HMSS website founder and 007 fan Paul Baack dies age 60
31-Oct-2017 • Bond News
We report with great sadness the passing of Paul Baack, who died on Saturday at the age of 60.
Back in the late 1990s, the online world for James Bond fans was a very different place. Active and in-depth sites covering the world of 007 were few and far between. When MI6 launched in January 1998, the other leading James Bond sites included Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Kimberly Last's James Bond page, Absolutely James Bond (AJB), and HMSS.
HMSS was founded by 007 aficionados Paul Baack and Tom Zielinski in 1997. Rather than covering the latest news and rumours, HMSS was a bastion of the 'long read,' with an ezine format that containing insightful articles from a number of contributors. One of those contributors was Bond continuation author Raymond Benson, who posted a touching tribute to Paul on his Facebook page. Benson named a character in his 1999 novel 'High Time To Kill' after Paul.
The ezine website was active from 1997 through 2011 when the HMSS Blog ran by Bill Koenig evolved into The Spy Command. You can read Bill's history of the HMSS site and his obituary to Paul here.
Commenting on the loss of Paul, Bill told MI6: "Paul, was simply, one of the most remarkable people I have ever met. Fate dealt him a bad hand with the accident that paralyzed him. Yet that didn't stop from doing amazing work on the Her Majesty's Secret Servant website."
The original HMSS site went dark in 2014 after 17 years serving Bond fans online.
