Modesty Blaise is NOT a Female James Bond
February 4, 2018 8:06 PM Subscribe
The author describes discovering Modesty Blaise and the impact she had. One statement in her article–Modesty is a secret agent who works on special assignments for British intelligence–is wrong wrong wrong. Modesty was never a secret agent; she got involved in a few capers that were brought to her attention by British Intelligence but it's made very clear that she is independent of them. Modesty was never a spy. Other than that, it's a nice article that talks about the impact that Modesty's character had on her as a teenager. I was considerably older when I encountered Modesty in the 1960s, but it was the novels, not the story strip, that I started with.
The Last Great Adventure Strip is a very good and comprehensive article about the story strip that ran for almost 40 years. There is some discussion of the novels (11) and short story collections (2) that O'Donnell wrote while doing the strip. One of the things that made Modesty Blaise different was her platonic yet loving relationship to her right-hand man, Willie Garvin. O'Donnell also managed to write nine novels of romantic suspense under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent, all about Victorian-era young women, most set in exotic places.
The Last Great Adventure Strip is a very good and comprehensive article about the story strip that ran for almost 40 years. There is some discussion of the novels (11) and short story collections (2) that O'Donnell wrote while doing the strip. One of the things that made Modesty Blaise different was her platonic yet loving relationship to her right-hand man, Willie Garvin. O'Donnell also managed to write nine novels of romantic suspense under the pseudonym Madeleine Brent, all about Victorian-era young women, most set in exotic places.
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I used to be a completist but have backed off that some. All I have now is a complete set of both the British and the American first editions (novels), and the complete Titan reprints of the story strip, just completed last year. Oh yeah, I also have the Brent novels. Not that I'm obsessed or anything–I mean, I don't have the press junket package for that dreadful movie (except for Terrence Stamp as Willie Garvin), and I don't have the weird rock EP by a band by the name of Modesty Blaze, or sundry other oddities gathered along the way. See?–not obsessed.
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:13 PM on February 4, 2018
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:13 PM on February 4, 2018
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posted by SansPoint at 8:12 PM on February 4, 2018 [1 favorite]