After all the covid-related postponements, it appears we finally have a date for the latest James Bond picture, (now tastelessly) titled No Time to Die. Honestly, I’m in no hurry to see it, since the last couple of movies didn’t really do it for me (despite Spectre’s awesome pre-credits sequence). Still, I admit I have a – not at all uncommon – fascination with this weird franchise, which has gone in almost as many wildly different tonal directions as Batman comics. It certainly has come a long way since Ian Fleming’s original novels and the relatively restrained first film adaptation, 1962’s Dr. No (which was fine, but it wasn’t even the most fun adventure movie to come out that year… that would be either Kazuo Mori’s The Tale of Zatoichi Continues (whose blind masseur/gambler/swordsman starred in even more films than Bond!) or, even better, Akira Kurosawa’s Sanjuro). 007 has also found its home in comics, which have managed to blow up his cartoon world even further (though not always with the most agreeable results).
In any case, every chance is worth it to spotlight a dozen stylish comic book covers starring James Bond. Since the character has gone through so many iterations, it’s always neat to see each artist’s take on the material, with some privileging pulpy action and others capturing the sense of sexy suaveness that is also a big part of the series… That said, I especially like the ones who play with the iconic status of Bond’s familiar poses and motifs – not to mention the fact that he has become a symbol for British might – by reducing them to an almost minimalistic abstraction.
