Modesty Blaise creator Peter O'Donnell passes away

[Lew Stringer]

Very sad news just in from Ellie Graham at Titan Books:

Titan Books is hugely saddened to report the passing of writer Peter O’Donnell, who died over the Bank Holiday weekend at the age of 90.

“Peter O'Donnell was respected as one of the greatest writers in the comics medium today and had a devout following amongst comics professionals and fans alike”, says Titan’s Managing Director, Nick Landau. “I am honoured to have known him – and published his greatest creations, Modesty Blaise and Willie Garvin – for almost 40 years.”

Born in South London in 1920, O’Donnell had a long and illustrious career, the highlight of which was his creation of classic crime character ‘Modesty Blaise’. The smart and sassy comic strip ran daily in the Evening Standard newspaper during the 1960s. O’Donnell retired from writing in 2001, but had continued to oversee Titan’s release of more than a dozen Modesty Blaise collections, contributing introductions and commentaries to his classic stories.

Adventurer, spy, smuggler and seductress, Modesty Blaise is the high priestess of pulp, providing crime thriller storylines with sass, wit and a touch of glamour, that have wooed celebrity fans such as Quentin Tarantino.

Titan Books has previously published 16 collections of the classic strip and has four further collections scheduled for release in 2010 and 2011.

[tony ingram]

Just drawing attention to this as it seems to have been overlooked. Very sad news.

[felneymike]

Indeed. I'll have to finally get around to reading that second novel. Also i invariably turn to a Modesty strip when i'm stuck for artwork inspiration. If my black and white art is ever as good as those i'll be completely happy with it!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

P O'D was a great artist, and fantastic at drawing women. I never actually followed MODESTY BLAISE, but I certainly recognized his skill as a newspaper strip artist:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/ma ... nnell-dies

[Lew Stringer]

P O'D was a great artist, and fantastic at drawing women. I never actually followed MODESTY BLAISE, but I certainly recognized his skill as a newspaper strip artist:


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/ma ... nnell-dies

Perhaps you should have followed his work a bit closer Rab. Peter O'Donnell was the writer of Modesty Blaise, not one of the artists.

By the way; that Guardian obit is mistaken in saying he created Garth!

[Digifiend]

Looks like the Guardian owe Garth's real creator an apology then. Tsk. Do your research, journalists!

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

yes....I must stop speed-reading, readers!

[Brendan McGuire]

The Guardian obituary was written by Steve Holland, he's usually spot on. In the same piece he says Richard Burton was in the Modesty Blaise film. It was Dirk Bogarde.

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

the name : 'Steve Holland' sounds definately familiar...can anyone elaborate?

Looks like his normally-impeccable standards are dropping in this particular instance.

[Lew Stringer]

the name : 'Steve Holland' sounds definately familiar...can anyone elaborate?

Steve has written numerous articles and indexes on comics, has compiled many books, and is one of the most knowledgeable people on British adventure strips.

http://bearalley.blogspot.com/

Looks like his normally-impeccable standards are dropping in this particular instance.

Why is Steve getting the blame? The Guardian obit is credited to Alison Flood.

[Brendan McGuire]

Lew, the online obit is different to the printed one. Alison Flood wrote the online one, Steve wrote the printed one, published on Thursday 6th.

[Digifiend]

That's strange, isn't newspaper website content usually taken straight out of the paper, or published in the paper the next day? Either way, it's usually the exact same reports, and as such, should be the same writer.