Daily Express - comic strip

James Bond, in comic strip form, debuted in the Daily Express on July 7th 1958. The Express faithfully serialised Fleming's work, virtually in novel order. Towards the end of the Fleming adaptions, with only the short stories and 'The Spy Who Loved Me' left, original material was introduced to these to extend them to 'novel length'.

Once the original books had been exhausted the Fleming estate gave Jim Lawrence (who had taken over from Henry Gammidge in adapting the material) permission to pen some brand new adventures. 33 storylines were created. Kingsley Amis's 'Colonel Sun' was also used.

The first 21 (including 'Colonel Sun') appeared in the Daily Express, with the final story (no. 22) appearing in the Sunday Express. A further seven new stories were syndicated outside the UK. All 29 were drawn by Yaroslav Horak.

The other five strips appeared in the Daily Star (between February 1981 and July 1983). The first was drawn by Harry North, with John McLusky returning to draw the last four (ending with 'Polestar').

Daily Express - Thunderball strip

'Thunderball' ran from December 1961 through to February 1962 before suddenly disappearing about half way through its publication as a result of a dispute between Fleming and Max Aitken, the paper's owner at the time.

It centred around an article entitled 'The Guns of James Bond', which Fleming had sold to the Sunday Times. Aitken thought this disloyal as the Express was serialising the novels.

After ten weeks, 'Thunderball' was dropped (the title was finished later, syndicated outside the UK) and the Bond strip did not appear again in the Express until June 1964 with 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.

The 'Thunderball' strip was adapted from the novel by Henry Gammidge and drawn by John McLusky.

The panel below is from the Swedish adaption courtesy of Red Grant.

Special thanks to Red Grant, Eduardo Gimenez Gonzalez and Anders Frejdh for some of the following book covers.

Publications - original British printings

Hardcover Jonathan Cape (London): 1st British edition - March 27th 1961 / 2nd printing 1964 The Book Club (London): Book Club edition - 1961

Paperback Pan (London): 1st printing May 1963 at 3 shillings and sixpence, went to 17 printings up to 1976 Various cover illustrations: Man's back with 'bullet holes' designed by Raymond Hawkey - 1st to 12th printings - 1963-1965 Film stills cover - 13th to 14th printings - 1965 - some copies of the 14th printing included a promo letter for Player's Cigarettes, supposedly written by Domino Photographic still life cover - 15th to 17th printings - 1966-1976

Publications - original US printings

Hardcover Viking (New York): 1st American edition - April 1961 Viking (New York): Book Club edition - 1961

Paperback Signet (New York): 1st printing May 1962 at fifty cents Various cover illustrations:   Blue-grey Signet cover - 1st to 21st printings   Blue-grey Signet cover with a '007 corner' - 22nd printing Film poster artwork cover - 23rd to 26th printings Film poster artwork cover - 36th printing

Other publications

Thanks to Gary J. Firuta, Anders Frejdh and Eduardo Gimenez Gonzalez:

Colombia

Greece

Hungary

Russia

Taiwan

Denmark

China

Malaysia

Thailand

Omnibus editions

Thanks to Gary J. Firuta:

Audiobooks

Thanks to Gary J. Firuta:

Daily Express serials - original Ian Fleming titles only

Thanks to Red Grant for the strip artwork used below.

Drawn by John Mclusky

Series One

Series Two

Drawn by Yaroslav Horak

Series Three