James Bond and Popular Culture

The most recognizable fictional spy and one of the longest running film franchises, James Bond has inspired a host of other pop culture contributions, including Doctor Who (the Jon Pertwee era), the animated television comedy series Archer, Matt Kindt’s comic book series Mind MGMT, Japan’s Nakano Spy School Films, the 1960s Italian Eurospy genre, and the recent 007 Legends video game. This collection of new essays analyzes Bond’s phenomenal literary and filmic influence over the past 50-plus years. The 14 essays are categorized into five parts: film, television, literature, lifestyle (emphasis on fashion and home décor), and the Bond persona reinterpreted.

Michele Brittany is the book review editor for the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and is the co-chair of the Ann Radcliffe Conference held in conjunction with Horror Writers Association’s annual Stokercon. She lives in Phoenix, Arizona.

Edited by Michele Brittany
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 288
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2015
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7793-7
eISBN: 978-1-4766-1821-0
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Foreword (Robert G. Weiner) 1
Introduction 5
Part One. Film
Japan’s 1960s Spy Boom: Bond Meets Imperial Nostalgia (Michael Baskett) 10
“Permission to kill”: Exploring Italy’s 1960s Eurospy Phenomenon, Impact and Legacy (Nicholas Diak) 32
Subverting the ­Bond-Canon in Madame Sin and Se tutte le donne del mondo (Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns) 47
Nation and Action: The Case of the Bollywood Spy Thriller (Ipshita Nath and Anubhav Pradhan) 62
Part Two. Television
Mr. Bond’s Neighborhood: Domesticating the Superspy for American Television (Cynthia W. Walker) 80
The Undefined Agent, Illya Kuryakin: Making the Russian (In)Visible in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Thomas M. Barrett) 103
Who, Doctor Who: 007’s Influence on the Pertwee Era of Doctor Who (John Vohlidka) 121
Refashioning James Bond as an American Secret Agent: Scarecrow and Mrs. King, 1983–1987 (Christine D. Myers) 140
Part Three. Literature
Super-Spies Face the Collective Shadow of the Cold War in Matt Kindt’s Mind MGMT (Hannah ­Means-Shannon) 162
Flirting with Bond: Or How I Created My Sexy Female Secret Agent (K.A. Laity) 181
Part Four. Lifestyle
Modelling Bond: The Cultural Perception of James Bond on the Eve of the Eon Production Films (Edward Biddulph) 194
Derek Flint, Matt Helm, and the Playboy Spy of the 1960s (Brian Patton) 209
Part Five. Reinterpretations
Archer: A Spy Parody for the Ears (Ian Dawe) 232
“Sometimes the old ways are the best”: ­Ret-Conning in James Bond Video Games (James Fleury) 247
Afterword (Trevor Sewell) 267
About the Contributors 271
Index 273

“The book offers a fascinating look at the spy who changed the world on multiple-levels and still managed to surprise audiences with each film.”—Boyce McClain’s Consumers’ Collectors’ Corner