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MI6 reviews Titan Books' newly reissued graphic
novel "James
Bond 007: The Man With the Golden Gun" written
by Ian Fleming, James Lawrence and Yaroslav Horak.
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"James Bond 007: The Man With The Golden
Gun" Review
26th February 2004
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In the early 60's James Bond was everywhere,
including national tabloids and broadsheets. Titan Books
have republished the original 1987, 80 page classic "The
Man with the Golden Gun". These uniquely structured
comic strips saw Bond fighting his foes everyday in only
then three panels. Each strip was carefully crafted to
communicate Location, Plot and Character development
to the reader.
Today sees the launch of the revised Jim Lawrence and
Yaroslav Horak original graphic novel based on Ian Fleming's
13th
Bond novel first published in 1965. The first re-issue
boasts new cover art which is a reworked cell from panel
797 of
the earlier 1967 adaptation of "The Spy Who Loves Me".
Features
The Spy Who Loved Me - Introduction:
The revised version of the graphic novel is introduced
by Fleming's niece, Lucy Fleming, in which she talks
about
her personal experiences with Fleming with fondness, and
tales of sneaking peeks at the novels.
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Above: Cells from "The Man with the Golden Gun"
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"I think that I learnt more about the
world from the places that Bond was sent to then from any
geography lesson." - Lucy Fleming 2004
Bond in Books - Ian Fleming condensed biography:
A brief biography about Ian Fleming focusing on his war efforts,
and the grounding for his world famous spy James Bond and their
personal connections is described with insight by Paul Simpson.
Simpson continues highlighting Fleming's loves and Bond's first
comic strip incarnation in 1958 "Casino Royale" published by
the 'Daily Express'.
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Above: Cell from "The Living Daylights"
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The Men with the Golden Pens - career
history of authors:
A brief look at the duo behind the 'Express' comic strip
Jim Lawrence and Yaroslav Horak. Starting with a description
of how each of them got started, Horak moving away from
his native China and Lawrence humble beginnings as a technical
script writer for the US Armed Forces. They paired up in
London and begun one of the most successful runs of
Bond
in this
new format. The piece concludes by reflection on the trust
Fleming felt Lawrence and Horak allowing them to
create
original
comic
strip
Bond outings.
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The Man With The Golden Gun - Graphic novel:
To
convert the literary Bond to Comic strip formatting required
story line alterations on the part of Lawrence. He creates
a new dynamic
subplot about Bond's fellow patient at 'The Park' and adds
a new Bond girl 'Taj' Mahal. The story picks up from where Bond's
brain washing from "You Only Live Twice" leads him
back to MI6. The contemporary styled panels depict Bonds adventure
over 209 daily strips which ran from 10/1/66 - 10/9/66.
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The Living Daylights - Graphic novel:
Also included are 56 strips that make up Fleming's short
story 'The Living Daylights' adapted by Jim Lawrence
and
illustrations by Yaroslav Horak, which ran from 12/9/66
to 12/11/66 in the 'Express'.
The Complete James Bond Syndicated Newspaper Checklist - Listing:
Rounding off this first reissue is a checklist of every
Bond newspaper strip including dates of print and reference
numbers in a table format.
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Above: Cell from "The Man with the Golden Gun"
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James Bond will return in May 2004 in Octopussy...
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