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412th out of 575 books
—
922 voters
Super Spy
by
Matt Kindt (Goodreads Author)
Super Spy is 52 interwoven short stories about cyanide, pen-guns, heartbreak and betrayal. Each story follows the life of a spy during World War II. Spanning the globe from Spain to France and Germany, this book takes the reader on a tour of the everyday life of the spy. From the small lies and deceptions to the larger secrets that everyone hides, Super Spy reveals the nat...more
Paperback, 334 pages
Published
September 11th 2007
by Top Shelf Productions
(first published August 29th 2007)
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First, Kindt's artwork is stunning and Super Spy would be worth reading for the art alone. Luckily, the story is intriguing and told masterfully. I nearly gave this five stars, and if I reread it (which I want to already) I might.
Super Spy is set in World War II, late in the war and mostly in Europe, and explores espionage and the relationships of and between a collection of spies. A series of smaller, interconnected stories are presented deliberately non-linear, forcing the reader to become som...more
Super Spy is set in World War II, late in the war and mostly in Europe, and explores espionage and the relationships of and between a collection of spies. A series of smaller, interconnected stories are presented deliberately non-linear, forcing the reader to become som...more
I love that with graphic design books you really can judge a book by the cover. Although in the case of this cover, I was led to believe it was a little more light than it actually was. I thought it probably was Nancy Drew type "Super Spy" not spies killing other spies. The illustrations were really powerful but I would have enjoyed a verbal introduction to the story. After reading it I was left wanting to know more.....were the stories were based on truth, why did he choose the subject matter?...more
I had a migraine when I read this comic book and so I admittedly didn't pay it the careful attention the interweaving stories really require. This comic about spies is fittingly constructed like a puzzle, with a lot of interlocking pieces that the reader has to slowly put together by paying close attention to small details and keeping a lot of different characters straight. It's a fantastic concept and it's pretty amazing in it's execution from a narrative standpoint. My main criticism is that i...more
Matt Kindt's graphic novel Super Spy takes a collection of classic characters and presents a complex story of interwoven lives, loves, and betrayals during a time of war. His characters become so real that the reader easily forgets the story is fiction. The daily lives of the agents and double agents balance the mundane and the spectacular so beautifully that hanging the laundry becomes an act of defiance and a tryst with an exotic dancer in Cairo is just part of the job.
Drawn in a beautiful, s...more
Drawn in a beautiful, s...more
Over the last couple decades it has been a popular ploy in fiction to attempt the creation of a single story through the use of a multitude of narrative points. Novels will set forth what seem like a number of unrelated short stories that—only when all finished and seen from the outside—combine to form a single narrative thread. Numerous protagonists will weave in and out of story focus, each propelling the fictive direction according to their own story needs but all the while vectoring the stor...more
Kindt’s lovely graphic novel approaches spy stories with the alt-comics bent, reminding me a bit of what a spy story might look like if Quentin Tarantino plotted the screenplay, but then Wes Andersen wrote the dialog and the characters. A few extra thoughts:
* Reminds me more of Le Carre than Fleming. These are spies that lament the pressure they must undergo. They’re tired and scared and murdered easily.
* The women get a particularly bum rap in the story, usually having to betray themselves to...more
* Reminds me more of Le Carre than Fleming. These are spies that lament the pressure they must undergo. They’re tired and scared and murdered easily.
* The women get a particularly bum rap in the story, usually having to betray themselves to...more
This graphic novel blew me away! It is historical fiction about spies during World War II and takes place in Germany, Spain, England, and the US. The stories are told from multiple perspectives and out of chronological order which made the first read pretty disorienting. But Kindt changes his artistic and lettering styles with the narrator so it wasn’t impossible to keep track. And he provides a key to the reader who wants to read in chronological order. But more to the point, as I approached th...more
Interconnected vignettes, presented non-chronologically, about spies during WWII.
I am obsessed with WWII.
No, that's a bad way to phrase it; there is nothing intellectual about my fascination: I'm not obsessed with any of the history-qua-The-History; I'm just obsessed with the zeitgeist. The skirts. The cigarettes. The books. The cities the windows the cafes the trains.
And spies!?
Spies satisfy my obsession with miniatures, I think. Intrigue, fine. Danger, ok cool I got it. But little tiny cont...more
I am obsessed with WWII.
No, that's a bad way to phrase it; there is nothing intellectual about my fascination: I'm not obsessed with any of the history-qua-The-History; I'm just obsessed with the zeitgeist. The skirts. The cigarettes. The books. The cities the windows the cafes the trains.
And spies!?
Spies satisfy my obsession with miniatures, I think. Intrigue, fine. Danger, ok cool I got it. But little tiny cont...more
Graphic novel set during WWII; interconnecting dossiers about spies working in Europe, the US, and Egypt and the inherent and human conflict between personal choices and those made for their country.
Part mystery (esp wrt identifying the sometimes nameless spies; the reader is actively engaged in what she sees of the character versus what she is told), part spy novel, part metafiction, part romance, the always (somehow) glamorous but tragic lives of several spies overlap in what is less a graphic...more
Part mystery (esp wrt identifying the sometimes nameless spies; the reader is actively engaged in what she sees of the character versus what she is told), part spy novel, part metafiction, part romance, the always (somehow) glamorous but tragic lives of several spies overlap in what is less a graphic...more
I wanted to like this more than I really did. Of course, that may have to do with the fact that I read it after I was supposed to be sleeping when I was sick and stressed. But I couldn't quite make out a lot of the illustrations. I love the idea - weaving various stories of espionage from WWII into one long narrative that connects. But I couldn't make out some of the pictures and thus lost out on some of the story. Also, many of the characters looked the same - which I'm sure is appropriate for...more
I've heard good things about this, and I really wish I liked it better, at least enough to finish it. I'm not sure why it's not working for me, though I think it's partly that the style of the artwork doesn't harmonize with the subject matter (for me; of course this is subjective and I'm not the most sophisticated reader of graphic novels so, even more than usual, your mileage may vary). I do like that he gives his own sequence for the stories but also makes it possible for you to read them chro...more
I like the way Superspy is set up. The text is a series of short stories each of which is told from the point of view of a different spy. The tone of the book is ironic, depicting most of the spies as limited with regard to their knowledge of the larger plot to which their own experiences belong; in contrast, the reader has the advantage of seeing how one story intersects with another as two characters from different stories meet in a third story, or an object like a code book from one story rea...more
Oct 14, 2007
Jeremiah
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Spy Fiction lovers and lovers of graphic novels
Shelves:
spyfi
I haven’t read anything by Kindt before, but after reading this I am definitely going looking for his other books. Both art and story were beautiful. This graphic novel is a collection of interlocked stories (not necessarily all told chronologically) that deal with espionage during WWII. Kindt focuses on the missions, the people undertaking them, and the toll the job takes on the individual, their family and the bigger picture and not (usually) the glorious Bondian action it insinuates. Paths cr...more
I dug this. It's an effective use of a fun trend in recent comics—the series of short stories done in pastiches of various styles, that all turn out to interconnect and form one larger story. (Dan Clowes' recent stuff (Ice Haven and Death Ray) is probably the best example of this.) Interesting to see that approach applied to a different kind of story. It manages to encompass a number of different takes on the spy theme, from espionage as workaday drudgery to a Mata Hari riff to a parodic take on...more
This was excellent. Spies, nazis, love affairs, etc. It was tricky, though- the stories were non-linear, so after I read it, I went back and re-read the whole thing in what I gathered was the chronological order. It helped- as I read, I did not realize how much the stories were inter-related, so the second time through was one of those 'Ohhh! now I get it' types of deals. Although some of the stories still don't make 100% sense to me... but that's kind of the nature of spy stories, isn't it? I w...more
Surprisingly good:- surprising because the overall approach is rather kitsch and sometimes much too like the old MAD spy-vs-spy. However the artwork is great, the structure and interweaving of storylines is intriguing. My main gripe is that this could have been a really great and powerful book if it had been based on historical fact, with real stories and experiences (and the reality of how brutally spys were treated) rather than this rather lame adventure book style.
I first read this "book" on long flight to Norway and have been singing its praises ever since. Like very, very few graphic novels before it, Super Spy weaves such delicate and seemingly disparate stories into one cohesive narrative. That someone actually took the time to figure out the 52 (!) storylines tie together in this story is amazing, but that really speaks volumes for the work of Matt Kindt. Great read. Couldn't recommend this any more highly.
Saw this on Heidi's list and then at the library so I picked it up. Another fast read... but somewhat hard to follow. The stories seem to be intertwined but there is no coherent time line. I don't mind if stories are jumbled, but I do like to be able to sort them out in my own mind. Couldn't do it with this book. Like Heidi, I found this a little depressing but was overall impressed. Would I read another book by this author? Probably not.
Apr 15, 2008
Michellette
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommended to Michellette by:
found on Aaron Cumming's shelf
This graphic novel follows around the intertwining lives and adventures of several spies during WWII. The chapters, or 'dossiers,' are presented in a seemingly random, non-linear sequence. The drawing of each character is not always consistent, so it's one of those things I'll read over again and probably go 'Oooooooh, so that's who that was...' a couple times. This effect of people not always being who you think they are, or might be, works with the theme of the novel however, as this is the ki...more
Each short story stands in its own as a compelling entry to the body of soy fiction. But where this book is genius is in how Kindt connects the stories to each other in multiple ways--and the real reward goes to the reader who is willing to go back and put all the pieces together to get the whole story. For more of my thoughts on Kindt, see my review of 3 Story.
Matt Kindt's new book falls in the same vein as his previous work 2 Sisters. On its surface it is an intricately woven tale of spies working in Europe during World War II, but in reality it is about the people themselves more than their vocation, the relationships they form and the hardships they go through.
I liked the non-linear format. I was curious as to what Mr. Kindt's sources/research looked like: Were these stories of spies and tricks and sneaking drawn from his imagination? Or were they based on real-life happenings he had read up on? They certainly seemed believable.
All in all a very solid work.
All in all a very solid work.
all of these graphic novels i'm posting tonight are from GQ's 20 must read graphic novel list (after watchmen).. these are the ones i haven't heard of. i think i've read a bit over half of the list.. anyway, the list is here:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/land...
enjoy:
http://men.style.com/gq/features/land...
enjoy:
My problem with this book was that there were just too many stories for me to keep up with. I caught some of the connections, but I am sure that I missed several others. The art was beautiful and I really liked a few of the stories, but there was a lot of repetition (spy gets compromised, spy gets killed.) I guess that isn't a lot different than real life espionage, but I still would have liked a bit more intrigue.
The art in this is really unique and interesting. The only difficulty was keeping track of the characters in order to make all the connections when the stories start to come together. I'll probably read it again pretty soon in order to get the bigger picture.
Matt Kindt is one of the most amazing storytellers in the comics world. Super Spy weaves together interconnected spy stories in such a beautiful way. Kindt continues to show how amazing comic books can be. Highly recommend this book, and anything by Kindt in general.
Just finished Matt Kindt's Super Spy. Short gripping vignettes of betrayal, loss, and in rare cases, love, in the world of WWII espionage. So far, my favorite is Dossier #0141944, Sharlink "The Shark."
I'd tell you why, but that would ruin the story.
I'd tell you why, but that would ruin the story.
A superb graphic novel in dossier form. Like any spy story worth its salt, it can be hard to grasp exactly what's happening at any one point in this book. We follow a number of different spies as they shift allegiances, cross paths, get new assignments, etc.
The artwork mimics this ambiguity, as it's often hard to tell exactly what's going on. Kindt walks a fine line between hiding and showing that never veers into frustrating territory -- more tantalizing.
Given the various plot lines and scatter...more
The artwork mimics this ambiguity, as it's often hard to tell exactly what's going on. Kindt walks a fine line between hiding and showing that never veers into frustrating territory -- more tantalizing.
Given the various plot lines and scatter...more
What does it mean to be a spy? That is, to make a life out of deception? What toll does it take on your humanity? What Kindt does, rather than add to the heap of spy cliches, is puts a human face on spying.
The result is an original approach to not only to this genre, but of the comic narrative as well. Spy stories loop through each other and back again and the interlocking narratives left me with a stronger idea of wartime psychology and the idea of spying than any host of war movies. My only cr...more
The result is an original approach to not only to this genre, but of the comic narrative as well. Spy stories loop through each other and back again and the interlocking narratives left me with a stronger idea of wartime psychology and the idea of spying than any host of war movies. My only cr...more
This one is hard to follow. The art is, well, pretty, which definitly counts for something. It has a wistful quality too. I like how the "cool badass" elements and poetic elements are woven together.
Not a bad start into the illustration of Matt Kindt, but his characters look the same and it's hard to discern them from others unless they have something obvious in their features. And as far as the writing goes, the many characters are sad and reluctant about different things, but I don't think we...more
Not a bad start into the illustration of Matt Kindt, but his characters look the same and it's hard to discern them from others unless they have something obvious in their features. And as far as the writing goes, the many characters are sad and reluctant about different things, but I don't think we...more
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