James Bond – Greg Goldstein's Comic Art Gallery

Glenn Fabry — Disappearing Act

October 8, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

James Bond #1 (Dynamite), November 2015

Today, after an 18-month pandemic induced delay, No Time To Die finally opens in the United States. We mark the occasion with our third, and final, piece of James Bond original art.

Ah, comic book art in the age of powerful digital technology. This original cover by Glenn Fabry starts off with two beautiful Russian women, but ultimately ends up without them.

(The gun in the background also disappears between solicitation and actual publication, but that is more a function of the trade dress choice, and certainly less jarring.)

Digital manipulation aside, it’s still a cool cover. And kudos to Dynamite for landing the rights. At IDW Publishing, we hounded the rights holder(s) endlessly and continuously came up empty handed. (I’m sure other publishers tried as well.)

And speaking of disappearing acts — When I was at Topps Comics, we acquired the Goldeneye (Pierce Brosnan’s first outing as Bond) rights in 1995. We launched with a first issue of what was planned as a three-issue adaptation. Unfortunately, issues two and three never appeared. In addition to approvals that came in at the speed of molasses, the licensor — and I kid you not — objected to the adult material that was appearing in the comics.

Nothing crazy — just the same “adult” material that appears in the film.

Seriously.

The infamous Topps Goldeneye comics; Issue #1 was published (and also distributed as a special #00 issue at the James Bond Convention in NYC.) Issues #2 and #3 were cancelled. All three featured great painted covers from Brian Stelfreeze.

Paul Gulacy — Shaken…

October 7, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

James Bond 007: Serpent’s Tooth #2, August 1992

Until the last few years, James Bond’s appearances in comic books are rare. Added all together prior to 2016, they most definitely would not fill an omnibus.

Rights issues are always tricky with this franchise; although Eon Productions —and its merchandising arm, Danjaq — manages film rights, the literary property itself remains controlled by the Ian Fleming Estate.

Which explains why this run at Dark Horse features a James Bond who doesn’t in fact look like any other Bond we’ve seen previously. In fact, here he looks a little bit like — Paul Gulacy.

Regardless, It’s great Gulacy page from a good-looking miniseries; even if this specific example looks like it would be more at home in an Indiana Jones comic book.

*James Bond through the years in comics. (The experience was so distasteful for Howard Chaykin on For Your Eyes Only that he left Marvel Comics.*)

Ferdinando Tacconi — The Name Is…

October 5, 2021 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Corriere dei Ragazzi (Italy), July 7, 1974

Sean Connery’s likeness as James Bond has only appeared onceofficially in comic book storytelling. Classics Illustrated adapted Dr. No, the very first Bond film, into a comic book in 1962, and only published in the UK. It was ultimately licensed to DC and appears in the US as Showcase #43.

In 1974, Connery’s Bond makes an unofficial — an absolutely unauthorized — comeback in an Italian comic book series Gli Aristocratici (The Aristocrats) featuring the lounge and cheek gentlemen thieves who play a modern vision of Robin Hood’s merry men, donating their thefts to charity.

In this story, from the second year of the long running strip beautifully illustrated by the late Ferdinando Tacconi, the gang helps out Bond —and foils a familiar-looking villain along the way.

After an 18-month delay, No Time To Die, the fifth — and final— Daniel Craig installment of the franchise, launches this Friday, October 8. And no offense to Mr. Connery — or to my childhood — but at this point, Craig’s version of Bond is my personal favorite.

Don’t shoot me.

Gil Kane and Nick Cardy — Team Up

August 27, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

Teen Titans #24, December 1969

Late 1969 was apparently a great time for assassins on skis.

Making the biggest splash on the slopes were the bad guys in the latest James Bond flick, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (OHMSS.)

In fact, the skiing action scenes were considered the best thing about the Bond film, the first — and only — featuring George Lazenby as 007. (Replacing Sean Connery.)

Meanwhile, on the newsstand, The Teen Titans have the same problem, among others.

I’m not saying writer Bob Haney borrowed the idea from the OHMSS marketing, which likely had appeared prior to script deadline time. More likely an amusing coincidence.

Either way, the art team of Gil Kane and Nick Cardy delivered some exciting storytelling on the script they had on hand. Glancing through the entire issue, Nick added some nice polish to Gil’s pencils, without turning the entire issue into Cardy instead of Kane.

That’s a bit of a balancing act, especially since Cardy was a terrific and well-established penciller himself.

But I can’t confirm that he skied.

*The phenomenal ski slope action scenes —and Diana Rigg — were the best parts of the otherwise underwhelming James Bond flick.*

*Page two of the letters page features commentary on recent TT covers by 17-year old Klaus Janson.* (*Yes, that Klaus Janson.*)

Wallace Wood — Agent of Change

February 11, 2020 Greg Goldstein Original Art and The Artists

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #11, March 1967

Wallace Wood made his move.

The frustrated artist, working “Marvel style” on Daredevil — plotting AND drawing — but only paid for the art, heard about a new opportunity. Tower, primarily a book publisher, had decided to take a leap of faith into the comics biz, and Woody was ready to help them.

It was the perfect role for Woody, who had carte blanche to develop the comics as hew saw fit. He was artist, storyteller, art director and defacto editor — all rolled into one.

And with the help of friends/colleagues Len Brown (Topps Mars Attacks) and Dan Adkins, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was born.

Combining a super powered team (think Justice League) with a secret spy organization (ala S.H.I.E.L.D., which had just launched a few months prior) T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents was an effort to capitalize on the secret agent pop culture craze. (James Bond, Man from U.N.C.LE., et al.).

This page is a great example Wood’s crystal clear storytelling and trademark inks. Adkins is credited in some instances on this story as the penciller, with Wood on inks, and due to the collaborative nature of the creative teams on these stories, it’s often easy to lose the thread of who did what.

But this looks like pure Wood here, as Dynamo and his “duplicate” (there are actually three Dynamos in this story — don’t ask) are mowed down in a hail of bullets.

I’ve I always wanted to use that phrase.

Who are you going to call?:

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves.

U.N.C.LE. United Network Command for Law and Enforcement.

S.H.I.E.L.D: Originally Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage and Law-Enforcement Division and later Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate. In the MCU film and TV Universe, it means Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division^.