JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

In 1966, with the old guard departed it was thought that a fresh new look was needed for the James Bond comic strip. There were now only five original Ian Fleming stories remaining for adaptation: THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN, THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS, OCTOPUSSY, THE HILDEBRAND RARITY and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. At the suggestion of Modesty Blaise creator Peter O'Donnell, the Daily Express hired Yaroslav Horak (1927-2020) [pictured below centre] a Russo-Czech born in Manchuria, but a naturalised Australian. When he first arrived in the UK in 1963, Horak had a studio in London's Fleet Street in the same building as Peter O'Donnell [pictured below right], who had adapted DR. NO for the Daily Express James Bond comic strip in 1960.

With the new artist came a new younger looking Bond, modern, harder - and with the emphasis on action! The new style strips also boasted a new scriptwriter. James ‘Jim’ Duncan Lawrence (1918-1994) [pictured above left] had begun his writing career as a scriptwriter of technical training films for the US armed Forces during World War II. He broke into fiction with a short story sold to the Chicago Daily News, and for three years wrote the story continuity for the well-known American strip Joe Palooka, also working on Captain Easy and Buck Rogers. His adaptation of the last two Fleming novels and three short stories are quite ingenious, and make highly entertaining reading. Not surprisingly, the first part of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was considered completely unusable by Kennedy Aitken, the Daily Express strip cartoon editor, so Lawrence cleverly fleshed-out Bond's entrapment of the SPECTRE assassin Uhlmann in the first part of the strip, which was only briefly mentioned in the novel.

In order to bridge the transition between the two artists, several strips towards the end of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE drawn by John McLusky included panels featuring James Bond and Kissy drawn by Yaroslav Horak. The final strip of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (pictured below) appeared in the Daily Express on Saturday January 8, 1966 and was completely drawn by Horak (and now fully credited to the artist), including a teaser panel for THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN which would begin on the following Monday.

Jim Lawrence was later given permission by the Ian Fleming estate to originate his own stories. A prolific writer, he continued for a further 34 new adventures, involving Bond in many weird and way-out situations. Unfortunately, as in many of the films, when Bond totally parts company with Fleming's writing, the character undoubtedly suffers. In most part the new stories (credited on most title strips to J. D. Lawrence) lacked substance and ‘Bondian’ atmosphere, and placed 007 in supernatural or science fiction scenarios, which seemed awkward and unnatural for the character. The only story to distinguish itself was COLONEL SUN, based on the book by Kingsley Amis (written under the pseudonym of Robert Markham), which remains the only Bond novel written by another author that successfully captures the essence of Ian Fleming's 007.

^*OCTOPUSSY included two ‘A-strips’ that only appeared in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express. Strip #299A (pictured below) was printed on Tuesday December 27, 1966. England and Wales had two additional public holidays due to Christmas falling on weekend that year. Scotland also recognised the two substitute days, and newspapers were still printed on Tuesday December 27th, but not in England or Wales. The additional strip adds nothing new to the narrative and is simply a conversation between Bond and the head of records, as 007 investigates Major Dexyer Smythe and the murder of Hannes Oberhauser. These two ‘A-strips’ did not form part of the narrative of the syndicated version of OCTOPUSSY, but did make their way into some collected versions of the story.

Strip #373A (pictured below) was only printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express on Good Friday March 24, 1967. This strip offers additional dialogue between Bond (in the guise of Mark Hazard) as he confronts Major Dexter Smythe about his gold smuggling operation.

^*A unique strip #608A was printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express only on December 26, 1967. As Boxing Day was not an official public holiday in Scotland until 1974, newspapers were printed and the story still needed to stay in synch with the English version when publication resumed on Wednesday December 27th. Strip #608A adds no new story information and simply recaps the opening narrative from a different angle.

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was interrupted by a five-week break from Monday August 5, 1968 when no comic strips were printed in the Daily Express due to industrial strike action. When the strip returned on Wednesday September 11, 1967 a new composite strip #796A (pictured below) was printed in the Daily Express to recap the story. Although this strip was unique to the Daily Express it was included when THE SPY WHO LOVED ME published in the USA in 1973/74 in The Menomonee Falls Gazette - a weekly tabloid newspaper that reprinted a weeks’ worth of six strips from popular US and UK newspapers; including Superman, Dick Tracy, Tarzan, Jeff Hawke and Garth. Many of the UK strips were being seen for the first time in America.

Although the five-week break was explained on the comic page of the Daily Express on Monday September 11, 1967, without the industrial action THE SPY WHO LOVED ME would have run for 31-weeks. A printing error resulted in strip #728 appearing on Wednesday May 15, 1968 and then again on Thursday 16th. With the five-week break and repeat printing of one strip, THE SPY WHO LOVED ME became the second story after YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE to break the tradition of new stories starting on a Monday and ending on a Saturday.

^*Strip #970 of The Harpies (pictured below) was only printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express on Good Friday April 4, 1969. Unusually, instead of scheduling an additional unique ‘A-strip’ for Scotland, #970 was omitted from the narrative in the English/Welsh editions of the Express (although no essential story information was lost). This unusual move meant that this strip never appeared in the syndicated version of The Harpies as it was missing from the materials held by Knight Features who then handled the overseas distribution of James Bond comic strip. The missing strip was highlighted when The Harpies was published by The Menomonee Falls Gazette in the USA in July 1974. Strip #970 was also absent from the first Titan Books anthology when the story was paired with THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in August 2005, but restored to all their subsequent collected omnibus editions of The Harpies.

^*There were four days (Wednesday 10 - Saturday 13 June, 1970) when the Daily Express was not printed due to industrial strike action by print workers. As the break was so short, no recap strip was created in this instance. Although COLONEL SUN was adapted by James Lawrence from the 1968 novel written by Kingsley Amis (under the pseudonym Robert Markham), no writing credits are included on the title strip #1175. It is interesting to note that the overall strip still bore the credit “James Bond BY IAN FLEMING” up until strip #1359 of COLONEL SUN printed in the Daily Express on Saturday July 11, 1970. After this date the credit panel of all subsequent strips read “IAN FLEMING'S James Bond”.

^*There was another day of industrial action by the newsprint trade union Society of Graphical and Allied Trades (SOGAT), resulting in the Daily Express not being printed on Tuesday December 8, 1970. However, the comic strip continued with the correct sequential strip #1487 when the newspaper was published the next day. The following week, strip #1494 (pictured below) was missing from The Golden Ghost and possibly omitted as it adds nothing to the narrative as the story nears its conclusion. If strike action in December 1970 had not briefly interrupted the story, The Golden Ghost would have come to an end on Saturday January 16, 1971, so #1494 was probably removed in order that the traditional Saturday end-date could be maintained. Strip #1494 did not appear in syndicated versions of the story, and was also absent from the 2006 Titan Books anthology. The missing strip was evidently located and appears for the first time in the collected version of the story presented in The James Bond Omnibus 003 published by Titan Books in March 2012.

^*Starfire had two strips #1745 & #1746 printed in the Daily Express on Monday October 11, 1971. Different sequential blocks of comic strips for James Bond; Jeff Hawke by Sydney Jordan, and Gun Law by Harry Bishop were printed on pages 14 & 17. The comic strips appeared twice as the Daily Express would not be printed on Tuesday October 12, 1971 due to industrial strike action.

No English edition of the Daily Express was printed on Monday December 27, 1971 as this was a substitute public holiday as a result of Boxing Day falling on a Sunday. An additional strip #1808A (un-numbered on the original artwork) was printed only in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express. This strip was published by Titan Books in the collected version of Starfire as part of The James Bond Omnibus 003 in 2012. As this was the penultimate strip of the story no new narrative is included. Strip #1808A shows Alan Quantrill asking about his brother Luke; whereas the final strip of the English version concluded with Bond informing Alan and his house guests that Luke Quantrill was dead.

^*There were four days (Monday 24 - Thursday 27 July, 1972) when the Daily Express was not printed due to industrial strike action. As the break was so short, no recap strip was created in this instance and the story resumed with strip #1988 on Friday July 28, 1972.

Strips #2007 & #2009 (pictured above) were also omitted from the original Daily Express narrative due to a printing error, but do appeared in syndicated and collected versions of the story.

^*The Daily Express did not print any strip cartoons on Monday November 5, 1973 due to industrial strike action in Fleet Street. The story resumed on Tuesday November 6, 1973 with strip #2384.

^*Strip #2537 (pictured below) was omitted from the Daily Express in error, but does appear in syndicated and collected versions of Beware of Butterflies.

[#3313-#3377 drawn by Yaroslav Horak appeared in the Daily Express; #3377 (with revised text) & #3378-#3383 drawn by Horak, and #3384-#3437 drawn by Neville Colvin appeared in the syndicated/collected version of Ape of Diamonds].

^*Ape of Diamonds was the final James Bond comic strip to be printed in the Daily Express before moving to the Sunday Express in a three-strip format for 18-weeks from January 30, 1977. As the Sunday Express was still a broadsheet publication, its larger size therefore showcased Horak's detailed artwork to its best advantage.

Since it's launch in 1900, the Daily Express had been printed as a broadsheet (23.5" X 29.5"), but in 1977 the decision was made to move to a tabloid size in line with many of their rivals. The Daily Mail had changed to the more compact format in 1971. Whilst there is no standard size for a tabloid newspaper, they are generally printed at half the size of a broadsheet. The Daily Express retained its popular humorous comic strips including The Gambols, but by 1977 the narrative strip was long past its sell-by date. Sydney Jordan's Jeff Hawke, which had been running in the Daily Express since Monday February 15, 1954 had ended on Thursday April 18, 1974; and Gun Law (based on the US television series Gunsmoke) by Harry Bishop (1920-2015), would end its 19-year run on Saturday September 4, 1976. When The Wizard Awakes was the only James Bond comic strip published in the Sunday Express in the three-strip format. The James Bond comic strip was discontinued in the newspaper after 18 weeks. A further four stories written by Jim Lawrence and drawn by Yaroslav Horak were only syndicated outside the UK. A reprint of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS was published in The Express in late 1997 to coincide with the release of Pierce Brosnan's second James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies (1997); and the first James Bond comic strip CASINO ROYALE was then reprinted in weekday instalments from November 22, 1999, and again from September 26, 2021 - this time in the Sunday Express, to coincide with the release of Daniel Craig's final 007 adventure No Time To Die (2021). At the time of writing CASINO ROYALE is still being published as a single strip each Sunday.

Part 3 - THE JAMES BOND COMIC STRIP 1977-1984

The complete checklist of all strips first published in Express newspapers,
and those syndicated outside the UK

FACT FILES