Interview with Van Jensen, author of Casino Royale (Dynamite, 2018, pp. 160) ELLEN J. STOCKSTILL In March 2018, Dynamite Entertainment published a graphic novel adaptation of Ian Fleming’s first !ames "ond novel, Casino Royale# Dynamite secured the li$ cense to adapt the novel from the Fleming estate back in 201& and slated 'riter (an !ensen and artist Dennis )alero to produce the adaptation# In the follo'ing intervie', !ensen describes the process of adapting Fleming’s novel, some of the challenges of 'or%ing 'ith an iconic character li%e !ames "ond, Fleming’s 'rit$ ing style, "ond s current and historical relevance, and the 'ays in 'hich Flem$ ing’s legacy lives on in different mediums. Ellen Stockstill: )an you explore the relevance of this particular medium to the "ond franchise? ,hy this form, and 'hy this %ind of adaptation no' in this par$ ticular period of "ond s cultural lifespan+ Van Jensen: -ltimately, the .uestion of /,hy a graphic novel+0 is one that 'as considered and ans'ered by the Fleming 1ublishing Library, as it 'as their deci$ sion to pursue the publishing partnership 'ith Dynamite Entertainment# I do Ellen J. Stockstill is Assistant Professor of English at Penn State Harrisburg where she teaches courses on British literature and critical theory. Her scholarship fo- cuses on Victorian literature and culture. She is co-author of A Research Guide to Gothic Literature in English (Row- man & Littlefield, 2018), and she has published essays in Vol. 1, Issue 2 · Spring 2018 Public Domain Review, Nineteenth-Century Prose, Victorian ISSN 2514-2178 Medicine and Popular Culture (Routledge), and The Moral DOI: 10.24877/jbs.33 Panics of Sexuality (Palgrave). Distributed under CC BY 4.0 UK %no' that the novel adaptations 'ere the first project to be discussed, and I un$ derstand that it is very dear to them. For me personally, I find comic books and graphic novels to be an essential medium because they e*ist at this perfect half$ 'ay point bet'een prose and film. 1rose asks readers to fill in so much sensory information# Film provides pretty much all of it# "oth are great, but I 3ust love the 'ay that they provide visuals but then stimulate the mind to fill in so many gaps. Sounds. Smells. 5he movement bet'een the staccato moments of the pan$ els. My hope for these adaptations is that they come at a time 'hen "ond is ripe for reflection and reevaluation, that generations 'eaned on the movies or even video games can go back and discover the foundation beneath all of that# ES: 6ou came to this project having 'or%ed 'ith some iconic superhero charac$ ters7 5he Flash and 8reen Lantern# Did that experience help you approach a character li%e !ames "ond? ,hat %ind9s: of pressure do you feel as a 'riter 'hen 'or%ing 'ith an iconic character loved and %no'n by so many+ VJ: ,riting superhero comics, the challenge is ta%ing a property and character that s been around for eighty years and doing something ne' 'hile not really changing anything. 5he Flash, for instance, can t 3ust give up his superhero-ing 'ays and become the 'orld s fastest actuary# !ames "ond has been a bit different in that this is a direct adaptation of Fleming’s first "ond novel# 5he desire on all sides 'as to leave the story intact, 3ust make it 'or% in the comic format# So 'hat carried over from my earlier 'or% in comics is really 3ust the experiential in$ sights of %no'ing ho' comics 'or% as a medium, ho' the story flo's through panels on the page, ho' to craft moments that grab readers. "ut pressure? ;h, yes, plenty of pressure. 5his is !ames "ond< I gre' up on the films, then moved on to the novels in high school and college, so I had my o'n reverence to con$ tend 'ith before I even got to the matter of this being one of the most iconic characters in all the 'orld# ES: ,ere there aspects of the novel that you immediately %ne' 'ould 'or% 'ell in the visual and textual medium of a graphic novel? ,ere there aspects that you %ne' 'ould not 'or% 'ell or that 'ere more of a challenge to adapt+ VJ: Casino Royale is uni.ue in the series of novels in that there s precious little that obviously and readily translates 'ell to visuals. 5here s gambling. 5here are fancy dinners. 5here s a long stretch in a hospital# Aside from the brief car chase and the botched explosion early on, the novel is bereft of the action-adventure 2 International Journal of James Bond Studies · Vol. 1, Issue 2 · Spring 2018 sequences 'e’ve come to expect of the genre. Ma%ing the baccarat 'or% 'as tricky# = big table 'ith a ton of characters and lots and lots of narration# =nd lots of te*t is a recipe for the most boring comic ever# 5here s also the t'o-page stretch of "ond, post-torture, lying in a hospital bed 'orrying that he might be impotent# For each of these, I challenged myself to come up 'ith some innova$ tive approaches, either by deliberateness in perspective, or symbolic representa$ tions, to tell the story visually# ES: I read that you 'ere surprised by the /interiority0 offered in Fleming’s novel# >o' did you strive to convey "ond s interiority in your adaptation+ Do you find interiority difficult to convey in a graphic novel? VJ: 4pecifically, 'hat surprised me is the character of "ond, ho' unformed he is, and vulnerable. 5he novel is all third-person narration, delving deep into "ond s character as he takes on the form 'e %no', but exploring the thoughts of other characters in detail# It s a lot of te*t# =nd 'ith comics, space is the great limiting factor, so having lots of te*t means you lose a lot of visual space on the page. 5he thought bubble 'as the old tactic to represent such interiority in comics, but that tool is 9sadly: vie'ed as passé in the medium. I came up 'ith the idea of /"ond$ vision,0 'hich is going to be an overlay of "ond s thoughts on top of his sur$ roundings. Every room he goes into, every person he meets, he is si@ing up threats, analy@ing potential outcomes. It s a coldness and shre'dness inherent in his person and his craft# Fleming brought it alive 'ith prose, and my challenge 'as %eeping it present 'hile not dro'ning Dennis )alero s gorgeous art 'ith te*t# ES: Did you do any research or secondary reading to help you in your 'or%+ If so, 'hat and 'hy? VJ: I returned to the other "ond novels and some of the "ond resource guides out there, both ne'er and older# I cast a pretty 'ide net in researching the time, to get a feel of post$'ar France. And then I 'atched a bunch of videos on 6ou5ube of baccarat# I hate to say I had no real familiarity 'ith the game before embar%ing on the project# =nd no'### ,ell, I probably could at least not embar$ rass myself completely if I attempted to play# E. Stockstill · Interview with Van Jensen, author of Casino Royale (Dynamite, 2017) 3 ES: In his book The Politics of James Bond, !eremy "lack 'rites that "ritain s de$ cline /and the changing "ritish 'orld role and vie' of the 'orld, can all be ap$ proached via "ond# Alongside the apparent timelessness of the icon, there is a timely a'areness of historical change ABC =side from being a mixture of )old ,ar 'arrior and a medieval %night rescuing maidens from modern dragons, even at risk to his mission, "ond 'as also a conduit through 'hom Fleming e*$ plored the ambivalent relationship bet'een a declining "ritain and an ascendant -nited 4tates0 9200D, *:# Do you see "ond as a character of history as "lack sug$ gests+ ;ne moment I thin% of in Casino Royale 'here this gets played out is in Leiter s lifeline to "ond at the baccarat table 'ith his /Marshall =id0 of E2 million francs. VJ: 1art of approaching this adaptation 'ith no efforts to moderni@e the story or change context 'as exactly this. !ames "ond is a product of a specific 'riter in a specific time, for good 9mostly: and for bad 9the casual sexism and racism:# I ve al'ays been a reader of history, so that 'as an aspect of returning to Casino Royale that I en3oyed, of putting it into this geopolitical context# =nd that rela$ tionship bet'een "ond and Leiter, "ritain and the -nited 4tates, is even more fully formed in Live and Let Die, the ne*t novel# ES: Follo'-up .uestion7 is "ond relevant in our current historical moment? VJ: 5he thing that resonated 'ith me the most is "ond s place amid a changing 'orld in terms of gender and se* dynamics. ,e re in a period of time in 'hich the hegemony of the straight, 'hite male is gone, and some straight, 'hite males are no' coming a'are of this and becoming angry, even violent# 5o me, that s the fire behind the political rise of certain right$'ing movements. "ond is the .uintessential representation of that lost hegemony# >e s confident, a lover and murderer 'ho never 'orries about family, only about career# >e does 'hat needs done 'ithout concern for others.