Thursday, May 31, 2012

TASCHEN to publish massive JAMES BOND 50th Anniversary book

Here comes another publication the celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the cinematic James Bond -- and this one sounds like a whopper! TASCHEN has announced, 007 - The James Bond Archives: Fifty Years of Bond, James Bond. For those who don't know, TASCHEN is a specialty publisher known for producing ultra high end art books. Here's the description on Amazon:

"Bond, James Bond." 
 Since Sean Connery uttered those immortal words in 1962, the most dashing secret agent in the history of cinema has been charming and thrilling audiences worldwide. This impeccably British character created by author Ian Fleming has starred in 23 EON-produced films, played by 6 different actors over five decades. 
 To celebrate 50 years of this innovative franchise, EON Productions opened their archives of photos, designs, storyboards, and production materials to editor Paul Duncan, who spent two years researching over one million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation. The result is the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made, beginning with "Dr. No" (1962) and ending with the upcoming "SkyFall" (2012), including the spoof "Casino Royale" (1967) and "Never Say Never Again" (1983). 
The stunning imagery is accompanied by an oral history recounted by over 150 cast and crew members, relating the true inside story of how the Bond films were made. Containing previously unpublished photography and artwork, as well as production memos from filming, this book is a comprehensive tribute to the legend of James Bond.

007 - The James Bond Archives: Fifty Years of Bond, James Bond is priced at $200, but at the moment it's discounted 37% on Amazon. So far it's only available on the U.S. Amazon website. Cover art is not yet available. I'll update this post when it is.

Pre-order 007 - The James Bond Archives: Fifty Years of Bond, James Bond on Amazon.com

UPDATE: Cover art.

Friday, May 25, 2012

Titan's JAMES BOND OMNIBUS VOL. 004

Titan has revealed cover art and the stories that will comprise their upcoming James Bond Omnibus Vol. 004, due for release on November 6, 2012:

  • Trouble Spot
  • Isle of Condors
  • The League of Vampires
  • Die With My Boots On
  • The Girl Machine
  • Beware of Butterflies
  • The Nevsky Nude
  • The Phoenix Project
  • The Black Ruby Caper

Pre-order James Bond Omnibus Vol. 004 on Amazon.com.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Final JOHN GARDNER paperback covers revealed

Orion has revealed cover art for the final four John Gardner paperback reprints. Never Send Flowers, SeaFire, GoldenEye and COLD will be released in the UK on November 8, 2012.


Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release date updates for all the Gardner-James Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK. 

Thanks to Louisa Gibbs at Orion for the first look.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

CARTE BLANCHE paperback released in UK

A new paperback edition of Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver is released today in the UK. The cover art (left) is radically different than the hardcover and the UK trade paperback edition released earlier this year. The book also contains a new afterward by Jeffery Deaver.

Jeffery Deaver will also be touring the UK starting today. He'll be talking about Carte Blanche and his new Kathryn Dance novel, XO. For a list of Deaver's tour stops, click here.

The Carte Blanche paperback can be purchased on Amazon.co.uk.

Click here to read my Carte Blanche review.

Sunday, May 20, 2012

CATCHING BULLETS – MEMOIRS OF A BOND FAN

Here's a head's up for what sounds like a terrific new book, Catching Bullets - Memoirs of a Bond Fan by Mark O'Connell.

From the offbeat vantage point of a movie-obsessed teenager whose grandfather was chauffeur to legendary 007 producer Albert R. Broccoli, CATCHING BULLETS – MEMOIRS OF A BOND FAN is a love-letter to James Bond, Duran Duran title songs and bolting down your tea quick enough to watch Roger Moore falling out of a plane without a parachute. 
 When Jimmy O'Connell took a job as chauffeur for 007 producers Eon Productions, it would not just be Cubby Broccoli, Roger Moore and Sean Connery he would drive to James Bond. His grandson Mark swiftly hitches a ride on a humorous journey of filmic discovery where Bond movies fire like bespoke bullets at a Reagan-era Catholic childhood marked with divorce, a closet-gay adolescence sound-tracked by John Barry and an adult life as a comedy writer still inspired by that Broccoli movie magic. 
 “Mark O’Connell is a great new writing talent and we are delighted to be publishing his first book,” says Splendid Books’ Editorial Director Shoba Vazirani. CATCHING BULLETS is very funny and he brings a genuinely new insight into the Bond film phenomena. 
“The book is a fascinating journey, in which Mark reconsiders all the Bond films as they fire into his and everyone’s cinema-going memories.” 

Catching Bullets - Memoirs of a Bond Fan will be published by Splendid Books on September 3, 2012 in the U.S. and UK.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

Link: Duncan Jones plans IAN FLEMING biopic

Deadline Hollywood reports that British helmer Duncan Jones is tapped to direct a biopic based on Ian Fleming. Click the headline to read the full story.

Friday, May 18, 2012

SKYFALL teaser poster revealed -- trailer Monday

Not book Bond related, but the big news this week is the release of the first poster for SKYFALL on 007.com. Very nice. (Click the image to enlarge.)

The official site says the first teaser trailer will be released this Monday, May 21st. I've actually seen the teaser, and it's pretty darn good!

SKYFALL is not based on any book, and as I reported back in March, there will be no SKYFALL novelization. This marks the first original titled Bond film not to be novelized.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Full set of IAN FLEMING Vintage Classic covers revealed

The full set of the Classic Vintage Ian Fleming covers have now been revealed by Ian Fleming Publications. These have been leaking piecemeal onto Amazon etc., but here are nice high res images of the full set from our friends at IFP and Random House.

‘The Vintage Classics covers are designed to emphasise the cool and clever reputation of Bond. We wanted to evoke the heritage and era without being dated. The bold, colourful, film poster feel was inspired by Saul Bass. 
The Vintage designers created two to three covers each, and there was a real sense of excitement amongst the team to create one cohesive and iconic series look for such an iconic character. 
We chose ‘Vintage 007’ rather than ‘Vintage Fleming’ because we wanted to focus on Bond’s identity, firmly signalling that Bond is the preeminent spy within a genre that reaches back to The Scarlet Pimpernel and forward to Richard Hannay, Jason Bourne and George Smiley.’
         -Suzanne Dean, Creative Director, The Random House Group

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

JAMES BOND JR. UK hardcovers

Last month I did a post about the six James Bond Jr. paperbacks published in the U.S. in 1992. Now our friend Bazeer Flumore, who runs the terrific website PizGloria.com, has sent over cover art for four hardcovers by Caryn Jenner that were published just in the UK. These books adapt different episodes from what was released in the U.S. Curiously, they were released in 1993, a year after the series went off the air.


Produced by EON Productions/Danjaq, James Bond Jr. featured the adventures of 007's nephew and his friends at Warfield Academy. It debuted on September 30, 1991 and ran for a total of 65 episodes.

Thank you, Bazeer.

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Second wave of UK JOHN GARDNER reprints now shipping

The second wave of John Gardner UK reprints from Orion are now shipping from Amazon.co.uk. The books are Icebreaker, Role of Honour and Nobody Lives For Ever.


Orion is reprinting all the John Gardner James Bond books in paperback with terrific new cover designs by Dan Mogford. Next up will be No Deals, Mr. Bond and Brokenclaw on July 5 (no, I don't know why Brokenclaw is being released out of order).

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release date updates for all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

The Most Dangerous Covers Ever...

We've been talking a lot about James Bond cover silhouettes lately; from the U.S. silhouettes of the 1980s to the alleged "Brosnan" silhouette of 1990 to the move away from silhouettes on the new Classic covers from Vintage. So I thought it was time to post up these reprints of the first six John Gardner books in the UK by Coronet (No Deals, Mr. Bond was a first). These were released in 1987 and I always thought the new cover silhouette looked like Timothy Dalton, who was reigning as "The Most Dangerous Bond Ever" at the time. Look at the looser cut of his tux and the longer hair... I don't know, says Timmy D to me.


Oh course, Timothy Dalton would only make two Bond films, The Living Daylights (1987) and Licence To Kill (1989), and Coronet would revamp the Gardner (and Fleming) covers in the 1990s. So even if these silhouettes aren't inspired by Dalton, these were the books on the shelves during his era, so I will always think of these as "the Dalton editions."

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Was the release of WIN, LOSE OR DIE delayed in the UK?

This morning I was trying to nail down the release dates of the John Gardner James Bond novels in the UK (to update this article) when I stumbled on this item from an issue of OO7 Extra (No. 6). Win, Lose or Die was originally announced for release in July 1989, but this reports a postponement until January 1990. Maybe to avoid competing with Gardner's Licence To Kill novelization?


So did this delay happen? While the publication page says 1989, it's still possible they held back the actual release until January 1990. I do recall having trouble getting a UK Win, Lose or Die from my usual source here in the U.S., The Mysterious Bookshop, who didn't have copies in the summer of 1989.

In fact, I wasn't able to track down a UK Win, Lose or Die until summer of 1990 when I found a copy in Canada. I remember being surprised that I could still find a brand new hardcover on a display table a year after its release. Of course, if it was delayed, this explains that. A delay might also explain why this book is especially hard to find signed.

So I'm throwing out the question to my friends in the UK... Anyone recall exactly when Win, Lose or Die hit bookstore shelves? It would be nice to solve this mystery.


UPDATE: Glidrose over at the CBn forums has found a citation for a review of Win, Lose or Die in the Canadian Globe and Mail on July 22, 1989. So it appears it came out in July '89 as planned.

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

SKYFALL crew acknowledge Fleming influence

The superb HMSS Weblog has put together a nice article of quotations from the SKYFALL cast and crew -- currently on location in Istanbul -- acknowledging that the original Ian Fleming books aided greatly in crafting the new Bond film.

Click here to read "Welcome Back, Ian Fleming" at HMSS.