By Lindsey Schmidt.
SOF Week, held in Tampa, Florida, attracts a staggering number of exhibitors every year. This year’s event, held in May 2025, brought in over 800. While the usual exhibitors were there, weapons systems, software applications, products, and services, one of the vendors was a bit unusual – the booth featuring “Real Spy Comics”.
Real Spy Comics was formed by intelligence and special operations community veterans from both the United States and from around the world. With access to a massive trove of stories from real life spies, clandestine agents and special operations personnel, they are gearing up to release comic books related to espionage, intelligence, and special operations.
They also have a partnership with Ultisim (BusinessWire press release, 25 Feb 2025), a firm in the field of learning simulation technologies and gaming. The partnership between the two will bring the stories of spy missions, special operations, and intelligence operations to audiences by way of graphic novels, videos, games, and simulations.
Another relationship is with the International Spy Museum and the International Association of Intelligence Education. The founders and advisory council of Real Spy Comics are stacked with veterans of the special operations, law enforcement, intelligence, and national security communities.
One of the first comic books they’ll release tells the story of Colonel Chris Costa who ran human intelligence networks in Afghanistan. He now serves as the Executive Director of the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. The image at the top of this article comes from the cover of the comic book about Costa entitled “Our Man in Afghanistan: Chris Costa’s Story of War Zone Espionage”.
Real Spy Comics has found a novel way to tell the stories of real life members of the national security world – a way that will be interesting, entertaining, and educational to both adults and children.
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Photo / Image: Provided by Real Spy Comics.
Read more about “Real Spy Comics” at the link below:
https://www.realspycomics.com/
