Truth be told, Bond has appeared blonde on several Ian Fleming book covers, including his very first illustrated appearance on the 1955 Pan UK paperback edition of Casino Royale. Horror!
Sunday, July 21, 2013
BOND goes blonde in 1977
Remember the fake outrage when Daniel Craig became James Bond and it was revealed he would play the part with his natural blonde hair? Well, here's a 1977 Finnish (correction: German) paperback edition of Ian Fleming's Dr. No featuring a blonde Bond. Horror! It's a great cover, but I'm guessing this art is not original to this book. (It reminds me of the artwork used to illustrate the True magazine serialization of Colonel Sun, in fact.)
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I'm certain that book is German (it says 'printed in Finland' but mentions Hamburg on publisher's page and the text on the front is German) but I agree the artwork doesn't match the story; the girl and the dragon are all a little to Eastern for that story inspite of the lead villain's origins. It's not very thematic of Jamaica.
ReplyDeletePeter Lorenz of the Illustrated James Bond blog says he thinks the artwork is probably by Robert McGinnis, the illustrator of the Girls-in-the-bathtub poster for You Only Live Twice. It does look like his style.
It IS an illustration by the great Robert McGinnis! The illustration has also been used as the cover to Scott C. S. Stone's book "The Dragon's Eye", published in the USA by Fawcett as part of their 'A Fawcett Gold Medal Book'-series.
DeleteYou can see the cover to "The Dragon's Eye" via this link: http://www.raggedclaws.com/home/2010/08/12/look-here-five-vignette-style-covers-with-art-by-robert-mcginnis/.
Thanks guys. You know, I thought this might be McGinnis. No excuse for not seeing that it was German.
ReplyDeleteYou're forgiven, I'm sure!
DeleteI won't be, though, for naming Peter Lorenz's blog incorrectly!
It is of course The Illustrated 007 blog. In fact, here's a link to his site and the big scan I did of the art to this very cover.
http://illustrated007.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/german-paperback-cover.html?m=0