27 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Now on the CBn main page...

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Next From Titan

Planned for a January 2008 release

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Available To Pre-order In US

Titan's newest collection due for release on 12 February 2008

-----UPDATE-----

Stories Confirmed For 'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection

Will also include 'Doomcrack' and 'The Xanadu Connection'

-----UPDATE-----

Cover Art For Titan's 'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Online

Newest collection due on 12 February 2008

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Now Available In UK

Titan's newest 007 collection

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Released In US

Titan's newest collection available to order online at amazon

[zencat]

You nailed it Qwerty. I got an email this morning from Titan confirming the other stories as Doomcrack and The Xanadu Connection. Nice work. STORY

[Qwerty]

Ah, cool. Looking forward to it.

I wonder if the next collection will have some of the stories that have been skipped so far.

[Qwerty]

-----UPDATE-----

Stories Confirmed For 'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection

Will also include 'Doomcrack' and 'The Xanadu Connection'

[Qwerty]

-----UPDATE-----

Cover Art For Titan's 'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Online

Newest collection due on 12 February 2008

[pgram]

As I said in a previous post, I got it on Saturday. Check it out in your local comic store, it' s out.

The forward is by Caroline Bliss. The article at the beginning is about the US comics appearances of Bond. Reasonably informative, if you 're interested in the topic.

Minor spoilers in the reviews below.

First story, Xanadu Connection. Bond has to go to Turkestan (supposedly Asian country, with a border to USSR) to help an archaeologist (and British agent) to return to England. Against him is Khubla Khan, a folk dancer and hero, who wants the area to be independent under his rule. Bond takes the archaeologist's wife with him to help him in his mission, and uses a vehicle called Super Sapper, that can go below ground, using laser technology.
Not a great story. Horak is good as always, but the plot is nothing special, the action is nothing we haven't seen before, the text is not interesting and the villain is too picturesque. The setting reminds me of a Modesty Blaise strip, when Modesty went to resque a scientist friend of hers in Lapland. The villain's plan can also be found in Corto Maltese (of course the Maltese book being significantly better from all points of view...)

Second story, Shark Bait. Story in three acts. First, an exciting scuba action scene. Well drawn, well directed. Really suspenceful. Second act, screwball romance. Bond tries to make the beautiful Russian agent he has captured to go on his side (guess if he succeeds...). Third act, another sea action scene. Hardly as exciting as the first one, but reasonably good. Bond has to retreat a supercomputer from the tummy of a great white shark before the Soviets do. Or maybe after them...
Good story, long enough (which is always a problem), reasonably interesting characterisation. Still, there are a few things that happen way too easily, like the turning of the Soviet agent, or the eagerness of the Soviets to fall in all the traps Bond sets for them. Still, a lot better than average.

Third story, Doomcrack. The main reason to buy the volume, especially if you 're getting bored of repetition. What makes Doomcrack different is the artist, Harry North, of MAD fame. His style is different to Horak, and, even though i wouldn't say he 's better, it's always nice to have variety. He uses his Mort Drucker-ish half-caricature style, which i 'm not sure if it serves the plot, which is serious. I mean, when you see all the characters drawn as caricatures, you expect the plot to be non-serious too, which is not the case. Interestingly enough, Bond looks a bit like Connery with Moore's hairstyle, and the rest of the regulars (M, Q) are depicted as the actors portraying them in the films.
The story is good. Even though the McGuffin Bond looks for is nothing really original (a new-technology weapon of mass destruction using sound-waves (Tintin: the Calculus affair, anyone?))the twists and turns in this one are really interesting; probably the best in the Jim Lawrence period, so far. Bond's speculations are not far fetched, and the plot has a real spy-story feel, whereas the payment of the ransom (demanded by the villains) is a bit Thunderballesque. Unfortunately, the ending is a bit of a let down, with the reappearance of SPECTRE, and an unimaginative climax.

In all a far more interesting read than previous volumes.

Edited by pgram, 11 December 2007 - 04:44 PM.

[Simon]

Have they toned down the naked women running everywhere?

This is the first mention of there being a third story in this volume...

[zencat]

Have they toned down the naked women running everywhere?

This is the first mention of there being a third story in this volume...

I think that's The Paradise Plot you're thinking of Simon. That's the one with only two stories.

Thanks for the heads up and the review, pgram. Titan told me as recently as last month that the release date was Jan 25. But I happy to hear I can get it now.

[Simon]

Ah, begging your pardon sir.

(Difficult to keep up with the progress)

[pgram]

You 're welcome, Zencat.

I honestly don't know what 's going on with the release dates. All I do is check the local comics stores every now and then. If I 'm not mistaken, I got the previous ones before the announced release date, too.

As far as nudity is concerned, there is plenty in both Horak's stories, but not as much as previously. In North's I don't believe there was any (that I can remember of, anyway). The whole mood of Horak's stories was sexier, too, with more 'adult' characterisation.

[Qwerty]

Figures that this one is out now. The UK and US release dates seemed way too close together when compared with the earlier Titan Bond collections.

[zencat]

Got my copy today. Pleasantly surprised that the cover art is completely different from what is on Amazon. I scanned and posted on my lit Bond blog.

[TheSaint]

Got my copy today. Pleasantly surprised that the cover art is completely different from what is on Amazon. I scanned and posted on my lit Bond blog.

Where did you get your copy, Zen?

[zencat]

Got my copy today. Pleasantly surprised that the cover art is completely different from what is on Amazon. I scanned and posted on my lit Bond blog.

Where did you get your copy, Zen?

Got it at a terrific old school comic book store in Burbank called Astounding. My buddy runs it. He always gets UK stuff and watches out for anything Bond (he's been hooking me up since the Moore era). I just dropped by today to let him know it was out, and as soon as I walked in the door he said, "Hey, I just got your book!"

[Qwerty]

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Now Available In UK

Titan's newest 007 collection

[TheSaint]

Got it at a terrific old school comic book store in Burbank called Astounding. My buddy runs it. He always gets UK stuff and watches out for anything Bond (he's been hooking me up since the Moore era). I just dropped by today to let him know it was out, and as soon as I walked in the door he said, "Hey, I just got your book!"

Let's see if my new comic store is as cool as my old one, who went out of business in November. Fingers crossed.

[Simon]

Let's see if Amazon/UK will let me have it...

[zencat]

So far I've read Shark Bait and I thought it was darn good. One of the best so far.

[pgram]

So far I've read Shark Bait and I thought it was darn good. One of the best so far.

Agreed. I couldn't resist reading Doomcrack first, though... just the excitement coming from having a different artist.

[Qwerty]

So far I've read Shark Bait and I thought it was darn good. One of the best so far.

Agreed. I couldn't resist reading Doomcrack first, though... just the excitement coming from having a different artist.

Excellent! Sounds like this is turning out to be one of the more promising recent collections from Titan.

[Qwerty]

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Shipping From Amazon UK

Titan's newest 007 collection

[TheSaint]

While Harry North is a good artist, he has/had(?) a habit of making the heads to big for the bodies so they look more like caricatures. Bond's nose was ridiculously big-I was beginning to wonder if he was James Bond or Jimmy Durante.

[Qwerty]

-----UPDATE-----

'Shark Bait' James Bond Collection Released In US

Titan's newest collection available to order online at amazon

[Major Tallon]

"Doomcrack," the final entry in this new collection, puts an end to Madame Spectra, but it's interesting to watch her appearances over the years. She made her first appearance in the Lawrence/ Horack stories in TSWLM, when she was presented as the head of a revived SPECTRE (complete with black cat). She cropped up again a couple of times through "Star Fire" (where she got only a mention), but then SPECTRE dropped out of sight for many years, while other villains took over. Now, in "Doomcrack," Madame Spectra is back, this time with a white cat.

But there's another difference, too. In the early Horak renderings, Spectra wore a hideous mask, but her figure and legs in her skin-tight costume were quite attractive. Then, in panel 640, Spectra removes her mask, revealing just a bit of her features that hint at a young and attractive appearance. Now, flipping forward to "Doomcrack," by Lawrence/ North, we see Spectra portrayed as a gaunt, elderly woman, with a scrawny figure and notably unattractive features. (And in passing, I agree with The Saint about North's drawings.)

Can Spectra's appearance have changed so much in five years? Is Spectra a (forgive me for bringing it up) "code name"? Or am I seeing something that isn't there?

[Qwerty]

Finally have a copy on the way.

[Qwerty]

Finished this collection a few days ago and it was on the whole one of the somewhat above-average collections compared to a lot of the other original stories.

The Xanadu Connection was probably the weakest story in my opinion.

[Jim]

Finished this collection a few days ago and it was on the whole one of the somewhat above-average collections compared to a lot of the other original stories.

The Xanadu Connection was probably the weakest story in my opinion.

Yes, it was better than the last two collections, in which the majority of the stories were really very poor. The Xanadu Connection was novel, if a bit odd, Shark Bait I rather enjoyed, especially the sudden change of location about halfway through, Doomcrack was daft but you can see the influence of the late 70s Eon in what it was trying to achieve.

[MHazard]

I've finished the first two stories and am working my way through the third. I think this is the weakest of the original story collections. I thought the Xanadu collection was okay, but all the Australian outback stuff in Shark Bait was silly and a waste. I'm having real problems getting past the false moustache gadget in Doomcrack. Doomcrack seems to want to imitate the movies where as the other strips generally seem to be doing literary Bond. In Doomcrack everyone looks like the movies except Tanner (who actually looks more like I would picture him from the books) who doesn't appear in the movies. The book text says Bond looks like a combination of Connery and Moore but he looks like a badly drawn Sean to me. Q makes an appearance which I don't recall him doing previously. I got drawn into the books because of the high quality adaptations of the Fleming stories, but I'm really disappointed in these stories.