James Bond: Goldfinger [Paperback]

Ian Fleming (Author), Henry Gammidge (Author), John McCluskey (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005

The legend continues! Stand by for more adventures with the world's greatest secret agent, as some of his most thrilling missions are collected for the first time ever! Modern-day King Midas, Auric Goldfinger, plans on ruining the economies of the Free World and using his own vast hoard of gold to control the planet. Bond must use all his rugged charms and brutal skills to stop Goldfinger before he brings western civilisation to its knees! This new edition also collects Risico, From A View To A Kill, For Your Eyes Only and Thunderball! No only that, it also features an new introduction by Shirley Eaton and background material created exclusively for this series!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Before Ian Fleming's secret agent 007 carved a lucrative niche in film, a daily comic strip ran in London's Daily Express beginning in 1958. Unlike the films, the comics stuck rather closely to the source novels, or as closely as the censors would allow. This fourth collection of the adapted novels includes Goldfinger, Thunderball and three of the five short stories from For Your Eyes Only and offers readers a glimpse into the tense world of Cold War-era espionage. Yet while Fleming's work is a rich foundation, the pacing of his stories is rendered choppy by the daily serialized format, and Gammidge's attempts at translating Fleming's taut suspense are flat. McLusky's art keeps the scripts' realistic tone and is well executed, yet it doesn't draw readers into the action; the effect resembles looking at still photographs of people in sharp late-1950s outfits with a bit of stiffly depicted violence thrown in for good measure. A curiosity for Fleming aficionados--there's an introduction by Shirley Eaton, who played Jill Masterson in Goldfinger, and several background essays--this collection probably won't interest others. (Jan.)
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Review

Brentwood Gazette 23 Feb 2005, reviews by Matt Adams: " ..a more ruthless, undiluted interpretation of 007, and is a must for Bond aficionados."

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Titan Books (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840239085
• ISBN-13: 978-1840239089
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 0.5 x 11.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #630,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bond fans can't lose!, February 23, 2005

By 

DARBY KERN (Green Bay, WI United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: James Bond: Goldfinger (Paperback)

In July of 1987 I was visiting Washington D.C. when I stumbled upon a copy of THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS comic strip, published by Titan Books. Being a Bond fan I snapped it up as quick as I could. The next day I went back and bought the OCTOPUSSY collection. I'd known that these strips existed but I had no idea that they had been collected in published form (other than THE ILLUSTRATED JAMES BOND, 007 released by The James Bond Fan Club). I found a copy of CASINO ROYALE on Ebay. Then, for over a decade, we had no new releases from Titan.

In the last year Titan has graciously resumed publishing these classic strips. My first purchase was the release of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. I will post a review there soon. Just yesterday I received GOLDFINGER- and I cannot be more pleased!

The adaptations by Henry Gammidge, with art by John McLusky are fantastic. I've read and reread these novels but some aspects of the story resonate so much better than Fleming's amazing novels.

McLusky had, by this time, really hit his stride with the strip, doing work that was light years ahead of when he began with CASINO ROYALE (which is still worth a peek!). His mastery of shadow and light comes through in some great atmospheric ways.

My introduction to the strips were through Yaroslav Horak's art, which has a distinct, Gil Kane-like style. When I first saw McLusky's work in CASINO ROYALE it seemed very basic in comparison. But now I actually prefer it- and I that's no slight on Horak!

GOLDFINGER also includes the adaptations of the short stories, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, RISICO, FROM A VIEW TO A KILL and the abreviated THUNDERBALL. Along with THE ILLUSTRATED JAMES BOND, 007, I have every Fleming story adapted except MOONRAKER. The upcoming release of CASINO ROYALE is 96 pages compared to the previous 60 page release. maybe it will finally be included.

For my money, GOLDFINGER may be the most satisfying book in the lot. It is 128 pages of James Bond fun. The text articles are all welcome material as well. Well done Titan Books. Feel free to continue publishing the non-Fleming stories as well!

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Awesome!!, September 1, 2010

By 

Knife G "Knife G" (Saudi Arabia) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: James Bond: Goldfinger (Paperback)

I am a huge James Bond fan, so this will be a little biased. I am a fan of the books, movies, lifestyle, character, just about everything bond and have been since childhood. WWJD to me means "what would james do?".

The GN follows the Fleming novels' plot and is in classic comic strip sketching. Due to this type of sketching a lot of detail is lost compared to say .... Alan Moore. But it does not detract from the feel or story in any kind of way. I highly recommend reading the full novel before this as your mind will fill in the gaps. Goldfinger included the For Your Eyes Only short stories as well as a short version of Thunderball.

I finished it in one sitting and see myself going back to it soon. Enjoy!