Tuesday, June 25, 2013

These covers will make your head explode

Roger Moore on the cover of Ian Fleming James Bond novels famous for being movies with Sean Connery. Ka-boom! Head explosion. But this alternate reality is exactly what we have with this terrific set of Turkish Ian Fleming 007 novels from TAY. Believe it or not, some of these carry a 1990 publication date (see update).

Casino Royale and Live and Let Die.
Thanks to Bazeer Flumore and The Figure Collector.
Moonranker and Diamonds Are Forever.
From Russia With Love and Doctor No.
Goldfinger and For Your Eyes Only.
Thunderball and The Spy Who Loved Me.
On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Love Twice.
The Man With The Golden Gun and Octopussy.

By the way, that Octopussy cover is one of the only editions of the book anywhere to use artwork from the 1983 movie, so that's kinda cool. Also interesting that For Your Eyes Only uses the Triad Granada artwork from the 1981 UK tie-in edition, and how well it matches.

Oh, and the backs of these editions all feature a classic image of Sean Connery as 007. Ka-boom!


UPDATE: According to the excellent website The Figure Collector, these were originally published between 1983 and 1984. Thanks to Dan Gale for the tip.

22 comments:

  1. I'm most shocked by the bra-less Jill Masterton. Scandalous!

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    1. I like how she's been 80s-ified with sunglasses! Jill's actually been bra-less on quite a few paperbacks over the years, including some American ones, which seems even more shocking!

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  2. If these are all official publications (and presuming they are) I am curious as the reasons that it was Moore on the cover, and not the then current Bond. I am wondering if EON or Moore himself got a cut of the sales for the use of his image. Regardless, these are cool--especially as Moore is my favorite 007.

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    1. Back then, who knows how "official" these were. There's no copyright info on these that can see/understand.

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    2. Thanks for the clarification!

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  3. I actually saw these when I visited Turkey in 1992. They were being sold at an outdoor stall in a town on the Aegean coast. I wanted to buy them, solely for the wacko covers, until I saw they were in Turkish. I never thought I'd see them again, so thanks for post!

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    1. My pleasure, IA. Nice to get confirmation that these were indeed for sale in the 90s. I hoping someone might send me over scans of CR and LALD so I can show all the covers here.

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  4. Looks like the same typeface as the Triad/Granada/Panther editions too. Interesting!

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    1. Yeah, that is interesting. Odd patchwork these covers.

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  5. Never mind your head exploding over the casting, Bond is clearly blonde on every one of those covers and yet no-one complained or set up a website "www.blonderogerisnotbond.com".
    How different the world was back then.

    It's interesting to note the artist clearly thought "Rog, 1974. THAT'S what Bond should look like," and then preceded to paint that actor's face from that film on every cover.

    Oh, if these had been Timothy Dalton's face, I'd have flown to Turkey especially.

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    1. Funny, I'm just working up a new post featuring a blond Bond cover image.

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  6. Although they're not great quality, the missing covers can be seen here

    http://thefigurecollector.com/jamesbond-artwork.htm

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  7. What a great set of covers! Thanks for that! Love them!

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  8. It's worth noting that the FYEO cover in this series doesn't actually use the artwork from the UK movie tie-in - it's very similar, but not identical.

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    1. True. In fact, it looks much more like Roger on these Turkish covers.

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  9. In the Roger Moore book "Bond On Bond" there's a photo of the Turkish "Doctor No" cover from this series. And Moore jokes about the fact that his face appears on the cover despite it being a Connery film. Also, I'm sure it's on The Figure Collectors site too but the cover artist was Aslan Sukur.

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  10. This is like that episode of "The Simpsons", where the Comic Book Guy had a photograph of Sean Connery signed by Roger Moore for sale! LOL!

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  11. Great set of covers. 'd seen some of them before, but not all. It's interesting how the artwork used for Live and Let Die recalls the 'duel' scene from the film of The Man with the Golden Gun.

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  12. Hahahaha they're amazing! While Moore is not my favourite Bond by any means, something about these covers is just freaking awesome. I love the picture of him with a katana on You Only Live Twice!

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  13. BTW there is a Dutch Octopussy paperback cover with the movie artwork.

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