Kent Blake of the Secret Service 1-14
Posted: Fri Apr 22, 2022 9:11 pm
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.
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.