74 replies to this topic

[Coop]

According to Amazon.UK, Penguin will be reprinting most of the Bond novels as Modern Classics in June.

Anyone know what the covers will be like? Hopefully, they will be wonderfully retro, like their Maigret series in the same range.

[zencat]

Nice find, Coop. We also annouced this (and which titles) in a main page story HERE. As soon as we see some cover art we'll do a followup. Yes, it would be great to see them go retro like they did with the US books.

[Coop]

Here is a sample of the Maigret cover designs:

Maigret

Pretty eye-catching and wonderfully retro. With the films going all futuristic, it'd be nice if the books took readers back to a Fifties world of casinos, jazz clubs, Blades, old Bentleys and martinis.

I've got various copies of all the Fleming books, so will I be buying these? Yeah, course I will. Hopefully they will include critical introductions and notes like a lot of the Modern Classics.

[Coop]

Bah! Just seen two of the covers and they are pretty dull.

Thunderball has a close-up of Connery in black and white

Dr No has a colour photo of Ursula Andress.

I guess they'll catch the eye of passing Bond film fans in bookshops, but they are not a patch on the US covers. I had hoped that as these books had been raised to modern classic status they would finally escape from under the shadow of the films. Sadly it is not to be

Go here http://www.penguin.c...odern_jun04.pdf

to see them. You need Adobe Acrobat.

Looks like they will be 'vanilla' editions, with no introductions or footnotes that could place them in a historical context. Disappointing. I might consider saving my 10 x

[Loomis]

[quote name='Coop' date='27 March 2004 - 11:48'] Bah!

[zencat]

Thanks for the scoop, Coop.

Just did a main page story HERE.

Not wild about the covers myself. I'll pass on this set.

[Qwerty]

Nice find!

Um, the covers definitely are different, Thunderball has quite the odd one with a face close-up.

Interesting that it's film coverage getting put on these Fleming novels.

[Triton]

What wretched covers! Ursula Andress wrapped in a bedsheet for Dr. No and a picture of Sean Connery that looks like he is stoned for From Russia with Love is the best they can do? Will they dig out other old photographs of Bond actors not owned by MGM/UA or Eon for other covers? Perhaps George Lazenby or Diana Rigg on the cover of On Her Majesty's Secret Service? Geoffrey Holder on the cover of Live and Let Die? Christopher Lee as Dracula on the cover of The Man with the Golden Gun? Wretched, wretched, wretched.

You would think that Penguin Modern Classics would have attempted to get the rights to Richie Fahey's covers from the Penguin US editions. Fahey's covers have to be the best cover art ever to appear on a US edition of a Bond novel. They illustrate the themes of the Fleming novel while at the same time reminding one of 1950s pulp novels. Fahey's covers are pure magic.

[Loomis]

Will they dig out other old photographs of Bond actors not owned by MGM/UA or Eon for other covers?

Oh, these photos aren't owned by the Bond people? Interesting.

I agree with you, Triton, that "Fahey's covers are pure magic."

[zencat]

Agreed, Triton. The Fahey covers are the best. I love my Fahey set. Not only are these photo covers not-so-great, but it isn't even a complete set (only 10 titles). So...it's an easy one to resist.

[Qwerty]

You would think that Penguin Modern Classics would have attempted to get the rights to Richie Fahey's covers from the Penguin US editions. Fahey's covers have to be the best cover art ever to appear on a US edition of a Bond novel. They illustrate the themes of the Fleming novel while at the same time reminding one of 1950s pulp novels. Fahey's covers are pure magic.

Exactly, for the very first time I think, when comparing the Penguin releases of the Bond novels, I find the US covers to be far superior than the UK ones, and it's usually the UK ones that I love more. Fahey however, really outdoes himself and pushes the limits of style and artowrk for each one. Fantastic work.

[Loomis]

I find it odd that Penguin is republishing all these novels, given that it brought all the Flemings out only recently (last year, I believe, or maybe it was the year before) and issued Penguin Classics omnibus editions of "Casino Royale"/"Live and Let Die"/"Moonraker" and "From Russia With Love"/"Dr No"/"Goldfinger". I'd hoped for a Penguin Classics omnibus paperback of "Thunderball"/"On Her Majesty's Secret Service"/"You Only Live Twice", but I guess it's not on the cards.

[zencat]

This baffles me as well, Loomis.

I did like the photo cover of the first omnibus edition--I got this one because I liked it so much.

[Loomis]

I guess Penguin feels the books won't sell without pics connecting them to the films. Why be original and come up with something fresh and good when you can whack a photo of Connery on the cover and sell X more copies? (Mind you, to be fair, the recent UK reissues of all the Flemings didn't connect them to the movies.)

[Triton]

I guess Penguin feels the books won't sell without pics connecting them to the films. Why be original and come up with something fresh and good when you can whack a photo of Connery on the cover and sell X more copies?

Well if that was the case. Why not license the 007 logo from Eon and slap Pierce's picture on the cover and try to get the video game generation to buy copies of the books? Who cares if they don't read them as long as they buy copies.

I mean Ursula Andress' and Sean Connery's image on the cover will only sell the books to James Bond fanatics. The fans of the recent movies won't know who Ursula Andress is and may not recognize a thiry-something Sean Connery.

[Icephoenix]

I hate them.

[Loomis]

Why not license the 007 logo from Eon and slap Pierce's picture on the cover and try to get the video game generation to buy copies of the books?  Who cares if they don't read them as long as they buy copies.

Excellent idea! (From a commercial POV; a horrible one from an aesthetic one.)

[Triton]

I don't understand how I can trip over big displays for James Bond DVDs, video games, and Eon licensed books and then have book sellers bemoan the fact that the Ian Fleming novels and the continuation novels don't sell many copies and so they are reluctant to buy them. I'm truly baffled.

Then most book sellers are filled with movie and television tie in novels from Star Wars, Star Trek, other television series and movie properties, and flavor of the month video games.

I really don't understand the sorry state of the literary James Bond's promotion and marketing. You would presume that with a little more effort the books would sell better.

[deth]

wow....... those blow........


lol......what are they gonna put for the Moonraker book? Moore in a space suit???

[zencat]

lol......what are they gonna put for the Moonraker book? Moore in a space suit???

Now THAT I would buy.

[Coop]

I wasn't expecting the Fahey covers- they wouldn't match the uniform Penguin Modern Classics grey and white stripe logo at the bottom of each cover- but I expected a lot better than this.

As one of those rare Bond fans who prefer the books to the films I find it disappointing that, in the UK at least, the books are treated as mere offshoots from the Eon series. The Fahey covers were superb. They put the books firmly back in their 1950s 'pulp with a touch of sophistication' mileau and encapsulated Fleming's style. The Penguin Modern Classics covers are just saying "Dr No: You know, the one with Ursula Andress in".

I'd also be interested to know if those photos are MGM copyright or, as has been suggested above, merely generic publicity shots of Sir Sean and Miss Andress. If they used a Big Fry shot for OHMSS it might be worth the

[[dark]]

Ugh, what a horrible shot of Connery. I'll be interested to see what's in store for the non-Connery novels [if you follow], but on the whole, these are pretty disappointing.

[Loomis]

[quote name='[dark'],28 March 2004 - 00:20] MI6 has all the covers up.

[Triton]

The cover images seem like they were taken from some photographic image library. Like Corbis image number 92902834902839482908 White 1958 Camaro at Night (Blurred) was used for Moonraker.

Wretched, absolutely wretched.

[deth]

man...... those suck!!!

........the only one that I somewhat like is the OHMSS

[clinkeroo]

Horrid.

Jesus, how embarassing. Hopefully, the upcoming IFP special announcement regarding the literary Bond is that they shot the poor sod who designed these insults.

Edited by clinkeroo, 28 March 2004 - 06:52 AM.

[Atticus17F]

Absolutely grotesque. Does Sean know they're using that picture of him on the TB cover? He looks like he's been lobotomised.

[Red Grant]

What a disappointment! The set has no continuity. If they'd used the abstract photographic images it might have worked but adding odd (public domain) stills has ruined them. If I were Connery I'd sue! And knowing what Connery is like he probably will

[1q2w3e4r]

I personally don't mind the covers. The one of Thunderball is good, it gets Connery's face out there. Might even get people who'd look at the book and author and not tie them together to pick it up.

[Fraternal]

They're worse then the Dutch edition, and that is saying something. http://www.bondian.c...es/48560379.gif