The talents of 35-year old artist John McLusky were engaged to illustrate the strip, however, before he was officially put under contract for CASINO ROYALE he was asked to illustrate the ‘book-gun’ sequence from the novel FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE for Fleming’s approval. Fleming had supplied McLusky with a drawing commissioned from another artist of how he the author visualised Bond’s looks, but McLusky felt that Fleming’s interpretation of Bond’s look was too reminiscent of the pulp heroes of the Twenties. When McLusky came to create Bond’s facial characteristics he remembered Fleming’s sporting hero Henry Cotton together with the faces of movie actors that had stood the test of time. They all had particularly fine bone structure. So Bond’s face became a concoction of the master golfer, a young Robert Taylor, the tall easy relaxed style of Gary Cooper, and a dash of the Duke of Edinburgh - after all, James Bond was a naval Commander!