tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post8872053053101154064..comments2024-02-22T02:31:34.108+00:00Comments on Too Busy Thinking About My Comics: On "The James Bond Omnibus Volume 004", by Jim Lawrence & Yaroslav HorakUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-14559671933980802192012-11-08T09:10:54.289+00:002012-11-08T09:10:54.289+00:00You're very welcome :)You're very welcome :)Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-79623759838241446582012-10-26T18:31:01.135+01:002012-10-26T18:31:01.135+01:00Hello Peter:- The Mirror was a different beast in ...Hello Peter:- The Mirror was a different beast in the day, wasn't it? Memory tells me that Pilger worked there in the Seventies, for example. And it had for my money the best string of strips, with the Standard coming in second. Garth still baffles me, as I can't work out what genre/s it's occupying and what it's up to - a guilty admission - but I always enjoyed , and I adore The Perishers. Whenever anyone says something to the effect of 'What's the world coming to?', I feel compelled to say 'Pimlico' simply because that was a punchline in a collection I had as a nipper.<br /><br />I've always a soft spot for the Moomins too. I'm not sure I could entirely trust somebody who didn't :)Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-26911900061366553782012-10-26T09:39:43.729+01:002012-10-26T09:39:43.729+01:00My dad was a Mirror man "The paper that tells...My dad was a Mirror man "The paper that tells the truth" lol so it was the deeply bizarre world of Andy Capp, the Perishers and Garth that coloured my daily strip reading but I'm wrong about the Moomins too. They were in the standard which I used to read at my grandads house at times. Not in the Express my other grandparents took. My only excuse is it was 40 years ago and I remember the strips better than their home papers. The recent Moomin reprint volumes are well worth a look though as are all Tove Jannsons other prose works. Faffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04446264944001513202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-39972007065067556602012-10-26T09:06:17.093+01:002012-10-26T09:06:17.093+01:00Hello Karl:- I think not to swear when I'm rea...Hello Karl:- I think not to swear when I'm really shocked, and instead say things like Criky, Gosh and Wow! So, Wow! These stories got put into an annual, for kids? That really does say something about the culture of the time, doesn't it? We never see the values we take almost taken for granted as a culture even when they're undressed and tied up before our children's faces. That has shocked me. Still, you've turned out fine!<br /><br />I hadn't heard about the Radio 4 Modesty adaptations. Thank you :) I'm still chuffed that there's a Martin Beck adaption coming up this Saturday, but that's one more thing to look forward. <br /><br />I really must get hold of some Modesty collections. It's been a while and I suddenly have a hankering ...Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-2409474458234523002012-10-26T09:02:00.223+01:002012-10-26T09:02:00.223+01:00Hello Peter:- As our Lord and Cameron once so emba...Hello Peter:- As our Lord and Cameron once so embarrassingly and repeatedly misused; LOL. You've made me laugh more there in one concentrated hit than year upon year of the Gambols ever did.<br /><br />And I find your future history for the Gambols oddly convincing too.<br /><br />But The Moomins? The Express published the Moomins? Now how did I manage to miss out on that pleasure .... Sigh and Pah ...Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-91377926008449026992012-10-26T08:35:02.073+01:002012-10-26T08:35:02.073+01:00Mrs Gambol discovered free love and had a string o...Mrs Gambol discovered free love and had a string of much younger lovers after leaving her husband. She currently lives in an artist commune in the Welsh borders with a man 30 years her junior. Mr Gambol, after years of being the bvutt of his wife's gumour, moved to the US and joined a Christian Survivalist cult and now has four wives. He is the butt of all their jokes and is considering therapy if the cult leader will allow it. You're right. They were so bloody boring. Right too about Flook. I might be confusing it with Moomins. Faffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04446264944001513202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-72217892396223739962012-10-25T20:41:06.231+01:002012-10-25T20:41:06.231+01:00When I was young I was given a Bond Annual and the...When I was young I was given a Bond Annual and there was one of these strips, in full, in it. for a long time I wondered where it had come from, until I got the Evening Standard [for the Modesty Blaise strips, now sadly missed] and saw similar strips. From what little Ive seen, they have rather a satisfying tonal lurch compared to the casual sadism the books have. I must say tho that reading Bond as a comic strip just doesnt sit right with me for some reason, as if its not quite reaching its desired Bond fanbase, who feel more familiar with the books and films. Oh well.<br />On a separate note, any Modesty Blaise fans might like to know that this December, Radio Four are adapting one of her novels, A Taste For Death on Saturday afternoons. Stef Penney, author of The Tenderness Of Wolves will adapt the book, and Modesty will be played by Daphne Alexander.karlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07814365568280298681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-49171838689993369312012-10-25T18:06:03.761+01:002012-10-25T18:06:03.761+01:00Hello Peter:- Flook? I thought that was the Mail, ...Hello Peter:- Flook? I thought that was the Mail, but time does a certain degree of damage to m'memory :) What a gently strange strip that was. <br /><br />The Gambols were certainly in the express. I recall that being perpetually dull, but then, they were hardly the kind of thing my youthful, sto-opid self would enjoy. I wonder what they might seem like now?Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-50478970760393035062012-10-25T16:24:30.651+01:002012-10-25T16:24:30.651+01:00If memory serves it ran next to Flook and somethin...If memory serves it ran next to Flook and something else, might have been The Gambols but I'm not totally sure. Faffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04446264944001513202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-64029256309041421222012-10-25T09:09:20.665+01:002012-10-25T09:09:20.665+01:00Hello Neil:- And Horak's art could've pull...Hello Neil:- And Horak's art could've pulled that off too, if he'd wanted to, I'm sure, because there's moments when the technique he uses for his caricatures carries a proto-Brit-Psychedelic swirl of lines and intensity. <br /><br />But we don't want Algy cast as the nefarious sinner with the telescope, because he's dead in about another 12 panels time. I wouldn't want to see Algy shot dead by a naked M16 assasin ... The very idea :- (Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-63515250453384615002012-10-25T08:40:08.841+01:002012-10-25T08:40:08.841+01:00I was imagining something more like the infamous R...I was imagining something more like the infamous Rupert/Crumb mash-up from Oz Magazine.<br /><br />For some reason, I can't help but picture Algy Pug substituted for the guy with the telescope.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131557432210919940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-69071277045973803062012-10-25T06:57:51.121+01:002012-10-25T06:57:51.121+01:00Hello Joe:- Did you ever read the Punisher/Archie ...Hello Joe:- Did you ever read the Punisher/Archie crossover from the 90s? Surprisingly well done for such an incongruous pairing.Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-92171046205237547332012-10-25T00:54:30.531+01:002012-10-25T00:54:30.531+01:00Now I'm imagining a cross-over between Rupert ...Now I'm imagining a cross-over between Rupert and Bond... Things aren't going so well for our friend Rupert or any of the other inhabitants of Nutwood. :(Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857537495427793076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-66199977800765534152012-10-24T21:03:27.790+01:002012-10-24T21:03:27.790+01:00Hello Neil;- My family used to get the Express, an...Hello Neil;- My family used to get the Express, and I certainly recall Bond being placed in the company of at least one other strip. I wouldn't swear to it, but I think Rupert was elsewhere in the paper.<br /><br />It would be a shock to discover that they were placed together, wouldn't it? :)Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-33066522648398320802012-10-24T20:33:18.541+01:002012-10-24T20:33:18.541+01:00I'm hoping this didn't run on the same pag...I'm hoping this didn't run on the same page as Rupert.Neilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131557432210919940noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-85753851333820532192012-10-24T16:27:32.736+01:002012-10-24T16:27:32.736+01:00Hello CJ:- Where to start? I entirely agree with y...Hello CJ:- Where to start? I entirely agree with you that this isn't an upper-class Bond. Fleming's is a Bond who's been through the elite university system, but this is obviously a different JB. As I said, there's not even the black comedy of seeing a snob sneer at his lessers in Lawrence and Horak's take on the character. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy the less suave Bond, or that I approve of snob-Bond. In fact, my opinion of the character in all his forms can't be very different to yours. My point was - as yours - that the comic strip reveals the monster undernearth the charm, and that that's all to the good.<br /><br />The reason for the piece taking the form it did - and I make no claims for its quality in saying so - is that I'd read a number of reviews of the volume which discussed "beautiful women" and "thriller stories". And while I recognise that that's a perfectly legitimite approach to these Bond tales, it's not mine. I don't think this is a book about lovely women and exciting violence; I think it's a book which, for all the beauty of its women and for all the drama, borders on the facist and most certainly embodies some of the most misogynistic values of the period. In short, it's an important historical document in terms of its social values as well as the history of comic strips. And I'm worried that these matters haven't come up in the reviews I've come across. So, they're perfectly entitled to their views and preferences, and I'm expressing mine.<br /><br />But I do believe that Bond can be retooled to express different values. I think there are aspects of the Brosnan and Craig Bonds which discuss those values. Do they do so as I would? Not as I would, but I don't believe that characters are bound by specific ideological values. Pulp characters can be used to challenge the old hang-em-high culture as much as they can embody them. That can be done by either reworking the character or leaving them as they are and using the narrative to comment on their original values. But I do agree with you entirely that it's a dodgy business when the old values are still in place and tarted up with a touch of irony.<br /><br />Again, I entirely agree with you about the likes of 24. (CSI I just don't know enough about to comment, though what I've seen seems like a brutal lie about the kind of police care the ordinary public can rely upon.) 24 is a horrible, horrible, utterly despicable programme. It pretends to be deeply caring - as with the American Muslim characters in a later series - and yet it's a profoundly immoral business at hear. One of the things I like - as you do too - about the newspaper Bond is the fact - as I write above - that its creators never apparently thought to be concerned about how the character would be seen. The strip assumes that the brute Bond IS admirable and irresistable, and leaves it at that. The face of the beast, if you like, is easy to see.<br /><br />No, I'm not holding either man responsible for the dominant culture of their age. I lived through the Seventies, I know how pervasive the times were. <br /><br />It's often fine storytelling too, a strange mix of strong drama and - to my mind - despicable politics. I really do think it's a book folks should read for both reasons. Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-43158288254937755982012-10-24T15:41:09.871+01:002012-10-24T15:41:09.871+01:00Hello Joe:- I am relieved that there are other blo...Hello Joe:- I am relieved that there are other blokes my age :) I have every intention of surviving, but I've no desire to be the very last of the dinosaurs :)<br /><br />I have no doubt that I'd enjoy Cannon. It's Wally Wood, there can't possibly not be a great deal to enjoy. I might not appreciate the story, or its meaning - or I may - but I'll always appreciate Wood's work.<br /><br />I was thinking of Moore's opinion of Bond as I wrote the above. I don't always share that opinion. Different Bonds have different agendas, and though none that I've come across strike me as anything other than monsters, some are less monstrous than others. Brosnan even came close to being a mensch at moments ....Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-53178696424056492802012-10-24T14:10:59.077+01:002012-10-24T14:10:59.077+01:00Personally, I think both Bond and Cannon are brill...Personally, I think both Bond and Cannon are brilliant. If they'd been played out with some sort of playfulness or irony, I'd tossed them away in disgust. Nothing is more sickening, if you ask me, than irony. Either you do it and mean it, or you don't do it at all. <br /><br />In my opionion the strips far surpass the annoyingly stupid, campy and self-parodying style of the Bond-movies and portray Bond as a complete and utter monster. The difference is particularily obvious in the adaptations of Fleming's original novels. In the strips, Bond usually survives due to dumb luck, or by being just more ruthless than his opponents. At one point he's also quite honest, claiming to hate and despise women for being weak, seeing the mirror of himself in them and seeing no alternative than to despise them. <br /><br />You see him as an upper-class snob, but I can't see him as anything than a working class guy with ADHD, desperate for attention, any kind of attention. A man who isn't even self-aware enough to realise that he hates himself. A complete and utter brute. I've met these people IRL so many times and I've think the character is a spot on description of professional elite soldiers. <br /><br />That's why I find comic-strip Bond a fascinating character, while movie-Bond makes me retch. At least the strip has the honesty of shoving nudity, violence, nastiness, BDSM into my face and being honest in indulging my sadistic pleasures of seeing people brutalized, instead of hiding it behind some appaling veil of 'sanitized respectability' where Roger Moore's or Connery's acts of rape and murder is presented as seduction and funny magic tricks. <br /><br />Bond is a pulp character. Not unlike The Shadow, The Spider, John Carter, Flash Gordon, Tarzan or Conan. Portray any of those in a santized context and the whole thing not falls flat. Pulp without copious amount of sex, violence and a facist lead, isn't pulp. It becomes propaganda. <br /><br />I might be in a minority, but I far prefer pulp to modern day so-called escapism like 24 or CSI, who both manage to disgust me in that they try to maintain the ludicrous idea that they are realistic, which in turn makes them not only appalingly stupid, but also more facist than Bond could ever hope to be. CJ HÃ¥kanssonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-45701780800678818062012-10-24T13:41:28.075+01:002012-10-24T13:41:28.075+01:00Well, it was a bloke about your age that had recom...Well, it was a bloke about your age that had recommended it to me in the first place. He used to be a moderator for the site I'm writing the newsletters for now. No idea if that means you'd still enjoy it or not, but I figure it wouldn't hurt to find out. But then again, I hardly share the same opinions about comics with myself that I had even 5 years ago (why oh why did I spend so much money trying to get every Civil War tie-in?!).<br /><br />On a different note, while I was reading your piece, I was wondering why I found your description of this bond familiar, but now I remember reading that Alan Moore described Bond as being a frat-boy thug more-or-less.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857537495427793076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-25250418836455869652012-10-23T18:13:16.562+01:002012-10-23T18:13:16.562+01:00Hello Joe:- It is indeed a fine line. I wish I cou...Hello Joe:- It is indeed a fine line. I wish I could remember my own experience of Cannon, or rather, I wish I knew what Cannon would seem like if I read it now. I read it decades ago - decades ago? how is THAT possible? - and it's rarely that I share an opinion with my former self these days :) I remember enjoying it, but you've just reminded me that it would fun to check it out again. There's a crying need for an affordable Wood Library; so much of his achievements is either scattered around or unavailable. Colin Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15246781681702128600noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5618879740460069575.post-20903988540003216712012-10-23T17:47:05.598+01:002012-10-23T17:47:05.598+01:00This got me thinking about Wally Wood's "...This got me thinking about Wally Wood's "Cannon" and it sounds like Wood took the formula that Lawrence and Horak were attempting and made it cheeky and fun while still appealing the the macho sensibilities. I can't help but chuckle as two naked ladies jealously attack each other over our protagonist, Cannon, and he ends up yelling at them, not to tell them to get along but because they're "wrecking the radio" and ends up literally tossing them outside where they continue their cat fight as he calmly works on his radio. Then there's all the excuses Wood comes up with to have the women willingly strip, like how two female agents decide to meet at a health spa to discuss their secret plans. And Oh! all the times that Cannon has karate-chopped his way out of trouble. Sadly, the comic loses some of that edge near the end and becomes a bit lazy, but the comic is mercifully short.<br /><br />It's a fine line to walk between delightfully bawdy and irritatingly crude.Joehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04857537495427793076noreply@blogger.com