Many have taken on the duty of writing James Bond. He’s an iconic spy who has seen his fill of motion and journey. And let’s not neglect his colourful love life.
This summer time Dynamite is releasing one other installment in Bond’s historical past with 007. With artwork by Marco Finnegan and covers from Tommy Lee Edwards, Marc Aspinall, Marc Laming, and Soo Lee, author Phillip Kennedy Johnson is on the helm of the brand new collection. Johnson chatted with The Beat about including his contact to the MI6 agent.
Deanna Destito: How has it been taking up the long-lasting 007 character and bringing your personal spin to Bond?
Phillip Kennedy Johnson: It’s been an enormous honor and a very enjoyable problem. Each Bond story has to incorporate all of the acquainted parts that make it a Bond story: the automobile, the devices, the Bond lady, the scary-but-theatrical villain. However there’s additionally a accountability to not simply do all the identical stuff that everybody has been doing for generations. We needed to give the lifelong Bond followers the issues they hold coming again for whereas additionally bringing new parts to carry their curiosity, hold them engaged and get them excited to see what occurs subsequent. We’re doing that with some new characters that I’m excited to introduce, and a renewed emphasis on espionage and deception that we don’t usually see from Bond. We all know he’s a spy in principle, however we virtually at all times see him flexing his “particular agent” muscle tissues, the murderer who doesn’t thoughts making loads of noise. I wished to point out audiences Bond the superspy for a change.
Destito: This mission is extra private for Bond. How does that have an effect on how he handles it?
Johnson: Yeah, he’s extra emotionally invested on this one. The occasions that occur within the first challenge go away Bond about as wounded and offended as we’ve ever seen him, and he’s hellbent on discovering solutions and getting revenge for what’s been taken from him and from MI6. That’s once I like Bond greatest, actually… when he’s much less indifferent and extra personally invested. In these moments he appears not solely extra aggressive, however extra intelligent and calculating as nicely.
Destito: Gwen Gann is a badass in her personal proper, having been an agent as nicely. However she does have a historical past with 007 in a private sense. What prompted this new sort of “Bond Woman”?
Johnson: I feel some of the necessary parts to James Bond tales is that they’re time capsules, every one very a lot of its time and place. A difficult a part of writing a Bond story is to be true to the unique character first launched in 1953, whereas updating his attitudes and conduct to mirror the story’s setting, on this case current day. Above all, the character of Bond’s relationship with the feminine lead and her function within the story is a component that’s essential to get proper.
There’s a line from a Bond novel that caught in my mind on the time, and naturally now I can’t keep in mind the precise phrase… “she was ten years Bond’s junior, and 5 years too previous” or one thing like that. That line represents traditional Bond tremendous nicely, however as I used to be fleshing out the forged for this story, I saved coming again to the thought of a Bond lady who was as attractive as ever, but additionally barely older than Bond… a double-O herself, as bad-ass as she is gorgeous, with a profession as storied as Bond’s. That concept actually crystallized in my thoughts, and the character of Gwendolyn Gann form of wrote herself after that.
Destito: How is it working with the remainder of the artistic staff and bringing this chapter in Bond’s story to life
Johnson: Marco Finnegan was an unbelievable discover by our editor, Nate Cosby. Marco’s some of the versatile artists I’ve ever labored with, he utterly adapts his type to the story he’s engaged on. As a collaborator, you possibly can’t ask for greater than that. Colorist Dearbhla Kelly is already well-known at Dynamite, having labored on Pink Sonja earlier than this, and he or she’s doing her greatest work thus far on this e book, giving it a really Matt Hollingsworth type of really feel. I’m loving how the e book appears to be like; it belongs on the shelf with among the coolest entries within the collection.
Destito: How a lot has your personal army background influenced the narrative, particularly since 007 has hung out within the army himself?
Johnson: My expertise within the army influenced two key parts of the story of 007. First, the explanations Bond signed up for his line of labor within the first place, which he’s pressured to discover as his loyalties are examined; and second, within the nature of the enemies Bond will face. With out spoiling an excessive amount of, the story is concerning the risks that come up when companies, protection contractors, and different industrial entities play more and more energetic roles in espionage and warfare between nations. It’s not like conflict may ever be factor, however I discover the concept wars may very well be pushed from the shadows by personal firms fairly terrifying.
Destito: What can previous and new followers of the franchise count on?
Johnson: Bond followers can count on to see the Bond they know and love, the unstoppable particular agent who simply bleeds cool with each phrase and motion. BUT, they’ll additionally count on to see him in conditions they’re not used to seeing him: betrayed and offended, pressured to make use of not simply his expertise as an murderer, however as a spy within the shadows, looking for revenge whilst he questions his personal loyalties. As Bond followers ourselves, the entire artistic staff is honored and insanely excited so as to add this story to the 007 mythos. I promise, you received’t be upset.
Search for 007 #1 in August!
