Modesty Blaise

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Image:ModestyBlaise.jpg

Modesty Blaise is a fictional character in a comic strip of the same name created by Peter O'Donnell (writer) and Jim Holdaway (art) in 1962. The strip follows the adventures of Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talents and a criminal past, and her trusty sidekick Willie Garvin. It was adapted into films made in 1966, 1982, and 2003 and a series of novels and short stories beginning also in 1966.

Many critics see the early years of the strip as a classic of adventure comic strips. The novels are regarded by some as being among the classics of adventure fiction.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Contents

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Premise

In 1945 a nameless girl escaped from a prison camp in Karylos, Greece. She did not remember anything from her short past. She wandered through post-WW2 Mediterranean and Arabia. During these years she learned to survive the hard way. She befriended another wandering refugee, a Hungarian scholar named Lob who gave her an education and a name: Modesty Blaise. Eventually she took control of a criminal gang in Tangier and expanded it to international status as "The Network".

During these years she met Willie Garvin. Despite the desperate life he was living, she saw his potential and offered him a job. Inspired by her belief in him, he pulled through as her right-hand man in The Network and became Modesty Blaise's most trusted friend. Their relationship is based on mutual respect and shared interests, but they have never gone to bed with each other, fearing that would ruin their special bond. He has always called her "Princess", a form of address only he is allowed to use.

When she felt she'd made enough money, she retired and moved to England; Willie Garvin followed suit. Bored by their new lives among the idle rich, they accepted a request for assistance from Sir Gerald Tarrant, a high-ranking official of the British secret service — and this is where the story really begins.

Many of her adventures are based on "capers" she and Willie Garvin become involved in as a result of their association with Tarrant. However, they may also help perfect strangers or fight various eccentric villains in exotic locations of their own volition if the cause fits their values; "ghosts" from their Network past also emerge to haunt them from time to time. Although Modesty and Willie will not hesitate to kill if necessary — and have, on occasion, taken on the roles of judge, jury, and executioner when dealing with particularly unsavory types — they avoid deadly force whenever possible, often relying upon their extraordinary physical and weapons skills to change a killing blow into a knock-out. Willie often confirms with Modesty beforehand whether a mission is to be, as the duo puts it, for "sleeps" or for "keeps".

In keeping with the spirit of other long-running comic strip and literary characters, Modesty and Willie generally do not age over the decades, with Modesty always being depicted as being in her late 20s, with Willie being eight years older. The only exception to this rule occurs in the 1996 short story "Cobra Trap" (see "The Books", below) — the final Modesty Blaise adventure — which takes place in an unspecified future year in which Modesty is in her late 40s and Willie is in his 50s.

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The comic strip

Modesty Blaise debuted in the London Evening Standard on May 13 1963. The strip was syndicated among a large number of newspapers ranging from the Johannesburg Star to the Detroit Free Press, the Bombay Samachar, The Telegraph, (Calcutta, India), The West Australian (Perth, Australia) and The Evening Citizen, Glasgow, Scotland.

After Jim Holdaway's death in 1970, the art of the strip was provided by the Spanish artist Romero. Eight years later, Romero quit to make time for his own comics projects, and after short attempts by John Burns and Patrick Wright, Neville Colvin drew the strip until 1986. Then Romero returned to the job and continued until the end of the strip.

The strip's circulation in the United States was erratic, in part because of the occasional nude scenes, which were much less acceptable in the US than elsewhere (a censored version of the strip was circulated as a result). Modesty was fond of a strategem that she called the "Nailer," in which she would appear topless and Willie would incapacitate their foes while they were distracted by her bare breasts.

The final Modesty Blaise strip ran in the Evening Standard on April 11 2001. Some of the newspapers that carried the series, feeling that it had become a tradition for their readers, began running it again from the beginning. O'Donnell, in order to give Romero some additional work, gave the artist permission to adapt one of his short stories ("The Dark Angels") as one final comic strip that was published in Scandinavia in 2002, later being reprinted in the US in Comics Revue.

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Reprints

Many reprint editions of the comic strip have appeared over the years, of varying quality. Most focus upon the earliest strips, with strips from the 1980s and 1990s being the least-often reprinted.

One of the earliest reprints in book form occurred in 1978 when Star Books, an imprint of WH Allen Limited, published a paperback-sized compilation of the Holdaway-era stories "The Black Pearl" and "The Vikings". This reprint suffered from poor reproduction that rendered many panels unintelligible.

Between 1981 and 1986, Ken Pierce Inc. of the United States, in conjunction with Eclipse Comics, published eight volumes of comic book-sized reprints dubbed the First American Edition series. The first four books featured Holdaway-illustrated stories from the 1960s, while the last four featured strips from the early 1980s as illustrated by Neville Colvin. These books also suffered from reproduction problems that resulted in many panels being reprinted too light, making them difficult to read.

Between 1984 and 1988, Titan Books of England published seven volumes of reprints of strips featuring art by Holdaway and Romero, covering the period 1963 to 1974.

Manuscript Press, published two volumes of late-1980s Romero strips in 2003 (Live Bait and Lady in the Dark); it also published all of the stories not reprinted elsewhere in serialized form in its magazine publications Comics Revue and Modesty Blaise Quarterly, the former of which, as noted above, also published The Dark Angels for the first (and, to date, only) time in English.

Beginning in March 2004, Titan launched a new series of reprint volumes. These new versions use larger images and reportedly come from better source material than the earlier editions. Several volumes also featured specially written introductions by O'Donnell. So far, the new series has reprinted the full run of the Holdaway years and has moved on to the Romero-illustrated stories. A new volume announced for release in 2006, The Gallows Bird, will feature one story that was not reprinted in the earlier Titan series, and should the new reprints enter a tenth volume, it will begin featuring stories not previously reprinted.

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Story list

There were 96 storylines produced by the Modesty Blaise comic strip, all written by Peter O'Donnell. The strips were drawn by Jim Holdaway, John Burns, Pat Wright, Neville Colvin, and Enrique Romero. The artist is listed next to each episode, and reprints are listed, using the following abbreviations: T = Titan, K = Ken Pierce, CR = Comics Revue, MB = Modesty Blaise Quarterly, MP= Manuscript Press, S= Star Books


  • 1. La Machine, Holdaway, T
  • 2. The Long Lever, Holdaway, T
  • 3. The Gabriel Set-Up, Holdaway, T
  • 4. Mister Sun, Holdaway, T
  • 5. The Mind of Mrs. Drake, Holdaway, T, K
  • 6. Uncle Happy, Holdaway, T, K
  • 7. Top Traitor, Holdaway, T, K
  • 8. The Vikings, Holdaway, T, K, S
  • 8A In the Beginning, Holdaway, T
  • 9. The Head Girls, Holdaway, T, K
  • 10. The Black Pearl, Holdaway, T, K, S
  • 11. The Magnified Man, Holdaway, T, K
  • 12. The Jericho Caper, Holdaway, T, K
  • 13. Bad Suki, Holdaway, T, K
  • 14. The Galley Slaves, Holdaway, T
  • 14A The Killing Ground, Holdaway, T
  • 15. The Red Gryphon, Holdaway, T, CR211-3
  • 16. The Hell Makers, Holdaway, T, CR214-6
  • 17. Take-Over, Holdaway, T, CR217-9
  • 18. The War-Lords of Phoenix, Holdaway, T, CR220-2
  • 19. Willie the Djinn, Romero, T, CR223-5
  • 20. The Green Eyed Monster, Romero, T
  • 21. Death of a Jester, Romero, T
  • 22. The Stone Age Caper, Romero, T
  • 23. The Puppet Master, Romero, T
  • 24. With Love from Rufus, Romero, T
  • 25. The Bluebeard Affair, Romero, T
  • 26. The Gallows Bird, Romero, T, MB2
  • 27. The Wicked Gnomes, Romero, T
  • 28. The Iron God, Romero, T
  • 29. “Take Me to your Leader”, Romero, MB3
  • 30. Highland Witch, Romero, MB4
  • 31. Cry Wolf, Romero, MB5
  • 32. The Reluctant Chaperon, Romero, MB6
  • 33. The Greenwood Maid, Romero, MB7
  • 34. Those About to Die, Romero, MB8
  • 35. The Inca Trail, Romero, MB10
  • 36. The Vanishing Dollybirds, Romero, MB11
  • 37. The Junk-Men, Romero, MB9
  • 38. Death Trap, Romero, MB12
  • 39. Idaho George, Romero, MB13
  • 40. The Golden Frog, Romero, MB14
  • 41. Yellowstone Booty, Burns, MB16
  • 42. Green Cobra, Burns, MB15
  • 43. Eve and Adam, Burns/Wright, MB17
  • 44. Brethren of Blaise, Wright, MB18
  • 45. Dossier on Pluto, Wright, MB19
  • 46. The Lady Killers, Colvin, K
  • 47. Garvin’s Travels, Colvin, K
  • 48. The Scarlet Maiden, Colvin, K
  • 49. The Moonman, Colvin, K
  • 50. A Few Flowers for the Colonel, Colvin, K
  • 51. The Balloonatic, Colvin, K
  • 52. Death in Slow Motion, Colvin, K
  • 53. The Alternative Man, Colvin, K
  • 54. Sweet Caroline, Colvin, K
  • 55. The Return of the Mammoth, Colvin, K
  • 56. Plato’s Republic, Colvin, K
  • 57. The Sword of the Bruce, Colvin, K
  • 58. The Wild Boar, Colvin, MB20
  • 59. Kali’s Disciples, Colvin, MB21
  • 60. The Double Agent, Colvin, MB22
  • 61. Butch Cassidy Rides Again, Romero, MB1,25
  • 62. The Million Dollar Game, Romero, CR26-29
  • 63. The Vampire of Malvescu, Romero, MB23
  • 64. Samantha and the Cherub, Romero, CR31-36
  • 65. Milord, Romero, CR40-42
  • 66. Live Bait, Romero, MPLive
  • 67. The Girl from the Future, Romero, MPLive
  • 68. The Big Mole, Romero, MPLive
  • 69. Lady in the Dark, Romero, MPLady
  • 70. Fiona, Romero, MPLady
  • 71. Walkabout, Romero, MPLady
  • 72. The Girl in the Iron Mask, Romero, CR64-66
  • 73. The Young Mistress, Romero, CR67-73
  • 74. Ivory Dancer, Romero, CR73-77
  • 75. Our Friend Maude, Romero, CR78-83
  • 76. A Present for the Princess, Romero, CR84-88
  • 77. Black Queen’s Pawn, Romero, CR89-93
  • 78. The Grim Joker, Romero, CR94-99
  • 79. Guido the Jinx, Romero, CR100-4
  • 80. The Killing Distance, Romero, CR105-9
  • 81. The Aristo, Romero, CR110-4
  • 82. Ripper Jax, Romero, CR115-9
  • 83. The Maori Contract, Romero, CR120-4
  • 84. Honeygun, Romero, CR125-130
  • 85. Durango, Romero, CRSpeical1, CR131-3
  • 86. The Murder Frame, Romero, CR134-138
  • 87. Fraser’s Story, Romero, CR139-143
  • 88. Tribute to the Pharaoh, Romero, CR144-148
  • 89. The Special Orders, Romero, CR149-152
  • 90. The Hanging Judge, Romero, CR153-158
  • 91. Children of Lucifer, Romero, CR159-163
  • 92. Death Symbol, Romero, CR164-169
  • 93. The Last Aristocrat, Romero, CR170-175
  • 94. The Killing Game, Romero, CR176-181
  • 95. The Zombie, Romero, CR182-186
  • 96. The Dark Angels, Romero, CR 200
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The movies

Image:ModestyBlaise1966Film.jpg

After initial popularity, a movie loosely based on the comic strip was filmed in 1966 as a comedy thriller, directed by Joseph Losey and starring Monica Vitti as Modesty, Terence Stamp as Willie Garvin, and Dirk Bogarde as Gabriel. The movie was not very successful. Peter O'Donnell's original screenplay went through a large number of rewrites by other people, and he often later commented that the finished movie retained only one line of his original dialogue. A scene in which Willie kills a thug in an alley after the death of a female character is also played out more or less the way it appears in O'Donnell's novelization of his screenplay.

Diehard fans find the film quite offensive in the way it eliminates many elements of the comic strip in favor of a laugh. The worst change in the characters, according to fans, is that in the movie, Willie and Modesty fall in love, which is something completely taboo in the books and the comic strip. The two even perform a musical number together!

In 1982, a one-hour pilot was made for a proposed Modesty Blaise television series, starring Ann Turkel as Modesty Blaise and Lewis Van Bergen as Willie Garvin. The film aired on the ABC Network to positive reviews, but no series eventuated. This was a much more serious version of the stories than the campy 1966 comedy version. In this pilot the setting is moved from London to Hollywood, and both Modesty and Willie are portrayed as Americans. Image:Modesty1982-4.png

In 2002, Miramax, the current holders of the Modesty Blaise film rights, made a film called My Name is Modesty, with British actress Alexandra Staden as Modesty Blaise, based on the story of the character's life before the beginning of the comic strip.

The film, made primarily to retain the film rights, did not receive theatrical release, being released straight to DVD in Europe in October 2003; it didn't receive DVD release in North America until September 2004, more than two years after it was produced. Critical reception appears to depend upon the critic's familiarity with the comic strip. Those aware of Modesty's history seem to be far more receptive to the film than those expecting an action film or another comedy, though fans were disappointed that the character of Willie Garvin was not featured.

Staden's performance was generally praised, although she was seen by some as too frail-looking to convincingly play Modesty. The consenus, however, is that this version is at least better than the 1966 spoof. Image:MyNameIsModesty.jpg

Quentin Tarantino has been interested in directing a Modesty Blaise movie for many years, and at one point Neil Gaiman even wrote a script treatment based upon O'Donnell's novel, I, Lucifer. So far, nothing has come of these plans. Tarantino "sponsored" the release of My Name is Modesty by allowing it to be released under the label "Quentin Tarantino presents ..." Nicole Kidman has also gone on record as being interested in making a Modesty Blaise movie.

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The books

Peter O'Donnell was invited to write a novel to tie in with the film. The novel, called simply Modesty Blaise and based on his original screenplay for the movie, fared considerably better than the movie itself did (it was also released a year before the movie). During the following decades, he would write a total of eleven Modesty Blaise novels and two collections of short stories. Several of the short stories either adapt comic strip stories, or would later be adapted as comic strips themselves, and there was frequent crossover of characters between the two venues.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

O'Donnell's final book, Cobra Trap, is his most controversial as he chose to end the book by giving Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin a definitive end (although the comic strip would last for several more years before it, too, was retired). Many longtime fans of Modesty Blaise refuse to read the titular short story that closes Cobra Trap. Perhaps reflecting this, O'Donnell chose to end the comic strip on a more hopeful note.

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In comic books

Image:Modestyagentx9.gif In 1994, DC Comics released a graphic novel adaptation of Modesty Blaise (the novel), with art by Dick Giordano.

In Sweden, the strip has been in continuous distribution since 1969 in a monthly comic adventure magazine called "Agent X9" (after the existing Modesty comic magazine "Agent" was merged with the "X9" magazine). Many of O'Donnell's stories actually premiered here (translated into Swedish), and the magazine continues to run a Modesty Blaise story every month, from the archives. Sweden is also an ongoing source for in-print graphic-novel-style collections of Modesty Blaise "capers" (including hardcovers), though they're also in Swedish. When the daily strip was discontinued, artist Romero was given permission by O'Donnell to do a final Modesty Blaise story directly for the Swedish "Agent X9" magazine. The two-parter was published in 2002 and based on an unused script by O'Donnell entitled "The Dark Angels". Romero has for the past years also contributed with original painted covers for the "Agent X9" magazine.

The American magazine Comics Revue also continues to reprint the strip, and remains to date the only publisher to have released an English-language version of "The Dark Angels".

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Other adaptations

One of the Modesty Blaise novels, "Last Day in Limbo", was adapted as a BBC radio drama in the 1980s. In the early 1980s, an audio tape reading of the short story, "I Had a Date with Lady Janet", was released featuring John Thaw as the voice of Willie Garvin.

Modesty Blaise has been the inspiration for a number of similar (but usually inferior) book series, most notably the ultraviolent mid-1970s series The Baroness by Paul Kenyon. The 1993 American television series, South Beach was also inspired by Modesty Blaise, and fans of the character also see more than a few similarities between Modesty Blaise and video game heroine Lara Croft.

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Future of the character

As mentioned above, in 1996, Peter O'Donnell wrote the final Modesty Blaise story collection, Cobra Trap, and in 2001, retired the original comic strip. The Modesty Blaise character and concept remain popular enough that there have been calls for new writers to continue her adventures. O'Donnell, who owns the rights to Modesty Blaise, has been vehement that no one else ever write about Modesty Blaise. He made an exception for the 2003 film, My Name is Modesty, but after the film (the third attempt to adapt the character for the screen) received mixed critical reviews and never achieved theatrical release, O'Donnell went on record that he wanted no more movies to be made of his character.

O'Donnell's attitude has sparked debate over ownership of literary works, and whether an author can completely control a creation that has become a popular success (beyond issues of copyright and intellectual property and licensing). It is not known if O'Donnell's statements will have any impact upon the proposed Modesty Blaise film project by Quentin Tarantino, or if his eventual heirs will allow new writers to continue Modesty Blaise in comic strip or literary form.

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Trivia

  • Modesty Blaise is unique in that in all its printed forms over more than 40 years — comic strip and literary — it has only ever been written by one person: Peter O'Donnell. Even the 1966 and 1982 film versions, though only loosely based upon O'Donnell's writings, still made use of characters and situations created by the author, while the DC Comics graphic novel was based upon the first novel. The 2003 film, My Name is Modesty, was the first production to use a wholly original story not written by O'Donnell, although he did act as a consultant on the film, and the events of the film clearly reflect some of the back story of the character created by O'Donnell. Though there had been some reports that O'Donnell was displeased with "My Name is Modesty" and vowed to never allow another movie to be made of his characters, he appeared on the DVD in a lengthy interview with nothing but positive things to say about the movie.
  • The canonicity of the novels vs. the comic strips is a matter of some debate among fans, as Modesty and Willie occasionally act more ruthlessly in the novels than they do in the comics, and there are occasional inconsistencies. Plus, some comic strips were based upon some of O'Donnell's short stories, and vice-versa, with the inevitable differences between them. In any event, only stories (illustrated or textual) written by O'Donnell himself are considered candidates for canon; none of the film and graphic novel adaptations qualify, including the My Name is Modesty film which contradicts elements of the novels and comic strip.
  • As the sole example of "real" pulp fiction in Quentin Tarantino's film "Pulp Fiction", the character of Vincent Vega (John Travolta) is seen in several scenes reading the first Modesty Blaise novel while sitting on the toilet. The edition Vincent reads has a mock-up cover that Tarantino had his prop department make, based upon the cover of an early edition of the novel (as illustrated at the top of this article).
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External links

Modesty Blaise is also the name of a 1994 British band: See [1]fi:Modesty Blaise no:Modesty Blaise sv:Modesty Blaise sr:Модести Блејз

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