The Original Bond: John McLusky's Illustrations
In 1958, almost half a decade before the movie franchise had started, The Daily Express newspaper commissioned leading graphic artist John McLusky to visualise Ian Fleming’s original spy-hero for the very first time. The result was an archetypal black and white serialisation giving pictorial life to Fleming’s great brainchild. It is said that McLusky’s depictions were so iconic that Eon Films based the casting of the role on these drawings.
In celebration of this illustrious work - and to coincide with the launch of the latest Bond film - we have created a limited run of James Bond pocket squares featuring McLusky’s designs from the 50s and 60s.
'The amount of Bond’s personality and the atmosphere of the Fleming’s novels that McLusky captures in black and white imagery gave me a new appreciation for artists of this genre.'
Head of design Dean Gomilsek-Cole was passionate about bringing the artworks to life: ‘Seeing hand-drawn images of James Bond that existed before any of my cinematic favourites, I had an amazing feeling of awe. The amount of Bond’s personality, and the atmosphere of the Fleming’s novels, that McLusky manages to capture in black and white imagery gave me a whole new appreciation for artists of this genre. I had to do something with it.’
A series of four pocket squares featuring the original James Bond character are available to purchase both online and in-store.