The James Bond movies have often been accompanied on their theatrical release by some stunning artwork. The cinema posters have at times brilliantly conveyed the excitement of the on-screen action and the early designs were a major inspiration to Daryl Burchmore to start collecting memorabilia! Yet on occasion, some artwork produced around the world has been so bland as to make you wonder how any studio exec can ever have approved the design, not if they wanted to sell any tickets to the movie! Over the years fans have spent many an hour trying to identify if the generic character on some Bond poster is supposed to be Connery, Moore or that ‘other fella’, Lazenby. Ironically, it is Australian posters which often feature notoriously bad artists impressions of the central characters! For serious collectors it is the original UK quads (especially those of a 1960’s vintage), which are the most desirable. A recent US auction house sold a near mint ‘Dr No’ quad (from 1962) for an outrageous $12,000! Since the late 1980’s (from ‘Licence To Kill’ onwards), the 007 series has followed modern cinema trends and abandoned the skills of the graphic artist in favour of those of the photo compositor. Today’s designs are no more than photographic montages, depicting stills from the movies’ best scenes. In honour of times past we present ‘the good, the bad and the damn near ugly’ amongst James Bond movie posters from the past 38 years. | 
