Sunday, January 03, 2010

James Bond, OT


I was at Taipei 101 recently. Went there to Page One, my favourite book store, next to Eslite. Well I found this book when I was there. Had to get it. The book? The James Bond Omnibus. No it is not the books written by Ian Fleming collected into an omnibus, but an omnibus of James Bond comic strips.


These comic strips were originally serialised by the Daily Express newspaper between 1958 to 1962. I have read some of them but not all. This omnibus is Volume 1 of a two volume omnibus. The stories in this omnibus includes;

Casino Royale
Live and Let Die
Moonraker
Diamonds are Forever
From Russia With Love
Dr. No
Goldfinger
Risico
From A View To a Kill
For Your Eyes Only
Thunderball

Volume 2 will include the following

The Man With The Golden Gun
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
You Only Live Twice
The Living Daylights
Octopussy
The Spy Who Loved Me

and many more. Volume 2 should be out this year. I can't wait for it.


For those who are interested, the ISBN: 9781848563643, publisher: Titan Books.


So why write about this book? Well, it is these comic strips that we see the Rolex being mentioned and also the Rolex Explorer referenced. The watch appeared in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' installment 144 (from 1964). The watch drawn by John McLusky had the hour index 6,9 and 12. It also had the now familiar date magnifier.

In the next strip, Bond uses the watch as a knuckle buster to dispatch one of Blofeld henchmen. The actual mention of Rolex appears in strip 169. Here it was referenced as 'the shattered Rolex'. I will post pictures of the relevant strips when I get my Volume 2 of the omnibus.

There are however no mention of the Rolex in Volume 1, thus far. I am on Moonraker at the moment. There are some pictures of watches but I don't think they refer to any watch brands.



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