Happy 11th Birthday Piz Gloria Website

Today is the 11th anniversary of the launch of PizGloria.com, the website dedicated to collecting James Bond paperbacks.  As is customary every year here are the overall stats from Google Analytics:

- Each visitor on average views 5.94 pages (that's 290,699 total page views since 2012).

- The average time a visitor spends on the site is 3 minutes and 6 seconds.

- The bounce rate is 54.56%.  That's the rate at which visitors bring up the website on their screen or phone but then leave without interacting with it.

I've recently added three new pages that I've been wanting to add for ages, so there's some new content if you have a spare couple of minutes now: James Bond Find Your Fate adventures, James Bond Graphic Paperback Novels and the page I have been promising to add for years, James Bond Box Sets/Slipcases.  It's the last one I like the most as there's lots of info for people to hopefully be able to find the sets themselves (such as ISBN's and barcodes) if they desire.

As always I'd like to thank everyone who has supported my website, visited it or just contacted me over the last 11 years,  

Cheers Baz

U.S. "Silverfin" Graphic Novel Arrives

Back in 2008 Penguin U.K. published a graphic novel version of Charlie Higson's Young Bond adventure "Silverfin".  Kev Walker, creator of all the U.K. Young Bond covers at that time, was responsible for the graphics.  The completist I am I purchased a copy of this paperback but never included it on the website.  

At the time I wondered, do James Bond graphic novels really belong on the same website as the novels ?  Well I recently decided why not.  James Bond has existed in graphic form for longer than he has on the silver screen, starting with the Daily Express serials of the 1950's.  And those serial readers may have later purchased Bond novels.  Young adult readers of this "Silverfin" graphic novel may have done exactly the same.  Basically it's the same story.... just in a different format.  

So I started adding a new page to the website for Graphic Paperback Novels.  I already owned another graphic paperback published by Marvel that was an interpretation of the film "For Your Eyes Only" starring Roger Moore as Bond.   Then I happened to look for further graphic paperbacks on the web and in Bond forums just in case I was missing any, and sure enough I discovered another collector owned a U.S. Disney-Hyperion Books version of the "Silverfin" graphic novel that was published in 2010.  At first glance the U.S. cover is very similar to the U.K. one so I understand how I could have missed it.  Regardless it was time to hunt a copy down.

Today I received a parcel in the mail...

which contained the aforementioned U.S. publication:

So now I have three graphic paperback novels, and I'm keeping my eyes open for more.

My James Bond On Vinyl

I've been sorting through my James Bond collection over the past week and came across all my vinyl LP's.  Now as you can see below my vinyl collection is hardly extensive.  I have five 12 inch LP's, one extended play 12 inch and seven 7 inch singles.

I haven't played these albums in years although I suspect the James Bond Greatest Hits album (from 1981 so up to "For Your Eyes Only") was played so often, when I was younger, the grooves are well worn.  I haven't checked but I hope my copy of "From Russia With Love" is an original from 1963.  I've had it for about 30 years and it's in great condition.  The other 12 inches were all purchased in the 1980's when the related films were released.

And here's my 7 inch singles.  If you follow this blog you'll know I purchased Lani Hall's "Never Say Never Again" single last year.  My copy of Shirley Bassey's single "Goldfinger" was purchased from a secondhand record store around the same time as "FRWL" above.  There's two copies of Duran Duran's "A View To A Kill", one standard and the other a limited edition double fold sleeve with a white vinyl single.  The remaining singles are standard, again purchased when the related films were released.

The last 12 inch album below is titled "Lani Hall - Collectables".  When "Never Say Never Again" was released in 1983 there was no accompanying soundtrack, so here in Australia the only way I could purchase the song was to go to the music section at a department store (Myer) and create a special order.   Sadly "NSNA" was the only song I liked from this album so I would have to repeatedly keep placing the needle just before the start of the track.

As for adding to this collection in the future, I'd only consider purchasing 7 inch singles and only if they were cheap, in great condition and in their original sleeves.   But I'm not actively searching for them.

Lego Speed Champions Aston Martin DB5 Completed

Just prior to Christmas I purchased the Lego Speed Champions 007 Aston Martin DB5 set.  I suspect many other James Bond collectors may have also received it as a gift for Christmas in 2022.

So during the Christmas and New Year break I started building the set.  I completed Stage 1 around NYE and then stopped as the weather here in Melbourne, Victoria was superb.

Yesterday I completed Stage 2:

I think the set is brilliant, especially for the price.  I note that James Bond's choice of weapon in the Lego instructions is a wrench however there was an "accidental" inclusion of a second exhaust piece in the set that also doubles as a firearm.  

And here's the vehicle next to the much larger Lego Creator 007 Aston Martin set:

I have to say if you're looking at spending less than AU$30 on a James Bond gift for yourself you couldn't go wrong with this set.

Coronet "Dr No" And "From Russia With Love" Cover Variations

For the first time in the 1980's a series of James Bond paperbacks was published that not only featured the original 14 Ian Fleming titles but also many titles by continuation authors.  This fine series was published by Coronet, and there were two titles in particular that stand out to me for their variant covers.  

The first is "Dr No.  Almost all printings of this title feature a spider on a black background.  That is, except for the now well known 9th edition which features a woman's hand (Honey Rider's ?) holding a knife on a blue background.  A full explanation for this anomaly can be found on The Book Bond website.  

However there are also other subtle variation covers for this Coronet title.  They all relate to the author's name at the base of the cover.  The standard text is grey embossed, but there's also white embossed and grey flat (the latter two being 14th printings).  I have found no explanation for these changes which appear to be more than just printing errors. Regardless, the four covers all have the same barcode: 9780340418994 00599 and ISBN: 0340418990.

The other Coronet title with cover variations is "From Russia With Love".  While there was no completely different cover image published, there were again changes made to the author's name text at the base of the cover.  All editions of "From Russia With Love" feature what looks like a Faberge Egg exploding.  But while almost all covers have grey embossed text with the barcode: 9780340425626 00599 and ISBN: 0340425628 strangely the 6th edition has metallic looking silver foil flat text with the barcode: 9780340723418 00599 and ISBN: 0340723416.  Even the spine on this edition has the silver foil !

I'm really curious about these cover variations and why they exist.  I wonder if there are more subtle differences for this Coronet series out there ?  And I'm also puzzled if Coronet was prepared to play with cover text styles why they didn't fix a glaring mistake with this series in subsequent printings, the omission of the image from the spine of "Live And Let Die", the only cover as such ?

I will be keeping an eye out for any further cover differences in this series.  But I would like to thank John F. who sent me an email in 2012 alerting me to many of these cover variations.  It has only taken 10 years to acquire them all.