My Weekly Book

This is an important volume in Titan’s Modesty Blaise series, and for a sad reason. Almost exactly half-way through artist Jim Holdaway, who had been responsible for originally creating the visuals for Modesty and Willie as we know them, died suddenly. The introduction to this volume contains a tribute to him from Peter O’Donnell and an explanation of how his replacement, the Catalan artist Enrique Badia Romero, came to take over.

You can spot the handover quite clearly, even without the help of the reprints of Holdaway’s very last in-progress panels in the introduction to guide you. Romero’s Modesty is quite a different creature in the details, far softer in appearance (and with a marked tendency to do up fewer buttons too, although it must be said that nudity is something that has never concerned her overmuch).

So what happens in the strips? In Takeover, the first story, Modesty is subjected over lunch to the doubtful charms of Inspector Brook of the Yard, in search of a favour. She turns him down - but the situation he’s concerned about is soon forced on her attention when she watches a heroic bank security guard mown down during a robbery at the behest of the mafia. She and Willie attempt to take the new crime bosses on - but have they finally bitten off more than they can chew?

From his writing it might be possible to surmise that Peter O’Donnell has a keen interest in the realm of the psychic. And The Warlords of Phoenix is another one of those stories, like Sabre Tooth, that makes you wonder for a moment whether he doesn’t have a few abilities in that direction himself. This time, instead of predicting the invasion of Kuwait, he’s foretold a Japanese millennialist cult convinced they need to prepare for the end of the world. To be fair, they’re not actually trying to cause Armageddon, in the manner of Aum Shinrikyo in 1995, but they’re after the skills of Willie and Modesty to help them train warriors for post-apocalyptic domination. And, until the balloon goes up, they’ve got a hostage to make our heroes play ball.

And here’s a little bit from the book’s introduction:

While this story was running I went off to a little place I had on the Mediterranean at that time, where I often used to go to get started on a book. While there, I had a phone call from The Standard and was told a new group of Japanese terrorists had carried out an airport massacre of the kind one might have expected from my War-Lords of Phoenix. How had I known that such a group existed? I was asked. Of course I hadn’t known. It was just another of those weird coincidences. But I told The Standard I couldn’t reveal my source (if somebody thinks you’re smart, why disillusion them?)

Willie the Djinn is considerably more lighthearted and must have been conceived to let new artist Romero find his métier after the sudden death of Jim Holdaway. And, as Romero’s métier is undoubtedly drawing girls in short skirts, it won’t take a genius to work out what this story’s about. It features a friendly sheik who has sent his harem to secretarial school - how convenient that another should just wander along. Willie should be in his element in this tale - what a pity he’s having to spend his nights playing babysitter instead of enjoying the company…

As well as being an important volume for fans, it’s also an enjoyable one. The first story sees Modesty and Willie being comprehensively out-thought which, as O’Donnell also points out in the introduction, is good for them from time to time. The second story’s dark tone is nicely set off by the more light-hearted third. Another enjoyable and, frankly, rather relaxing read.

Tags: caper fiction, graphic novels, Jim Holdaway, Modesty Blaise, Peter O’Donnell, Romero

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at 5:41 pm and is filed under 2008 reading challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.