Original James Bond artwork by John M. Burns.

Thanks to Anagnostis for sharing this.

Original Thunderball Frank McCarthy Artwork

Original painting by Frank McCarthy for "Thunderball", 60 x 90 cm, casein on illustration board

From The Nixdorf Collection

Icebreaker Book Cover Art

Original cover artwork for the Swedisch hardcover edition of "Iskallt for 007" (Icebreaker) written by John Gardner. Artwork by Johnny Påhlsson. Thanks to Anders for sharing this!

Unused OHMSS Artwork

Unused artwork for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", unknown artist. 

Thanks to Marc and Thomas for sharing this!

Interview with James Bond Comic Artist Germán Gabler

Introduction
Germán Gabler was born in Santiago, Chile in 1942. He graduated from the Catholic University of Chile in 1966 and began working as a professional comics artist with the help of Jorge Carvallo, who introduced him to the publishing house Zigzag.  After starting as a script writer, German became a regular writer and artist for the James Bond comic adaptations.

In his own words: “From my early childhood (I learnt to read at 5 years old) I went through tons of comic books. About 10 years old I started reading books about war, cowboys, pirates, FBI, CIA, heroes like Doc Savage, The Shadow, Bill Barnes and so. I also included classic novelist as Dumas, Verne, Conan Doyle, Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Poe, Salgari. You name it, I red it. Hundreds of books.

While at the university I started reading sci-fi. Bradbury, Asimov, Clarke, Sturgeon. etc.  Add to this a couple af movies a week (at least) for twenty years and you get a complete library
of plot elements in your mind.

To complete these, my father brought home three different newspapers daily, so I was very aware of what was happening in the real world.”

What materials did you use?
For sketching I used a mechanical pencil (Staedler) with 2B leads. Brushes 3 and 6 for inking. (Windsor&Newton or Ocean) Sometimes a pen for slim lines. Paper was Schoeller or similar. Ink was Pelikan or Higgins. A good eraser (Staedler mostly). White tempera for corrections. I also used colour temperas and watercolor for magazine covers.

Your black and white artwork show red numbers. What are they for?
Numbers are the colour guide for the printing stage. 1 is yellow, 2 magenta and 3 cyan. The x denotes dotted colour, i.e. light yellow, light pink and light blue. All of these form the colour palette, added to black and grey.

Who did the colouring and how?
The colouring could be done by ourselves. But since I wrote and draw 007 and other comics, I gave this job to a colourist. Sometimes they put a transparent piece of paper over the original and paint it with real colours. But the use of numbers was preferred (although they spoiled in some way the original) because there were not possibilities of mistake at the printing stage. Before this stage, a set of transparencies were taken from the originals. One was for black and the other three were for colours. In this stage, a "mask" was added to the transparencies eliminating the other colours. So there was a transparency for yellow, one for magenta and one for cyan. Then they were ready for the printings or "pressing stage".

Germán has several of his artworks for sale and also a complete set of the Zig Zag comics. 

He can be contacted here: plotco@hotmail.com

Finnish Book Cover Artwork

Original artworks by Matti Louhi for the 1980s hardcover re-issue of the Ian Fleming novels by Gummerus. Thanks to Thomas for sharing these!

Italian Man With The Golden Gun Artwork

Original Italian Artwork for "The Man With The Golden Gun" by Tino Avelli"

Diamonds Are Forever Concept Artwork

Concept artwork, signed by Robert McGinnis for "Diamonds Are Forever", gouache and mixed media on board, 96 x 62 cm. Currently up for auction at Bonhams.

The Other Thunderball “Look Down

American artist Frank McCarthy created the iconic “Look Down” artwork in 1965 for the film “Thunderball” But there is a lesser known alternative for this artwork which was used in the US 24 sheet and the French 8 panneaux.

Sketches for this artwork were recently unearthed by enthusiast Adrian Olivera.He recently came into the hobby through a stroke of luck, having acquired a collection of 1960's era MGM artwork. The collection consisted of pieces from films such as Where Eagles Dare, Ice Station Zebra, and Doctor Zhivago. Many artists were represented, including Howard Terpning, Frank Frazetta, Bob Peak, and Frank McCarthy. This find ignited his interest in movie artwork, and especially those of Frank McCarthy. His pursuit of more artwork led to the preliminary discovery.

These preliminaries provide a fascinating insight into the creative process:
McCarthy seems to have started with a much darker, bluer version of the artwork measuring 14" x 23", painted on artist vellum.This first version included much more details such as parachutes
and an airplane seen through the water.

A note on the back – presumably feedback from the art director (Donald Smolen?) – gives change instructions including “lighter water“.

Consequently McCarthy created a second version of the painting. The sketches were done on semi-transparent artist vellum, which gives an interesting insight into his work style: The back reveals that he first blotted out the broad composition with bold colours and then painted the details.

The resulting artwork is very detailed and highly dynamic with a lot of depth.

This pure version was rarely used. The only example I’m aware of is the Milton Bradley Thunderball game.

The published artwork is actually combination of the two artworks – Connery fighting the diver from the regular “Look Down” and this artwork. More details about this in this previous post:
http://illustrated007.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/split-artwork.html

Thanks and credits to Thomas from the Nixdorf Collection and Adrian for sharing this!
To view more McCarthy drafts, please visit the following links:
Frank McCarthy Movie Poster Drafts
Frank McCarthy Round 2!

Comic Artwork by John McLusky

I had the pleasure to visit Graham McLusky, the son of artist John McLusky together with Jason from SpyVibe. Graham told us about his father’s work and it was great fun seeing the original artwork. 

One fact was particularly interesting: John McLusky was a true perfectionist and he improved on his work even after it was published. There are several panels where John replaced the original artwork with new elements as shown here. They are from "Moonraker"

. 

Check out Graham’s website where he sells the original artwork and a limited edition of “the face”. 

Octopussy Artwork by Renato Casaro

The artwork for Octopussy was created by two different artist: The version used in the US was by Dan Goozee. The rest of the world used artwork by Renato Casaro, sometimes in combination with the figures created by Goozee.

Casaro was asked to create a wide action scene montage around the figures created by Goozee to accommodate the landscape/ quad format in the UK.

This artwork was then used widely across the world. For some posters (such as the German one) the artwork was extended by an unknown artist such as the back of the elephant or the exploding train that was not part of Casaro’s original painting. 




Japan asked Casaro to re-create the figures of Moore and Adams therefore creating a completely new artwork.

Big thank you to Gabriele from the Casaro Studios and Thomas from the Nixdorf Collection for their help and input! 

Casino Royale Artwork by McGinnis

Illustration by Robert McGinnis depicting Daniel Craig in "Casino Royale" 

Thank to Thomas from the Nixdorf Collection for sharing this!

Interview with artist Paul Mann

Artist Paul Mann kindly gave me an interview about his work and recent commission.

Q: What inspired you to become an artist?
Answer Paul Mann:I feel I was born with the desire to be an artist. As a small child I was always drawing and very much encouraged by my family. As I grew that desire in me grew.  My family and friends gave me such positive support and praise that I knew this was my calling in life.


Q: You mention on FB that you collect art yourself. What fascinates you about pop culture art?
Answer PM: As a young child I remember seeing Frank McCarthy's Thunderball movie poster.  The poster showing the underwater attack scene with Bond in his orange wet suit struggling with another diver. 

That image inspired me and I knew that someday that would be the type of art I wanted to do.  Throughout my life I have collected some of the original artwork of my favorite artists, of the fifties and sixties. I love the images of rugged men and beautiful women. Two of my favorite artists are Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy who also painted the early Bond posters. That era fascinates me because of the quality of artists and the work they were able to produce. Unfortunately it is becoming a lost art. There are very few artists around that can produce such work.

Q: What is your preferred painting medium?
Answer PM: I work in oils, gouache, and acrylic, I'm comfortable with all three mediums but my favorite would be gouache and acrylic. There is no wait time for the paint to set up as with oil because of that I can paint very fast with them and control the paint which gives me the results I want.






You recently completed a commission for a McCarthy-style “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” artwork, please tell us about that.
Answer PM: Yes, I've been working with a client who is a big Bond collector in Germany. It's really neat to get to paint anything dealing with the early Bond movies.I'm a huge fan of the artist Frank McCarthy and Robert McGinnis. They were the guys who painted the best of the early Bond art movie posters. To get to illustrate "On Her Majesty Secret Service" in a Frank McCarthy Style gives me a new appreciation of how darn good he was. These are hard illustrations to do there is a lot happening in them, lots of figures and lots of action. To be able to catch the flavor of McCarthy's poster work is a real challenge but very rewarding when I see the end product.


Q: How do you interpret the briefing and communicate your ideas to the client?
Answer PM: The client had a pretty good idea of what he wanted the art to consist of, I did my best to put together on paper what the client is seeing in his head.  I sent the client images of my sketches. The client then communicated back to me if there were things to change or move.  Such as angles, colors, and so forth.  I  then incorporated those ideas back into my sketch until we had figured it all out.  Again these illustrations are not easy to put together and it can take some time to come up with a good sketch that works.

Q: What is your process?
Answer PM: I always start with some simple doodles to get a basic design working and the placement of people and objects.

Next I will call in models and do a photo session, with those photos and any other scrap I have I will put together a simple but accurate line drawing.  Sometimes I may have to draw this out several times before I can get everything to fit nicely and work as a design.  Once the client okay's the sketch I go to a full color comp. This is where I want to make sure everything is working, that everything is sized right and that the color comes together.  I do take time to do a nice and finished color rough.  

Once okayed by the client I go to the finished art which will be much larger than my colored sketch.  I grid off the board I will be painting on and also my color sketch so I can make sure all objects will line up exactly the same on my final painting board as they did on my color sketch.  My finished art is usually done on illustration board or Masonite panel. Using my color rough as a reference I will start blocking the larger color masses in.  Knocking in the background color first and working from background to foreground. I will begin painting in all objects one by one, people, cars, helicopters, buildings until it all comes together.

Q: The artwork features a lot of different elements. What do you use as a reference?
Answer PM: That's always a challenge; first I look at all photos that I can find on the internet from the movie.  I do this to see if there is anything I can use as a good reference.  Usually there is very little I feel that will work for me.  I have to have the best reference material I can find or photograph my own figure scrap.  

I will bring into the studio models in costumes to pose and photograph.  It might be someone in a dark suit I will photograph him in the position that I need and then add the real Bond's head onto the body or my model will be wearing a military style outfit that is close to what was worn in the movie. This may mean a trip to the army surplus to find costuming.  I will hand my model a toy machine gun that I spray painted black to make it look authentic.  

I then have him stand on a large sheet of plywood with one end elevated about two feet off the ground so he is standing on a slanted surface.  It’s a lot of work which the client is not aware of but it does give me the material I need to do the art.

Q: Did the artwork change while you were painting it?
Answer PM: Yes, I was not happy with the Bond head I had, so I changed to a different head which worked much better.  You can let some things slide a little bit but never on a head.  It has to be right on and look like the character. The client also had one change he wanted a little surprise in it.  If you look close in the upper windows of the Piz Gloria you will see it.

Q: What are the finishing touches for the artwork?
Answer PM:The client asked me to add more fighting figures in the painting and to have snow blowing up from under the helicopter.  Adding the blowing snow worried me a little because if I over did it my people at the bottom of the art would disappear.  I tried to add enough to make the client happy but not too much that I lost the figures.  The snow was a good call on my client’s part it helped Bond pop out more.

Big thanks to Paul for his interview and Thomas from the Nixdorf Collection for sharing the commissioned artwork!

Live and Let Bikini

Spanish 1 sheet poster for "007 Vive Y Deja Morir" (LIve and Let Die). Additonal clothing was added to the original artwork by McGinnis. Original as comparison on the right.

Original Look Up Artwork by McCarthy

Original "Look Up / Jetpack" artwork by Frank McCarthy for the film "Thunderball", 91 x60 cm, casein paint on artboard. I was fortunate to view the original and the detail and craftsmanship is simply stunning.