Tag Archives: espionage

2025’s books of the year – part 3

Posted on January 21, 2026 by I.M. Baytor

Welcome to the third part of Gotham Calling’s best graphic novels of 2025! Not a lot of Batman in the countdown this year (although he does show up today). This may speak less for the dropping quality of the Caped … Continue reading →

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A dozen swinging sixties’ super-spies – part 2

Posted on December 18, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

If you’ve read last week’s post, you know what’s going on. Basically, these were the cinematic cousins of Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., back in the 1960s: OSS 117: Mission for a Killer (1965) We’ll start with yet another bonkers … Continue reading →

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A dozen swinging sixties’ super-spies – part 1

Posted on December 10, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

I’m finally getting a hold on work and family life, so 2026 is bound to be a more regular year for Gotham Calling, but, for now, I’ll just keep throwing in some idiosyncratic stuff I’ve been digging into… Last time … Continue reading →

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Reading 1930s’ thrillers

Posted on November 6, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

I planned to post the second part of the 2000s’ Batman comics reading guide, but life keeps getting in the way and taking me down other paths… So I ended up in a very different place, with this post recommending … Continue reading →

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A dozen great movies about antifascist resistance, just because

Posted on October 9, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

For some reason, I decided to do a list of films about antifascist resistance. Even setting aside intelligent Andor-like sci-fi allegories, or movies about organized resistance to the current rise of authoritarianism (like the wild One Battle After Another), there … Continue reading →

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More global film noirs

Posted on August 28, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

Once again, I’m complementing the latest lists of film noir gems with a handful of foreign-language recommendations that are just as good as – or, in some cases, much better than – their counterparts from the USA and the UK. … Continue reading →

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A couple of amazing old-timey novels of political intrigue

Posted on August 6, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

Summer break is often a time for longer reads. This includes comics, of course, and I recently had a veritable blast making my way through Appollo’s and Brüno’s Commando colonial trilogy, a set of thrilling spy adventures set across WWII … Continue reading →

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A handful of offbeat thrillers

Posted on January 30, 2025 by I.M. Baytor

I haven’t written about films in 2025, although I’m putting together a couple of ambitious lists that should come out later in the year… In the meantime, if, like me, you feel the current offer of crime movies, no matter … Continue reading →

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Back to Slough House

Posted on December 5, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

Having recently read what may very well be my favorite Mick Herron novel so far, The Secret Hours, I was going to write one of Gotham Calling’s occasional pieces about spy yarns without pictures inside… Between this and catching up … Continue reading →

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Even more Batman movies without Batman – cult movies edition

Posted on October 24, 2024 by I.M. Baytor

I get a huge kick exploring various connections within pop culture, including the thematic and stylistic links between Batman comics and cinema. To be fair, many of the comics are quite open about their influences, to the point that one … Continue reading →

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