James Bond series

[Jack Parker]

Glad to hear you are enjoying Origins! Which issues did the first volume cover? And I felt the first couple issues of Origins were a bit bland but around issue 3 or 4 the series really started to pick up for me and I've been loving the series since then. I'm up to issue eight at the moment (I'm several months behind on the series like I am with all of the comic series I'm collecting at the moment...). And that was definitely an intentional nod to Lazenby.

And yeah, I think that teaser trailer is just the behind the scenes footage that was released the other month with the new title sequence.

[Enigma]

It's just the first six issues, and then the other six are in the next volume. I know what you mean, the intro was a bit slow going, but it did work well once it came full circle I think.

[Jack Parker]

Is Origins only going for 12 issues total?

[Enigma]

Yep, which I suspect I will be sad about


https://www.comicsbeat.com/preview-j...st-adventures/

[Jack Parker]

Oh, that sucks to hear. I was hoping the series would run for a few years. Maybe a year for each year of the war. Its a shame we wont be getting more of it past issue #12.

[Enigma]

Possibly they will come back to it, but I guess their focus is on the present. I'd love to see more of his war work though.

[Enigma]

Finally reading my Folio Society edition of Dr No. The novel's centipede scene is so much more unnerving than the film's spider scene.

[Jack Parker]

I have to admit, much to my shame, that I havent read Dr. No yet. How closely does the movie stick to the novel?

[Enigma]

I'm only half-way through, but so far it follows the same story to be honest. The reasons (will see once they get presumably get captured) behind what is happening seem different to the film, but it's the same things actually happening.

On another note, there was a great episode of JamesBondRadio (podcast on Spotify), an interview with Jeff Parker about the Origins comics. It was all interesting, but of note, he really suggested that it is planned to go beyond 12 issues, contradicting that article I posted. In fact, he mentions doing it year by year for the entire war

[Jack Parker]

You will have to give me your ranking of it compared to the other Fleming novels you have read once you finish it. I need to get back into reading them myself.

On your recommendation I listen to that episode of JamesBondRadio. First time I've listened to an episode, but I really enjoyed it! Parker seems like a pretty chill guy to talk to. It was interesting to hear him talk about how he modeled the one scene with Songbird in his Thunderbolts run off of Ursula in Dr. No (seems appropriate of him mentioning it since you are currently reading it). I don't hear many people mention that Dolton is their favorite Bond, so it was fascinating to listen to him talk about why Dolton is his.

And I feel like the initial plan may have been to go for every year of the war, but I feel like things have changed. I've looked several times and nothing mentions Origins going past issue #12. I feel like when this podcast was released he was planning for more, but the Fleming estate didn't approve of additional issues after #12. Do we know how sales were for Origins? I wondering if sales decreased over time which lead to plans changing. Or Dynamite just hasn't announced issues past #12 for some reason. Was also interesting to listen to him talk about how hands on the Fleming estate was about the content in the issues when the series began. I also didn't catch that reference to Fleming in issue #2 at all.

[Enigma]

I got a bit sick of Fleming constantly feeling the need to express how black people were, particularly situations where literally you don't need that information. I do personally have some sympathy towards the 'product of their time' theory, but I feel like it was more common in Dr No and bothered me more than usual. Nonetheless, the novel is actually very good, but doesn't knock Casino Royale off of its perch as my favourite Bond novel to date. Dr No and FRwL are my two Folio Society editions (worth checking out, beautiful artwork), and sometimes the artwork is inserted at points where it's like 5 pages away from the content, needlessly. A bit weird!

I always enjoyed Dalton as Bond personally, but I agree with their chatter, he had bad films, relatively speaking. Like Lazenby (who I LOVE as Bond), he deserved better than he got, although in the former case it was the quality of the films whilst in the latter, Lazenby should've hung around for more. His agent gave such bad advice...

I too think that it has changed, I forgot to account for it being an older episode of the podcast so the article probably overrides it. I did wonder about F when I read volume 1, but I didn't see the nod as being too strong and never looked into it

[Jack Parker]

Yeah, the racism in some of Fleming's novels is pretty hard to read through. The worst one for me was Live or Let Die. I felt really uncomfortable during the sections Bond and Felix were in Harlem because Fleming's racism was coming up so much during it. Glad to hear Dr. No was worth it though! I'll have to pick up a copy at some point. My favorite two novels of the five I've read are Casino Royale and Moonraker. I go back and forth on which one is my favorite.

And I agree with them that Dalton is a great representation of Fleming's Bond and enjoyable to watch. For me, since his films are generally unmemorable, I have no real desire to re-watch them which makes me less interested in his time as Bond. I am curious how Dalton would have been in something like Casino Royale or GoldenEye. I assume he would have been fantastic and I feel his version of Bond would have fit in well. I haven't seen OHMSS since I was a kid, so I don't really remember Lazenby's version of Bond. What advice did his agent give? And yeah, I felt the nod to Lazenby was much more apparent than the one to Fleming. Interesting Easter Egg though.

[Pete26]

Yeah, the racism in some of Fleming's novels is pretty hard to read through. The worst one for me was Live or Let Die. I felt really uncomfortable during the sections Bond and Felix were in Harlem because Fleming's racism was coming up so much during it. Glad to hear Dr. No was worth it though! I'll have to pick up a copy at some point. My favorite two novels of the five I've read are Casino Royale and Moonraker. I go back and forth on which one is my favorite.

And I agree with them that Dalton is a great representation of Fleming's Bond and enjoyable to watch. For me, since his films are generally unmemorable, I have no real desire to re-watch them which makes me less interested in his time as Bond. I am curious how Dalton would have been in something like Casino Royale or GoldenEye. I assume he would have been fantastic and I feel his version of Bond would have fit in well. I haven't seen OHMSS since I was a kid, so I don't really remember Lazenby's version of Bond. What advice did his agent give? And yeah, I felt the nod to Lazenby was much more apparent than the one to Fleming. Interesting Easter Egg though.

His agent told him that Bond had had his time and violent movies were going out, it was all love and peace. A friend I have grown up with told me his Grandfather worked with Fleming during the war and he wasn't a particularly pleasant person. He had a lot of ideas and would send other people out to do the dirty work for which he would claim the credit. That was probably typical behaviour for an aristocratic Naval Commander.

[Jack Parker]

Wow, that agent couldn't predict trends in media at all! I feel kind of bad for Lazenby now. I always kind of assumed public opinion at the time was against him, which lead to the producers bringing Connery back. And I'm not surprised to hear that about Fleming at all. From everything I've gathered about the man, he is a solid writer but was a miserable person to be around long-term.

[Enigma]

My JB shelves are no longer absent of figurines, but I still have work to do