The complete set of EIDOLON covers are here!

The last episode of the James Bond series EIDOLON will go on sale on December 21 but here and now we can reveal the arwork for the final episode and also show you the complete set of artworks for this six episode series.

It all started with the first series VARGR penned by Warren Ellis and drawn by Jason Masters (who have also done the header for this blog). That series was really good and even if I have not read comics for a very long time I enjoyed it a lot. You can read more amount that series here and see all the different covers.

Just as with VARGR I decided to wait to read EIDOLON until the complete set was in my hands. And it soon will be.

I wonder if anybody else feel it to be a bit strange that the publishers Dynamite Entertainment decided to make EIDOLON as part 7-12 instead part 1-6 since it was a hole new mission. 

Below you can see all the different covers for the EIDOLON series and they are all made by the same artist named Don Reardom.

Title sequence for FLEMING - The man behind Bond

Back in 2013 it was announced that Sky Atlantic would air a TV-Series based on Ian Flemings life.

The series was co-produced by Sky Atlantic, BBC America and Ecosse Films.

Later in the production the producers turned to British animation and graphics company Broken Antler to come up with ideas for the title design. The demand was that the title design should be distinctive and at the same time not a reproduction of a James Bond title sequence.

When Broken Antler started working on ideas for the treatment they proposed using shadows in the title theme. They had thoughts of using different objects that Fleming would have used during his time. And that idea sounds a lot like "still life series" of the Ian Fleming books that Pan Books released in 1976.

But that idea was scrapped due to the budget and the length of the title sequence being visible.
Since the title was to be visible for such a short period in each episode they decided that it should be more focused and delivered quickly.

They saw the script for the four episode series to be written as if Ian Fleming would have written his own autobiography and therefore it was therefore decided to go with a paper background and text written in old typewriter style as if Fleming himself was writing it.

Below you can see the different suggestions that Broken Antler had until they decided to go with the typewriter. They are all quite amazing. On top of this blog post you can see the actual title treatment that they went with.

  

Below is the Pan Books "still life" series from 1976.

(These are very hard to scan with good quality)

You can order the FLEMING TV-series below for below £6 nowadays.

 

James Bond The authorised biography first edition

Added to my collection is the UK first edition of JAMES BOND - THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY by John Pearson.

The book was published in 1973 and cost £2,75 new at the time.

John Pearson had a few years earlier written THE LIFE OF IAN FLEMING. A lovely book about the author of the James Bond series.
According to Wikipedia, JAMES BOND - THE AUTHORIZED BIOGRAPHY, was never a commissioned novel by Ian Fleming Publications (Glidrose Publications at the time).

The book was therefore the first James Bond book not to be published by Jonathan Cape but instead Sidgwick & Jackson. Even if the story was not commissioned  by Glidrose Publications, John Pearson still needed their approval for the novel to be published. The copyright is therefore owned by both Ian Fleming Publications and John Pearson for this story and this might be the reason that we never see it included with the rest of the books nowadays.

This might also be the reason the book has such a poor layout on the first edition. Maybe they were not allowed to draw James Bond on the dust jacket. As they are not allowed now.

If you have not read this book I highly recommend that you do. I truly enjoyed this novel and have very fond memories of reading it. It was the first James Bond novel I read in English and when I had finished reading it I decided to start reading all the other books in English for the first time.

If anybody knows more about how this book came about please feel free to comment below. I would love to hear it.

If you wish to read this highly enjoyable book you can buy it here on Amazon UK. I myself have a few of the different releases of this book and will soon sell a few of them on my Ebay Page.

Not much to get exited about with this cover design.

James Bond's salary at MI6

The beginning of Ian Fleming's third James Bond novel MOONRAKER is fantastic reading for any James Bond fan. There we are treated with an ordinary day at work for James Bond.

Ian Fleming also tells us the salary that James Bond gets for being a secret agent for the government.

"He earned £1 500 a year, the salary of a Principal Officer in the Civil Service, and he had a thousend a year free of tax of his own. When he was on a job he could spend as much as he liked, so for the other months of the year he could live very well on his £2 000 a year net"

 In other words if you do not follow. Bond has a salary of £1 500 and an extra £1 000 free of tax. There is 30% tax on the first £1 500 and this leaves Bond with £2 000 a year.

The book was published in 1955 so lets see what a salary for James Bond would be if we recalculate this into modern inflation.

I used this calculator and it says that if James Bond had a salary of £2 000 net in 1955 that would equal £49 400 net in today's world. Using this calculator it transforms into $62 000.

Please remember that we are always talking net figures here, after tax.

He is supposedly on one mission a year according to Fleming. On these he gets all expenses paid. He also gets a vacation after every mission to "heal".

I must say that he seems to earn a decent amount of money working at MI6.

Would you sacrifice your life for queen and country and that salary. Feel free to comment below.

Below you can see my Danish first edition of MOONRAKER simply called Agent 007.

 

Ian Fleming's favourite actor for James Bond

When Ian Fleming wrote about James Bond's looks it was very well drawn. James Bond's hight was little over six feet (183 cm) and his weight was around 167 pounds (76 kg). His body was in other words what you today would call slim. Also, Bond is described as dark, cruel and handsome and that woman find him irresistible.

So in 1961 when Producers Albert Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were searching for there actor to play Bond they almost had a blueprint of what the man should look like.

Both Cubby and Harry agreed to let Ian Fleming attend the meetings were James Bond and who he was was discussed and after one of these meetings Fleming send Cubby a fascinating memorandum on the matter.

James Bond is a blunt instrument wielded by a Government Department. He is quiet, hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. In his relationships with women he shows the same qualities as he does in his job, but he has a certain gentleness with them and if they get in trouble he is sometimes prepared to sacrifice his life to rescue them. But not always, and certainly not if it interferes with his job. He likes gambling, golf and motorcars. 

 In other words. Ian Flemings blueprint for James Bond was more or less a blueprint of himself.

Cary Grant was the first actor to be asked to play James Bond but he turned it down. There second choice was James Mason but he was no fan of the Bond books.

But Ian Fleming had his first choice for the role of James Bond and his name was strangely enough... Roger Moore.

Roger Moore was 34 years old at the time and had actually not received world wide celebrity playing Simon Templer in The Saint.
Cubby Broccoli did not want Roger Moore at that time. He thought Moore was to much of a gentlemen and not the kind of tough guy that they later found in Sean Connery.

But 12 years later in 1973 Ian Fleming would get his wishes come true when Roger Moore played his first role as agent 007. Sadly he never got to see it since he himself passed away in 1964.

The facts for this blog post can be found in THE JAMES BOND ARCHIVES that you need to order here if you have not already done so.

Did you or your friends win the TRIGGER MORTIS contest?

A few weeks back the blog had its first sponsored contest were you the reader had the chance to win a copy of the now released US TRIGGER MORTIS paperback.

The 10 winners of the book are as follows:

Karl Flood, Ireland

Brandon Tate, USA

Robert Sterling, UK

David Winterfeld, Austria

Jan Mouritzen, Denmark

Sophie Reid, UK

Steve Oxenrider, USA

Leijo Van Aubel, The Nederlands

Johan Antens, The Nederlands

Ian Stubbs, UK

A big congratulations to the winners. I will now contact the publishers so that you will get the paperback sent to you. 

A big warm thank you also to Harper Paperbacks and Abigail Novak and Mary Sasso for making this contest possible. 

Happy Birthday James Bond, The secret agent

This very blog has just turned one year a few days back.
The blog was born on Friday October 9, 2015 with this little blog post. The title of the blog THE SECRET AGENT comes from the first chapter of the first book with the same title. 

Since that day, thanks to the support of most of you, the blog has been getting bigger and better each month and has now reached an amazing 78 000 page views during the first year with a current monthly average of  7 168 viewers a month.

The blogs focus has not only been on news but also on old books and material. Also on the development of making my own James Bond literature collection grow. I believe I have bought over one hundred books since this blog adventure started but not had the time to write about them all yet.

Even if this blog focus on the books (both film and novels) about James Bond I sometimes step outside that formula and write about something else. And the funny thing is that when I did just that, it became the most read blog post of the entire year. The post I am talking about is this one about Blanche Ravalec

In the early start of the first year I got into trouble with one of the authors of massive James Bond book about the films called Some Kind of Hero after writing this blog post but I was later honest about it in this post trying to show you the treats I received.

I have received some criticism for some of the posts most of them being "like I did not already know this". That will continue to happen because we all know different stuff and one of my main goals with this blog is to get none hardcore Bond fans to get curious into the books and feel the need to read especially if you are a teenager and not reading books at all.
But I have received a lot of support as well and I am really thankful for it. Some say that I am personal in the way that I write and that I write it as I see it and that is 100% true. I am a bad liar and have great faith in the truth. If I write that I enjoy something it is because I do. Not because it was sent to me for free. 

One of the true enjoyments when writing this blog is that I have connected to other collectors of Bond novelty. We are not many but a few who collect most of the books. I have learned a lot from others during this year and I am truly grateful for it. Bond knowledge is so fun to share.

So as I see it my task is to make you guys and girls want to read the books. And if you have not done this yet I hope to soon be able to persuade you into doing so and to start with Casino Royale.

I have many ideas for writing upcoming posts. Actually so many so that only half of them gets done. We need to contact the winners of the Trigger Mortis paperback, I need to publish my interview with George Lazenby, we need to read more about the James Bond comics coming up and and we have a new Bond novel from Anthony Horowitz and much much more to come.

The dream for my blog during the upcoming year is to make publishers more interested in working together with the blog when wanting to promote new books that we all will be interested in and start answering my emails instead of ignoring them. 

Hope you are visiting the blog soon again. I am hoping to deliver at least two posts a week. 

Ps. Please remember that English is not my native tongue. I live in Sweden and therefore the will be type errors and poor sentences within my text. Bare with me on this. Also. I have not yet earned a single $ or £ on this blog so please do not believe this is the purpose for the blog. As of today I feel it is more hassle then benefit of having third party advertising on the blog.

Here is to another great book year for James Bond, The Secret Agent.

Stephan Bäckman

World Exclusive: New James Bond drawing by artist Ibrahim Moustafa

A few months back I showed this amazing drawing of James Bond by American artist Ibrahim Mustafa.

Ibrahim specialises in drawing cover paintings for comics and have just finished JAEGER and when I noticed that he was a huge Bond fan and also have read the books I wanted to ask him if he was willing to draw a one month temporary new header for the THE SECRET AGENT blog. And boy was I happy when he said yes.

You can see his drawing below or in the top spot of this blog for the next thirty days. And while you are watching this beauty make sure to notice that James Bond is holding his Beretta  in this image (as Bond uses in the early books).

Ibrahim has also been painting exceptional drawings for each James Bond film that has been released. They are amazing but the best part for me is actually not what he has painted but how he came up with the idea and composition. Just looking at them makes me realise that I would never come up with these ideas and I guess that is were the real talent lies except the drawings. To be able to come up with ideas as cleaver as the once below.

Enjoy the below paintings and If you like them be sure to comment below. Ibrahim has six more to draw so make sure to check out his site and follow him on Twitter. 

I am sure that the day will come when we see Ibrahim's name on an official James Bond comic book or novel. You read it her first.

October 5, global James Bond amateur day!

Since 2012, October 5th has been global James Bond day.

The reason for this date to be chosen is that on October 5 1962 the first James Bond film Dr. No premiered in cinemas in the UK.

And the reason this was announced in 2012 is of course that the film series turned 50 years old that year. James Bond in book form was released much earlier, in 1953 to be exact.

But if you read this chances are high that you are a James Bond nut just like me. May I therefore suggest that you do what I will do.

I got the idea from Italian-American singer Dean Martin who had a reputation of being a heavy drinker. He said that he did not drink alcohol on New years eve because that was amateur night. He drank all the other days during the year.

I have always enjoyed that joke. He knew what people thought of him and he used it.

Therefore, in my world, today is global James Bond amateur day. Today James Bond is celebrated by the common James Bond fan. The fan who has never even read a Ian Fleming book. Rest of the year I intend to enjoy the greatest spy out there.

Happy global James Bond amateur day. Bond fans!

Below is the Ian Fleming, Dr No, Film release tie in version printed in 1963.

New Ian Fleming material to be published at Jonathan Cape

Today it was announced that a new James Bond novel will be released during 2018 and for the second time it will be penned by Anthony Horowitz.

The scoop was presented by The bookseller today over at their twitter account even if I gladly confess that I got the news from the always quick The Book Bond .

The publisher will once again be Jonathan Cape. The original publisher chosen by Ian Fleming for the release of his first book Casino Royale in 1953.
As a collector I am already starting to dream about the upcoming first edition being the same size as all Fleming first editions with a cover design that resembles the old Richard Chopping artworks. "Hope springs eternal".

According to Wikipedia  The James Bond books by Ian Fleming where Jonathan Cape's biggest sellers of all time. Jonathan Cape was bought by Random House UK in 1987. That same year the Bond books moves over to be published by Hodder &Stoughton.

The latest James Bond book to be released by Jonathan Cape was William Boyd's Solo in 2013 so it was not that long ago they did release a Bond book.


Richard Cable at Vintage (who seems to own Jonathan Cape today) said the following in a statement:

"We are delighted to welcome Anthony Horowitz and a new James Bond novel to Jonathan Cape, Ian Fleming’s publisher. Anthony’s first Bond novel, Trigger Mortis, was a great critical and commercial success, and we know that there are thousands of Bond fans who will be thrilled that Anthony has taken on the challenge once again."

As a sales manager I cant stop wondering what made Ian Fleming Publications chose different publishers so often lately. It must be just like the movie business that in the end you go with the one that pays the most upfront or are willing to spend a lot on marketing upon release.


So we will have to wait until spring 2018 before the next book The most reasent James Bond books have been released in September but just like Fleming's books this one will be released in the spring.



Once again it has been revelled that the upcoming novel will be a period Bond set in either the 50's or 60's and if that is not enough the book will also include material from another Ian Fleming story. I guess that just like Trigger Mortis this one will include material from the TV-series that Ian Fleming was hoping to sell and wrote short stories for. Here I hope for yet another Waterstones special edition with they actual Fleming script.



After reading Trigger Mortis I could not hope more for Horowitz to return for a new book and I was a bit surprised that this news was not released on August 12 (the day Fleming died in 1964) because everybody seemed to love his continuation novel so much that Ian Fleming Publications just couldn't let Horowitz off the hook. But I guess the negotiations was not ready or Horowitz had other obligations on his other books. His newest book Magpie Murders was released yesterday (October 3) so as soon as that was done they decided to spread the news I guess making sure that no bloggers beat them to it. 


A funny thing is that tomorrow is Global James Bond day. And they did not wait 24 hours to release the news tomorrow so maybe, just maybe, there will be some other James Bond news released tomorrow? Maybe from the other party over at Eon Productions.

Anthony Horowitz had the following statement to make about his return to 007:

"Writing Trigger Mortis was a pleasure and I was delighted by the positive response when it was published. And I was thrilled when the Ian Fleming estate asked me to come back. How could I refuse? I can't wait to return to the world of James Bond."

I believe I speak for many of us literary Bond fans when I say that

 we are delighted to see Anthony back onboard for a new James Bond novel. This time we know that the offer is placed in good hands and all we can do is wait. No pressure ;0)