| Queen & Country | |
|---|---|
Queen & Country #1 (March 2001). Art by Tim Sale. |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Oni Press |
| Schedule | Monthly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | , spy, techno-thriller |
| Publication date | March 2001 - August 2007 |
| Number of issues | 32 |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Greg Rucka |
| Creator(s) | Greg Rucka |
| Collected editions | |
| Broken Ground | ISBN 192999821X |
Queen & Country is an American comic book published by Oni Press and written by Greg Rucka with various artists illustrating.
It was inspired by the British ITV television series The Sandbaggers (1978-1980), which was created and primarily written by Ian Mackintosh. Mackintosh is heavily praised in an essay by Rucka in Issue #1 of Queen & Country.
Contents |
The first series began in March 2001 and ran for 32 issues, finishing in August 2007.
Three Queen & Country: Declassified spin-off mini-series have also been published, the first two written by Rucka and the third by Antony Johnston under Rucka's supervision. They deal specifically with the past missions of various characters. Events of the first Declassified miniseries in particular influence what happens in later issues of the main series; it is best read before "Operation Stormfront".
Translated editions of the collected volumes are available in Polish, French and German, and several volumes are available in Spanish.
The series is centered on Tara Chace, an operative of the Special Operations Section of SIS, colloquially known as the Minders. It attempts to portray the bureaucracy and politics which the agents deal with realistically, as well as including the dangerous missions typical of the spy genre.
Other recurring characters in the series alongside Tara Chace include Director of Operations Paul Crocker, Deputy Chief of Service Donald Weldon, Chief of Service Frances Barclay (known colloquially as "C"), Mission Control Officer and Main Communications Officer Alexis and former Head of Special Section Tom Wallace.
Issue 32 ends with the revelation that Tara is pregnant.
A Queen & Country prose novel, A Gentleman's Game, was published in 2004, also featuring Tara Chace and making reference to the events of the comic book series. A second Tara Chace novel, Private Wars, was published in 2005. The novels tie in to the comic series; issue 29 to 32 depicts events immediately after A Gentleman's Game. Private Wars takes place a few months after the end of the comic series and ends the first volume of the series. A third Queen & Country novel, The Last Run, was released in October 2010.
A scriptbook, titled "Queen & Country Scriptbook vol.1", is also available (ISBN 1929998929).
A film adaptation is under development, but has been stranded in development hell for some time.[1]
It has been theorised by fans that Lily Sharpe, the British agent in Rucka's Whiteout (comic book), is actually Tara Chace. The characters share similar features and Chace refers to a mission in Antarctica in the first volume of the series. However, Rucka stated in the script excerpts included in Volume 3 of the Definitive Edition that he originally toyed with the idea that the characters might be the same person, but now views them as being entirely different.
In the fourth Hopeless Savages miniseries two SIS agents that resemble Tara Chace and Tom Wallace play a minor part in the storyline as they are sent under Operation: Fairy Tale to retrieve an artifact. The series is also published by Oni Comics and has used some of the same artists as Queen & Country. The writer of Hopeless Savages, Jen Van Meter, is also Greg Rucka's wife.