My Weekly Book

Often the introductions to these Titan reprints of complete stories from the long-running Modesty Blaise cartoon strip are among the most interesting bits of the book. That is because the author, Peter O’Donnell generally writes a bit about how he came to dream up the story, about his relationship with artists or publishers or a little about the craft of creating a comic strip.

This is all great stuff - and so it comes to pass that we also learn fascinating trivia, including the fact that the title story in this volume was written as an excuse to get the eponymous heroine into mediaeval garb. We also get a glimpse of a typed panel by panel script and (reluctantly, on the author’s part) the rough sketch that accompanies it to give Romero a starting point.

It’s fair to say that the theme of this volume is escapism. In The Green-Eyed Monster, the first story to appear, Modesty has the pleasure of hurling a spoiled, drunk and very rude young woman into a South American swimming pool, something I’m sure that all of us have longed to do at some point in our lives. Then the silly girl, daughter of the British envoy, gets herself snatched - and it’s action stations to retrieve her and avert a political crisis for an old friend of Modesty’s. Who else but Willie Garvin would accept the mission of teaching her manners?

Death of a Jester sees Modesty and Willie in a chance encounter with two witnesses to an unusual death - a man in a mediaeval jester’s costume fatally mauled by two lions in the grounds of a stately home. Determined to investigate, they find an unexpected link to Sir Gerald Tarrant which has them infiltrating the castle only to find themselves caught up in the dangerous time-travelling fantasies of its owner, and something even more sinister besides.

The final story, The Stone Age Caper, sees our heroes transported to the depths of the Australian outback after cutting across a business transaction being carried out by their old friend Mr Wu Smith - alongside a particularly ruthless bunch of associates. It’s notable for containing a very brief glimpse of Modesty with no top on, while disguised as an Aborigine - something that sent the Evening Standard subs’ bench into a tizzy at the time, but which seems somehow less exploitative now than all these endless pictures so beloved of Romero of her falling out of negligeés and failing ever to do up more than two or three blouse buttons.

Another great collection and a good read - especially for those moments when all you really want is to get away from it all…

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

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