23 replies to this topic

[zencat]

Yes, they were a little fugly, but these U.S. hardcovers were actually the "true firsts" in that all except the last two books were published in the U.S. before the UK. So...respect!

http://www.thebookbo...st-edition.html

[freemo]

What the design successful does is prominently display the creator, character, title and author all without looking cluttered or clunky or too much (there's an awful DAD novelization cover somewhere that uses about 12 different fonts all poorly slapped on with no symmetry or form).

Anyway, these are very easy to find cheap and in good nick for anyone who wants to start building a Gardner Bond hardcover collection.

[MarkA]

I agree with the above. Not one of my favourite designs but at least they have a uniformity about them. Not like the British Gardner's that are all different designs, fonts, size etc.

Edited by MarkA, 21 February 2012 - 08:16 AM.

[David Schofield]

Yes, they were a little fugly, but these U.S. hardcovers were actually the "true firsts" in that all except the last two books were published in the U.S. before the UK. So...respect!

http://www.thebookbo...st-edition.html

Knew that FSS was released before our UK edition, recall ordering from the USA just to have it asap (oh the madness of youth!); I had been a huge fan of LR. Never realised that most of the others were released in the USA first though.

[Simon]

I wonder what the thinking was behind the Man from Barbarossa Bond stance - the only one that varies from the norm.

As you say, they are fantastically ugly, but ok; an as-yet-to-be defined sort of respect.

[zencat]

Yes, they were a little fugly, but these U.S. hardcovers were actually the "true firsts" in that all except the last two books were published in the U.S. before the UK. So...respect!

http://www.thebookbo...st-edition.html

Knew that FSS was released before our UK edition, recall ordering from the USA just to have it asap (oh the madness of youth!); I had been a huge fan of LR. Never realised that most of the others were released in the USA first though.

Actually, I didn't either until I started gathering the release date info for this article. I was surprised.

I wonder what the thinking was behind the Man from Barbarossa Bond stance - the only one that varies from the norm.

As you say, they are fantastically ugly, but ok; an as-yet-to-be defined sort of respect.

The change in TMFB might have something to do with Eon complaining that the other silhouette looked too much like Pierce Brosnan (during the Dalton era). I have an article or a mention of this somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it! I really want to do a blog about it. Does anyone else remember this?

[Dustin]

The change in TMFB might have something to do with Eon complaining that the other silhouette looked too much like Pierce Brosnan (during the Dalton era). I have an article or a mention of this somewhere, but for the life of me I can't find it! I really want to do a blog about it. Does anyone else remember this?

That the Bond silhouette looks like it was done by Brosnan? I only remember reading some speculation about it on CBn, not that this ever was confirmed or posed a problem between Glidrose and EON. Also an odd cause for complaints, a silhouette that doesn't look close enough to the film incarnation. Sounds a bit weird, doesn't it? When it was pretty clear that films and books had not a lot in common any more by that point.

[zencat]

Here we go. The story as I recall it and why they might have been a little extra sensitive about Brosnan in 1990. And it doesn't sound all that weird to me. This kind of stuff goes on.

http://www.thebookbo...uette-gate.html

[Dustin]

Here we go. The story as I recall it and why they might have been a little extra sensitive about Brosnan in 1990. And it doesn't sound all that weird to me. This kind of stuff goes on.

http://www.thebookbo...uette-gate.html

Thanks for that recap. Quite a few details that would support the theory. Of course Glidrose would want to stay in EON's good books, so that might have been the reason for the change. The only thing that doesn't add up is the Berkley silhouette from DOCTOR NO not only comes from the same set of pics as the one it replaces, IMO it looks even more like Brosnan than the one EON maybe objected to. The face is about twice the size in the replacement and to me suggests more Brosnan than anybody else.

[freemo]

I don't know, it sounds like more "Brosnan was born to be Bond" myth-making to me. 2002-3 era message board stuff. "Young Pierce's boat arrived at Ellis Island on the very same day that Ian Fleming died. From that day on his life and Bond would be irrevocably and forever intertwined", etc.

I think they were just trying to make "THE MAN FROM BARBAROSSA" fit on the cover.

[Dustin]

Well, these certainly were troubled times for film Bond and stranger things seem to have happened along EON's way. I wouldn't put it beyond the industry to call for a corporate identity and greater support form the unloved cousin in print. The spin would be even more interesting if it indeed had been Brosnan who modelled for these shots back in the early eighties. But I suppose this would have leaked by now one way or the other.

[zencat]

A look at the UK hardcovers now.

http://www.thebookbo...st-edition.html

[Simon]

Hi - what do you mean when you say a book was remaindered? In this case, Seafire.

Not heard of this before.

[zencat]

It means most of its stock was reduced in price and sent out to "bargin book" tables, etc. Clipping off the original price is a sign of remaindered stock. Hard to find one with an unclipped price.

[Syndicate]

_{For me I did like the first four U.S. hardcover design of the Gardner novels and the paperbacks design and look of For Special Service and Role Of Hornor. The only UK one I ever really like alot is the design of the first paprerback of Licence Renewed.}

[MarkA]

It means most of its stock was reduced in price and sent out to "bargin book" tables, etc. Clipping off the original price is a sign of remaindered stock. Hard to find one with an unclipped price.

So what does it mean when the jacket has no price on it, but is not clipped? Like mine.

[zencat]

Really? Your copy doesn't have a £16.99 price on the lower right of the front flap? It's unclipped and just blank?

That's curious. I don't know what that means.

[MarkA]

Really? Your copy doesn't have a £16.99 price on the lower right of the front flap? It's unclipped and just blank?

That's curious. I don't know what that means.

And yet like all my UK Gardner's it is a first edition. I bought them as they came out. My Death is Forever and Never Send Flowers are the same as well. No Price.

[zencat]

That is odd indeed. I also bought them when they came out. But mine have prices.

[Craig Arthur]

Really? Your copy doesn't have a £16.99 price on the lower right of the front flap? It's unclipped and just blank?

That's curious. I don't know what that means.

And yet like all my UK Gardner's it is a first edition. I bought them as they came out. My Death is Forever and Never Send Flowers are the same as well. No Price.

A price clipped jacket does not mean a book is remaindered. Usually remaindered books can be identified by a felt-tipped pen mark - a line or a dot - across the pages.

Retailers tend to clip the price from the jacket because the price they want to charge for the book is higher than the publisher's recommended retail price or - here in New Zealand - because they don't want customers to be confused by the overseas price (generally much cheaper than what books retail for here.)

Remaindered books tend not to be price-clipped because the retailers don't bother going through the books and clipping the jackets. So, ironically, the hardback first edition of a Gardner novel, ROLE OF HONOUR, I ordered and purchased from a local retailer upon its release is price-clipped, whereas my remaindered copies of LICENCE RENEWED and FOR SPECIAL SERVICES are not price-clipped.

[Simon]

Cheers fellas.

[Craig Arthur]

Simon, one other thing I forgot to mention ... a price-clipped book is often considered less valuable than one that hasn't been clipped. The reason for this is that dealers/collectors use the published price to verify that the dust-jacket of a first edition hasn't been switched with the jacket of a later printing (and so hence is the genuine original jacket). ie a later printing would most likely have different price.

[Simon]

Goodness me.

My own area of ridiculous collecting, and hence centre of obscure knowledge, is movie marketing material. (Posters / lobby cards) But I do love to hear of all thse quirks in other areas that make for the collecting epitome.

Cheers.

[Randy Wiggins]

When I became a Bond reader in the early 1980's in the USA The Gardner titles were the first I picked up in hardcover at release or shortly thereafter. I first read Fleming in the Signet 1960's paperbacks. I liked the Gardner hardcovers myself and still do. I do have an interest in the UK titles as the art was unusual on most books, not just Bond titles.

I wish I had kept the Fleming paperbacks from Berkley books as they had the same cover design as the Gardner hardcovers. I still have all of my Gardner US hardcover first editions. I do desperately want the UK GOLDENEYE hardcover as it was only a paperback here.

 

Randy