The Los Angeles Times has called Paul Bishop ‘the closest equivalent of Joe Wambaugh yet,’ and stated Citadel Run ‘could hardly be better.’ A thirty year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Paul is currently the Commanding Officer of the Operations-West Bureau’s Sexual Assault Detail with responsibility for investigations in over twenty-five percent of the city. His career has over twenty years experience in the investigation of sex crimes. For the past eight years, his Sex Crimes Unit has had the highest number of arrests and crime clearance rate in the city. Paul has twice been honored as Detective of the Year. As a writer, Paul's byline has appeared in numerous national publications, and his short stories have been published in many anthologies. His previous novels include Shroud of Vengeance, Citadel Run, Sand Against the Tide, and Chapel of the Ravens. Chalk Whispers is the fourth novel in his Fey Croaker series, which includes Kill Me Again, Twice Dead, and Tequila Mockingbird. He has written feature film scripts and numerous episodic scripts for television.
Britton’s reputation as an espionage authority has led to interviews on radio shows broadcast from Australia to Ireland. In addition, Wes was a frequent co-host for “Talking Television With Dave White,” and is now a regular interviewer for “Dave White Presents” on California station, KSAV. Wes has been invited to appear at such venues as the International Spy Museum and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. He’s been interviewed by the BBC, the International Association of Media Tie-In Writers, and his articles have been published at numerous websites including CinemaRetro.com and LeslieCharteris.com.
Matthew Bradford (who blogs as "Tanner") is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter and life-long spy fan. He's also co-author of the Studio 407 comic book Night & Fog. You Only Live Twice was his first Bond movie, and Little Nellie caught him at just the right age to hook him forever. Bond led to The Avengers and Flint, and those in turn led to The Persuaders and Eurospy movies and so on down the line in an eternal and ongoing quest for more and more spy entertainment. In 2006, his mania motivated him to start the Double O Section, a blog devoted to all spies in all media. His favorite Bond movie is On Her Majesty's Secret Service and his favorite non-Bond spy film is Deadlier Than the Male.
Jason Whiton's work as a screenwriter / filmmaker has been recognized and awarded by The Nicholl Fellowships (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences), the Sundance Film Festival,
PBS and others. Publications include Rolling Stone, USA Weekend, Photographers Forum Annual, Arcana Comics and the book Mort Walker Conversations. Jason works with Media Arts students in San Francisco and has been organizing movie events for schools and communities for over twenty years. He is currently writing new film, comic and book projects.
Armstrong Sabian is, in fact, a double agent. In another life, under another name, he’s a doctoral student in upstate New York, studying communication, rhetoric and media at a private polytechnic institute. He’s not a northerner at heart, though, and these cold winters make him long for his old North Carolina home. Still, he’s putting his undercover skills to good use, learning to drive straight through red lights without stopping and so far, successfully avoiding saying y’all in mixed company. Armstrong has been a fan of spy fiction for as long as he can remember, and remembers being a fan of the James Bond movies in the first grade, the year he also drew his first comic…which featured a character named The Spy Hunter drawn from popular video games of the day. His favorite Bond movie bounces between From Russia With Love and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, depending on the day of the week. His favorite television show is The Prisoner. His favorite spy comic is either Queen & Country or Superspy.
Unlike the other COBRAS, Armstrong has no formal publications under his belt, but hopes to have some journal articles see print soon.
The latest addition to the COBRAS team is Christopher Mills, who is a professional writer of comic books and short fiction in a variety of genres, as well as a DVD reviewer for two pop culture websites. His taste in entertainment clearly peaked when he was about 15, which certainly explains his embarrassing obsession with James Bond, hardboiled crime fiction, comic books, paperback pulps, space opera, Universal/Hammer/Toho Monsters, sword & sorcery sagas, old genre TV shows and vintage B-movies. Christopher is currently working on an ongoing series based on Kolchak the Night Stalker, but perhaps best known for Femme Noir, an all-lady detective series with artist Joe Staton.
From France, we welcome Philippe Lombard who runs the 007-themed blog Quantum of Bond. Don't think that Quantum of Bond is just another Bond Blog. Far from it. Philippe looks at all the little things that the average viewer misses -- like supporting actors, locations, sets and props. The blog is in French, but in this day and age -- with the aid of translators -- that shouldn't present any problem.
Next we have Una Plaga de Espias, published by Johny Malone from Argentina whose specialty is espionage books. Una Plaga de Espias brings us the best in well-crafted antique thriller covers and info from the back covers. The Blog is in Spanish.Most spy fans will need little introduction to Paul Baack and the team at the HMSS Weblog. Baack and co. have already put together an excellent magazine-style website at HMSS.com, and for that, the web would have been thankful, but they followed up with regular astute observations and commentary on the blog and quickly became a regular read of many COBRAS agents. Make sure you check out the site, where the conversation ranges from “Bond” to “beyond”!
The Deighton Dossier is the Internet's most comprehensive resource about British author Len Deighton. Len Deighton’s world is one of secret spies and not-so secret betrayal; heroism in war and the battle of the sexes; big-time crooks and small-time villains; swinging sixties London and the drab uniformity of East Berlin. The website is about all this and more -- found in the work of Len Deighton, one of the world’s leading thriller and spy novel writers. To head over to the site, click here.
But I hear you cry, that's a website, not a 'Blog'. The good news, Rob also runs a companion blog which also looks at all things Len Deighton, but from time to time looks more broadly at the spy thriller. To head over to the blog, click here.
Another new COBRAS agent to add to the mix: Peter of the blog Illustrated 007. I've been a fan of Peter's site for awhile -- it's a great place to be inspired by Bond imagery -- and am ecstatic to have him on-board.
And finally that brings us to yours truly. David, who is a spy film obsessive, grew up in rural Australia - not quite the outback, but not the apex of civilization either. With very few prospects, he moved to Melbourne, unable to resist the bright lights, the colour, the sounds, and the sins of the flesh. Melbourne has a population of 3.74 million people of which David is now considered the city’s 3,729,845th most dangerous man. David spends his time working as a low rent Graphic Designer and writing reviews for Teleport City and his spy blog Permission To Kill.
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