JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

The talents of 35-year old John McLusky (1923-2006) were engaged to illustrate the comic strip. But before he was put under contract for CASINO ROYALE, McLusky was asked to draw the ‘book-gun’ sequence in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE for Ian Fleming's approval (pictured above right). The author had provided a drawing by another artist of what he thought James Bond should look like, but when McLusky created Bond's facial characteristics he remembered Ian Fleming's sporting hero golfer Henry Cotton (1907-1987); together with the faces of contemporary movie actors such as Robert Taylor (1911-1969), Gary Cooper (1901-1961), and a dash of the Duke of Edinburgh (1921-2021) - after all James Bond was a naval commander! James Bond's face from the unpublished ‘book-gun’ sequence was later used on Daily Express billboards (pictured above left) to advertise the new strip outside newsagents the length and breadth of the British Isles.

The James Bond comic strip made its debut in the Daily Express on Monday July 7, 1958 accompanied by an introduction by Ian Fleming's friend the acclaimed American crime novelist Raymond Chandler (1888-1959). The title strip introduced the three main characters and featured a croupier who looked suspiciously like Ian Fleming! CASINO ROYALE stayed relatively close to Fleming's original, although several sequences were toned down for a more general audience. CASINO ROYALE is unique in that it does not have the rectangular credit panel in the top left-hand corner of each strip, instead the credits appear in a block above the artwork. After the 23-week adaptation of CASINO ROYALE the Daily Express saw a marked increase in sales of their broadsheet newspaper.

Early stories started with an introductory strip containing no story narrative, and usually showed the novel title in the same typeface as seen on the Jonathan Cape hardcover first edition. Starting with DR. NO, story narrative was included from the first panel of each new adventure, but reverted back to an illustrated introductory strip for the final three stories of the first series. When the James Bond comic strip later went into international syndication, the title strips were often omitted when they contained no actual story material. In the case of GOLDFINGER, a revised title strip was created for the syndicated version omitting the reference to Bond's farewell to Honey Rider at Miami airport. As most stories were published out of sequence when the strip went into syndication, any reference to an earlier adventure was removed. Strips were frequently reformatted and translated into other languages for syndication. Several strips featuring implied female nudity (although very tame compared to modern standards) were also omitted from syndicated stories. The James Bond comic strip went into worldwide syndication from 1960 and continued to be offered for publication until July 2021, when the strip was appearing in a colourized Spanish language version in some Latin American newspapers. On September 26, 2021 the strip made a return to the Sunday Express with a reprint of the first James Bond story CASINO ROYALE - 63 years after its original publication.

The title strips pictured in this article are how they originally appeared in the Daily Express. Additional ‘A-strips’ are also illustrated when they uniquely appear in either the English or Scottish editions of the Daily Express. Other anomalies in stories brought about by printing errors or industrial action are also illustrated in context.

^*The original Daily Express presentation of FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE is unique in that strip #572 which should have appeared on Tuesday May 10, 1960 was omitted from the storyline. This strip was also missing from the first appearance of the story in the USA, when printed in the Indianapolis News in 1961. Strip #572 was later reinstated into the wider US syndication in 1964, and is present in all subsequent collected versions of FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE.

FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE was the first story of the James Bond comic strip to be affected by a Public Holiday in the United Kingdom. No newspapers were printed in England and Wales on Good Friday April 15, 1960 - the day strip #552 should have appeared. Although the Daily Express was published in Scotland on Good Friday, the James Bond comic strip was not included - therefore the comic strip missed a day, and #552 then appeared sequentially (with no loss of narrative) in all editions of the Daily Express on Saturday April 16th. Ian Fleming's short story RISICO was also being serialized by the Daily Express during this week and was similarly affected. As Scottish editions of the Express were printed on Good Friday, the final part of RISICO (under the title The Double-Take) did appear, accompanied by an illustration by Raymond Hawkey & Kenneth Denyer. The concluding instalment of The Double-Take was then printed in the English edition of the Daily Express on Saturday April 16th, but in a slightly amended format, but without the Hawkey/Denyer illustration. The omission of strip #572 (pictured above) from all editions of the Daily Express in April 1960 was due to Easter affecting the publication schedule of the newspaper, rather than the strip being dropped due to contentious material, as would later happen in some syndicated stories in the USA. Although John McLusky had already provided the numbered artwork ahead of publication, the inclusion of another individual strip would affect the overall timing of FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE - resulting in the story ending one day later than scheduled. This omission did not significantly affect the narrative as the text merely recaps the story at that point. It was not until 1968 when industrial strike action seriously affected the publication THE SPY WHO LOVED ME that stories ceased their Monday start and Saturday end dates. Starting with the comic strip adaptation of GOLDFINGER in 1961, the Daily Express planned ahead around Public Holidays, and instructed John McLusky to create unique ‘A-strips’ that were inserted into the story in different editions of the newspaper to keep the timeline in synch across the UK.

^*GOLDFINGER as it appeared in the Daily Express is significantly different to the later syndicated and collected versions of the story. The opening three strips were truncated to remove Honey Rider from the narrative, as this linked the story to the previous adventure DR. NO. As the strips were often published out of order in other countries, any reference to another story was removed. FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE also had strip #489 featuring Tiffany Case removed in some syndicated publications, as this linked it to the previous story DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER. For the syndicated version of GOLDFINGER strip #699 was omitted completely and a new composite title strip created by merging artwork of Oddjob and Goldfinger from the original strip #698, and removing the first panel from strip #700. Many of the strips detailing Goldfinger's planning and raid on Fort Knox also have different captions to the original Daily Express versions; with others censored to remove Oddjob attacking Bond with a knife, and some with alternate artwork. Some syndicated and later collected foreign language versions of GOLDFINGER did print the original Daily Express version but with the text translated as required. Pictured below are strips #699 & #700 as they originally appeared in the Daily Express version of GOLDFINGER.

The original presentation of GOLDFINGER also included an additional strip drawn by John McLusky. #773A (pictured below) was published in the English edition of the Daily Express on Monday January 2, 1961. As this day was a public holiday in Scotland no newspapers were printed. In order to keep the story in synch, this additional strip only appeared in the English edition and does not affect the storyline.

A further strip #819A was later inserted into the syndicated version of GOLDFINGER to compensate for the loss of several panels at the start of the story due to the removal of Honey Rider from the narrative, and truncation of the first three strips. Strip #819A did not appear in the Daily Express and is merely a recap of the story adding no new information.

^*THUNDERBALL had the unfortunate distinction of running for only nine weeks when it was stopped abruptly due to a dispute between Lord Beaverbrook [William Maxwell Aitken (1879-1964)] - who owned the Daily Express at that time - and Ian Fleming. Lord Thomson’s Sunday Times launched its colour magazine on February 4, 1962 with the Ian Fleming 007 short story THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. Beaverbrook held newspaper rights for Ian Fleming's Bond novels, but apparently not the short stories. Although THUNDERBALL had already begun as a comic strip it was ordered to finish forthwith, and readers were astonished to find three-quarters of an extremely complicated plot dismissed in eight lines of text on the composite strip #1117 published on Saturday February 10, 1962. The notoriously mercurial Beaverbrook interpreted Fleming’s sale of his short story to The Sunday Times as disloyalty, and felt the Express should have exclusive rights to Fleming’s work, as not only were they running Bond in strip format, but had also been serialising his novels since 1956.

Artist John McLusky had actually drawn six further strips at the point at the story ended in the Daily Express, continuing Giuseppe Petacchi's hijack of the R.A.F. Vindicator Bomber with its nuclear payload. For the syndicated version of THUNDERBALL these strips (#1117-#1122) were hastily redrawn by John McLusky, with a new sequence in M’s office that explains how Bond ended up in the Bahamas where he meets up with CIA agent Felix Leiter. Many of these panels were made up from strips already drawn by John McLusky for earlier stories in the series. As the artist had his work eventually returned to him many years after its publication, the original full-sized strips (14cm X 47cm) were easily cut out and he pasted elements to create these new less-detailed composite versions. John McLusky continued to revise some of his returned strips to his own satisfaction for the rest of his life, although they were never again published in this format. He would frequently re-draw James Bond in panels from the early stories, so that his facial features now resembled the version seen in ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE and YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. New artwork would be pasted over sections of the original panels, and several of these ad hoc revised strips were subsequently sold by his estate following the artist's death in 2006.

A further six strips were also drawn by John McLusky for the syndicated version of THUNDERBALL which effectively illustrate the explanatory text on the composite strip #1117 (pictured above and seen only in the original Daily Express version in English). These six strips conclude the story and explain how Bond finds the missing bombs, briefly battles Largo underwater, and ends up in a Nassau hospital where Felix Leiter fills in the gaps. Some syndicated foreign language versions of THUNDERBALL substituted these new versions of strips #1117-#1122 with those originally drawn for the Daily Express, but not published; whilst others continued the hijacking scene as it was originally intended, and tacked on the six explanatory strips at the end. It is this version of THUNDERBALL that appears in the Titan Books anthology editions. Consequently, there are two sets of strips labelled #1117-#1122, and therefore no definitive English language version of the story. The syndicated version of THUNDERBALL also includes an additional strip #1081A not published in the Daily Express, and presumably inserted into the narrative to compensate for the loss of the unique concluding strip #1117 which only appeared in the Express, and some early foreign language syndicated versions of THUNDERBALL. The title lettering is also different on the opening strip of the syndicated version of THUNDERBALL, and an alternate illustration of Ernst Stavro Blofeld is seen pushing the detonator button. The world map is also simplified for the syndicated version of the strip.

^*ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE included an additional strip #248A (pictured below) printed only in the Scottish Daily Express on Good Friday April 16, 1965. This unique single panel strip did not appear in any later syndicated versions of the story, and adds nothing to the narrative other than briefly extending Bond's escape from Piz Gloria. The story resumed in the English Daily Express on Saturday April 17, 1965 with strip #249.

Part 2 - THE JAMES BOND COMIC STRIP 1966-1977

The complete checklist of all strips first published in Express newspapers,
and those syndicated outside the UK

FACT FILES