EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

E X P A N D E D E D I T I O N WENG (continued) STORY 24: “WITH LOVE FROM RUFUS”: STRIP 2741 He is present when Modesty goes to her safe to select a piece of jewellery that will be suitable for her to wear for the dinner date with her friend Inspector Brook. They find the safe has been opened and a bunch of roses left inside and a note, “With love from Rufus”, attached. He checks with her that nothing has been stolen and nothing substituted. He pilots the light aircraft that allows Modesty and Willie to parachute close to the abandoned fort in the Thames estuary in which Rufus and Josie Carter are being held by Mr. Preston and to set about their rescue. STORY 27: “THE WICKED GNOMES”: STRIP 3101 Serves breakfast to Sir Gerald Tarrant when Modesty brings him up to the penthouse having met him while taking her early morning swim in the park. In a cottage in Devon he guards the spy Pauline Brown when Modesty springs her from prison to swap her for Maude Tiller who is being held by Salamander Four. Because he is not given the pre-arranged key word signal that tells him she is speaking freely he ignores Modesty’s instructions to bring Brown to the exchange point. It is he who is deputed to tell Sir Gerald Tarrant that by sheer chance he has captured the spy Pauline Brown. He asks if there is a reward and when Tarrant reports this to Modesty, she thinks it shows nice style and she must give him a rise. STORY 33: “THE GREENWOOD MAID”: STRIP 3738 When Willie turns up at Modesty’s penthouse just in from Venice he tells him she has gone to visit the ex-Network pen man Ben Turner in prison and will join him later at “The Treadmill”. Stalls Inspector Brook when he calls in looking for Modesty and after he leaves telephones to relay Brook’s message that Turner’s dead body has been fished out of the Thames and he had been tortured. WENG (continued) STORY 36: “THE VANISHING DOLLYBIRDS”: STRIP 4062 Holds the fort and acts as communications link when Modesty and Willie decide to go into hiding after Bubbles’ attempt to kill them at Gogol’s circus. When Bubbles sets up the arrangements for his next attempt, this time in a warehouse next to the Thames, he provides an audience around the warehouse at street level which stops Bubbles being able to use guns. He does this by posing as an avant guard oriental film producer making a mood film about the Thames and a asking a group of bird watchers to record the mating call of the lesser cormorant. STORY 38: “DEATH TRAP”: STRIP 4281 Serves tea to Modesty and Sir Gerald Tarrant when he calls to tell her of the offer from Brosni that she go in person to his country in order to formally identify the assassin Skedi as the murderer of her friend Roberto Abril. When Tarrant calls much later he tells him that “Miss Blaise and Mr. Garvin are laughing in the drawing room”, the joke being the award by the new State Chairman Vasov to Modesty of The Supreme Order of the Workers’ Heroine First Class. STORY 39: “IDAHO GEORGE”: STRIP 4382 Chauffeurs Sir Gerald Tarrant home after his evening out with Modesty and Willie and an important arabic speaking guest. Confirms Maisie’s hysterical call to Willie to tell him that Modesty has been kidnapped in mistake for her. Assists Willie in setting up the arrangements for tracking Maisie as soon as she has been picked up by Anastasia Bone’s men. Arranges for a helicopter to be on stand by and pilots the sailplane during the final stages of the trail to Maisie’s destination. Pilots the helicopter to pick up Modesty, Willie, George and Maisie when they have tidied up at Stavely Hall. May have been the unidentified caller who told Inspector Brook exactly where to pick up a load of crooks together with evidence to convict them. 185 T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I Drawn by Romero Strip 3162 20th August, 1973 Drawn by Romero Strip 3774A Not published in the Evening Standard Drawn by Romero Strip 4134 17th March, 1977 Drawn by Romero Strip 4281 24th October, 1977 Drawn by Romero Strip 4411A Not published in the Evening Standard Drawn by Romero Strip 2802 21st June, 1972