This graphic biography of a Czech secret agent and diplomat looks at the big and small history of the Cold War.

Comics

This informal comic book written and illustrated by Marta Morice, an artist who has been living in France for a long time now, is based on real events of the Cold War, namely on the hidden backstage, which the public did not witness and has since been forgotten. Although after November 1989 the protagonist, socialist spy Miroslav Polreich, the author’s uncle, joined the new, non-communist Czech(oslovak) diplomatic services, he also operated there in the background. Earlier, in the 1960s, he worked in the foreign department of the Czech secret service – and is one of only a few who has no reason to be ashamed of it.

A key event took place in June 1967, when an important Russian-USA summit was held in Glassboro, USA, dealing with disarmament for the very first time. It was Polreich, an inconspicuous man at the Czech embassy in the USA, with good contacts to the CIA and Russian diplomats as well, who had an important role during its preparation.

Morice follows her uncle from his childhood, through his joining the Czechoslovak communist party in 1947 till his change of allegiance after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. She uses typewritten script and a yellowish background, evoking the days of the plot perfectly. Like Alan’s War by Emmanuel Guibert, Secret Agent also shows how important a small, personal history can be in understanding big history.

Marta Morice (1971) is a painter and photographer who has lived in Brittany since the late 1990s. She studied in Brno at the Masaryk University Faculty of Education and then at the University of Technology Faculty of Fine Arts. Her paintings often stem from photographs and explore social themes. Secret Agent is Marta Morice’s first comics.