James Bond 007 no. 60: “Fear Face” (1981)

COMIC

 JB007 DK nr 60 forside

Danish title: Stålspionen [=The Steel Spy]
Writer: Jim D. Lawrence (uncredited)
Artist: Yaroslav Horak (uncredited)
Publisher: A/S Interpresse
Editor: Carsten Søndergaard
Lettering: Eli Krüger (uncredited)
Cover:
Colour still photo of Roger Moore and Carole Bouquet in "For Your Eyes Only" (EON 1981)
Format: 52 pages
Publishing date: August 21, 1981
Originally published in the UK: Daily Express 18.01.1971-20.04.1971
Danish reprint of: James Bond 007 no. 25 (1973)

Contents:
"Stålspionen" (27 pages of newspaper strips reformatted to fit 17x26 cm magazine layout)
"Strengt fortroligt" (5 pages of text and B&W stills covering the upcoming James Bond 007 film "For Your Eyes Only"; written by Nicolas Barbano)
"Roger Moore: fra tallerkenvasker til playboyskuespiller" (5 page portrait feature written by Nicolas Barbano)
One-page B&W photo of an uncredited female model with an eye motif on the front of her T-shirt
Readers' letters: Box 007 (2 pages of text)
Richard "Jaws" Kiel (2-page B&W pictorial)
"Bonds piger" [Bond's girls] (6-page B&W pictorial)

Comments

A note on the front cover states:

"INTERNAL MEMO from the editor to the printer's: STOP AGENT 007 no. 60!! We are not allowed to publish the story FOR YOUR EYES ONLY based on Ian Fleming's short story despite the announcement in our previous issue. Stop the presses and switch it out with the thrilling story FEAR FACE. Everything else is as planned: the big pictorial BOND'S GIRLS, the special features on ROGER MOORE and RICHARD "JAWS" KIEL (both richly illustrated), BOX 007, and our coverage of the new Bond film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY loaded with exciting pics..."

Carsten Søndergaard who edited the Danish James Bond comic book magazine in 1981 recounts the story behind the cover, exclusively for Bond•O•Rama.dk:
"Someone in the UK complained to Bulls Press Agency who handled the rights for the comic strips that our magazine had stills from the Bond films on the front cover. That's why this issue was the last to have a film still on the front page. We weren't allowed to do that anymore. As I remember it was thought of as particularly egregious if we tied the film in question to the comic based on the same story - which was obviously the case here. I don't recall the exact circumstances but if I had to venture a guess, we preferred at the time to keep the still from "For Your Eyes Only" on the cover rather than publish yet another reprint of the comic adaptation instead of the other way around. As far as I remember, Bulls didn't really care much about it either way but they felt that they had to take the complaint seriously. We might have mutually agreed that keeping the film still on the cover of this issue without printing the comic adaptation was an acceptable compromise as long as we promised not to have photographic covers in the future. This might not be the whole truth but it's pretty close."

Front page scan courtesy of Tom Andersen


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