The Eisner Award nominated comic book writer/artist reveals how he produced his own official James Bond story without being influenced (too much) by the cinematic version
SPLENDOID: Hi Ibrahim, welcome to Filminutaie. Really great to be talking to you as I love your artwork. I first became aware of your work from your Bond ‘Pin-up‘ poster series, especially the Diamonds Are Forever one, as it featured one of my favourite Connery scenes. It’s very clear that you are definitely a fan, not just a gun for hire, so to speak. As such, I’d love to know what was your first exposure to the world of 007?
MOUSTAFA: He was always in the collective consciousness with all the idioms and catchphrases, but my first legitimate exposure would have been seeing the movie marathons on cable as a kid. These were typically a handful at a time from the different actors’ respective outings, so I had a smattering of all of them to start out with.
Absolutely, mine was very similar, with re-runs on Saturday evenings on UK TV. Although, looking back, my absolute first exposure would be the 1960s paperbacks from Pan Books. My father had the full set and I loved the covers. I had no idea what they were really but I thought that they were fantastic. And now, having read Fleming, those particular versions really nailed the Bond spirit, I would say. With that in mind then, would you say your favourite version of the character comes from Fleming or EON or, given your work, perhaps the comics?
I had to really think about this question, because I love bits of all of the different iterations of the character across multiple media forms but I realized that it’s the versions that adhere most closely to the literary Bond that I like the most (Dalton and Craig’s portrayals for example, and comics like Hammerhead and Killchain)…but, overall, I would have to say that the Bond from the novels is my favourite.
Absolutely, Dalton’s Bond is probably my favourite, although I felt that since Casino Royale Craig absolutely personified Fleming’s description of Bond as a ‘Blunt Instrument…’
Moving onto your work specifically, how did you actually get involved in the Dynamite series?
I spoke to Jeff Parker, a writer friend of mine who had done a lot of work with Dynamite over the years, and I asked if he knew who was editing the Bond books, because I wanted to draw one. As luck would have it, Jeff was already in talks to write the James Bond Origin series, and he put me in touch.
Meaning that you would inline for working on the Origin series?
I was originally slated to draw the opening arc of the books but scheduling conflicts prevented me from seeing that through. Our editor Nate Cosby saw what a Bond fanatic I am and kept his eye open for an opportunity for me to take a crack at 007.
Fortunately I’d just had an original spy story of mine that I wrote and drew nominated for an Eisner award, so I think he was able to sell me to the powers that be as a writer/artist more easily because of that. He asked me to pitch a one-shot story and that’s when I offered my treatment for what would become James Bond: Solstice.
I did have my own approach to how I wanted to tell this story. I was very eager to bring my own relationship with Bond and the structure of Bond stories to the page.
That sounds like it was all meant to be. As they knew you were such an expert on Bond, did they let you work in isolation or were they involved throughout?
I pitched a synopsis to Dynamite, and once they approved it I wrote the initial draft of the script. Nate and I had a lot of back and forth about it which was a lot of fun. Once finished, we sent it to the wonderful folks at Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. And with their approval I was off to the races. From there I drew the entire issue at a smaller scale digitally, and submitted those layouts for approval. Once approved I was free to have a blast drawing my very own Bond comic!
How did it work with what the other writers for Dynamite had done? I believe that you have the same M as in Warren Ellis’ storyline, for example. Did you then have to tie your approach to the tone of voice, structure, panel styling etc that other writers or artists had delivered?
All of the modern era Bond comics are taking pace in the same continuity, but I think because I’m very well versed in the character and had read all of the previous Dynamite stories from the run, there were no additional directives for me to make it fit because I instinctively made sure that it did fit.
But did you look at what had been done in earlier series’ like Ellis’ or did you work solo, so as not to be influenced?
I was reading the previous arcs as a fan before I was hired to make my own story but I did have my own approach to how I wanted to tell this story. I was very eager to bring my own relationship with Bond and the structure of Bond stories to the page.
Panels from James Bond 007 Solstice | © 2017 Dynamite Entertainment
So, you weren’t influenced by anyone else??
For the record, Andy Diggle is one of my favorite writers and I absolutely adore his two runs on Bond with Luca Cassalanguida, Chris Blythe and Simon Bowland. I think they’re on par with some of the best Bond stories in any medium, so it’s doubtful that some of that didn’t bleed into my interpretation of the book as well.
What was your influence/inspiration for the story? I loved Solstice as it reminded me very much of Flemings short stories, particularly For Your Eyes Only, which I would say is one of the definitive Bond outings across all media. I also felt the influence of the Goldeneye and Living Daylights films thrown in for good measure. Am I right in that?
The Fleming shorts were 100% my inspiration for this. Particularly FYEO. There is also a bit of the beginning of MOONRAKER in there as well, with M asking Bond for a favor. I wanted this to hit all of the notes of the best Bond films too; an opening action scene, a visit to Q branch, a brief flirtation with Moneypenny, a briefing in M’s wood-lined office, a cool car, a brutal fight scene, etc.
All the best bits, they were definitely all there. For my last question, what I really enjoyed how true you were to Fleming, in the sense that your story seemed to mix adventure storytelling with the ‘real-world,’ for want of a better term. Were you particularly influenced by the actualities of contemporary espionage or, at least, as much we believe to be authentic?
Thank you! I’m always immersed in spy fiction and have a pretty strong sense of Bond from being a fan of the novels and films over the years. I didn’t want to go too sci-fi with the tech at Bond’s disposal, so I kept it to iterations of real-world applications. I wanted everything in the story to be plausible.