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Thursday 27 September 2012

Titan Books: The James Bond Omnibus Volume 4



Ian Fleming, Jim Lawrence, Yaroslav Horak
Illustration detail: B/w newspaper strip
Dimensions: 230 x 190mm
Paperback: 288pp

ISBN: 9780857685896
Publication date: 12 October 2012

£14.99

The daring James Bond is back in a definitive bumper edition collecting the second period of Jim Lawrence’s celebrated run in comic strip form! Includes nine of Bond’s most thrilling and dangerous missions: Trouble Spot, Isle of Condor’s, The League of Vampires, Die With My Boots On, The Girl Machine, Beware of Butterflies, The Nevsky Nude, The Phoenix Project and The Black Ruby Caper.

I only ever saw a few of the James Bond newspaper strips because the local library had all the dailies.  Daily Express was not allowed in our house –only the Daily Mirror!  One thing I can write is that the strips I saw were never all well reproduced as in this omnibus (Titan have a lot of the Bond strips in book form and three other omnibus editions).

If you know nothing about the artist, Yaroslav Horak or his stripwork then all I can say to you is this: Shame on you!

I’ve just gone over this collection three times and LOVE the art. True style. Again, a book with art that could teach many of those wanting to get into comics how to  draw. Horak also drew comics including The Mask:The Man of Many Faces. The only way to describe the art here –luscious.

Oh, and the stories are good.  The secret agent Bond and not the old over-laden with gadgets movie Bond. probably one of Bond’s best lines in Isle Of Condors:  “I couldn’t care about what you look like in the flesh! Though, if you like, I’ll be glad to provide a testimonial!” Yes! And look at those titles –oozing 1960s spy-noire.  A book you can’t do anything but recommend.

below: pages from The Nevsky Nude

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