Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Modesty Blaise

I'm reading an oversized trade paperback collection of Modesty Blaise newspaper strips by Peter O'Donnell and Jim Holdaway. I read all of O'Donnell's MB novels many years ago and loved each and every one of them. They're some of the best pure adventure novels I've ever read, and it's a series I really need to reread if I can ever find the time. I've never been quite as fond of the comic strip version of the character, but I like those stories a lot, anyway. And oddly enough, when I read the novels, before I'd ever seen any of the comic strips, I visualized the characters very much like Jim Holdaway drew them, a fact I discovered long after the fact. So far in this collection I've read the stories "The Black Pearl" and "The Magnified Man", and there are still a couple more to go in it. The only version of Modesty Blaise I didn't care for was the Sixties movie with Monica Vitti. I've heard that a new MB movie has either been produced or is about to be. I hope it's a more faithful adaptation.

Bill Crider passed along to me the meme that's currently going around, and I must be particularly dense these days because I can't think of any answers to the questions. Maybe tomorrow, but if I'm still drawing a blank I may have to punt.

Page count today: 12. I spent part of the day helping my mom run some errands, so I didn't get a full shift done.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I've re-read a couple of the Modesty Blaise novels recently. They're just as much fun as ever.

Anonymous said...

While looking through Amazon.com I noticed that there is a movie called My Name Is Modesty on DVD which is about Modesty Blaise. I have never read any of the books, but I will have to try one now.

Danny

ShellyS said...

I adore Modesty and Willie. I first read the strips in compilations back in the '70s and recently have gotten the new ones. I bought the novels, too, and have read most of them. One of these days, I have to finish them. But I reread the collected strips every now and then. I'd love to see a good adaptation, but I have real concerns anyone can get it right.