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 T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I The following stories did not appear in the Evening Standard: “IN THE BEGINNING” This story was written and drawn in 1966 after Standard readers had been enjoying the adventures of Modesty and Willie for almost three years. As the demand for syndication increased it was felt it would be a good idea to provide an introduction of Modesty to her new potential audience. The result consisted of twelve strips starting with her early life in a prison camp in Greece. We are led through her travels in the Middle East, her meeting with Lob and their four years together, during which time he gave her an amazingly wide ranging education, until his death just outside Tangier. Alone again, we are told of her work for the Louche gang as a croupier and her take over of both the gang and eventually a major portion of the crime scene in Tangier as The Network. We learn of the international expansion of her activities and her meeting with and employment of Willie Garvin. At the end of their six years working together we see them as fulfilled and retired from their lives of crime only to be brought out of their safe but essentially dull havens by their deus ex machina Sir Gerald Tarrant. This is one of the most concise pieces of Modesty Blaise scripting ever to be produced and is a superb example of the creative skills of both author and artist in the production of a strip story. “THE KILLING GROUND” This story was written and drawn in 1968. In May of that year a new story called “The Galley Slaves” had started in The Evening Standard and was also being run one of the Standard’s associated newspapers, the Evening Citizen in Glasgow. In July an industrial dispute arose between Beaverbrook Newspapers and The Society of Lithographic Artists, Designers, Engravers and Process Workers, the Trade Union representing the workers who produced the artwork for the printing of the strip. By the end of July the dispute had descended into strike action by the union and the strip ceased to appear in The Evening Standard. The Glasgow paper was not affected by the strike and wished to continue running the story but if it did so it would be running weeks ahead of London when the strike was resolved. This could not be allowed and this short, six week long story was produced to cover the gap and appeared only in Glasgow. An expanded version of the text of the story was published in the final volume of short stories “Cobra Trap” in 1996 under the title “Bellman”. “THE DARK ANGELS” This story started life in 1972 as one of two scripts for a possible television series. When the series failed to materialise the script languished in a drawer until 1987 when the story was revised for a proposed colour album for publication by Titan books. Once again the project failed to come to fruition and once again the script languished in a drawer. The story itself finally saw the light of day in “Cobra Trap”, the final series of Modesty short stories published in 1996 by Souvenir Press. Five years later when Peter O’Donnell decided to close down the daily strip and retire, he offered the story to Ulf Granberg, the editor of Agent X9 in Sweden on condition that the artist was his long time collaborator and friend Romero and that the English language rights were not part of the agreement. The story duly appeared as a graphic novella in Sweden. It was later published in an English version in the 200th issue of Rick Norwood’s Comics Revue , a long time and loyal supporter and publisher of Modesty’s adventures. The story has undergone a number of changes since it appeared in “Cobra Trap” but is still clearly recognisable. It differs from the other two stories in that it was never drawn in strip format. 197