Customer Reviews

James Bond: Shark Bait

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Shark Bait is one of the more interesting titles in the Titan series.
James Lawrence thankfully keeps the science fiction elements mostly out the stories presented here, save for the Doomcrack weapon, and the tunneling machine in the Xanadu Connection. The action scenes are some of the best I have seen Yaroslov Horak draw since The Man With The Golden Gun adaptation.

The underwater scenes of Shark Bait stand out the most, with James Bond fighting for his life against KGB frogmen and a killer shark off the coast of Australia to recover a Nato supercomputer.

Doomcrack has very intersteing artwork but is let down by a weak story and a poor ending, with SPECTRE once again escaping capture, I feel the SPECTRE stories should have been ended with Blofled's death in You Only Live Twice.

This book is excellent way for any Bond fan, or movie goer to pass the time til Quantom Of Solace opens in November.

Bond: Shark Bait

In North America, we have been cheated.

Sure, we have had the benefit of the Bond films, and a wide distribution of Bond Jr novels, but we did not have the opportunity to see 'The Xanadu Connection', 'Shark Bait', and 'Doomcrack' in print on our newspaper comic pages. Now, through Titan Books, we have been gifted a read'm all in one sitting edition.

The beauty of this collection is many fold. Artwise, Yaroslave Horak, and Harry North draw two strikingly different versions of Bond. Horaks' art is reminsicent of Carmine Infantino and John Floyd, with angular bodies and features. Extensive brushwork is evident on the reproduced panels. Currently, few artists use that style, but English artist Jag echoes Horak in almost every panel. Harry North draws with a smoother style, yet captures more of the photo references to Roger Moore. North American readers will recognize Tom Sutton and Pablo Marcos influence in the panels. One advantage of this large format book is the fact that the strips are not shrunk, and in high contrast black and white.

Story wise, the three adventures take Bond into new territory guided by Jim Lawrence. "Xanadu Connection"takes Bond behind German lines to extract MI-6 operator, Heidi Franz. Her intelligence reveals the existence of 'Marco Polo', a MI-6 informer. Megalomaniac, Kubla Khan, and Bond come crashing together in a battle of political wills. "Shark Bait" is an interesting almost formula adventure that puts Bond and Katya Orvola onto romance inbetween dodging sharks. The last tale, 'Doomcrack' is more vintage Bond, with hijacking taking a central role in the adventure.

Look for this volume at your local comic store or shop online at www.titanbooks.com. Bond will never die!

I enjoy all Bond stories, and compare them to stories written by Ian Fleming. Shark Bait I give an A+ as a Bond story.

Since Fleming is the original creator of Bond any other writer of a Bond story falls short.

Didn't know it was a graphic novel or I probably wouldn't have ordered it. I just presumed it was written by someone who had been given the rights by the Fleming family to continue writing Bond novels. Oh well I'll have to look closer next time I order.