Spy Vibe announced back in April the release of a new book that focuses on Ian Fleming's life in Jamaica. The James Bond author famously spent his long vacations at his Goldeneye retreat each year to write the 007 novels. The cover design for the US edition has just been released and will be published on March 15th, 2015. The UK edition comes out on the 50th anniversary of the author's death on August 14th. Book description from Amazon: "For two months every year, from 1946 to his death eighteen years later, Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point of high land overlooking a small white sand beach on Jamaica’s stunning north coast. All the James Bond novels and stories were written here. This book explores the huge influence of Jamaica on the creation of Fleming’s iconic post-war hero. The island was for Fleming part retreat from the world, part tangible representation of his own values, and part exotic fantasy. It will examine his Jamaican friendships—his extraordinary circle included Errol Flynn, the Oliviers, international politicians and British royalty, as well as his close neighbor Noel Coward—and trace his changing relationship with Ann Charteris (and hers with Jamaica) and the emergence of Blanche Blackwell as his Jamaican soulmate. Goldeneyealso compares the real Jamaica of the 1950s during the build-up to independence with the island’s portrayal in the Bond books, to shine a light on the attitude of the likes of Fleming and Coward to the dramatic end of the British Empire. 16 pages of B&W photographs." US design (top) and UK design (bottom):
The Bat Phone was ringing off the hook this week with the announcement of three long-awaited Bat-projects. First the big news: After a year of whispering about the original TV series coming to Blu-ray, the bat is officially out of the bag and heading toward a box set in November! Adam West, Burt Ward, and Julie Newmar will be appearing at Comic-Con this month to detail the release. I'm sure there will be many cool special features and commentary, but I'm most excited just to see the Caped Crusaders in their Pop-Art glory in Hi-def resolution. If you haven't been following this saga, the original TV series has been tied up in negotiations for decades and has never been released on home video. Could the Green Hornet be far behind? Adam West's Batman has been featured this year in a string of retro-styled toys and in DC Comic's Batman '66. A new comic mini-series Starring Batman and the Green Hornet is currently in print. Spy Vibe interviewed the Batman '66/Green Hornet team here. Official Batman Blu-ray trailer below.
Designer/writer Chip Kidd announced last January that Jiro Kuwata's complete Batman '66 Manga was finally being released in Japan. English readers have been hungry for more translations since the release of Kidd's Batmanga book back in 2008. Well, the wait is finally over. DC has confirmed they will be releasing Kuwata's Batman in English through digital-edition chapters starting July 5th, followed by a 1000+ page, three-volume paperback collection later this year. Each of the stories range between 15-32 pages, and will read right to left to maintain the original composition and flow. This marks the first fully-translated and unabridged publication of Kuwata's work. I'm hoping the collection also gets the deluxe hardcover treatment! Kuwata did such a beautiful job capturing the Pop Art look of the TV series with his own graceful panels and line-work. Look at this page below. I think he captures the romanticism of the mystery/adventure!
In other Bat-news, season one/volume two of the animated series, Beware the Batman, will finally be released on Blu-ray on September 30th. The series went off the air before the end of its run. Viewers got to see season one/volume one in a February Blu-ray release, but have been waiting to see the remaining thirteen episodes. Although the CGI animation might look odd at first, I found myself quickly warming up to the series and really enjoyed it! From Amazon: "The groundbreaking all-new CGI animated series returns. Batman, Alfred and swordstress Katana are back to take on the underworld likes of Anarky, Professor Pyg, Mister Toad and Magpie. Produced by Warner Bros. Animation, this action-packed detective thriller deftly redefines what we have come to know as a “Batman show.” Spy Vibe interviewed series designer Shane Glines here. Spy Vibe's ultimate Batman image archive on Pinterest here. Batman and Andy Warhol post here. Teen Titans and Secret Agenthere. My visit to the original Batcave location here.
Python-mania continues today on Spy Vibe with the announcement that the comedy group's reunion show in London will be broadcast in theaters this month on the big screen! Hosted by Fathom Events, fans will have a chance to see Monty Python Live (mostly) on July 20th. Details at Fathom here. The troupe is currently celebrating their career with a month-long run at the 02 Arena and with summer releases of their album catalog on CD, vinyl, and download editions. See our post Monty Python Returns! for more info and for an overview of the British comedy scene in the 1960s. As a bonus today, Spy Vibers can check out this espionage sketch from the proto-Pythons on At Last the 1948 Show (1967) with John Cleese and Marty Feldman. The episode kicks off with The Avengers theme by Laurie Johnson. You might even spot the lovely Aimi MacDonald (from The Avengers episode, Return of the Cybernauts). The spy segment starts at 6:06, after a psychiatrist skit starring Cleese. The episode also includes an early version of the 'Four Yorkshiremen' skit that later became a mainstay in their stage tours. Enjoy... and always look on the bright side of life!
Monty Python celebrates their career with new record releases and a live show! As London audiences line up tonight to see the return of Monty Python on stage (runs through July at the 02 Arena- see preview below), a comprehensive collection of Python records was released yesterday in England by UMC. Their tunes got the deluxe treatment with a 2-CD release of Monty Python Sings (again) with unreleased tracks, a bonus album, and a 32-page booklet. But the news that will really have Spy Vibers swooning and practicing their silly walks is the release of a career-spanning box set entitled Monty Python’s Total Rubbish: The Complete Collection. The set includes the group's nine UK albums: "Monty Python’s Flying Circus", "Another Monty Python Record", "Monty Python’s Previous Record", "Matching Tie and Handkerchief", "Live at Drury Lane", "Holy Grail", "Life of Brian", "Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album", "The Meaning Of Life", and a limited edition 7" Single of their 1974 flexi-disc ‘Monty Python’s Tiny Black Round Thing’- all on glorious vinyl! Here is a preview of the group's new show Monty Python Live (mostly) from their Youtube channel:
Satire Boom: With the rise of youth culture and a questioning of traditional class roles, social satire became the new frontier in late 1950s/early 1960s British humor. Following in the footsteps of Peter Sellers and The Goons, who offered a wild send-up of British characters and institutions, young comedians like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of Beyond the Fringe and the future members of Monty Python became the acerbic voice of the generation. Some of the popular targets included class, the generation gap, authority, official media, media styles/conventions, education, family, and the job market. Comedy fans may recall Beyond the Fringe skits like The Great Train Robbery, Sitting on the Bench, and my fave below, One Leg Too Few. Film fans may remember John Schlesinger's Billy Liar (Tom Courtenay/1963) for its blend of satire and fantasy. John Lennon played a key role in this satirical climate, with his James Thurber-like published books of cartoons and poetry, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965).
Surrealism Boom: Surrealism experienced a rather major renaissance in the early-mid 1960s. Long before the mind-altering psychedelia that we associate with the 1960s was introduced, influential artists like John Lennon were already thinking outside the box. Inspired by the surrealism of Lewis Carroll, Lennon and others challenged the status quo with a playful and eschewed view. One figure who loomed large in this movement was an American ex-pat in London named Richard Lester, who had worked with the Goons on television projects. At the dawn of the sixties, he collaborated with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan on a short film called the Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1960). John Lennon, a fan of The Goons, loved the movie and kept Lester in mind when it came time for The Beatles to make a motion picture. Seeing a clip from Running Jumping below, I'm sure Spy Vibers will recognize a gag which echoed through Monty Python skits years later. Fish-Slapping dance anyone?
Richard Lester was picked to direct The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964), also groundbreaking for its surreal segments, and he continued to helm the films, Help! (The Beatles/1965) and How I Won the War (Tom Courtenay/John Lennon/1967). Lester also teamed with James Bond composer, John Barry, in two major pieces for the 1960s, The Knack... and How to Get it (Rita Tushingham/1965) and Petulia (Julie Christie/1968). Fans of The Monkees might recognize a scene inspired by The Knack, where the characters wheel a bed through traffic.
Lewis Carroll: The surreal and whimsical work of Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) resonated throughout the Arts in early-mid sixties England. John Lennon often listed the author as an influence on his own imagery (see I am the Walrus below). A notable celebration of Lewis Carroll came in 1966 with the BBC's production of The Wednesday Play. With a soundtrack by Ravi Shankar, this surreal Alice film starred a who's-who of British talent, including Peter Sellers, Wilfrid Brambell, Leo McKern, Sir Michael Redgrave, Eric Idle (Monty Python), Sir John Gielgud, and all four members of Beyond the Fringe: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and writer/director, Jonathan Miller. Spy Vibers will recognize a number of actors in the film for their appearances in the satirical/surreal spy shows, The Avengers and The Prisoner.
The 4th Wall: An element that is pointed out when discussing the performance style of 60s surreal spy show The Corridor People is the breaking of the fourth wall, or when actors speak directly to the audience. This was not a new technique. Eugene O'Neill is one playwright who employed it in his play, Strange Interlude. This was parodied in the 1930s by the Marx Brothers, where Groucho actually speaks of "corridors." The convention was also seen in the wartime and post-war comedies of Bob Hope and Warner Brothers animation studio. The sudden, snappy interplay between character and viewer was hip again in the 1960s and seen often in British films. This convention of storytelling had an element of participation that I believe created a deeper level of engagement with the largely young audience. Where we watched Truffaut's Julie Christie interact on-screen with a TV soap opera in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), films like Alfie (1966), How I Won the War (1967), and The Knack...and How to Get it (1965) actually put the movie-going viewer right into the action.
Python: Emerging from the comedy scene in university and honing their craft on shows like At Last the 1948 Show and Do Not Adjust Your Set, the Python troupe pushed the elements of social satire and surrealism further for a new generation. Like Beyond the Fringe before them, they had a knack for turning class roles and media conventions on their head. Their records did a good job capturing many of their popular skits and scenes from their feature films. The group always had an amusing meta and cynical perspective on their recordings-as-product, which was illustrated in their tendency to use titles like Monty Python’s Contractual Obligation Album, Total Rubbish, The Final Rip Off, and even show titles, like Eric Idle's Greedy Bastard Tour. Some favorite Python highlights below: Bookshop, Four Yorkshiremen (original w Marty Feldman), Argument Clinic, and Northern Playwright.
Additional Viewing: Essential faves from the satire/surrealism boom also include The Wrong Box (Michael Caine/Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1966)Monty Python's Flying Circus(1969-1974), Not Only But Also (Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1965-1970), Bedazzled (Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1967), The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook/1970), and below: The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester/Peter Cook/Rita Tushingham/1969) and Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles/1967).
