Dom Reardon’s cover for James Bond #1
The first issue of the Warren Ellis-scribed James Bond debuts on 4th November 2015 in comic shops across the world, published by Dynamite Entertainment – just ten days after SPECTRE launches in cinemas in the US and UK.
Featuring art by Jason Masters and released with a number of cover variants (including the one above by Dom Reardon), James Bond 007 will tell new stories with the character in a monthly format, with Ellis focusing on the darker, crueler character seen in Ian Fleming’s novels. The first six-issue story, VARGR, sees Bond returning to London after a mission of vengeance in Helsinki, to take up the workload of a fallen 00 Section agent. But something evil is moving through the back streets of the city, and sinister plans are being laid for Bond in Berlin…
It’s been over 20 years since the last James Bond comics were released and some 57 years since the first James Bond strip was first published on 7th July 1958.
“Ian Fleming’s James Bond is an icon,” says Warren, “and it’s a delight to tell visual narratives with the original, brutal, damaged Bond of the books.”
Jason Masters has teased James Bond fans with some Work in Progress art on his tumblr
“Bond is one of the great British icons,” he told Comic Book Resources in an exclusive interview about the project, expanding on his take on the character. “Once I’d established that I could work with the Ian Fleming estate, it was really very difficult to turn down. In cinema, of course, the Bond pictures invented whole chunks of film language – I was on BBC Radio 5 yesterday, explaining that I couldn’t resist doing a classic Bond-movie cold open. And Bond has a very long history in comics, with the novels being adapted early on into daily newspaper comic strips.
“Bond is one of those big things in British culture that you just kind of have to do if it is somehow offered to you.
“Jason is great at the setting, for one thing: architecture, landscape, streets. He makes a world real,” Warren says of the book’s Johannesburg-based artist. “He’s also an incredibly ambitious artist, always up for trying something new, finding a different way into things. And I love that spare line of his, and the way he gets subtle performances from his characters with it.
“Best of all, and thankfully, he loves the details as much as I do, which is crucial for this – we don’t have the pages and pages where Fleming dug deeply into the fine notes of things.”
• Warren Ellis Official Site: www.warrenellis.com and follow him on Twitter @warrenellis
• Jason Master is on Tumblr at http://thejasonmasters.tumblr.com and follow him on Twitter @thejasonmasters
James Bond 007 #1
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Jason Masters
Cover A: Dom Reardon
On Sale: 4th November 2015
SKU: C72513024181801011
UPC: 725130241818 01011
• More information on James Bond #1 here on the Dynamite Entertainment web site
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: US Comics
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