I just bought the first two volumes of the recently released reprints of the James Bond serial newspaper strip which ran in the UK in the fifties and sixties. This series (currently reprinted in six volumes by Titan Books) contains fastidious adaptations of every single Bond story Fleming wrote (with the exception of the inconsequential short stories "Quantum of Solace" and "Property of a Lady".) These adaptaions are very good and the artwork is excellent, making them must-owns for any 007 fan. Bond himself, his allies, the girls, the settings and especially the villians are rendered just so right. Nearly all the adaptations in this series were done years before the movie versions of the story in question came to screen, and it is striking how a scene depicted in the comic will often presage the way it appeared on screen. If you are a Bond fan, or just a fan of excellent vintage comic adaptations in general, don't pass these up. Magnificent comic work.
CASINO ROYALE:
The first adaptation of the Bond stories ran in 138 strips which originally appeared in the Daily Express from July to December 1958. This excellent example of graphic storytelling set the standard for the series.
As with most of the comic adaptations, "Casino Royale" follows the plot of Fleming's novel pretty slavishly. One minor change is that Vesper Lynd is introduced to Bond at the beginning of the story as the assistant to Head of S.
For obvious reasons, Le Chiffre's torture of Bond could not be depicted as it was in the novel. Instead, he is shown beating Bond about the head and shoulders with the carpet beater.
Strip number 31 is odd. It appears to be a mini-travelogue of the town of Royale Les Eaux and it seems to interrupt the continuity between the two strips which precede and follow it. In strip 30, Bond is approaching two men planning to kill him with a bomb. Then comes the aforementioned strip, which does not fit the action of the preceding one. Then, in strip 32, the action picks up from the end of strip 30. I'm wondering if strip 31 wasn't accidently put in out of place somehow.