain Tao; General Wu; G-2 Officers; UN Troops; Red Soldiers & Spies

Synopsis: The 7th Division speaheads a surprise attack on Breakneck Hill, but find the Reds have been forewarned. At G-2 HQ, Col. Kruger defends Capt. Kent Blake to his superiors, who point out that only they and Blake knew of the surprise attack, and none of them except Blake have left the room since it was initiated.

Behind enemy lines, Blake moves thru shell-torn terrain, attempting to reach an Allied post to report on how he was captured and then escaped when a shell hit his patrol, when he’s recaptured by the Reds, and taken to their HQ.

There he discovers an agent who could be his double, and learning that he had taken Blake’s place yesterday at G-2 HQ. When General Wu steps out to take an urgent message from 8th Army HQ, Blake makes his move, knocking out his double, changing clothes with him, washing his face, and dirtying up his double’s.

When General Wu returns, he makes out that Blake had tried to escape and he was forced to strike him down. Wu decides that Blake’ more trouble than he’s worth, and orders Capt. Tao to form a firing squad, but the double comes to and convinces Wu that he’s the Red double. Blake pulls a gun on them, forcing Wu to tie and gag the double, and to go thru with the execution.

Blake then has the General drive back with him to G-2 HQ, where he turns him over to General Carter. Wu is forced to reveal complete details on the Red Army’s troop dispersion on Breakneck Hill, and the hill is taken by the following morning.

NOTE: It may be surmised that the unnamed General seen here is in fact the same General Carter with whom Col. Kruger had an appointment in KBSS 7/4.


Text Story: “The Wrong Wong”

Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Dick Janus; Clark; Becker; UN Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake’s patrol encounters a Red patrol, taking three prisoners. As they return to HQ, they encounter a large number of Red soldiers, and hide out in the bushes, but one of the prisoners gives away their location. They back away, tossing grenades, then Blake orders Becker and Janus to hold off the Reds for three minutes, while they get away with the prisoners.

When Becker and Janus catch up with them, one of the prisoners makes a break for it and kills Janus. They return to Field HQ with the prisoners, who are questioned by G-2 officers. Five days later, GI troops storm thru Ponchu and capture the strategic hills beyond with few casualties, thanks to the intel they gleaned from Blake’s prisoners.


Story 3: “Salvo!” by Vernon Henkel

Characters: Lt. Dunhill; Roark; US sailors and their captain; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Under cover of darkness, Lt. Dunhill of Naval Intelligence and his squad of four hand-picked men are put ashore to discover the exact location of the enemy’s heavy coastal batteries, but they almost immediately surrounded and captured by Reds. An hour later, they are being taken by boxcar deep into enemy territory, when Dunhill has Roark start a ruckus, allowing him to jump from the train.

He waits in the darkness for another train to come along in the opposite direction, and manages to get aboard as it’s travelling slowly, loaded up with heavy coastal artillery. Taking out one of the gun crews, Dunhill waits until the train takes the spurline down towards the beach, then starts signalling the fleet with his torch. Turning all of their guns on his position, the fleet destroys the train and the heavy artillery.


Story 4: “A Time to Fight!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; General Carter; Capt. Wilson; G-2 Officers; UN Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: American troops have the Red army retreating, but as they wait for their supply trucks to catch up, the gap between the two armies widens. As the US troops move into the gap, they are torn apart by terrific, rapid shellfire.

Within the hour, the top brass meets at HQ, where the new kind of artillery is discussed, until General Carter asks Col. Kruger what his plan is. Kruger tells them he intends to send Capt. Kent Blake, along with Capt. Wilson and his company, across the shelled strip into enemy territory to locate the artillery.

Taking advantage of a brief lull between each round of artillery fire, the squad makes it across the shelled strip. Encountering a Red patrol, Blake tells Wilson they should avoid it, but he has his men attack and take them out.

Pressing forward, they find the source of the shells, a group of mobile armored artillery guns, each armed with three barrels, which fire rocket shells in rapid succession. Once again, Capt. Wilson presses the attack, but this time Blake hangs back, watching as Wilson and his men are forced back. With Wilson badly wounded, Blake takes command. Noticing that the Reds have thinned their lines to surround them, this time Blake presses the attack, leading his men in a charge up to the guns. Taking out the Reds, Blake and his men fix charges to destroy the guns, and carry Wilson back to base on a stretcher.

NOTE: Once again, it may be surmised that the unnamed General seen here is General Carter.


KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 11 (JANUARY 1953)

Story 1: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Bannock; “Brooklyn”; Clyde; McGee; UN Troops; Red Soldiers; WACs

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake has spent all day up a tree in the pouring rain, taking notes on the Reds, who are massing in a valley. Climbing back down, Blake tells his men it’s time to return to HQ, when he finds that Bannock has been whittling a duck decoy to send to his kid brother, and Bannock explains to Brooklyn how the decoys work.

Heading back, they run into a Red patrol. A couple of the Reds get away, and bring back reinforcements, who surround the woods as night falls. Bannock’s duck give Blake an idea, and telling the men to get out of their uniforms, they prop them up on sticks, opposite a muddy boghole, and hide in the bushes. When the Reds move in to attack, they get bogged down in the mud, and Blake and his men finish them off.

Later, Blake and his men return to their advance outpost HQ in their underwear, when they’re embarrassed to find a group of WACs at the camp.


Text Story: “Low Guard”

Story 2: “Bring Back a MiG”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake (also in FB); Col. Walter H. Kruger (also in FB); Col. Duncan; Brig. Gen. Whitney (also in FB); Lt. Forbes (also BTS in FB); Lt. Pete Russel (also BTS in FB); a US aircrew and engineers; Red pilots and soldiers

Flashback: At his G-2 HQ dugout, Col. Kruger introduces Capt. Kent Blake to Col. Duncan and Gen. Whitney, who task him with bringing back a MiG. They show Blake a map, indicating where a MiG was shot down intact, explaining that he’ll go there aboard an H-19 Sikorsky cargo chopper with a hand-picked crew and engineers and recover it for their experts to examine. Blake tells them he’d rather not take Lt. Pete Russel, as he’s known him since he was a kid, and promised his family he’d look after him, but the General refuses to change the personnel.

Synopsis: Blake watches as two MiGs swoop towards his chopper. As the MiGs attack fom opposite directions, Blake tells the chopper pilot to come to a near stand-still and lift as fast as he can, causing the two MiGs to shoot each other.

Arriving at the site of the downed MiG, they find the Reds are already there, and they come under heavy fire, so they turn back to look for one of the MiGs that came after them earlier, landing in a nearby clearing.

Blake has Forbes and Russel guard the engineers as they go to work, stripping the MiG of all essential parts and loading them aboard the H-19, but the weight is too heavy for lift-off, so Blake, Forbes and Russel hop out to return to base on foot. The chopper lifts off, but quickly comes under enemy fire. US Sabre jets swoop in, but the H-19 is hit, and goes down.

Blake, Forbes and Russel are captured by a Red patrol, with Forbes taking a nasty wound to the shoulder. They are marched to a camouflaged airfield, where a couple more MiGs are waiting outside a hangar. Blake and Russel are locked in a store-room, while the wounded Forbes is taken for interrogation. Later, the Reds throw the tortured Forbes into the room, where he quickly succumbs to his injuries and dies.

Surrounding some gasoline cans with straw, Blake sets fire to them. As the Reds rush in, Blake and Russel make a break for it, racing to one of the MiGs, which is already fired up and ready for take-off. Pete gets hit, but Blake bundles into the plane and takes off, radioing HQ that he’s flying back in a MiG, but Pete dies on the return flight. As Blake carries Russel’s body out of the plane, he’s congratulated by General Whitney on having stolen the MiG, but Blake tells him he didn’t steal, it bought it with the lives of every last man who went with him.


Story 3: “Death Map!”

Characters: Sgt. Jorgens; Pvt. Clamm; Pvt. Stringerman; Sing Lim; US Commander and submariners; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Sgt. Jorgens, Pvt. Clamm, and Pvt. Stringerman, having been signalled from shore by Sing Lim, take a rubber dinghy to make contact, arranging to meet back at the sub in three hours. They make their way to Sing Lim’s hut, but find a Red patrol there, with a guard at the door. Stringerman, who speaks Chinese, is sent to listen at the window, where he learns that Sing Lim is to be taken to HQ for interrogation. Helpless to help their contact, they wait until the patrol leaves, then they enter the hut to search for Sing Lim’s map, but can’t find it, so they decide they’ll have to rescue Sing Lim after all.

They head to the village town hall, take out a guard, have Stringerman dress in his uniform, and start yelling that the prisoner has escaped, arranging to meet back up with him at the dinghy. Stringerman starts yelling, and races out, shooting into the air. As the Reds rush out, Jorgens and Clamm take out the remaining guard and rescue Sing Lim, who takes Clamm back to his hut, where he gives him a picture from the wall, before rushing out to divert the patrol, while Jorgens returns to the boat to meet Stringerman. Sing Lim is shot and killed, while Clamm gets away with the picture. As they row back to the sub, they find the map is hidden on the back of the picture.


Story 4: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Lt. Carlos Amenda; Sgt. Henri Duval; a US General; G-2 Officers; US Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake is tasked with retrieving a list of foreign profiteers, who are selling shells to the Reds, in possession of one of G-2’s Chinese agents, who has been pressed into service with a Red force near Kanggye. Kruger shows Blake a map, pointing out a hut where their agent will attempt to meet him. Blake picks Sgt. Henri Duval and Lt. Carlos Amenda to accompany him.

Arriving at the hut, they find the agent laying dead, but they retrieve the list from his hollowed-out heel, when a Red patrol arrives. They take shelter in a hidden cellar,while the Reds heave in grenades above. When the blasts stop, Blake and his men spring out of the trap-door to meet the incoming Reds, mowing them down, then head for the woods, where they dodge and weave thru a barrage of shells.They make it thru the woods, when they get strafed by a MiG, and Amenda is killed by a rocket shell.

They carry Amenda’s body back to G-2 HQ, where the General examines the list, discovering one of the names is José Amenda, who owns a factory in a small South American country. Blake tells the General that’s the reason Carlos Amenda stayed in the US and refused to return home.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 12 (MARCH 1953)

Story 1: “The Caverns of Death!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Lt. Rhee San; Pvt. Clem Bellew; a Red Agent; US Troops; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: US forces have been unable to dislodge the Reds from a system of caves that go deep into a mountain, holding up the Allied advance. Col. Kruger introduces Capt. Kent Blake to Lt. Rhee San, who played in the caves as a boy.

As they make their way up the opposite side of the mountain from the shelling, they encounter Pvt. Clem Bellew from Kentucky, who’s been sent by his CO to scout around, when Rhee San turns on them, and marches them into a cave, where he shows them the dead body of the real Rhee San. The imposter ties up Blake and Bellew, then sets a fuse on some crates of dynamite. Bellew spits out a wad of chawing tobacco, putting out the fuse, then Blake gets them free. Taking a few sticks of dynamite, they trail the red spy to a secret entrance to the caves. Bellew blows the steel door, and head inside, where they battle their way thru Red guards, discovering the chamber is an ammo dump.

Unable to retreat the way they came, as the US forces have resumed shelling the mountain, they take powder from the stock of shells, and lay a trail thru the passage that connects the caves. Escaping up a ladder that leads to the top of the mountain, they throw down a match, lighting the powder, and racing down the mountain before it reaches the ammo dump. The Reds are driven out of the mountain, and into the arms of the waiting US troops.


Text Story: “Smudge on the Spy”

Story 2: “Operation Killer!”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Sgt. Harry Chiang; US Troops, including a convoy driver; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Red soldiers ambush a US supply convoy, but only manage to capture US uniforms, however they decide they can make use of them anyway. One truck manages to escape, and makes it thru to the forward camp of a US Cavalry Division.

Making use of the uniforms, the Reds spend several days and nights infiltrating US positions and making a number of kills. Capt. Kent Blake and Chinese-America Sgt Harry Chiang are tasked with locating the uniforms.

Disguised as Red soldiers, Blake and Chiang make their way into enemy territory, and follow a raiding party back to their camp in the Yuan Po Woods. Chiang commputes their exact position, but a they’re discovered by a patrol, and the radio is shot up before they can transmit their position. Blake makes repairs to the radio as they take off, when they run into another Red patrol. Bluffing it out, Chiang tells them they’re all that’s left of their squad, but the Reds want to be led to the US troops, so Blake and Chiang lead them back to the camp with the uniforms. While the patrol attacks the Red camp, Blake gets thru to G-2, and Sabre Jets are sent to finish the job.

Making use of the uniforms, the Reds spend several days and nights infiltrating US positions and making a number of kills. Capt. Kent Blake and Chinese-America Sgt Harry Chiang are tasked with locating the uniforms.

Disguised as Red soldiers, Blake and Chiang make their way into enemy territory, and follow a raiding party back to their camp in the Yuan Po Woods. Chiang commputes their exact position, but a they’re discovered by a patrol, and the radio is shot up before they can transmit their position. Blake makes repairs to the radio as they take off, when they run into another Red patrol. Bluffing it out, Chiang tells them they’re all that’s left of their squad, but the Reds want to be led to the US troops, so Blake and Chiang lead them back to the camp with the uniforms. While the patrol attacks the Red camp, Blake gets thru to G-2, and Sabre Jets are sent to finish the job


Story 3: “Under Cover of Darkness” by Jimmy Infantino

Characters: Col. Sidney Adams; PFC. Joie Matsuma; Capt. Shiman Shee; a G-2 Agent; Red Soldiers; Korean peasants

Synopsis: Tasked by Col. Sidney Adams to enter the enemy-occupied town of Koo-San to seek out Lorean civilians sympathetic to the Republic, Pvt. Joie Matsuma poses as a Korean worker and makes contact with a sympathetic farmer, who introduces him to Shiman Shee, a known American sympathizer who hates the Reds, but Matsuma quickly exposes Shiman Shee for a Red and shoots him. Matsuma shoots his way out, when he’s joined by another of Adams’ agents, sent to shadow him, and they report back to Adams.


Story 4: “Attack at Dawn”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; G-2 Personnel; a US doctor; US soldiers; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake hides in the brush behind enemy lines, completing a map showing enemy dispositions for a planned raid at dawn, then as darkness falls, Red troops begin laying a mine-field. Making his way back to base, Blake runs into a Red patrol and has to battle his way thru, but manages to stagger back into field HQ just before dawn, where his intel is radioed to the attacking forces, who open fire on the Reds from two sides, and force them back into their own minefield.


KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 13 (MAY 1953)

Story 1: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Kent Blake; Dr. Gerhardt; Franz and another Czech underground agent; Red Soldiers

Synopsis: Kent Blake makes his way thru the barbed wire fence, crossing over from East Germany into Czechoslovakia, narrowly avoiding the soldiers, when he’s picked up by his contact, a peasant with a cart. He tells his contact that he’s there to find Dr. Gerhart, a German scientist who was recently kidnapped by the Russians. The peasant turns out to be a highly knowledgable agent, and tells Blake that he was working on weaponizing encephalitis for germ warfare, and that according to Gerhardt’s figures, 10% of those exposed would die, another 10% would be immune, but 80% would become mindless slaves.

Blake is dropped at a hut, where’s to make contact with Franz, another agent. Franz speaks in a strangely monotous voice and pulls a gun on Blake, who knocks him out, and finds needle marks on his arms. Just then, three Red soldiers enter and hold Blake down, while they inject him with the weaponized serum.

Hours later, Blake wakes to find himself in a plane, where he’s told he’s been ill, his name is Franz, and he’s their slave. Realizing he’s in the 10% that are immune to the serum, Blake plays along. The plane lands, and he’s taken to a secret lab carved out of the jungle, where Dr Gerhardt is working. Blake gets the drop on the guards, and gets away on the plane with Gerhardt, who tells him the plane contains a payload of bombs. Blake circles around and bombs the lab, before flying back to the US.

NOTE: This story takes place after KBSS 13/2 & KBSS 13/4.


Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; G-2 Personnel; US Soldiers; Red Soldiers and an officer

Synopsis: The worn out riflemen of K Company trudge thru the rain and shells, crossing below the Kaewun Dam as they return to base after heavy fighting in the Northern Sector. As they disappear into the woods, a US recon plane passes overhead, sending a message back to HQ that enemy forces are closing in behind the remnants of K Company, but the bad weather prevents an exact report.

Col. Kruger sends for Capt. Kent Blake, and sends him to Kaewun Dam to report on enemy numbers and positions. He finds the river banks are alive with Reds, who are also bringing up artillery, but his retreat is cut off. When the Red artillery officer is about to signal to cross the river, Blake gets the drop on him, and forces him at gunpoint to order his men to turn their guns and fire at the dam wall. As the torrent of water roars down on the Red horde in the river below, Blake knocks out the officer and a machine gunner, and kills the remaining artillerymen, before signalling to a lookout for K Company.

NOTE: This story marks Kent Blake’s last recorded mission in Korea, and takes place before KBSS 13/4 & KBSS 13.


Text Story: “The Spy’s Slip-Up!”

Story 3: “The Voice!”

Characters: Joseph Stalin; Comrade Tsalev; Steve, a barman; his patrons; radio station employees; Mirka and her husband; Hi (also in FB), Jane, and their mother; Sasha; Chu Li and his brother; US Prisoners of War (also in FB); Red Soldiers (also in FB); two policemen; US Soldiers and Citizens

Flashbacks: Hi and his two buddies, US POWs left over from WW2 who have not been released, escape from a Russian prison camp. Knowing they will not be able to leave the country, they agree to fight a guerilla war against the Reds, making contact with the Democratic Underground, who supply them with rifles, food and shelter. They do whatever they can to disrupt the Reds, cutting telephone lines, cutting in on their radio transmissions, knocking off their supply lines, and writing out leaflets.

Synopsis: At a bar in the US, a voice breaks in over the radio, coming in over every station. Around the country, other people tune in to listen to the voice, who announces that he’s an American guerilla fighting for freedom behind the Iron Curtain, who with the help of his friends has managed to capture a powerful radio transmitter, in order to tell the free world what they’re doing there.

A radio station executive bursts into the radio room to find out what’s going on, while Jane and her mother believe they recognize the voice. Behind the Iron Curtain, a man tells his wife, Mirka, to keep the radio turned down low. The radio executive tells his people not to cut the voice off, while in Russia, Comrade Tsalev calls out the troops in an all-out attempt to locate the source of the transmission.

Red soldiers burst in on Mirka, shootoing her in front of her husband. Jane and her mother listen as the voice tells the world that he and his buddies are escaped American Prisoners of War, left over from World War Two, who the Reds “forgot” to free.

Jospeh Stalin orders Tsalev to shut down the transmission at once or he’ll have his head. Sasha and his cohort in the Russian Underground keep a watch out for the GPU. In China, Chu Li translates the transmission for his brother, while GIs in Korea listen to the broadcast. A pair of police officers listen to the broadcast, while Jane becomes more convinced she knows the who the voice belongs to.

Tsalev is told that the transmission is coming from a remote location that they haven’t yet been able to locate, but just then, Hi is told by his buddies that the Reds are closing in on them, and they have to break off transmission, while Jane asks her mother if she thinks it really was her brother, Hi.


Story 4: “The Coils of the Snake!”

Characters: Kent Blake (also in FB); Walter H. Kruger; Ron Davis; Myra Tangier; Capt. Kaji; Gottlieb; an Interpol Agent; a US soldier; Turkish Citizens and Police

Flashbacks: Col. Kruger tells Blake he’s no longer a Captain in G-2 Army Intelligence, and they are both going back to civvies as they’re needed for bigger game, explaining they’re going after a spy ringleader called the Snake, the brains behind a gang of spies, adventurers, and trained former Nazi espionage agents. Kruger tells Blake that no one knows who the Snake is, but they’re interest because one of the Snake’s men has stolen US plans for a new atomic-powered guided rocket. He explains that one of their agents has arranged a rendezvous at the Black Cat Café in Istanbul with a Communist agent who intends to buy the plans, and it’s Blake’s job to get the plans back.

Synopsis: Kent Blake jumps out of a plane near Istanbul, and as he parachutes down thru a storm, he thinks back on his conversation with Walter Kruger. He buries his parachute then heads to the Black Cat Café, where a beautiful French woman, Myra Tangier, is singing and dancing, mesmerizing the men in the café.

Blake makes contact with his fellow agent, Ron Davis, who tells him the Snake’s gang will meet tonite to buy the plans, but he doesn’t know where, explaining that they need to meet with an Interpol agent at the café, and that the local police will cooperate once they contact Capt. Kaji. Just then a man stumbles towards Blake, and fall to the floor, dead with a knife in his throat. As the dead man is carried out, the waiter tells Blake it’s just a little joke. Davis tells Blake they’ll dump the dead man in the river as they don’t want any police around.

Myra Tangier joins Blake and Davis at their table, revealing she is the Interpol agent, and pointing out the snake tattoo on the arms of Gottlieb the Strong Man, who has come on stage, tells them to follow him after his act. As they get up, Blake tells Myra he’d like to see her again, and she promises he will.

Myra accompanies the men as Gottlieb goes to his dressing room to change, and tells Blake to make sure he comes back. He tells her to count on it, then he and Davis follow Gottlieb thru the alleys of Istanbul until he enters a house. As they move softly to the door, they are taken out by Gottlieb and a mob of thugs. Gottlieb breaks Davis’ neck and tells his men to throw in the river, then he faces Blake alone, but Blake strikes first. Just then, Myra appears, holds a gun on Blake, and tells Gottlieb to meet the Russian in the apartment below.

As Myra holds a gun on Blake, she admits that she’s the Snake, and that the dead man in the café was the real Interpol agent. Blake hears music, and realizes that Gottlieb led them in a circle, and that they’re in the house behind the Black Cat Café. As Myra leans in to tie him to a chair, Blake turns quickly and grabs her gun, before tying her to the chair instead. Myra tries to make a deal with Blake, but he phones Capt. Kaji.

Five minutes later, Blake and Kaji’s men smash into the apartment below, arrest the Russian, and recover the stolen plans. Blake tells Kaji he’ll find the Snake upstairs, and heads immediately to the airport, where Kaji has a plane waiting for him, but as he flies back to the States, Kaji contacts him, telling him that the Snake had escaped before they got to the upstairs apartment.

NOTE: This story takes place before KBSS 13. Kruger tells Blake he’s no longer a Captain in G-2 Army Intelligence, and they are both going back to civvies, but the intros to each story after they leave Korea still refer to Blake as Capt. Kent Blake of G-2 Army Intelligence, and in KBSS 14 & KBSS 14/2, Blake is in army uniform and called Capt. Blake, while in KBSS 14/4, both Blake and Kruger are in army uniforms and using their G-2 army ranks. Blake and Kruger are certainly still working for G-2, but are now based in Washington, and undertaking international missions.



KENT BLAKE OF THE SECRET SERVICE 14 (JULY 1953) [FINAL ISSUE]

Story 1: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake (also in FB); Myra Tangier; Brig. Gen. Sir Ashley Brookes (only in FB); Semel the Thief (only in FB); Tolsky (also in FB); Prof. Stephen Braun; Shiek of Beshar; Arabs; Taureg Tribesmen; Holy Dervishes

Flashbacks: Capt. Kent Blake is briefed on his next mission by Brig. Gen. Sir Ashley Brookes, aboard his plane. Brookes explains that his chaps rescued Prof. Stephen Braun from behind the Iron Curtain, but after his plane landed at Tel Aviv, he disappeared into the desert.

When they land at Tel Aviv, Brookes wishes Blake luck, and tells him his son is out there somewhere, asking Blake to give him a cheerio from his dad if he should run across him. Blake heads into the native quarter to Braun’s last known address, and starts questioning people about Braun.

A man hands Blake a doll, telling him he was told by Braun to give it to either an American or an Englishman, explaining it’s made of glass and filled with pure water, and sold in the bazaar as a good luck charm for travellers in the desert. Blake examines the doll, noticing the word “beshar” etched into its surface, when Tolsky, a Russian in Arab clothing, grabs the doll from him, and he’s koshed from behind with a rifle butt. As he loses consciousness, Blake catches a glimpse of Myra Tangier in the shadows.

Blake wakes to find Semel the Thief crouching over him, who offers to be his guide or informant in return for baksheesh. Blake asks if the word “beshar” means anything to him, and Semel tells Blake the Beshar are a tribe of Tuaregs who dwell in the Hills of Beshar, beyond the desert. Blake gives Semel baksheesh and sends him to get camels and supplies for a trip into the desert.

By dawn, they reach an oasis, where Semel warns him not to antagonize the Holy Dervishes. They fill their waterbags, but the Dervishes attack them, and Semel runs away, when Myra Tangier appears with Tolsky, who breaks up the fight, and has Blake buried in the sand up to his neck.

Synopsis: Kent Blake is buried up to his neck in the Arabian Desert sands, within sight of an oasis, with scimitar-wielding Dervishes riding around him on horseback. Tolsky tells them they’ve had enough play and to sever his head, but Myra Tangier suggests they leave him to the sun, the ants, and the jackals. As Myra and Tolsky ride off with the Dervishes, Blake forces himself to stop thinking of water, and thinks back on how he came to be in this fix.

Semel returns with Myra Tangier, who tells Blake she couldn’t let him die like this, as he’s the only man who makes her feel like a woman. She gives him water, while Semel digs him out, and tells Blake that her comrades are resting at another oasis until morning. Semel tells them he knows a way thru the desert that will get to the Hills of Beshar within two hours, and they ride off.

Blake tells the Shiek of Beshar that he’s an agent of the US Government, and that he’s seeking Prof. Stephen Braun. One of the Tuaregs steps forward and removes his veil, and reveals that he’s Braun. He tells Blake he’s found peace with the Beshar, and has become an honored member of the tribe. Braun tells Blake he will never return to the world he once knew, and hands him his notes. Myra tells Braun she represents a country that will pay him a fortune for his notes, but he tells her he has no need for fortunes.

Just then, they are warned that Tolsky and his Arabs are approaching, and gunfire rings out as they attack the Beshar camp. Blake tells Semel to tie up Myra in the tent, and grabbing a rifle, he shoots and kills Tolsky. With their leader dead, the Arabs fade into the night.

Semel tells Blake that Myra escaped, saying that she is clever and dangerous. He tells Blake he’s going after Myra, and the Beshar will guide him safely back to Tel Aviv. Before Semel rides off, he tells Blake that if he should happen to see Sir Ashley Brookes, to tell him he met his son, and to send him a cheerio.

NOTE: Semel is also spelled Selem in this story, but i believe Semel to be correct.


Text Story: “Four-Footed Doom”

Story 2: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Karl and other Red Spies; US Coastguardsmen

Synopsis: Capt. Kent Blake is aboard a US Coast Guard vessel off the Florida Keys, on the trail of Red agents. As he boards a suspicious-looking fishing boat, the fisherman shoots at him and tosses a cask into the water. Blake hands the spy over to the Coast Guard, asking him to return with deep sea diving equipment, then the agent jumps overboard and swims underwater in the darkness.

The Coast Guard returns with diving gear, and Blake suits up before being lowered into the shark-infested waters, but once he’s down, a boat-load of Red agents boards the Coast Guard clipper, taking it over. Blake finds the cask, when another diver descends from the boat above and aims a harpoon at him, but Blake strikes first, shooting the spy, so the Reds cut off Blake’s air supply. As the sharks begin to circle, Blake cuts his airline, sealing the remaining air in the suit for bouyancy, kicks off his lead boots, and ascends to the surface. Climbing the anchor chain, he smashes the glass in his helmet and takes a breath of fresh air.

With the help of the remaining Coastguardsmen, Blake takes out the spies.


Story 3: “The Butcher of Wulfhausen!”

Characters: Barry Stone; Col. Kurt Von Richter, the Butcher of Wulfhausen (also in FB); Reinhardt, his second-in-Command (in FB); a G-2 Officer; Nazi Prison Guards (in FB); German Prisoners (in FB); East German Border Guards

Flashbacks: During World War Two, Col. Kurt Von Richter, known as the Butcher of Wulfhausen, with his second-in-Command, Reinhardt, runs the Wulfhausen Concentration Camp with an iron hand, until the Allied victory, when he flees from the Russian Armies.

Synopsis: Secret Service Agent Barry Stone is briefed by his G-2 superior in the American Zone, Germany, and told that Col. Kurt Von Richter, known as the Butcher of Wulfhausen, has been hiding out in West Germany since the war, but they have intel that he’ll be crossing over to the Red Zone that night.

Stone waits in the rain near the Zone 32 border crossing, when a man fitting Von Richter’s description is shot and killed nearby. Stone checks the body, but finds small details that lead him to realize the man was a decoy. When another man slips thru the crossing, Stone attempts to follow him, but is stopped by the guards, and takes them out with some quick moves.

Stone chases Von Richter thru the rain, until the older man stops, gasping for breath. Von Richter pulls a Luger on Stone, whose own gun gets caught in his clothing. Just then, the muddy ground opens up beneath Von Richter, and he falls to his death in a cave filled with skeletons. In the light of his torch, Stone sees a decaying sign for Wulfhausen Concentration Camp.


Story 4: “Kent Blake”

Characters: Capt. Kent Blake; Col. Walter H. Kruger; Ben, Barney, Parke & Baines, Secret Service Agents; Joseph Wolfe; Ivan; Red hirelings; a pedestrian

Synopsis: Ben, a Secret Service Agent, is waiting to meet with Col. Kruger and Capt. Blake on a New York dock, when he’s stabbed to death from behind by Ivan, a Red agent. Kruger, Blake, Parke and Baines race up, but Ivan gets away. Telling Parke and Baines to take of Ben’s body, Kruger drives off with Blake, telling him he’ll have to take over Ben’s case. Kruger shows Blake a precision model of the new rocket generator that he found in Ben’s coat pocket, along with some Dutch white clover seeds, and tells him that Ben following on a lead on spies who have been stealing secrets out of Washington.

Reasoning that illegal industrial diamonds must be used in the manufacture of such fine precision models, they drive to the palatial home of Joseph Wolfe, a diamond dealer from Amsterdam, who assisted the US during World War Two, and helped them smuggle a German scientist out of Holland. Wolfe agrees to investigate the other diamond dealers for them. Before they leave, Kruger asks his driver, Barney, to check the dock schedules for any ships docking from Holland. Finding there’s a freighter from Holland due to dock at 11pm, Kruger and Barney get out at the Treasury Building, and Blake drives to the dock, finding the ship is already unloading.

Blake follows a truck loaded with sacks of white clover seeds, which he delivers to the home of Joseph Wolfe. Blake figures he’s on a wild goose chase, when he catches a glimpse of a man at the gate, recognizing him as Ivan, the man who killed Ben. Climbing over the wall, Blake finds men sorting diamonds from the seeds in the greenhouse, when Wolfe pulls a gun on him, and Ivan knocks him out with a karate chop to the back of the neck.

Ivan carries Blake into the greenhouse, where he wakes up to find the men making precisions models from the stolen plans. Wolfe tells Blake that once they’ve removed all traces of their work, they’ll turn on the steam, and leave him to die, while pointing out that the windows are made from bullet-proof glass, but Blake grabs a pruning knife and holds it to Wolfe’s throat, and backs out of the greenhouse, barring the only exit behind him. He turns on the steam pipes, then gets into a fight with Ivan, who hits his head on the steam pipes, breaking his neck. Blake thinks good riddance, then calls the Chief. Thirty minutes later, Col. Kruger arrives with a truck, and Wolfe and his men are loaded aboard.

NOTE: This is Capt. Kent Blake’s last recorded adventure, unless you count ASM@ 13, which i don’t (see note below).

[StrayLamb]

Dossier on Kent Blake:

Kent Blake is a brilliant detective, highly trained in unarmed and armed combat, and is an accomplished jet pilot. He is also fluent in several languages, including Russian, German, French and Greek. Blake can be charming when he wants to be, and has an eye for the women, but has never allowed it to prevent him from accomplishing his mission. He can be ruthless in his dealings with enemy agents, and also has a morbid fear of rats.

Overview of Kent Blake’s Career:

1939: As a New York City cop, Officer Kent Blake captures a gang of payroll robbers.

Mid-February 1942: Blake is assigned to the 49th Bombardment Group, the Flying Fortresses, and ordered to report to McDill Field, Florida.

August 17 to around Aug 22 1942: Blake joins a crew as a photo-gunner on an air-raid out of England, when his plane is shot down over Germany, and he is captured by Nazis. Blake meets Ralph Strong, a captured Secret Service Agent, and they plan an escape together, but Strong is shot. Before he dies, Strong makes Blake promise to return his shoe to Walter H. Kruger in Washington.

September 17 1942: Having escaped from Germany and returned to the US, Blake meets Walter H. Kruger and on the written recommendation of Ralph Strong, he’s recruited into the Secret Service.

Kent Blake of the Secret Service, Badge 234, performs numerous documented and undocumented missions around the world for the Secret Service, under the supervision of Walter H. Kruger, from late 1942 until mid 1951.

During this time, from late November to late December 1950, Blake is held in the Siberian slave camp of Kolyma, which gnaws years from his life-span.

July 21 1951: Blake is promoted to Captain, Kruger is promoted to Colonel, and both are transferred to Army Intelligence G-2, where Blake undertakes missions in Korea until late 1952.

Late 1952: Blake and Kruger return to the US, and Blake continues to perform more missions around the world for Army Intelligence as a G-2 officer, tangling with Myra Tangier on at least two occasions, the only one of Blake’s enemies to have escaped him, twice!


Note: In the intro to some stories it’s stated that Kent Blake is not his real name, but it’s clearly established within the stories that Kent Blake is indeed his real name. It’s the name he uses when he originally enlists in the army, and old friends from his school and college days know him by this name, even when they don’t know he’s a Secret Service Agent.

Note: Kent Blake, a Secret Service operative, appears in ASM@ 13. According to the ASM Official Index, this is the same Kent Blake of the KBSS comics, but i believe this to be an erroneous assumption. When ASM@ 13 was released in 1979, Kent Blake would have been at least 60, as he was already a presumably decorated police officer in 1939, but due to the continually forward-sliding timescale of the MU, by today’s determination of the events of ASM@ 13, Kent Blake would have been around 95 years old.

The Kent Blake who appears in ASM@ 13 appears to be no older than around 50, with a young wife and two children, the eldest of whom appears to be around 12. Other than bearing the same name, and also being a Secret Service agent, there is no other evidence that this is the same Kent Blake. There is no indication in ASM@ 13 that this character had ever seen action during WW2 or the Korean War. He may well be the original Kent Blake’s son, but he may also just share the same name.

Some fan sites make the assumption that Kent Blake must have had some form of longevity, but this is nowhere borne out in the comics. In fact, in KBSS 1/2, the weeks that Blake spent in the Russian slave camp, mining for gold in appalling conditions, were said to have gnawed years from his life-span. Neither does the Index offer this as an explanation to his appearance in ASM@ 13.

I would suggest that at least until further evidence should present itself, that this character be listed as BLAKE, KENT II.


Dossier on Walter H. Kruger:

Walter H. Kruger was Chief of the US Secret Service from at least 1942 until mid 1951, when he was transferred to head up G-2 Army Intelligence missions in Korea, a post which he held until late 1952. During this time, Kruger’s immediate superior was Brigadier-General Carter, overall in charge of G-2 operations in Korea. Kruger later left Korea to head up G-2 missions from Washington, DC.

Notably, Kruger was responsible for the recruitment and oversight of Kent Blake, the Secret Service’s top Special Agent.


Dossier on Major Cutler:

Major Cutler was the Officer in Charge of the G-2 Frontline Headquarters in Korea until his death during a bombing raid on the command post.


Note: Missions performed by other members of the Secret Service and the army are also documented.

Note: This series was published on alternate months with Spy Cases.

Comment: This series has some really good stories, some of which are quite gritty, and nice artwork. I especially enjoyed the stories featuring Myra Tangier, aka the Snakere.

Theme Song: Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers.



CHRONOLOGIES:

Note: The stories in Kent Blake of the Secret Service are not always presented in chronological order. The early issues in particular depict various assignments from Kent Blake’s files, and occur on specific dates. This is reflected in the character chronologies for Capt Kent Blake and Col. Walter H. Kruger.

UPDATES TO EXISTING CHRONOLOGIES:

BLAKE, KENT (** CHANGE TO: BLAKE, CAPT. KENT/"LEFTY RAFTIS"/"PALOPOLAS"/"MAJ. IVAN PETROFF")
KBSS 1-FB * ADD
KBSS 1/4 * ADD
KBSS 4/3-FB * ADD
KBSS 4/3 * ADD
KBSS 1/2 * ADD
KBSS 5-FB * ADD
KBSS 5 * MOVE TO HERE
KBSS 3 * MOVE TO HERE
KBSS 4 * MOVE TO HERE
KBSS 2/2 * ADD
KBSS 1
KBSS 4/5 * ADD
KBSS 2
KBSS 2/5 * ADD
KBSS 3 * MOVE FROM HERE
KBSS 3/2 * ADD
KBSS 3/5 * ADD
KBSS 4 * MOVE FROM HERE
KBSS 5/2 * CHANGE TO STORY 2
KBSS 5/5 * ADD
KBSS 6
KBSS 6/2-FB * ADD
KBSS 6/2 * ADD
KBSS 6/5 * ADD
KBSS 7
KBSS 7/4 * ADD
KBSS 7/2 * ADD
KBSS 8-FB * ADD
KBSS 8
KBSS 8/2-FB * ADD
KBSS 8/2 * ADD
KBSS 8/4 * ADD
KBSS 9
KBSS 9/2 * ADD
KBSS 9/4 * ADD
KBSS 10
KBSS 10/2 * ADD
KBSS 10/4 * ADD
KBSS 11
KBSS 11/2-FB * ADD
KBSS 11/2 * ADD
KBSS 11/4 * ADD
KBSS 12
KBSS 12/2 * ADD
KBSS 12/4 * ADD
KBSS 13/2 * ADD
KBSS 13/4-FB * ADD
KBSS 13/4 * ADD
KBSS 13
KBSS 14-FB * ADD
KBSS 14
KBSS 14/2 * ADD
KBSS 14/4 * ADD
{ASM@ 13} * REMOVE

CAT * CHANGE TO CAT II
M/FAN 39

CAT II/SHIRLEE BRYANT * CHANGE TO CAT III/SHIRLEE BRYANT
---

CAT III/GREER GRANT NELSON * CHANGE TO CAT IV/GREER GRANT NELSON
---

CAT IV/PETER CRISS * CHANGE TO CAT V/PETER CRISS
---

CAT V/EDWARD LAVENDER * CHANGE TO CAT VI/EDWARD LAVENDER
---

CAT VI/SHEN KUEI CHANGE TO CAT VII/SHEN KUEI
---

CAT VII/EMMA MALONE * CHANGE TO CAT VIII/EMMA MALONE
---

CAT VIII * CHANGE TO CAT IX
SW6 13

GOTTLIEB * CHANGE TO GOTTLIEB II
---

LINCOLN, ABRAHAM
BP@ 1-FB * DELETE (E-8441)
ASM:EDAY /9-FB
{M/CP 161} * REMOVE BRACES
{KBSS 2/4} * ADD

SNAKE * CHANGE TO SNAKE II
---

SNAKE II * CHANGE TO SNAKE III
---

STALIN, JOSEF VISSARIONOVICH/JOSEF DJUGASHVILI * ADD MIDDLE NAME
BW:DO 1-FB
{HTC 5B}
INV 32
INV 33
[HTC 14/4] * ADD
SGTF 51
CA@ 13 (20)-FB
NSUB@ 1/3
[POLICEA 7/3] * ADD
[WAR 40/3] * ADD
[BATTLE 17] * ADD
[WARADV 13] * ADD
[BATTLE 20/3] * ADD
KBSS 13/3 * ADD
CA@ 13 (21)-FB
AIWW 21/2

NOTE: Stalin’s Chronology updates have been dealt with separately here.

TRUMAN, HARRY S
CA 215-FB
CA&BUCKY 625 (1 - 3:2)-FB
WI? 4 (9 - 11)
CA&BUCKY 625 (14 - 16)-FB
WI? 4 (12 - 17:1)
NSUB@ 1/3
WI? 4 (17:2 - 17:5)-BTS
A@ 9-FB
KBSS 2/4-BTS * ADD
CA 155-FB * MOVE TO HERE
YMEN 24/3-FB
CA 155-FB * MOVE FROM HERE


NEW CHARACTER LISTINGS:

ADAMS, COL. SIDNEY
KBSS 12/3

AGENT X-5/ "VASILI ZAROFF"
KBSS 1/5-FB

ALBERT, HEINRICH FRIEDRICH
KBSS 2/4-BTS

AMENDA, LT. CARLOS
KBSS 11/4

ASTOF, LT.
KBSS 1/2

AVON, LT.
KBSS 7/2

BAINES
KBSS 14/4

BANCROFT, SAM
KBSS 3/5

BANNOCK
KBSS 11

BARTO, CAPT.
KBSS 2/2

BASCOMBE/"TEDESCU"
KBSS 5-FB
KBSS 5

BECKER
KBSS 10/2

BELLARD, MR.
KBSS 1

BELLEW, PVT. CLEM
KBSS 12

BELTRAM, JULES
KBSS 4

BERG, MR.
KBSS 8

BIRDZELL, DONALD
KBSS 2/4

BISHOP, MAJ. KANE
KBSS 2/3-FB
KBSS 2/3

BLAKE, KENT II
ASM@ 13

BOOTH, JOHN WILKES
KBSS 2/4

BRAUN, PROF. STEPHEN
KBSS 14

BROOKES, BRIG. GEN. SIR ASHLEY
KBSS 14-FB

“BROOKLYN”
KBSS 11

CANTRELL, JOSEPH
KBSS 5/5

CAREY, COL.
KBSS 8

CARTER, BRIG. GEN.
KBSS 7/4-BTS
KBSS 10
KBSS 10/4

CARTER, LAWRENCE
KBSS 5/2

CAT/"PAUL LAVALLE" [All other Cat’s need to go up a number]
KBSS 3/2

CHALMERS, ELWIN
KBSS 5/4

CHANG WU, CMDR.
KBSS 5/5

CHARNOFF
KBSS 5-FB
KBSS 5

CHIANG, SGT. HARRY
KBSS 12/2

CHU LI
KBSS 13/3

CLAMM, PVT.
KBSS 11/3

CLYDE
KBSS 11

COFFELT, LESLIE WILLIAM
KBSS 2/4

COLLAZO, OSCAR
KBSS 2/4

COLLINS, PVT. TOD
KBSS 5/3

COOLIDGE, CALVIN
KBSS 2/2-BTS

CORBETT, ADRIAN
KBSS 3/2

CRALE, ANDY
KBSS 6/4

CRALE, BART
KBSS 6/4

CROWLEY, MR.
KBSS 8

CUTLER, MAJ.
KBSS 7
KBSS 7/4
KBSS 7/2

DANOS, CAPT.
KBSS 5

DAVIDS, MR.
KBSS 5/4

DAVIS, RON
KBSS 13/4

DAY, ALLAN
KBSS 9/2

DAY, SIMON
KBSS 9/2

DE BARRANZA, GEN. PEDRO
KBSS 4/5

DE RODRIGUEZ, ERNESTO
KBSS 4/5

DE RODRIGUEZ, MARIA
KBSS 4/5

DORASHEK, KURT
KBSS 5/2

DOWNS, JOSEPH
KBSS 2/4

DUNCAN, COL.
KBSS 11/2

DUNHILL, LT.
KBSS 10/3

DUVAL, SGT. HENRI
KBSS 11/4

FARNHAM, LT.
KBSS 6/2

FARRELL, CAPT. BARBARA "BOBBY"
KBSS 7

FARREN, STEVE
KBSS 3/3-FB
KBSS 3/3

FERNACK, TOLSTAN
KBSS 5/2

FERRIS, COL.
KBSS 6/3-FB
KBSS 6/3

FORBES, LT.
KBSS 11/2-FB-BTS
KBSS 11/2

FULLER, MISS
KBSS 5/4

GERHARDT, DR.
KBSS 13

GOLETOV, MAJ.
KBSS 7/4

GOTTLIEB (The current GOTTLIEB becomes GOTTLIEB II)
KBSS 13/4

GRANT, JASON
KBSS 5/5

GRANT, MR.
KBSS 8

GRANT, OLGA
KBSS 5/5

GREAT LLAMA (note spelling)
KBSS 3

GREAT LLAMA II/LLAMA NEI DALAI
KBSS 3

HANLEY, MAJ. JOHN
KBSS 4/2

HARTNETT, COL.
KBSS 7

HARU, PFC. WONG
KBSS 9/2

HELOS
KBSS 5-FB
KBSS 5

IVANOFF
KBSS 1/5

JANUS, DICK
KBSS 10/2

JORGENS, SGT.
KBSS 11/3

KAJI, CAPT.
KBSS 13/4

KALLESCU, MAGDA
KBSS 5/2

KALLESCU, STEFAN
KBSS 5/2

KELTER, JOHN
KBSS 7/4

KEPIKOFF, MISCHA/"CONSTANTI METROVICH"
KBSS 1/5-FB
KBSS 1/5

KINDER, MAC
KBSS 4/2

KLEIN, COMRADE
KBSS 2/3-FB
KBSS 2/3

KOTLAS
KBSS 1/2

KREVITT
KBSS 3

KRUGER, COL. WALTER H.
KBSS 1-FB
KBSS 5-FB
KBSS 3
KBSS 4
KBSS 2/2
KBSS 2-VO
KBSS 2/5
KBSS 3/2
KBSS 5/5
KBSS 6
KBSS 6/2
KBSS 6/5
KBSS 7
KBSS 7/4
KBSS 8-FB
KBSS 8
KBSS 8/2-FB
KBSS 8/4
KBSS 9
KBSS 9/2
KBSS 9/4
KBSS 10
KBSS 10/4
KBSS 11/2-FB
KBSS 11/2
KBSS 11/4
KBSS 12
KBSS 12/2
KBSS 12/4
KBSS 13/2
KBSS 13/4-FB
KBSS 14/4

KUO, MAJ.
KBSS 9/3-FB
KBSS 9/3

LINCOLN, MARY TODD
KBSS 2/4

LO SAN
KBSS 8/4

LORANT, LUCIEN
KBSS 2/5

LU TAN, CAPT.
KBSS 5/5

MARLO, FRAN
KBSS 6/5

MARLO, KARL
KBSS 6/5

MATSUMA, PFC. JOIE
KBSS 12/3

MAXWELL, HERBERT
KBSS 2

MCGEE
KBSS 11

MCKAY, LT.
KBSS 7/2
KBSS 8
KBSS 9/4

MURPHY, MARIA
KBSS 1/4

NOVACK, MAX
KBSS 1/2

ORMSBY, CORP. KENNETH
KBSS 9/4

ORMSBY, MAJ. PETER
KBSS 9/4

OSBORNE, ROY
KBSS 4/4-FB
KBSS 4/4

OSPENSKO, SERGE
KBSS 1/5-FB

PARKE
KBSS 14/4

PASTEL, LULU
KBSS 2/5

PETROV, LT.
KBSS 1/2

PETROVICH, COMMISSAR DANELO
KBSS 1/5-BTS

PRENTISS, CHARLES
KBSS 4/5

PRESTON, JOHN
KBSS 6/2

REINHARDT
KBSS 14/3

RHEE SAN, LT.
KBSS 12

ROARK
KBSS 10/3

ROBINSON, LT. HAROLD “HAL”
KBSS 9/3-FB
KBSS 9/3

ROGERS, CONGRESSMAN
KBSS 1

RUSSEL, LT. PETE (Note: RUSSEL is correct spelling)
KBSS 11/2-FB-BTS
KBSS 11/2

SCHALK, ERIC
KBSS 2/3-FB
KBSS 2/3

SCHENDEL, HERMAN
KBSS 6

SEARS, CAPT.
KBSS 7/2

SEMEL THE THIEF
KBSS 14-FB

SHEE, CAPT. SHIMAN
KBSS 12/3

SHIEK OF BESHAR
KBSS 14

SING LIM
KBSS 11/3

SKOURAS, WARDEN
KBSS 5

SLAVIN
KBSS 4/3-FB

SLADE, FRANK
KBSS 4/2

SNAKE/MYRA TANGIER [other Snake’s move up a number]
KBSS 13/4
KBSS 14-FB
KBSS 14

SOONG, LT.

SQUINTY
KBSS 2/2

STANDRIN, KARL
KBSS 4

STONE, BARRY
KBSS 14/3

STRINGERMAN, PVT
KBSS 11/3

STRONG, RALPH
KBSS 1-FB

TALON, MR.
KBSS 8

TOLSKY
KBSS 14-FB
KBSS 14

TAO, CAPT.
KBSS 10

TORRESOLA, GRISELIO
KBSS 2/4

TRASK, LT.
KBSS 7/2

TROTTER, CHRISTOPHER
KBSS 2

TSALEV, COMRADE
KBSS 13/3

LEE TSUI
KBSS 8/4

VOLKOF
KBSS 1/4

VOLTOV, COMRADE
KBSS 2/3-FB
KBSS 2/3

VON RICHTER, COL. KURT/"BUTCHER OF WULFHAUSEN"
KBSS 14/3-FB
KBSS 14/3

WHITNEY, GALE
KBSS 5/5

WHITNEY, BRIG. GEN.
KBSS 11/2-FB
KBSS 11/2

WILSON, CAPT.
KBSS 10/4

WING, CHARLES
KBSS 3/4

WING, GEN.
KBSS 3/5

WOLFE, JOSEPH
KBSS 14/4

WONG, CAPT.
KBSS 3/5

WONG, GEN.
KBSS 7/4

WU, GEN.
KBSS 10

[StrayLamb]

Updated to better reflect the action prologues and resulting flashbacks.

[ShadZ]

The Kent Blake who appears in ASM@ 13 appears to be no older than around 50, with a young wife and two children, the eldest of whom appears to be around 12. Other than bearing the same name, and also being a Secret Service agent, there is no other evidence that this is the same Kent Blake.

Doesn't the letter column in whatever issue of ASM that discusses this annual make it clear that this is intended to be the same Kent Blake? I seem to recall that. I'll see if I can find that....

[StrayLamb]

Doesn't the letter column in whatever issue of ASM that discusses this annual make it clear that this is intended to be the same Kent Blake? I seem to recall that. I'll see if I can find that....

Possibly so, but unfortunately the whole episode does nothing but diminish the character, whose portrayal is completely out of character. In my personal opinion it should be disavowed, and attributed to another character. I realize it probably won't be, but i believe it should be.