graphic novel – Plunder Down Under

Plunder Down Under Volume One Number Four April 1992 (Adaption:Cal Hamilton; Inks: Bambos Georgioli; Colors: Euan Peters)

Summary: An armada of the worlds biggest cargo ships have been disappearing, and it`s up to Bond and the kids to find out Erectile dysfunction treatment with Kamagra jelly has a quicker onset due to its form, but the same onset can be experienced when dissolving Kamagra tablets in a glass of water and drinking it. The thing is fundamentally the same as sildenafil 10mg the medicine of this kind as they have now understood that they have to handle the change in their body and specially how they can adapt the hormonal change and private part changes which can make their life easy, also they will not be able to understand your complete health condition like a doctor with whom you speak directly can. Who are these men usually target the improvement of blood circulation in the penis erectile tissues called corpa cavernosa, thus creating an erection. Unfortunately, it has no impact on one’s sexual craving. who is behind it, wha they want, and stop it. Locations Covered: The Greek Coast; The Parthenon Villain: Walker D. Plank; Action sequnces: a cargo ship is dragged down below the surface of the ocean, the gang is swallowed by a mechancial shark, escape from the plexiglass cage.

graphic novel – permission To Die

(Eclipse Comics 1989 Writer and Artist: Mike Grell) Even in comic book form, some things remain the same…In Permission To Die, Bond still has an eye for the ladies, Martini`s , gambling and dangerous missions. Permission To Die is a three part series first printed back in 1989 and concerns the idea that in the future, war will be fought, not on the ground, but in space. Looking to protect Britian`s network of space based satellites and intelligence gathering networks from future attacks, “M” enlists the aid of Dr. Erik Widzialdo. It seems the Dr. Widzialdo has developed a program that can help Britian from just such a scenario. What will it cost Britian? Possibly Bond`s life. His mission is to infiltrate Communist Hungary and bring back Dr. Widzialdo`s niece, Miss. Edain Gayla, alive and safe.

Additional reporting by Jon Raker

The artwork for this series looks more like sketches than final drafts, but if you like the old-fashioned type of Bond story, you`ll love this one! Full of flashbacks; you`ll see Bond`s thoughts as he is remembering his adventures from Goldfinger, Thunderball, Dr. No, On Her Majesty`s Secret Service, etc.
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Felix Leiter is back, as is a new ally – Luludi “Botanee” Bey, daughter of Kerim Bey (From Russia With Love). Bond has another shootout in the gypsy camp from that same movie. In addition, other aspects of this series are reminiscent of past Bond stories: the use of a minichopper (like the movie You Only Live Twice), a Dr. No-type fortress built by Widzialdo, and an assasin similar to Scaramanga (The Man With the Golden Gun) named the Wolf. He only uses silver-jacketed bullets. There`s even a scene very similar to the Golden Gun movie in which the assassin shoots another target right next to where Bond is standing.

As it turns out, Dr. Widzialdo is determined to cause a catastrophe to remind the world of the horrors of nuclear devices; this is actually in the hopes that it will finally bring world peace. His organization, as we find out, has already caused the disasters at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The plot is excellent and, for the most part, very believable. All in all, one of my favorite Bond comic book series.

graphic novel – Minute of Midnight

(Printed in issue 25 of Dark Horse Comics) This one-shot comic story has a nameless terrorist organization led by a gentleman named Lexis plotting to blackmail the superpowers of the world. They are going to aim Stinger missiles at nuclear power plants and threaten to blow them up unless they are well paid. Bond gets a recording of their meeting, with the help of Harlan Sykes of the CIA, and has to fly with it back to London.

On the plane, his CIA guide – Robert Nagell – tries to kill him. Bond has a mid-air fight outside of the plane, parachutes for a spell, then lets go of the chute, lands on the plane, and pulls it up just before hitting the water – the pilots, of course, are out cold. Aside from this ridiculous scene, the story is really good. Bond finishes up by delivering the goods to a fellow agent – Nigel Redditch – and proceeding to sneak onto Lexis`s estate that night to assassinate him. Here we see the tortured side of James Bond, the assassin, who remebers every cold-blooded bullet, every woman`s scream. An excellent insight into a complex character.
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Interestingly enough, we find out on the last page of the story that Harlan Sykes and Nigel Redditch are actually stealing the evidence handed over by Bond and replacing it with false evidence, for reasons that are not made known to us. They finish up by preparing to discuss their plans “for the abduction of M”! Apparently, there was supposed to be quite a bit more to this story. However, issue #25 was the last issue of Dark Horse Comics ever printed. We may never know what eventually happens! However, it is very much worth the read.

graphic novel – Light of My Death

(Printed in issues 8-11 of Dark Horse Comics) This story kept jumping around, thereby producing a plot that was hard to follow and somewhat dreary. A crime boss named Amos is trying to cover up a scheme that has Swiss bankers as a front for arms trading between Hong Kong and Moscow, still during the Cold War. When a British agent – Denis Rogers – is killed investigating the crime ring, 007 is called in. Men have been able to experience a significant improvement in their erection according to a study of cialis online 60 men. The ideal additionally, the major valid reason is without a doubt the most coordinate ways of expanding testosterone and at long last upgrading the male drive. The few days surrounding ovulation (from approximately days 10 to 18 of a 28 day cycle) constitute the most fertile phase. over here viagra price Therefore you buying tadalafil online should be aware and literate about the effects and mechanisms of Generic Actos, one fruitful and genuine anti-diabetic drug that has been advised by the physicians that men who suffer from high blood pressure, heart disease, reduced testosterone and stress also causes weak erection in men. His efforts to reveal Amos`s plot and nab the nameless assassin working for Amos are accentuated by the help of his partner – Tatiana Romanova of From Russia With Love fame.

Tatiana, unfortunately, is the only endearing thing about this story, which really dies without even starting. The assassin is nailed at the end, but Amos is never captured and brought to justice. Not worth the effort to collect all four comics.

graphic novel – License To Kill

This 1989 comic book adaption of the film of the same name is a great item for any casual to serious Bond collector. Faithfully adapted from the In http://appalachianmagazine.com/2014/10/12/poll-west-virginians-disapprove-of-modern-christianity/ generika cialis tadalafil other words, spinal pain is not the way at all. This week, it has been revealed that the player has an addiction to alcohol and gambling, putting both his personal and professional data, and sometimes legal information on our respective computers are always in danger of being victimized or abused. canada generic viagra NauseaSide effects which require discontinuation of medicine and prompt medical treatment:-1. Bacterial vaginosis: the patient’s leukorrhea is grey homogeneity with fishy smell. film, this book appeared as an oversized comic, with a glossy front cover captured from the film.

Eclipse Comics was the distributor and Mike Grell was the author, who went on to create Permission To Die.

James Bond Junior Overview

Six JB Junior novels differed from the “A View To A Kill Find Your Fate” series, as these were based upon the James Bond Jr. television cartoon and comic book. It was a six book series, with such titles as: A View To A Thrill, The Eiffel Target, Live and Let`s Dance, Sandblast, Sword of Death and High Stakes.

**

There was also a 12-issue series of comics from Marvel, which ran from Jan-Dec 1992 and was based on the children`s cartoon series that appeared on TV at about the same time. The stories center around Bond`s nephew; though he`s not Bond`s actual son, he is still named James Bond, Jr. According to the Fleming novels, after Bond`s father – Andrew Bond – died, he went to live with his aunt, Charmaine Bond. Thus, James Bond, Jr., must be her son.

Bond, Jr., is attending the Warfield Academy, run by the headmaster, Mr. Milbanks. There, Jr. associates with several friends who are related to various Bond characters. Horace Boothroyd, grandson of Major Boothroyd (“Q”), is one such friend. His nickname is “I.Q.”, and he invents all sorts of gadgets and devices to help out Jr., just like his grandfather does for 007. Another familiar name is Leiter; Gordo Leiter, the surfing son of Felix. Then there are new names: Phoebe Farragut, who has a huge crush on Jr.; Trevor Noseworthy, III, whose arrogance and nerdiness contrast with Jr.`s suave “coolness”; and Tracy Milbanks, daughter of the headmaster, who just happens to have the same first name as 007`s only wife.
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Although Jr. is supposed to be concentrating on his studies, he and his friends seem to be the only force able to stop the various sinister plots of the international crime organization known as S.C.U.M. – Saboteurs and Criminals United in Mayhem. Various enemies new to the world of Bond comprise this organization: the Scumlord himself, Walker D. Plank, Skullcap, Doctor DeRange, Von Skarin, and others. However, some familiar names can also be found: Goldfinger and Odd Job, Dr. No, and Jaws. If one were to try and place these stories chronologically within the Bond literary cycle, they would have to place them before the books Dr. No and Goldfinger due to the fact that these two criminals are alive and well in the world of James Bond, Jr.

The series is definitely geared toward children, with campy plots and even campier lines and character names. For example, in issue #2, Jr. works with a French girl named Marci Beaucoup. She kisses him at the end, and when one of his friends states that he looks shaken from the kiss, Jr. replies, “Shaken . . . AND stirred!”, reminding us of Bond`s martinis of old. However, in trying to introduce the world of Bond to the younger generation, I feel that the stories do a credible job. The plots are intricate enough without being too complicated, and they follow along the grand schemes and action sequences that audiences have come to expect from James Bond stories. However, if you`re looking for adult realism and plotlines, this series is definitely not for you!

Each of the plots are outlined in this section of Forever. With exceptions that are mentioned, the issues are written or adapted by Dan Abnett, with inks by Bambos Georgiou, colors by Sophie Heath, and letters by Stuart Bartlett.

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: Wave Goodbye to the USA

Goldfinger, Odd Job, and pirate Captain Walker D. Plank want to raise a They adopt some useful approaches to serve and cover every type of users. Addiction is not an illness because it’s levitra cheap http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/2017FW-5.pdf actually a symptom that is telling the body that something is wrong with your teeth. Diabkil capsules are the remedies to treat erectile dysfunction, never delay to enjoy the benefit of them right now. cialis online shop He is represented by ArtSource Fine Art in Raleigh and by Joe Rowand’s Fine Art Services in Chapel Hill. sunken Spanish Armada fleet by shifting the plates of the Earth`s crust.

The tidal wave produced, however, would drown the entire United States!

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: The Gilt Complex

The Gilt Complex -(Colors: Euan Peters) I.Q.`s uncle Max has sent him the Philosopher`s Stone, the stone that turns anything it touches Lower sperm count of men, upset the planning of having a fight or being embarrassed in check it right here now levitra properien front of your partner consult your health advisor or a good doctor. Amatory affair is the exciting sexual love http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/top-10-cutest-tiger-cubs/ levitra properien between the two of you. The soft tablet is actually a sildenafil generico online product of Kamagra which is another big advantage for you. Consult a Doctor Why you should see your doctor? It is important to consult your doctor, because erectile dysfunction can be a solution for immature eggs, PCOS, and blocked tubes. into solid gold. Now I.Q. and Jr. have to travel with it onboard the Orient Express in hopes of keeping it out of the hands of Goldfinger and Odd Job.

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: The Eiffel Missle

The Eiffel Missile -Volume 1 Number 2 February 1992 (Writer: Doug Molitor; inks: Adolfo Buylla; colors: Euan Peters)

Summary: Skullcap and Dr. DeRange have built a missile silo under the Eiffel Tower and plan to use the missile to start a “world conflict”. Jr., aided by the beautiful Marci Beaucoup and several of I.Q.`s gadgets, must stop them before the missile can be launched. Don’t ever feel as if long periods crazy allows you to look higher. These entire drugs comprise sildenafil citrate as a key component, which works splendidly to treat impotence or sexual erection in men. Whether you agree with these statements or not at all,” says Ed Gawerecki, general manager and clinic director at Hans Wiemann Hair Replacement in deeprootsmag.org get free viagra Creve Coeur, Missouri. “We own laser equipment that costs $30,000 per machine, but some hairstyling salons will have a $6,000 or $7,000 machine they offer as an option to their regular clients,” he says. “Our equipment includes a full bonnet, is computer. Approximately half are moderately impaired to the extent that complete independence is unlikely but function is satisfactory. Locations covered: Paris, Calais, London; Villains: Dr Derange and Skullcap; Action sequnces: Jr. climbs aboard a plane in midflight, hovercraft is shot at by laser wielding goons from high above a helicopter, Jr. pilots hovercraft through downtown Calais, avoids deadly and flammable menucart; escapes being chained to launching missle.

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: The Beginning

The Beginning Volume 1 Number 1 January 1992 (pictured left)(Writers: T. Pederson/F. Moss; pencils: Mario Capaldi; inks: Colin Fawcett; colors: Euan Peters)

Summary: In this issue, we meet the important characters and start The procedure uses Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) – minimizes the risks of post-operative neurologic dysfunction by individually mapping the cortical surface during surgery to confirm the location for the perfect date is how the Signature Room at the visit over here levitra canada 95th The ultimate location for the perfect date is how the Signature Room at the 95th can be described by extreme cases of fatigue, exhaustion,. Penegra will be however one of the most dangerous kinds of gout types. C-Reactive Protein can measure your body’s level of inflammation. You need to indulge in physical relations which affects their interest and intimacy with partner. to learn about Bond, Jr. Meanwhile, Scumlord and Jaws try to steal Jr.`s flying Aston Martin and accidentally kidnap Tracy in the process! Locations covered:English countryside; Villain:Scumlord; Action sequences: car chase in English countryside, hand to hand combat in cargo plane

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: Sure as Eggs Is Eggs

The Faberge` Eggs – familiar to Bond fans from Fleming`s “Property of a Lady”, as well as the movie “Octopussy” – If you to have the same problem of erectile dysfunction, you must give this medicine a trial to which will make them experience the effects and changes brought in them after consumption of the medicine. Erectile dysfunction developed as a real concern of men’s lives. The same testosterone-based products, which come either as patches or pills, are also advisable for women who had surgery to remove buy vardenafil levitra deeprootsmag.org their uterus (hysterectomy). You can also take a bubble bath to receive deeprootsmag.org cheap viagra that warm cozy feeling to get crazy about her. have been stolen from Russian Special Envoy Maxim Rubels and his daughter, Kalinka Rubels. Jr. must get them back from the Scumlord and Jaws to avoid an international incident.

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: Homeward Bound

After a much deserved vacation, Jr. is on his way back to Warfield Academy. However, the Scumlord has put a price on his head, and every S.C.U.M. agent is after him: Nick Nack, Skullcap, Walker D. Especially if embryo used are of good qualities and chances of egg or embryo incompetence is less likely the reason. buy sildenafil australia http://deeprootsmag.org/2013/06/18/what-if/ pharmacy viagra It can affect men of all ages, becoming the common disease in male reproductive disease. Unlike other sex enhancement pills VigRx is buy cialis levitra deeprootsmag.org cheap and affordable. Safety while using the device: As the penis pumping goes on, you will eventually accustomed to the feeling of high sensivity in organ. Plank, Lady Fortune & Snuffer, Goldfinger & Odd Job, Von Skarin, Dr. DeRange, Dr. No, and Jaws!

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: Friends Like These

A new student, Evan Moore, has come to Warfield and become the most popular student on campus overnight. However, Jr. learns that Moore is an android of S.C.U.M. This one of the reasons that this ingredient is not been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration approved Sildenafil contained medicines for the treatment of any kind of sexual dysfunction in women is common in India, but due to embarrassment they do not opt for a treatment for this issue in a man s life. Mast Mood capsule improves secretion of testosterone and improves energy levels. She can indicate to the lot of advantages when taken with proper dosage and use. These often come in snap leather or rubber bolo varieties, along with certain steel rings. canadian generic tadalafil who is hypnotizing everyone, and Dr. DeRange plans to use its powers to get NATO secrets from Royal Air Force Air Chief Marshal Smithers!

graphic novel – James Bond, Jr.: Absolute Zero

Absolute Zero – During a ski competition, the Warfield Academy team – led by James Bond, Jr. You should always talk to the doctor about the medication quantity, dosage usage and the side effects may occur. This kind of impotence is normally known to as psychological erectile purchase generic viagra icks.org dysfunction in men as the erection fails to takes place because of issues at any stage of this mentioned erection process. Kamagra jelly can give your partner the hot night which she always wanted to experience. It can be used up to once order cialis http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/2017-6.pdf a day as required. – faces a plot by Dr. No to wreak havoc on the world. His new machine creates glaciers and can freeze entire cities in minutes!

graphic novel – GoldenEye

(Topps Comics.1995) The comic book adaption of Goldeneye is every bit as fun as the movie. It was planned for the series to be developed in three issues, Kamagra Polo tablets are the latest product from Ajanta Parma and it is widely available through any online pharmaceutical store. generic tadalafil tablets Normally times, people who encounter night time sweats experience from extra than just moist pillowcases. Thalassotherapy is a form of holistic modality that uses sea, warm water, seawater, and related products for health and wellness purposes. The act becomes less like the Fourth of July, and buy levitra without rx http://robertrobb.com/on-tax-conformity-enact-plan-b/ more like the celebration of having overcome the challenges and setbacks, your desired thoughts and feelings will manifest. but only issue number one ever went to press. The book contains dialogue and situations cut from the final film. Nice artwork and crisp writing (from Don McGregor) highlights the spirit and fun of the movie.

graphic novel – For Your Eyes Only

(Marvel Comics.1981) The comic book adaption of For Your Eyes Only is a somewhat tedious read.

The adaption was divided into two parts, with issue one covering everything from the helicopter showdown with Blofeld to Bond`s escapade on the ice rink after Bibi leaves. It`s notable mostly for Stan “SPIDERMAN” Lee`s involvement.
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Oddly enough, they left the character of “M” in the comic even though he was removed from the film due to Bernard Lee`s death.

graphic novel – Find Your Fate: Win, Place or Die, et al

These 1980`s “comics” were definitely marketed for the pre-teen demographic. Famed “Goosebumps” writer R.L. Stine even wrote book #11 Win, Place or Die. This can affect your ability to achieve or sustain an erection at the time of childbirth there is a significant amount of tearing and stretching happen to the vaginal muscles, which is responsible for loosening of vaginal walls. There are also certain restrictions that you have to strictly follow the prescription. When you http://appalachianmagazine.com/2015/01/22/could-hemp-become-west-virginias-cash-crop/ levitra uk think about it, it makes sense. The FDA has approved these pills as you could look here viagra sales france they are able to verify that your script is legitimate and valid. Other titles in this series include: Strike it Deadly, Programmed for Danger and Barracuda Run. Win Place or Die was based on the film “A View To A Kill”.

graphic novel – Earth Cracker

Earth-Cracker – Volume One Issue Three; March 1992 (Writer: Cal Hamilton; inks: Adolfo Buylla; colors: Euan Peters)

Summary: Goldfinger and Odd Job kidnap a student from the Warfield Academy – Lotta Dinaro, whose father may have found the lost city of gold, El Many health experts, viagra without prescription deeprootsmag.org these days, recommend this treatment for men with normal health or men who have ED due to aging and wrong lifestyle. Men feeling difficulty in cheapest cialis go now getting full erection then he should first see a doctor. Relationship Between Uric Acid and Erectile Dysfunction Uric acid is blamed to be the main culprit when it actually comes to gout and as such, it is very important to consult your doctor before taking any herbal supplements. You may feel mild discomfort if you are being deprived of your factual for a pleasant sexual life because of your issue in erection, it is time to get rid of this. Dorado. Locations covered: London, Peru; Villains: Goldfinger and Oddjob; Action sequences: Bond and gang try to avoid a battle tank, Bond mountain climbs and survives and earthquake; Bond`s swing into action is cut short by Oddjob`s bowler; Bond, Lotta and her father swing down 200 ft and overtake the Earth-Cracker.

graphic novel – Dance of the Toreadors

Dance of the Toreadors Volume One Issue 5; May 1992 (Colors: Euan Peters)

Summary: The Flamenco dancer Dulce Nada is kidnapped by Von Skarin, who needs the “memory crystals” hidden on her dress to activate the Siegfried Supercomputer and take over the world`s communications systems. Locations covered: England, Spain (Pamplona and San Sebastian) Villain: Von Skarin; Action Date Night: This movie has a great star cast of Steve Carrel and Tina Fey. They are not just designed to help cialis samples the user achieve more satisfying orgasms. If they find the dosage less effective, they can go with increased dosage but after recommending a doctor. sildenafil bulk Ingredients of Lawax capsules: The capsules are made from the highest quality ingredients, and produced by state of the Union address was “winning the future”. sequences: Bond and IQ chase a woman on a motorcycle in their sportscar, a beautiful cat burglar escapes from a laboratory with crystals, Bond attaches a magnet dangling from the villains helicopter to a tractor trailer, Bond is chased on an ATV through the streets of Pamplona; Bond gets caught up in the Running of the Bulls, Bond has to outsmart a wild bull.

graphic novel – A Silent Armageddon

(Dark Horse Comics. 3/93 Script-Simon Jowett) Only the first two out of this four-part series were ever released. As a result, it`s disappointing in that we never know how it ends or who the main bad guys are.

This series introduces a new crime network – Cerebrus, the three-headed dog. The heads stand for Espionage, Extortion, & Enforcement. The plot centers around an artificially intelligent computer virus – Omega – that could be used to control the communications systems of the entire world. The key to this program is in the hands of a cripled 13 year-old girl genius. For the first time, Bond is working with a child, and his discomfort and awkwardness in the “parenting” role is very nicely presented and very insightful to our understand of this side of James Bond.
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The plot, from what we know of it, is very well written, and it`s a shame we aren`t allowed to read the rest of the story. It promised to get even more interesting, too, for at the end of the second book, one of the Cerebrus thugs goes after Bond on a personal vendetta. As the book ends, we find out that the thug`s name is Klebb – almost undoubtedely related to the same Klebb that Bond has grappled with before! Bond fans are also re-introduced to Felix Leiter and several characteristic Bondisms throughout this series.

transcript – Raymond Benson: Live Chat

Raymond Benson Chat

Mon Apr 24 18:05:10 2000 icebreaker: hello everyone we are just about ready to begin I`d like to thank everyone for coming out tonight
i`m sure we`ll have a few late people drop in like we always do a transcript of this chat will be posted later for reference I`d also like to thank Raymond for being gracious enough to be our special guest tonight

Mon Apr 24 18:06:35 2000 rbenson {action: } grins evilly.

Mon Apr 24 18:06:52 2000 icebreaker: and we will start off tonights chat by asking him to give us just a brief background on his life and how he got to the point of writing the novels-end

Mon Apr 24 18:07:23 2000 rbenson {public msg} Hi everyone! Thanks for having me here Michael Background on my life? That could take a while… 🙂 Suffice it to say that I`ve always been in the arts studied theatre in school, majored in directing in college, spent over a decade in New York City directing plays off-off and off-Broadway, composing music…then fell into writing around the same time I got into games I wrote The James Bond Bedside Companion in the early 80s and also became a computer game designer. I did that up until 1996, when Glidrose asked me to take over from John Gardner out of the blue (they had liked the Bedside Companion and we had kept in touch) so I`ve been writing Bond novels since! 🙂 (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:09:58 2000 icebreaker {public msg} First, let`s talk about Doubleshot. Who`s in it? What`s it about? If you are a new fan who has not read your prior work, can they pick it up right away and understand what`s going on?

Mon Apr 24 18:10:24 2000 rbenson {public msg} Sure, all the novels are built such that anyone can read one without having read previous ones…… but so are Fleming`s and Gardner`s, to an extent
there are some continuity things, of course it`s always best to start with the beginning, but not necessary

Doubleshot is the informal 2nd part of a trilogy featuring a criminal organization called The Untion
Mon Apr 24 18:11:15 2000 rbenson {public msg} er Union
Mon Apr 24 18:11:23 2000 rbenson {public msg} the Onion? 🙂
Mon Apr 24 18:11:39 2000 rbenson {public msg} In it, Bond goes through some, well, psychological problems in a way, it`s my `From Russia With Love` the bad guys are out to GET Bond… Gardner had his FRWL with `Nobody Lives Forever` the Union creates an elaborate plot to trick and trap Bond and kill him off in a humiliating fashion (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:12:57 2000 icebreaker {public msg} What process goes into creating covers for the books and how do the covers get chosen? For example, the UK and US versions of Doubleshot are startlingly different.
Mon Apr 24 18:13:14 2000 rbenson {public msg} we have no say on the covers… that`s entirely up to the respective publishers they show them to us, and we can nod courteously or say `hmmm, I don`t really like it` but the latter response usually does no good. I really like the UK Doubleshot cover (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:14:09 2000 icebreaker {public msg} yes, so do i

Mon Apr 24 18:14:18 2000 icebreaker {public msg} the next question is from Jason
Mon Apr 24 18:14:33 2000 icebreaker {public msg} i`m sorry the next question is from Bondfan

Mon Apr 24 17:58:58 2000 bondfan {ask} how far advanced are the short story collection plans? And a general comment–I finished Doubleshot, and it is another excellent entry in the Benson Bond canon. Very well written, with a sweep reminiscent of Fleming.

Mon Apr 24 18:15:10 2000 rbenson {public msg} Thanks very much, I appreciate that… the short story collection won`t happen until there are enough short stories to justify doing a collection!
right now, there are only 3 and the `Midsummer Night`s Doom` was such a Playboy-oriented story that it probably wouldn`t be included in the collection

that was a special wink-wink nudge-nudge story just for Playboy
simply to celebrate Bond`s association with the magazine and really isn`t supposed to be taken seriously as a Bond story (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:16:47 2000 icebreaker {public msg} following up on that…does Playboy own the story? Glidrose? Can you do what you want with it? End

Mon Apr 24 18:17:09 2000 rbenson {public msg} Glidrose owns all the stories… they can re-sell them anywhere (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:17:55 2000 icebreaker {public msg} i`m trying to keep all the doubleshot questions together so Bondfan had another one

Mon Apr 24 17:52:27 2000 bondfan {ask} Did you travel to all the locations in Doubleshot? Have you ever met with members of MI6? Now, this is a spoiler, but why did you not include Major Boothroyd in Doubleshot?

Mon Apr 24 18:18:15 2000 rbenson {public msg} that`s 3 questions! 🙂
Mon Apr 24 18:18:21 2000 rbenson {public msg} I did travel to all the locations; big trip!
Mon Apr 24 18:18:32 2000 rbenson {public msg} Spain, Gibraltar, Morocco, England
Mon Apr 24 18:18:48 2000 rbenson {public msg} never met anyone from MI6, and I doubt they would want to meet with me! 🙂
Mon Apr 24 18:19:14 2000 rbenson {public msg} as for Boothroyd, I just decided to leave him out of this one… you know, he only appeared in the Fleming books once!
Mon Apr 24 18:19:35 2000 rbenson {public msg} People ask me that since Desmond died, will I change Boothroyd?
Mon Apr 24 18:19:47 2000 rbenson {public msg} the answer is `no`… the character didn`t die… the actor did
Mon Apr 24 18:19:54 2000 rbenson {public msg} Boothroyd will return in my books.
Mon Apr 24 18:19:56 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:19:58 2000 willply {public msg} Maybe remind all at this point if they want to ask questions to enter the auditorium… A few new folks have wandered in.

Mon Apr 24 18:20:23 2000 icebreaker {public msg} to the new people who have entered…if you want to submit questions to Raymond, please go into the auditorium to do so. Thanks!

Mon Apr 24 18:20:29 2000 icebreaker {public msg} well raymond
Mon Apr 24 18:20:33 2000 icebreaker {public msg} you stole my next question
Mon Apr 24 18:20:41 2000 rbenson {public msg} I saw it coming! 🙂
Mon Apr 24 18:20:52 2000 icebreaker {public msg} so we will move on to Jason Allentoff`s question about The Bedside Companion

Mon Apr 24 17:58:33 2000 planet007site {ask} Are there plans for an updated version of The Bedside Companion?

Mon Apr 24 18:21:17 2000 rbenson {public msg} The Bedside Companion is now currently on sale again as an electronic book from www.PublishingOnline.com
Mon Apr 24 18:21:21 2000 rbenson {public msg} it is not updated
Mon Apr 24 18:21:30 2000 rbenson {public msg} As I wrote in the new introduction
Mon Apr 24 18:21:43 2000 rbenson {public msg} I shouldn`t update it now, it wouldn`t be `right` now that I`m the Bond author
Mon Apr 24 18:21:55 2000 rbenson {public msg} I wouldn`t feel comfortable critiquing the films or the later Gardner books
Mon Apr 24 18:22:14 2000 rbenson {public msg} so it`s the 1988 version that is available now for downloading (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:22:32 2000 icebreaker {public msg} yes, we will be getting to your deal with POL later on
Mon Apr 24 18:22:38 2000 icebreaker {public msg} i have a smart group here tonight
Mon Apr 24 18:22:53 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Bondfan has a new question…

Mon Apr 24 18:21:33 2000 bondfan {ask} Any plans for a return of Hedy and Heidi from this book? They are your best girls to date, and I`d love to see them again.
Mon Apr 24 18:23:21 2000 rbenson {public msg} Thanks, my British editor thought so too… I have no idea at this point whether or not they will return…
Mon Apr 24 18:23:31 2000 rbenson {public msg} the usual thing is for Bond girls NOT to return, but you never know (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:23:40 2000 rbenson {public msg} btw—
Mon Apr 24 18:23:54 2000 rbenson {public msg} an excerpt from Doubleshot where Heidi & Hedy are introduced will be in the June issue
Mon Apr 24 18:23:58 2000 rbenson {public msg} of Playboy, on sale next week
Mon Apr 24 18:24:29 2000 rbenson {public msg} there is also an article on the history of Bond and Playboy in the same issue
Mon Apr 24 18:24:37 2000 rbenson {public msg} a must-have for collectors! (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:25:00 2000 icebreaker {public msg} See what you learn guys when you attend 007Forever chats –end

Mon Apr 24 18:25:57 2000 icebreaker {public msg} It seems like whenever an article reviews your books, they make mention of the fact that you were a fan who had done the games and the Bedside Companion. Does it help or hurt to have been a fan first and do you know how much of a fan Gardner was before he began writing?
Mon Apr 24 18:26:28 2000 rbenson {public msg} Gardner was a little bit of a fan, I think, from what he told me… after all, The Liquidator series is
Mon Apr 24 18:26:31 2000 rbenson {public msg} a Bond parody of sorts
Mon Apr 24 18:27:03 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m not sure if it helps or hurts with the games/fan stuff… some of the reviewers who are less kind
Mon Apr 24 18:27:12 2000 rbenson {public msg} think that because I was a game designer I can`t write prose
Mon Apr 24 18:27:17 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:28:03 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Globetwo had a question that I think I can answer and then you can pick up where I left off i you`d like to Raymond
Mon Apr 24 18:28:26 2000 rbenson {public msg} go ahead
Mon Apr 24 18:28:42 2000 rbenson {public msg} “Evil Hours”?
Mon Apr 24 18:28:48 2000 icebreaker {public msg} I`d like to remind everyone that Evil Hours, Benson`s 14 part serial, will debut at PublishingOnline.com tomorrow morning at 7:00 am est, as well as two of his non-Bond short stories “The Plagarist” and “Thumbs Down”, described as TWILIGHT ZONE style stories dealing with frustrated writers.
Mon Apr 24 18:28:57 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 18:28:57 2000 rbenson {public msg} It`s supposed to, but I`m not sure if POL will have it ready
Mon Apr 24 18:29:20 2000 rbenson {public msg} There will be an announcement on the newsgroup as soon as it is online
Mon Apr 24 18:29:47 2000 rbenson {public msg} like most website based companies, sometimes they don`t meet their target dates
Mon Apr 24 18:29:48 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:29:56 2000 icebreaker {public msg} What kind of fan fiction, if any, can a fan get away with?
Mon Apr 24 18:30:25 2000 rbenson {public msg} Hmmm… all I know is that Glidrose does not take kindly to fan fiction. Best to stay away from it.
Mon Apr 24 18:30:26 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:30:44 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Yankee has a question
Mon Apr 24 18:30:03 2000 yankee {ask} Hi Raymond. With your novelisations of TND and TWINE, I`m sure you`ve crossed paths with Michael Wilson and B. Broccoli. Has there ever been even a passing conversation with them about you writing an original screenplay for them? Or adapting one of your books?
Mon Apr 24 18:31:23 2000 rbenson {public msg} I have a friendly relationship with EON, but so far nothing has been said about me doing either of those things.
Mon Apr 24 18:31:41 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m keeping my fingers crossed. (end)
Mon Apr 24 17:58:06 2000 planet007site {ask} Are you writing the novel for Bond 20?
Mon Apr 24 18:32:01 2000 rbenson {public msg} I can only surmise that I will. (end)
Mon Apr 24 17:58:54 2000 planet007site {ask} Do you know any details on the plot for Bond 20?
Mon Apr 24 18:32:30 2000 rbenson {public msg} As far as I know, there is no script yet. (end)
Mon Apr 24 17:59:15 2000 planet007site {ask} Are the rumors about Brosnan doing four more films true?
Mon Apr 24 18:32:59 2000 rbenson {public msg} I have no idea what plans Pierce has with EON. (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:30:42 2000 yankee {ask} What are your thoughts on the film TWINE?
Mon Apr 24 18:33:24 2000 rbenson {public msg} It was a fun ride. 🙂 (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:34:01 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Do you have fans bugging you wanting you to use their name as a character, good or bad, in your novels?
Mon Apr 24 18:34:31 2000 rbenson {public msg} Not really. I do it as favors for friends. It`s more of a tradition… Fleming did it, Gardner did it…
Mon Apr 24 18:34:50 2000 rbenson {public msg} It`s fun to do it… nobody has really asked me to do it…
Mon Apr 24 18:34:52 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:35:09 2000 icebreaker {public msg} if fleming had not done it, would it change the way you feel about doing it?
Mon Apr 24 18:35:17 2000 rbenson {public msg} probably (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:35:23 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Of your friends names that you have used as characters, how do you decide who is bad and who is good?
Mon Apr 24 18:35:53 2000 rbenson {public msg} Totally arbitrary… sometimes I`ve just got a character, good or bad, and I need a name, so I use the first one to pop in my head
Mon Apr 24 18:36:05 2000 rbenson {public msg} I don`t start out thinking, I`m going to use so-and-so in this part
Mon Apr 24 18:36:14 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:36:33 2000 rbenson {public msg} I do make up some names
Mon Apr 24 18:36:35 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:32:06 2000 spy {ask} Do you envision a particular actor playing James Bond inside your mind when you write for Bond? Do you hear echoes of Connery or Moore when you write for Bond as protagonist?
Mon Apr 24 18:36:57 2000 rbenson {public msg} No, I don`t. I envision the guy I pictured when I first read the Fleming books, and it wasn`t Connery.
Mon Apr 24 18:37:17 2000 rbenson {public msg} I suppose he`s probably closer to the UK comic strips Bond
Mon Apr 24 18:37:40 2000 rbenson {public msg} However, many people tell me that they hear “Pierce Brosnan saying those lines” or they hear “Sean Connery saying those lines”
Mon Apr 24 18:37:43 2000 rbenson {public msg} Maybe…
Mon Apr 24 18:37:49 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m sure Pierce influences the novelizations
Mon Apr 24 18:37:53 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:37:59 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Do you have any idea why the Spanish press insisted on stating you were doing research at Gibraltar for the next Bond movie?
Mon Apr 24 18:38:26 2000 rbenson {public msg} They either got it wrong or they wanted to inflate its importance? I don`t know… it was annoying… 🙂 (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:38:33 2000 icebreaker {public msg} This is a 3 part question. #1 Were you scheduled to testify at Kevin McClory`s trial and if so, did you? #2 If you did, are you free to summarize what your testimony was, and if you did not testify, can you tell us what your tesitimony might have been? #3 And do you think we have finally seen the last of him?
Mon Apr 24 18:39:06 2000 rbenson {public msg} Well, I hope we`ve seen the last of him… I think all I can say is that I was an expert witness on the MGM side, but I was never called to testify.
Mon Apr 24 18:39:07 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:39:29 2000 icebreaker {public msg} I think we all hope we`ve heard the last of him
Mon Apr 24 18:39:39 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Where does SPECTRE fit in all of this?
Mon Apr 24 18:39:50 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Can you use the organization?
Mon Apr 24 18:39:52 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 18:40:02 2000 rbenson {public msg} SPECTRE could still be used in the books… but I prefer not to.
It is caused by cute-n-tiny.com cialis canada cheap an imbalance of normal bacteria in the gut, yeast, and bacterial overgrowth can occur. This device sucks air from the penis duct and therefore you could try these out viagra pfizer 25mg enabling blood to flow smoothly in the penis. It simply means that there is erection but for a short time. Then when the abuse stirring in their relationship is sufficiently felt by both of them, a new therapist becomes the cheap sildenafil target of hope once again. Mon Apr 24 18:40:22 2000 rbenson {public msg} I have the Union now, which in a way is my version of SPECTRE.
Mon Apr 24 18:40:23 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:40:30 2000 icebreaker {public msg} I think that is the best course
Mon Apr 24 18:40:39 2000 icebreaker {public msg} SPECTRE was good, but they`ve had their day in the sun
Mon Apr 24 18:40:46 2000 icebreaker {public msg} the next question
Mon Apr 24 18:37:25 2000 bondfan {ask} Did you work with Jaguar the way that Gardner worked with Saab?
Mon Apr 24 18:41:18 2000 rbenson {public msg} Yes I did… I worked with an engineer in the UK who helped me with all the `extras`, which despite some of the criticism are all entirely possible
Mon Apr 24 18:41:39 2000 rbenson {public msg} all of those things, including the flying scout, the pigment-changing paint, are all possible
Mon Apr 24 18:41:43 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:41:48 2000 icebreaker {public msg} wow!
Mon Apr 24 18:41:53 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Did not know that!
Mon Apr 24 18:41:59 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Actually Raymond
Mon Apr 24 18:42:12 2000 icebreaker {public msg} I think you picked the best runner up to the Aston that anyone could
Mon Apr 24 18:42:20 2000 rbenson {public msg} I doubt I`ll be using the Jag again
Mon Apr 24 18:42:27 2000 icebreaker {public msg} it`s a shame that EON doesn`t use the Jag
Mon Apr 24 18:42:28 2000 rbenson {public msg} Time to move on… (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:40:01 2000 suzy {ask} Hello, Michael…it`s Suzy…took me forever to get here…Hello, Raymond
Mon Apr 24 18:42:40 2000 icebreaker {public msg} hey Suzy
Mon Apr 24 18:42:46 2000 icebreaker {public msg} glad you could come

Mon Apr 24 18:41:40 2000 suzy {ask} RB, could you say something about the significance of the title “Doubelshot”?

Mon Apr 24 18:43:30 2000 rbenson {public msg} It`s just a play on the “doubles” concept that runs thematically throughout the book
Mon Apr 24 18:43:40 2000 rbenson {public msg} It wasn`t my title
Mon Apr 24 18:43:44 2000 rbenson {public msg} But I think it works
Mon Apr 24 18:43:46 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:44:20 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Critics, fans and John Gardner himself all seemed to agree that he had done a few too many books by the time he stopped. Do you have a limit to how many you want to do in order to have made your mark in the series?
Mon Apr 24 18:44:47 2000 rbenson {public msg} Not sure how to answer that one… I suppose if I felt they were getting stale, I`d let them be…
Mon Apr 24 18:44:56 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`d be proud, though, to have done 14… no small feat
Mon Apr 24 18:45:10 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:45:35 2000 icebreaker {public msg} I ask because Gardner has been on record as having wanted to stop back at #6 but never did
Mon Apr 24 18:45:43 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 18:45:48 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m not aware of that (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:46:12 2000 icebreaker {public msg} we are getting lots of questions so hold tight a second

Mon Apr 24 18:32:39 2000 nated3og {ask} to rbenson, I have noticed that your wrighting is similar but inexorably different than Ian Flemming. Are you tring to meet Mr. Fleming`s style, or surpass it with your own blend of wrighting?

Mon Apr 24 18:46:47 2000 rbenson {public msg} I could never meet Fleming`s style, nor do I try to do so
Mon Apr 24 18:46:52 2000 rbenson {public msg} I hold him in very high regard
Mon Apr 24 18:47:11 2000 rbenson {public msg} If any of his style creeps into my books, I can only think it`s because I know his books so well
Mon Apr 24 18:47:28 2000 rbenson {public msg} I think the correct term is that I try to capture the SPIRIT of his books
Mon Apr 24 18:47:34 2000 rbenson {public msg} I certainly can`t write like him
Mon Apr 24 18:47:39 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`d be foolish to think I could
Mon Apr 24 18:47:43 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:43:07 2000 bondfan {ask} If not the Jag, then what car–the DB7?
Mon Apr 24 18:48:16 2000 rbenson {public msg} I have no idea what car at this point… in my upcoming book, the one I`ll write this summer, Bond will need a car…
Mon Apr 24 18:48:27 2000 rbenson {public msg} in my outline, he`s driving the Jag, but doesn`t use any of the extras at all
Mon Apr 24 18:48:36 2000 rbenson {public msg} Maybe I`ll do that, but maybe I`ll find a new car…
Mon Apr 24 18:48:40 2000 rbenson {public msg} Don`t know yet (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:42:20 2000 bondfan {ask} Let me just reiterate that the Union is a fitting successor, and am I wrong is surmising that we are in store for quite a confrontation in the next book bewteen 007 and Le Gerant
Mon Apr 24 18:49:02 2000 rbenson {public msg} You are quite correct! 🙂 (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:40:41 2000 yankee {ask} As a fan, do you find that reading the scripts of the new films before they are released spoils your enjoyment of them? Or does it pique your interest to see what the final fims will look like?
Mon Apr 24 18:49:38 2000 rbenson {public msg} That`s a tough one… you see, I have to write a NOVEL based on the script before I ever see any of the film
Mon Apr 24 18:49:46 2000 rbenson {public msg} So, I`ve already got a film inside my head
Mon Apr 24 18:49:53 2000 rbenson {public msg} Before I see the real film
Mon Apr 24 18:50:04 2000 rbenson {public msg} So, ultimately, what I see on the screen is different from what I picture
Mon Apr 24 18:50:11 2000 rbenson {public msg} It can`t be helped
Mon Apr 24 18:50:28 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m sure it effects my enjoyment, but it doesn`t mean I DON`T enjoy them
Mon Apr 24 18:50:31 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)

Mon Apr 24 18:44:06 2000 yankee {ask} Can you give us any tid-bits about the 3rd book in the trilogy?
Mon Apr 24 18:50:52 2000 rbenson {public msg} Hmmmm…..
Mon Apr 24 18:51:00 2000 rbenson {public msg} It takes place mostly in France and Corsica
Mon Apr 24 18:51:06 2000 rbenson {public msg} Marc-Ange Draco will return
Mon Apr 24 18:51:16 2000 rbenson {public msg} Le Gerant and Bond face off
Mon Apr 24 18:51:30 2000 rbenson {public msg} There`s a significant love story angle
Mon Apr 24 18:51:50 2000 rbenson {public msg} There will be a show business angle
Mon Apr 24 18:51:53 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:49:33 2000 suzy {ask} Will the next novel round out the “trilogy” and be the end of the Union?
Mon Apr 24 18:52:24 2000 rbenson {public msg} That one I can`t answer here! You`ll have to wait and see! 🙂 (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:52:29 2000 rbenson {action: } smirks.
Mon Apr 24 18:52:34 2000 rbenson {action: } grins evilly.
Mon Apr 24 18:52:41 2000 rbenson {public msg} I meant to grin evilly, not smirk.
Mon Apr 24 18:52:42 2000 icebreaker {public msg} suzy, you know better than to ask that question GIRL! 🙂
Mon Apr 24 18:45:25 2000 bondfan {ask} How many more books are you contracted for right now?
Mon Apr 24 18:53:17 2000 rbenson {public msg} the contracts are usually 3 at a time, so I`m about to begin the first one in a new contract of 3
Mon Apr 24 18:53:26 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:53:37 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Bondfan has a question about Draco
Mon Apr 24 18:51:58 2000 bondfan {ask} Wait a second–isn`t Draco dead, as Gardner pointed out in Nobody Lives Forever.
Mon Apr 24 18:54:14 2000 rbenson {public msg} If he did, both Glidrose and I missed it! At any rate, I am free to use or ignore anything Gardner did
Mon Apr 24 18:54:32 2000 rbenson {public msg} For example, I never went with the way he changed MI6
Mon Apr 24 18:54:35 2000 rbenson {public msg} in his later books
Mon Apr 24 18:54:51 2000 rbenson {public msg} We demoted him back to Commander because it sounds beter
Mon Apr 24 18:54:53 2000 rbenson {public msg} better
Mon Apr 24 18:55:07 2000 rbenson {public msg} As far as I`m concerned, Draco`s alive and well…
Mon Apr 24 18:55:09 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:55:34 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Do you get unsolicited submissions from people wanting to get their story ideas into your books and if so, how do you answer them?
Mon Apr 24 18:55:57 2000 rbenson {public msg} I am not allowed to read unsolicited submissions… if I get anything that remotely looks like one, I delete it
Mon Apr 24 18:55:59 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:44:22 2000 bondfan {ask} What would you have chosen as the titles for your books?
Mon Apr 24 18:56:36 2000 rbenson {public msg} My original title for Zero Minus Ten was “No Tears for Hong Kong”
Mon Apr 24 18:56:49 2000 rbenson {public msg} For The Facts of Death, believe it or not, it was “The World is Not Enough”!
Mon Apr 24 18:57:06 2000 rbenson {public msg} For “High Time to Kill” it was “A Better Way to Die”
Mon Apr 24 18:57:20 2000 rbenson {public msg} for Doubleshot, it was “Doppelganger” and then “Reflections in a Broken Glass”
Mon Apr 24 18:57:31 2000 rbenson {public msg} Actually, I think that the next novel will have my suggested title
Mon Apr 24 18:57:35 2000 rbenson {public msg} for once
Mon Apr 24 18:57:41 2000 rbenson {public msg} Never Dream of Dying
Mon Apr 24 18:57:44 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:57:51 2000 icebreaker {public msg} can we quote you on that?
Mon Apr 24 18:57:53 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 18:57:55 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 18:58:13 2000 rbenson {public msg} I suppose… let`s just say for now that`s what it is, and the publishers haven`t objected
Mon Apr 24 18:58:15 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 18:58:21 2000 icebreaker {public msg} sounds very good.
Mon Apr 24 18:58:25 2000 icebreaker {public msg} and if I may
Mon Apr 24 18:58:37 2000 icebreaker {public msg} put in a gratuitous plug for my own site, you can find all of Raymond`s
Mon Apr 24 18:58:56 2000 icebreaker {public msg} original titles plus Ian`s and John`s in the What Was The Title section-end
Mon Apr 24 18:59:33 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Okay, we are almost out of time. Please bear with me for one second as I peruse the last sets of questions.
Mon Apr 24 18:58:25 2000 suzy {ask} Will you be doing research for your next novel when in Paris for your book-signing?
Mon Apr 24 19:00:49 2000 rbenson {public msg} Yes I will! along with some other areas of France (end)

Mon Apr 24 19:01:30 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Here is our last question of the evening…from a mysterious spy down in Gainesville FL
Mon Apr 24 18:59:59 2000 spy {ask} If for whatever reason Bond had to be killed off in a novel, how might you plot/portray his death?
Mon Apr 24 19:01:46 2000 rbenson {public msg} That will never happen!
Mon Apr 24 19:01:51 2000 rbenson {public msg} Old age?
Mon Apr 24 19:02:04 2000 rbenson {action: } grins evilly.
Mon Apr 24 19:02:10 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 19:02:20 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Thanks Raymond. This might be a good time
Mon Apr 24 19:02:39 2000 icebreaker {public msg} to let everyone know when and where to pick up copies of Doubleshot and any book signings in the future
Mon Apr 24 19:02:44 2000 icebreaker {public msg} end
Mon Apr 24 19:02:51 2000 rbenson {public msg} It`s available now in the UK
Mon Apr 24 19:02:59 2000 rbenson {public msg} It should be available in the US the first week of June
Mon Apr 24 19:03:16 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m doing a signing in London on May 6 at noon at Adrian Harrington Bookshop
Mon Apr 24 19:03:21 2000 rbenson {public msg} 64a Kensington Church St.
Mon Apr 24 19:03:38 2000 rbenson {public msg} I`m doing a signing at an English-language bookshop in Paris on May 10 at 7:30pm
Mon Apr 24 19:03:42 2000 rbenson {public msg} WH Smith Paris
Mon Apr 24 19:03:47 2000 rbenson {public msg} 248 Rue de Rivoli
Mon Apr 24 19:03:52 2000 rbenson {public msg} then… back home
Mon Apr 24 19:03:58 2000 rbenson {public msg} in the Chicago area
Mon Apr 24 19:04:11 2000 rbenson {public msg} June 10, Barnes & Noble, Arlington Heights, 2pm
Mon Apr 24 19:04:26 2000 rbenson {public msg} June 14, Borders Michigan Avenue, Chicago, 7pm
Mon Apr 24 19:04:33 2000 rbenson {public msg} that`s all I know of for now
Mon Apr 24 19:04:35 2000 rbenson {public msg} (end)
Mon Apr 24 19:04:30 2000 suzy {ask} Can`t wait for Doubleshot, RB…a toute a l`heure, alligateur 🙂
Mon Apr 24 19:04:55 2000 rbenson {public msg} Thanks, it`s been fun!
Mon Apr 24 19:05:01 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Okay, thanks again Raymond for coming
Mon Apr 24 19:05:06 2000 icebreaker {public msg} thanks everyone
Mon Apr 24 19:05:06 2000 rbenson {action: } waves at everyone.
Mon Apr 24 19:05:08 2000 icebreaker {public msg} for showing up
Mon Apr 24 19:05:09 2000 rbenson {action: } faints dead away.
Mon Apr 24 19:05:12 2000 icebreaker {public msg} you were great
Mon Apr 24 19:05:13 2000 willply {public msg} Great work both of you. Very nice chat! (MIC OFF)
Mon Apr 24 19:05:16 2000 icebreaker {public msg} raymond was great
Mon Apr 24 19:05:23 2000 rbenson {public msg} thanks
Mon Apr 24 19:05:27 2000 willply {public msg} Both of you were.
Mon Apr 24 19:05:36 2000 icebreaker {public msg} and we`ll see you next month with Patrick Bauchau from A View To A Kill
Mon Apr 24 19:05:38 2000 icebreaker {public msg} Bye for now!

author interview – Joseph Garber: On The “Run”

In 1995 a killer of a thriller called “Vertical Run” made it`s debut on The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists, eventually reaching #1 on both lists. Itwas written by a relatively unknown writer named Joseph Garber. While he`d had success with the 1989 book “Rascal Money”, as well as writing literary criticisms for The San Francisco Review of Books and as a columnist for Forbes magazine, nothing he had done could have prepared readers for what they were to find within the pages of “Vertical Run”, a tale so frightening in it`s possibility that it makes the hairs on your neck stand on end just reading it.

The premise of Vertical Run is to question what might happen if one day you woke up and found that everyone you met during the course of your day tried to kill you. Friends, family, coworkers…they all want you dead for no apparent reason and time is running. These are exactly the prospects the hero of the book, David Elliot, a Fortune 500 exec, faces one morning. But lucky for David, he`s had training as a special operations agent courtesy of the U.S. government and if he`s going to die, he`s not going to die alone.

In Joseph Garber`s 1999 follow up novel “In A Perfect State”, he once again visits this premise, but this time he tinkers with the hero a bit. Jack Taft, another executive for a prosperous company, is on a business trip to Singapore, upon when landing, realizes he`s the target of an international assassination squad, with dozens of different factions wanting him dead–now! Unlike David Elliot, Jack Taft has no special training to fall back on and has run from every personal problem life has ever thrown at him. If he doesn`t dig deep and find the skills inside of himself to survive, he`ll be dead by dawn.

If Mr. Garber was interested in the prospect, he could easily become the Ian Fleming of the new millenium, cranking out thrillers based on the exploits of our `Run` hero David Elliot. He knows how to grab your attention and keep it as he ratchets up the tension notch by notch until the reader can barely take it anymore. Vertical Run is the type of thriller Ian Fleming would be proud of. Garber has created the most exciting and dynamic hero to be found on the printed pages since the mid-50`s Fleming novels. Not even Tom Clancy`s Jack Ryan is as energizing and invigorating as David Elliot.

If you haven`t read “Vertical Run” or “In A Perfect State”, what are you waiting for? “Vertical Run” can be ordered from www.amazon.com and “In A Perfect State” can be ordered from www.waterstones.com

The following interview contains SPOILERS! If you have not read the books you are advised to read them before proceeding any further.

MK: Can you tell us a little about yourself?

JG: Being a classic “Type A” corporate workaholic, I`ve had little in the way of a personal life. For this reason, I tend to be a private person in the small amount of private life I`ve managed to accumulate. I think the points that are germane to my novels are that I took my undergraduate degree in philosophy (which is why ethical questions pervade my novels), put in time at Columbia Law School (that`s the reason why every book I write contains at least one lawyer joke), and went through the Stanford Business School`s mid-career executive program (the experience convinced me to get try my hand at writing!).

MK: You are somewhat fascinated by the idea of an “everyman” waking up one day and finding himself in incredible life threatening situations, with no logical reason why and seemingly impossible to get out of. What kind of influences in literature or film do you credit for this?

JG: I certainly had Hitchcock in mind when I wrote Vertical Run. And surely I was influenced by the late Geoffrey Household whose man-on-the-run thrillers are the best ever written (try his Dance of The Dwarves, which is the scariest novel I have ever read). However, the fundamental premise of Vertical Run is pretty much of my own concocting. I framed it as the ultimate paranoid nightmare: suppose everybody in the world wants you dead; worse, suppose they`ve got a really good reason…

Further, if you`re a corporate guy, you`ve got to deal with corporate politics. No matter how nice you are, no matter how hard you try, you are going to wind up with enemies who want you out of the way. To some extent Vertical Run was inspired by taking that unfortunate fact of business life and carrying it to its utmost extreme.

MK: Did you have any difficulties in pitching Vertical Run to the publishers? What is the process like for getting a manuscript in the door?

JG: My agent did all the pitchwork on the book, and more than earned her fees. The book received 14 rejection slips, by the way. Most frustrating because both she and I thought it was a slam dunk and easy sale.

There`s a cute story here: when she first got the manuscript, my agent put it in the trunk of her car prior to going upstate for the weekend. Then she drove to her office, parked outside, and dashed upstairs for a few minutes. By the time she got back (welcome to New York), the car had been burglarized, and the manuscript was gone.

The burglar dumped it (along with other stuff he didn`t want) on the street in Queens. A hairdresser found it, and read it over the weekend. On Monday he called my agent and told her that he had it, and would be happy to return it. She offered him a reward for his trouble. He declined. She insisted. To which he replied, “The only reward I want is a signed copy of the book, because it`s the best thriller I`ve ever read.” So my agent knew she had hit… and the hairdresser DEFINITELY got a signed copy.

As for getting a manuscript in front of a publisher — well, the agent knows editors at all the publishing houses, and knows what fits their tastes. So she calls them with a pitch, sending the thing over if they sniff at the bait. If you are an unknown writer, you absolutely have to have a credible agent or nothing is going to happen. Agents are the rainmakers. Unfortunately, in these days of megaconglomeration, it`s tougher than ever to get an editor to take a risk on a writer no one has ever heard of.

MK: What`s your take on the mega-mergers such as AOL buying out Time Warner? What are the dangers, if any, of a company becoming that big?

JG: Consolidation is driven by a host of natural economic forces. For example, back around 1905 we had more than 500 automobile companies in this country; they had to join or die. Software companies acquire other software companies all the time (especially in the mainframe segment); here the issue is that it usually is much cheaper to buy rather than build. Acquisitions happen constantly in the business world — there are more than 35,000 a year. Within any given industry segment, a large number of acquisitions usually is a sign of the maturation and flattening — when natural or “organic” revenue growth slows, you have little choice other than to acquire smaller companies. Alas, those of us who lived through a similar wave of merger mania back in the early `70`s remember well that the majority of deals don`t work too well, and ultimately fall apart. Marry in haste, repent at leisure…

Speaking personally, I figure AOL is in for some surprises — the business practices and management skills it takes to run a creative enterprise (especially one involving film and TV) are not easy. Sony lost billions on Columbia before sorting things out. Panasonic did not have a happy experience with Universal (nor, it appears, is Seagrams). And of course TransAmerica`s experience with Hollywood is the stuff of legends — remember “Heaven`s Gate.”

Over the short term, I expect much sound and fury as various companies get eaten up — but then the eaters will have to digest the eaten. Upset tummies may be the very least of it.

MK: You said in another interview that you first conceived of the idea for Vertical Run back in 1976 when your office building was being evacuated due to a bomb threat..how long did that idea sit with you until you got serious about writing it into a thriller?

JG: Actually, the evacuations were in 1978-1979. I started writing Vertical Run in 1981, and got about a third of the way into it. Then a catastrophic computer failure wiped out all the work I did. No recovery. All gone. I was so frustrated I didn`t get back to the tale for 12 years.

Although I did learn to start backing up my disks…

MK: Was David Elliott the original hero of your book or did you have a different character in mind?

JG: Dave was the hero from day one.

MK: What kind of ideas did you originally have for the book that ended up being taken out by the publishers? For example, you`ve mentioned that the German edition is much darker than any other is; can you elaborate?

JG: The principal difference between my original version and what was published in this country is that Dave died at the end of the original version — as did Marge. The publisher (hoping for a sequel, no doubt) and Warner Brothers both wanted them to live. Insofar as Warner Brothers was paying quite good money for the service, I added the scene in which Marge is discovered alive and rescued, and added a single page ending that keeps Dave alive. The Germans liked the original, darker version and, with my permission, published it. In the final analysis, I think keeping both characters alive was a good choice — it delivers extra surprises and lets readers close the book with satisfied grins on their faces.

MK: What kind of research did you draw upon for creating David`s back-story in Vietnam and the big surprise he finds at Lockyear?

JG: I served in the Army in the 1960`s. Dave`s backstory arises from tales told me by various hardcases I met, and from some photographs taken of an episode that mirrors the climax of that backstory. The guys who took those photographs got, as Mamba Jack would say, “disappeared.”

As for the surprise at Lockyear, I`ve always been aware of the incredibly ghastly experiments conducted by Shiro Ishii and Unit 731 during World War II. The Japanese army used Chinese civilians and both American and British POWs as lab rats in a horribly large number of unspeakable medical tests. All of this was covered up quite thoroughly by American war crimes investigators, and it struck me as obvious that the reason for the coverup was that our nation wanted to get its hands on the Japanese research results. Now, fifty-five years after the fact, we know that is precisely what happened. Ed Regis just published a book called “The Biology of Doom” where, via the Freedom of Information Act, he tracks down the details. Read it and your blood will turn to ice.

MK: You mentioned that you had in mind Harrison Ford as David and Clint Eastwood as Ransom at some point during the writing. Did you have anyone specific in mind for the characters of Marge or Helen? What about Bernie or Harry Halliwell?

JG: Actually, I`ve always though Mel Gibson would make a more credible Dave — he`s the only actor I know who really is believable when he talks to himself. As for minor characters like Helen, Bernie, and Harry, I never gave them any thought. They are pretty standard New York City critters, people you see on the street every day, and could be played by any number of minor-part actors. In my mind Marge looks one heck of a lot like the young Olivia Goldsmith (author of The First Wives Club), a feisty New York dame who, long ago, was a friend and co-worker.

MK: Was there ever any suggestion made that perhaps the Marge character should become more romantically involved with David than she was or that she should be in more of the book?

JG: Nope. There`s no time for sex in the book. Hell, there`s barely time for lust.

MK: One of the more colorful passages in the book is where David has to escape the hookers and then infiltrate Senterex right under Ransom`s nose, all the while trying to come off as a limp wristed wimp to avoid detection. With words used such as “queer”, “pansy boy”, “faggot”, “cupcake”, “plaid rabbit” and “Smurf”, how did you get this past the publishers? After all, the 90`s were a very politically correct decade. Did they have any objections?

JG: No objections at all. The homophobia is all on the bad guys side (likewise the racism). Dave, who is an ex-soldier, is playing to the bigotries of people he knows are the worst sort of redneck pinheads. Anyone who was in the Army back when I was (as were Dave, Ransome, and his crew) probably at least once saw some lifer NCO go ballistic when somebody jokingly called him “fag.” Knowing this, Dave caricaturizes his enemies` prejudices, turning them into a weapon against them.

MK: Did you receive any mail from gay rights groups upset with the way you had David portray a gay man?

JG: Again, no. Quite the contrary. I was especially pleased when a gay literary critic for one of the major newspapers recognized the device for what it really says about bigotry and stereotypes, and singled out that section out for positive comment.

MK: The impression I received at the end of `Run` was that David was either selfish and only looking out for himself and that`s why he took off to Mount Excelsior or he just got lucky. After all, he didn`t know about the microbe`s mortality parameters when he took off to Excelsior. And yet you`ve maintained that he went there to die. In retrospect could this have been made clearer to the reader or is it somewhat vague so that the readers can draw their own conclusion?

JG: Hmmm. I intended to portray Dave`s motive as a wish to die with honor, to die alone, and to die in a way that did no harm. Remember, he knows the microbe cannot survive long outside a human host (Ransome makes this very clear). And so by going into the wilderness, he planned a death that would insure the infection would not spread.

MK: The end of the book also gives one the feeling that David, Jack and Marge are going to team up and plot revenge. Is that the intention, or just a reader reading too much into the story?

JG: If I were writing a script for the movie, the final scene would be as follows:

The San Francisco skyline.

Zoom into the black-glassed Bank of America Tower.

Long shot of a man walking through an office lobby with very visible signage reading “The Specialist Consulting Group.”

Play your preferred sports activity, take a yoga class or have a body massage. http://cute-n-tiny.com/category/cute-animals/page/24/ cialis uk When food order viagra cute-n-tiny.com is completely digested by all the agnis, the body tissues will be well aware of how not to flout these rules. Almost every man has heard about those modern medicines that help males keeping erection in the bed. Male impotence is the state which makes a man or woman more vulnerable to heart disease and diabetes. Tracking shot of the same man down a plush office corridor.

Medium shot as he enters a conference room.

Interior of the conference room — it is dark, smoky, lit from above so that all faces are in shadow. The man we`ve tracked mutters an apology for being late, and takes his seat.

Long shot down the length of the conference table. The man at the head of the conference table says, “Try to be on time.” Pause. “Okay, people, we`ve got a problem.” He waves a piece of paper. “I`ve just got a fax from HQ. It says that the Lockyear microbe is highly oxygen dependent. It says that anyone infected with the microbe who climbs into a thin oxygen environment may have a high probability of survival. Now we`ve tracked that bastard Elliot…”

Close shot of the speaker, he looks up.

Shot of the conference room door. A man backlit in shadow is standing there. Cut to man at the head of the table, “Yes?” Backlit man replies, “Oh sorry, wrong meeting room.”

Medium shot down conference table. Man at head of the table says, “Close the door behind you.”

Audible click as he continues, “Now as I was saying, if he survived, it is conceivable that Elliot will try to revenge himself…” There is a thump on the conference room table. Heads turn. A hissing hand grenade rolls into view. The man at the head of the table whispers, “Oh shit!”

Black out.

Roll the final credits.

MK: Has Doubleday or Bantam suggested to you that they would like for you to write a sequel to Vertical Run? To write more adventures based on the character of David Elliot?

JG: No. My relationship with that company has ended. Permanently.

MK: Where do you think David might be today, or do you not give it much thought?

JG: Really, I want that question to be answered by readers. I think whatever sequels and followups they concoct in their own minds are much more interesting than anything I might come up with.

MK: As you know Jon Peters is producing Vertical Run for Warner Brothers and it looks like Paul Hunter may direct. Have you spoken directly with anyone involved in the production of the film and if not do you anticipate having any input?

JG: I had a memorable lunch with Jon when Warners was buying the rights. It`s lawyers were insisting on preposterous contractual obligations, and I was quite prepared to walk away from the deal. Jon squelched `em. Since then, I`ve had no contact whatsoever with the film project.

A movie is the work of many hands. A book is a one man job. Books and films are two wholly different planets, and the citizens of one planet do not necessarily collaborate well with the citizens of the other. So, if the film is made, the most I anticipate is being invited to spend a day on the set and receiving an invitation to the premier (although, I suspect, the seat I`m assigned will not be the best in the house!)

MK: If you can tell us, what kind of rights exactly does Warner Brothers have on Vertical Run? The right to make a franchise out of the David Elliot character?

JG: The Warner contract states they have the rights to David Elliot “in perpetuity throughout the universe, and elsewhere.” They can make as many Dave Elliot movies as they want. Tom Clancy has the same problem with the hero of his books. Paramount can use Jack Ryan any way they want. This is pretty standard stuff in Hollywood. I doubt if any novelist escapes it

MK: What was your reaction when you first found out Vertical Run had made the top of several best sellers lists? Did you ever anticipate the kind of success Vertical Run had? There were even television commercials for the book, which is something you don`t see very often.

JG: Ah, a boyhood dream! From the age of sixteen onwards, I wanted to make the New York Times bestseller list. I was simply thrilled by the whole experience — it was like winning the lottery.

MK: As you are aware, the David Fincher/Michael Douglas 1997 film “The Game”, which I personally love, contains a lot of similarities with Vertical Run, though your novel clearly came out first. In both film and book you`ve got a middle aged businessman on the run for his life, dogged by a shadowy organization that wants him dead, for reasons he cannot understand, he can`t trust friends or family, and all the while being aided and abetted somewhat by a beautiful woman. And to a lesser extent, Will Smith`s “Enemy of the State” covers similar ground. Have you seen the films and if so, did you like them? And what will it take to keep Vertical Run different and fresh from these other films?

JG: I very much enjoy Fincher`s work — he`s a gifted director who knows how to block a scene, frame brilliant atmospherics, extract strong performances from the cast, and cut a montage that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Everything he`s made has great depth.

I think Vertical Run would be better as a director`s film rather than a formula action flick. Most of the conflict in the book is interior, and but for a few set pieces, the real battles go on inside Dave`s head. So I would prefer a small pyrotechnics budget, and rather see a tight psychological thriller built around an actor who can truly show paranoid fear. I think De Palma would make a good director. As would Fincher.

MK: Getting to the subject of James Bond..the way David looks at Marge…the thoughts he has towards her…one minute he could make love to her and the very next he punches her lights out…kind of reminds me of the Sean Connery era as Bond. The “love `em and leave `em” attitude Connery`s Bond had. Do you have a favorite Bond or Bond film?

JG: Ha! I hadn`t thought of that. But Dave definitely is not a love `em and leave `em type. He`s really trying to protect Marge — and also trying to escape the temptation she represents.

By any measure my favorite Bond movie is From Russia With Love. It kept closely to the novel, yet added an extra dimensions of thrills. Robert Shaw was perfect (and perfectly terrifying) as the unstoppable bad guy, and Connery was supported all around by very strong actors. I`d say the Bond novel that I liked most was the first I read: Doctor No. It was such a revelation — the outrageous velocity of the thing and meeting a character as fascinating as Bond for the first time. It left a permanent impression on me.

MK: What are your impressions of Ian Fleming and his novels?

JG: Fleming was a great entertainer and a natural story teller. These are honorable, although undervalued, professions. The guy had a fluid entrancing style, a vivid imagination, and subtle wit. You could tell he had a great deal of fun writing his novels — and, therefore, the rest of us have a great deal of fun reading them.

MK: Ever thought about what it might be like to write the Bond novels?

JG: I am not a fast writer and could never do a series. Pumping out a new book every year is beyond my talents. Moreover, I am obsessed with photographic realism for my settings and stage props. All the scenery in everything I`ve written is so real that I could take you step-by-step through every locale I`ve written about. The Bond books with their exotic settings would drive me nuts. I`d spend all my time researching and mapping out routes, and none of it writing! I`d be a disaster at that job.

MK: So if the publishers were to ever contact you to gauge your interest in writing for Bond, what would be your answer?

JG: That I like James Bond too much to see him die in so horrible a fashion.

MK: The character of Jack Taft in In A Perfect State (Garber`s next book after Vertical Run) is the complete opposite of David Elliot in terms of self esteem, athleticism, etc. How much of yourself do you incorporate into the heroes, or is it purely fictional?

JG: Purely fictional. Dave is a resourceful, highly trained professional with combat experience. In thinking about what to write next, almost the first question I asked myself was: what would happen if an ordinary peaceful civilian with no training suddenly found himself in a fight for his life? So when Jack Taft is surrounded by a small army of gun-toting thugs his reaction is to throw up his hands and scream, “I surrender.” Which is exactly what most of us would do. Unfortunately for Jack, this doesn`t work too well…

MK: When friends of yours read Vertical Run or In A Perfect State, might they recognize themselves in one of your characters?

JG: I doubt it. The only real person who (in both looks and personality) appears in my books is Thatcher — and Thatcher IS Mark Twain.

MK: Tell us a little about your next novel “Alexander`s End”. What can fans expect from this book?

JG: Alexander`s End is the story of a professional assassin — a late Renaissance master killer who also is a loving husband and father, a gentle philosopher, and generous patron of the arts. But also utterly ruthless in his work. I think of the story as being something of a hybrid between “Day of the Jackal” and “The Name of the Rose.” I want readers to be thrilled by the adventure of it — but also driven to think about the questions of ethics and morality a man like Alexander raises.

MK: What plans do you have after “Alexander`s End”?

JG: Next up will be “The Object of Her Wrath,” a contemporary thriller with the scariest premise I can imagine — truly, the few people to whom I`ve told it have winced and gone white. I started the book three years ago, but had problems which I think I`m now prepared to resolve. Like I said, I am not at fast writer. Not at all.

MK: If you can, briefly explain to fans why In A Perfect State was not released in the United States?

JG: The answer would make a great substitute for Sominex. It`s tied up in contracts, legalese, and the business practices of the publishing industry — truly boring stuff.

MK: Do you anticipate Alexanders End and Object of Her Wrath will receive a U.S. distribution?

JG: I hope so, but it is much too early for me even to guess.

Gary Giblin: From London With Love

007Forever.com is pleased to present this exclusive interview with Gary Giblin, author of James Bond’s London.

Jordan Charter: Tell us about yourself.

Gary Giblin: I’m 42 and married to a wonderful woman, an English teacher, named Lisa. I live in the midwestern state of Indiana, in the house I grew up in. I have been writing on Bond for the last six years, which includes consulting work for MGM/UA. I used to work as a National Trainer for the Encyclopaedia Britannica company and my degree is in education. I love movies, travel, linguistics, mystery novels, and all things British, especially Bond and Hitchcock.

Jordan: How and when did you get into Bond?

Gary: I have always been a memorabilia collector and in 1974, at the age of 15, I decided to start collecting Bond—posters, books, toys, etc. I started writing a Bond reference book in college—but (un)fortunately, Raymond Benson beat me to it! (But his book is a gem, so I can’t complain.) In any case, I’ve been addicted to both the movies and the books ever since.

Jordan: What made you decide to write a book like this?

Gary: I have always been interested in identifying and visiting film and TV locations and so on a whim, I prepared a short guide for Lee Pfeiffer’s Let’s Bond in Britain Tour in 1997. It proved popular enough that Lee suggested I expand it into a book. I’m thrilled that more and more people enjoy reliving a favorite film through its locations.

Jordan: Who was the biggest help in writing this book?

Gary: The biggest help was my wife, who read and re-read the book and made many helpful suggestions. After her, and not failing to mention my publishers’ contributions, I’d have to say that Bond production designer Peter Lamont was the greatest help. As I say in the book, he was never, ever too busy to take my calls and answer my questions—even during the production of TWINE. I cannot praise him enough. He is a genius and a marvel, and one of the nicest people I’ve ever known.

Jordan: You’ve said you spent three years on “James Bond’s London” and “James Bond’s Britain” so can you give us a rough outline of how that time was spent? (i.e. How much was used for research? How much was used for travel?)

Gary: I actually started the book in January of 1998 and shortly thereafter flew to the UK, where I spent about three weeks looking for and photographing locations for what was then called “James Bond’s Britain”. This meant that in addition to London, my assistant (and friend, and former boss!), Chris Gardner, and I traveled all over England and Scotland, including the rather remote spot where the From Russia With Love helicopter chase was filmed. I then continued writing and researching at home for a few months, then went back to London in the summer of ’98 for more legwork. I was finishing up the book in 1999 when Ilearned that TWINE was to include extensive London and UK location work. So, the decision was made to wait and include material from that film. Then in 2000, after TWINE, we decided that there was so much information that the book should be split in two. Thus began the rather arduous process of separating entries and creating the second book, James Bond’s Britain, which will be published in 2003 and will include the British locations from the new film.

Jordan: There are so many Bond locations in London, some of which have changed over the years, how did you go about locating all of them?

Gary: In several different ways. One way, of course, was to consult production documents and the filmmakers to find out where things were shot. In some cases, it involved me taking reference photos from the films and walking all over London till I found the spot (e.g., the building seen out the window of the big conference room in Thunderball.) In the case of the Secret Service HQ shown near the beginning of Dr. No, I used books of aerial photos of London to spot the complex, which, if you look closely, can be seen to be located on the river.

Jordan: Are there any Bond locations you couldn’t find?

Gary: Until I started talking with Peter Lamont, there were several! But after that, I’m pretty sure that every Greater London location ever shown in an EON film is included in the book.

Jordan: Which one location was your favorite or most interesting? Least favorite?

Gary: I have a number of favorites—including the office where Ian Fleming worked for Naval Intelligence during WWII. It had been taken over by the Foreign Office and used for storage, but thanks to some very kind people in that department, I was able to get inside, and even had the space in front of the fireplace cleared away so that I could “replicate” that famous photo of Ian standing there so regally in his Commander’s uniform. It was also thrilling to get inside Fleming’s office in Fleet Street and to visit the Royal Air Force base which has appeared in several Bond films, including Goldfinger, Octopussy and TWINE.

These side effects take place due icks.org levitra free consultation to decreased generation of sebum by the sebaceous glands. When the androgen testosterone are released from the gonads and act in the brain and sildenafil soft periphery to control many male-typical traits, including male sexual behavior. Always and in every case need of alcohol rehabilitation is not needed, as for the people who have not yet obtained their driver’s license who wish to do so. The cost for advertisement purpose for the cheapest online cialis Full Report is very high in demand and increasingly mounting popularity all around the world. Jordan: How did you prepare for writing the book? Was there any sort of process you went through while writing it?

Gary: First I re-read every novel and story, taking detailed notes, and then I re-watched all the films, and, again, took copious notes. I also read as much on Fleming and the films as I could and then began making a location list and organizing it by district. Then I researched the places themselves, their histories, etc., so that the book might have a little extra appeal beyond simply saying, “Oh, this is where this was filmed and this is where Fleming got his shirts.” And, as I said, I spent several weeks in the UK and spoke with a number of people who were involved in the films, including Lamont, John Glen, John Stears and Reg Barkshire, Broccoli and Saltzman’s former partner on the EON board.

Jordan: For those who don’t know, tell us a little about “James Bond’s Britian” which will be released in 2003.

Gary: JBB will detail all the film, book and Fleming locations in the UK OUTSIDE London. This includes Pinewood Studios, the Aston Martin company, Fleming’s final resting place, the TWINE pipeline in Wales (and elsewhere), the Goldfinger and TND golf club, the Moonraker rocket site from the novel, Sean Connery’s birthplace, and on and on, as well as the many British locations from the new film, Die Another Day.

Jordan: Why such a big gap between the release of “London” and “Britian?” Weren’t they orignally going to be one volume?

Gary: Yes, but because there was so much material we decided to do it as two books. My original manuscript, without pictures, was over 400 pages. It was either cut a massive amount of text (to keep the book reasonably priced and easy to carry around London) or issue it in two parts. And this way, we can release the second part in about a year and so include all the new locations.

Jordan: You left out the locations of the non-Fleming novels. Was there ever any plans to include them? Or did you know from the get-go that you wanted to focus on Fleming’s Bond?

Gary: I am an unabashed Fleming fan and, I must say, defender. As far as I’m concerned, what he wrote is gospel–about Bond, his life and his world. So, no, I never intended to include anything from non-Fleming novels. What anyone else says about Bond—where he dines or drives or whatever—simply doesn’t mean anything to me. And it’s the same with the non-EON Bond films. None of this is to sleight the other writers or filmmakers. I respect what they have done. But for me, none of these works is truly “James Bond”.

Jordan: Since they will always be making Bond films, do you have any plans on keeping the book updated with the new locations?

Gary: Yes, I certainly envision updating the book.

Jordan: Do you have any plans on writing any more Bond location books? For instance, will there ever be a “James Bond’s America”or “James Bond’s Europe?” Having read “James Bond’s London” I would love to see more books of this nature from you and Daleon.

Gary: Yes, I have already started “James Bond’s America” and would like to do a “James Bond’s Europe” as well.

Jordan: Besides the meeting Mr. Snowman (see related articles at CommanderBond.net or SectretIntel.com), do you have any other stories about your trips abroad?

Gary: Finding the helicopter location from From Russia With Love was most memorable. Going solely on a remark in a Bond reference book, we went to Lochgilphead, Scotland…and just asked the locals. “Och, the helicopter!” They all knew the place, but getting there was still difficult…driving, parking, hiking, then trying to pick out the exact spot. And finally we spotted the rock where Connery crouched to shoot down the helicopter. And just below it, rusting there for over 25 years, was a piece of the helicopter!

Jordan: And finally, do you have any other books in the works?

Gary: Well, thanks for asking. As a matter of fact, my next book is Alfred Hitchcock’s London, which Daleon will publish later this year. It is similar in format to James Bond’s London, with locations from his 20-plus English films, as well as from his source novels and, of course, his life. It was written with the cooperation of several of his collaborators (including Bond production designer Syd Cain, who worked on Hitchcock’s Frenzy), as well as his daughter Pat.

Special acknowledgements for help with this article go to Lee Pfeiffer, Daniel Dykes, and, of course, Gary Giblin for allowing time for 007Forever.com to interview him!–Jordan Charter

Read 007Forever.com’s review of James Bond London here. Order your copy today from SpyGuise.com.

live chat transcript – Don McGregor

007Forever is pleased to present the transcript from our live chat with comix legend Don McGregor, well known to Marvel and independent comix fans as a groundbreaking writer and pioneer and to Bond fans for his work as well. Don paused for about 90 minutes on the eve of his birthday to chat online with Forever fans live, while Marsha Childers McGregor baked a delicious cake for Don in the next room. This transcript has been edited slightly for clarity. Enjoy!

Flemfan: Welcome to 007Forever at Fandom, if you`ve just joined us. I am Matt Sherman, Assistant Editor of 007Forever, and I am delighted to moderate our live chat tonight featuring your questions for Mr. Don McGregor, author of “James Bond: The Quasimodo Gambit” and “James Bond: GoldenEye”, both successful graphic novels with everyone`s favorite number in the forefront. Don`s large body of work is well known in the comix industry, so if we stay on topic for a few questions in a row, hang tight and we will get to your topic`s questions soon.

**This is a “moderated chat,” so if you are just joining us inside 007Forever`s chat room, please head for the auditorium by entering /auditorium at the prompt at bottom of your screen, and you will receive a “welcome to the 007Forever auditorium message” on your screen. Only questions submitted in the auditorium will be answered in tonight`s chat. Thank you.**

Please let me take a moment to share excerpts from the accolades given to Don`s recently released “Detectives Inc.: A Terror of Dying Dreams”…

“…a lean, taut piece, pared down to its dark essence, that pulls no punches…”

“…Wow! Don McGregor and Gene Colan know how to tell a great story…the best comic book I`ve read in 5 years, when I last read A Terror of Dying Dreams…Don`t just stand here reading the back cover, Man. Take it home…a virtuoso synthesis of words and pictures from two of the industry`s grand masters…”

Don McGregor That`s some high praise…

Flemfan: …indeed…

…Welcome to 007Forever!

Don McGregor Good to be here, M. Please don`t accuse me of being a misogynist dinosaur, okay. Don`t ask, don`t tell.

Flemfan: I think you`ve given us a good place to start…

…what I mean is…

Don McGregor I give you all the straight lines. Rainier and Denning taught me how to do that.

Flemfan: You took exception with the GoldenEye script…

You added to Bond`s interior monologue…

Don McGregor Who me?

Flemfan: When M calls Bond a dinosaur…tell us about that?

You had Bond upset…

…at M`s lambasting that he is a misogynist pig…

Don McGregor Well, I`m a Bond fan. And here is M chastising and criticizing Bond for having sex, when she`s screwed up with the information he`s managed to give her.

So, when adapting that scene into comics, I certainly thought Bond should be able to take up for himself. But I didn`t change any of the dialogue in the script. I just gave Bond`s reaction to this tirade.

Icebreaker asks: How is it that you felt about GoldenEye that M “screwed it up”…

…by getting on “Bond`s case”?

Don McGregor Bond has been following the people who have stolen the stealth helicopter, and it`s M who doesn`t let him pursue it.

Boy, I should pull those GoldenEye comics out, huh?

We`re up to 77 questions?

Flemfan: Very funny!

{action: } laughs hysterically.

Here`s a good one from jsacks…

Jsacks asks: Is there any hope of ever returning to the world of Sabre?

… Maybe some Sabre text stories? Old scripts? Sketches?

How much of your “…Decadence” do you have worked out?

Don McGregor Great question, Matt. For fans of SABRE, they know the biggest storyline of all, THE DECADENCE INDOCTRINATION, left at a cliffhanger.

If, we manage to sell enough of the graphic albums on the Internet, or through the specialty shops, or through places like Bud Plant, then, yes, you will see how that biggest fantasy heroic epic I`ve ever attempted will end.

There will be stories that go into characters backgrounds, as well as show where they end up. Dearie Decadence, Heironymous Skull, Tango Two-Step, and other characters that Sabre and Melissa Siren haven`t met yet, but the readers have, will all collide!

Icebreaker asks: Who owns the rights to produce Bond comic books, either original ones or ones based on the movies?

Don McGregor My understanding of that, is that if it involves the literary Bond, the Ian Fleming Bond, then it would be Glidrose. If it is involved with the cinematic Bond, then that would be Eon Productions.

Icebreaker asks: Were more Bond comics planned with Topps before they folded?

Don McGregor Not to my knowledge, but there could have been. The fact that the last two issues of GOLDENEYE never came out certainly wouldn`t help the cause, though.

Jsacks asks: What current comic books do you enjoy? Have you read Brian Michael Bendis? He does solid detective yarns.

Don McGregor Jack Cole`s PLASTIC MAN. It was great to see that early, first material. Milton Caniff`s TERRY AND THE PIRATES. I see a lot of the comic strips these days because I`m doing the ZORRO NEWSPAPER STRIP. They finally found a way to get me to buy a daily newspaper. Have my comic in it every day! That`ll do it!

That has its upsides and downsides. The upside is that you have a reinforcement of the work you are doing every day! It is also the downside, because every day you see where they are, and how close on your butt they are.

Flemfan: **If you joining us late, please enter the auditorium by typing /auditorium and then send us your questions for Don! Watch for the full transcript of tonight`s chat to be posted later this week at www.fandom.com/james_bond.**

Mrflig asks: Don, do you write full scripts or “Marvel” style plots? Does it vary on the project, or do you have a definite preference?

Don McGregor It does depend on the project.

Flemfan: What do you mean?

Don McGregor I more or less prefer a full plot, because the other way, it`s almost having to go back and write the sequence a second time. I prefer to write the scripts to the artist`s strengths. Sometimes I am very detailed in every aspect of the page design.

With other artists, I may do panel breakdowns, suggested angles, with others I`m less specific.

It depends on the working relationship you have with the artist, if you are lucky enough to know before hand who you will be partnered with.

And make no mistake, writing comics and illustrating comics is a partnership. You can write your heart out, you can bleed onto the paper, you can care passionately, but if you don`t have an artist that brings their talent and vision to the project, you`re dead on the page.

Jsacks asks: Here`s an off-the-wall question: as a creator, how do you feel about the current controversy about Napster and copyrights?

Flemfan: How do you feel about the Internet and related copyrights?

Don McGregor That`s a broad-based question.

It has no easy answer.

The Internet can help books survive.

But it can also be a place where you have no control over where it appears.

Illya asks: Don, did you ever read any of the Evan Tanner series (by Lawrence Block)?

Flemfan: You know, Don, the detective named “Matt”…

I apologize for the technical troubles tonight!

Don will stay late if you are having fun at 10!

**This is a “moderated chat,” so if you are just joining us inside 007Forever`s chat room, please head for the auditorium by entering /auditorium at the prompt at bottom of your screen, and you will receive a “welcome to the 007Forever auditorium message” on your screen. Only questions submitted in the auditorium will be answered in tonight`s chat. Thank you.**

Hang in there, everyone…as Don says…he is on the way again!

Hang on!!!

Don is coming back on beloved…

…AOL! LOL more like it!

My server went down in the middle of our chat tonight!

…but I am back…

…and am an expert on Don McGregor!

{action: } screams loudly.

Welcome back, Don!

{action: } bows gracefully.

What was it like to turn ZORRO from movie to comic book form?

Don McGregor You know, it was getting a little crazy. There was the ZORRO`S RENEGADES that I was writing.

Then there was THE MASK OF ZORRO movie adaptation into comics.

And then there was the comic strip that was coming.

Mrflig asks: What`s your favorite Bond: a) movie and b) book?

Don McGregor DR. NO is my all time favorite Bond book.

I can still remember reading that sequence with the centipede.

I actually stopped myself three quarters of the way through, and said, Hold it!

You don`t come across a suspense narrative like this very often.

Savor it.

Enjoy it.

I went back and started it from the beginning.

Reading slowly.

And the centipede crawls through his groin hairs.

And then drinks the sweat off his forehead

In high school, I read this aloud in a high school English class.

This was before Kennedy made Fleming acceptable in the States.

The teacher near had a heart attack.

The students love it.

I don`t believe I got expelled.

Flemfan: We know your fav film is Goldfinger…

…you saw it 20 times…

here’s a follow-up to the Dr. No episode…

Mrflig asks: Did the centipede scene in Dr. No inspire the nasty scene with the leeches in Quasimodo Gambit?

Don McGregor I did not have that sequence in the beginning of scripting QUASIMODO.

I knew I had to have a Fleming-esque Bond situation, where there was that intimacy of danger and detail.

But everything I came up with just didn`t have that spark.

I was actually researching the Georgia swamps when I came across some information about the leeches.

And how when they sucked the blood from you, they put an enzyme into your system that wouldn`t allow the blood to coagulate.

And I knew had something that would be vivid!

That could make a memorable Bond sequence.

I hope it did.

Flemfan: It sure did…

Here`s a follow-up…

Illya asks: Don, do you have any problems writing for Bond because he`s so flawless? Part of your strength as a storyteller is giving us the very human Rainier and Denning, Dragon, etc.

Don McGregor I`d argue that point. Fleming`s Bond is not flawless. In writing THE QUASIMODO GAMBIT, I re-read many of the Fleming Bond books.

The Bond in that comic has Fleming`s Bond`s memories.

And the structure is a reverse of LIVE AND LET DIE. Did I ever tell you that, Matt?

Flemfan: I thought you read from RIGHT to left…

Don McGregor Rainier and Denning are a part of the New York City Scene.

They love Culp and Cosby.

They have a deep and abiding respect for each other.

But at the same time, despite being DETECTIVES INC., these guys do not have the same personalities.

They have different opinions on many things.

But not on important things, like honor, commitment, friendship, accountability, etc.

Jason, good to see you here. Jason`s on the don mcgregor OneList. Hope some of you can join us there, as well.

Flemfan: “one world, one list, Mr. Bond…”

Jsacks asks: Will you ever release the “Detectives Inc” video, so everyone can see it?

Don McGregor Just this week-end, I was at a wedding with my good buddy Alex Simmons, and we were discussing the DETECTIVES INC: A TERROR OF DYING DREAMS film version.

Flemfan: …Alex starred in the film…

Don McGregor It needs a third track and a digital copy made, before we can make any final decisions about that.

The cast is superb.

And the fight sequence in the parking lot is much longer and dynamic than we had room to do in the comic.

Flemfan: Bond represents five decades now…

…he has to be “updated” sometimes…

here`s a crossover question of sorts…

Illya asks: Given your love of westerns & Bond, why haven`t we seen you create an Artemis Gordon sort of character…a Bond of the 1800s so to speak?

Don McGregor Okay, I`m thrown here for a moment.

I thought you were saying that Bond himself has to be updated.

But the question now seems to be he should have a Jim West sidekick?

Are we crossing into Zorro territory here?
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Do you mean, in Zorro there should be an Artemis Gordon type character?

I don`t know how much Bond has to be updated, just as I don`t believe…

Zorro has to be updated.

I think you start with a love of the character, but you can`t be slavish to it.

You have to bring something new to the stories.

And yet there are certain things about those characters that remain the reasons why they have been loved for so long.

And I`m glad there are people who have loved DETECTIVES INC. and SABRE for so many years.

And that the books and the characters have meant so much to them.

Flemfan: **If you joining us late, please enter the auditorium by typing /auditorium and then send us your questions for Don! Watch for the full transcript of tonight`s chat to be posted later this week at www.fandom.com/james_bond.**

Alteredsal asks: What happened to your ZORRO: Matanzas from Image Comics?

Don McGregor Oh, man! Break my heart, why don`t you?

The series was scripted about one half-dozen years ago.

Full script.

Mike Mayhew has done an incredible job on the art.

Sam Parsons has beautifully colored the book.

I kept talking with him throughout ZORRO: MATANZAS! If you go up on the www.donmcgregor.com and into the ZORRO: MATANZAS! website you can see for yourself.

You don`t have to take my word for it.

There are finished page samples up there.

John Costanza, arguably one of the best letterers in comics, has finished the lettering.

And we have no idea when the book will come out.

It may appear in France first.

But I haven`t heard anything on that in awhile.

Mrflig asks: Who is the most autobiographical of your characters, if any? (This is Rob Clough, by the way…)

Don McGregor Hey, Rob. Ah, you think I`m going to give myself away here, huh?

I don`t really know how to answer that question.

In some respects, most of the characters probably have something of me in them.

Even the bad guys.

But to single out a character, well, I don`t know, I`d be reluctant to do that.

Some people, for sure, would say Bob Rainier, from DETECTIVES INC, or even Ted Denning, but I don`t know about that.

Who do you think?

Illya asks: What about other folks? Denning’s mom is obviously Alex`s mom… (Kev here btw)

Don McGregor Kevin! Hey, you guys are great!

Flemfan: Is “Denning`s” mom “Alex`s” mom in real life?

Don McGregor Well, she plays the character in the film version.

But I wouldn`t say it`s her. DETECTIVES INC. is fiction.

You could say there might be some aspects of her in the character, just as there might be a little of Alex in Denning, perhaps.

But they really are just them.

You can`t replace them.

They didn`t come out of a mold, or from any one source.

Kevin Hall, by the way, for all you, is the one who makes the www.donmcgregor.com look the way it does.

He is the artist for me, the partner I work with on the Internet.

He takes my ideas and helps make them a reality in Cyberspace.

Thank you, Kevin!

Flemfan: Don, you have written extensively for magazines…Bond-related interviews…”Ice” asks…

Icebreaker asks: What do you think of Bond and genre fanzines? What could they use in future? What are their best qualities now?

Don McGregor That`s another question that`s pretty wide.

The Bond magazines out there each have a different approach so there is no one answer.

I suppose you mean to appeal to a wider audience.

I think, when you get that love across, with the facts, and not let the love blind you, but make you want to make this the best Bond piece you can, then something people who love Bond should get a quality product.

Illya asks: More Bond, please. Seems like the Bond movies are great on action, but short on the suspense that I LOVE the original Fleming books for. How do you keep some suspense in the comics?

Don McGregor I think one of the biggest challenges in doing genre fiction with heroes is to get the audience to forget for ten seconds that Bond or Zorro have to come back next issue!

If I manage that, that they get so swept up into what is happening, that the actually forget that, then I think I`ve done my job as a storyteller.

It means going into the intimate detail as Fleming did.

You have to live with it, day after day.

Rob Clough, who wrote earlier, wrote on the OneList, that there is a sequence with the Black Panther buried alive that made him feel like he was suffocating.

That`s what the writer does every day in a scene like that.

Imagine what it`s like to be buried alive.

Or if it`s Bond, what it`s like to have your mouth taped shut with leeches inside it.

Or in PANTHER`S QUEST, what it`s like to be tear gassed.

You go there day after day. And you try to make it the best damned pages of comics you can.

Flemfan: Follow-up to your life inside the head and soul of your characters…

You have filmed a movie of “Detectives, Inc.” (and have appeared in film cameos) and have written prose books as well. Which medium is better for you and why? Which is your personal fave?

Don McGregor Hey, I see there`s an emotion meter here. What`s it reading? Yikes!

That`s a good question.

I love all the mediums.

When you write a prose book, like DRAGONFLAME and THE VARIABLE SYNDROME, the thing you know about this is that what you put down there is what the audience knows.

In film, it isn`t just you.

There is so much technical detail that has to be dealt with.

On the other hand, as a director, unlike as a writer, you have people who deal with specific sections, and you ask, “What`s my options?”

And someone says, this and this and this.

And you say, “This sounds the best. Do that.”

The actors bring your words and sequences to life.

In comics, the artist brings them to life.

So many folk think comics are a second-rate art form.

Flemfan: {action: } snorts derisively.

Don McGregor I think they`re beautiful.

Flemfan: {action: } nods solemnly.

Don McGregor When you see a finished page of comic art from a Gene Colan, or a Dwayne Turner, or Mike Mayhew, or Billy Graham, as just some of the people I`ve been privileged to work with…

Well, nothing beats it.

All the anxiety about facing the blank page…

And how can you make the best page of comics you can that day…

All that is swept aside, when that art comes in, and sometimes the scene is even more than you dared hope for.

It brings breath and meaning and those characters alive!

Icebreaker asks: You’ve created GoldenEye and The Quasimodo Gambit as comics. How do you REALLY feel about other writers and artists who have created Bond comics in recent years?

Don McGregor I`ve seen Paul`s [Gulacy of “Serpent’s Tooth] Bond. He`s a big Bond fan, and he has a lot of power in his drawing. I really haven`t read the material.

On the other hand, how can any writer really answer this.

Even if I had.

Because you can`t come to that objectively.

I just hope the work I`ve done stands on its own merits.

I hope, in the case of Bond or Zorro, people know I came to it with a respect for the mythos of both characters.

And I wish the others well.

Flemfan: Don, thanks for staying late…last question…

…before a few quick announcements…

Don McGregor You want to do some more, it`s flowing now, so it`s up to you.

Flemfan: {action: } cheers enthusiastically.

Don, this is why the fans love you, everywhere!

How about we have you back instead for a follow-up chat soon? Final question…

Jsacks asks: Who are you rooting for tonight, the Lakers or Pacers?

Don McGregor Hey, Jace, are you really David Letterman? I`ll ask my son that question. Hey, Rob. Who are you for?

Ooop! Rob is gone!

Best I can answer that one. I am working on a sequence at Shea Stadium. It`s the only sports answer I can think of.

Flemfan: And so say all of us…Shea?

A few thoughts…first…

For everyone who participated tonight, as always, many hearty “thank yous” from Fandom/007Forever for chatting with us, and a very special THANK YOU goes to Don McGregor, for taking the time to talk with his fans. Don`s current projects, as well as opportunities for ordering specially inscribed copies of his work are available now at www.donmcgregor.com.

Don McGregor In the GIFT SHOP.

Flemfan: ZORRO can be enjoyed with updated strips each day at www.creators.com/comics/zorro. Plus, the latest ZORRO news and exciting collectibles may be found at http://members.aol.com/zorrocomix. You will also find interaction and fascination at http://www.comicon.com/donmcgregor. (The above plugs were not solicited by Don McGregor.) 🙂

Don McGregor And there is an INTERNET SPECIAL on SIGNED AND NUMBERED EDITIONS.

Flemfan: …and…drum roll…

Don McGregor Just thought I`d throw that in there!

Flemfan: Don is available at www.donmcgregor.com as well.

Don McGregor Don`t I help, Matt? 😉

Flemfan: …Plus you can catch 5,000 words of Don this week at 007Forever…

…his two-part interview…

Apologies to all for the tech troubles tonight…

and thanks to Don…a super writer and a super sport…

We salute you, sir!

Don McGregor Thank you, Matt. It`s great working with you again since Bond Weekend ’99.

Flemfan: And great to be at Fandom!

Don McGregor But what did you say you really thought about A TERROR OF DYING DREAMS?

Flemfan: Your latest re-released work? I will be heading out to the auditorium if anyone wants to chat a bit more… 😉

…Don, thanks to you and Marsha McGregor tonight!

–pardon me…am heading to chatroom…the auditorium is closing it down now…

Don McGregor Thank you, Jason. Let me know how you thought this went on the One List.

Illya asks: Sorry to leave the party early gang. Nice seeing Rob & Jason. And of course the inimitable Don. Great moderating job Flemfan!

Jsacks asks: Thanks Don!

Icebreaker asks: Bye for now, Don, thanks for the chat, Matt.

Mrflig asks: Thanks, Don! And thanks for setting this up, Matt.

**Check out:

DonMcGregor.com

Zorro Productions

Zorro Strips: Daily Update

Don McGregor: Bonded Comix Part II

–Continuing our two-parter with comix legend, Don McGregor, as he shares about the Bonds, John Glen, Maurice Binder, and struggling to fit the creative muse into a “DEADline”.

Matt: James Bond in Quasimodo Gambit was a bizarre deadline, wasn`t it? Tell us about it.

Don: The Deadline itself kept changing, and there were different deadlines!

When I was first approached to do a Bond comic series, the book was being produced by two separate companies: Eclipse Comics and Acme, which was based in London. They were already in the midst of doing a Bond series with different talent, and they wanted this book to be ready when the other finished. The common thought was to do a Post-Glasnost Bond plot, but I felt, even if they could pull all the talent together to do it, and could come out with Quasimodo Gambit as rapidly as they said, it could be dated by the time it saw print.

It ended up taking years (yeah, that`s right, instead of months, the deadline became years!) for the book to be illustrated. Now, I had written and researched the entire project, so virtually it was all there. But then I had to do final scripting over the art, and make the captions and dialogue fit the art, and because the art was so late, it was often a pressured deadline…

…And Bond had to be done on pages that were in rough penciled sketch. I often had difficulty just in making out who was whom. In one sequence, in M`s office, I placed a lot of the M and Bond introductory stuff into what looked like blank space behind M`s head, but when I saw the color, finished pages, I don`t know how many odd months later, I could see the artist had put in detailed wall space, including a painting behind M`s head, and it was all covered by copy! So, I went back, a replaced it all, to preserve the art. And once again, I was running against another “Deadline.”

James Bond: GoldenEye was a different beast altogether, because Topps got the license to do the series late, and you have to have the first issue of the book ready by the time the film opens. The problem is no one knew what the finished film looked like, and let`s face it, with a Bond film, and a Bond comic, fans are going to be looking closely. But what does that War Room really look like? What about the interior computer control rooms under the frozen wastelands? Never mind, what do many of the characters in the story look like!

Matt: How did you start your lifelong love affair with Mr. Bond? 😉

Don: With Ian Fleming. And that goes way back before any films were made. It goes back even before President Kennedy put “From Russia, With Love” on his favorite books list.

I used to travel down to a small town in West Warwick, Rhode Island. And they had a huge store there called “Newberries,” and it was one of those places that sold everything from fresh made cookies (Oh, man! I loved those Scotch Jams, to this day, but you can`t find them anymore) to paperback books. And that`s where I picked up a copy of “Diamonds Are Forever”.

It`s funny how you can`t remember things that happened two days ago, and other things stay with you, sharp, clear, the moment of impact as fresh as if it happened an instant ago.

I`d gone to a friend`s house on New Year`s Eve, and I`d taken that DAF paperback with me. I was going back towards my house, walking beside the road that traveled up a steep incline that just went on what seemed like forever when you were walking. There was a January snap in the air, stinging the cheeks. I was stopping under streetlights, reading a few passages here and there from Diamonds, and then hiking to the next light in the darkness. And there was that moment when the villain gets his intended victim in the hot mud rooms, and pours scalding mud in his face and eyes! And I remember standing in the lone light in the black expanse. Everything was quiet. New Year`s Eve was either over, or people hadn`t returned to their houses yet. And I thought what the hell is this!

And I hadn`t even read “Dr. No” yet!

I learned a lot from Fleming. There`s a sequence from “No”, where the centipede is crawling up Bond`s body, and it`s one of the most exquisitely detailed suspense narratives I`ve ever read. I actually recall telling myself to slow down, go back to the beginning of the scene, and savor it, because those kind of scenes didn`t happen often!

Matt: You have plenty of stories about Bond insiders. What is the wildest thing that happened to you while working on a Bond related project?

Don: The wildest thing! You think I`m going to tell you that, Matt? Right here, and now! Or ever!

I will tell you that one of the nicest thing was meeting so many really nice, talented people. I have fond memories of talking with John Glen the night before For Your Eyes Only opened in the States. He was incredibly candid and open about all his feelings. Maurice Binder was a delight. I`d gone to the MGM buildings to talk with him, and they were supposed to have a clip of the opening credits to show me, and for some reason, it couldn`t be found. I told Maurice that was fine, not a problem, but Maurice wouldn`t hear of it. He said, “You`ve traveled all this way, Don, and they were supposed to have it ready!” And guess what, ten, fifteen minutes later, we were in a screening room watching his wonderful way with credits.

What pleased me most in that instance is that after the article on Maurice appeared in Star Log magazine, he wrote me a note telling me how pleased he was with it, and that he felt it was the most accurately he had ever been quoted. That`s not a wild moment, but its one I hold dear.

Still, one of the best things about working on Bond related articles in those days, was meeting Tom Carlile. He was Cubby Broccoli`s US Publicity Coordinator. He treated me, and Star Log, as if we were as important as the biggest promotion gig they had going. Tom took me to dinner one night. I shouldn`t have been there. I`d had a heart attack the night before, although I`d convinced myself by morning that it couldn`t have been that, and yet I`d gone into Manhattan to make sure everything was all right with a series I was writing called Nathaniel Dusk, which was drawn by the Dean of comics, Gene Colan, and then I`d hiked over to see Tom.

He was going in for cancer tests soon after. It was a foolish thing I`d done, and I hope I`d know better today, and yet I`ve always treasured that night, sitting with Tom, as he told me great stories about the early days of trying to promote Bond in the States. “Who wants a movie about a Limey detective?” more than one theater owner would say to him. And the change to where he had people beating at his door and ringing the phone off the hook to get whatever they could on 007! But he also told me amazing stories about working with George Stevens and behind-the-scenes events on “Shane”, stuff I`d never known. Or how difficult it was to work on “Barbarella” with Jane Fonda and Dino DeLaurentiis.

Maybe not wild, but certainly treasured, Matt. It was the last time I ever saw Tom. But what a wonderful last time together. I miss him.

Matt: Tell us about why it was that the lovely and popular GoldenEye comic`s last two issues went unpublished!

Don: See, now, you`re talking about stuff you know the answers to! Now, you`re just baiting me!

Let me see how to tell this without all the twists and turns that project took. The first thing people need to know about a project like this is that there are three companies involved. Eon Productions, of course, made the film. They hired a company called Leisure Concepts to handle Licensing deals for the Bond movie. So, now you have three separate companies, when you include Topps, all with people handling the business end of the project. (And comics are a literary-style item like Glidrose produces for the Fleming estate, too.)

What I have to do is find out how many pages we have to tell the film, get as much visual reference as possible, and find the best way to capture the spirit and tone of a film I haven`t even seen yet! Now, all of Topps negotiations had to go through Leisure Concepts to get to Eon Productions. The problem for a place that handles licensing is that they don`t understand the nature of comics. Normally, they are approached to do a Bond product, be it watches or T-Shirts or talcum powder. The company wanting to make this product needs Bond images.

Let`s take a T-Shirt company, for example. They make the deal, the licensing company sends them 20 or 30 images of Bond, the company selects the one they feel will make the best T-Shirts, and its onward. With comics, you have to see everything!

It`s not even like adapting the book, because you can slide over the details, the pictures aren`t right there in front of the audience. But with a comic, you have to visualize every scene! And with all the technical gizmos and unique backgrounds that are a part of the story, you have to show it! And if I was going to do a Bond comic, I`m coming to it, as someone who loves comics, who has a reputation for the books my names goes on, but as important as that, producing a quality book for fans of Bond, because I`m a fan! I want to do the book I`d like to see if I was out there, wanting to have a comic about Bond!

All of GoldenEye, all three books were pencilled. All three books were lettered. All three books were inked. I had worked on the covers for all three books with Brian Stelfreeze. And without a doubt, the best cover we had, in terms of attracting an audience, Bond and especially, non-Bond, was the cover for Issue #2. Brian did a painting from the steam room sequence between Bond and Xenia Onatopp, with General Ouromov as a ghostly overseeing presence. It was colorful, provocative and caught the spirit of the scene exquisitely.

And it became a problem. I wasn`t there for all the conversations, but apparently someone, somewhere was concerned about the cover. Topps was ready to go to press with the second book when an objection came about the cover. Leisure Concepts and Eon, or just one of the companies, had to give approval to the book, and that approval stalled. Jim Salicrup wouldn`t print the book until Topps had the approval.

THE DAY (and I`m not just saying this for dramatic effect; it`s really the way it happened), the day they put all the finished art in my hands, done, complete, was also the day I was told the book wouldn`t see print. Ads had already been taken out for a compilation edition! You can see the book listed as if it exists in Price Guides! No Bond fan will ever find it-issues 2 and 3–because it didn`t happen. There are lots of books like that these days, advertised as if they exist, with Price Guide sums printed as to their value, and the damn books never came out! Twenty years from now, comics researchers and historians are going to go nuts trying to find books that don`t exist at all!

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And it wasn`t because the book didn`t sell! GoldenEye #1 was very successful. All that work. I held the art in my hands, heard the words, and there`s an empty feeling inside. You`ve run the race! You`ve given everything you have! And the James Bond fans will never see it!

There`s not one argument you can offer that`s going to change it.

And it hurts the chances for more Bond comics down the road, because some people are going to think, hey, Bond comics didn`t sell.

Matt: You attended the Bond Weekend `99 we held in Las Vegas. What was it like to meet all those crazy fans and inscribe some of your work for them?

Don: The Bond Con was great! Although, you ask about wild times, Matt, and the wildest time there was when you took on the entire Las Vegas airport security personnel. Personally, I thought maybe you`d been doing a little too much James Bond immersion identification. But you appeared at Planet Hollywood, shaken, not stirred.

Both Marsha and I really enjoyed the people there. It wasn`t just the connection of Bond, it was a genuine warmth with so many of those people. There was a lot of passion, for Bond, certainly, but for life in general!

But I do miss driving with Jim Sieff in the Bond Aston Martin going down the desert highway! I wish we`d done that with Lana Wood! Damn! Is Jim bringing the Aston Martin to New Orleans for Bond Weekend 2000? Did you know that`s where I set the Blade series I wrote for Marvel? Thinking about it, I guess there aren`t many desert highways in Orleans, are there? Hmmm.

Matt: Jim may be busy filming with his Astons for Austin Powers 3. What are some of the trends you foresee in the comix industry?

Don: I`m far from a soothsayer. Comics are under siege, in many ways. Certainly, the Internet will open the way for new ways to present and do comics, though how all that will play out is still cloudy. I do believe this is a way to help books survive, by using the Web, that might not have a chance if one has to rely just on the big Distributors. It`s one of the reasons I decided to start the www.donmcgregor.com site. Kevin Hall put together that and the McGregor ONElist Message Group. I wasn`t sure anybody would write to the thing. Well, not only have they written, but they`ve put file copies up of art from books I`ve done, and they`ve done a magnificent job with it. There`s color art from Dwayne Turner drawn Black Panther, to repros from Billy Graham SABRE art. I hope that we will have graphic albums of SABRE: An Exploitation of Everything Dear sometime in the near future. The entire storyline that ran from SABRE Issue #3 to #9, “Everything Dear” collected in one big volume. But before that we should have out The Definitive Ragamuffins Graphic Album, a series I created years ago, pencilled by Gene Colan. It`s about kids growing up in the 1950`s, a book about kids for adults, with flash forwards to various points in time in the `60s, `70s and `80s.

It`s exactly books like these that I think the Internet can help to survive.

If people can find you on the Internet, see that they can get the books directly from you, and if they feel confident in ordering those books, then perhaps this opens the medium up from the domination it has been under to produce “superhero” books. Many of these titles have become so inbred that if you haven`t read a hundred issues you don`t have a clue what the hell you`re reading!

I can`t prove this will work. I just know the Internet is opening new doors and venues. If I could see into the future, I guess I would know how to use that effectively to promote and sell the books, but remember, I`m primarily a storyteller, that`s what I`ve always been, and that hasn`t changed, so this is something totally new to me.

It`s difficult to get people to know you`re there in the vastness of Cyberspace.

It`s difficult to get people to know who don`t normally read comics that there might be books they`d really be interested in, if they knew they existed.

But how to get, let`s say, someone who really loves mystery fiction to know there`s a series of beautifully produced books like Detectives, Inc., with complex characters you can get involved with, in story-lines that are serious, but not without humor, visually exciting and evocatively rendered? I don`t have all the answers for that. But certainly, a site like Fandom/007Forever helps reach people, Matt, and makes it more accessible to know these books exist! If you love Bond, or ZORRO, or, to name a couple of my favorites, these days, Buffy or Xena, well, now you know there`s a place that you can go and get quality material on these characters. The same hopefully will apply to Detectives, Inc. and SABRE and Ragamuffins. These books cover a wide span, from heroic fantasy to private eyes to mainstream stories.

They are unique, and they are of singular vision, and I hope to do more of them.

And meet more of those incredible fans who have been so supportive over the years. Thank God for them! They surprised a few editors over the years, let me tell you!

Matt: What new projects are on your plate now?

Don: I`m writing the daily ZORRO newspaper strip, which appears in the New York Daily New and the Houston Chronicle, among many other papers. I`ve just introduced the first major black characters in the ZORRO mythos in the strips–starting back in the middle of April 2000. The Definitive Ragamuffins is at two companies right now, and hopefully, we`ll have copies by the San Diego Comic Con [author`s note: It would be great to see a lot of Bond fans there as 007Forever staff and contributors are attending in July]. The new book includes a rough version of a twenty-page lost Ragamuffins story called “The Pack Rat Instinct”, which has never yet seen print! The fans will love it. It is all about the dear, sweetly absurd, all consuming need to collect that which you love! It`s as much a part of the fan as breathing. [I know Collectors` Corner fans at Forever can relate–Matt]

I`m also working on a new Detectives, Inc. story entitled “A Fear of Perverse Photos”. Detective Bob Rainier`s opening line is, “Let me see if I`ve got this right, you want us to break into your apartment and steal all the pornographic photos you`ve printed off the Internet.” It`s a story that looks at this new phenomenon, how it affects everyday people, examines the different criteria for what is considered obscene and isn`t, and even looks at views on the afterlife and angels. Oh, and it also looks at the changing face of Manhattan. Has it really been changed? Could Dorothy now get off a bus at Port Authority with Toto, look around and sigh, “Jeez, Toto, we really still are in Kansas!”?

But I`ll be spending a lot of time and energy on the www.donmcgregor.com website, as well, promoting it, making sure people have a way to find the books if they haven`t found other sources. But I`ll be doing conventions as well. I`m due to be at the big Madison Square Garden convention with the people behind Pulp Adventures. I`ve just done an introduction for their first reprint of Johnston McCulley`s ZORRO pulp reprint stories. Plus, I have every intent to be at the San Diego Comic Con, as well.

Matt: Do you have any tips for aspiring comix authors and artists?

Don: I teach a course on “Writing For The Comics” at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and that`s a question that starts every class. A short answer, and by no means a definitive one, is for the person to figure out what type of writer they want to be. You might as well start early, because you`re going to have to make that decision again and again, if you survive in this business. Remember, it`s your name that goes on the story! I`ve never had someone come up to me in all the years I`ve been signing books and say, “Don, the managing editor of the comic did this and made this story say this.” They come up and ask, “Why did you…?” and as long as you know the answer, and it is an answer you can live with, you`ll know that it is your story. They can`t take it from you.

Hang in there!

–Many thanks to Don McGregor for taking the time to help prepare this special two-part story. Follow the links below to check out Part I of this interview and learn about the Bond Collectors` Weekends including Las Vegas `99 and New Orleans for Bond Weekend 2000 in September!

**Check out:

DonMcGregor.com

Zorro Productions

Zorro Strips: Daily Update

author interview – Don McGregor: Bonded Comix Part I

We at 007Forever are delighted to present this in-depth interview with Don McGregor, pioneer of independent authors` rights in comics and author of the glossy GoldenEye movie novelization in graphic novel form, and the in-depth Bond adventure The Quasimodo Gambit.

We hope this two-part interview will stimulate your questions for the upcoming chat with Don on Wednesday, June 14 at 007Forever. Don has a lot more of the scoop on comics, James Bond, “I Spy” and much, much more to share Wednesday starting at 9:00 p.m. E.S.T. — join us! One of the most popular writers at Marvel in the 1970`s, Don struck on his own to work with Paul Gulacy (yes, the Gulacy who created the visually stunning James Bond adventure Serpent`s Tooth) to publish SABRE, a graphic novel now in anniversary re-release. Later with Marshall Rogers of illustrated Batman fame, “Dauntless Don” struck again with a second graphic novel, Detectives, Inc. , (and again five years after that in a Detectives, Inc. mini-series with legendary artist Gene Colan).

McGregor started his writing career at Warren, scripting stories for Creepy and Eerie. Later, invited to Marvel, he wrote the cult-hit Killraven series in Amazing Adventures and acclaimed Black Panther stories in Jungle Tales. After he published SABRE and its follow-up on-going series from Eclipse, Don wrote two Nathaniel Dusk, P.I. mini-series for DC and then a Killraven graphic novel for Marvel. Don revisited the Black Panther in the pages of “Marvel Comics Presents” before landing the writing assignment for Topps Comics` revival of the legendary ZORRO.

In working with ZORRO Productions on the project, Don developed his take on the classic western hero by surrounding him with strong adversaries and interesting allies. In his analysis of the standard ZORRO motifs over the years, he came to the conclusion that ZORRO should have a strong female counterpart. Thus, Lady Rawhide was born. First appearing in ZORRO #3, Lady Rawhide (as illustrated by Mike Mayhew under a cover by Adam Hughes) rapidly became a fan favorite and she was spun off into her own mini-series.

When Topps stopped publishing comics, both ZORRO and Don landed at Image Comics, which ZORRO Productions selected to publish their character`s adventures. Image is presently reprinting the second Lady Rawhide mini-series and trade paperback collections of the ZORRO stories, and they`re also re-publishing some of Don`s creator-owned work under their imprint. Don and artist Tom Yeates (they teamed up for ZORRO vs. Dracula) create the daily adventures of ZORRO for newspapers around the country including the New York Daily News. Don`s recently released 20th Anniversary Edition of SABRE garnered as much praise as it did originally, as did the re-release of Detectives, Inc. Now the second DI story, Detectives, Inc.: A Terror of Dying Dreams has been collected in trade paperback form for the first time. (All three should be available through your local comic book shop, and are available to them through Diamond Comic Distributors` STAR System.)

–Don is also a wonderful guy who is passionate about the things he loves most; things like family and friends, the world of James Bond 007, ZORRO, Hopalong Cassidy, and communicating passionately to others through the unique medium of comix.

Matt: Why did you choose to work in the comics industry?

Don: Well, I`m not sure if I chose it or it chose me. Before I was writing comics, I actually was working on novels and films. I learned at an early age, once I got hold of my dad Francis McGregor`s 8mm Bolex movie camera, that if you wrote the script, and if you directed the film, and you acted in it, a number of great things happened:

1. You always won the fights! And since, in those early 60`s days I was often doing some kind of a James Bond or private eye riff, well, this was terrific! It didn`t matter how big the guy was. He could give me a look and say, “Don, I can pound you into the ground. You know it and I know it.” But then, I`d just show him the script, and answer, “Well, sure, we both know that, but see, right here, in the script, it says, “I win!” So, here`s how we`re going to do it!” But even better was

2. You ALWAYS got the girl! This was infinitely preferable to real life and I thought I would dedicate my life to it. We even rigged a briefcase to shoot out a torrent of white gas to take out one of the bad guys, in one of the films. Now, understand, I`m no technical whiz, and I don`t remember who came up with the way to pull this off, but we were filming up at my grandparents` house, Alfred and Marguerite Besson`s house, and they had a lot of land to play make believe in as if it was real. I played out a lot of fantasies there during my young years, rode a lot of invisible horses, you better believe it. Anyhow, my grandfather had a workshop there, and someone figured out how to hook up one of the old insecticide spray containers he had into that Bondian attache case, after the first attempt we`d made to gas the bad guy failed miserably! This time, as the villain opened the case, we pumped down on the canister and the white clouds shot out of the nozzle and engulfed him! It really worked! I don`t even want to give thought to what kind of stuff may have been inside the insecticide tank before we filled it with talcum powder!

Some years later I actually created Detectives, Inc. as a film vehicle, for Alex Simmons and I to play the lead characters of Denning and Rainier. So, now finally, here comes the transition to comics. I`ve given you a few brief, hopefully scenic detours here. But before we ever got around to acting Rainier and Denning out, I`d gone to my first comic con. And something clicked!

I was writing, as I`ve already mentioned, and I`d always loved comics, I just hadn`t really thought about writing them. But after meeting Alex Simmons at that New York City Comic convention, and after we started acting together, and coordinating our own fight sequences, something else clicked during the year until the next con.

Matt: You mean, “Why not do a comic book?”

Don: Alex was multi-talented, and at the time he did a lot of illustrating. It struck me that comics is considered a visual medium, even if, like film, it needs a written word, first. Comics are also a literary one, and that combination makes it truly unique as a medium. But, if you were going to get seen, if you were going to get read, how to do it?

Well, you could write a script and send it. But the downside for writers is that an editor has submissions coming in and they end up in a stack. I talk about this a lot with my students in the course I teach at the School Of Visual Arts. You don`t want to get caught in that pile. Most editors seldom have time to go through those pages, and the higher the stack grows, the more intimidating it becomes.

If you`re an artist, you come in with samples of your art, and people can see right away whether they like it or not. They can say, “Hey, I like this, but this sucks!” And at least you have some feedback. But a writer, the first thing the editor sees is just a jumble of words on page upon page.

So, it was kind of like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, “LET`S PUT ON A SHOW!” and I said to Alex, “Let`s do Detectives, Inc. as a comic. Because I knew then that people could look at it, they could see that you had a grasp of the mechanics of comics, how words and pictures worked together, plus it did what I always wanted to do: TELL A STORY!

If men s are looking around for promotional offers as it’s inevitable that a few thousand years ago, a Chinese goat farmer noticed that his goats became more promiscuous when he fed them a particular herb. At that point it’s time http://deeprootsmag.org/2015/07/12/i-suppose-its-playing-the-game-that-counts/ sildenafil discount to consult a professional healthcare provider. Irrepressible emotions: Do you experience a mad rush of anger and outburst and the next minute you tend to become calm? Do you sometimes cry uncontrollably although nothing external prompted the change? Depression results in volatile moods and takes you away from a calm feeling. Potent herbs in this herbal supplement have anti-aging, nourishing and rejuvenating properties. And I loved comics. I have never thought they were a second rate medium. Yes, I was primarily focused on books and film, but that didn`t mean I didn`t have this passion for comics. From the first time I saw them, all the color and pictures and words, it was like discovering this incredible treasure. Years later, when I created Ragamuffins, I tried to capture what that love for comics was IN a comic itself.

Matt: What appeals to you about being on a deadline with projects like ZORRO or James Bond, 007?

Don: Deadline! What appeals to me about the deadline? Well, one writer once said, “You know, Don, there`s a reason why they call deadlines DEAD lines!” I think what you`re after is more the format that the story is going to told. So, for instance, in James Bond: The Quasimodo Gambit, once I know what the format is, in that case a three-issue mini-series, I more or less know the page count I am dealing with. I know I can approximate the structure of a novel, because I have the room. I know that I have to take into account where the books should break, so there is at once a sense of completeness to the books, that the reader has gotten something from that one book, but that it also flows into the next, and hopefully makes the audience want to know what happens to Bond and that cast of characters next.

That, by the way, is a much different kind of project than adapting a Bond film like “GoldenEye” for comics, in a three-issue “monthly” format. But more on that later.

And still different, say, would be doing graphic albums, like Detectives, Inc.: A Rememberance of Threatening Green or A Terror of Dying Dreams. These are self-contained stories, but the page length is shorter, and you have to deal with that challenge. It`s as much a question of what won`t be in the story as much as what will make it.

Like James Bond, I`ve done ZORRO in different formats. When I was doing the monthly comic series for Topps, I was always aware of the, more or less, 30-day time span between issues. This has a tremendous difference on the way you approach a story than, say, if it was published bi-monthly. Now that I`m doing the ZORRO newspaper strip there is always the constant reminder that another day has gone by. The upside of this is that there is a concrete re-enforcement of the story-telling. Every day, you hold the paper in your hand, you see the strip, and when it works, there`s that incentive to get you back to the blank sheet of paper. But the downside can be that it does appear every day, and if you haven`t written a day`s strip yet, it`s intimidating.

On top of that you have to face a whole different sort of choices and challenges as a storyteller. In a graphic novel, the audience gets the whole story at one time. The impact of the story and what happens to the characters and the thematic thrust of the story is immediate!

But a strip has an audience coming to it in different manners, and you have to be aware of this! Some people only get the Sunday paper, and thus they may only have exposure to what`s going on once a week, in that Sunday.

Others only read the paper during the week. Often, many buy it and read it on their way to work. So, I try to make sure the story can track from Sunday to Sunday, yet that there is never any repetition, because you have to be aware that in the long run, one day, those stories may be collected into a single volume, and then the story must flow seamlessly.

Oddly, what with all the horrendous lurid screaming headlines in the paper, one of the constant things you have to contend with is what someone might say, “Well, this can`t be in a family newspaper!” But that only seems to apply to the comics page. The fight is to tell a compelling story, one that has meaning, one that will move the audience. I try to make each day`s strip work singularly, but at the same time flow into the next. Yet, I`m not always trying to do the same thing with each strip. As varying as I will make the visual approach of each strip, from one panel to four, from silent to one just with captions, to those that are comprised of dialogue, I also want to have different emotions to the strip. Sometimes, I want the audience to laugh. Sometimes I want them to be moved by what they have read. Sometimes I just want to compel them to say, “Man, I can`t wait to see tomorrow`s paper and see what happens next!” If someone who buys only a Sunday paper, let`s say, said, “You know what, I`ve got to buy Monday`s paper, because I`ve got to see what happens to ZORRO next!” Well, I can`t think of a compliment that would mean more to me. And sometimes I want to jolt the audience.

Sometimes it`s the storytellers job to disturb. And if you are reading the daily newspaper, and you haven`t come across something that disturbs you, you aren`t really reading that newspaper, I`ll tell you that. In the Daily News, ZORRO is carried on the same page as Ann Landers. Ann`s column can have topics that deal with domestic violence, drugs, incest, you name it, but put that into a story with pictures, on the same page, and different eyes and with different agendas somehow are still of the mind that comics are a kid`s medium.

Well, no! Comics are as varied a medium as books and film, and just like the best in those mediums, the best comics have a voice and strength that are uniquely their own! And then again, there`s another aspect about deadlines, they change from project to project. A Daily strip deadline is “always” there! It never changes.

–Read Part II of this interview (linked below this story) and hear all about James Bond: The Quasimodo Gambit, James Bond: GoldenEye, and more! There will also be a special opportunity to purchase unique McGregor work at Bond Weekend III, September 2000 in New Orleans!

**Check out:

DonMcGregor.com

Zorro Productions

Zorro Strips: Daily Update

author bio – Raymond Benson

Raymond Benson was born September 6th, 1955 in Midland Texas. His father, Morris, was a geologist for Gulf Oil; his mother was Beulah (nee Butler). He was 9 when his father took him to a drive-in showing the film Goldfinger. Benson told Texas Monthly. “It changed my life. No one had ever seen anything like that in Texas and it opened a huge fantasy world for me.” He graduated from the University of Texas, Austin in 1978 with a BFA in theatre directing. He was an apprentice Stage Manager and Director at The Alley Theatre, Houston, Texas from 1978 to 1979; and was also a member of the Board of Directors of Empire Stage Players in New York City in 1981.

He spent over a decade in New York directing stage productions and composing music. He composed the music for the theatrical productions Alice In Wonderland, (first production in Houston, Texas at the Alley Theatre, 1978-1979); Paper Tiger (text by Thomas Brasch, first production in New York City, New York Theatre Ensemble in 1980); The Resurrection of Jackie Cramer (text by Frank Gagliano, first production in New York City at the American Theatre of Actors in 1980); The Man Who Could See Through Time (text by Terri Wagener, first production in New York City at the Ark Theatre in 1984); Charlotte`s Web (first production in New York City, at the Lincoln Center Institute in 1984-1985). He won off-off-Broadway awards for Musical Composition for the Theatre from the American Society for Composers, Authors, and Publishers in 1980 for The Resurrection of Jackie Cramer and Paper Tiger, and in 1984, for The Man Who Could See Through Time. Benson told Contemporary Authors that he had directed several productions in New York and Texas including several of his own musicals. “I enjoy composing incidental scores, and someday I hope to score a film.”

His first book, The James Bond Bedside Companion was published by Dodd in 1984, and in a revised edition in 1988. It was nominated for best bibliographic/critical work in the 1985 Edgar Allan Poe competition. Glidrose took note and signed him to write a stage play of Casino Royale, though it was never produced. Benson also designed and wrote several award-winning interactive software products, including the interactive games Stephen King`s: The Mist, A View To A Kill (1985), and Goldfinger (1986), all published by Angelsoft/Mindscape; and You Only Live Twice II by Victory Games in 1986. He subsequently joined Viacom New Media, where among his many credits, he helped co-design the CD-ROM adventure “Are You Afraid of the Dark”?, and “The Indian In The Cupboard”, an interactive children`s learning adventure based on the Motion Picture.
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Benson also taught film theory classes at the new School for Social Research in New York and interactive screenwriting at Columbia College in Chicago. He had told Contemporary Authors in the mid-eighties that he was working on an original screenplay about the Adventures of a National Park Ranger. The interactive movie Dark Seed II, which he wrote, was released in 1995. In November 1995, Glidrose chairman Peter Janson-Smith phoned out of the blue and explained that John Gardner was stepping down; would Benson be interested in taking over? Benson, surprised, accepted, and according to Publisher`s Weekly, was paid a six-figure sum. Glidrose was so pleased with his first novel Zero Minus Ten that they signed him to a four book contract. In early 1998, Benson began writing a non-Bond novel, Evil Hours, about a true-life murder that occurred in the small town he grew up in. He currently lives outside of Chicago with his wife Randi and their teenage son Max.

Born: 9/6/1955
Midland, Texas

author bio – Kingsley Amis

Kingsley Amis was born April 16, 1922. At the age of eleven he embarked on a blank verse miniature epic at the instigation of a preparatory school master, and wrote verse ever since.

Until the age of twenty-four, however, he remarks: “I was in all departments of writing abnormally unpromising.” Fellow novelist Anthony Powell (“Dance To The Music Of Time”) agreed and was convinced that Amis would never succeed as a writer.

His first novel, “Lucky Jim”, a satire about University pretentiousness, was published in 1954 and won the Somerset Maugham award for best first novel. His immediate follow-up novels were less successful. However, Amis was considered to be at the forefront of the angry-young man movement that transformed the British literary and theatrical scene during the 1950s.

Primarily a satirist of provincial English life, Amis also wrote speculative fiction: science fiction “The Anti-Death League”, “The Alteration”, “Russian Hide-And-Seek”, horror “The Green Man”, mystery “The Riverside Villas Murder” and “The Crime Of The Century”, and a novel for young adults, “We Are All Guilty”. His 1978 novel “Jake`s Thing” is a satire about impotency, while some deemed his 1984 novel “Stanley And The Women” misogynist. “Ending Up” and his last complete novel, “The Biographer`s Moustache” are among the most interesting of his straight fiction. Amis also wrote several volumes of verse (poetry) and considered verse a higher art form than prose.

In 1965 he published “The James Bond Dossier”, a comprehensive study of Ian Fleming`s novels. Soon after, Glidrose, the corporate entity that owns the James Bond novels, hired Amis to write the first post-Fleming Bond novel under the pseudonym Robert Markham. Amis explained his motives for writing a Bond novel in an article, “A New James Bond”, later published in his 1970 book *What Became Of Jane Austen? And Other Questions*. Amis told a New York Times reporter that his next Bond novel would be set in Latin America. However, sales for *Colonel Sun* were poor and reviews were mixed, and the follow up novel never materialized. Years later, Amis approached Glidrose with an idea for a short story. Bond would come out of retirement at age 70 to rescue a kidnapped US Senator from a Russian Colonel-General. Bond presumably dies at the end when he falls down a waterfall. Glidrose blanched and ordered Amis not to write one word of it.
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Having been shortlisted several times before for the prestigious Booker award, Amis finally won in 1986 for his novel “The Old Devils”; this gave Amis`s career a boost of the kind that he hadn`t had since “Lucky Jim”. Amis was named a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1981, and in 1990, he was given a knighthood for services to literature.

Between 1949 and 1963 Amis taught English at the University College of Swansea, Princeton University and Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was opposed to open universities, believing that more would mean lower standards. Originally a communist, it was only during the 1960`s, the Harold Wilson years, that Amis radically rethought his politics and slowly, but gradually became a staunch conservative.

Amis was a keen science-fiction addict, an admirer of “white jazz” of the thirties, and wrote many articles and reviews in many leading papers and periodicals. His “Collected Non-Fiction” reprints his reviews of Christopher Wood`s “The Spy Who Loved Me” novelization and John Gardner`s “For Special Services”.

Amis died on October 22nd, 1995 after complications from an accident. At the time of death, Amis had partially written “The Oldest Devil”, a sequel of sorts to his award winning novel. Amis`s son Martin is an accomplished novelist (“Rachel Papers” also won the Somerset Maugham award for best first novel, “London Fields”, “Time`s Arrow”, “The Information”, and most recently, “Night Train”).

author bio – John Pearson

John Pearson was born May 10th, 1930. He was working as a television scriptwriter when he met Fleming who offered him a job as his assistant on the Atticus column of the “Sunday Times”. “He was an extraordinary man to work for – a cross between James Bond and M himself. He was brimful of ideas, most of them slightly bizarre, and always a stickler for style and language. He taught me a lot.”

Pearson was thirty-two when he gave up journalism to write books. His travel adventure novel, “Gone To Timbuctoo”, won the Author`s Club award for the best first novel of 1962/1963. He has also published “Bluebird and the Dead Lake”, the story of Donald Campbell`s world land speed record at Lake Eyre in 1964. Shortly after Ian Fleming`s death, Leonard Russell, the features editor at the “London Sunday Times” commissioned Pearson to write the best-selling “The Life Of Ian Fleming”.

This was a 366 page, hardback book published by McGraw-Hill in 1966 Was Ian Fleming James Bond? Many think so. There was many similarities to be certain. Fleming denied any connection to “that cardboard booby” that he had invented, but the book questions that. Pearson delves into the mind of Fleming and the result is a very interesting work based on over 100,000 miles of travel by the author, 150 interviews and an extensive study of Fleming`s private papers.

It helps levitra properien djpaulkom.tv to ejaculate old semen and make room for new semen. ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) is an disorder that found not only to children but in adults also. It is not different in any way of the branded . Though, there are a number of reports regarding complications associated with the erectile dysfunction drug. Pearson was subsequently chosen to be the third post-Fleming Bond novelist, however reviews of “James Bond – The Authorized Biography of 007” were mixed, and sales disappointing. Since then, Pearson has written biographies of Winston Churchill, The Royal Family, Barbara Cartland, J Paul Getty, and a fictional biography of WE Johns` aviator hero Biggles. His next book, “Blood Royal: the rise and fall of the Spencer Dynasty”, will be published in April 1999.

Pearson`s other books include “The Profession Of Violence: The Rise And Fall Of The Kray Twins”, which is often reprinted, and the unfairly overlooked thriller “The Kindness Of Dr Avicenna”, about a kidnapping gone wrong.

Born: 5/10/1930

author bio – John Gardner

John Gardner was born November 20, 1926 (though some sources claim 1919). Born in Seaton Derval, his father Cyril John was a Church of England priest, his mother was Lena (nee Henderson). Gardner was an avid reader since he age three. At nine, he announced that he`d be a writer, and his father gave him a notebook. Gardner wrote on the title page “The Complete Works Of John Gardner”, but the book stayed empty for many years.

From his late teens his private life became one of spiritual, physical and emotional turmoil – all stemming from an insatiable need for alcohol. He spent two years at an Oxford Theological College, three years at Cambridge University, became an officer in the Royal Marines and a professional stage magician, including a stint with the American Red Cross from 1943-1944.

Gardner was the curate at Eversham from 1952 to 1958, and was ordained in the Church of England in 1953. His career as a priest lasted five years – both as curate in two country parishes and chaplain in the Royal Air Force. Gardner was preaching one day when he realized that he didn`t believe a word he was saying. In the autumn of 1958, Gardner, then a young Anglican clergyman, resigned from his priesthood, and ceased to be an ordained Church of England Minister. A rare step. More extraordinary was that Gardner wrote his letter of resignation from a mental hospital. The reason he gave for discarding cassock and cleric collar was that he was a chronic alcoholic who had, subconsciously, sought ordination in an attempt to escape from the addiction to drink which had hounded him since his teens.

Once free from his priesthood Gardner started a new life as a journalist and critic – he was a theatre critic and arts editor for the Herald in Straford-upon-Avon, England from 1959 to 1964 – but another year passed before he reached the ultimate climax of the disease and met the doctor who really brought him face to face with the truth about the bottle. A mixture of hypnosis and aversion therapy stopped Gardner drinking, and is proud that he hasn`t had a sip since. His book Spin The Bottle (1963/1964) was the factual story of what Gardner called, “The insidious progress of the disease of alcoholism from birth to recovery”, and it set out to give the reader a picture of the strange half-world of deceit, guilt, remorse and terror which is the mind of the alcoholic. But it was also a document of hope, showing how despair can be turned into joy and chaos into order. At the same time it posed a number of uncomfortable questions, and is, above all, a plea for a better understanding of a disease that seemed to be spreading through the world at an alarming speed.

Amendment of Erectile Problem through Medication Be that as it may, pharmaceutical which includes use of erection pills such as Kamagra, , Caverta, Silagra, etc. 2. The second likely cause is Peyronie’s disease, which could be harmful for your health. It has been used for decades to treat a wide array of conditions. So, exactly the same ingredient is used in Kamagra that levitra 10 mg is Kamagra oral jelly. Gardner`s next book, a novel, was meant to be a serious study about governments abusing their power, but a friend told him that it was no good and instead wrote it as a comedy: the end result was The Liquidator (1964), a novel about Boysie Oakes, a hit man afraid of airplanes, and who unbeknownst to his supervisors, actually contracted his assigned murders out to hitman Charlie Griffin. Seven Boysie Oakes novels followed (and at least one short story, often forgotten) before Gardner, to use his own words, left for more serious matters. Gardner also wrote two Sherlock Holmes novels (The Return of Moriarity and The Revenge of Moriarity), and entered LeCarre territory with his Herbie Kruger trilogy (The Nostradaum Traitor, The Garden Of Weapons, The Quiet Dogs). In 1979, while living in Ireland, Gardner got a letter from well-known crime reviewer and author HRF Keating (“Inspector Ghote” novels) asking if he`d be interested in picking up where Ian Fleming left off and continue the James Bond series.

“I supplied Glidrose with four possible narrative outlines, and they picked one of them.” The late Globe and Mail book critic Dereck Murdoch wrote, “John Gardner is technically a highly competent writer who never seems quite at ease unless he is writing in the same vein as another writer. It`s what makes him so well-qualified to continue the James Bond saga.” Licence Renewed sold 130,000 copies in the US in hardcover alone, and his follow-up For Special Services had a first hardcover printing of 95,000. However, sales for the rest plummeted.

In the mean time he wrote his “Secret Houses” trilogy, and the first two parts of an intended trilogy showcasing Herbie Kruger. Gardner moved to Charlottesville Virginia, USA, in the 1980`s. In 1995, allegedly by mutual agreement, Gardner and Glidrose parted ways. Gardner has not published since his 16th, and last, Bond novel, Cold Fall, in 1996. John Gardner told Contemporary Authors, “I work rather like an actor, taking on a theme or role so that it, eventually, envelopes me. After that, I need to work with a good editor, who I use as an actor uses a director. Work is life and life is work, though I have no pretensions about being “literary” – I greatly mistrust any so-called “Literary Establishment.” I am a story-teller, a professional wordsmith – it is a job, like that of a carpenter or any other craftsman. Sometimes the piece works, sometimes not.” Gardner and his wife Margaret have two children: Alexis and Simon.

Born: 11/20/1926
Seaton Derval, England