James Bond is Back — in His Own Comic Book Series!

The latest James Bond movie starring Daniel Craig, SPECTRE, opens in the USA on Friday, and today 007 returns to comics for the first time in decades with the release of Dynamite Entertainment‘s  James Bond 007 #1 by Warren Ellis and Jason Masters (Wolverines and Batwoman).

Ellis has penned an original story based on the character as depicted in Ian Fleming’s original books, not the very different character who evolved on the movie screen. The first story arc sees Bond investigating a mysterious organization behind a new drug hitting the streets — an investigation that has already seen the death of agent 008.

Ellis had a few interesting things to say to website i09 about the new series:

“This is the Ian Fleming Bond—the Bond of the books, a direct commission from Dynamite Comics and the Ian Fleming literary estate. The single real difference is that I’ve set it in the present day, having expressed that preference to the estate because I didn’t want to do period pastiche. Beyond that, you should consider it as taking place somewhere in the last half of the Fleming canon.”

Daniel Craig May Resign His License to Kill

Daniel Craig‘s contract for playing James Bond is almost up, which means it’s time for him to play coy about returning to the role — the de rigeur contract-negation ploy.

While discussing the upcoming Spectre, his fourth flick as 007, Craig professed ambivalence about putting on the tuxedo and picking up the Walther PPK again, telling Esquire UK: “I don’t know. I really don’t know. Honestly. I’m not trying to be coy. At the moment I can’t even conceive it.”

Asked if he would like to star in another James Bond flick, he said:

“At this moment, no. I have a life and I’ve got to get on with it a bit. But we’ll see. Bond  is very fucking lonely. There’s a great sadness. He’s fucking these beautiful women but then they leave and it’s … sad. And as a man gets older it’s not a good look. It might be a nice fantasy – that’s debatable – but the reality, after a couple of months.”

New James Bond Pics From SPECTRE

Craig and Léa

Craig as Bond

Here are a couple of brand-new images from “Spectre,” the 24th film in the James Bond franchise. It once again stars Daniel Craig as 007, this time joined by Léa Seydoux. Sam Mendes, who directed the highly regarded SkyFall, returns to the director’s chair once more. This movie formally introduces SPECTRE to the rebooted Bond universe.

Take a look at that chess board in front of Bond. Is he playing a real game? The board and pieces appear to be covered in dust. And, more importantly, the white queen is on a square adjacent to the black king. How the hell did that happen? Bond’s opponent is sacrificing his queen rather than killing Bond’s king!

In this film, a message from Bond’s past sets him on a trail to uncover a sinister organization. While M battles political forces to keep the secret service alive, Bond peels back the layers of deceit to reveal the terrible truth behind Spectre.

Spectre also stars Ralph Fiennes, Ben Whishaw, Naomie Harris, Rory Kinnear, Christoph Waltz, Monica Bellucci, David Bautista and Andrew Scott.

Spectre opens Nov. 6.