Up until I bought this collected edition, the only two people I knew with the name "Jane Bond" were the managing partner at the law firm where I work and the series of parodies written by Mabel Maney (parodying James Bond). So, imagine my surprise when I was paging through a recent Previews, looking at the comics coming out soon, and came across a book titled The Best of Jane Bond. Needless to say my curiosity was awakened, and I wanted to know more. Was this Jane Bond perhaps a lawyer, like my boss? Or a spy, like the Maney character? As it turns out, she is [was] a spy for a fictional organization known as Worldpol (which makes me think of a home appliance every time I read that name...).
The Best of Jane Bond collects five of the super spy's stories, which were originally published in the British periodicals for girls, Tina and Princess Tina back in the 1960s and early '70s. Based upon information provided in the introduction to this book, as well as what I could find online, it seems Jane Bond appeared in the British title, Tina (February 25, 1967 through September 16, 1967), and then that title merged with Princess, forming the newly titled Princess Tina. The Jane Bond strip ran in Princess Tina from September 23, 1967 through February 28, 1970, after which, the character made a few appearances in a Princess Tina Giftbook for Girls, a Princess Tina Annual, and a Tammy annual. She appears to be one of the few strictly adventure stories in those publications, as they normally featured mystery stories, horror tales, and schoolgirl related stories.
Meet Jane Bond, Secret Agent. As cool as an early morning rose and as deadly as nightshade. Born in the United States, educated in Italy, dresseed by Zior of Paris - and hated by every crook in the world.
With that caption, we get an image of a very beautiful Jane Bond holding binoculars, while behind her lay a collage of passports, cameras, cash, blueprints, operation files, wallets, and other sundry items that every good spy might need. That first story opens at the Pasadena Grand Prix in Los Angeles, California, where the driver of Car 13 manages to barely avoid a crash and win the race! Of course, that car happens to be driven by none other than Jane Bond, super-spy extraordinaire! Receiving a message from Worldpol headquarters, she gets her next assignment - to locate the western world's greatest scientist, John Simm, and the formula he has been working on! In this first 12-part story, Jane faces off against a number of hired assassins, a class of deadly female agents, and an oversized dog; but none of them can stop this determined young beauty, and by the end of the tale, she not only finds the missing scientist, but keeps the secret formula from falling into enemy hands.
The next assignment in this collection finds Jane battling wits with the notorious Theodore Leopold, a villain otherwise known as "The Lobster." Worldpol has discovered Leopold is installing some "very odd equipment" in his house, and it's up to Jane to find out what it is and whether it poses a threat to the free world. In this 13-chapter story, Jane is forced to deal with some extremely unusual circumstances, the strangest of which is fighting off a gigantic metal lobster being controlled by Leopold himself - all to stop him from releasing a deadly serum that would result in the starvation of millions of people around the world! From this tale, readers leap right into the next adventure, which is much shorter with only 6-parts, as Jane joins a circus to track down and capture an escaped enemy spy known simply as Konrad.
Apparently, the publisher had determined that shorter stories would fare better, as the next adventure collected here is an 8-parter in which Jane travels to the freezing regions of the Arctic to stop a group of people blackmailing the world's governments or they will cause a complete meltdown of the icy region, creating massive flooding around the globe. Jane attempts to infiltrate their ranks, but she is soon discovered and nearly left behind to die when the massive bomb is detonated! Of course, she wiggles her way out of certain doom and saves the day, as always. From here we move on to her last tale collected in this book, a short 5-part adventure in which Jane finally gets the tropical getaway she's been wanting - only, her vacation takes a turn towards work when she finds she was tricked to going to the tropical island in order to help one of the richest men in the world by keeping his daughter safe. Needless to say, the daughter is kidnapped, and Jane must do some quick work (in a bikini the whole time, nonetheless!) to save the girl and stop her captors from getting away.
Unfortunately, the publishers did not give credit to anyone involved with the strip during its run, so while it is known Mike Hubbard was the artist, the writer remains unknown to date. Hubbard's art, though, is magnificent. His use of detailed backgrounds, shadowing, and perfectly defined faces and expressions makes the strip a fantastic visual experience, nearly thematic in nature. Since the stories are not lengthy (even the 13 and 12-part adventures do not feel that long), they move along at a quick page, with plenty of action to keep it going - and to keep Jane constantly moving! In the early strips, only the first panel featured some grey washes of paint, with the remaining panels strictly line drawings. Later (in the middle of "The Lobster" adventure), the magazine added some red tones to the first page of the story. Finally, though, Hubbard was able to use his grey washed art for all of the panels in the strip, which gave the story a bit of a darker feel than the simple line drawn panels did. I can't say I like any variation better than the others, as I think they all added something to the strip, although the red duo-tone pages would have been better had they done both pages with the red, instead of just one.
Overall, a fun read and, by far, this is my favorite "Jane Bond" of all the ones I know! I'm glad Rebellion Publishing reprinted these tales, and maybe one day, they can reprint the rest!
RATING: 10 spring-loaded fur wraps out of 10 for female spy adventure in the tradition of Emma Peel and Black Widow, with fast-paced, full-filled, action packed stories that are well worth the read!
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