The Daily Express was where the first James Bond comic strips appeared. Debuting on July 7th 1958, the Express faithfully serialized Fleming's work in novel order. Towards the end of the Fleming adaptations, with the few short stories left and also 'The Spy Who Loved Me', original material was introduced to extend them to 'novel' length.
'Thunderball' ran from December 1961 through to February 1962 before it was abruptly curtailed half way through because of a dispute between Fleming and Max Aitken (the paper's owner at the time). It centered around an article entitled 'The Guns of James Bond', which Fleming had sold to the Sunday Times. Aitken thought this disloyal as the Express was also serializing the novels.
After 10 weeks, 'Thunderball' was dropped (the title was finished though and syndicated outside the UK) and the strip did not appear again in the Express until June 1964 with 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service'.
The strip was adapted from the novel by Henry Gammidge and drawn by John McLusky.
After the Fleming material had run out, his estate gave Lawrence permission to pen brand new adventures. 33 storylines were created in total (plus Kingsley Amis's 'Colonel Sun').
The first 21 (including 'Colonel Sun') appeared in the Express, then 1 in the Sunday Express, 7 were syndicated outside the UK - these 29 were drawn again by Yaroslav Horak.
The other 5 strips appeared in the Daily Star (February 1981 - July 1983) - the first drawn by Harry North and then John McLusky returned to draw the last 4 (ending with 'Polestar'). A checklist of where the different series were printed follows:
Daily Express
· Casino Royale (Jul 58-Dec 58)
· Live and Let Die (Dec 58-Mar 59)
· Moonraker (Mar 59-Aug 59)
· Diamonds Are Forever (Aug 59-Jan 60)
· From Russia With Love (Jan 60-May 60)
· Doctor No (May 60-Oct 60)
· Goldfinger (Oct 60-Apr 61)
· Risico (Apr 61-Jun 61)
· From A View To A Kill (Jun 61-Sep 61)
· For Your Eyes Only (Sep 61-Dec 61)
· Thunderball (Dec 61-Feb 62)
· On Her Majesty's Secret Service (Jun 64-May 65)
· You Only Live Twice (May 65-Jan 66)
· The Man With The Golden Gun (Jan 66-Sep 66)
· The Living Daylights (Sep 66-Nov 66)
· Octopussy (Nov 66-May 67)
· The Hildebrand Rarity (May 67-Dec 67)
· The Spy Who Loved Me (Dec 67-Oct 68)
· The Harpies (Oct 68-Jun 69)
· River of Death (Jun 69-Nov 69)
· Colonel Sun (Dec 69-Aug 70)
· The Golden Ghost (Aug 70-Jan 71)
· Fear Face (Jan 71-Apr 71)
· Double Jeopardy (Apr 71-Aug 71)
· Star Fire (Aug 71-Dec 71)
· Trouble Spot (Dec 71-Jun 72)
· Isle of Condors (Jun 72-Oct 72)
· The League of Vampires (Oct 72-Feb 73)
· Die With My Boots On (Mar 73-Jun 73)
· The Girl Machine (Jun 73-Dec 73)
· Beware of Butterflies (Dec 73-May 74)
· The Nevsky Nude (May 74-Sep 74)
· The Phoenix Project (Sep 74-Feb 75)
· The Black Ruby Caper (Feb 75-Jul 75)
· Till Death Do Us Part (Jul 75-Oct 75)
· The Torch-Time Affair (Oct 75-Jan 76)
· Hot-Shot (Jan 76-Jun 76)
· Nightbird (Jun 76-Nov 76)
· Ape of Diamonds (Nov 76-Jan 77)
Sunday Express
· When the Wizard Awakes (Jan 77-May 77)
Daily Star
· Doomcrack (Feb 81-Aug 81)
· The Paradise Plot (Aug 81-Jun 82)
· Deathmask (Jun 82-Feb 83)
· Flittermouse (Feb 83-May 83)
· Polestar (May 83-Jul 83 - The series was cancelled half way through this story)
The text material at the top of this page, as well as a few of the pictures were provided by the THUNDERBALL: OBSESSIONAL website. To go to this excellent site, type "www.obsessional.co.uk".
