Is the James Bond International Fan Club really no more?

Dragonpol

I've been talking to Graham Rye on this Facebook that they have now. He told me that the JBIFC was sold in 2001 and he no longer is involved. He says the KKBB magazine is no more and that they have nothing and do nothing. This is all news to me. Does anyone here know the current status of the club or if it still really exists. It has its own website which is still updated:

http://www.007.info/

So, what's the true story or otherwise with this club, then?

Sandy

That link doesn't lead to an actual website so I think the story is probably true. I haven't heard anything from the club for many years but I still think it's a shame if it disappeared.

Dragonpol

Sandy wrote:

That link doesn't lead to an actual website so I think the story is probably true. I haven't heard anything from the club for many years but I still think it's a shame if it disappeared.

Sorry. My mistake - wrong address uploaded. I've put the correct one in now!

Dragonpol

Sandy wrote:

That link doesn't lead to an actual website so I think the story is probably true. I haven't heard anything from the club for many years but I still think it's a shame if it disappeared.

Also, I suppose that we have our very own MI6 Community HQ Magazine to take the place of KKBB. Are there any subscribers to this very professional magazine among us here on MI6. I assume that there are?

RogueAgent

The JBIFC is now run by David Black i believe.

saunders

The club may be finished but the excellent 007 magazine edited by Graham Rye still exists, I don't know what has happened between him and Eon but the latest magazines all seem tainted with a critical bitterness not found back in the publications glory days. Still the back issues and archive files are well worth getting and almost as informative as the MI6 confidentials.

http://www.007magazine.co.uk/

Dragonpol

saunders wrote:

The club may be finished but the excellent 007 magazine edited by Graham Rye still exists, I don't know what has happened between him and Eon but the latest magazines all seem tainted with a critical bitterness not found back in the publications glory days. Still the back issues and archive files are well worth getting and almost as informative as the MI6 confidentials.

http://www.007magazine.co.uk/

Yes, Graham Rye runs that site of the back issues. I only wish that there were more of them available and less of them sold out!

Suivez_ce_parachute

Dragonpol wrote:

So, what's the true story or otherwise with this club, then?

Years ago, the second-in-chief (who, as you can suspect, works a lot to fill the magazines and deal with the day to day administration of such clubs) of the JBIFC wrote me something like : "I've got the space suit from Moonraker in my office. So now what ?".

Also the arrival of Internet was really a big shock for those who were running printed magazines were scoops could last for months. Believe it or not, Kimberly Last of Klast.net was publicly excluded from the JBIFC by Graham Rye himself for a ultra minor piece of criticism no one remembers. He was so new to Internet he certainly didn't expect it would be commented on all the boards within the day...

Dragonpol

Suivez_ce_parachute wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

So, what's the true story or otherwise with this club, then?

Years ago, the second-in-chief (who, as you can suspect, works a lot to fill the magazines and deal with the day to day administration of such clubs) of the JBIFC wrote me something like : "I've got the space suit from Moonraker in my office. So now what ?".

Also the arrival of Internet was really a big shock for those who were running printed magazines were scoops could last for months. Believe it or not, Kimberly Last of Klast.net was publicly excluded from the JBIFC by Graham Rye himself for a ultra minor piece of criticism no one remembers. He was so new to Internet he certainly didn't expect it would be commented on all the boards within the day...

I take it that you are referring to Ajay Chowdhury Esq. or ACE here? He still seems to run the club, but I think that the magazine has folded. Graham Rye is a great guy and I won't hear any crirticism of him - I think the club kind of seems to have folded when he left it to others - he rightly ran it as a business, but the Internet has of course become very important in the years since 2001 - indeed CBn has largely taken its place - despite the fact that it is ran by a group of neo-Nazi Hitlers.

Suivez_ce_parachute

Dragonpol wrote:

I take it that you are referring to Ajay Chowdhury Esq. or ACE here?

No, it was Andrew Pilkington. I'm talking about 1990s here..

Dragonpol wrote:

Graham Rye is a great guy and I won't hear any crirticism of him

He wouldn't hear much criticism at all either :) Don't underestimate how him excluding the webmaster of the biggest Bond site of that time for nothing, strongly hit his reputation for all those who were there.

He's not the only president of a fan club I've seen become like this because of the unclear mix between true fandom, making a living, the weird relationship with the right holders, etc... (I've since decided to go away from any fan club, I had some responsability in some a long time ago). Also the love/hate relation with some movie journalists (who do make a living from writing books and papers that are full of copy/paste from fanzines - but who also have access to the actors and crews far more than the fans...) is insane. Fan clubs feel too easily they're been stolen etc.

Web pages and blogs fortunately brought fans a much easier way to share their passion than magazines with hardware to pay and hierarchy to obey to...

Dragonpol

Suivez_ce_parachute wrote:

Dragonpol wrote:

I take it that you are referring to Ajay Chowdhury Esq. or ACE here?

No, it was Andrew Pilkington. I'm talking about 1990s here..

Dragonpol wrote:

Graham Rye is a great guy and I won't hear any crirticism of him

He wouldn't hear much criticism at all either :) Don't underestimate how him excluding the webmaster of the biggest Bond site of that time for nothing, strongly hit his reputation for all those who were there.

He's not the only president of a fan club I've seen become like this because of the unclear mix between true fandom, making a living, the weird relationship with the right holders, etc... (I've since decided to go away from any fan club, I had some responsability in some a long time ago). Also the love/hate relation with some movie journalists (who do make a living from writing books and papers that are full of copy/paste from fanzines - but who also have access to the actors and crews far more than the fans...) is insane. Fan clubs feel too easily they're been stolen etc.

Web pages and blogs fortunately brought fans a much easier way to share their passion than magazines with hardware to pay and hierarchy to obey to...

Well ACE is editor and something.

Yes, I think the Internet brought some good things - I too have a blog of my own called The Bondologist Blog so I have to say that there is no simple copy and paste from fanzines there - just good honest detective work and the ability to generate new ideas into content not to be found elsewhere - not an easy feat in these days of the Internet saturation and microanalysis of all things Bond.

Kananga

I would love to own all the 007 Mags, I believe that Issue 1 was just a A4 sheet with the text typed up in a typewriter! How much do they go for now?

Dragonpol

Kananga wrote:

I would love to own all the 007 Mags, I believe that Issue 1 was just a A4 sheet with the text typed up in a typewriter! How much do they go for now?

You can get them for half price currently - though that about £25 and many of them are by now sold out unfortunately. See their website here:

http://www.007magazine.co.uk/

Rik

The website of the club had a facelift recently, but they do say on the site "Due to the difficulty in producing the magazine on a regular basis, subscriptions to KKBB are no longer available. New copies are added to the members area and available to purchase as and when available."

I don't personally see why it would be difficult to produced a quarterly magazine for the members.

I used to be a member for years, from 1992- sometime in the 2000's after Graham Rye had left. I felt the club sadly deteriorated and have been trying to find some current members to see if it has improved at all.

The cost of membership is significantly less than when I was last a member, now costing £9.50 per year for the following:

Personalised membership card with unique ID number giving: Access to our encrypted ‘Members’ Only’ area on the web site showing a large collection of articles, pictures and facts from the world of 007.

New articles being added all the time.

Monthly emailed newsletter News and info from the world of 007

10% Discount on all items in the JBIFC online store Special offers on other ‘Bond’ related items as and when available.

For me personally, I still want a printed publication with a membership of this sort, and I don't mind paying the extra for it. unless I hear positive things from other people, I can't see myself rejoining anytime soon.

saunders

Welcome @Rik, I was also a long time member of the JBIFC and treasure my collection of membership magazines and newsletters, I was never really impressed with the replacement KKBB magazines (they lacked the Graham Rye graphic design polish) and even less so when the magazines finished and it became just a web site.

I'm pleased Graham Rye is still publishing in magazine format the 007 archives, but for me they seem a little impersonal and scant on relevant details, though the pictures are generally very good.

The MI6 confidential magazine connected with this site is very well produced, good value and well worth getting if you desire a printed publication (though if I was being highly critical I might suggest this also suffers from being rather impersonal!)

Apparently recently Graham Rye launched legal proceedings against the MI6 site over it's claims of being sold in so many countries or something, I don't know the full details, or even if it's something they would be happy us discussing, but whatever the case it seems really bizarre, rather sad and petty that such a talented former champion of Bond fandom should have to resort to this sort of action!

Anyway I'm really pleased to have another former JBIFC on this site and look forward to your future posts. :)

ggl007

saunders wrote:

Welcome @Rik, I was also a long time member of the JBIFC and treasure my collection of membership magazines and newsletters, I was never really impressed with the replacement KKBB magazines (they lacked the Graham Rye graphic design polish) and even less so when the magazines finished and it became just a web site.

I'm pleased Graham Rye is still publishing in magazine format the 007 archives, but for me they seem a little impersonal and scant on relevant details, though the pictures are generally very good.

The MI6 confidential magazine connected with this site is very well produced, good value and well worth getting if you desire a printed publication (though if I was being highly critical I might suggest this also suffers from being rather impersonal!)

Apparently recently Graham Rye launched legal proceedings against the MI6 site over it's claims of being sold in so many countries or something, I don't know the full details, or even if it's something they would be happy us discussing, but whatever the case it seems really bizarre and rather sad and petty that such a talented former champion of Bond fandom should have to resort to this sort of action!

Anyway I'm really pleased to have another former JBIFC on this site and look forward to your future posts. :)

Hello, @Saunders

I was one of the members since the 90´s. I agree with you on the quality of the old 007 magazines (really marvellous) and the "less-than-great" KKBB or Mi6 Conf.

Something happened with Graham Rye and the now owners of the club, and, sadly, Rye seemed to be involved in some court business. I would want to know the whole story but nobody seems to want to talk about it (legal problems?, sad matters?... )

Anyway I´d be happy with a PM if anybody seems to be upset with this matter...
:-?? :-/

Rik

saunders wrote:

Welcome @Rik, I was also a long time member of the JBIFC and treasure my collection of membership magazines and newsletters, I was never really impressed with the replacement KKBB magazines (they lacked the Graham Rye graphic design polish) and even less so when the magazines finished and it became just a web site.

I'm pleased Graham Rye is still publishing in magazine format the 007 archives, but for me they seem a little impersonal and scant on relevant details, though the pictures are generally very good.

The MI6 confidential magazine connected with this site is very well produced, good value and well worth getting if you desire a printed publication (though if I was being highly critical I might suggest this also suffers from being rather impersonal!)

Apparently recently Graham Rye launched legal proceedings against the MI6 site over it's claims of being sold in so many countries or something, I don't know the full details, or even if it's something they would be happy us discussing, but whatever the case it seems really bizarre, rather sad and petty that such a talented former champion of Bond fandom should have to resort to this sort of action!

Anyway I'm really pleased to have another former JBIFC on this site and look forward to your future posts. :)

Cheers Saunders.

007InVT

The real treasures in my opinion come from BONDAGE magazine (the 007 variety). This was run by Richard Schenkman. Some copies appear from time to time on Ebay. Early editions are very rare.