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Gillette’s new cover art revealed
When I just logged on, I expected the literary Bond forum to be buzzing over the new hardback artwork reveal on Ian Fleming.com. Not a peep! Or have I missed it?
https://www.ianfleming.com/unveiling-michael-gillettes-new-007-hardback-covers/
I love them. I just with they'd release them on a drip, rather than all at once.
https://www.ianfleming.com/unveiling-michael-gillettes-new-007-hardback-covers/
I love them. I just with they'd release them on a drip, rather than all at once.
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Comments
Probably the one Honey used to kill her assaulter, but yes, it's a very minor one and is not one of the book's major focus, unlike the centipede.
The steel hand is also from the film version of Dr. No. He had steel pincers in the novel version. The 1990s Coronet cover also had a spider on the cover:
Even the 1960s Pan cover had a spider's web on it:
I suppose it's just a generic thriller image and "Come In To My Parlour" is a chapter title in the novel too. The giant centipede would have been more distinctive though.
My Bond ocd can't cope with such discrepancies I'm afraid :))
Yeah they are really creepy and dangerous-looking so I think would work on a cover, but I still think all of these are superb.
I thought it was the squid that was pictured. LOL!
Anyway, from chapter 17 of Dr No:
“They were spiders, giant tarantulas, three or four inches long. There were twenty of them in the cage. And somehow he had to get past them.
Bond lay and rested and thought while the red eyes gathered again in front of his face.
How deadly were these things? How much of the tales about them were myth? They could certainly kill animals, but how mortal to men were these giant spiders with the long soft friendly fur of a borzoi? Bond shuddered. He remembered the centipede. The touch of the tarantulas would be much softer. They would be like tiny teddy bears’ paws against one’s skin – until they bit and emptied their poison sacs into you.”
Yes, it stuck out to me like a sore thumb but then it is very easy to mix up the literary Bond with the film Bond. You expect more from IFP though!
Anyway, who's buying these sets? £280 for the complete collection. Maybe less if they're on Amazon.
And, are they true to the original UK texts like the Folios are? I bet you a pound to a pinch of shit Live and Let Die is the 'American version' that Fleming supposedly preferred.
If these new books came out one a month, I'd get 'em. I don't know about buying the lot outright though. That's a bit steep, and not as much fun as waiting for the next book to come out.
They are very nice though. I'm very tempted.
Same; I feel putting sexy ladies on the cover sends the message that these are books for men, and Bond has always been for both men and women.
I love these new designs but I probably won't pick them up...well, maybe CR to add to my collection of different editions of CR. Yes, I have a problem.
Putting women on a cover means its not for....women?
I loved the retro/modern typography on those but I think you both have a point.
The thing is how it's styled, with nudity and all, for me, personally, I felt that it looked like something came out of soft porn or something like that, it's a bit cheap looking (I know and understand how creative are those, graphically), but it's just the way of designs, those pictures could've been approved by Hefner himself 😅, and that means, as @Agent_99 said, it would be a read for men's, and in my opinion, could sway the younger audiences away from reading those books (and Bond could be read by any other ages, heck, Fleming described it as a read for young boys).
No doubt it's just for those from the Greek island of Lesbos.
The Bond girl covers are cool but I wouldn't be caught dead reading those in public: only Vesper's wearing clothes but she looks like she isn't. Also a lot of the characters don't look like who they are supposed to portray. Only maybe Judy Havelock from FYEO looks the part of how I picture the characters and Jill, Tiffany and Patricia look quite a long way off.
The new Gillette covers don't do much for me. They feel overly modern for some reason: what's up with the Goldfinger fingerprint? Why's the rest of cover pitch black? Or Majesty's has the oddly discoloured Union Jack and the lion. And the colour schemes are odd: why purple and red for CR? Why not the casino red and black, or maybe black and white or grey for the moral theme? Why the focus on yellow with red accents in FRWL, when the Soviet flag is mostly red? Why is Thunderball coloured like that at all? Why does MR look like an old video game?
They just are striking with actually being pleasurable to look at in my opinion. I prefer the simpler efforts that just present one theme and the rest is just the title or James Bond or 007 and then Ian Fleming.
Midas touch. And finger is in his name. Works for me anyway. And the rest is black because it looks nice and simple that way.
Sometimes the colour schemes are there just because they look nice.
As for the colour schemes, that's the problem though. They don't look nice to me at all. Like I said: striking but unattractive. The purple and red don't really gel for me, same with the multiple purples and black for Thunderball, again same with the major yellow cover with red accents for FRWL. I think I could complain about the lack of gel in the colours for almost every cover. They catch your eye like a wacky outfit but look similarly unappealing.
Moonraker's the worst one for me though. That isn't striking either and it looks poor as well. A stylised rocket would look quite a bit better than what seems a be a poor drawing of Earth and the moon (crescented for some reason). And I know why it is there but at the same time the book isn't about space at all so I very much question the decision making there as well.
Thanks.
I actually like printed boards, so this makes them more desirable. I wonder how long they'll be in print? I'd love to commit to one a month, say. But they won't still be printing 1st editions in two years time. I can't help but feel they've missed a trick by not putting out one a month.
Midas gets a brief mention in the book, but I honestly don't think it matters that it's referenced in the song, it's just an association I would make with both gold and fingers. Especially as his puts his touch on Jill.
Well it's all subjective isn't it. Sorry these ones aren't for you, hopefully the next will be more to your taste.
No other cover design comes close to those 60's Pan Books.
That is the $64,000 question.