James Bond Comics

Austin writer Alan J. Porter gets revved up by cars, comic books

Ever since he was a kid, Austin writer Alan J. Porter has loved comic books and motorsports.

In 2008, Porter was attending the San Diego Comic Con to push his newest book, "James Bond: The History of the Illustrated 007" (Hermes Press), a guide to James Bond comics, when he heard that independent publisher Boom Studios had scored the license to publish comics based on the Disney/Pixar movies. Porter knew the line editor, a gent named Paul Morrisey, from when Morrisey, while at the now-defunct manga house TokyoPop, had published Porter's short story "God Shop."

"I practically begged on bended knee to do ‘Cars,' " Porter says. We're in the dark, wooden comfort of Fadó Irish Pub, a fitting place to talk to a native of Manchester, England. (He and his family moved to the U.S. for work 16 years ago, and he has lived in Austin since 2004.) Yes, there are plates of bangers and mash in front of us.

"I basically cornered Paul and said, ‘I don't care what happens, I want to write ‘Cars,' " Porter said.

Morrisey asked for a pitch within 24 hours. Porter delivered and even before he could finish the final write-up, he was tapped to do a four-issue arc.

Those four issues turned into a four-year gig writing "The World of Cars," the continuing adventures of Lightning McQueen and friends.

Recently, the publishing rights went back to Disney, which is in the process of reprinting Porter's work in four trade paperbacks. Indeed, Porter has loved comics and cars concurrently since he was a boy.

"My father read ‘The Eagle,' which was sort of the quintessential 1950s English comic, from volume one, issue one, so they were always around," Porter said. "Buying a weekly anthology comic was just part of being a kid in England."

English comic books have a different pedigree from American comics. Instead of monthly color comics devoted to one character, usually a superhero, British comics tended to be weekly, black-and-white anthologies packed with all sorts of stories, mostly sci-fi and fantasy. " ‘Whizzer and Chips' was my favorite," Porter said, "but ‘Look and Learn,' an educational comic, also had some great science-fiction stories. Years later, I learned (Bastrop-based English sci-fi legend) Michael Moorcock wrote some of those."

So it was a bit of a revelation when actual American comics, in full color and everything, started showing up at Porter's local news agent. "I still remember the comic, an issue of the Flash that had a skeleton with Flash's costume on it (that would be Flash No. 186, March 1969). I thought that was incredibly cool." Porter dove in with a vengeance, pausing only for teenhood and motorcycles, then restarting as an adult in the 1980s. He became a devout collector of Batman memorabilia; his first book was, in fact, "Batman: The Unofficial Collectors Guide," a book he literally wrote for himself.

The James Bond Omnibus 002, by Ian Fleming : Bookgeeks.co.uk

The James Bond comic strip originally ran from 1958 to 1983 with Ian Fleming’s suave spy appearing in a total of 52 story arcs which were serialised in British daily newspapers. The Bond strips have been reprinted several times with Titan Books currently producing oversized omnibus collections of Bond’s most thrilling and dangerous missions.

Of the seven stories collected in The James Bond Omnibus 002