Warren Peace Classic: Super Spy, by Matt Kindt

I can't believe I've been reading Kindt's comics for almost 20 years now.

Earlier this week, I published a review of Subgenre, a recent graphic novel written by Matt Kindt. That made me look back at other books of his I’ve written about, and I decided to post the review I wrote of the first one I read, from way back in 2007. I find some of the stuff I wrote in my early days of blogging to be kind of cringey, but I think this one isn’t bad at all.

Super Spy
By Matt Kindt
Published by Top Shelf, 2007
Buy it

Matt Kindt's collection of profoundly human spy stories has jumped right onto my "shortlist" of the years best comics; it's that good. How am I not familiar with such a skillful cartoonist? This group of World War II espionage tales is wonderfully constructed, ordered non-chronologically (but given a "dossier" number so the reader can tell when each one happened relative to the others) and using a variety of artistic styles and narrative techniques. It's a bravura display of skill, but the most striking element is the emotional weight of the stories. Kindt is less interested in the mechanics of the secrets, lies, betrayals, and murders in which the characters engage, focusing instead on the harrowing effect that these events wreak on them. We see a woman forced to prostitute herself to German officers in order to procure information for the French resistance. A mother of a young child is desperate to flee the country, but her position as the wife of a German officer is too valuable to her superiors. A man is an effective operative, but given the chance, he goes AWOL to settle down on a small farm in the countryside. A deadly female assassin plays all sides against each other in an effort to avenge the man who tortured her. And that's just a small sampling of the moving tapestry that Kindt weaves. The time-jumping structure allows him to go back later and expand on the stories of characters that were briefly glimpsed in other tales, showing how the war and the deadly game they play affects everyone.

Kindt's narrative skill is not unsupported by his art; he demonstrates just as much innovation in the way he portrays these stories, using a wide variety of artistic tricks to most effectively convey the weight of the tales. In addition to the straightforward comics art, he uses faux comic strips:

Pages laid out like maps:

Stories in the style of children's books:

Cutaway diagrams:

And myriad other stylistic touches that fit together seamlessly. His character art is also impeccable, rendered in a fairly cartoony, square-jawed style that belies some incredibly effective emotional expression from the characters. The figure drawing is especially expressive; a story in which a belly dancer communicates danger to her spy boyfriend is beautifully sad:

Kindt's use of color is also quite striking. He sticks to two colors at a time for the most part, usually giving a brown or grey tint to the stories that evokes the shadowy world the characters inhabit. But he occasionally mixes this up, switching to a light blue for an airborne adventure, adding full color to certain stories or scenes, or giving blood a dark red lustre that really stands out against the drab backgrounds.

Ultimately, these tricks all add up to a profoundly affecting look at the human cost of war. While we all know the importance of the battle being fought in World War II, this book gives us such a close-up view that the characters don't even know what they're fighting for. They're just trying to survive in whatever way they can, sometimes committing horrible sins just to stay alive. It's a fascinating look at a chaotic time period and a reminder of how war can affect everybody it touches. I highly recommend this book, and Matt Kindt has managed to jump right into my list of favorite comics creators. I can't wait to read more of his work.