THUNDERBALL had the unfortunate distinction of running for only nine weeks when it was stopped mid-story (although John McLusky did complete additional strips to conclude the narrative so it could be syndicated outside the UK) due to a dispute between Lord Beaverbrook (William Maxwell Aitken) - who owned the Express at that time - and Ian Fleming. Lord Thomson’s Sunday Times launched its colour magazine with the Fleming 007 short story THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. Beaverbrook held newspaper rights for novels, but apparently not the short stories. Though THUNDERBALL had just begun in the strip it was ordered to finish forthwith. Readers were astonished to find three-quarters of an extremely complicated plot dismissed in the space of four frames. The notoriously mercurial Beaverbrook interpreted Fleming’s sale of his short story to The Sunday Times as disloyalty, and felt the Express should have exclusive rights to Fleming’s work, as not only were they running Bond in strip format but they had also been serializing his novels (with stylish illustrations by Andrew Robb). So with the unscheduled withdrawal of THUNDERBALL on February 10th 1962, 007 bowed out of the Express.