James Bond: Omnibus Volume 001: Based on the novels that inspired the movies
In 1958, just five years after Fleming published the first James Bond novel and long before the supersuave spy became a worldwide phenom, Britain’s Daily Express began running comic-strip versions of the Bond novels and occasional short stories. The strip presented the stories in publication chronology, boosted the newspaper’s sales, and is said to have contributed greatly to the British Bondmania that prompted the long-lived movie series. The comic ran original stories after exhausting the Fleming originals and thus continued to 1983. This collection includes adaptations of 11 Bond adventures, from 1953’s Casino Royale to 1961’s Thunderball. These visual condensations follow the originals’ story lines to a far greater extent than did the frequently outlandish films. In the mode of British comics of the era, they’re rather stiff and understated compared to their more vivid American contemporaries. Nevertheless, they demonstrate uncanny prescience in that artist John McClusky’s Bond markedly resembles Sean Connery (the strip emerged four years before the first film, Dr. No). --Gordon Flagg