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DAILY EXPRESS STRIPS Art by John McLusky In 1957 the '' Daily Express '', a newspaper owned by Lord Beaverbrook , approached Ian Fleming to adapt his stories into comic strips. Ian Fleming at the time was reluctant to allow this because he felt the strips would lack the quality of his writing and could potentially hurt his series while he was still authoring them. Ian Fleming wrote: "The Express are desperately anxious to turn James Bond into a strip cartoon. I have grave doubts about the desirability of this... Unless the standard of these books is maintained they will lose their point and I think there I am in grave danger that inflation will spoil not only the readership but also become something of a death-watch beetle inside the author. A tendency to write still further down might result. The author would see this happening, and disgust with the operation might creep in." Regardless, Fleming later agreed and the first strip '' Casino Royale '' was published in 1958 . The story was adapted by Anthony Hern who had previously Serial ised '' Diamonds Are Forever '' and '' From Russia With Love '' for the ''Daily Express''. The illustrations of the strip were done by John McLusky who would later go on to illustrate 12 more James Bond comic strips with partner Henry Gammidge until 1966 . To aid the ''Daily Express'' in illustrating James Bond, Ian Fleming commissioned an artist to create a sketch of what he believed James Bond to look like. John McLusky, however, felt that Fleming's 007 looked too "outdated" and "pre-war" and thus changed Bond to give him a more masculine look. The majority of the early strips were adapted by Henry Gammidge , however, the adaptation of ''Dr. No'' was handled by Peter O'Donnell , a couple of years before he launched his legendary strip, '' Modesty Blaise ''. In 1962 the ''Daily Express'' abruptly cancelled their agreement with Ian Fleming when a dispute between Lord Beaverbrook and Fleming erupted over the rights to the short story " The Living Daylights ." Fleming had sold the rights to the '' Sunday Times '', a rival newspaper which upset Beaverbrook to the point of terminating his relationship with Fleming. The dispute caused the comic strip adaptation of ''Thunderball'' to come to an abrupt end. ''Thunderball'' was actually never finished, however, a few additional panels were later added for syndication in other newspapers to expand and conclude the story. Lord Beaverbrook and Ian Fleming would later work out their differences and the comic strip serial would continue in 1964 with '' On Her Majesty's Secret Service ''. Art by Yaroslav Horak In 1966 Yaroslav Horak replaced John McLusky as the artist for the ''Daily Express'' comic strip series and adapted six more Ian Fleming James Bond novels and short stories as well as Kingsley Amis ' '' Colonel Sun '' with partner Jim Lawrence . '' The Living Daylights '' was also republished in the ''Daily Express'' after first appearing in the first edition of the '' Sunday Times '' magazine on February 4 , 1962 and in the American magazine '' Argosy '' in June of the same year under the title ''"Berlin Escape."'' With the success of ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' Horak and Lawrence subsequently went on to write and illustrate twenty original James Bond comic strips for the ''Daily Express'' after being granted permission by Ian Fleming's Trust. OTHER JAMES BOND COMIC STRIPS In 1977 the ''Daily Express'' discontinued their series of Bond comic strips, although Horak and Lawrence went on to write and illustrate several other James Bond adventures for syndication abroad in Europe , for the '' Sunday Express '' (the Sunday edition of the ''Daily Express''), and the '' Daily Star ''. Additionally, John McLusky returned to team up with Jim Lawrence for five comic strips. The 1983 strip ''Polestar'' was abruptly terminated by the ''Daily Star'' midway through its run and was not completed, although the complete story did appear in non-UK newspapers and was followed by several more complete serials before the James Bond comic strip officially came to an end. TITAN BOOKS REPRINTS Since first publication in the ''Daily Express'', the comic strip adaptations have been reprinted several times. First by the James Bond 007 International Fan Club, in the early 1980s. Then annually, from 1987 to 1990, by the British Titan Books company in Anthologies , beginning with ''The Living Daylights'' to tie-in with the release of the eponymous James Bond film. First Titan Books series
Second Titan Books series Beginning in 2004 , Titan reissued these anthologies in larger, revised editions, and also began reprinting stories that hadn't been featured in the earlier books. With a more frequent publishing schedule than the first series, to date seven books have been released with more scheduled. These volumes include new introductory chapters on the history of the strip and the Bond novels, and most of the books have also included special introductions written by Bond film actors, specifically Caroline Munro (''The Spy Who Loved Me''), George Lazenby (''OHMSS''), Shirley Eaton (''Goldfinger''), Eunice Gayson (''Dr. No''), Roger Moore (''Casino Royale''), Maud Adams (''Octopussy'') and Britt Ekland (''Colonel Sun''). Titan's comic strip reprints were not initially published in the strips' original publication order; this changed as of the release of the ''The Spy Who Loved Me'' volume.
''The Harpies'', included in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', is the first non-Fleming-based Bond comic strip to be reprinted as well as the first original story. ''River of Death'', in the ''Colonel Sun'' collection, is the second original story to be published (''Colonel Sun'' itself being an adaptation of the first post-Fleming Bond novel). ''The Golden Ghost'' is the first collection comprising all-original stories. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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