Introduction

Peter O'Donnell's Modesty Blaise, in my opinion, is the finest adventure strip ever written, and perhaps the finest comic strip in any genre.  Only a few other strips have had finer art — Hal Foster's art comes to mind, or Russ Manning's work on Tarzan — but no other strip has so consistently excelled in plot, characterization, humor, and other areas of writing.

Modesty Blaise rightly shares the limelight with a very small circle of near-peers: Prince Valiant, Little Nemo, Krazy Kat, Steve Canyon, and Calvin and Hobbes.

Modesty Blaise ran from May 1963 to April 2001, and then concluded at the end of a story.  Peter O'Donnell has retired from producing his long-running adventure.  The fans can be grateful that he didn't turn it over to someone else.  His work includes not only the 10,000-plus newspaper strips, but thirteen books, and a graphic novel, "The Dark Angels," printed in the 200th issue of Comics Revue.

Collecting Modesty Blaise

The Modesty Blaise newspaper strip was printed in a few U.K. newspapers, chiefly the London Standard, and there have been some fine reprint volumes.

Comics Revue

Rick Norwood's magazine Comics Revue printed the current episodes in installments, and is reprinting all the strips from the beginning.  For back issues or reprint volumes, write to: Manuscript Press, P.O. Box 336, Mountain Home TN 37684, U.S.A.  He also has a web site.

Rick is a dedicated collector of newspaper strips, and Comic Revue contains many others besides Modesty Blaise.  He's been reprinting the strips longer than anyone else.  If there's a downside to his work, it's the fact that his magazine is on newsprint, rather than fine white paper, and the print quality of a given print run or individual copy is sometimes inferior.

Titan Books

Titan Books had a series of high-quality Modesty reprint books some years ago.  These books had beautiful covers with original art, with lots of new commentary, interviews, etc. in the front.  As time went on, however, and publishing costs rose, the books got thinner and thinner; and the stories reprinted weren't strictly in order after the first two.

Starting in 2004, Titan has begun releasing a new series.  Each volume reprints three or four stories, and they've all been in order so far.  Like the earlier series, they're printed on good paper, and the print quality is usually very good.  Titan has a web site.  They also advertise in Comics Revue.

Other reprints

If you're collecting Modesty Blaise just so you can read all the stories, you can get them all between the two main sources listed above.  Eventually, if they continue as they're going, all the strips will be available from both Comics Revue and Titan Books.  A completist will want to get everything offered by both sources.  Manuscript Press has Romero illustrations available nowhere else, and the "Dark Angels" graphic novel, while the Titan books have interviews and background information not printed anywhere else.  If you can afford it, it's certainly worthwhile supporting both efforts!

There have been other magazine and book reprints, generally inferior in print quality to Manuscript Press or Titan Books.  Check your used book stores, Froogle, eBay, and so forth.  The DC graphic novel might be available on back order from your local comic store.  If not, an online comics source such as Mile High Comics may be able to find a copy for you.

A Modesty Blaise Concordance

Modesty Blaise Newspaper Strip Adventures

All stories written by Peter O'Donnell.  Artists: Jim Holdaway (JH), Enrique Badia Romero (ER), John M. Burns (JB), Pat Wright (PW), and Neville Colvin (NC).

Sources:  A (Comics Revue Annual), C (Comics Revue), F# (First American Edition, Ken Pierce), LB (Live Bait, Manuscript Press), MB (Comics Revue Presents Modesty Blaise), S (Comics Revue Special), T# (Titan Books, old series)

To give you a taste of Modesty Blaise, I've scanned three strips for each adventure.  Click on the titles to see them.

Modesty Blaise books by Peter O'Donnell

There have been many editions of Peter O'Donnell's books, hardcover and paperback, English and American editions, and foreign editions in dozens of languages.  Souvenir Press was the original publisher of most of them, and they continue to reprint them.  A new paperback edition of "Modesty Blaise", with the original cover, was released in 2005 and reprinted in 2006; "A Taste for Death" and "Cobra Trap" were released simultaneously in late 2006.  Here is a brief list of the Modesty Blaise books, with the original publication date for each.

1. Modesty Blaise (Hardcover, 1965)
2. Sabre-Tooth (Hardcover, 1966)
3. I, Lucifer (Hardcover, 1967)
4. A Taste for Death (Hardcover, 1969)
5. The Impossible Virgin (Paperback, 1971)
6. Pieces of Modesty (Paperback, 1972)
7. The Silver Mistress (Hardcover, 1973)
8. Last Day in Limbo (Hardcover, 1976)
9. Dragon's Claw (Hardcover, 1978)
10. The Xanadu Talisman (Hardcover, 1981)
11. The Night of Morningstar (Hardcover, 1982)
12. Dead Man's Handle (Hardcover, 1985)
13. Cobra Trap (Hardcover, 1996)

Modesty Blaise graphic novels (Click to enlarge cover)

1. Modesty Blaise (DC Comics, 1994) Story by Peter O'Donnell, art by Dick Giordano.  Excellent adaptation of the book "Modesty Blaise" listed above.

Modesty Blaise videos (Click to enlarge cover)

1. Modesty Blaise (1966)

   A classic example of Hollywood screwing over the creator and all the fans.  They got everything wrong!

2. Modesty Blaise (1982; made for TV)

   I've never seen this.

3. My Name Is Modesty (Quentin Tarantino, DVD, 2002)

   Quentin Tarantino is a Modesty Blaise fan, and it shows.  He worked with Peter O'Donnell to produce a film on an episode not covered in any of the strips of books; how Modesty, a lowly member of the Louche gang, took over and fought back when other North African gangs killed the gang's leader and attacked the organization.  This is before Willie came along, before Danny Chavasse and other humanizing influences, before she learned any martial arts or mystical tricks; and she was only 16 or 17 years old.

Copyright © 2000-2007 by Green Sky Press.  All rights reserved.  Modesty Blaise, the Modesty Blaise logo, and the sample strips are copyright © Peter O'Donnell and Modesty Blaise, Ltd.  Covers of reprint volumes and books are copyright by the respective copyright holders and are presented for promotional purposes only.

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