Steve at Shadows & Light posted the cover of a 1966 edition of Ian Fleming's Octopussy and the Living Daylights (two separate stories).
Yesterday a batch of newer Penguin paperbacks of James Bond novels got donated to the thrift store. We happened to have a couple old Signet editions too.
It looks like the new covers are updates of old ones.
Here's Goldfinger:
(OK, found them--these are some of the fourteen covers from 2002-2003 by artist Richie Fahey. They are like the covers of the Signet paperbacks from the 1950s-60s.)
We don't have an old copy of Octopussy.
The new one [below] is tamer than the 1966 cover Steve posted, with its lurid image of flies crawling toward the opening of a pink conch. Looking at that 1966 cover, you almost smell dead seafood...
Speaking of dead fish, we also got this book, from a different donor. It's a real cookbook, published in Washington state in 1985:
Yesterday a batch of newer Penguin paperbacks of James Bond novels got donated to the thrift store. We happened to have a couple old Signet editions too.
It looks like the new covers are updates of old ones.
Here's Goldfinger:
We don't have an old copy of Octopussy.
The new one [below] is tamer than the 1966 cover Steve posted, with its lurid image of flies crawling toward the opening of a pink conch. Looking at that 1966 cover, you almost smell dead seafood...
Speaking of dead fish, we also got this book, from a different donor. It's a real cookbook, published in Washington state in 1985:
LOL -- I'm not sure I'd want a fish cookbook that required me to wear a gas mask!
ReplyDeleteLove all the Ian Fleming covers. The newer Octopussy cover actually makes more literal sense -- a blonde with a Kalashnikov IS featured in the story "The Living Daylights." But I like the one with the flies. It's so sinister.
It's interesting to see some of those original Signet covers in the blog post you linked to. My parents had a few of those books on their shelves!
STEVE: Ah, that's why the new cover has a blonde on it... Thanks for saying.
ReplyDeleteI hate handling raw fish or meat--one reason I'm mostly vegetarian. I think the fish cook could have been wearing rubber gloves too.
(I wouldn't mind a gas mask for chopping onions!)
Thanks for posting Octopussy, which inspired me to look into these fun covers.
I love pulp art, and Bond inspires good stuff, eh?
I must have seen all those old Signet Bond paperbacks too, when I was babysitting or something, because they sure look familiar even though I've never read one.