Description

The Illustrated James Bond, 007                                    Oversized Trade Paperback
Featuring James Bond’s Hit Movies presented as comic adaptations… and all in Glorious Black & White.  Awesome!!
Cover by: Tom Sciacca & Rich Buckler

The Illustrated James Bond, 007 (1981) was published by the James Bond Fan Club with an introduction by Richard Schenkman (president of the American James Bond 007 Fan Club). This graphic novel collects three of the original James Bond comic strip serials: Diamonds Are Forever, From Russia, With Love, and Doctor No. Adapted from the Ian Fleming novels, these strips first appeared in the London Daily Express in 1959-1960.

The Illustrated James Bond, 007 contains:

“Introduction”   1 page
Writer: Richard Schenkman

Discusses how Ian Fleming, whose novels were serialized in The Daily Express newspaper, initially had little interest or faith in comic-strip adaptations. Includes covers of Danish & Swedish James Bond comic-books which have reprinted the strip over the years, and a sample of the Jim Lawrence-Yaroslav Horak run of the strip from Yugoslavia.
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“Diamonds are Forever”   37 pages
Writer: Ian Fleming
Artist: John Mclusky

Story/Spoilers (featuring the full James Bond: Diamonds are Forever 1956 Novel Synopsis for nostalgic remembrance)
The British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent on an assignment by his superior, M. Acting on information received from Special Branch, M tasks Bond with infiltrating a smuggling ring transporting diamonds from mines in the Crown colony of Sierra Leone to the United States. Bond must infiltrate the smugglers’ pipeline to uncover those responsible. Using the identity of “Peter Franks”, a country house burglar turned diamond smuggler, he meets Tiffany Case, an attractive gang member who has developed an antipathy towards men after being gang-raped as a teenager.

Bond discovers that the ring is operated by the Spangled Mob, a ruthless American gang run by the brothers Jack and Seraffimo Spang. He follows the trail from London to New York. To earn his fee for carrying the diamonds he is instructed by a gang member, Shady Tree, to bet on a rigged horse race in nearby Saratoga. There Bond surreptitiously meets his old friend Felix Leiter, a former CIA agent working at Pinkertons as a private detective investigating crooked horse racing. Leiter bribes the jockey to ensure the failure of the plot to rig the race, and asks Bond to make the pay-off. When he goes to make the payment, he witnesses two homosexual thugs, Wint and Kidd, attack the jockey.

Bond calls Tree to enquire further about the payment of his fee and is told to go to the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas. The Tiara is owned by Seraffimo Spang and operates as the headquarters of the Spangled Mob. Spang also owns an old Western ghost town, named Spectreville, restored to be his own private holiday retreat. At the hotel Bond finally receives payment through a rigged blackjack game where the dealer is Tiffany. After winning the money he is owed he disobeys his orders from Tree by continuing to gamble in the casino and wins heavily. Spang suspects that Bond may be a ‘plant’ and has him captured and tortured at Spectreville. With Tiffany’s help he escapes from Spectreville aboard a railway push-car with Seraffimo Spang in pursuit aboard an old Western train. Bond changes the railway points and re-routes the train onto a dead-end, and shoots Spang before the resulting crash. Assisted by Leiter, Bond and Tiffany go via California to New York, where they board the RMS Queen Elizabeth to travel to London, a relationship developing between them as they go. Wint and Kidd observe their embarkation and follow them on board. They kidnap Tiffany, planning to kill her and throw her overboard. Bond rescues her and kills both gangsters; he makes it look like a murder-suicide.

Tiffany subsequently informs Bond of the details of the pipeline. The story begins in Africa where a dentist bribes miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouths; he extracts the gems during routine appointments. From there, the dentist takes the diamonds to a rendezvous with a German helicopter pilot. Eventually the diamonds go to Paris and then on to London. There, after telephone instructions from a contact known as ABC, Tiffany meets a person who explains how the diamonds will be smuggled to New York City. After returning to London—where Tiffany moves into Bond’s flat—Bond flies to Freetown in Sierra Leone, and then to the next diamond rendezvous. With the collapse of the rest of the pipeline, Jack Spang (who turns out to be ABC) shuts down his diamond-smuggling pipeline by killing its participants. Spang himself is killed when Bond shoots down his helicopter.
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“From Russia with Love”   24 pages
Writer: Ian Fleming
Artist: John Mclusky

Story/Spoilers (featuring the full From Russia with Love 1957 Novel Synopsis for nostalgic remembrance)
SMERSH, the Soviet counterintelligence agency, plans to commit a grand act of terrorism in the intelligence field. For this, it targets the British secret service agent James Bond. Due in part to his role in the defeat of the SMERSH agents Le Chiffre, Mr Big and Hugo Drax, Bond has been listed as an enemy of the Soviet state and a “death warrant” is issued for him. His death is planned to precipitate a major sex scandal, which will run in the world press for months and leave his and his service’s reputations in tatters. Bond’s killer is to be the SMERSH executioner Donovan “Red” Grant, a British Army deserter and psychopath whose homicidal urges coincide with the full moon. Kronsteen, SMERSH’s chess-playing master planner, and Colonel Rosa Klebb, the head of Operations and Executions, devise the operation. They instruct an attractive young cipher clerk, Corporal Tatiana Romanova, to falsely defect from her post in Istanbul and claim to have fallen in love with Bond after seeing a photograph of him. As an added lure for Bond, Romanova will provide the British with a Spektor, a Russian decoding device much coveted by MI6. She is not told the details of the plan.

The offer of defection is received by MI6 in London, ostensibly from Romanova, but is conditional that Bond collects her and the Spektor from Istanbul. MI6 is unsure of Romanova’s motive, but the prize of the Spektor is too tempting to ignore; Bond’s superior, M, orders him to go to Turkey. Once there, Bond forms a comradeship with Darko Kerim, head of the British service’s station in Turkey. Bond meets Romanova and they plan their route out of Turkey with the Spektor. He and Kerim believe her story and the three board the Orient Express. Kerim quickly discovers three Russian MGB agents on board, travelling incognito. He uses bribes and trickery to have two of them taken off the train, but he is later found dead in his compartment with the body of the third MGB agent.

At Trieste a man introduces himself as Captain Nash, a fellow MI6 agent, and Bond presumes he has been sent by M as added protection for the rest of the trip. Romanova is suspicious of Nash, but Bond reassures her that the man is from his own service. After dinner, at which Nash has drugged Romanova, they rest. Nash later wakes Bond, holding him at gunpoint, and reveals himself as the killer Grant. Instead of killing Bond immediately, he describes SMERSH’s plan. He is to shoot both of them, throw Romanova’s body out the window, and plant a film of their love-making in her luggage; in addition, the Spektor is booby-trapped to explode when examined. As Grant talks, Bond places his metal cigarette case between the pages of a book he holds in front of him, positioning it in front of his heart to stop the bullet. After Grant fires, Bond collapses to the floor and, when Grant steps over him, he attacks and kills the assassin. Bond and Romanova escape.

Later, in Paris, after successfully delivering Romanova and the booby-trapped Spektor to his superiors, Bond meets Rosa Klebb. She is captured but manages to kick Bond with a poisoned blade concealed in her shoe; the story ends with Bond fighting for breath and falling to the floor.
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“From Russia with Love”   29 pages
Writer: Ian Fleming
Artist: John Mclusky

Story/Spoilers (featuring the full Dr. No 1958 Novel Synopsis for nostalgic remembrance)
After recovering from serious poisoning inflicted by the SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb (in From Russia, with Love) the MI6 agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, on an undemanding mission to the British Colony of Jamaica. He is instructed to investigate the disappearance of Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6’s Station J in Kingston, and his secretary. Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the activities of Doctor Julius No, a reclusive Chinese-German who lives on the fictional island of Crab Key and runs a guano mine. The island has a colony of roseate spoonbills at one end while local rumour is that a vicious dragon also lives there. The spoonbills are protected by the American National Audubon Society, two of whose representatives died when their plane crashed on No’s airstrip.

On his arrival in Jamaica, Bond soon realises that he is being watched. His hotel room is searched, a basket of poisoned fruit is delivered to the room—supposedly a gift from the colonial governor—and a deadly centipede is placed in his bed while he is sleeping. With the help of an old friend, Quarrel, Bond surreptitiously visits Crab Key to establish whether there is a connection between No and the disappearance of the MI6 personnel. Bond and Quarrel meet Honeychile Rider, who is there to collect valuable shells. Bond and Rider are captured by No’s men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctor’s “dragon”—a flamethrowing, armoured swamp buggy designed to keep away trespassers. Bond and Rider are taken to a luxurious facility carved into the mountain.

No tells Bond that he is working with the Russians and has built an elaborate underground facility from which he can sabotage US test missiles launched from Cape Canaveral. He had previously been a member of a Chinese tong, but after he stole a large amount of money from their treasury, he was captured by the organisation. The tong’s leaders had No’s hands cut off as a warning to others, and then shot him. Because No’s heart was on the right side of his body, the bullet missed it and he survived.

Interested in the ability of the human body to withstand and survive pain, No forces Bond to navigate his way through an obstacle course constructed in the facility’s ventilation system. Bond is kept under observation as he suffers electric shocks, burns and an encounter with large poisonous spiders. Bond’s ordeal ends in a fight with a captive giant squid, which he defeats by using improvised weapons. After his escape he encounters Rider, who had been pegged out to be eaten by crabs; they had ignored her and she managed to escape.

Bond kills No by taking over the guano-loading machine at the docks and diverting the flow of guano to bury him alive. Bond and Rider then escape from No’s complex in the “dragon” buggy, sail back to Jamaica and notify the colonial authorities.
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Trade Paperback reprints/collects from The Daily Express:
Diamonds are Forever Daily Comic Strips (1959)
From Russia with Love Daily Comic Strips (1957)
Dr. No Daily Comic Strips (1958)

Oversized Trade Paperback is bagged and double boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: James Bond 007 Fan Club
Publication Date: February 1981
Format per comic: BW, 100 pages, Oversized TPB, 11″ x 8.45″
ISBN-10: 0960583807
ISBN-13: 9780960583805

Collectible Entertainment note: Oversized Trade Paperback is in Very Good + condition.  (wear & tear)! Overall… Nice Reading Copy!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious James Bond collector and/or enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Recommended.

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