London-based Book Palace is to publish a limited edition Art of Modesty Blaise catalogue, which will be presented free with any purchase from the art sales and specialist publisher of Modesty Blaise original art.

Jim Holdaway’s early designs for Modesty Blaise, one character bearing an uncanny resemblance to John McLusky’s version of a certain secret agent…
Modesty Blaise, the tough and enigmatic character created by Peter O’Donnell, made her international debut on Monday 13th May 1963 in a newspaper strip story for London’s Evening Standard, illustrated by Jim Holdaway. Her adventures continued until the last story in 2001 and have been syndicated worldwide, and are currently being collected by Titan Books.

Original art by Enric Badia Romero used for the opening episode of ‘The Inca Trail’, which appeared in the London Evening Standard in 1976 during the artist’s first run on the character.

Original art by John M. Burns used for an episode of ‘Green Cobra’, which appeared in the London Evening Standard in 1979. Via Book Palace
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Original art by Patrick Wright used for an episode of ‘Eve and Adam’, which appeared in the London Evening Standard in 1979.

Original art by Neville Colvin used for an episode of ‘The Lady Killers’, which appeared in the London Evening Standard in 1980.
On Jim Holdaway’s sudden death in 1970 the artwork was taken up by Enric Badia Romero. In 1978 the artwork was taken up by John M. Burns for a year then by Patrick Wright for nine months. In May 1980 the fifth artist was introduced, Neville Colvin, who produced over 1500 strips. Colvin retired in 1986 and Romero continued again until the very last strip in 2001.
The catalogue showcases over 160 original artworks for sale, reproduced here in the finest detail. Each individual scan of the original art shown in this book was carefully taken to optimise its reproduction on the printed page and to retain the look and feel of the artist’s detailed pen and ink artwork.
Titan Books’s latest Modesty collection, The Young Mistress, released in May, features the stories ‘The Young Mistress’, ‘Ivory Dancer’ and ‘Our Friend Maude’, written by Peter O’Donnell and illustrated by Enric Badia Romero. The next, The Grim Joker
, is out in October.
• More about the Art of Modesty Blaise on the Book Palace web site
• Modesty Blaise art for sale from The Book Palace
• Neville Colvin – Official Site
• Enric Badia Romero – Official English Language Site
Authors: Various
Artists: Jim Holdaway, Enric Badia Romero, John M Burns, Patrick Wright, Neville Colvin
Publisher: Book Palace Books, September 2014
Number of pages: 88
Format: Soft Cover; Black & White illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781907081262
Modesty Blaise © 2014 Modesty Blaise Limited
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- About the Author
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The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: British Comics, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comic Art, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News