What a deal, Mr. Bond
In which I sign up to write about a lot of 007s, dabble with the Bard, and more.
Signing a new book deal is a great way to close out the year, and that’s just what happened at the end of last week.
For those that didn’t see my note on the various social media platforms, I’m delighted to announce that I have signed a contract with McFarland Books to research and write "Too Many Bonds: The Making of Casino Royale '67" (provisonal title - it may change).
This will be the story of the strangest James Bond film ever made where the behind-the-scenes drama eclipsed the on-screen.
If you haven’t seen this crazy movie, the trailer might give you a taste.
The back story of what led to this on-screen craziness has fascinated me for years, and I’m looking forward to doing a deep dive into the research.
I plan on providing updates in a revitalized James Bond Lexicon newsletter - so if you want to join “The Casino Royale Fun Movement” I’d recommend subscribing over there too -
We aim to get the book out around the film's 60th anniversary in spring 2027.
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I’ll be taking a break from the newsletters over the next couple of weeks to enjoy the holidays and work on some other unannounced projects.
I wish you all a Happy Holidays and thanks for supporting this newsletter during 2024.
See you all in the New Year.
Alan
Other Stuff
Welcome new folks
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Brabazon Bits
No real updates on the Brabazon book this week as it continues to go through the production process at the publisher.
If everything goes to schedule “Bristol Brabazon: The Ocean Liner of the Skies and its Ongoing Legacy” will be published on 30 MAY, 2025 in the UK and 30 JULY, 2025 in the US.
It’s also available for pre-order on both Amazon UK and Amazon US sites.
Word Slinging
Another writing project broke cover this last week too. Although it hasn’t been officially launched yet, I can now reveal that I have a story in the upcoming Shakespeare Adjacent anthology. - Playing around with some of the Bard's words and ideas was an absolute blast.
More on this as and when things are officially announced.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2024 - Eagle Annual 9 (1960) by various
It’s that time of year when I pull an old-style British comics annual off the shelf and give it a read.
You can’t get much more of a classic British comic than The Eagle. As the cover box advertises there’s a lot to enjoy here with 57 items crammed into its 173 pages.
There’s a nice balance between historical articles and others looking to the future. Some of those forward-looking ones now read wistfully as the optimism shown about the developments in engineering and manufacturing, especially in car design and Britain’s leading role in aviation and shipbuilding didn’t pan out the way these articles projected.
Many of the colonial adventure stories and articles unsurprisingly feel dated, and display some uncomfortable prejudices of the time.
Yet many of the strips and articles still resonate and deliver some solid entertainment, notably the flagship Dan Dare adventure, and a standout true story about Italian POWs breaking out of a British camp in Africa just so they could go climb Mt Kenya!
Our online bookstore at Bookshop.org is fully up to date with the books read so far in 2024, so you can pick up copies of any that interest you, while also helping out local independent bookstores.
You can check it out HERE .
Weekly Web Round-Up
Forest Comics & Books - It’s been a busy week for FunkoPops again this week. It’s interesting how things go in waves when it comes to sales. We also added a bunch of action figures, as well as some additional Batmobiles over the last week. You can check them all out HERE.
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues as we continue to look at October 1969 with books published in Brazil, Denmark, Italy, and Lebanon. - All are straight reprints of earlier US covers so no standouts this time around.
Where on the Web is Alan?
You can now find links to all the places you can find me online, websites, newsletters, social media, and more in a single LINKS page on my personal website.
As always, thanks for joining me this week. If you know someone else who might enjoy the contents of this week’s newsletter, or just my weekly ramblings in general - please feel free to share by clicking the button below.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter
The Can’t See The Forest (TM) newsletter is a production of Megrin Entertainment, a division of 4Js Group LLC