More specifically, the Daily Express James Bond comic strips, which ran from 1958 through 1983 in England (with a hiccup here or there). They're adaptations of Ian Fleming's novels, rather than the films...in fact, most were published well before the film versions of those same stories. Eventually, they ran out of Fleming stories, and branched off into all original tales. You can read much more about their history and chronology here or here.
These were strips about about James Bond the spy, not James Bond the cartoon super agent. Numerous writers and artists worked on the adaptations and originals, including 
Peter O'Donnell prior to his Modesty Blaise work. They were a grittier, more realistic Bond than we're used too, as well as a good example of an art form that has since died out, at least in America: the daily adventure comic strip.The good news is, Titan Books has done an splendid job of releasing the strips in the U.S. The bad news is, it's damnably expensive to collect them all.
But the ultra-good news is, starting in September, Titan will begin releasing them in Omnibus editions. The first one consists of their first 3 collections: Casino Royale, Dr. No, and Goldfinger. To purchase those individually on Amazon would run you about $45. To get the omnibus? $10.17. Winnage.So if you're interested in Bond, or in classic adventure comic strips, happy days are here again.
Have you ever read the rather strange "Serpent's Tooth", a Bond comic by Doug Moench and Paul Gulacy? It starts off interestingly enough, but by the halfway point it's well eclipsed the film version of "Moonraker" for sheer sci-fi bizarro-Bond antics.
ReplyDeleteI read it back in the day, so my memory of it is fairly vague. It doesn't surprise me, though, that Moench and Gulacy got nutsy, after reading their-Bond inspired nutsiness in master of Kung Fu.
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