AS LONG AS MODESTY IS ON OUR SIDE, GOOD WILL SURELY PREVAIL

[defrog]

Well, damn it.

Looks like we’re going for the celebrity death hat trick this week: Peter O’Donnell died a few days ago.

Whether he counts as a celebrity may depend how familiar you are with Modesty Blaise, which he created and wrote for its entire 40-year run as a comic strip.

He also wrote 11 Modesty novels, one of which I recently reviewed here.

So I’m a fan, yes.

I first encountered Modesty in novel form – I was in a train station in Germany in the mid-80s and in need of something to read, and with a limited English-language section available, I picked up The Xanadu Talisman. I was knocked out by the idea of a tough female criminal mastermind turned part-time secret agent, and the story was fine, well-paced British pulp. I also liked the intimate but platonic relationship between Modesty and her lieutenant, Willie Garvin.

Great name, too. Daft, but distinct. 

I’ve read the majority of the books since then, but not too much of the comics, which weren’t easy to find in the US (or at least in Middle Tennessee and southern Illinois) until recently. Now that we have Amazon.com, I’ve been doing a little catch-up on the comic strips – in fact I was looking into ordering a new volume just now, and then O’Donnell’s obit came up.

Not a big shock, of course, as he was 90. Still, I thought you should know.

And I’ll definitely be buying that new Modesty Blaise collection I was looking for.

PRODUCTION NOTE: The headline is from a song by Sparks called “Modesty Plays”. It’s about her, yes. Listen.

Watch on YouTube

The world is running out of heroes,

This is dF

Comments

[kenakeri.livejournal.com]

Peter O'Donnell too? Wow. Another piece of my childhood gone. I've read all the novels save Cobra Trap, The Xanadu Talisman and Sabre-Tooth, and the comic strip was one of my favorites.