John McLusky (1923–2006)

Access a version of the below that includes illustrations on my blog.

Beginning in 1958, the Daily Express ran a daily comic strip adapting the James Bond novels, which has been collected into a series of omnibuses by Titan. I reviewed the first volume rel="nofollow" target="_top">a few years ago, and now that I've read all the novels adapted in the second, I've read that one, too. This collects adaptations of the last few James Bond books—On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice, The Man with the Golden Gun, and Octopussy & The Living Daylights—and then it circles back to adapt some stuff skipped over before—"The Hildebrand Rarity" from For Your Eyes Only and The Spy Who Loved Me.The first two stories here are written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky; McLusky illustrated every story in volume 001 and Gammidge wrote most of them, and as there, they are perfectly serviceable adaptations. Gammidge doesn't make a lot of tweaks to the stories, usually just streamlining them a bit, e.g., long passages about Bond learning about Japanese culture in You Only Live Twice just don't make the cut. He does make the biggest change I can recollect from him in YOLT; in the novel, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's Japanese base alone, but here, Kissy Suzuki sneaks in with him. The story also has a weird discontinuity; at its beginning, Mary Goodnight is introduced as Bond's new secretary, but at its end, when Bond is thought dead, we're told she's so sad because she had been Bond's secretary for years. He does also massage the way one story leads into the next; we see Mary get reassigned to Station J after Bond dies, setting up her role in The Man with the Golden Gun.

Lawrence is much more likely to take liberties in his adaptations. He adds a whole subplot in The Man with the Golden Gun before Bond goes to Jamaica; Bond is recuperating from his brainwashing at the same clinic where one of Scaramanga's victims is recovering, and is turns out the victim's nurse is a Russian spy who tries to seduce Bond, and then whom he foils. The Living Daylights is a pretty straight adaptation, but Octopussy adds a lot. The short story is told from the perspective of the villain; Bond comes to see him, tells him he's been caught, and the villain ends his own life. But here, we see Bond's investigation play out in Austria, aided by (of course) a young woman, and then in Jamaica, aided by both her and Mary Goodnight, picking up from TMWTGG. Chinese gangsters try to kill Bond; the whole thing is much more elaborate.

This, then, becomes the go-to method for the last two adaptations. There's no spy plot in the original of "The Hildebrand Rarity"; Bond just bumps into some rich American jerk collecting wildlife specimens while on vacation. Here, the rich American jerk is also working with the Soviets to steal an experimental NATO unmanned submarine. Many people seem to praise these strips for capturing the feel of the novels, but in this one, I felt the influence of the movies a bit; the strips began before the films did, but by the time of this strip, the first four or five films were out, and it feels a bit Thunderball to me in particular. The Spy Who Loved Me is also quite different; the first two thirds of that novel don't feature Bond at all, but tell the life story of Vivienne Michel, whose life Bond saves in the final third. The novel replaces all this with a completely unrelated story about Bond trying to stop a recently revived SPECTRE from stealing technical data on a new stealth airplane. This expands massively on a very brief story Bond tells Vivienne in the novel. Again, it feels more film Bond than novel Bond.

But it also works. I like adaptations best when they bring something new to the table; Gammidge and McLusky did solid work, but it often didn't add much. Lawrence and Horak's work is at its best when they are adding their own stuff, and I look forward to seeing where they go in future volumes, when the strip's adventures became (with one exception) wholly original, because based on this, they know how to spin an entertaining Bond tale even without Fleming as a basis.… (más)

James Bond 007 Casino Royale (the strips) (2005) by Ian Fleming, Anthony Hern, Henry Gammidge and John McLusky.
These comic strip conversions from the Fleming novels run true to the original stories. Appearing in England’s Daily Express newspaper, each set of panels was designed to translate the words into visible action, and that is exactly what they did.
This coffee table book combines the illustrations for not only Casino Royale but also Live And Let Die and Moonraker. Each comic is faithful to the book with the full cast of characters, plots, and action. The torture is there also. A bit subdued for the sensibilities of the audience, but it is there. You get exactly what the readers of 1958 and 1958 wanted in their hero.
This compilation comes with an introduction by the late Roger Moore and a review of some of the novels written after Fleming passed away. And each individual title has it’s own intro letting the reader in on a few mild secrets.
This is a book for the completist in us all. A companion to the original novels and a handy reference for what the movies are not, I am certain this book will make many a reader happy.… (más)

This volume collects the installments of the James Bond comic strip that ran in the Daily Express from 1958 to 1962, adapting the plots of Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, rel="nofollow" target="_top">Moonraker, Diamonds are Forever, From Russia with Love, Dr No, Goldfinger, "Risico," "From a View to a Kill," "For Your Eyes Only," and Thunderball into strips of 2-4 panels; each novel gets condensed into about 125 strips.

They're heavy on the narration and the recapping; I wouldn't say the writing of the adaptations is any great achievement. Except for Thunderball, which is massively cut down (once SPECTRE steals the plane, Bond defeats them in six strips!), the plots are pretty much intact, with all the strengths and weaknesses that implies. Because so little plot is cut, the opening of Goldfinger goes on too long just as it does in the novel; the need to communicate so much means that most conversations are disjointed and expressed in narration. In the first couple stories, the narration is in the third person, then it switches to first person from Bond for a couple, then it goes back to third for the rest. I did think the short stories from For Your Eyes Only really shone at this length; I think they have less compression, and don't feel as drawn out. They become cracking little action pieces, especially "For Your Eyes Only." I did note that these are the only Bond adaptations to maintain Fleming's careful inventories of Bond's meals; on the other hand, they change the third ingredient in the vesper from Kina Lillet to vermouth!

The art is great, though. Sharp black-and-white stuff that suits the mood of Fleming's stories admirably. John McLusky does his best with landscapes and creatures; Bond battling the occasional sea creature also looked great. His villains are grotesque, his women stylish, and his Bond cruel. I don't know that I really recommend sitting down and reading them all through in a couple days as I did, but if you're a Bond devotee (and maybe I am?), they're worth investigating.… (más)