Saturday, September 26, 2015

Glenn Fabry "Virgin Art" edition of VARGR #1

Dynamite Comics is offeing a special edition of James Bond: VARGR #1 by Warren Ellis. This $50 "Virgin Art" edition features a cover by artist Glenn Fabry and comes "without any trade dressing."

Glenn Fabry perfectly captures the world's greatest spy on this super-rare variant edition, presented without any trade dressing! In this issue, James Bond returns to London after a mission of vengeance in Helsinki, to take up the workload of a fallen 00 Section agent. But something evil is moving through the back streets of the city, and sinister plans are being laid for Bond in Berlin.

Purchase the "Virgin Art" special edition of James Bond #1 at Dynamite Comics.

Thanks to the Matthew Bradford aka Tanner for the clarifications. You can see the cover art for VARGR #2 at his excellent Double O Section spy blog.

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

COLONEL SUN reprint coming from Vintage

Here's some great news. Vintage will release Colonel Sun by Kingley Amis with cover art that matches their recent Ian Fleming paperbacks. This is the first reprint of Colonel Sun since 1995, and it's always exciting to have this first continuation novel as part of a current set of Bonds.

The first ever Bond continuation, originally published by Jonathan Cape in 1968, now finally back in print and published to coincide with the forthcoming Bond film Spectre.

Lunch at Scott's, a quiet game of golf, a routine social call on his chief M, convalescing in his Regency house in Berkshire - the life of secret agent James Bond has begun to fall into a pattern that threatens complacency … until the sunny afternoon when M is kidnapped and his house staff savagely murdered. The action ricochets across the globe to a volcanic Greek island where the glacial, malign Colonel Sun Liang-tan of the People's Liberation Army of China collaborates with an ex-nazi atrocity expert in a world-menacing conspiracy. Stripped of all professional aids, Bond faces unarmed the monstrous devices of Colonel Sun in a test that brings him to the verge of his physical endurance.

Colonel Sun will be released on October 15 and can be pre-orded at Amazon.co.uk.

Thanks to Dylan Green and Leigh Burne for the alerts.

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN TYPEWRITER coming Oct. 8

Today I have details of a spectacular new book coming our way October 8, The Man with the Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters edited by Fergus Fleming. The book contains numerous unpublished letters by James Bond's creator sourced from the Fleming Archive, the Cape Archive and private collections from around the world.

Before the world-famous films came the world-famous novels. This book tells the story of the man who wrote them and how he created spy fiction's most compelling hero.

On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, ‘My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold’. He had bought the gold­plated typewriter as a present to himself for finishing his first novel, Casino Royale. It marked in glamorous style the arrival of James Bond, agent 007, and the start of a career that saw Fleming become one of the world’s most celebrated thriller writers. And he did write golden words. Before his death in 1964 he produced fourteen bestselling Bond books, two works of non-fiction and the famous children’s story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. 
Fleming’s output was matched by an equally energetic flow of letters. He wrote constantly, to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics, charting 007’s progress with correspondence that ranged from badgering Jonathan Cape about his quota of free copies – a coin was tossed; Fleming lost – to apologising for having mistaken a certain brand of perfume and for equipping Bond with the wrong kind of gun. His letters also reflect his friendships with contemporaries such as Raymond Chandler, Noël Coward and Somerset Maugham. 
Before the world-famous films came the world-famous novels. This books tells the story of the man who wrote them and how he created spy fiction's most compelling hero.

The Man With The Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters can be pre-ordered now at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Monday, September 21, 2015

Next YOUNG BOND title and cover revealed Oct. 10

The title and cover art for Steve Cole's next Young Bond novel will be revealed at a special launch event for the paperback edition of Shoot To Kill on October 10. Steve shared this information via his Twitter:


For more information and tickets to this Young Bond event visit the Cheltenham Festivals website.

Sunday, September 20, 2015

TRIGGER MORTIS No. 007 sells for $1,368

The limited signed edition of Trigger Mortis No. 007 sold on eBay for $1,368.93 (£878.00). It received 46 bids. The book was part of a set of 1000 limited editions from Goldsboro Books that sold out in pre-orders within a few days in July.

Trigger Mortis No. 007 was held back and auctioned by Goldsboro with 100% of the sale benefiting Save The Children UK.

Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz is available now in hardcover from Orion in the UK (Amazon.co.uk) and Harper Collins in the U.S. (Amazon.com).

You can read my review HERE.

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

SPECTRE: The Complete Comic Strip Collection

Here's another literary tie-in with the new James Bond film. James Bond: Spectre: The Complete Comic Strip Collection will be released by Titan Books in the UK on October 23 and in the U.S. on November 24. The book will include a forward by SPECTRE screenwriter John Logan. Notice how the cover art uses a similar background color as the SPECTRE poster?

The daring James Bond is back, this time in a lavishly put together collection celebrating the iconic SPECTRE storylines. Featuring Thunderball, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, You Only Live Twice and The Spy Who Loved Me. These fully restored and thrilling stories are based on the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels.

Wait, The Spy Who Loved Me a SPECTRE story? Well, yes. The criminal organization was written into the original Daily Express comic strip from which these Titan collections are composed.

SPECTRE also played a large role in the Daily Express continuation Bond strips throughout the 1970s with the organization being run by a female Blofeld know as "Madame Spectra."

Pre-order James Bond: Spectre: The Complete Comic Strip Collection on Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Monday, September 14, 2015

Amazon lists "UNTITLED YOUNG BOND" for May 2016

Amazon.co.uk now has a pre-order listing for Steve Cole's next Young Bond novel. The site shows the yet untiled book set for release on May 5, 2016 in paperback.

So does this mean there will not be a hardcover edition as there was with Steve's first book, Shoot To Kill? Or is this a listing for a paperback that will be released after the hardcover, which means we might actually be getting the book earlier in the year?

At the moment, news of the new book is embargoed, so I'm afraid I don't have any answers. But it's good to see that another Young Bond will be heading our way next year.

Steve Cole's first Young Bond novel, Shoot To Kill, will be released in paperback on October 22, 2015. Might it contain a preview of Book 2?

Related:

Saturday, September 12, 2015

Recreating James Bond's meals from the Fleming novels

The UK Daily Mail Online has a terrific piece about New York photographer Henry Hargreaves's "Dying To Eat" project in which he recreated and photographed several James Bond meals from the orginal Ian Fleming novels. The meals were cooked by fellow food artist, Charlotte Omnes.

Little neck clams and fried chicken Maryland with bacon and sweet corn from Live And Let Die

 As Elliot Carver would say: "Delicious."

Click here to see all the meals at the Daily Mail.

First look inside VARGR #1

Dynamite has revealed several preview pages from the first issue of VARGR, their new six-part James Bond graphic novel series by Warren Ellis with art by Jason Masters.



VARGR #1 will be released on November 4, 2015.

Thanks to the excellent blog Double O Section for this discovery. Click on over to the site to see a two-page ad for VARGR running in all Dynamite comics this week.

Friday, September 11, 2015

Listen to TRIGGER MORTIS read by David Oyelowo

Here's an audio clip of David Oyelowo reading the new James Bond novel Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz.



Download the Trigger Mortis audiobook free with your 30-day trial at Audible.co.uk.

David Oyelowo's reading of Trigger Mortis is also available as an Audio CD from Orion in the UK (Amazon.co.uk) from Harper Collins/Blackstone in the U.S. (Amazon.com).

Thursday, September 10, 2015

TRIGGER MORTIS No. 007 is being auctioned for charity

Back in July Goldsboro Books in London offered a limited signed and numbered edition of Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz. The 1000 copies sold out in pre-orders within a few days. Well, 999 did. Because one book was held back and is now on eBay. Trigger Mortis No. 007 is being auctioned with 100% of the sale benefiting Save The Children UK.


Click view and bid on Trigger Mortis No. 007.

Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz is available now in hardcover from Orion in the UK (Amazon.co.uk) and Harper Collins in the U.S. (Amazon.com). You can read my review HERE.

Video takes you inside UNLOCKING BOND exhibition

Here's a nice video showing the preparations and a peek inside the Trigger Mortis: Unlocking Bond pop-up exhibition in Waterstone's Piccadilly in London. You also get to see author Anthony Horowitz at the launch event last Monday.


Trigger Mortis: Unlocking Bond runs through Sunday, September 13, 2015 at Waterstones Piccadilly in London. CLICK HERE for more details.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

'TRIGGER MORTIS' REVIEW: No experiments, Mr. Bond.


This review contains SPOILERS.

The last few official James Bond continuation novels have each in their own way been experiments. Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks attempted an out-and-out Ian Fleming imitation. Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver rebooted the literary Bond into the present day. Solo by William Boyd offered a moody meditation on an aging 007. These were all experiments I very much enjoyed (yes, even Devil May Care, haters). So what would be IFP's next experiment?

With Anthony Horowitz's Trigger Mortis, this time the experiment is to attempt no experiment at all. Instead, Horowitz delivers a straightforward, furiously entertaining James Bond adventure set comfortably within the world and rules of Ian Fleming's classic 007 (the novel is set in 1957 right after the events of Goldfinger). In doing this, Horowitz hits the bulls-eye and gives us a James Bond continuation novel that easily stands among the very best (if not the best).

Horowitz's choices are all conceived from and aimed at the gut. Placing James Bond into the world of formula 1 auto racing -- perfect! It's amazing that no other continuation novelist, or screenwriter for that matter, has thought of this idea. Bond and auto racing are a natural fit, especially in the dangerous early days of the sport. (This idea actually came from Ian Fleming as Trigger Mortis incorporates an unpublished Fleming outline, "Murder on Wheels"). The book jacket tells us Bond Girl Jeopardy Lane is "a girl like no other Bond has encountered." No, she isn't. No experiments! She's a classic Bond Girl very much like the others in the best possible way. Likewise, the villain, Jason Sin, is typically foreign and typically fiendish. The book has rockets toppling and American motels exploding. And having Bond endure a buried alive ordeal... Again, why has this idea taken so long to dig up?

Horowitz clearly has an instinct for Bond and he knows exactly which classic notes to play. Like Fleming, he seems to be writing a book to entertain himself -- a book meant to be taken on vacation. The chapters are short and tight and the action never becomes laborious with over description. Tension is maintained perfectly. And by the end of the book, when Bond is racing to stop the destruction of the Empire State Building aboard a speeding R-11 subway train, Horowitz is firing on all thrusters, perfectly capturing the essence of Fleming's Bond with passages such as:

Bond was filthy again. The wind had blasted him with years of accumulated dirt and soot. He could taste it in his mouth. It had penetrated his skin. The very clothes he was wearing had turned black. But he didn't care. He grinned and his white teeth flared in the darkness. This was the moment of reckoning.


Now, granted, the inclusion of Pussy Galore could be considered an experiment, or at least the attention-getting stunt of this book. But it's a stunt that works. This is the Pussy of the novel Goldfinger, not the film, so she is a black-haired "former" lesbian. And it's here that Horowitz has the opportunity to rework the Bond canon for the better. Pussy's sexual transformation at the hands of 007 in Goldfinger certainly seems ridiculous today. So in Trigger Mortis, Horowitz redeems the character–and Fleming–by having Pussy return to her natural lifestyle following her adventure with Bond. Yes, apparently 007 does not have a license to bestow heterosexuality. Pussy was just waiting for the right Bond Girl to come along.

Now, if one so chooses, everything I've said here in praise of Trigger Mortis could also be turned into a negative. The book doesn't experiment. It doesn't strive to give us a deeper understanding of James Bond. The plot is familiar and follows the familiar formula. But if this is a problem for anyone, they have only themselves to blame. Because IFP and their Bond authors have now provided a full buffet of James Bond adventures appealing to different tastes and imaginations. Fans can choose their own style, era, and approach. Trigger Mortis now rounds all that out with a main dish of classic Bond.

For me, this is exactly where I want to be and where I want to stay for a while. No more experiments. No more authors. You have me, Mr. Horowitz. Now take me around the world one more time.

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Q&A with Trigger Mortis author ANTHONY HOROWITZ

"I have this belief that it’s not the job of continuation authors to expand wildly – and inaccurately  on what the original author informed us."
-Anthony Horowitz

The good folks at Riot Communications, who are handling the Trigger Mortis launch for IFP and Orion Publishing, have allowed a handful of Bond blogs to ask questions of new Bond author Anthony Horowitz. Yesterday the interview kicked off at Artistic License Renewed. Today, I'm honored to continue the Q&A.

Warning, these questions may contain minor SPOILERS.
THE BOOK BOND: Trigger Mortis uses unpublished Ian Fleming material. How did that work exactly? Did you start with Fleming's idea and then expand it out into a book? Or did you already have a basic idea for the book and then work the Fleming material into it?

ANTHONY HOROWITZ: I had no ideas at all when the IF Estate first approached me and showed me four stories from a TV series that had never happened. I read them all with a lot of excitement – unpublished Bond stories! – but it was “Murder on Wheels” that leapt off the page. Grand Prix struck me as the perfect Bond arena: as dangerous as it was glamorous. At the same time, I knew it could only be a small part of the book. There had to be a bigger, international mission. So I asked myself could Nurburgring be a test, a dry run for another, bigger SMERSH operation. What was happening in 1957? What hadn’t Fleming covered himself? The answer is my book. For what it’s worth, the story came incredibly quickly. But then, as you know, I had help.

THE BOOK BOND: A few times in the book you have Bond reflect on his childhood and war service. There is one particular memory in which we learn Bond’s father worked for “Vickers Aviation.” That jumped out at me as suspiciously specific. Is this rooted in Fleming or maybe a setup for a new story of some kind?

ANTHONY HOROWITZ: Well, if you look at James Bond’s obituary (printed in You Only Live Twice), you will see that his father was a foreign representative for Vickers. That’s where it came from. I have added a few tiny snippets and variations to what Fleming told us about Bond but I have this belief that it’s not the job of continuation authors to expand wildly – and inaccurately - on what the original author informed us and there are certainly no seeds for future stories contained in that detail.

THE BOOK BOND: Trigger Mortis contains a lengthy and grisly recounting of the real-life massacre at No Gun Ri. Can you talk a little about why you choose to make this a key part of the villain’s backstory?

ANTHONY HOROWITZ: This is part of the heritage of Foyle’s War. I love discovering events in recent history that have been forgotten and bringing them to light – and I think No Gun Ri is an extraordinary, terrible incident, very much worth remembering. More importantly, it seemed to me that a successful Bond villain had to have a backstory. This wouldn’t be someone who just decided to be evil. Why did he do what he did? I read about the period and No Gun Ri gave me the character.

Trigger Mortis is released TODAY in the UK and U.S. I will be posting a full review tomorrow.


Monday, September 7, 2015

ANTHONY HOROWITZ arrives in Bond's latest ride

New James Bond author Anthony Horowitz arrived at Waterstones Piccadilly today in a vintage Bentley, presumably a Bentley Mark VI, the car 007 drives in Trigger Mortis. This photo was posted to Twitter by Kate Mills (@Kate7Mills), fiction editor of Orion Publishing.


It has become tradition for the new Bond author to arrive at launch events in the car from the book. In 2008, Sebastian Faulks transported the first copy of Devil May Care to Waterstones Piccadilly in a classic Bentley. Jeffery Deaver arrived at the Carte Blanche launch in a new Bentley Continental GT. A fleet of Jensens was a highlight of the SOLO launch event at The Dorchester Hotel in 2013.

Trigger Mortis will be released in the UK and U.S. tomorrow.

Purchase Trigger Mortis UK edition.

Get ready for TRIGGER MORTIS to set in


Just one more day until the release of the new James Bond novel Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz. Reviews have already started flowing in and they've been universally positive.

A special launch event will be held at Waterstones Piccadilly in London tonight. Tonight also sees the opening of the UNLOCKING BOND pop-up exhibition in which you can step back into the world of Ian Fleming's 1957 (the year in which Trigger Mortis is set).

Today you can also read an exclusive Q&A with Bond author Anthony Horowitz at the excellent blog Artistic License Renewed. I'm very proud to have been asked to continue the interview with my own Q&A tomorrow.

Unfortunately, it doesn't appear publisher Harper Collins is doing anything special for the launch of the U.S. hardcover, but know that Trigger Mortis will hit U.S. bookstores tomorrow as well.

Purchase Trigger Mortis UK edition.

Friday, September 4, 2015

London Underground ads for TRIGGER MORTIS

Here are two posters for Trigger Mortis that can currently be seen in the London Underground. These come from the Twitter account of Kate Mills (@Kate7Mills), fiction editor of Orion Publishing.



And below is the Waterstones Piccadilly window display via Sophie Painter (@sophpainter). Trigger Mortis will be launched at the store with a special event on September 7.

Click to enlarge.

Trigger Mortis will be released on September 8, 2015 in both the U.S. and UK.

Pre-order Trigger Mortis UK edition.

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

TRIGGER HAPPY

My UK and U.S. hardcover editions of Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz are in the house! Thank you Orion Books and Harper Collins. Looking forward to the big release day on September 8th when I will share a my own exclusive Q&A with author Anthony Horowitz. I will then post a (spoilerish) review later in the week. Bond is Back!

UK hardcover from Orion Books.

U.S. edition from Harper Collins.

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