JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

During the 1960s it was possible to purchase complete James Bond stories (for private use only) directly from the Daily Express in the form of ‘repro pulls’, which featured the strips printed four-up on a china based art paper directly from the Express’ original ‘hot metal’ blocks; accordingly, the first generation reproduction was superb. Pictured below is the folder for DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER.

The James Bond comic strip had debuted in the Daily Express on July 7, 1958 – and continued in the single strip format six days each week until Saturday 10, 1962. The strip went into worldwide syndication in 1960 and made its US debut on April 11, 1960 in the Indianapolis News, which printed DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER; followed by FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE and DR. NO. The strip was not particularly popular as the character of James Bond had yet to make a significant impact in the USA. The DR. NO strip ended prematurely after just three weeks with no explanation given in the newspaper. A very small number of other US newspapers published just DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, as the story was more appropriate for an America audience, with many locations familiar to readers. The James Bond comic strip went into wider syndication across the USA and Canada from June 1, 1964 to coincide with the American release of the second James Bond film From Russia With Love (1963). The John McLusky illustrated version of the story was therefore the first comic strip chosen for US and Canadian syndication. This was followed by DR. NO, MOONRAKER, and DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. The final story to be syndicated in the USA/Canada was ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE in 1965/66, although fewer newspapers opted to run the lengthy adaptation. These were the only five Ian Fleming stories printed in North America, all of which were either slightly censored in some parts, or had strips omitted. As the stories also appeared out of order, the introductory strips were frequently omitted if they contained narrative relating to an earlier adventure – therefore the syndicated versions of the stories are all slightly different to what originally appeared in the Daily Express in England.

The first James Bond comic to be collected in one publication was LIVE AND LET DIE which appeared in the 1968 James Bond annual published in the UK by World Distributors. The strips were slightly reformatted to remove title captions, and panels cropped so they would fit four to a page. Although LIVE AND LET DIE was split into two sections in the annual, the strip was complete and had only minor changes to some panels, and the removal of the identifying strip number in order that the presentation appeared as one complete narrative.

Some US newspapers had chosen to run FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE in just their Sunday editions, and as was the tradition a full weeks’ worth of strips would appear on one page, although frequently reformatted to omit redundant panels without any narrative content. The title caption would also be removed and the original artwork extended to cover up the gap. This would be done differently depending on how the strip was being printed to fit the space available on a specific newspaper page. In May 1968 the specialist publication Cartoonist Showcase featured the first US appearance of GOLDFINGER, which reformatted the original strips and presented them as two per page, but split into three rows, which resulted in every other strip having its title block removed and the artwork extended to fill the gap. The story was published across four issues in May, July, September, and November 1968. The Daily Express supplied John McLusky's original artwork to Cartoonist Showcase, which meant the print quality was excellent. The title panel was changed and the opening two strips featuring Honey Rider were omitted, as would be the case with most syndicated versions of GOLDFINGER. The whole story was presented alongside comic strip adaptations of Modesty Blaise, Secret Agent X9 and Tarzan, which were similarly reformatted. The James Bond strip did not appear on the cover of any of the four issues. The 84-page paperback publication was limited to just 500 copies of each issue.

The Menomonee Falls Gazette was a weekly tabloid publication available at newsstands, however, the bulk of sales came from worldwide subscription. It was the only newspaper to print the James Bond comic strip in the USA in the Seventies, and ran six complete James Bond stories between 1971 and 1978. The 1971 story Fear Face came to an abrupt end after just four instalments when publication ceased after 232 issues.

Read the full story of the James Bond Comic Strip in The Menomonee Falls Gazette

Although the James Bond comic strip had not proved particularly popular when originally syndicated in the USA in the 1960s, by 1981 there was renewed interest with the emergence of James Bond fan clubs on both sides of the Atlantic. In February 1981 the American James Bond 007 Fan Club published The Illustrated JAMES BOND, 007 – a softcover collection of three complete unedited stories of the Daily Express comic strip. Although the three stories included in the collection had been syndicated in US newspapers in the mid-1960s they were always edited in some form, with some strips omitted or censored. This anthology therefore represents the first time they were seen in a complete unedited format, and was a very important publication allowing the majority of fans to see the strip for the first time. Although never originally intended to be seen in a complete format, the strips work perfectly when collected sequentially, serving as a very authentic pictorial representation of Ian Fleming's original stories. The book was also available in the UK via The James Bond British Fan Club, and imported by specialist comic shops in London. On Monday, February 2, 1981 the Express Newspapers Group resurrected the James Bond comic strip with Doomcrack, illustrated by Harry North, but this time in their tabloid newspaper the Daily Star. Many younger fans were unaware of John McLusky's contribution to the world of James Bond and renewed interest in his artwork led him to return to illustrate the strip for four more stories printed in the Daily Star from August 20, 1981 to July 15, 1983 before the series was discontinued. One final story, The Scent of Danger, written by Jim Lawrence and illustrated by John McLusky, was syndicated outside the UK and later collected in different anthologies published by Titan Books.

In April 1982 Graham Rye's groundbreaking article ‘The Illustrated James Bond’ was published in issue #10 of 007 MAGAZINE, giving readers a fascinating insight into the background and history of the Daily Express comic strip. Rye's unprecedented access to the Daily Express archives opened up a new chapter in the history of the James Bond comic strip, and artist John McLusky then gave a fascinating talk about his time working on the strip to 200 fans at The James Bond British Fan Club Convention held at the Wembley Conference centre on the weekend of 24th/25th April, 1982.

In 1987 UK publisher Titan Books released two of Yaroslav Horak's James Bond comic strips which were seen for the first time with English language text since their appearance in the Daily Express. Syndicated versions of the James Bond comic strips were invariably translated into another language, and usually had the artwork cropped or reformatted depending on the printed medium they were appearing in. Few of these versions did justice to Horak's superb artwork, and even the original Daily Express presentation could not reproduce in newsprint what the artist had captured in pencil and ink. The first Titan softcover edition collected THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (although this appears as the first story to maintain the original continuity), and was published in June 1987 to coincide with the release of Timothy Dalton's debut as James Bond in The Living Daylights. The first anthology included an introduction by 007 MAGAZINE Editor & Publisher Graham Rye. In March 1988 a second volume collecting OCTOPUSSY and THE HILDEBRAND RARITY hit the bookshelves, followed by THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in June 1989. Although unedited THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was missing strip #721 which was absent from the Daily Express archive at the time. The cover was painted by American cartoonist and comic book writer Kyle Baker, with Bond looking suspiciously like Arnold Schwarzenegger! The first two anthologies had covers painted by English illustrator David McKean, with his version of 007 based on a reference still of Sean Connery in From Russia With Love (1963). McKean then used a reference image of Andreas Wisniewski in a double-page product advertising spread for the OCTOPUSSY cover! A fourth volume was published in July 1990 and featured a cover painted by Paul Johnson. This edition went right back to the start of the James Bond comic strip and collected CASINO ROYALE and LIVE AND LET DIE. The first James Bond comic strip was making its debut in a complete format, whereas LIVE AND LET DIE had been reprinted in the 1968 James Bond annual, although the panels were slightly reformatted to remove the title captions from each strip. The 1990 Titan Books version of LIVE AND LET DIE is unedited and complete, although also has the title captions removed. The first four editions from Titan Books represented the best reproduction of the James Bond comic strips until the later larger format hardback anthologies were released in 2015-17. The first series of Titan softcover editions had a full colour covers which looked more far more attractive as a point-of-sale than the stark black & white illustrations used on the next series. Many foreign language reprints of the James Bond comic strips published in the 1970s/80s had also used coloured versions of the artwork, or resorted to illustrated representations of Sean Connery on the cover.

Titan Books continued to release anthologies at regular intervals and completed the series in March 2010 with the release of Nightbird. Originally announced for publication in July 2007, this final volume was held back and now included the syndicated version of Ape of Diamonds which includes strips drawn by Horak and a revised conclusion illustrated by Neville Colvin (1918-1991). The Nightbird anthology also includes War Cloud, an incomplete Jim Lawrence story which was to have followed Shark Bait in 1979, but aborted and only discovered in the Daily Express archives as the book was being prepared. Several titles in this series had different cover art when originally announced, and these are still used by many online retailers. The covers pictured above are the final published versions.

This series also contained articles on various aspects of the world of James Bond by various authors, although often riddled with errors. Other anomalies included a sequence strips in River of Death (#1113-#1118) being inserted too early into the narrative and then appearing again in the correct order, and the omission of strip #1494 from The Golden Ghost. These errors were corrected in the The James Bond Omnibus 003 reprint.

In September 2009 Titan Books collected the James Bond comic strips from CASINO ROYALE to THUNDERBALL drawn by John McLucky into a new omnibus edition. This was followed in February 2011 by a second volume containing the final two John McLusky strips and the five remaining Ian Fleming stories illustrated by Yaroslav Horak. The four volumes that followed over the next two years collected all those stories written by Jim Lawrence (including his adaptation of COLONEL SUN in volume three), this time in the order of their original publication. By the end of 2014 when volume six was published, the complete series of James Bond comic strips were then available in uniform editions, although the smaller page size (9.25 X 7.5 inches approx) and print quality did not always do the strips justice. The final omnibus published in November 2014 collected the rarely seen Harry North and John McLusky stories originally printed in the Daily Star, and the final three stories illustrated by Horak only syndicated outside the UK.

To tie in with the release of Spectre starring Daniel Craig in November 2015, Titan Books published a collection of the four comic strips featuring the crime organisation led by Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played in Spectre by Christoph Waltz). The new hardback edition was much larger than earlier collections (12 X 11 inches approx) and the newly restored strips were finally shown off to their best advantage on glossy paper. The second volume published in November 2016 collected the strips from CASINO ROYALE to DR. NO, originally published in the Daily Express 1958-60 and all drawn by John McLusky. The next volume collected the strips from 1960-66 with strips drawn by John McLusky and Yaroslav Horak, with a fourth compilation containing the final two Ian Fleming short stories, along with The Harpies and River of Death written by Jim Lawrence, all illustrated by Yaroslav Horak.

JAMES BOND NEWS

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

FACT FILES INDEX