Happy 50th birthday Modesty!

Today is the 50th anniversary of the birth of Modesty Blaise.

The first strip made its appearance in the Evening Standard on May 13, 1963. Below are two sets of strips from the first story, "La Machine" (click them to enlarge).

It's too bad Peter O'Donnell isn't around to celebrate this day... although it's good to know that his creation still lives on.

You can read more about Modesty Blaise on Wikipedia or The Modesty Blaise Book Covers.
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Can Lebedev Rescue the Standard?

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

More on Mr. Lebedev and the Evening Standard

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

Ex-KGB to buy The Evening Standard

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...