Happy New Year from Spy Vibe! I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and made it back to your secret lairs and bachelor pads in one piece. Here is an odd image that caught my eye a while back. It has an initial campy vibe that quickly wore off once I noticed how cold these ladies look (not to mention the weird objectification). Still, looks like it was a swingin' party! Spy Vibers, don't try this at home unless you have consent (and very high ceilings!). Thank you to those readers who entered to win Spy Vibe's recent contest. Your prizes were sent out and should arrive soon.Enjoy!
The new collected edition of Avengers Comic Strips from Big Finish is due out this week. I can't wait to see how the project looks in its final form. While we wait, let's take a closer look at some of the Chinese editions of New Avengers comics from the Spy Vibe collection. Having lived in Japan for a number of years, I have a special fondness for rare book editions printed in Asia. I've shared pieces from my archives on Spy Vibe in the past, including Japanese printings of the Ian Fleming and Man From U.N.C.L.E. novels. Last year I acquired two sets of comics printed in China, The Avengers and James Bond- both as boxed book sets. According to the Avengers Anew site, it took quite a while for classic spy shows to break through the Iron Curtain in China. The original Avengers series wasn't aired until the late 1980s and The New Avengers saw transmission in 1990. The characters must have been popular because an eight-volume series of New Avengers comics was published that same year. The art style was quite flat and crude, with few exceptions, but story adaptations appeared to be based faithfully on actual episodes. Skimming through my set, it's been quite fun to notice imagery lifted from 1976 classics such as Last of the Cybernauts and Target. And it's always fun to see Patrick Macnee's John Steed, Purdey, and Gambit in comic form. Our friend in Avengers fandom, Denis Kirsanov, helped to spread knowledge of this comic set back in 2014 and I was able to gather a complete collection last fall. Below are the painted covers for each of the eight volumes, plus a sample of some of my favorite pages. Lastly, I'm including a piece of rare original New Avengers art that was used to produce a Chapeau Melon et Bottes de Cuir comic in France (something I spotted at auction- very tempting). Enjoy! Related posts: The 10th Victim Japanese and Kindle, U.N.C.L.E. Japanese Books, Ian Fleming's Japan, Jane Bond Hong Kong Records, Bob Morane series, Thai Bond Design, James Bond Japanese Editions, Ian Fleming Chinese Edition.
Pierre Barouh passed away today at the age of 82. The French singer is best known among Spy Vibers as the composer and singer of the theme to the classic film, A Man and a Woman (Lelouch/1966). His major works reflected a special blend of French sensibilities and a love of Bossa Nova. During his long career, his tunes were performed by the likes of Françoise Hardy and Yyves Montand. And in the 1980s he recorded with David Sylvian (Japan) and Ryuichi Sakamoto and Yukihiro Takahashi (Yellow Magic Orchestra). Learn more about his catalog at Discogs and filmography at IMDB. A Man and a Woman theme video below. This was a tough week for our heroes. Over at my Atari Days site, I covered the passing yesterday of Carrie Fisher and Richard Adams (Watership Down).
New release: The Criterion Collection has announced they will add Antonioni's 1966 classic, Blow-Up, to their Blu-ray catalog in March. With its featured story about a 1960s fashion photographer in London, a cool Jazz soundtrack, and a rare appearance of The Yardbirds on stage with Beck and Clapton, it's no surprise this movie is a Spy Vibe fave. From the press release: "In 1966, Michelangelo Antonioni transplanted his existentialist ennui to the streets of swinging London for this international sensation, the Italian filmmaker’s English-language debut. A countercultural masterpiece about the act of seeing and the art of image making, Blow-Up takes the form of a psychological mystery, starring David Hemmings as a fashion photographer who unknowingly captures a death on film after following two lovers in a park. Antonioni’s meticulous aesthetic control and intoxicating color palette breathe life into every frame, and the jazzy sounds of Herbie Hancock, a beautifully evasive performance by Vanessa Redgrave, and a cameo by the Yardbirds make the film a transporting time capsule from a bygone era. Blow‑Up is a seductive immersion into creative passion, and a brilliant film by one of cinema’s greatest artists." This edition features a new 4K restoration, uncompressed mono, a 52-min doc, interviews, and more! More info at Criterion. I posted some set photographs a while back, let's take a new look below. Enjoy!
The iconic fashion and photography of Antonionni's 1966 Blow Up was featured in an exhibit at the Albertina in Vienna a couple of years ago. Looking again at images from the film, and by photographer David Bailey- an inspiration for David Hemmings' character, I'm struck by the film's interesting cocktail of alienation, ambivalent sexuality, and mystery. The film is often celebrated for its depiction of a mid-1960s London studio, fashion, and for its brief coverage of a Page-Beck era Yardbirds. But it also remains an intriguing who-done-it, if you will, as Hemmings obsessively examines his snaps from an afternoon stroll and discovers it was no walk in the park! The movie also starred Vanessa Redgrave Sarah Miles, jane Birkin, Veruschka von Lehndorff (Casino Royale), John Castle (The Prisoner, The New Avengers), Julian Chagrin (The Avengers), and TV spy regular Peter Bowles (The Avengers, The Prisoner, The Saint, The Baron, Danger Man, Adam Adamant Lives!, Department S). More exhibit info and commentary here. Below: images associated with the film and production. Note: Tazio Secchiaroli's famous still used for the movie's promotional materials and David Bailey's rare portrait of Beatles manager Brian Epstein (included in the exhibit). Enjoy!
