Bond. James Bond. Join me as I read all of the James Bond books in 007 Case Files, encompassing Ian Fleming and beyond. For Your Eyes Only: there’s spoilers ahead.
James Bond comics have been around at least as long as the film franchise. The first official one was an adaptation of the Dr. No film in 1962. A series of Swedish and Spanish comic magazines followed, but it took almost two decades before another official comic was attempted with Marvel’s For Your Eyes Only (1981) tie-in. Yet the late 1980s saw a period where new novels, comics and films were all being simultaneously released, making it a golden era for fans of 007.
At the time of penning his short series of James Bond comics, writer and artist Mike Grell was on a bit of a career high. His seminal classic Green Arrow: The Longbow Hunters had just reinvented the character for a new generation and was followed by an ongoing series, a first for that character. His characters The Warlord, Jon Sable Freelance and Starslayer were 80s staples for all self-respecting readers. Then he turned his attention to another icon: James Bond.
In 1988, Grell wrote and illustrated the comic book adaptation of the film Licence to Kill, which was also adapted into a novelisation by John Gardner. The following year, Grell tried his hand at an original James Bond story. Released as a three-issue prestige mini-series by Acme Press and Eclipse Comics, it was the first English-language Bond comic that was not an adaptation of existing material. (Outside of the US and UK, Swedish comic book publisher Semic Press started a James Bond comic book magazine in 1965, which was simultaneously published in Norwegian, Danish, and Finnish editions. In Japan, Takao Saito published a monthly Bond serial in shonen magazine Boy’s Life before going on to create Golgo 13).
PERMISSION TO DIE is sort of set in an alternate reality to both the films and the books, one where Bond is still a Commander and Felix Leiter has a hook for a hand (presumably from Live and Let Die and not Licence to Kill). Grell’s comic is a kind of follow-up to From Russia With Love. It certainly starts off with a Connery era Bond, complete with a gun hidden under a kilt at a dinner party. The mind boggles, doesn’t it Moneypenny?
After a swift bit of action, the story proper kicks off with M summoning Bond to investigate stories of a cheaper alternative to the military’s ‘Star Wars’ defence mechanism. Dr. Erik Widziadlo — the mechanism’s creator and Phantom of the Opera lookalike — offers the device to the British Government in exchange for the safe return for his daughter, who is trapped in East Germany. After that, there’s a freewheeling series of circumstances that involves Bond disguising as a ‘gypsy’ and heading into British Columbia to avert a nuclear attack.
The comic book format allows Grell to cut loose and do things that aren’t possible in print – or in the films for that matter. Grell — along with his regular colourist Julia Laquement (and art assistants Rick Hoberg, Mark Jones and Dameon Willich) — have a terrific sense of place. In between Grell’s penchant for intimate love scenes that skirt the line of actual nudity (just as he did with Ollie and Dinah in Green Arrow) are ornately detailed backgrounds. Look at the Jules Verne inspired trappings of Widziadlo’s lair, for example, or the montages that mirror the opening titles of the films. At other times, he cuts loose in splashy, multi-page dialogue-free action sequences that compress time in a way that it would be impossible for cinema to imitate.
Is it all a bit jumbled? Yes, but no more than some of the contemporary Bond films. Here we see James Bond encountering a medium that was finding massive mainstream success in breaking barriers and storytelling convention in ways that Hollywood would borrow from years later. Indeed, in some ways it is a far more faithful vehicle for 007 than John Gardner was providing in the official continuation novels at the time.
James Bond comics started appearing more regularly after this. Dark Horse released a series of original comic stories throughout the 90s, starting with Serpent’s Tooth from Moon Knight co-creator Doug Moench. Since 2015, Dynamite Entertainment has been releasing mini-series from heavy-hitters like Warren Ellis, Andy Diggle, James Robinson, Benjamin Percy, Kieron Gillen, Ales Kot, Jeff Parker and Greg Pak. Yet in many ways, it all started here with Mike Grell and a fun outing that has all the hallmarks of peak 80s goodness.
James Bond will return…in Brokenclaw.
