German SCORPIUS (1990)

Here's another interesting collision of the book and movie Bond. This is a 1990 German edition of John Gardner's 1988 continuation novel Scorpius. On the cover with have Roger Moore from For Your Eyes Only and Lois Chiles from Moonraker against what looks like The Living Daylights gunbarrel. A hot mess, but it gets the job done!

Mixed BOND

James Bond with Sean Connery's head and Roger Moore's body gazes out at us from the cover of a 1991 Italian edition of Scorpius by John Gardner. I like the title treatment with the scorpion and the Avante Carte logo behind OO7. And Bond against a light streaked marble wall kinda recalls SPECTRE.

Scorpius was John Gardner's seventh James Bond novel. It was first published by Putnam in the U.S. on May 9, 1988. UK publication by Hodder & Stoughton was on June 2, 1988 (one of the few Bond novels to be published first in the U.S. first).

Two more JOHN GARDNER covers by Michael Gillette

Simon Gardner has shared on Facebook two more Michael Gillette covers for new German editions of John Gardner's No Deals, Mr. Bond and Scorpius. No release dates yet.

No Deals, Mr. Bond.

Scorpius

Gillette did the cover art for the 2008 Centenary editions of the Fleming Bond novels, and well as a German reprint of Colonel Sun.

Thanks to Simon Gardner.

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.

Catching SCORPIUS in 1988

The final John Gardner newspaper advert that I have in my files is this June 5, 1988 ad from the Los Angeles Times for Gardner's 007th original Jame Bond novel, Scorpius. I'm not sure if the ads stopped after this or I just missed them; but I was pretty vigilant, so there's a good chance this was last.

But they certainly went out with a bang! After skipping Nobody Lives Forever and shrinking down with No Deals, Mr. Bond, this Scorpius advert occupied as much page space as the earlier ads for For Special Services and Icebreaker. It's also kind of fun that the ad references the 1988 U.S. Olympic Team.

Hope you enjoyed my look back at these vintage John Gardner newspaper ads. If you know of any ad beyond Scorpius, I'd love to see and share it.

Also see:

• Making NO DEALS in 1987
• Bond on ROLE in 1984
• Breaking the ICE in 1983
• FOR SPECIAL SERVICES 30th Anniversary

Pegasus sets release date for two more JOHN GARDNER U.S. paperbacks

Amazon.com is now listing two more U.S. John Gardner James Bond paperback reprints from Pegasus. No Deals, Mr. Bond and Scorpius will be released on October 15, 2012.

The good folks at Pegasus have kindly given me a sneak peek at the Dan Mogford cover art for both books. What's nice is this gives us our first look at what will likely be the UK cover art for Scoprius as well. I like!

• Pre-order No Deals Mr. Bond on Amazon
• Pre-order Scorpius on Amazon

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