New Michael Gillette artwork on German THUNDERBALL

Peter Lorenz over at the superb blog Illustrated 007 alerts us to this brand new Michael Gillette cover art for the upcoming German edition of Thunderball. Gillette created the centenary cover series in 2008. On his official website Gillette says he wanted to redo the Thunderball artwork as he was disappointed with the first cover ("Green is the hardest colour to reproduce") and that he's "really happy with the redux." Me too.

Original 2008 cover and the 2012 German redux.

Click here to order prints of Michael Gillette's Bond covers and other artwork.

Unused DEVIL MAY CARE cover artwork

Thomas Nixdorf, author of the first comprehensive James Bond poster book, Licence to Thrill (1997) and who now collects original James Bond artwork, generously shares with us today these two unused cover art paintings by Mark Stutzman for the U.S. edition of Sebastian Faulk's Devil May Care (2008). I love this kind of thing!

Here is Stutzman's final artwork.

Thank you Thomas! And thanks to Illustrated 007 for the alert.

007 RELOADED audiobooks available for pre-order

AudioGo, the home of BBC Audiobooks, have launched a special page for their upcoming 007 Reloaded Ian Fleming James Bond audiobooks featuring readings by major British actors. Each audiobook also contains a bonus interview with its star reader.

You can pre-order the books, listen to a sample, and also enter a competition to win a facsimile of the first-edition hardback novel of the same story, signed by the star reader! All you have to do is pre-order from the 007 Reloaded titles and wait to see if you've won.

The 007 Reloaded audiobooks are due for release on September 6, 2012. They will be available as both a digital download and on CD. They are currently only available in the UK.

Click here to visit the 007 Reloaded page at AudioGo

Bonding with ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

By now you probably know that the new issue of Entertainment Weekly magazine has special James Bond 50th Anniversary coverage as well as a peek at the new film Skyfall.

Nothing literary Bond related and no mention of Fleming anywhere, unfortunately, but there is a nice shot of Timothy Dalton from his 1986 screen test that I've never seen.

Here's a look back at past Entertainment Weekly Bond covers, including their fantasy covers that came inside the Fall Movie Preview issue of 2006 (love these).

The Ian Fleming Foundation and the cars of JAMES BOND

To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the cinematic James Bond, The Ian Fleming Foundation showcased several authentic James Bond vehicles at the San Diego Comic Con. Check out this coverage by my good friends Athena Stamos and Brad Hansen of CraveOnline. Also featuring the great Mike VanBlaricum who helped me build my collection of Ian Fleming first editions in the 1980s. Great stuff!

Orion releases five more JOHN GARDNER reprints

Orion Books has released five more John Gardner James Bond paperback reprints in the UK. Scorpius, Win Lose or Die, Licence To Kill, The Man From Barbarossa and Death is Forever are all now shipping from Amazon.co.uk.

The final wave of four Gardner releases will be on November 8. 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.