John Gardner Reprints Coming 2011

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Comments

  • Posts: 267
    Fellow Agents,
    Why we are subjected to a continuos flow of dreadful cover art continues to be one of the great mysteries of our time. Wether it be the Fleming, Amis or Gardner reprints or the new Bond continuation novels, all we seem to get are graphics and themes that do no justice to the work.
    The original cape covers of the Fleming books, mostly by Richard Chopping, were fantastic , cape's original cover for Colnel Son was a fine piece of work and the first five Gardner books had great art. With the exception of the Penguin Fleming US pulp covers, everything else has been complete dross!
    Please, as with the Gardner hardback re-issues please just reprint the originals and for the new Boyd book please, please get a good artist and put some effort into it.
    I live in hope that we will get Chopping's originals back but maybe somebody has lost the plates?
    Regards, Bentley
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    edited June 2012 Posts: 28,694
    The silent vigilante for the literary Bond continues his onslaught... (:|
  • Posts: 267
    HASEROT wrote:
    @agent005

    The cover art isn't awful... but IMO, it pales to the cover art from these Fleming reissues..

    <a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v323/djx187/?action=view&current=FlemingFRWL.jpg"; target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v323/djx187/FlemingFRWL.jpg"; border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

    the art on the cover of the Gardner ones are almost cartoon like - which again, isn't bad.... well, except for Icebreaker - i nearly wet myself when i first saw it.. lol... something simple and classy would work just fine...

    Dear 005,
    You are correct.
    Out of all the Penguin editions. These US covers (subsequently released in the UK as a special edition) were the only worthy releases and personally, I think they are stand out. The artist really got into Fleming's work and gave us the cover art equivalent of the new Fiat 500 - faithful to the spirit but really quite chic.
    Brilliant, I loved them to bits and have them alongside my JC & Pan editions.
    Regards,
    Bentley
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    Posts: 13,894
    On friday, I bought the pb copies of Icebreaker, Role Of Honour & Nobody Lives Forever. 3 for £5 in The Works. I'm not that keen on the covers, but I still wanted to add them to my collection.
  • KronsteenKronsteen Stockholm
    Posts: 783
    I really like the new Gardner reprint covers. I find them more intruiging than covers using lightly dressed women... I just don't feel comfortable them using that to sell the Bond books, it isn't needed and makes the Fleming novels seem more dated than they really are. I prefer the new Fleming reprint covers coming this autumn!
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    Posts: 893
    The "Fleming-y" feel is the artist, Richard Chopping, who did Licence Renewed (at least) as well as From Russia, With Love through to Octopussy (minus Doctor No, although I think he did a very basic re-release, or it was done with his style). He may not have done the 2nd - 5th Gardners (I can't be sure) but again it was done in his style, a detail of a prop on a wooden background with occasional flies, bones etc. I dream of the day the Fleming Hardback designs get used for a decent set of paperbacks instead of rubbish stock photos.

    Chopping only did License Renewed.

    3a04cf1fe1cc15970f0bbad6df946084.jpg
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    Posts: 893
    Bentley wrote:
    Fellow Agents,
    Why we are subjected to a continuos flow of dreadful cover art continues to be one of the great mysteries of our time. Wether it be the Fleming, Amis or Gardner reprints or the new Bond continuation novels, all we seem to get are graphics and themes that do no justice to the work.
    The original cape covers of the Fleming books, mostly by Richard Chopping, were fantastic , cape's original cover for Colnel Son was a fine piece of work and the first five Gardner books had great art. With the exception of the Penguin Fleming US pulp covers, everything else has been complete dross!
    Please, as with the Gardner hardback re-issues please just reprint the originals and for the new Boyd book please, please get a good artist and put some effort into it.
    I live in hope that we will get Chopping's originals back but maybe somebody has lost the plates?
    Regards, Bentley

    Can the original prints be missing?!

    d9a467055f61d7c6f21dc8827eb372c5.jpg
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    edited April 2013 Posts: 893
    On friday, I bought the pb copies of Icebreaker, Role Of Honour & Nobody Lives Forever. 3 for £5 in The Works. I'm not that keen on the covers, but I still wanted to add them to my collection.

    Do you know who did the original covers? They're certainly in the Chopping style.

    302ed621eacb13f8afbb7084cc5a39a7.jpg

    70c88aa012d41d158e6ffea40328b0ae.jpg

    a1b65a324ee42c5d26f4fe14ffa888ee.jpg

    137c45792c22ece7998aff57f876a0ed.jpg
  • MajorDSmytheMajorDSmythe "I tolerate this century, but I don't enjoy it."Moderator
    edited April 2013 Posts: 13,894
    007InVT wrote:
    Do you know who did the original covers? They're certainly in the Chopping style.

    I've done a bit of searching, and i've come up with two names: Bill Botten (For Special Services & Icebreaker) and Trevor Scobie (Role Of Honour & Nobody Lives For Ever).

    Those names came from the wiki entries for each book, so I am not sure how accurate the info is.
  • 007InVT007InVT Classified
    Posts: 893
    Thanks for checking the file. I'll look further into those names.
  • Aziz_FekkeshAziz_Fekkesh Royale-les-Eaux
    Posts: 403
    So are the last 4 books (NSF, SeaFire, GE, and Cold ) available in the US/Canada?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,805
    007InVT wrote:
    Do you know who did the original covers? They're certainly in the Chopping style.

    I've done a bit of searching, and i've come up with two names: Bill Botten (For Special Services & Icebreaker) and Trevor Scobie (Role Of Honour & Nobody Lives For Ever).

    Those names came from the wiki entries for each book, so I am not sure how accurate the info is.

    Yes, I think that's right. Richard Chopping only did the first one - Licence Renewed.

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