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1 |
Strip #572 of
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE scheduled to be printed on Tuesday May 10, 1960 was
omitted from the storyline for timing purposes. The comic strip had not
appeared in the Daily Express on Good Friday April 15, 1960, but
artist John McLusky had already completed numbered artwork for the story
well ahead of publication. Strip #572 was therefore omitted in order that
that FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE would still end on a Saturday. There is no
loss of narrative as a result of the exclusion. This strip was also
missing from the first appearance of the story in the USA, when printed in
the Indianapolis News in
1961. Strip #572 was later reinstated into the wider US syndication in
1964, and is present in all subsequent collected versions of FROM RUSSIA,
WITH LOVE. ^ |
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2 |
Strip #773A of GOLDFINGER was only printed in the
Daily Express in England and Wales on 02/01/1961. ^ |
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3 |
Series aborted prematurely. Strips #1117-#1122 were completed by artist
John McLusky but not published in the Daily Express. A new
composite strip #1117 was created to conclude the story on 10/02/1962.
Additional strips were created for the syndicated and collected versions
of THUNDERBALL.
Some syndicated foreign language versions of THUNDERBALL substituted new
versions of strips #1117-#1122 with those originally drawn for the Daily
Express; whilst others continued the hijacking
scene as it was originally intended, and tacked on the six explanatory
strips at the end (#1123-#1128). It is this version of THUNDERBALL that appears in the
Titan Books anthology editions. Consequently there are two sets of strips
labelled #1117-#1122, and therefore no definitive English language
version of the story.
^ |
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4 |
Strip #248A of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE was only printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express
on 16/04/1965. ^ |
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5 |
Strip #299A of OCTOPUSSY
was only
printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express on 27/12/1966,
and strip #373A only printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily
Express on 24/03/1967. ^ |
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6 |
Strip #608A of THE
SPY WHO LOVED ME was only
printed in the Scottish edition of the Daily Express on 26/12/1967.
Strip #728 published was on 15/05/1967 printed again in error on
16/05/1967. The comic strip was not printed at all between 05/08/1968 and
10/09/1968 due to industrial strike action. A recap strip #796A was
printed when the story resumed on 11/09/1968 and did appear in some
overseas syndicated versions of THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. ^ |
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7 |
Strip #970 of The
Harpies 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. ^ |
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8 |
The Daily Express was not printed from 10/06/1970 13/06/1970 due
to industrial strike action. ^ |
|
9 |
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 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. ^ |
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10 |
Strips #1745 & #1746
of Starfire were both printed in the Daily
Express on 11/10/1971 - no newspapers were printed on 12/10/1971.
Strip #1808A of Starfire
was only printed in the Scottish
edition of the Daily Express on 27/12/1971. ^ |
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11 |
The Daily Express was not printed from 24/07/1972 27/07/1972 due
to industrial strike action. Strips #2007 & #2009 of Isle of Condors were omitted from the
Daily Express in error, but do appear in syndicated and collected
versions of the story. ^ |
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12 |
The Daily Express did not
print any strip cartoons on 05/11/1973 due to industrial strike action in
Fleet Street. ^ |
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13 |
Strip #2537 of Beware of Butterflies was
omitted from the Daily Express in error, but does appear in
syndicated and collected versions of the story.
^ |
|
14 |
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. Artist Yaroslav Horak had actually completed an additional
weeks-worth of six strips (#3378-#3383) that were never published in the Daily Express,
but did appear in the syndicated and collected versions of the story. New
Zealand born artist Neville Colvin (1918-1991) was brought in to draw a
further 54 strips (#3384-#3437) to conclude the narrative for the
syndicated version. Speech bubbles in strips #3375-#3377, at the point the
story originally ended, were changed for the syndicated version in order
to continue the narrative. Neville Colvin was not credited for his artwork
on the James Bond comic strip until 2010, when the complete story was
published by Titan Books in the UK as part of the Nightbird
anthology. ^ |
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15 |
The final
three strips of When The Wizard Awakes published on May 22,
1977 are unique to the Sunday Express and appear to have been
drawn by Neville Colvin. For the syndicated
version of the story, Yaroslav Horak produced alternate artwork for
these three strips, plus an
additional three strips to conclude the story. Strips #49-#54 are
therefore unique to the syndicated version (which is all Horak's work),
which also has
slight differences to the text throughout the story. ^ |
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16 |
Strip #135 of
Doomcrack was omitted from the original Daily Star presentation of
the story, but does appear in collected versions of the story.
^ |
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17 |
Polestar
ended after just eight weeks in the Daily Star with no
explanation or final concluding strip. John McLusky did complete the
artwork for the story which included a further 46 strips (#674-719) that
were later syndicated outside the UK. ^ |
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18 |
Strip #223 was omitted from The Express reprint of THE LIVING
DAYLIGHTS. ^ |
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19 |
Strip #27 was
omitted from The Express reprint of CASINO ROYALE. ^ |
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20 |
For the first five weeks
of the story (strips #139-#143) the title caption above the strip
incorrectly stated CASINO ROYALE. This was corrected by the Sunday
Express on June 23, 2024, although the copyright details remained
unchanged and still showed the incorrect story until July 7, 2024. ^ |
