Dynamite's Bond comics and graphic novels

ClarkDevlin

Well, they did delay all the issues since #4.

00Agent

hmm true... we'll see
i hope Dynamite gets it together, these endless delays are annoying

mcdonbb

Yea, the delays are disappointing but again compared to past efforts from Eclipse and Dark Horse I can handle a couple of weeks.

Dynamite is just giving us so much great Bond especially when we need it. Just the characterization of Bond alone sold me on Vargr.

GagReathle

I just read the first entry of Vargr and I found it... I don't know... Not really good :/

I think the drawings are really not fine. Everything is too smooth. The action scenes have no intensity. Also, the staging is bad.
I mean, look at this frame :http://imgur.com/a/jmhi3
The proportions are bad, the disposition is bad cause it's all empty... Where do the artist wants us to look ? At James? No, we only see the emptiness of M's office.

And it's not just this frame (I don't know the good english word for it), it's a lot of them. Most of them actualy, in my opinion.

And this is so bad 'cause there isn't any emotions. They are just telling us a story, but I don't feel it. Pictures can have a lot of powers, but those don't have any.

It's sad because, the story seems simple and a little "cliché" for a Bond. So I am not interested. The first entry didn't succeed to tease me, and I'm a goddamn Bond fan, I am easy to tease.

I don't know how do you guys feel about it, I didn't read all of this thread. But I really think that Bond deserves better. The art of a Bond comics should be great. It should be badass and a little dark. We should have the feeling that they are telling us the story of Bond. And I have to say that this Bond doesn't seem interesting. I don't believe in him. And it's pissing me off.

I'm sad. Pardon me.

ClarkDevlin

You should get to the whole thing, @GagReathle. The first issue (part 1, if you may) of the first entry doesn't give you much but merely an introduction, so you should go for the whole hardcover, instead. It's a monthly series like a magazine.

GagReathle

The hardcover hasn't been released here in France. So I downloaded the first issue (and not "entry", thanks for the correction) to see what it looked like.
Sure I could download the rest of it, but I want to read a good looking comic book, and I'm afraid I will just be angry with the rest just like I was for the first issue.

But maybe not, I don't know.
Hammerhead looks a lot better for what we have seen of it so far.

ClarkDevlin

Trust me, it gets better by the time you go through the panels. :)

I was complaining just like you due to how short and pedestrian it looked like and sounded like back in November/December, but you'll grow to love it. Go for the other issues, as well. You won't be disappointed.

GagReathle

Thanks, I will give it another chance to please me! ;)

DarthDimi

After collecting the first 8 volumes, I read through the whole series (so far) yesterday evening and had quite a blast with it. I had most of the lights out except for this really bright reading lamp, a Red Bull nearby and some Barry, Arnold and Newman in the background.

Firstly, I love the overall graphic design of the comic book. It's sterile and geometrical, but I've always had a thing for that. Neatly fits my idea of a "5 minutes into the future" spy thriller. Many places we visit, like safe houses, labs, hotel rooms and airport roads are clean, perfectly outlined, almost futuristic and aseptic. The action is edited like in Quantum Of Solace almost; we don't get those fluent panels leaking into other panels and only rarely do vibrant colours signal a sudden act of violence. It all happens in a mostly clean cut way, but I'm really fond of that. Speaking of violence, and there's a lot of it, I like the fountains of blood gushing out of a man's head or neck without covering half a page in crimson red. Again, while such visceral moments are typically splattered all over the panel to instil shock, VARGR and Eidolon maintain a sharp contrast between for example blood and the environment with an almost surgical precision. Given that this is a Bond comic book and not the next Army Of Darkness or Kick-Ass, I really appreciate this approach. Also, the fancy "sonographic images" of a bullet through a person's body are not artistic douchebaggery but quite entertaining in a more polished version of what Romeo Must Die did 15 years ago.

Secondly, I love how the writers have tried something new. They take much more from Fleming than they do from the movies, but perhaps that's wise. Bond was barely safe for work in the 50s, and so is VARGR and Eidolon today. This isn't a James Bond who, like Batman, detests violence and who, like Moore's Bond in For Your Eyes Only, lectures a girl on digging two graves and whatnot. This is the shoot-first-ask-questions-later Bond, but amped up to eleven. This man will break your neck, chop off fingers, shoot you in the head and pierce you with a sharp bit of glass. In that sense, we're getting the Daniel Craig Bond from CR after spending three years of training with Nolan's version of Bane. There are times when his relentless fighting felt like Bond was out of control. Obviously it's nowadays a bit risky to make our hero an almost maniacal killing machine at times, but Bond was always a game changer and amidst so many contemporary 'heroes' who prefer to talk rather than throw a punch, who will drag folks to prison rather than shoot them on the spot, this Bond stands out. This is the Dirty Harry of MI6: protect the innocent, kill anyone who threatens their safety and well-being and stuff ethics, bureaucracy and "good manners".

Kudos to the writers for leaving some of the obvious stuff at home. We don't get a Bond who sleeps with another woman every ten pages amidst an overdose of silly gadgets and HAHA! puns from the world's silliest "lines for tension breaking" phrase book. While some flirting with Moneypenny and impish conversation with Q ensue early on, they are kept well within the boundaries of what is acceptable. Speaking of which, Moneypenny looks like Naomi Harris, Q looks like a serious version of John Cleese on a good day and M looks nothing like any M we've ever seen. Leiter (in Eidolon) is a younger version of Jack Lord but with Crockett's hairdo from the first season of Miami Vice. The villain of VARGR showed an uncanny resemblance to Dieter Laser's menacing Dr Heiter as seen in The Human Centipede. Whether or not the henchman is supposed to be some kind of diabolical blend between TeeHee and Renard remains an undecided matter for me.

As for Bond himself, he feels like the MTV version of Fleming's Bond: a rock star in the spy community, a bit cheeky but more than adequate, with a good sense of humour and amazing skills, handsome and dark, sometimes surly and sometimes playful, and with a scar! One can try to see him as a young Connery mixed up with a young Lazenby, but I doubt that's what they were going for. I rather see him as an easily accessible, typical cartoon James Bond, a few years older than James Bond Jr., but with an attitude that ping-pongs between Jack Bauer and Han Solo. He looks nothing like Craig and that means he's less intriguing, visually, but seeing how this is a different medium and that Fleming was obviously the source, I don't mind. Also, this Bond smokes. A lot. Get over it, PC world!

The story of VARGR (and Eidolon so far) plays like the 24 version of James Bond or rather the James Bond version of 24. We move fast, fight some red tape, stack a pile of dead bodies who probably have all the answers but weren't allowed to live long enough to give them. This isn't about Bond doing some fishing after missing nukes in the Caribbean or hitchhiking a ride to a space station. It's a Bond for the modern times - hell, the book even calls it out: we're no longer fighting enemy countries. The enemy has become far more subtle. Luckily, we're not buying another ticket into a "knowing who to trust is everything" melodrama between Bond and M(other). M hands out the orders, Bond selects the ones he likes and doesn't worry about breaking some rules if it means surviving, and meanwhile we can all feel a bit safer at night knowing this superspy is out there watching out for us.

I applaud Dynamite's efforts with these Bond comics. Our 007 has evolved way past the adventure and exotic magnetism of Serpent's Tooth, and has reached more cynical, grounded-in-reality ambitions. It's a reboot in the sense that comics like these examine what Fleming might have put on paper if he had been alive and kicking today, if he had been a 9/11 veteran instead of a WWII one. While I still hope our Bond movies will return to the glorious days of Goldfinger or Thunderball, a comic book can, as far as I'm concerned, be a little more experimental. Not only will I endorse this book, I'll happily keep on reading too for I love what I'm reading, how it's presented to me visually and how it fulfils my Bondian needs in these uncertain times between films.

Huge recommend.

BeatlesSansEarmuffs

Great review, @DarthDimi! I fully agree with your assessment of this wonderful series of comics, the best ongoing adaptation into the comic book format that Bond has ever seen IMHO.

ClarkDevlin

Wonderfully reviewed, @DarthDimi! Although, timeline-wise, Ellis made it clear that this one takes place after the events of the Fleming novels. So, I think Bond becoming rather cynical and a killer who asks no questions and doesn't give a crap about the enemy's well-being when they are simply a threat might be a result of his evolution and reconstruction after the death of Tracy, I take it. Sure, it doesn't mention anything in the comics, but from what Ellis is coming from, I definitely see it.

00Agent

Great Review @DarthDimi =D>
Nice to see more and more people supporting this comic series.
I think Dynamite is giving us something exceptional here

mcdonbb

DarthDimi wrote: »

After collecting the first 8 volumes, I read through the whole series (so far) yesterday evening and had quite a blast with it. I had most of the lights out except for this really bright reading lamp, a Red Bull nearby and some Barry, Arnold and Newman in the background.

Firstly, I love the overall graphic design of the comic book. It's sterile and geometrical, but I've always had a thing for that. Neatly fits my idea of a "5 minutes into the future" spy thriller. Many places we visit, like safe houses, labs, hotel rooms and airport roads are clean, perfectly outlined, almost futuristic and aseptic. The action is edited like in Quantum Of Solace almost; we don't get those fluent panels leaking into other panels and only rarely do vibrant colours signal a sudden act of violence. It all happens in a mostly clean cut way, but I'm really fond of that. Speaking of violence, and there's a lot of it, I like the fountains of blood gushing out of a man's head or neck without covering half a page in crimson red. Again, while such visceral moments are typically splattered all over the panel to instil shock, VARGR and Eidolon maintain a sharp contrast between for example blood and the environment with an almost surgical precision. Given that this is a Bond comic book and not the next Army Of Darkness or Kick-Ass, I really appreciate this approach. Also, the fancy "sonographic images" of a bullet through a person's body are not artistic douchebaggery but quite entertaining in a more polished version of what Romeo Must Die did 15 years ago.

Secondly, I love how the writers have tried something new. They take much more from Fleming than they do from the movies, but perhaps that's wise. Bond was barely safe for work in the 50s, and so is VARGR and Eidolon today. This isn't a James Bond who, like Batman, detests violence and who, like Moore's Bond in For Your Eyes Only, lectures a girl on digging two graves and whatnot. This is the shoot-first-ask-questions-later Bond, but amped up to eleven. This man will break your neck, chop off fingers, shoot you in the head and pierce you with a sharp bit of glass. In that sense, we're getting the Daniel Craig Bond from CR after spending three years of training with Nolan's version of Bane. There are times when his relentless fighting felt like Bond was out of control. Obviously it's nowadays a bit risky to make our hero an almost maniacal killing machine at times, but Bond was always a game changer and amidst so many contemporary 'heroes' who prefer to talk rather than throw a punch, who will drag folks to prison rather than shoot them on the spot, this Bond stands out. This is the Dirty Harry of MI6: protect the innocent, kill anyone who threatens their safety and well-being and stuff ethics, bureaucracy and "good manners".

Kudos to the writers for leaving some of the obvious stuff at home. We don't get a Bond who sleeps with another woman every ten pages amidst an overdose of silly gadgets and HAHA! puns from the world's silliest "lines for tension breaking" phrase book. While some flirting with Moneypenny and impish conversation with Q ensue early on, they are kept well within the boundaries of what is acceptable. Speaking of which, Moneypenny looks like Naomi Harris, Q looks like a serious version of John Cleese on a good day and M looks nothing like any M we've ever seen. Leiter (in Eidolon) is a younger version of Jack Lord but with Crockett's hairdo from the first season of Miami Vice. The villain of VARGR showed an uncanny resemblance to Dieter Laser's menacing Dr Heiter as seen in The Human Centipede. Whether or not the henchman is supposed to be some kind of diabolical blend between TeeHee and Renard remains an undecided matter for me.

As for Bond himself, he feels like the MTV version of Fleming's Bond: a rock star in the spy community, a bit cheeky but more than adequate, with a good sense of humour and amazing skills, handsome and dark, sometimes surly and sometimes playful, and with a scar! One can try to see him as a young Connery mixed up with a young Lazenby, but I doubt that's what they were going for. I rather see him as an easily accessible, typical cartoon James Bond, a few years older than James Bond Jr., but with an attitude that ping-pongs between Jack Bauer and Han Solo. He looks nothing like Craig and that means he's less intriguing, visually, but seeing how this is a different medium and that Fleming was obviously the source, I don't mind. Also, this Bond smokes. A lot. Get over it, PC world!

The story of VARGR (and Eidolon so far) plays like the 24 version of James Bond or rather the James Bond version of 24. We move fast, fight some red tape, stack a pile of dead bodies who probably have all the answers but weren't allowed to live long enough to give them. This isn't about Bond doing some fishing after missing nukes in the Caribbean or hitchhiking a ride to a space station. It's a Bond for the modern times - hell, the book even calls it out: we're no longer fighting enemy countries. The enemy has become far more subtle. Luckily, we're not buying another ticket into a "knowing who to trust is everything" melodrama between Bond and M(other). M hands out the orders, Bond selects the ones he likes and doesn't worry about breaking some rules if it means surviving, and meanwhile we can all feel a bit safer at night knowing this superspy is out there watching out for us.

I applaud Dynamite's efforts with these Bond comics. Our 007 has evolved way past the adventure and exotic magnetism of Serpent's Tooth, and has reached more cynical, grounded-in-reality ambitions. It's a reboot in the sense that comics like these examine what Fleming might have put on paper if he had been alive and kicking today, if he had been a 9/11 veteran instead of a WWII one. While I still hope our Bond movies will return to the glorious days of Goldfinger or Thunderball, a comic book can, as far as I'm concerned, be a little more experimental. Not only will I endorse this book, I'll happily keep on reading too for I love what I'm reading, how it's presented to me visually and how it fulfils my Bondian needs in these uncertain times between films.

Huge recommend.

Very nice review. Thanks.

DarthDimi

Thanks, everyone. I'm really excited about where these Bond comics will go next. Keep on reading!

mcdonbb

I'm loving Eidolon considerably more than Vargr and I liked Vargr a lot.

Still in awe we have both HammerHead, Casino Royale on the horizon while we get to enjoy the rest of Eidolon.

ClarkDevlin

I have a sinking feeling Hammerhead will be pushed back to November. Because, they won't release the first issue until Eidolon is finished with its six-parter.

Gerard

In fact, I think they might do just that. In the world of comic books, it's usual to have mini-series with characters who have ongoing series at the same time. I've seen it happen with Superman, Batman, and so many others. So, my best guess is that we'll see issues of the James Bond ongoing go on sale alongside issues of "Hammerhead".

BeatlesSansEarmuffs

Gerard wrote: »

In fact, I think they might do just that. In the world of comic books, it's usual to have mini-series with characters who have ongoing series at the same time. I've seen it happen with Superman, Batman, and so many others. So, my best guess is that we'll see issues of the James Bond ongoing go on sale alongside issues of "Hammerhead".

I'd like to think that Marvel & DC might do that but Dynamite should be above it. However -- they're not. They've had multiple Green Hornet series running simultaneously...so we'll see. It's not uncommon for comic book release schedules to be...adjusted... we'll just have to cope, one way or the other. The results have been darned good, and that's all that really matters to me. "Do you want it to be good, or do you want it on Tuesday?" is a common enough refrain in schedule-driven creative venues. I'd rather it be good, I can wait until Friday. Printers, however, cannot wait. They've got the press time scheduled weeks in advance.

mcdonbb

I think CR is scheduled for release in November. According to the book's author.

ClarkDevlin

Yes. CR comes out on Nov. 22. However, even though that's not bound to be delayed, I still think Hammerhead will be pushed back a month to be either released on par with JB #12 or a month after.

JamesPage

A friend who is deep in the comic book industry said, when hearing Warren Ellis was doing the new Bond adventures last year: "He won't deliver on time. He's always late, and because of his reputation nobody will complain." Here we are folks!

ClarkDevlin

Well, it was a good experience. And I am looking forward to read more of them. But, I would request a change of artist with a high profile name who also is more capable into delivering less cartoony and more realistic images. In fact, I wouldn't having Paul Gulacy back into the game for one more time.

ClarkDevlin

So, chaps, Andy Diggle, the author of Hammerhead released an artwork.


James Bond and Victoria Hunt. Art by Luca Casalanguida; colour by Chris Blythe.

And an interview:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/how-james-bonds-new-comic-hammerhead-explores-the-two-s-1785144556

mcdonbb

Thanks for posting @ClarkDevlin ...I'm very excited for Hammerhead too...

....and still behind :( ...still haven't been able to pick up Bond #8 ...oh well to quote many a comic "Aarrrrgggghhh!!!!"

I'm expecting Hammerhead to be a tad more cinematic than Vargr.

ClarkDevlin

I'm really glad the comma type of falling hair is remembered and outlined by the authors/artists. It's one of the things I like about the literary Bond.

ClarkDevlin

It appears we'll be getting a little bit of Live And Let Die look from Jason Masters in Bond. ;)

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7

Loving the art. I find it a lot more suitable than some of the art I've seen for the Ellis run book. That stuff is still good, but this is more evocative of Bond for me. I wouldn't mind seeing Masters picked for when more of the Fleming books are being put into comic form.

Who's doing the art for CR, by the way? I know the artist teased some rough sketches, but I haven't seen anything of the project beyond those.

ClarkDevlin

Hammerhead is done by Luca Casalanguida, who apparently is a famous comic artist in Italy.

The one above with the LALD look is for Eidolon by Masters, done for the second Ellis arc.

We haven't seen any official art or a final art regarding Casino Royale yet, but the illustration is done by Matthew Southworth.

0BradyM0Bondfanatic7

@ClarkDevlin, thanks for getting it straight for me. There's so many creators on these titles, the heads spins trying to remember them all. ;)

I love how the Masters art has some of those pop art-esque dots over them that gives it a retro look, which is fitting to its creative origins in 50s Fleming.

ClarkDevlin

You're welcome, @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7. Always available to help a colleague, as Laz would say. ;)

And agreed, Masters' art really improved upon the second story arc. He admitted that his primary inspiration and influence came from John McLusky, so that answers our questions pretty much.