Comic Strip Saturday: Rock Kent. The Third Man (1949) is not the only gem that sprang from director Carol Reed and writer Graham Greene. The two talents also united in 1958, when Reed brought Greene's whimsical espionage film, Our Man in Havana, to the big screen. Alec Guinness plays a vacuum cleaner salesman, who is recruited by Noel Coward to spy for England. Guinness decides to simply
invent his network of spies and to regularly send fictitious intelligence back to London to earn his paycheck. All goes smoothly until London sends people to question the make-believe pilot about a recent 'mission.' Guinness panics. What to do? A daily comic strip called Rock Kent inspires a scheme. The comic strip in the film shows hero Rock Kent going down in his plane. Although it is just a one-off comic, I like to imagine it as a cliffhanger that could have continued with new installments. The comic is credited to Art Director, Syd Cain, who famously went on to design many James Bond films. Cain passed away in 2011. You can learn more about Syd Cain in the obituaries posted by Lee Pfeiffer of Cinema Retro, Graham Rye of 007 Magazine, and by Kim Newman of The Guardian.
Did you know that Spy Vibe has a Pinterest page? You can see Spy Vibe graphics, dynamic vintage action, cliffhanger serials, Japanese designs from the 1920s, vintage mystery novels, and more! Visit our Ian Fleming Image Archive here. Also in Spy Vibe news, I have a spy novella coming out soon! Stay tuned for more info.
Check Spy Vibe for recent posts about 60th Anniversary of Casino Royale events, Cold War Photography, Operation Kid Brother (MST3K), the discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, PG Tips Brooke Bond, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, 1960s espionage writers, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, my review of SKYFALL, 007 at the Intnl Spy Museum, Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot and more. Here are the links from my recent series about Ian Fleming's music: Noel Coward,Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr.
Want to support Spy Vibe? Please make a small donation with our secure Paypal tip-jar link at the top left of the main page. Nothing is too small to help cover the increasing bills for the domain, web-forwarding and other costs to maintain the site. Thank you!
