Modesty Blaise: The Black Pearl »

She s beautiful with a bullet! Modesty Blaise the cult creation of best-selling author Peter O Donnell returns for another searing slice of 60s chic thrills set in the shadowy underworld of espionage and mystery.

In the wilds of Tibet, Modesty battles to repay the debt she owes to an ancient mystic who once saved her life by seeking the mysterious Black Pearl. Before her stand marauding bandits, the might of the Himalayas and the power of Red China!

Also collecting The Magnified Man, The Jericho Caper and The Killing Ground, the fourth volume in this spectacular Titan series is packed with rare interviews, exclusive story introductions and masses of rare and previously unseen artwork!

Publishers Weekly

In the 1960s, Modesty Blaise was a mod adventuress in the vein of James Bond and the Avengers who fought evil in the comics pages of British newspapers. This oversized volume collects strips from 1966 to 1968, consisting of four separate adventures. The first, The Black Pearl, sends Modesty and her cockney sidekick, Willie, undercover into Tibet. The Magnified Man has them join with French intelligence to find a gold thief, and The Jericho Caper pits Blaise against an entire nation of outlaws in Central America. The volume closes with a retelling of The Most Dangerous Game entitled The Killing Ground. The combination of exotic locales, sexy adventurers, Eastern mysticism and high-tech weaponry are hallmarks of the '60s. Holdaway's excellent art also reflects the decade, combining bold black silhouettes with linework that's both elegant and dynamic. His style anticipates '60s comics icon Jim Steranko's art. O'Donnell's fast-moving stories are highly entertaining bits of fluff. The strangest thing about this time capsule is how perfectly it embodies the mod spy genre of that era while barely reflecting the real turmoil in the world then (though this isn't a defect just a bit of irony). This volume also features an interview with O'Donnell and an essay on his parallel career as a romance novelist. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.