Modesty Blaise News

Modesty Blaise Dog

2012-01-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

This has to be the oddest piece of MB merchandise I've seen yet: a Modesty Blaise dog. I'm not sure which is stranger, the item or the £700 price tag!

Unless this dog can do some really cool tricks, like break you out of a Thai gaol and bring down a crime ring while he's at it... I hope there's a misplaced decimal place in the price.

Thanks, Wayne, for sharing this gem!
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Holdaway Originals in the Cartoon Museum

2012-01-06T20:34:00.000-08:00

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The Cartoon Museum in London sounds like it is well worth a visit, not least of all because it contains some Holdaway Modesty Blaise originals.

"The museum was established to preserve the best of British cartoons, caricatures and comics and to make the creativity of cartoon artists past and present accessible to people of all ages, and it does just that.

The origins of British cartooning are set out here, beginning with the work of Hogarth, Gillray and Cruikshank, and travelling through decades and centuries right up to the present, with examples from the finest British contemporary political cartoonists, such as Matt, Steve Bell and Peter Brookes.

There are original works by Thelwell; Thurber; Giles; Norman Pett, who created Jane; Jim Holdaway, who gave Modesty Blaise her start in life; and Reg Smythe's unforgettable Andy Capp and Flo."

You can read more about it in this article from Adelaide Now.

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Dick Giordano Modesty Blaise originals

2012-01-02T17:28:00.000-08:00

A number of Dick Giordano original Modesty Blaise strips have been popping up on Ebay, including the original sketch for the DC cover:

The original cover by DICK GIORDANO for the Modesty Blaise Graphic Novel 1-Shot published by DC, 1994, done on standard DC paper. Source: Ebay

Bidding for this one starts at $250 - not bad for an original!
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Happy New Year - First Agent X9 Modesty Cover of 2012!

2012-01-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Loopy Dave continues to produce gorgeous new covers for Agent X9:

Many fans will be happy to see Modesty in a bikini, and I think the artist has also done a great job with the composition - I love the boat seen through the wheel. But I can't help wondering why she doesn't wear her sunglasses...
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Spanish Modesty Blaise Cover

2011-11-11T15:30:00.000-08:00

I was sent this Spanish paperback cover by a friend and fellow Modesty Blaise collector. This is the only Spanish cover I have. Interesting that it is a painting, yet clearly based on Monica Vitti.

The Spanish edition appears to be available for free download. (Disclaimer: I have no idea if it is a legal download or not - perhaps someone with more fluent Spanish can work that out!)

Modesty Blaise Podcast

2011-11-05T09:51:00.000-07:00

English lecturer Kate MacDonald has created a podcast about the Modesty Blaise novels. You can listen to the podcast via her website, reallylikethisbook.com.

New Modesty X9 Cover

2011-10-29T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just in time for Halloween... this gorgeous X9 cover by Loopy Dave, of Modesty as a witch!

You can see a larger version on Deviant Art. Enjoy!

More Modesty Merchandise

2011-10-10T10:52:00.000-07:00

And the Modesty Blaise merchandise just keeps appearing! More earrings, more bags, and now shoes:

The bag and shoes are available from Walk In Town, and the earrings from C2E-street (both Swedish).

I'm happy to see there's finally a piece of merchandise with a Holdaway drawing! All the merchandise I've seen to date is based on Romero's drawings (nothing wrong with that, just nice to have more of Holdaway's work acknowledged).
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Tales of the Shadowmen

2011-09-11T11:22:00.000-07:00

Tales of the Shadowmen is a book series wherein the writers team various fictional heroes in new short stories; Volume 3 has a story featuring Modesty Blaise.

There is a nice lengthy review on Amazon, although the only specific mention of the Modesty story is, "'A Day in the Life of Madame Atomos' by Xavier Maumejean is a brilliant comic piece about the villainess which pays homage to the silly spy romps of the early 1970's. The story works well throughout and the last paragraph is priceless!"

If anyone else has read the Modesty story and would care to share a synopsis/review, I'll post it here. Thanks!
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Modesty cover used for Mickey Spillane novel

2011-08-30T15:27:00.000-07:00

Back in the days when paperbacks were considered pulp, cover art was often re-used for other books. Here's the beautiful Robert McGinnis cover art for Sabre-Tooth used for a German edition of a Mickey Spillane novel:

And here's the Sabre-Tooth cover:

If you're a fan of Robert McGinnis, I highly recommend The Paperback Covers of Robert-McGinnis, a gorgeous book with hundreds of colour images of McGinnis' work.
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Agent X9

2011-08-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

Agent X9 continues to turn out amazing covers. It looks like they've restarted the series, with 'Gabriel's Diamond'.

Name that cover artist, if you can!

More AgentX9 Covers by Loopy Dave

2011-08-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

Two more great covers by Loopy Dave... thanks to Ken for sending these.

You can view more of Loopy Dave's work here.
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Humphrey Bogart reads Modesty

2011-08-09T10:24:00.000-07:00

Still playing catch-up on items sent to me over a year ago... this one is a real gem!
This Norwegian magazine features Humphrey Bogart on the cover, reading a Modesty Blaise book (you can click on the image to see the larger version)

About the magazine: "It is a magazine, sort of an intellectual journal, that has been around for a long while, is issued 6 times a year, and which prints articles dealing with politics, literature and social questions. This particular issue is #2 of 1993, so that would be sometime during the spring of that year."
Thanks to La Belle Sauvage for this!
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Agent X9 Cover by Loopy Dave

2011-08-09T10:19:00.000-07:00

Another new cover for AgentX9 comic by artist LoopyDave, for The Warlords of Phoenix:

You can read his original post here.

Next Titan Reprint Announced

2011-08-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

First up, a quick apology to everyone who's sent me material that has not yet made its way to the blog or website - I've been busy publishing some books of my own, which means my usually long lag-time for the Modesty site has gone from bad to even worse. But I'll attempt to make up for it over the coming months!

Good news: Titan continues to reprint the Modesty Blaise strips. Million Dollar Game is out this month, and Live Bait is scheduled for February 2012.

With Live Bait, we've come full circle, as the Manuscript Press omnibus of a number of years ago was also called Live Bait. According to the Wikipedia article, the stories included will be Samantha and the Cherub, Milord, and of course Live Bait.
The next story after LB is The Girl from the Future. I think we can safely assume what the title of Volume 22 will be!
Meanwhile, the Million Dollar Game sees the start of reprints from the second Romero era..

thanks to AFH for the info!

Kiss Kiss Kill Kill exhibition moves to London!

2011-04-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

The Kiss Kiss Kill Kill exhibition of vintage spy film posters (mentioned in last August's post) has moved to a new venue! It is now in a central London location, showing alongside the most awesome Eurospy film festival you have ever (or never) heard of.

The Goethe-Institut in London and Berlin have chased down eleven bone fide sixties spy classics and subtitled them all. Along with a panel discussion, the whole package is playing at the Riverside studios in Hammersmith 2–9 May 2011.

From the Kiss Kiss Kill Kill website: "This unique series of feature films, made at the height of the Cold War on both sides of the ‘Celluloid Curtain’, will be screened over a special ‘spy film weekend’ at Riverside Studios, London. There will be curators’ talks and a panel discussion, chaired by the BBC’s Security Correspondent, Gordon Corera. The distinguished panel includes writer and ‘spy specialist’, Phillip Knightley. Celluloid Curtain aims to shed new light on the history of the Cold War in Europe and itsdepiction in film. It will focus on the Cold War ‘spook’ as a cinematic creation of the Iron Curtain and look at the legacy of the films and politics of the period. This is a subject of great topical relevance: talk of a new Cold War, Wikileaks and ‘spy stories’ dominate ournews, bookshops and cinemas today."

You can read more about it here.

New U.S. source for Modesty Blaise books

2011-01-26T09:54:00.000-08:00

Souvenir Press put an end to years of book-hunting agony when they started reprinting the entire Modesty Blaise series back in 1999... however, the earlier titles (especially those with the Holdaway covers) sold out quickly, and collectors had to trawl Ebay and Abebooks again - and pay extortionate prices for new paperbacks!

Independent Publishers Group is now carrying the Souvenir Press paperbacks, and appears to have most of them in stock. (The search box is a little hard to find - it's in the left pane under 'Quick Search'). Their contact information for orders is on their website.

Happy collecting!

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Agent X9 features Modesty Blaise fan art

2011-01-05T09:43:00.000-08:00

Throughout 2011, Agent X9 magazine will feature 13 different artists doing Modesty Blaise fan art; one in each issue. First up is Jimmy Wallin:

There is a brief interview with the artist on the Agent X9 blog.
(You can use Google translator to translate the text from Swedish, although with mixed results: "Initially I had probably planned to do something more Hold Away-smelling") Hm, smells like Jim Holdaway? If you know a better online translator, please do recommend!)

Agent X9 will continue to feature more of these... we will keep you posted!
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Agent X9 searching for A-strips

2010-11-23T15:23:00.000-08:00

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What does this cryptic title mean?
In their continued quest for the highest quality reproduction of their latest reprint run of the Modesty Blaise strips, the good people at Agent X9 magazine in Sweden are looking for high-quality scans of Romero's A-strips.

What is an A-strip?
Part of the Modesty Blaise mystique..
From Wikipedia: "Outside the ordinary numbering is also an amount of A-strips. An A-strip has the same number as the previous strip but followed by an A. They were used on days when not all the newspapers containing Modesty Blaise were published. An A-strip is not vital for the continuity of the story and is often just supplementing the previous strip. The first A-strip was 194A and was published during Christmas 1963 in Scottish newspapers.

Since December 1974 The Evening Standard has not been published on Saturdays. So since then (and the story "Cry Wolf") a sixth of the strips have been A-strips and have not had their premiere in The Evening Standard."

If you can help them out, please send 600 dpi scans to Johan Kimran at Agent X9.
Thank you!
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AgentX9 Modesty Blaise Covers

2010-11-21T10:16:00.000-08:00

Artist Loopy Dave, who this year created a new 'Bad Suki' cover for Swedish comic Agent X9, has created another Modesty Blaise cover - The War Lords of Phoenix.

So far, his Bad Suki cover is the favourite of this year's (as voted on in their online poll); head to the Agent X9 blog to vote for your favourite!

Agent X9 magazine has undertaken a massive project to source as many Holdaway original frames as possible for their latest reprint run. From the magazine's producers:

"We've had some problems getting all available originals scanned in time to include them in the later Holdaway episodes, but I believe, without doing the math properly, that we've managed to scan ca 50% of Holdaway's ca 2000 dailies and in the early episodes, all of these were used. The reason for this is simply that a large portion of the original artwork is still in the hands of only three collectors, who have all helped us with material. The Vikings in particular, a classic example of [poor] reproduction, has never looked better. In some stories we have more than half of the strips in new scanned and high quality files; in most episodes it's about 1/3."

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"We've also retranslated Holdaway's entire run for this reprint to match the original dialogue as closely as possible. Willie's cockney is of course essentially untranslatable, but we at least tried to bring out his apparent roughness (to those who don't know him) in the way he speaks."

A fitting tribute to Peter O'Donnell that the Modesty Blaise strip reproductions keep getting better and better!
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More Modesty Merchandise

2010-08-31T12:46:00.000-07:00

More cool Modesty swag from Scandinavia... this time, a laptop case.

As well, a pair of Modesty earrings found on Ebay:

I find it a bit strange that all the Modesty merchandise I've ever seen is based on Romero artwork, and none on Holdaway's... clearly there is a sub-niche market waiting to be filled!
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Spy Film Exhibit

2010-08-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

KISS KISS KILL KILL: THE GRAPHIC ART AND FORGOTTEN SPY FILMS OF COLD WAR EUROPE
10 SEPTEMBER – 16 OCTOBER 2010
Art and Design Gallery, Hatfield, U.K.
A major exhibition of spy film posters from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, the U.S.S.R, West Germany and the UK.

"From September 10 – October 16, 2010, the University of Hertfordshire Galleries (UH Galleries) and the Hertfordshire Film Consortium are delighted to present Kiss Kiss Kill Kill, an exhibition, symposium and a series of film screenings celebrating the unique graphic art and forgotten spy films of Cold War Europe.

Centred on the kitsch designs produced across Europe during the Cold War, Kiss Kiss Kill Kill is the first exhibition of a collection of newly restored posters from Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, the U.S.S.R, West Germany and the UK. The different graphic styles in the East and West provide an expansive portrait of European taste, national identity and politics of the period with the brash super kitsch of Italian cinema posters juxtaposed compellingly with the lo-tech golden age of non commercial Czech film poster design.

The posters relate to an entire legacy of films tarnished by state control in Eastern Europe and overkill of the Spy Genre in the West. The exhibition will include both leaden communist propaganda and the epically trashy fruits of European co-production."

You can read the full announcement here.

The KKKK Archive : Home of Cold War Spy Cinema

“The Kiss Kiss Kill Kill archive is dedicated to preserving spy cinema artifacts from the Cold War. This includes 16mm films, a poster and stills collection numbering some 3000 pieces and an extensive DVD and music library. There are also examples of Cold War games for children.

The website is designed to be a resource for the overlooked spy film genre offering reviews and images of little known films.”

The website is excellent, in particular the impressive gallery of film posters (which does include Modesty Blaise).

Bob Peak - MB Film Poster

2010-08-25T10:49:00.000-07:00

There is a wonderful website dedicated to Bob Peak, illustrator of many film posters including the 1966 Modesty Blaise film.
(I wish the film had lived up to the quality of the poster!)

The site is well worth a look - it includes many other film posters you'll recognize.

Modesty Blaise T-shirts

2010-07-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

A new Modesty Blaise T-shirt is available for sale on this Spanish site:

It's not clear from the description who the Modesty image is: the description mentions both Holdaway and the Joseph Losey film, but this doesn't appear to be either. If you know, please share the info!
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Modesty Blaise Comics in Tamil

2010-06-21T17:33:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning for some time to add a page to my Modesty Blaise site featuring the Tamil reprints of the comics. However, since seeing King Viswa's blog page about them, I don't think I'll even try, as I couldn't possibly do a better job than this! He details the whole history of the Tamil reprints, and includes graphics of all the covers, excerpts, and an index! Be sure to scroll all the way down - there's lots to see.

Comic World reprinted some of the strips in colour - note Willie's bright blue hair in this excerpt from The Killing Ground!

Thanks to King Viswa for such a comprehensive piece on the Modesty Blaise Tamil comics.

Al Williamson

2010-06-16T12:33:00.000-07:00

More sad news - comic illustrator Al Williamson passed away last week. Best known for his work on Flash Gordon, Secret Agent X-9 and Star Wars, Williamson also illustrated some samples pages for a Sunday strip of Modesty Blaise, as well as some Star Comics covers of Modesty Blaise.

Many Williamson fans wonder why he was never chosen as a regular Modesty Blaise illustrator; in this interview on Kent Hedlundh's site, Peter O'Donnell mentioned that he had never seen the Williamson artwork.

You can read a full biography of Al Williamson at The Comics Reporter.

Tribute to Peter O'Donnell in Crikey! Magazine

2010-05-20T23:19:00.000-07:00

Issue #15 of Crikey! magazine will feature an article that pays tribute to the late Peter O'Donnell. Thanks to everyone who contributed information and scans.

This page lists UK retailers that sell Crikey; overseas readers (or anyone without a retail outlet near them) can order single issues via the Crikey website.
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Souvenir Press Reprints

2010-05-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

Souvenir Press has confirmed that they will be reprinting the Modesty Blaise novels that are currently sold out. Those who missed them the first time round can now complete their collection with A Taste for Death, I Lucifer, The Impossible Virgin, and The Silver Mistress.

I suspect one reason that these sold out so quickly after the first reprint was the use of the original Holdaway and Boldero covers. Some were changed slightly, howeve; compare the new and older versions of the Taste for Death cover, below.

The reprints should be available in the UK in a few weeks; no word yet on when they'll be available in other countries. Keep checking back!
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Farewell Peter O'Donnell

2010-05-04T12:17:00.000-07:00

Deeply sad news: Peter O'Donnell passed away yesterday at the age of 90.

Mr. O'Donnell had been in failing health for some time, but happily, he was able to receive birthday greetings from around the world in time for his 90th birthday in April.

Peter O'Donnell began writing the Modesty Blaise comic strip in for The Evening Standard in 1963. The strip was a success, and the following year, Peter was asked to write a screenplay. The film went into production, but with many rewrites (not by Peter O'Donnell!) to the screenplay. To tie in with the release of the film, Peter was asked to write a book version of the screenplay. Thus in 1965, the first book in the Modesty Blaise series was born.

Work on the comic strip continued, and at the same time, Peter penned more books in the series. Peter O'Donnell continued to pen the book series through the 1970s and 1980s, with the last novel, Dead Man's Handle, published in 1985. There was then a rather long hiatus until Cobra Trap, a collection of Modesty Blaise short stories, was published in 1996. The comic strip continued until April 2001. To coincide with the final strip, the Evening Standard ran an article, 'Farewell My Lovely', which you can read here.

Modesty Blaise was a worldwide phenomenon; here you can see a collection of some of the countries the books and comics were published in. Modesty also inspired music, artwork, film, television, and other book authors.

What seems to have made the deepest impression on Modesty fans was not the storylines or adventures themselves, but the depth of Peter O'Donnell's characters. Not just Modesty, but Willie Garvin, Tarrant, Fraser, Steve and Dinah... to name just a few.

And writer Manjula Padmanabhan sums up perfectly the impression that Modesty made on women, as a role model:

"She was only a tiny, black-clad figure in a comic strip, but she imparted to me - and no doubt to millions of other confused youngsters like me around the world - important lessons about self-empowerment and self-reliance.

She was no steely-eyed vigilante, spy or detective. When she drew her sights upon wrong-doers it was because they had crossed paths with her and caused her to notice their moral deviance. She had strong loyalties and even stronger friendships. And though it may have been tempting to regard her as a standard-bearer for a certain kind of sixties' era feminism, in truth she was too much of an original to fit within the boundaries of any '-isms'."

Peter O'Donnell, you will be missed; but your stories, characters, and inspiration will live on.

Titan books continues to reprint the comic strips, and Souvenir Press has reprinted all of the books.

You can read a story on the origins of the character of Modesty Blaise here.

Updates to the Modesty Blaise Books site

2010-04-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

There are a couple new interviews up on the Modesty Blaise Books site: author/artist Manjula Padmanabhan and writer Anna Toss. Anyone is welcome to contribute to the 'How Modesty Influenced my Life' page - these stories are such great tributes to the work of Peter O'Donnell.

There are also some great 'How I Met Modesty' stories up on the Modesty Blaise Fan page; if you wish to add your own story, please email it to me.

Also there are some lovely Norweigan book covers recently sent in to me.

Enjoy!

Peter O'Donnell's 90th Birthday

2010-03-24T09:36:00.000-07:00

Peter O'Donnell's 90th birthday is this April.

For those who would like to send birthday greetings to him, James Doyle at Souvenir Press has kindly offered to forward on any cards or greetings. The mailing address is:
Souvenir Press
43 Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3PD
United Kingdom

Most Modesty fans already know this tale, but here again is the story of how the character of Modesty Blaise came into being: crimetime.co.uk

Thanks again to Peter for the many (continued) years of reading pleasure - Happy Birthday!

(Apparently in the Romero print above, the 'other' person - besides Modesty Willie, Tarrant and Weng - is Peter O'Donnell.)
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McGinnis Fawcett-Crest Painting

2010-03-22T14:06:00.000-07:00

I always wondered what it would cost to own a Robert McGinnis original, especially one of his Modesty Blaise pieces... apparently, a lot!

Modesty Blaise Photo Shoot for Storybook Magazine

2010-03-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

Model Anica Kovac poses as Modesty Blaise in a fashion editorial for Story Book magazine.

The Modesty-themed layout uses an interesting mix of photography and comic-styled artwork; you can see the full editorial here.

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Pieces of Modesty and Souvenir Press - more details

2010-03-14T15:01:00.000-07:00

A very helpful person from Souvenir Press has provided some more details about the new Pieces of Modesty paperback cover artwork, and about the series reprint in general.

Q: What made Souvenir Press decide to reprint the entire series as of the year 2000?

A: Souvenir Press decided to reprint the books in a uniform series after the US rights reverted (because we could then distribute them in both the UK and USA, making it economical to keep the books in print). All the Modesty Blaise books are in print, though occasionally some titles slip out of stock and we try to reprint any out of stock title as soon as possible (last month we reprinted 'Sabre Tooth', and 'Cobra Trap' the month before that).

Q: Tell us about the cover art, particularly for Pieces of Modesty.

A: Our new paperback editions of the Modesty Blaise books use the original cover art from the hardback editions. However 'Pieces of Modesty' was published in paperback by Pan without a hardback edition, so we didn't have an image to work with. We tried to keep to the style used on the original hardback covers of 'Modesty Blaise' and 'A Taste for Death', which both use illustrations of weapons on the cover rather than illustrations of Modesty (which are used on the other books).

The Pieces of Modesty cover was designed by a company called eDigital (whose designer is Jim Banting). The illustration of the moon with the lips inside it was taken from the original Modesty Blaise cover while the illustration of the bow and arrow was taken from an illustration library so there is no artist as such.

Q: Avid Modesty Blaise collectors have been trying to get their hands on the Penguin India boxed set, but it's near impossible to buy it from overseas... does Souvenir Press have any plans for a boxed set?

A: The Penguin India box sets look very good, that came about because Thomas Abrahams (who was running Penguin India at the time) had been a huge Modesty Blaise fan since his teens. I'm afraid that we don't have any plans to do such a box set though.

Thanks to Souvenir Press for the information!

'Pieces of Modesty' is currently available in the UK, and will be published in the US and Canada in the Fall. (You can use the Amazon widgets on the left to buy or pre-order.)

Pieces of Modesty - First Printing by Souvenir Press!

2010-02-06T23:31:00.000-08:00

Stop the presses!
Actually, don't stop them, because I've been waiting years for this...

Souvenir Press started reprinting the Modesty Blaise novels back in 2000 -- the first time this publisher had printed them in paperback. Souvenir Press was the 'original' publisher of the series, having printed the first U.K. hardcover editions, with one exception... Pieces of Modesty.

I still, after all these years of research, haven't been able to find out why Souvenir Press never published Pieces of Modesty. Mysterious Press published it in both hardcover and paperback in the U.S.A., and Pan printed the novel in paperback in various english-speaking countries (U.S.A., Australia, and the U.K.)

The next mystery arose when Souvenir began reprinting the series in paperback: did this mean they had bought the paperback reprint rights to Pieces of Modesty along with the reprint rights to the others? A few years ago, a placeholder appeared on Amazon U.K., but it began to seem like this must have been a mistake, as no book appeared. (The last one published by Souvenir had been Cobra Trap, in 2006).
The new paperback reprints used the cover art from the original hardcover printings. So the more exciting mystery for me, the collector of Modesty Blaise book covers, was: if Souvenir were to finally print Pieces, what would they use for the cover art? This was the only book without any 'original' cover artwork.

Well, the book has now appeared Amazon UK and Amazon Canada, with a release date March 2010, and a cover that fits well with these editions! The source of the artwork is still a mystery, however; I won't be able to find out who the artist is until I get my hands on the book. It looks very similar to the Holdaway covers for the first two books, so either this is an old Holdaway drawing, or a new one created to match his style.
UK readers, you'll be able to get it as of March 4th; I'll have to wait until March 31st. No word yet on when it will be available on Amazon USA. So whoever gets their hands on the book first... please let everyone know who the cover artist is!

You can see all the english-version Modesty covers collected here; books in other languages can be found via this page.
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John Dankworth

2010-02-06T19:32:00.000-08:00

U.K. jazz legend Sir John Dankworth, who scored the 1966 Modesty Blaise film, passed away at age 82. You can read the BBC online article and watch the news clip here.

Sir John scored over twenty films; you can read an interview with him from the Journal of British Film and Television here.

You can find a number of versions of John Dankworth's Modesty Blaise theme on YouTube, including the Jonathan and David film version, and also the great Virginia Vee rendition. On iTunes, there is a wonderful version performed by the National Youth Jazz Orchestra (I'm not sure if they're playing to an arrangement of Gorillaz's creation, or if Gorillaz sampled this arrangement and then transposed it, but the two sound remakably alike) -- if you've never heard the NYJO one, it's well worth a listen.

The film version:

and the jazz orchestra version:

A discography of John Dankworth's music can be found on Discogs.

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Gorillaz's 'Rock the House'

2010-01-18T11:32:00.000-08:00

Yet another 'how did I not know this...?'
Gorillaz's 2001 track 'Rock the House' is built around a sample from John Dankworth's 'Modesty Blaise' theme song.

You can listen to both (and see the Gorillaz video) here.

Amazing how much good music has been inspired by Modesty, but so few films...
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Virginia Vee Scopitone

2009-12-28T10:38:00.000-08:00

There is a Scopitone movie on YouTube of Virginia Vee singing the theme song to the 1966 Modesty Blaise movie.

From scopitone.com: ‘The Scopitone was a "Film Jukebox" invented in France in the early 1960's (from surplus World War II airplane parts!) and also the films (the precursors of todays music videos) which played on it.’

I’d love to find out who created and directed this Scopitone – parts of it are very 1960s, and other parts look quite modern (especially the graffiti background).

There are many more Scopitones up on YouTube if you want to check them out!
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David Salle's 'Modesty' Painting

2009-12-21T18:31:00.000-08:00

A painting by artist David Salle, 'With All Due Respect Sir, We Need Modesty Blaise', recently sold for a cool $320K. You can read about it here,

and see a close-up of the painting here.

Can't help wondering who 'sir' is... if anyone knows the background story of this painting, please do post!

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McGinnis Cover Moonlights for Henry Kane

2009-11-10T12:51:00.000-08:00

Another Modesty fan sent this in to me:
The Robert McGinnis cover of the first Fawcett-Crest 'Modesty Blaise' paperback was also used, it seems, for a foreign paperback cover of a Henry Kane novel.

The Paperback Covers of Robert McGinnis, which provides an index of all of McGinnis' covers, makes no mention of any Henry Kane novels, so the art likely commissioned for the Modesty Blaise novel and then licensed to the Finnish publisher.

This translation was published in Finland in 1966; the original Kane book is titled Peter Chambers #13: Death on the Double (thanks, Sami S!). There's some information on author Henry Kane here, for anyone interested, and a bibliography of his works on this site.

Thanks to all the Modesty fans who contributed information!

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The Ever-Changing Titan Covers

2009-10-29T16:44:00.001-07:00

I've collected together all the images I have of pre-publication versions the latest Titan covers. You can view them on my site. If you come across any more of these, please send them in.
Now, if only Titan would print all the versions, it would be a collector's dream...!

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Modesty Blaise Jewellery

2009-10-12T12:48:00.001-07:00

Mad About Jewellery offers this 'Modesty Blaise Bangle' for sale...

I'm not sure I see this running to Modesty's tastes, though... I rather see her in the Classic Bangle. Still, nice to know she continues to inspire fashion!

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Mailing List Upgrade

2009-08-21T09:32:00.000-07:00

Great news: the MB mailing list that's been around since the 1990s has been upgraded to new software. Anyone on the old list will be automatically added to the new one; if you're not a member and would like to join, you can do so at this page. Thanks to Thomas for the smooth change-over.

You can also add yourself to this map, and see where other Modesty fans are located.

In addition, you can read stories from Modesty fans about how they first encountered Modesty, on my website. Please feel free to contribute!

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Searching for Original Holdaway Artwork

2009-07-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

There's an annoucement on Sekvenskonst's blog that the editor of the Swedish Agent X9 comic is looking for original Holdaway strips for a new reprinting of the entire Modesty Blaise series. Please check out the blog posting if you have any: the purpose is to create the highest quality reproductions possible.

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Modesty Blaise Fashion

2009-07-27T15:36:00.000-07:00

A Modesty fan pointed out this fashion collection from another Modesty Blaise... in fact, all the collections on this page are gorgeous; I think Ms Blaise would approve!
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Modesty Blaise Film at BFI Southbank

2009-07-02T19:24:00.000-07:00

And we thought it wouldn't be in cinemas again.... the 1966 Modesty Blaise film will be running July 4th and 9th at the BFI Southbank as part of a Joseph Losey series that runs until the end of July. The tribute includes The Assassination of Trotsky, A Doll`s House, Galileo, The Go-Between, King and Country, and The Servant.

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Modesty Blaise Compilation CD

2009-06-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I happened to stumble across this... a compilation CD, to be released this July, entitled 'Modesty Blaise vol. 1: Cheesy Pop for the Connoisseur'

No indication of how it relates to Modesty Blaise -- possibly just that the music is from that era, and/or that the 'cheesy' refers to the 1966 movie! Too bad the graphic isn't of Modesty (is that Twiggy?)

From the CD information:
Killer Mod/freak beat pounding compilation with 14 dance floor tracks from the ’60s. Includes Chris Farlowe's Air Travel, VIPs Straight Down To The Bottom, Eyes of Blue's Don't ask me to Mend Your Broken Heart, Plastic Penny's Your Way To Feel Me Go and many more hundred dollar tracks...

The first seven tracks of this super ‘60s comp are Mod and R&B movers and the remaining seven are out and out freak beat pounders.

1. Erma Franklin - I Don’t Want No Mamas Boy
2. Dusty Wilson - Can’t Do Without You
3. Varetta Dillard - That’s Why I Cry
4. Larry Trider - Carbon Copy
5. Malcolm Hayes - Searchin’ For My Baby
6. Esnew Reader - Undivided Love
7. Azie Mortimer - Put Yourself In My Place
8. Chris Farlowe - Air Travel (Special Version)
9. Eyes Of Blue - Don’t Ask Me to Mend Your Broken Heart
10. VIP’s - Straight Down To The Bottom
11. Howard Carpendale - Du Hast Mich
12. Trubadurzy - Osiewcsyna I Pejsas
13. Snappers – Upside Down Inside Out
14. Plastic Penny – Your Way To Tell me go

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'Ladykillers' Titan Reprint

2009-05-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

There's a nice review of the latest Titan reprint, The Ladykillers, at blogcritics.org. And hopefully more to follow, as it hits the bookstore shelves...
Still no word on what the 'extra' material is, so if you've got a copy, please let me know!

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Modesty Blaise Spa

2009-04-27T13:15:00.001-07:00

You've read the books, the comics, watched the films, listened to the music... now you can spend a day being rejuvenated at the Modesty Blaise spa. (If you're in Perth, Australia, that is.) Modesty Blaise Face and Body seems like an appropriate name for a place offering beauty treatments, given that in the first novel, one of Tarrant's impressions of Modesty was that "her skin held a soft, matt tan that would have made a fortune for any man who could get it into a bottle."

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Spy Music Collection

2009-04-23T11:08:00.001-07:00

Synchronicity is a strange thing...
the day after I posted the piece Dalida's 'Modesty Blaise' song, The Purple Zombie DJ posted a downloadable CD of spy-themed music... which includes the Dalida track!
You can download the whole CD from his blog (it's zipped as a .rar file; if you need a rar extractor, a good free one is 7zip.)
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Titan Reprints: Death in Slow Motion

2009-04-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

Titan's next reprint, Death in Slow Motion, is now listed and can be pre-ordered. Continuing with the Neville Colvin illustrated strips, it is scheduled for October 2009 release. Below is the cover graphic:
Details can be found at Amazon and other booksellers.
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Norwegian Rock Group 'Modesty Blaise'

2009-04-14T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yet more Modesty Blaise music...

Most MB fans have heard of the British pop group Modesty Blaise... however, I didn't realize there was a Norwegian rock group by the same name. I haven't been able to find any information on them apart from this brief mention on YouTube:

"MODESTY BLAISE were one of the most successful rock bands of Norway. Take some parts of U2, Roxy Music and Curved Air and mix them with a big part of originality - ready is MODESTY BLAISE. They were very popular in their homeland (TV shows, extensive tours etc.). Their album 'Face Of The Sun' is available on CD (contains two extra tracks), vinyl and cassette."

Given the reference to cassettes, the album must be quite old. If any Norwegian readers out there know more, please let me know!
You can listen to them on YouTube (and I agree, they do sound rather like U2).

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Interview with John Dankworth in The Jazz Baroness

2009-04-14T11:14:00.000-07:00

The BBC is making a documentary film about jazz legend Nica de Koenigswarter, entitled "The Jazz Baroness", which is scheduled for release sometime in 2009. The film features interviews with jazz musicians, artists, music critics, and others. Among the interviewees is John Dankworth, who scored the 1966 Modesty Blaise film.
You can view a clip of the interview at the Jazz Baroness site.

There is also an in-depth interview (2006) with John Dankworth on the subject of his film scores, from the Journal of British Cinema and Television, at Britmovie.co.uk. It is an interesting piece -- previous to Modesty Blaise, Dankworth had worked with Joseph Losey on The Criminal, and his list of film and TV score credits is extensive.

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Dalida - Modesty Blaise song

2009-04-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

Modesty Blaise Music seems to be the theme of this year! I came across another Modesty Blaise song, this one even older than the others. Egyptian/French singer Dalida (1933-1987) released a Modesty Blaise song in 1964 -- quite amazing considering the character only came into being in 1963! There is a good, concise biography of Dalida at RFI Music, and there is also a website dedicated to her (with a fan group reunion this May!). Below are the lyrics to the song; and you can listen to it here.

Dalida - Modesty Blaise lyrics
Album: La Danse De Zorba
Year: 1964

Elle fait du judo et du karaté
Et court sa vie avec passion
C'est dans le genre de la féminité de la dynamite en jupon
Modesty, Modesty

C'est la beauté mêlée à l'aventure
Que tous les hommes rêves d'aimer
Et c'est une ombre qui passe les murs
Et que l'on ne peut attraper
Modesty, Modesty

C'est une femme qui aime couramment le danger
C'est une femme qui sait pourtant se faire aimer
Elle est sincère quand elle est amoureuse
Et donne tout sans discuter

Mais attention elle est très dangereuse
Avec tous ceux qui veulent tricher
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty

C'est une femme aussi belle que la fleur du jour
C'est une femme qui ne peut vivre sans amour
Tous ceux qui l'ont approchée vous diront
Cet ange cache le démon
Mais tous ceux qui l'ont aimée avoueront
Ne jamais oublier ce nom
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty
Modesty, Modesty
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Closterkeller - Modesty Blaise song

2009-03-27T13:43:00.000-07:00

Another Modesty Blaise song came across my radar this week, although it's from the early 90s. Polish goth/rock group Closterkeller have a track on their 1992 album, Blue, called Modesty Blaise. Most of their songs are in Polish, but there are also many in English, including this one. I haven't been able to listen to the track yet; there are many sites offering it for download, but I've yet to find one that works successfully. The blog I stumbled across it on is here -- perhaps one of you can get the track to download successfully?
Anyway, here are the lyrics, quite good I thought:

The secret service man
Is on the phone again
Somebody disappeared
I go where madmen dare
Another foreign affair
Adventures waiting for me

I am the lady
You can rely on
I fight the villains
I am revenge
I'm always ready
Remember my name
I am the Princess
Modesty Blaise

Once there was a time
I was the mistress of crime
The menace number one
And then I changed my ways
Though going straight these days
I didn't lay down my gun

Modesty Blaise

My phone is ringing again
A warning from my friend
I know assassins are near
It's my idea of fun
I never miss with my gun
Destroying danger and fear

I am the lady
You can rely on
I am the Princess
Modesty Blaise
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Modesty Blaise 1982 TV Pilot - Available for Download

2009-03-23T08:48:00.000-07:00

The 1982 TV pilot is now available for download. You can Google 'Modesty Blaise Pilot 1982 torrent' to find the torrent file, and download from there (and if you don't already have a BitTorrent client, a good, simple one is uTorrent).

Just don't expect anything true to the original... as I mentioned before, I think it's Remington Steele with different character names. But I'd love to hear what you think, if you do watch it!

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Premio Dardos Award

2009-03-18T13:16:00.000-07:00

This blog has received a Premio Dardos award!

The Hammer House of Horror Blog bestowed the award (thank you, Holger!), which is given out by bloggers to blogs. You can read more about the awards in Holger's blog piece; he did the research on what they are and how they work.

It's nice to have some recognition. Although this blog is only a couple of months old, it is an extension of my website, which has been going for about six years now. A lot of work went into that, with contributions from many people, some of whom still pass along any Modesty snippets they find, and many of those end up in this blog, so... it's a group effort. Thanks to all the contributors!

Now I am starting to sound like a rambling Oscar award winner, so before I start thanking my parents and everyone I ever met...

Premio Dardos award recipients can then give the award to another blog (or blogs; some 'rules' say up to 5, some say up to 15.) I think 15 starts would start turning the award into a chain letter, so here are four that I think truly deserve this award:

Bear Alley Blog - dedicated to comics and comic art
Spy Vibe - what is says. Plus, it's a visual treat.
The Drowning Machine - book reviews and interviews
The Bookshelf Muse - a user's guide for writing fiction

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Penguin India 'Garth' Reprints Delayed

2009-03-18T08:43:00.001-07:00

It looks like the Penguin India reprinting of the entire 'Garth' series (for which Peter O'Donnell wrote from 1953-1966) is being delayed. The original news release on the Penguin India site, in 2008, said:

"The third major reissue in our retro revival series will be the Complete Garth in a collectible 5-volume hardback graphic novel box set. Garth is a character well known to most Indians through newspaper strips and a brief run as comic books from Indrajal comics. Though there have been a couple of annuals and two dedicated volumes, never before has Garth ever been collected. So for the first time ever fans can get all 16,000 strips covering 165 stories in 3,000-plus pages."

However, the micro-website for the Retro Revival series (which recently reprinted the entire Modesty Blaise series, as well as all the Madeleine Brent novels) seems to be down right now, so looks like we have to wait for more news...

You can view a Garth strip here.

So far the artwork for the Retro Revival series has been stunning, so hopefully we can expect the Garth reprints to be just as good!

Robert McGinnis on YouTube

2009-03-17T15:35:00.000-07:00

I came across some video montages of Robert McGinnis' book cover art on YouTube. There's a promo for a McGinnis documentary DVD, which I never knew about and must try to find:

And this montage, Girls, Guns, and Death, includes McGinnis' cover of I, Lucifer.

McGinnis is also featured in this CBS Sunday morning clip, which discusses Stephen King's first 'pulp fiction' novel 'The Colorado Kid' (2005). It is published by Hard Case Crime, a publishing house that aims to bringing back the pulp noir paperback. McGinnis was commissioned to do a number of covers for them, his first book cover work in some years. You can view all the covers on the Hard Case Crime website.

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Marek Losey Film - The Hide

2009-03-13T10:18:00.000-07:00

This is a few degrees of separation from Modesty Blaise, but I thought I'd mention it anyway: Marek Losey, grandson of Joseph Losey (director of the 1966 Modesty Blaise film), has a debut film called The Hide. The films, starring Phil Campbell and Alex MacQueen, is adapted from a stage play.

Reviews so far are favourable: you can read the Channel 4 one here.
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Direct Hits - Modesty Blaise song

2009-03-12T10:22:00.001-07:00

Only a few weeks after stumbling across the Montt Mardie song 'Modesty Blaise', I came across another track I'd never heard of, yet is decades old!

This snippet on The Word Magazine directed me to Modesty Blaise by The Direct Hits. I don't know how I missed this band in their time, given how much I loved mod bands! - but the song is absolutely great. You can read more about the band here, and can also download the track.

From 'The Songs That People Sing' blog:
"Blow Up came out in 1984. It is, like a lot of their material, very 1966 influenced. Groovy pop that leans into the psychedelic. Touchstones would be The Beatles Rubber Soul, The Who A Quick One and The Jam All Mod Cons."

If you give it a listen, I'd love to hear what you think...

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'Lady Killers' Titan Reprint

2009-03-10T08:38:00.001-07:00

A small mystery surrounding the next Titan reprint to be released: it seems there are two different covers out there. Comixology shows an orange cover; Amazon shows a pink one (with a different drawing). Both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk show the pink one, so it's not a different-sides-of-the-pond thing. Perhaps there was an earlier version of the cover that was changed before production? Strangely, the Titan website doesn't show the cover at all.

And are the drawings by different artists, or am I mistaken? Could be a clue in there... The Lady Killers is the first Titan reprint to cover the Neville Colvin era. I'm not familiar enough with the strip artists to identify the images below... can anyone else? (There's a great summary up on Wikipedia of strips, dates, and artists.)

Either way, Comixology has one of the best, succint summaries of Modesty I've ever come across:
'The dark underworld of espionage and crime is lit up by the fatal charms of the gorgeous Modesty Blaise, high priestess of crime and goddess of cult thrillers! Adventurer, spy, smuggler, racketeer, and all-around bad girl, Modesty is as stylish as she is smart, as lethal and as beautiful as a Japanese fighting sword!
This latest volume features three classic stories - 'Dossier on Pluto,' 'The Lady Killers,' and 'Garvin's Travels.' Featuring new story introductions by creator Peter O'Donnell, plus a host of special features and behind-the-scenes material, this latest addition to the Modesty Blaise library is not to be missed!'

This has me itching to get my hands on the new edition! I'd love to hear some more description of what the special features are...

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Modesty Blaise Merchandise Finds

2009-03-09T12:45:00.000-07:00

Surfing around, I came across quite a few MB finds on Ebay and iOffer this week...

The Modesty Blaise resin model kit from Japan (sculpted by Joe Simon) has turned up again. I also found this wonderful pillbox from suchcoolstuff.com, with the artwork from the Clyde Allison 'Agent 0008 Meets Modesta Blaze' novel. There was also a lovely painting* by artist Todd Maell.

*image posted with permission of the seller

New Wonder Woman Film: MB similarities

2009-03-09T11:44:00.000-07:00

One of the MB list members had this great piece of info to share about the new animated Wonder Woman film:

A couple of days ago Warner Bros. released the first full-length animated Wonder Woman movie to DVD (they decided not to wait for the likely-never-to-see-the-light-of-day live-action film).

I highly recommend it because it's made by Bruce Timm, who made the acclaimed Batman Adventures series, the Superman series, and the Justice League series. These aren't kid's cartoons, but are rather mature fare, more aimed at teens and older audiences. Wonder Woman in fact was originally rated R (!!!) but was edited to a PG-13. This ain't your dad's Filmation-era cheapies!

The reason why I mention the film is that the art department were clearly influenced by Modesty Blaise. Not so much with WW herself, but with her right-hand man, Steve Trevor. In this reimagining he's a US pilot who finds himself working with Diana to save the world. Visually, he very closely resembles Willie, as drawn by Holdaway. And at one point he even throws a knife to take out a bad guy exactly like Willie. Willie and Wonder Woman also share a few MB-Willie-like moments in the battlefield, although, to use POD's vernacular, they play for keeps, not sleeps (another sign this Wonder Woman is far distanced from Lynda Carter).

Nathan Fillion of Firefly does the voice.

I dug up a couple web pages with images. However, since these are screen captures it's not necessarily evident immediately the similarity in appearance. (Steve's personality on the other hand is completely different from that of Willie's - after all this is Nathan Fillion we're talking about. Everything comes back to Captain Mal eventually).

Splashpage on MTV.com

Review on Underwire

I had to see the film to check this out, so I watched it at the weekend. Here are the similarities and differences I noted between the Modesty/Willie relationship, and Steve/Diana:

Similarities
Both Modesty and Willie, and Diana and Steve, skilled in hand-to-hand combat, and fight well as a team
Willie and Steve both use throwing knives
Modesty and Diana can take down someone twice their body mass
Modesty and Diana both fly planes
All are good at taking out guards quietly and effectively
Willie calls Modesty ‘Princess’; Steve calls Diana ‘Angel’. (ironically, Diana is a princess)

Differences
Willie and Modesty don’t bicker; Steve and Diana do
The romance between Steve and Diana

...If you see the film, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this!

Thanks to Alex F-H for the info.

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Modesty Blaise 1982 TV Pilot

2009-03-05T08:35:00.000-08:00

I was surfing around for Modesty-related items and came across this: the only offer I've ever seen for a DVD of the 1982 Modesty Blaise TV Pilot. I don't believe a DVD of it was ever commercially produced (the ad for this came and went on iOffer very quickly) so I'm not sure if it's home burned - likely it is - no company name on the cover.

For those who have never seen the pilot, think Remington Steele (except no Brit characters at all, not even Tarrant!)

There's an overview of all Modesty film and TV productions to date on my website
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Romero comment on Crikey! Interview

2009-03-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

The March 2009 issue of Crikey! magazine, which features a brand new interview with Modesty Blaise artist Enrique Badia Romero, is now available. Romero had this to say to the editor, about the interview:

"I have just received the copy of CRIKEY, in which you have published my interview. I should congratulate you because the edition is frankly perfect. The quality of these publications, they don't accustom to be at the level of yours. The total content of the same one, will wake up the interest of its followers.

I feel very pleased before the result of the pages that you have been devoted. I celebrate to have collaborated with you, and I wish you a happy future in your future works."

High praise indeed! Details on how to buy Crikey! can be found at the magazine's website.

More Finnish Book Covers

2009-02-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

Some more Finnish Modesty Blaise covers added to the site...

Modesty Blaise Photo Shoot

2009-02-10T11:32:00.000-08:00

These gorgeous Modesty Blaise-inspired photos are part of a spread for online magazine UCE. The make-up artist, Maria Oldenstedt, has this to share about it in her blog:

"This is the latest photo shoot we did for the online mag UCE Magazine. The theme was 'Criminal intent' and we chose to be inspired by the style icon and cult figure Modesty Blaise, and built up a little story
around her. Go to Spectacular Studios and check out the photos in larger versions."

(or you can jump to them here: http://trashbin.bicho.se/uce)

Photographer: David Bicho
Creative Director: Eric North-Blyth
Hair/Makeup: Maria Oldenstedt
Stylist: Catta Molin
Model: Ida S + sweet little Alex

You can see the whole Criminal Intent issue at UCEmag.com. (Go to the 'Contents' link at the top, then 'Dawn: Modesty Blaise')

Review of Modesty Blaise and Sabre-Tooth

2009-02-07T09:00:00.000-08:00

A nice newcomer-review of the first two Modesty Blaise novels at The Groovy Age of Horror blog:

Good to see that Modesty continues to draw in new fans!
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John Burns Interview

2009-02-04T11:29:00.000-08:00

The latest issue of Dangerous Ink magazine has an interview with John Burns, who illustrated the Modesty Blaise strip from 1978 to 1979. You can read a preview of the article on Dangerous Ink's website.

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Modesty Blaise Music

2009-02-01T11:16:00.000-08:00

Swedish musician Montt Mardié's latest album, Introducing... the Best Of, has a track named 'Modesty Blaise.' You can read a review of the album here, and you can listen to the Modesty Blaise track at Montt Mardié's MySpace page.

Can Lebedev Rescue the Standard?

2009-01-30T11:16:00.000-08:00

I know, more of the same... but I really can't get enough of this story! Rather than continuing to post every few days, here are the main articles so far:

BBC News	Ex-KGB spy in bid to buy UK paper	15 January 2009
BBC News	Ex-KGB spy buys UK paper for £1	21 January 2009
BBC News	Profile: Alexander Lebedev	21 January 2009
New York Times	To Fleet Street by Way of the K.G.B.	24 January 2009
The Telegraph	Alexander Lebedev sets himself three years to raise Evening Standard	25 January 2009
The Times	Evening Standard ‘has three years to survive’	26 January 2009
The Guardian	Evgeny Lebedev reveals plans for London Evening Standard	27 January 2009
Asia Times Online	Oligarchs turn to (almost) free press	30 January 2009

Online Modesty Store

2009-01-25T11:09:00.000-08:00

Travel Modesty-style! A Swedish online Modesty store has just opened - there are Modesty chairs, trays, and this styling travel case:

Swedish 'Agent X9' Comic to Publish Previously Unreleased Material

2009-01-24T11:08:00.000-08:00

The Swedish magazine Agent X9 has now finished the complete publishing of Modesty in chronological order with the special episode "The dark angels" in no 2-2009. They will start all over again this summer but first there will be four issues with a lot of never before published drawings of Modesty and with different persons telling their story about Modesty. First out is Romero with the story "My life with Modesty".
Thanks to Mats Jönsson for the update.

More on Mr. Lebedev and the Evening Standard

2009-01-22T11:05:00.000-08:00

Two more articles, from the Times and the BBC (the latter with a video clip).

Ex-KGB to buy The Evening Standard

2009-01-21T10:54:00.000-08:00

This just in from BBC news: Russian billionaire and ex-KGB agent Alexander Lebedev is buying the Evening Standard, the current home of the Modesty Blaise strip. Reportedly, the Standard was one of the newspapers Mr. Lebedev used for information when he was a young spy based in London.

You can read the news story here, and the profile of Mr. Lebedev here. (And the video clips are worth watching). No reports yet on whether Mr. Lebedev is a Modesty Blaise fan...

Vicki Delany on Modesty Blaise

2009-01-15T09:47:00.000-08:00

In this wonderful blog piece on "forgotten books," Canadian author Vicki Delany has this to say about Modesty Blaise:

"My forgotten book, isn’t a single book, but a series, a character really: Modesty Blaise, star of the books by Peter O’Donnell, written roughly in the late 1960s and 70s. Like many women who were once girls, I particularly remember being introduced to Nancy Drew, ‘girl detective’. Nancy was a girl just like us. Well, just like us, except that she was wealthy, beautiful, popular, and adventurous. But we all knew that eventually Nancy would grow up, leave school, marry Ned (or some equally suitable boy from her social set), have 2.5 children, and a Golden Retriever, and start popping Valium. But Modesty was nothing at all like us. She was exotic, mysterious, and had a shady criminal past. She was grown up and she STILL had an exciting life. Modesty had once been the leader of a notorious criminal gang called 'The Network', and now, having given up her life of crime, she and her side-kick Willie travelled the world fighting crime. Even when Modesty was a criminal, she was a ‘good’ crook.

I read the Modesty Blaise books when I was in my late twenties, settled down with house and children and dog. I think those books were my first realization that adult women could still be strong and fearless and independent. I was living in South Africa at the time: I don’t think the books got much attention in North America. In the crime-writing world today there are plenty of strong women, but Modesty blazed the trail. If there is an earlier adult adventure/crime book in which the female is the main character, and the male the side-kick, I don’t know it. It’s interesting that the books were written by a man. As a crime-writer, and as an independent woman, I owe a lot to Modesty Blaise."

You can read more about how Modesty influenced Vicki's writing in this exclusive interview piece.

Modesty Blaise, Everywhere

2009-01-14T09:45:00.000-08:00

I'm coming across a surprisingly high volume of references to Modesty Blaise these days from all around the world. Modesty seems to have made it into the lingua franca of many countries and cultures. Here's just a sampling, to show the variety of references that are popping up:

The above is from a fashion blog, although there's no reference to how these creations actually relate to Modesty Blaise!

Book Review Blogs

In Chelsea magazine/blog has a piece on British heroes. Interesting that they forgot the character of Modesty Blaise is not British, although her creator is!

And this reference is brief, but hilarious: a Telegraph book review describes one character as "the unlikely literary love child of Father Brown and Modesty Blaise."

Another mention is in this book review blog, The Drowning Machine, where the author has chosen A Taste for Death as 'the book you most want to read again for the first time'. I love the concept of the book questionnaire - it takes some pondering!

Romero Interview in Crikey!

2009-01-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

The March 2009 issue of Crikey! magazine will feature a new inverview with Romero on his work on the Modesty Blaise strip. This will be the ninth issue of Crikey! To date there have been eight issues and one companion magazine (Super Spies and Secret Agents). The editor of the magazine has been kind enough to share with us a sneak preview of the cover:

For those of you wishing to pre-order, you can do so by going to the Crikey! website and pay via PayPal on the subscription page, or, send a cheque (pounds sterling) payable to Sequential Media to: 13 Rosethorns Close Gladewood Middleton Manchester M24 6TP stating issue 9 (so that you're not sent the current issue). Postage free within the UK; international buyers should follow the pricing guide on the website. Back issues are also available -- and Issue 5 has a piece on Frank Hampson.

Thanks to the editor of Crikey! for the preview.
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Finnish Modesty Covers

2009-01-08T13:31:00.000-08:00

Some Finnish covers of the novels are now up. I was excited to see what looks like a McGinnis (possibly two? - the one on the left looks like a McGinnis; the other, I'm not so sure). Also, in keeping with the Kim Basinger and Demi Moore covers of the Madeleine Brent books (below), it looks like Angelina Jolie on the cover of this Modesty Blaise novel. Interesting, as the last time the MB group had a discussion about 'who should play Modesty if the film were remade?', Ms. Jolie was one of the favourites...

Mike Codd Artwork/Bear Alley Blog

2009-01-06T13:24:00.000-08:00

I'm constantly searching for more information on the Modesty Blaise cover artists. There's plenty of information about the comic strip artists, but little to be found on the artists of the novel covers and many of the international strip collections. One of my favourite artists is Mike Codd, who illustrated many of the Souvenir Press editions. I found some more of his cover art on Steve Holland's Bear Alley blog.

The entire blog is a joy for book and comic collectors alike - I highly recommend giving it a read.

Madeleine Brent Site

2009-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Imagine my surprise when I stumbled across a Madeleine Brent site with the exact same purpose as this site - collecting all the various book covers! My Little Book Garden has covers of all the Madeleine Brent novels, from different countries.

(And is that Kim Basinger and Demi Moore on the two last covers? It would seem the Madeleine Brent covers have even more stylistic variation than those of Modesty Blaise...)

New Modesty Blaise Blog

2009-01-01T11:20:00.000-08:00

Hi there everyone

I've created this Modesty Blaise blog as my main Modesy Blaise site (www.modestyblaisebooks.com) had slipped down the search engine rankings - in fact, I think it had fallen off entirely! After playing around with Search Engine Optimization voodoo for a while, it seemed the fastest way to show up on the radar was to enter the blogosphere. This blog will contain all the same info that's on my News page; for those who haven't been to the website yet, there's much more there - hundreds of images of the Modesty Blaise book and comic covers; artwork; other media (including magazines, radio plays, merchandise, music); interviews; info on the MB fan group (and information on how to join is on the links page); etc. You can view the full sitemap here.

I'll be posting all the previous 2009 news to this blog, and from that point forward, both this blog and the News page on the site will be kept equally current.

Feel free to leave comments - hope you enjoy the blog!