Super Spy

Super Spy

by Matt Kindt

From New York Times bestselling and Harvey award-winning graphic novelist Matt Kindt comes this deluxe hardcover edition of the meta-spy thriller exploring the geography of espionage through interconnected short stories that can be read sequentially and out-of-order.

Super Spy is Pulp Fiction meets James Bond—fifty-two 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 nature of espionage and how an individual can be lost and also find redemption. A children’s book is something more than it seems...a woman swims the English Channel to deliver a deadly secret...a German spy desperately seeks escape for herself and her daughter...and a spy continues to serve his country even beyond death.
 
This deluxe edition also collects Super The Lost Dossiers : a "secret spy activity book for grown-ups" including comics, toys, codes, sketches, diagrams, annotations to the original Super Spy , deleted scenes, standalone spy stories, sketchbook pages, 3-D comics, spy gadget diagrams, keys to unlock secret codes hidden throughout the original book, toys and stories for you to cut out and assemble! illustrations, photos, and commentary from Matt explaining the real-world spy origins of his stories and techniques and also featuring a brand new cover illustrated by Matt Kindt.
 
Collects Super Spy Volume 1 and Super The Lost Dossiers.
 

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Comic Book, Espionage, Graphic Novels Comics

448 pages, Hardcover

First published August 29, 2007

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Matt Kindt's work: His edgy art, his ambitious storytelling, the way he complicates things, challenges us. Here he interweaves several narrative threads that link together in various interesting ways. Some of it was a little confusing as I sometimes mixed up characters as they looked similar, but this tale of WWII espionage is finally really cool.

I think it may be unfortunately titled, since it gives off the vibe of a children's book--even the cover, which I love, could be sending you in that direction, but it is not that, really. It's more sophisticated than that! The art makes the tale much more interesting (shaded, shady), and it is overall a fascinating, multi-layered read.

[The Lion's Share · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like a cross between Pulp Fiction and a world war spy movie. The book starts at the end and is then chopped up into different scenes so you would be forgiven becoming easily confused when reading the storyline.

I'm a bit biased because I recently fell deeply in love with Matt Kindt's Mind MGMT. The artwork, there's something about it. I can understand that it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea and if you asked me to pick this up or Mind MGMT 3 or 4 years ago then I would probably have snubbed it, just because of the artwork. I was used to DC comics, artwork that was all about bulging muscles, bulging breasts and perfect physiques. A tad shallow.

After reading more independent comics over the years it made me appreciate different flavours of artwork and that there shouldn't be a common style, but instead just a good flow. That's was the artwork does for me. It tells the story clearly and it's quirky at the same time.

The story itself is confusing and I'll probably need to read it again, but the detail is extraordinary and ideas I wouldn't have dreamed of. A fantastic story of a collection of spies and what they go through in order to make sacrifices for the war.

[Seth T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

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 story itself down the author’s intended path.

It’s not an easy thing to accomplish. More often than not, authors of such works are only moderately successful in the endeavor. While once the inventiveness of even attempting such a kind of story may have been enough to earn accolades, now that the form is no longer all that experimental (having been attempted over and again these last twenty years) readers require skill as well as invention. Many of these stories don’t hold together quite as well as an author should like, their narrative paths not quite intersecting so well as they should.

I’ve read many such books that—while showing promise from the start—have ultimately disappointed. Books whose final product failed to deliver with a compelling narrative force. Super Spy is not one of those books. While there are certainly a number of points in which Matt Kindt’s collection of WWII-era spy stories could have been better or more competently wrought, those are rare and in the end do little to diminish the work.

When I first approached Kindt’s book, I was not aware that he was weaving any sort of narrative tapestry. I thought Super Spy was merely a collection of short stories. It took the absorption of several stories before I came to realize that these stories were at all connected. It took several more to see that he was, through these disparate reflections, forging a single work. By book’s end, Kindt clearly and deftly presents his thesis: a portrait of the spy, a landscape of clandestine HUMINT.



Super Spy traverses the personal geography of the espionage circuit during the early-to-mid ‘40s. Touching on all manner of occupational involvement (from state-trained agents to assassins for hire to citizens caught up in their national loyalties to those bound up in the war beneath the war due to coercions of one kind or another), Kindt’s book grants a broad perspective on just who might become involved in the game of secrets and how their experience would likely end up.

Several years ago I was doing research for a book I was intending to write. A book set in the world of spies and secrets. After reading fairly extensively in an encyclopedia devoted to espionage (both trade and history), my story gradually weaned away from being at all related to spies and nations and evolved into something else. Still, reading that much history of the craft leaves one with a certain perspective. Espionage is not glamourous. And more often than not, its practitioners come to bad ends. Espionage is, in reality, much more le Carré than it is Flemming. And Kindt’s work reflects this.

While certainly not all of his protagonists meet bitter conclusions, it is most often the case that their lives, if not destroyed physically by bullets, knives, or bombs, come to other tragic conclusions, twisted by sadness, loss, regret, or any other dozen of the psychological bugbears that plague those who traffic in lies and deceptions. Super Spy, while occasionally humourous (depending on the story), is generally a darker sort of work. It peers into the human spirit in a period of great distress. There is, after all, a war on—and wars have ever been the destroyers of souls.



With few exceptions, Kindt’s stories are told without flaw. Art and word conspire together to craft unique narratives, each with purpose and goal, driving forward his story of secrets. Super Spy‘s greatest strength doesn’t lie in its inventive plotting or uncommon characterizations. (Many of his stories seem lifted from other works I’ve read or seen and most of his characters remain archetypical.) The book’s strength instead lies in the very human way in which it approaches a world that is far beyond the coping mechanisms of its contributors. These people, no matter how thinly sketched, are always people—are always worth the time of your consideration. They are just as sad, broken, and hopeful as real people are and when their stories end, those conclusions are just as stupid, pointless, and tragic as they would be in real life.

Super Spy‘s strength may be in its verisimilitude: not technical but rather, perhaps, spiritual.

[review courtesy of Good Ok Bad]

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

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 somewhat of a spy as s/he learns details that some characters aren't (yet) privy to, observes intimate moments, and tries to piece it all together. A truly excellent graphic novel and one that I think all readers, whether you are a frequent graphic narrative reader or not, will enjoy. I've been looking forward to this for awhile and finally picked it up when Top Shelf had a big sale along with Kindt's Two Sisters: A Super Spy Novel and Pistolwhip, and I'm really looking forward to reading more of his work.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Far superior to the first collection, with better stories and stronger art.

[Jesús · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like its namesake, Super Spy is a brilliant work of underappreciated genius that has been hiding in plain sight. How has this book flown so completely under my radar for so long?

What begins as a fun WWII-era spy yarn rapidly grows into an unbelievably complex story of people eking out precarious lives as spies in the midst of wartime. Trauma, desperation, distrust, violence, and horror are these characters’ starting points. From there, espionage becomes a means of ugly survival and coarse necessity. James Bond this is not.

And yet, somehow, the book still manages to hold onto that initial, joyful spark of espionage in its fascination with secret codes, double-crosses, and surprise plot twists. There is, for all of its unflinching depictions of wartime trauma, a childish joy and wonder in the cleverness of these people. What they each do to survive isn’t merely necessary; their acts of espionage are also beautiful and agile performances resembling the work of the best stage magicians and circus acrobats.

Matt Kindt’s range of visual techniques is just as masterful as the spycraft of his book’s characters. The way different timelines, characters, plots, and ideas overlap is absolutely jaw dropping. And some of the individual tales here would hold their own among the best short-form comics out there. “Mud,” “Channel,” and “Drop Out” now stand among my new favorite short comics.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and Kindt’s world of spies is nothing if not joyously and brilliantly inventive. But necessity is also, in the world of Super Spy, the child of destitution and hardship. In Super Spy, Matt Kindt blends the undeniable romance of mid-20th-century espionage with the similarly undeniable horrors that define life amidst the ruins of war.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

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 reappears in a later story, suggesting connections among characters who may never have actually met. Because the spies themselves appear to be more involved with their own personal affairs--their romances, dreams, memories, etc.--than with the missions with which they are engaged, it falls to the reader to play the Superspy of the title and to decode the book in order to determine whether there is a single plot to which all these individual plots belong.

The artwork is not so finished in appearance as that which is typical of other cartoons or graphic novels: Kindt’s characters are angular in appearance, and his images look like sketches, at once detailed and rough (there are exceptions to this, though, particularly in his pastiches both of classic comics and of the watercolor illustrations familiar from vintage children’s picture books).

I like the inclusion of simulated smudges and creases in the margins: they give the book the appearance of having gone through many hands, as if it were a code book that had been passed from one spy to another before finally reaching the reader.

Acquired Mar 4, 2012
Gift from Barry

[El · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another graphic novel I wish had been something a little different. The artwork is fine, but I'm beginning to realize I have difficulty discerning characters in graphic novels if they look even remotely similar.

I was expecting this to be a bit more Nancy Drew (I mean, look at that cover!) but it turned out to be more espionage than that. Considering it's not what I expected, I found my interest waning, even though spies and espionage are generally fun to read.

But I branched out for a reason, and this is what happens. I think this will appeal to other readers, but it was a bit meh for me.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

The spy business is not flashy at all, but the risk-taking isn't made for just anyone. Their world is so secretive that a dying spy makes less noise than a falling leaf. It's all about seeming regular, never drawing attention, because anything can give you away especially in times of war. The means by which they communicate with their handlers is extremely inventive and near impossible to detect. Counter-intelligence officers are the only ones with training to see through these hidden encrypting methods.

The first few stories appear unrelated with different characters working as spies, but they are connected later on. Some of the spies are successful until the end of their misson, but most have their lives cut short after having their covers blown. Most stories are tragic, but a few will leave you smiling because of the ingenuity and the skill of the spies.

The ending brings everything to a close. With the war over, the surviving agents need to continue their lives. Some find love, others find jobs in the government. It's a good ending that underlines the idea that, even though it was the most destructive event in human history, WW2 didn't end humanity, but has helped some appreciate life all the more.

[Fraser Simons · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the art style of this, but the storytelling and information design is very poor. Many of the stories are essentially all but the same. Some come back and build on what’s happened before, but they’re very straight forward, very tropey spy fiction things that don’t get more complex or nuanced. Usually they involve women being assets that end up being murdered, same as it ever was. Nothing innovative.

[Kay ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’d give Super Spy a solid three stars. The stories felt a bit scattered, but I still liked getting to explore so many different spy tales and watching the threads come together. The artwork didn’t really stand out, but it worked well enough for what the book was trying to do.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this book. Hard to follow at times - given the sometimes confusing art and lack of named characters. But I think by rereading it I might enjoy it even more the second time.

[Adam Šilhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Vlastně vůbec nevím. Měl jsem za to, že sleduji více, či méně propojené příběhy spíš než jednu velkou událost, ale je dost možné, že mi to uniklo. Což nejspíš vzhledem k vyprávění a k špionskému tématu, kde jsou všichni paranoidní a nikdo neví na čem je, dost pravděpodobně účel. Mnohdy jsem si díky stylu kresby nespojil nějaké příběhy dohromady. Hodnotím tedy třemi, protože vůbec nevím.

[Zec · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this one, a series of interconnected snippets that are messy and chaotic like how life often is. Matt Kindt weaves the stories in and out of each other masterfully and I loved the humanity of the ending.

[Raina · Rating 2 out of 5]

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 spying types, but I had a hard time keeping the characters straight. Maybe if I'd concentrated more I would have followed it better.

Especially nice paired with the film "Charlotte Gray."

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

What strikes me most is how this GN manages to do what the very best spy novels do, which is to disorient the reader in complex and satisfying ways, and catch at the questions at the heart(?) of spying - who am I? I agree w/ reviewer who states this works best as a single-sitting read.

[Zioluc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tanti racconti brevi ("dossier") su spie che si affrontano, uccidono e amano durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Niente male tutto sommato, ma ho trovato i disegni terribili, al punto da rendermi faticoso riconoscere i personaggi.

[Ozro Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reread this after reading 2 Sisters since they're loosely related. Once again, Matt Kindt nails it.

The book features 36 separate small stories of various spies during WWII, and each one is unique. Not just in story, but in presentation. Kindt's strength is in design, constantly changing the way he uses the medium to shape each story. Some are told on a typical panel grid, others in prose; some black and white, some in full color; sometimes the format is changed completely and the story is told as an old '40s era comic strip or a children's book. But despite the constant changes, the book never feels gimmicky. Each decision is made with purpose in order to best tell the story.

With dozens of seemingly unrelated characters, stories told out of order, and ever-changing presentation, it's no small feat that everything comes together. Super Spy ends up being a story that's much more than the sum of its parts. It's an exciting comic narrative told by an artist with absolute mastery of the craft.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This follow-up to 2 Sisters is just as intriguing and thoughtful, but perhaps with a more disjoint narrative than the prior book. It may just be a manner of opinion, admittedly, as 2 Sisters also had a non-linear narrative flow but focused on fewer character threads. Super Spy turns up the espionage dial a few notches and presents us (initially) with discrete stories of different sorts of spies only for the interconnections between some of the threads revealed much later in the book.

The contrast of 2 Sisters' seemingly more organic, stream-of-consciousness flow versus Super Spy's distinct stories with beginnings and endings every time makes for a different reading experience. I sorely regret owning the digital copy of the book in this case as it makes wanting to reference back to previous stories harder. Plus there's the optional reading method of reading the stories in chronological order versus the author's intended (publication) order that I'll have to attempt one day once I figure out how to navigate easily via comiXology.

On the whole, this is an ambitious and powerful piece with a great story told in a format that is daring but may not be for everyone.

[Norman Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

2023 Eisner Award finalist - Best Graphic Album—Reprint

This is a collection of very short stories that interconnect in interesting ways to tell about the lives of World War 2 spies, both Allied and Axis. This is not James Bond stuff; rather, it's the often mundane everyday existences of people living on the edge, trying to survive another day to gather and report information to help their side. But then those humdrum days are interrupted by sheer terror if your cover is blown. There is no mercy in war. Kindt does an excellent job of presenting many unusual, but based on real-life, spy techniques and equipment. There are lots of easter eggs and puzzles for the reader to discover that might enhance their reading pleasure (many are divulged in the back matter), but are not at all necessary to enjoy the book. The drawback to the book is that Kindt's drawing style is quite minimalist, and sometimes it's hard to differentiate characters. Most of the book is simple black and white line drawings, but there is effective use of spot color to highlight certain elements. Overall, this is a serious look at aspects of war that aren't often told.

[Lis Carey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories about spies in World War II, interconnected but in no particular order. In theory, they could be read sequentially by using the dossier numbers, but with the ebook version, I found this impractical.

It is, nevertheless, perfectly possible, after a few stories, to start to see the connections among them. Taking place in Spain, France, Germany, Britain, and Russia, we see the terror, price, loves, and mistakes of the spies. I won't say there's not room to be confused. However, keep reading, and it all hangs together, and we get to know and care about the spies.

The art is intentionally comic-strip art. Large parts are in sepia tones. Others are in full cartoon-color. It's simple and strong, not sophisticated, and reaching directly for the emotions.

In the end, I didn't care for the disjointed arrangement of the stories, but I certainly don't regret reading it.

I bought this books.

[Alex E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super spy is a work of (seemingly) unrelated vignettes all about different spies and their missions, set in the time of world war II.

I really didn't know what to expect from this book. I like Matt Kindt as a writer ever since I read Mind MNGT and some of his other work. If you are a fan of his work, this will be right up your alley.

As you read these, apparently unconnected stories, you start to see patterns here and there. Literally, and within the story itself. Which is exactly what I come to expect from Kindt. His writing always has some kind of extra layer hidden beneath it, and he leans heavily on that type of storytelling with this book as it fits perfectly with the tone. You start to see some of the same characters and you begin to realize that it may be all related but, out of sequence. This is definitely one of those books that warrants a second and maybe third read - if you are inclined to put the whole puzzle together that is.

With his stylistic art style, this book really feels like a Matt Kindt book in the best possible way. If you're a fan of his, this one is one you are definetley going to like.

[Erin Stuhlsatz · Rating 4 out of 5]

GN about spies in WWII. This really focused on the personal lives of people who were working for the various governments. It was a bit hard to follow for me (but I tend to struggle with graphic novels a bit-characters should wear nametags!), but I still really loved all the parts I caught. The story ended with how the end of the war affected the spies, including one lady who was ostracized by her community for having slept with German soldiers, not being able to share that she had been reporting secrets to the Allies the whole time.

[Maggie Hesseling · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely engrossing and very VERY interesting. This graphic novel deals with spies in WWII. And though it may not be clear within the first few stories, it becomes apparent that they're all interlinked. On the whole, I'm not much of a non-linear novel reader, however, what Kindt does is brilliant for people like me. He gives you the option to choose. You can both read it in the order it's presented (doubly intriguing and jumbled up) OR read it in in order of dossier (my brain likes this one more). I read it first in the order presented and then went back... in both forms this book is outstanding. And whereas the 2nd doesn't have the mystery and feel of loose assignments completely unlinked from each other, it does have a longer storyline where you see the connections a lot easier and readily.

Coupled with that are the beautiful and haunting illustrations. Each page feels like you're holding the dossier in your hand. Every detail of the characters is accounted for. So much so, that you couldn't actually tell these stories without the images. Something would absolutely be lost.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

Honestly I think it went over my head. I was totally lost about what plot/ throughline there was for the story and the characters. I am ok with books that have non- linear time and all that but it was not clear who was who. Maybe I was just so underwhelmed by the story I didn't pay enough attention? It seemed like there were was an emotional tie I was supposed to be building with the disaster- fated spies, while i did manage to glipse the intent, I failed to build the connection.

[Felipe Assis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sen sa cio nal! Fragmentado como tudo do autor praticamente, mas com diversos pedaços que se encaixam dando uma sensação de que tudo está interligado. Um ar noir soviete muito interessante, gostei bastante, o Lindt é um daqueles autores que nos faz perguntar o pq de ainda não ter sido publicado por aqui."

[jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic graphic novel (emphasis on novel) full of deception, paranoia, and heartbreak. The characters all interact with each other beautifully and the way the story lines weave between each other is very satisfying. Only complaint is that the characters can sometimes be hard to identify due to the art style, but hey, that might be the point.

[A.J. Bauers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes the structure from A Visit from the Goon Squad, and mashes it up with the golden age of spying. I love the intersected nature of all the stories, and I especially love how the focus is on the spies lives, rather than the question of good and evil during the Nazi regime.

[Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This will require a few more passes through to fully understand but Kindt does such a fantastic job working with a spy theme. The use of color and the spy gadgets are very smart. The way Kindt weaves characters and plots together is brilliant.