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MI6 reviews the recently reissued graphic novel
"James Bond 007: The Spy Who Loved Me" from
Titan Books written by written by Ian Fleming, James
Lawrence and Yaroslav Horak.
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"James Bond 007: The Spy Who Loved Me"
Review
14th September 2005
James Bond fever gripped the world in the 1960's. He was everywhere,
including national tabloids and broadsheets. Titan's seventh book
in their run - "The Spy Who Loved Me" - is made up of
two strips, which featured in series one of the newspaper strip:
"The Spy Who Loved Me" and "The Harpies". Making
James Bond a daily adventure meant that each story had to be uniquely
structured carefully communicating location, plot and character
development to the reader. Each strip normal comprised of three
cells or even two on occasion.
Features
Loving The Spy - Introduction
Bond vixen Caroline Munro looks back to 1977 and her fond
memories during the production of "The Spy Who Loved
Me". She reflects on the film's premiere and its memorable
opening with the Union Jack parachute.
"Bond’s appeal for me
is the sheer exuberant fantasy of it all" - Caroline
Munro
A New Vision Of A Hero
This feature explores Lawrence's additions to the Bond universe
and the difference between the writers and artist who re-created
Fleming’s character and original materials and the
individual traits. Writer Paul Simpson has created a insightful
overview of the evolution of the strips which could be further
explored.
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Above: Cell from "The Spy Who
Loved Me"
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The Spy Who Loved Me - James Bond’s Strangest
Adventure
One of the weakest offerings of Titan's special features to date
looks at Fleming’s answer to his literary critics and how
the dwindling box office returns from adapted stories lead to
a new original James Bond film. As well as explaining Fleming's
rationale for moving away from his usual formula, it also briefly
explains how the strip evolved away from the source material and
the motion picture.
Click
here for the MI6 article on "The Spy Who Loved Me" script
history
Above: Panel from"The Spy Who
Loved Me" |
James Bond Titan Reissue Checklist
A summary of the past six issues cover, title, authors and stories.
The Complete James Bond Syndicated Newspaper Checklist
Rounding off this reissue is a checklist of every Bond newspaper
strip including dates of print and reference numbers in a table
format
Above: Panel from"The Harpies" |
The Spy Who Loved Me: Graphic Novel
Handing Lawrence a challenge, Fleming didn’t wish to have
"The Spy Who Loved Me" adapted as with his previous stories
- but stated it must fit within the continuum of the novels. The
story sees Bond on the heels of SPECTRE and its new leader Madame
Spectra with an original plot by Lawrence that precedes the final
events of the book. Overall the quality of the strip is outstanding
and is expanded upon from there early 80’s release of the
strip.
The Harpies: Graphic Novel
The first original non-Fleming story written by Lawrence is
a mixture of adventure and fantasy that sees a troupe of acrobatic
fly vixens face off against Bond.
The opening panel feels similar to Bob Kane’s infamous
Batman and is soon dispatched as the story expands.
Horak's detailed and well constructed fights carry force
and energy through the strip as Bond faces off against numerous
opponents. The quality of the 221 panels varies just enough
to distract from the read.
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Above: Panel from "The Harpies"
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Above: Front cover |
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Summary: A good effort
from Titan, however it is not on par with some of their
earlier releases due to the weak special features.
With this being the last Ian Fleming based title being
used, and Titan preparing for the original adventures written
by Jim Lawrence, the series is facing an interesting direction.
James Bond will return in December 2005 with "Colonel
Sun"!
MI6 Rating (10 Maximum)
Adaptation |
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Artwork |
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Overall |
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Images courtesy Titan Books and Amazon Associates.