French Paperback Editions

French paperback editions of Ian Fleming's work, published by Livre de Poche in 2001

Live And Let Die RPG

"Live and Let Die" Role Playing Game by Victory games 1985

Exclusive Interview With Robert E. McGinnis

Q: How did the producers of the Bond movies got in touch with you for the "Thunderball" poster artwork?
A: “Through recommendation of Don Smolen, an artist/designer working at United Artists in New York City who knew of my work.”

Q: What kind of briefing or input did you receive? Photos, source material etc?
A: “Attending screenings of rushes in a New York theater. Then sent to England on location – access provided to black-and-white movie stills.”

Q: How much time did you have to create the artwork?
A: “Three to four weeks.”

Q: Can you describe the creative process in terms of composition, choice of colors etc?
A: “Art directors (United Artists) Freddie Goldberg and Don Smolen provided rough-sketch concepts and direction.”

Q: What materials do you use? (Temepera, Gouache, pencils etc…)
A: “Winsor-Newton designer colors (gouache); Shiva Casein White; Prismacolor black pencil.”

Q: What was the most fun part of creating the Thunderball artworks?
A: “Seeing the printed posters, five stories high on buildings along Times Square in New York City.”

Q: Any special anecdote associated with this artwork?
A: “On location in the great hall dining room of an English manor house. We were seated for lunch, a hush came over the crowd; appearing, dressed in black and flanked by two beauties was Sean Connery. He joined our United Artists table. Frank and I were introduced – he was a true gentleman!”

Q: Do you know what happened to the original of the artworks?
A: “They were owned by United Artists and secretly drifted away.”

Thank you for the interview, also to Kyle for his help!

Exclusive With Tom Jung

Exclusive behind the scenes look at the "Man with The Golden Gun - Villain" artwork history by Tom Jung, artist famous for film posters such as “Star Wars”, “Papillon” and “The Great Train Robbery”. Here's what Tom says about the artwork:

"I was surprised that my friend and colleague, the late Don Smolen, then the partner of the newly formed motion picture advertising boutique Smolen, Smith & Connolly asked me to design the so-called "Villain" -- The Man with the Golden Gun poster. Previously, Don, the long-time art director and executive at United Artists, had been involved with the James Bond series from the very beginning. Working directly with Broccoli, and very involved in the various images, and being that he was himself a very capable illustrator, had even been the creator of the now famous Sean Connery BERETTA pose.

Over the years, Don and I had worked on many projects together, however, his artists of choice for the James Bond series were four wonderful illustrators: Mitchell Hooks, Frank McCarthy, Robert McGinness and Bob Peak. And as an advertising art director and poster designer myself for 15 years (before turning my full attention to illustrating) I concurred. Nevertheless, Don chose me for the "Villain" poster.

Now, as for my approach for the Golden Gun assignment, I almost always work with title of the film as a reference point.

There's an evil guy with a golden gun...threatening me...threatening women... the world? Well, obviously, I've got to do something about it. I'm James Bond, 007...that's my job.

But wear a white jacket and look like a porter? Are you kidding!? Wear a current-cut black tuxedo!
The expression on my face will tell everybody, "Watch it, I mean business."The all-too-familiar, ready-for-action attitude of the figure of 007 is the result of this thinking.

As for the women, my wife is always the model in my illustrations. I am supplied with an ample supply of both 35mm contact sheets and transparencies of production photos, over which I pore with a magnifying glass, sometimes a loupe, or hunched over a light-box in order to find that particular face, with that particular angle and lighting to fit over the figure I've designed, and from which I prepared several pencil sketches before eliminating that dumb-looking busboy in a white evening jacket image.
The actual painting is done on 20x30 double-weight illustration board, half of a standard 30x40 board. I used acrylics, I can use it transparently or opaquely; it dries quickly and is permanent and can be reworked. I'd use airbrushing for large areas of background, color pencils, and inks and dyes and tempera and whatever else I think that may give me the desired result. Sandpaper. Brillo. A single-edge razor blade. Whatever works.

I must have been satisfied with what I did, but looking back, I should have added 30 pounds of muscles underneath 007's bellbottomed tuxedo. The girls could have used a couple of more pounds also."

Thank you Tom!

Find Your Fate

Cover illustrations for the "Find Your Fate" childrens book series based on the movie "A View To A Kill": "Barracuda Run" by Steven Otfinoski, Strike It Deadly" by Barbara & Scott Siegel and Programmed For Danger" by Jean M. Favors. All published by Ballantine Young Adult 1985.

James Bond Banner

James Bond Banner, illustration on cloth, produced in 1966 in the USA. Thanks to Justin from www.pressland.co.uk for his permisson to use this!

OHMSS Record Cover Artwork - help please

Artwork used on the soundtrack cover for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Attributed to Yves Thos.

OHMSS artist Yves Thos

Artwork by the French Artist Yves Thos for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". This artwork was mainly used in non-english speaking countries in Europe for posters.

Thanks to James for finding this!

Tribute Artwork

Tribute artwork by Mark Rehkopf - I like his non-conventional approach to the classic Bond pose. Check out his site here

For Your Eyes Only Poster

Several countries deemed the poster design for "For Your Eyes Only" too risky and made the bikini larger than the original.

Niente Fiori Per James Bond

Italian first edition of John Gardner's "Niente Fiori Per James Bond" (Never Send Flowers) by Segretissimo, 1994

Tribute Artwork

Wynn from 007 Cards sent me his original artwork of Connery, looks great!

Nessuno Vive Per Sempre

First Italian hardback edition of Johm Gardners James Bond novel "Nessuno Vive Per Sempre" (Nobody Lives Forever), published by Romanzo Rizzoli in 1987.

Exclusive Interview with Steven Chorney

Original artwork for "Licence To Kill" by artist Steven Chorney. Here an exclusive interview with him on the creation of the artwork:

Q: How did the Bond producers get in touch with you for the "Licence To Kill" poster artwork?
A: The proceedure followed has usually been for the Movie Studios to contract an advertising agency to create a specific promotional "campaign". This would provide a full service approach to the marketing direction of any particular film. At that time there were a number of such agencies in the Hollywood area, these would then turn the art assignment over to a free-lance or independant artist to create the image to be used. At times more than one artist were used on the same project, some for concept designs, some for final artwork. There were only so many artists specializing in this field so there were also availability issues at work also. So, to answer your question, I suppose I was just at the right place at the right time!

Q: What kind of briefing or input did you receive?
A: ACTION, that was the first word in any James Bond promotion..."life threatening action" followed by GIRLS! We always sensed there would have to be at the very least "a Guy, a Girl and a Gun"!!! In this case it was to be a Guy, Two Girls and Two Guns!! The direction was fairly simple really, we received a basic idea of story content and specific action scenes from the film, after that we tried to do our magic in conveying the excitment of the movie. Oh yes, did I say? It was imperative to make the stars look like they should look...or even better!

Q: How much time did you have to create the artwork?
A: As a rule we had no time to create the artwork...but there was always time to revise it afterward!! At times we were called upon to create a concept painting in one day!! If a week was given it would seem like a luxury. It was a very fast paced business. To expedite the compositon I used my wife to pose as the females holding the lethal weapons.

Q: Can you describe the creative process in terms of composition, choice of colours etc? A: Simple: Most important feature (main star) is largest while all else is subordinant. Colors? Hot reds, yellows for intense heat and excitement, cooler tones of violet and blues for less important areas. Of course it is also important to arrange things in a pallatible or easily digested manner, that is, so as to allow the eye to easily follow a 'path of least resistance' and actually want to see the imagery.

Q: What materials do you use?
A: Anything is fair in the field of illustration. No one cares what was used if the desired result is achieved. I have used pencil, charcoal, acrylic paint, airbrush spraying, toothbrush spattering, coffee staining and even sponge painting to get the desired effect...why not? I have even started a fire on some art for the effect!!! Not recommended! I believe other artists do similar things. And while we did not have the computer in those days so much, I do use it to work some magic now.

Q: What is the most fun part of creating this artwork?
A:The most fun has come years later. It seems it has been remembered by many now that I have nearly forgotten about it!

Q: Any special anecdote associated with this artwork?
A: Well Peter, I reluctantly will say, my wife was not so excited at the time to pose with a sparkly dress brandishing a shotgun! She wished it be unknown that she had done that...wouldn't you know, the reference photo of her posing inadvertantly wound up posted on the Agency billboard for a month or more before it was returned!!!! Happily that is now ancient history.

Q: Do you know what happened to the original of the artwork?
A: It has since been sold to a wild eyed collector of James Bond memorabilia. He is certifiably crazy for Bond...perhaps you know him!

Check out Steven's website with lots more interesting artwork!