Cover from comic collecting the Danish translation of the Moonraker comic strip adaptation.
Cover from a Hindi language translation of the Daily Express comic strip adaptation of Moonraker. One of my favorite items from my Bond comics collection.
Cover from the Chilean comic book version of Moonraker from 1969. - I love the grin on the Connery-style Bond’s face on this one.
Title strip from the UK newspaper comic strip adaptation of “Moonraker,” first published in the Daily Express between 30th March and 8th August 1959.
Panzer Brigade 150
Panzer Brigade 150 was a specialist unit of the German army in World War 2 formed from English speaking combatants from across all branches of the German armed forces. Several units wore American uniforms and traveled in captured American vehicles (such as the American M3 Half-track in the background in the photo above.) with the aim of infiltrating US positions during the Battle of the Bulge.
According to the novel Moonraker, the man who wold become known as “Hugo Drax” claimed to be a member of this unit operating behind Allied lines when he was injured.
Born in Germany as Graf Hugo von der Drache, but educated in England until the age of 12 he returned to Germany and became a loyal Nazi and eventually a Waffen-SS commando. While a member of German Panzer Division 150, and dressed in uniform of British Signal Corp, he killed a dispatch rider and took his place with aim of infiltrating British units, but was spotted, straffed and wounded by a German fighter plane. Found by British soldiers was taken to the liaison office his squad of German commandos was tasked with blowing up. Injured and disfigured in the explosion, he was assumed to be a British casualty. Taking the chance he reinvented himself as Hugo Drax.
Glastron speedboats are apparently the most popular make of high-speed water transit in the world of James Bond movies. To date at least nine different models have been seen on screen either in the hands of Bond or his various enemies and their assorted henchmen.
- CV-19 - Used by Bond in Live And Let Die.
- CV-21 - Stolen by Kananga’s henchman, Adam, from the ranger station in Live And Let Die.
- CV-23HT - Modified by Q-branch and used by Bond to explore the River Tiparape in Brazil in search of Hugo Drax in Moonraker.
- CVX-18 - Used by Max Zorin to retrieve May Day from a sightseeing boat on the River Seine in Paris after she lands on following her base jump off the Eiffel Tower in A View To A Kill
- GT-150 used by Bond in Live And Let Die (most famously for the stunt jump seen above.)
- SSV-189 - The favored boat of Drax’s henchmen in Moonraker.
- V-145, V-156, V-162, and V-184 - All used by Kanaga’s henchmen to chase Bond in Live And Let Die.
RIP Bob Holness - radio’s first James Bond. - Sad to report on the passing of Robert Wentworth John Holness, better known as Bob Holness. Although best known in the UK as the host of the long-running show Blockbusters, Bob has a special place in Bond history.
In 1956 he was the first actor to portray Bond as a British agent, in a South African radio adaptation of Ian Fleming’s “Moonraker.”
