Got a first look at the sample mock up for JAMES BOND: A History of the Illustrated 007 this morning.

I loved the design work. The mock up is for the book's distributors to use as as sales tool when pitching it to the various book buyers. It isn't a final representation, but designed just to give an idea of the book's content and look and feel.

Here's a few screen captures to give you an idea.

Introduction



Chapter 1



So what do you think??

Before heading off to work this morning I finished off MAD, Cracked and Silly Bonds, the last section to be written for JAMES BOND: A History of the Illustrated 007.

So the first "Rough Draft" of the book is now complete and came in at 69,898 words - not too far off my initial "gut feel" estimate to the publisher of 70,000.

This evening I'm taking some time off to hit the gym, and take my ever patient, and supportive, wife out to dinner.

Tomorrow I start the real work of starting at Page One and working my way through revising and rewriting as I go. The aim is to spend the next two weeks revising and have it ready by May 31st for editorial review.

Received this note from the publisher of The Illustrated 007 last night...

Good news, our book distributor is hot to show samples of at least
one chapter of the book to big chain bookstore buyers. Get me a draft of at least one chapter and some art asap and I'll lay out something for Barnes and Noble and Borders.

Guess what I'll be working on this evening?

Just received my comp copy of James Bond: The Paradise Plot from Titan Books. The latest album in the Bond newspaper strip reprint series includes my essay Taking The World By Storm: James Bond's Worldwide Comic Adventures, as well as reprints of The Paradise Plot, and Deathmask both of which originally appeared in UK tabloid newspaper The Daily Star from 1981 to 1983.



Paradise Plot goes on sale in the UK on June 27th and in the US on July 8th.

A couple of quick follow ups to recent posts:

- The artist we were hoping to get on board for GOD SHOP has officially signed on to the project. The recently posted character designs were from the excellent pen of Josue Acevedo, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of his work.

- The podcast I mentioned a few days ago is now online, so if you have nothing better to do than listen to me drone on for about 40 minutes on how I use wikis, blogs and social networks as part of my day job, click here.

- The Bond artwork scans I've been downloading for the past hour were packaged as .rar files that I can't open on the home office iMac - have to redownload on to my laptop - burn them to CD and then transfer them - not a great problem, but an extra step I didn't really have to want to do - means I need to go out and get some more CDs.

It's now 2:45 am and I'm going back to bed !!!

...when you open your email and find a quick note from Mike Grell with this attached...

Over the last few days I've been researching the original James Bond stories produced by Swedish publisher SEMIC during the 1980s and have grown to really appreciate the "pulp paperback" style covers they used.. here's a few examples...

1982


1984


1986


1987

Today was travel day as I headed north to Vancouver for a week long industry conference (I'm speaking on Wednesday morning - gulp!). Had good flights from Austin to Denver, and Denver on to Vancouver, where I had the opportunity to debut my newly minted US passport in front of officialdom from another country.

Managed to get a lot of work done on the flights, more background BOND reading, write up my notes on the recently published 106th issue of Comicopia, write a quick short story based on a challenge issued by a fellow Copian, as well as starting some background research reading on Christopher Marlowe for my in development novel.

After arriving at Vancouver a jump in a cab and give him the name of my hotel. After we've been going for about five minutes he suddenly asks, "Is that the one on Hastings?" Now we are talking about the premier downtown location of a major hotel chain here, not some mom & pop B&B. I figure he should really know where it is.

Once we establish its location he turns round (luckily while we are stopped at a red light) and says "Will $35 be OK." - sounds about what I usually pay for an airport to downtown ride so I agree. 10 mins later I glance up and notice the meter isn't switched on. OK now I know I'm being had.

We eventually arrive on the aforementioned Hastings Street and he pulls up in front of the wrong hotel! Luckily I spot the correct one on the other side of the street, pay and hop out before we can do another guided tour around downtown. (And you can guess what sort of tip he got - an invisible one.)

After I check in and unpack I stop by the concierge's desk to see if they can recommend any nearby cafes for a quick snack. Of course being the idiot I am, I have to ask what the average cab fare from the airport should be - $25 - OK lesson learned - use the airport shuttle when I'm heading out.

Plan for this evening is to grab a quick dinner at the hotel and get as much work done on The Illustrated 007 as possible before the rest of the week disappears in meetings and various conference related social activities.

Things kick off tomorrow with a 7:00am conference call - nice!!!

Took the day off from the office to focus on several writing projects. So far it's been a fairly productive day.

- This morning I once more donned my editorial hat to corral the latest entry in the RevSF Comics of 1986 project into production. You can read novelist Chris Roberson's take on The Watchmen here.

- Reviewed the first character sketches from our new GOD SHOP artist. - They are looking good. Hope to post some on here before too long.

- Also managed to do a couple of hours research for my in development novel (OK I watched a movie over lunch - but it was related to the subject of the novel - honest.)

This afternoon and evening I'm focusing on work for The Illustrated 007. In particular the series of original Bond stories written for Swedish publisher Semic in the 1980s and published in various European countries.

The first Semic orginal tale was titled "Den gyllene Triangeln” (The Golden Triangle), written by Johann Vlaanderen with art by Ramon Escolano Metaute.

" Johann Vlaanderen" was in fact two Norwegian writers, Terje Nordberg and Eirik Ildahl. The pen-name comes from "Johann" being a Swedish form of "Ian," while a person from "Vlaanderen" is Flemish and therefore literally a "Fleming".

Spanish artist Ramon Escolano Metaute, who usually just signed his work as "Escolano," worked on the first three Semic strips. Unfortunately he seems to have just tried to emulate the style of regular newspaper strip artist Yaroslav Horak rather than inject his own look into the character.

Here's the cover of the Swedish edition of "The Golden Triangle"


and the translated Danish edition

Things have been crazy busy with the day job, that, combined with the heads down continuing research and writing on The Illustrated 007, means that I haven't had much time to post here (or anywhere else for that matter.)

But here's a few quick updates:
- Received my comp copies of The Unofficial Companion to the Novels of Terry Pratchett yesterday and was very pleased with the overall quality of the book and the way my minor contribution (three essays) turned out.
- Looks like the latest Titan volume James Bond: Paradise Plot is now available for preorder at Amazon. This one will contain a 1,000 word overview of Bond comics around the world - sort of a teaser for what will be covered in more detail in The Illustrated 007
- I have a pitch to get done for one of my comics editors by next Friday and need to find time to work on it before we head off for a long weekend mini-vacation.
- My in-laws arrived for a visit a few days ago, and as usual brought with them the last few weeks worth of 2000ADs for me to enjoy. I was delighted to spot the Hypotheticals logo prominent displayed on the back cover of one issue - I bet that made budgie_uk smile.

During my Illustrated 007 research this morning I came across this image on line...



It's the cover to a Hindi translation of the Daily Express "Moonraker" strip, published by Diamond Comics in India. I knew that they had published around 90 Bond comics in Hindi, Bengali and English, but this is the first time I've seen a cover image.

Over at the always informative CommanderBond.net website Devin Zydel has put together an early promotional piece on "The Illustrated 007." - Thanks.

The PR was also picked up by this excellent Swedish Bond site too,

Looks like it's also now available for pre-order on Amazon.com, and Amazon.co.uk.

A quick sneak at an early design concept for the cover of The Illustrated 007.

After I turned in the script for GOD SHOP, I’d imagined using all my writing time working on The Illustrated 007. And that’s been true for the last two weeks. Then on Friday morning I sat down to write more James Bond related stuff and was horrified to discover that I was approaching it as if it was a chore rather than a pleasure. It was difficult to get the words out, and what I did commit to the screen was far from being my best work,

As the day went on I came to the realization that in order to do the best work on Bond I also needed to be working on something else. Something completely different.

Like a Novel.

There’s an idea I’ve been kicking around for nearly a year now, one I’ve done lots of research for, but so far haven’t actually written a word of narrative. I have a movie producer, and an agent who have both expressed an interest in the concept, and I’d made them both a verbal promise to have at least three sample chapters and a plot done by mid-July. Perhaps now was the time to start.

Friday evening Gill had friends over to the house, so I decamped to the local Barnes & Noble, with a new notebook and my favorite pen in hand. (For some reason I have to write my fiction longhand - at least for the first draft.).

Starting a new novel is something approaching a sacred moment. The first steps on a voyage of discovery. I know the basic premise, and the plot points. I even think I know who my characters are. What I don’t know is how they will grow and develop as I write them. I don’t know where they will take me and how the story will play out.

What I do know, is that the end result will be nothing like the story I thought I thought I was going to write, and that the journey will be a voyage of discovery, frustration, inspiration and above all fun.

Taking a deep breath, I turned the first page, and wrote…

The smell of burning flesh was perhaps his greatest pleasure, in fact it bordered on the sensual.

Two days later I have the first chapter written.

And the Bond work? – It’s back to being fun too.

One of the things I enjoy most when working on a non-fiction project is the research. With any project I draw up a list of the books that are often considered "definitive sources" on the subject and make sure to read them.

As I am working on the first draft of "The Illustrated 007" I am also rereading all the Fleming Bond novels and re-watching every single Bond screen appearance. A process that I would have thought would be standard for anyone working on a Bond project.

But I guess it isn't.

A few weeks ago I read "The Man Who Saved Britain" by Simon Winder and soon spotted various assumptions in the text that made me realized he was working from memory rather than checking the original novel or movie source.

I've spent the last couple of days studying "James Bond: The Man And His World," by Henry Chancellor. Chancellor was the first author to be given full access to the Fleming archives and, according to the book's press releases and various online interviews, spent a year writing the book.

It seemed that year didn't include an hour to watch the CBS TV version of Casino Royale broadcast in 1954.

This afternoon I read the following passage by Chancellor on the TV Casino Royale:

In it special agent 'Jimmy' Bond is Americanized..., and Vesper Lynd, the double agent Bond girl, does not commit suicide..


OK sounds fair enough, EXCEPT that while the main character is indeed an American version of Bond - his name is given as James Bond (he calls himself "James" and is shown as James in the credits). The only person who refers to him as "Jimmy" is the Anglicized version of Leiter (given as Clarence Letter in the end credits). The female lead is not Vesper Lynd (as in the novel) - the character is called Valerie Mathis, and she is an agent, but not a double one.

Small mistakes - but essential ones that are easily researched and checked. Spotting this on Page 224 makes me question just how "definitive" the previous couple of hundred pages were.

It just reinforces my personal mantra of "go back to the source material where ever possible."

--------------------------

And let's not mention that Chancellor gives the near 30 year history of Bond comic strip adaptations in the Daily Express only a one sentence passing mention in which they are dismissed as cartoons - aaarrggghhh!

OK, I guess I did mention it.

----------------------------

Another great essay about James Bond comics, this time highlighting Dark Horse's troubled run and a tale never completed, written by gothamajp, who knows a whole heck of a lot about 007's long, strange career! - hipsterdad reviews JAMES BOND: SHARK BAIT.

Currently, I’m knee deep in your chapter, which is outstanding by the way. If this is indicative of your Bill Finger book, then I really hope that it gets published, because it is fascinating reading. I think this is some of the best stuff that I’ve ever read from you. - email from new RevolutionSF comics editor Jay Willson on BATMAN UNAUTHORIZED.

I read the God Shop script and was very entertained! It turned out better than I imagined! Nice work! - first response email from our editor at Tokyopop after reading the GOD SHOP script.

It's moments like these that make all the hours staring at the screen and keyboard worthwhile.

As it's President's Day, the day-job office is closed today, so in theory I have the day off. I've spent my "holiday" doing writing releated stuff. Highlight of the day so far has been time on the phone chatting with Mike Grell and Doug Moench about their work on James Bond for "The Illustrated 007."

Also finished the final polish, and turned in the script for GOD SHOP to our editor at Tokyopop.

JAMES BOND: SHARK BAIT, the latest collection of Bond newspaper strip reprints from the fine folks at Titan Books, which also includes the second part of my feature "To America With Love - Bond in US Comics".

... has been confirmed as the title of the next James Bond movie. According to the studio "QoS" (am I the first to give it an acronym ??) starts off about one hour after the conclusion of Casino Royale.

The title Quantum of Solace comes from a Fleming short story that was published as part of the original "For Your Eyes Only" collection, and is, in my opinion, perhaps one of the most boring James Bond stories that Fleming ever wrote

BACK ISSUE magazine #26, (the "Spies and Tough Guys" issue) from the fine folks at Twomorrows includes my 3,000 word article on the history of James Bond in Comics.

Priced at a reasonable $6.95 for 100 pages of informative articles and great art, it's well worth checking out.



If you can't find a copy in your local store you can order it online here, or even order the PDF version at the reduced price of just $2.95