RARE FLEMING: CHINESE EDITION

Spy Vibe is spotlighting rare book covers this week, and there's no better place to start than Ian Fleming's For Your Eyes Only. As I mentioned in my recent interview with Artistic License Renewed, this volume of James Bond short stories holds a special place in my heart- and on my collection shelf. The book starts with From a View to a Kill, one of my favorite 007 stories. In this thrilling opening passage, Fleming introduces an assassin on a motorcycle: "The eyes behind the wide black rubber goggles were cold as flint. In the howling speed-turmoil of a BSA M20 doing seventy, they were the only quiet things in the hurtling flesh and metal. Protected by the glass of the goggles, they stared fixedly ahead from just above the centre of the handlebars, and their dark unwavering focus was that of gun muzzles." Are you hooked? Here is a Chinese edition from 1993 with strong graphics and a retro vibe. I particularly like the bold colors, dynamic composition, and the stylized figures. The added shadow behind the illustrated gun reminds me of mystery paperbacks from the 1950s. Enjoy!

Recent Ian Fleming posts on Spy Vibe: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang 50th, Ian Fleming: Mt. Demon Hell Japan, Collecting Fleming, Live and Let Die 60th, new poster announced, 007 Audio Books Update, Appropriating Bond Exhibit, Fleming Letters Mystery, The Goldfinger Variations, Double 007 Book Designs,  Double 007 designs II, rare Ian Fleming edition, Book Design Dopplegangers, Turkish Bond design, Ian Fleming Letters, Erno Goldfinger, Noel Coward, Whispering Jack Smith, Hawaiian Guitar, Joe Fingers Carr, new Ian Fleming Catalog, Jon Gilbert interview, Double 007 Designs, Bond audio book reissues, discovery of one of Ian Fleming's WWII Commandos, James Bond book covers, Ian Fleming's Playboy interview for Kindle, Spy Vibe's discovery of a rare Ian Fleming serialization, rare View to a Kill, Fleming's Royal gold typewriter, Ian Fleming's memorial address, Spy Vibe's Ian Fleming image archive.

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