LICENSE REVOKED!
With SKYFALL imminent, the James Bond publicity machine is working at turbo boost. Even I'm amazed by the number of tie-in books that have surfaced, pegged either to the new movie or the 50th anniversary of the film franchise.
I thought I'd do my bit to cash-in by resurrecting one off-shoot of the franchise which doesn't mesh well with the Daniel Craig aesthetic: JAMES BOND JR.
This not-at-all-cynical project was hatched in the early 1990s and featured Bond's nephew (also - of course - called James) getting into all-sorts of espionage-related hi-jinx whilst at a private academy.
It's total tosh, of course, but it did spawn an animated series (1991, 65-episodes), a line of action figures, books, merchandise... and comic books on both sides of the Atlantic.
Here's the covers for the first two fortnightly Marvel UK editions, cover-dated 1 October 1993 and 15 October 1993) as well as an interior page from the first issue.
I have no idea how long the British edition survived although the US run clocked-up twelve issues through 1992. If I recall correctly, the franchise was handled by the UK operation on behalf of Marvel Central in New York. The UK edition recycled that material although whether it supplemented (or continued it) past the twelve US editions I do not know.
One things for certain... this kid-friendly Bond didn't have a License to Kill.
Wow! I had no idea that this comic magazine ever existed, thanks for documenting it.
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