Trouble Spot

James Bond comic strips #10

by Jim Lawrence, Yaroslav Horak (Illustrator)

Stand by for more adventures with the world's greatest secret agent, as some of his most thrilling missions are collected for the first time ever When Bond is called in to investigate a mysterious box' which has gone missing after the murder of its owner, Mike Channing, he becomes involved with a beautiful, deadly young adventuress, and the nefarious Baron Sharck Can 007 avoid betrayal and death while persuading Channing's blind wife that he is her husband? This new, never-before-collected edition also includes Isle of Condors, The League of Vampires and Die With My Boots On Plus a new introduction by Bond girl Martine Beswicke (From Russia With Love) and exclusive feature material on the Bond girls

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction, Action

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Aka Hunter Adams, Victor Appleton II

Jim Lawrence has written fiction extensively for both children and adults in a variety of media: books, magazine articles, film and radio scripts, and comic strips, including "decision" strips. He estimates that he has written some sixty books of fiction, many of them under pen names for series like Tom Swift Jr. and Nancy Drew. His radio credits include weekly scripts for Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, The Green Hornet, and Sky King. He has written for, and in some cases created and illustrated, the comic strips Dallas, Joe Palooka, Captain Easy, Friday Foster, and Buck Rogers. To date, he has authored two works of interactive fiction: Seastalker and Moonmist.

Reviews

[Matthew Fleming · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best of the comic strip collections - every story except the last one lands. The nakedness, like in The Phoenix Project, IS annoying, but it's not as intrusive here, and the drawings and plotting have an excellent symbiosis and cohesion, for the most part.

[Bobby Sullivan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Feels very dated, but Jim Lawrence couldn't have known that when he was writing these stories.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good stories that are mostly well plotted and very well illustrated. This would be a four star book if Jim Lawrence did not write such clunky, out of character dialog.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yeah, look. I picked up a couple of these Bond comic compilations in the library mostly out of curiosity, partly because I loved the Bond movies, and partly because I wanted to see how the compare to the Modesty Blaise strips/volumes. Short answer: they don't. The Blaise strips are not only visually much more textured and layered - but so are the stories and the characters. Granted some of the tales are just as ludicrous in Blaise, both the attention to character and backstory makes up for it. In these Bond strips (well, the half dozen or so I've read) the character of Bond doesn't have a charismatic actor to make up for his questionable (or mostly, in these strips: shallow and dull) nature.

On the other hand, these volumes ARE interesting. Those who criticised the Moore 007 flicks for being too OTT and nonsensical, here we have a dude with a MASSIVE nose called Sharkface, and blind girl who doesn't even realise Bond is impersonating her dead husband, undercover (nudge nudge) work in a nudist colony, killer condors (yep), and an actual vampire killer cult.

Like I said...interesting.

But - in the age of Skyfall at the cinema - and of the timeless Modesty Blaise in print - I don't think I'll be revisiting these James Bond comic strips ever again. I can handle the OTT audacity/stupidly of the stories. But (unlike the Blaise strips) it just doesn't come with any empathy for the characters, or even much humour.

5/10

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trouble Shot - This story hinges on Bond convincing a woman he's her husband by mimicking the husband's voice because...she used to be hysterically blind and doesn't know what he looks like. AND, because there are no pictures, the only way Bond can identify her is by a birthmark on her butt. Luckily she's vacationing at a nudist resort! I thought some of the movies were far fetched but this is on another level. ☆☆
Did not read the other stories included, had no interest after the first story.

[Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was tempted to give this 4 stars instead of three, but the stories and dialogue are just too cheesy – just like the movies! But unlike the movies, there’s actual (modest) nudity in the comics. (The comics ran in European newspapers that were/are far less uptight than the ones here in America.) It’s kind of fun though, to read the same dailies that people were reading over 30 years ago.

[Hillingdon Libraries]

Find this book at Hillingdon Libraries

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a huge James Bond fan, and on top of that I love comics and comic strips. This collection from 1970's England newspapers is a lot of fun!