Coinciding with the new (and long-awaited) release of James Bond film No Time To Die, Bloomsbury gallery Abbott and Holder is holding an exhibition of original drawings made for the serialisation of Ian Fleming’s novels in the Daily Express.
The drawings by John McLusky (1923-2006) started in 1958 – almost four years before Sean Connery would star in the first Bond film Dr No – and ran until 1966 with a two-year gap between 1962-64.
McLusky, who had produced technical drawings for Air Force Bomber Command in the Second World War, happened to be touting for work in Fleet Street at the time Fleming granted the Daily Express permission to create a syndicated series of comic strips based on his novels.