James Bond (comics) - Swedish Publications

Swedish Publications

Swedish comic book publisher Semic Press started a James Bond comic book magazine in 1965, which was simultaneously published in Norwegian, Danish and Finnish editions. Originally, the contents were derived from the James Bond newspaper strips; translated and edited to fit the comic book format. As time passed the archive of newspaper strip stories was soon depleted and reprinted over and over again. Semic editors therefore decided to acquire rights to produce their own Bond stories directly for the comic book. The first James Bond story produced by Semic was published in Swedish James Bond #1/1982 (Note: Scandinavian comic magazines usually restart the numbering each year). It was called "Den gyllene triangeln" ("The Golden Triangle"), drawn by Escolano and written by Norwegians Terje Nordberg and Eirik Ildahl under the pseudonym Johann Vlaanderen. About half a dozen new stories were produced each year, in black/white and around 24 pages. Main artists were Sarompas, Josep Gual and Manuel Carmona. Main writers were Sverre Årnes, Jack Sutter and Bill Harrington.

Between 1982 and 1991, Semic produced 42 comic magazine stories and five album (graphic novel) stories, of which 3 were based on Bond movies.

Attempts were made to sell the Semic Bond stories to other European countries (Spain and Germany for example) but this was limited to only a few episodes.

The episode "Operation: Blücher" from James Bond #12/1984 was written by Norwegian Sverre Årnes and centered around a sunken Nazi ship outside Norway. The plot of this story (minus James Bond) was later adapted into the script for the movie Blücher, released in 1988.