Gillette’s new cover art revealed

edited August 12 in Literary 007 Posts: 1,068
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.
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Comments

  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited August 12 Posts: 3,787
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    edited August 13 Posts: 7,074
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a centipede?
  • zebrafishzebrafish <°)))< in Octopussy's garden in the shade
    Posts: 4,340
    Excellent covers in any regard. Try to guess the titles from the covers alone!
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    Posts: 3,787
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a centipede?

    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.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    I just saw these, I think they're absolutely gorgeous, up there with the very best designs.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,236
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a 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:

    s-l400.jpg

    Even the 1960s Pan cover had a spider's web on it:

    91V2fJ9e4IL._SL1500_.jpg

    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.
  • GoldenGunGoldenGun Per ora e per il momento che verrà
    Posts: 7,074
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a 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:

    s-l400.jpg

    Even the 1960s Pan cover had a spider's web on it:

    91V2fJ9e4IL._SL1500_.jpg

    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 :))
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    The giant centipede would have been more distinctive though.

    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.
  • thedovethedove hiding in the Greek underworld
    Posts: 5,341
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a centipede?

    I thought it was the squid that was pictured. LOL!
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    The squid would be cool on the cover. Or a load of crabs! :)

    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.”
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 13 Posts: 18,236
    thedove wrote: »
    GoldenGun wrote: »
    They look really good, but I prefer the Bond girl ones. I liked that they each had a different colour, it looked super elegant too. These ones are nice too, but I don't remember DN featuring a spider though, right? Wasn't it a centipede?

    I thought it was the squid that was pictured. LOL!

    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!
  • edited August 13 Posts: 1,068
    The Folio Society crossed the line from book Bond to film Bond in their illustration of Piz Gloria if I remember right.

    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.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    I wonder what the archival material and bonus content will be.
  • Posts: 1,068
    I haven't a clue, but I'd bet that any unused Fleming stuff (TV screenplay ideas etc) will be kept for the next full-blooded James Bond novel with a continuation author. That's if the exist at all.
  • Agent_99Agent_99 enjoys a spirited ride as much as the next girl
    Posts: 3,169
    SIS_HQ wrote: »
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.

    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.
  • DaltonforyouDaltonforyou The Daltonator
    Posts: 552
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    SIS_HQ wrote: »
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.

    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?
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited August 14 Posts: 16,211
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    SIS_HQ wrote: »
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.

    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 loved the retro/modern typography on those but I think you both have a point.
  • SIS_HQSIS_HQ At the Vauxhall Headquarters
    edited August 14 Posts: 3,787
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    SIS_HQ wrote: »
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.

    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?

    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).
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,236
    Agent_99 wrote: »
    SIS_HQ wrote: »
    I prefer these than to those of the Bond Girls designs, honestly, modern yet creative, the Bond Girls designs, on the other hand felt like something came out of a soft porn or something like that, those were decent looking, I guess, but these new covers were better, in my opinion.

    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?

    No doubt it's just for those from the Greek island of Lesbos.
  • I'm pretty sure Fleming was against young people reading his novels because they would end up idealising James Bond. That's why he wrote the The Spy Who Loved Me, as a sort of cautionary tale for youth.

    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.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    edited August 14 Posts: 16,211
    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?

    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.
    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?

    Sometimes the colour schemes are there just because they look nice.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,236
    I see on one of the Literary Bond Facebook groups that IFP have confirmed that these new hardback editions won't have dust jackets and that the cover art will just be printed on the book boards instead. I'm not sure how collectors here feel about that but thought I'd pass it on.
  • Midas touch doesn't really go well with me in a literary context though, that gets associated through the title song in the film (don't think the body in either book or film mentions it). I don't think the "finger" part in his name would make me automatically associated "Goldfinger" with "fingerprint" so it feels out of touch with me personally I suppose. I never think of the villain being "Gold-finger" to be honest, just "GOLDfinger" if that makes any sense.

    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.
  • Posts: 1,068
    Dragonpol wrote: »
    I see on one of the Literary Bond Facebook groups that IFP have confirmed that these new hardback editions won't have dust jackets and that the cover art will just be printed on the book boards instead. I'm not sure how collectors here feel about that but thought I'd pass it on.

    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.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    Midas touch doesn't really go well with me in a literary context though, that gets associated through the title song in the film (don't think the body in either book or film mentions it).

    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.
    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.

    Well it's all subjective isn't it. Sorry these ones aren't for you, hopefully the next will be more to your taste.
  • Posts: 3,327
    Not overly keen on the images used on the new covers, but I do quite like the font used, which is reminiscent of the Raymond Hawkey 60's Pan covers, which to me are still the definitive Bond book covers.

    No other cover design comes close to those 60's Pan Books.
  • edited August 15 Posts: 1,068
    So are these versions censored? I suspect they might be the new sanitised versions, and I'd certainly like to know before I start buying.
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 18,236
    So are these versions censored? I suspect they might be the new sanitised versions, and I'd certainly like to know before I start buying.

    That is the $64,000 question.
  • mtmmtm United Kingdom
    Posts: 16,211
    Would you actually read them?
  • edited August 15 Posts: 1,068
    I think I would. I read the Centenary editions as I bought them, and I've been doing the same with the Folios. It's not that often that a new series of Fleming hardbacks comes out.
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