There has been some interest expressed in a discussion of the James Bond comic strips. To that end, I have set up this index, which I will update as we go along. Right now I am committed to go from “Casino Royale” through “You Only Live Twice.” After that, we’ll see.
IAN FLEMING / HENRY GAMMIDGE / JOHN McCLUSKY*
Casino Royale - p1
Live and Let Die - p1
Moonraker - p1
Diamonds Are Forever - p1
From Russia with Love - p2
Dr. No - p2
Goldfinger - p2
Risico - p3
From a View to a Kill - p3
For Your Eyes Only - p3
Thunderball - p3
On Her Majesty's Secret Service - p4
You Only Live Twice - p4
IAN FLEMING / JIM LAWRENCE / YAROSLAV HORAK
The Man with the Golden Gun - p4
The Living Daylights
Octopussy
The Hildebrand Rarity
The Spy Who Loved Me
JIM LAWRENCE / YAROSLAV HORAK*
The Harpies
River of Death
Colonel Sun
The Golden Ghost
Fear Face
Double Jeopardy
Starfire
Trouble Spot
Isle of Condors
The League of Vampires
Die With My Boots On
The Girl Machine
Beware of Butterflies
The Nevsky Nude
The Phoenix Project
The Black Ruby Caper
Till Death Do Us Part
The Torch-Time Affair
Hot-Shot
Nightbird
Ape of Diamonds
When the Wizard Awakes
Sea Dragon
Death Wing
The Xanadu Connection
Shark Bait
Doomcrack
The Paradise Plot
Deathmask
Flittermouse,
Polestar
The Scent of Danger
Snake Goddess
Double Eagle
*(except as noted)
Replies
"If I got theTitan HCs, how much else would I be missing? And is that material available in HC, even if not the same trade dress?"
You'd be missing all these stories... I think.
The Harpies
River of Death
Colonel Sun
The Golden Ghost
Fear Face
Double Jeopardy
Starfire
Trouble Spot
Isle of Condors
The League of Vampires
Die With My Boots On
The Girl Machine
Beware of Butterflies
The Nevsky Nude
The Phoenix Project
The Black Ruby Caper
Till Death Do Us Part
The Torch-Time Affair
Hot-Shot
Nightbird
Ape of Diamonds
When the Wizard Awakes
Sea Dragon
Death Wing
The Xanadu Connection
Shark Bait
Doomcrack
The Paradise Plot
Deathmask
Flittermouse,
Polestar
The Scent of Danger
Snake Goddess
Double Eagle
I don't know if the HCs ever got beyond the Fleming material (I don't think so) because, after I got the whole series in softcover, I stopped paying attention. (That way lies madness.)
Good Lord! (Choke!)
I would very much like to see you continue this, Jeff.
I take a personal request from Captain Comics seriously, but I had to clear a few things off my plate first. Now that I have finished up New Teen Titans and Sub-Mariner and Frankenstein's Monster (for the time being, at least), I feel I can move on to James Bond. The last time I tried to read the comic strip adaptations, however, I found tham to be "deadly dull" (see January 14, 2019 post). Luckily, however, I left off with the first short story collection, so I'll be able to ease back into it starting with...
RISICO
THE VILLAIN: Kristatos
THE GIRL: Lisl Baum
THE PLOT: Drug-running aimed at demoralizing England
ALLIES: Colombo
COMMENTARY: "Risico" is the first of three stories adapted from For Your Eyes Only. It is a good story to reintroduce me to this project: straightforward traditional espionage as opposed to the globe-trotting super-spy of the movies and even some of the novels. "Risco" did, however, later beco0me one of the key elements to the plot of the 1981 Roger Moore movie based on this collection. Oddly, the comic strip Kristatos bears a striking resemblance to Chiam Topal, who played Colombo in the movie. So far, so good; off to a good (re-)start.
Re-reading Risico I noticed several panels where John McClusky's rendition of Bond looks an awful lot like Sean Connery - much more so than the earlier stories. There has always been a debate whether Connery got the role of Bond because he looked like the character in the newspaper or if the strip changed Bond's appearance to look more like Connery. Kind of seems like the latter to me. My omnibus collection doesn't have the strips publication dates, did Risico appear after the premiere of the Dr. No movie?
"Risico" ran in the newspapers from April 3 through June 24, 1961.
The Dr. No movie didn't open until October 5, 1962 (in the U.K.).
FROM A VIEW TO A KILL
THE VILLAIN: (None in the usual sense; a nest of Russian assassins)
THE GIRL: Mary Ann Russell
THE PLOT: Ambushing SHAPE dispatch riders
ALLIES: (None to speak of; Bond works alone)
COMMENTARY: Like "Risico," ":From a View to a Kill" is a straightforward tale of Cold War espionage which highlights the conflict between the various intelligence agencies in post-World War II Europe. The 1985 movies which shares this story's title bears no resemblance to it whatsoever.
FOR YOUR EYES ONLY
THE VILLAIN: Von Hammerstein
THE GIRL: Judy Havelock
THE PLOT: Extorting land in Jamaica, murdering the owners
ALLIES: RCMP
COMMENTARY: A faithful adaptation of the short story, except the murder of the Havelocks occurs in chonological order rather than flashback. M is a bit more restrained than he is in the prose version, but he nonetheless sends 007 to fulfill a mission of personal revenge. Neither of the other stories from the For Your Eyes Only collection were adapted at this time, but "The Hildebrand Rarity" would later appear, post-Golden Gun, and I will deal with it at that time. The remaining story, "Quantum of Solace", isn't really a secret service story, but rather is an anecdote recounted to Bond.
THUNDERBALL
THE VILLAIN: Bloefeld (Largo)
THE GIRL: (Domino Vitali)
THE PLOT: Blackmailing Western governments by threat of hijacked nuclear bombs
ALLIES: (Felix Leiter)
COMMENTARY: In 1962, Fleming wrote a short story, The Living Daylights (to be published posthumously in book form), for the first issue of the Sunday Times color magazine. This so incensed the owner of the Daily Express (which published the James Bond comic strip) that he ordered the current storyline, Thunderball, brought to a swift end. The final two thirds of the book were condensed into a single week's worth of strips, and publication ceased. Consequently, there is no Largo, there is no Domino, and the climatic battle between SPECTRE and the U.S. Navy is reduced to a single panel. This is the story I have heard. I cannot help but think the legal dispute over the rights to the story also played a part (which would make sense), but I cannot confirm that. Fleming's next novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, was described in the press as "one of the worst, most boring, badly constructed novels we have read" and the Daily Express refused to serialize it. After that, Fleming reportedly apologized the the newspaper and publication of the comic strip was resumed with On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1964 after a 16-month hiatus.
I heard the same story regarding Thunderball and the Daily Express - so it must be true! It's unfortunate the creators of the strip were never allowed to produce a full adaption.
The handling of the Thunderball property certainly caused a lot of grief over the years. One biographer attributed the on-going legal battle as a contributor to Fleming's ill health that led eventually to his death at a relatively young age.
I've ordered the four Titan HCs, and will likely pick up the trade paperbacks when we reach the end of them. Unfortunately, they're not coming in an order that will help me jump into this conversation immediately.
I've already received:
VOL. 2: GOLDFINGER
VOL. 4: OCTOPUSSY
Coming Sept 29-Oct 2
VOL. 1: DR. NO
Coming Oct. 2-9
VOL. 3: SPECTRE
I'm guessing a Vol. 5, if there is one, would begin with Colonel Sun. If not, I hope I can begin the post-Fleming TPBs at that point, and not backtrack to The Harpies. I will if I have to, tho.
Anyway, the first conversation I can join (until after I get Vol. 3) is "Man With the Golden Gun," and I haven't even read the novel yet!
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