Peter O'Donnell, creator of Modesty Blaise, died this week aged 90.
I've dipped in and out of the newspaper strip, and admit to not knowing it as well as I should, given my love of cold war pulp and sixties minxes. I've read the first novel, and made a start on the second, 'Sabre-tooth' before the pages started falling out, sabotaging it as a bus-journey or beach-side read. They're pretty tasty; more action-packed than Fleming, less morbid. Compared to Deighton, or Adam Hall, much, much pulpier, but not far-fetched or silly. Not the first novel, at least.
I will resort to jumping on the posthumous bandwagon, I think, and get at least one of the Titan reprints of the newspaper strips.
There was a movie. It doesn't have a great deal to do with O'Donnell's work, but is nevertheless an enjoyable romp. Mix this with Barberella and Danger Diabolik and you've got the movie at the heart of Roman Coppolla's CQ, a movie I'm very much in love with.
Anyway, tragedy aside, it's a good enough reason to end with a picture of Monica Vitti on a swish-looking Japanese Poster, wouldn't you say?
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