13 THINGS You May Not Know About the 1965 Classic… By PETER BOSCH In 1965, movies and TV shows everywhere exploited the spy craze James Bond had created. The Bond film producers — Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli and Harry Saltzman — and United Artists knew they had to protect their goldmine by stepping up the game by making Thunderball an epic. The budgets for the three previous pictures ranged from $1 million to $3 million. Thunderball came in at $9 million. Broccoli and Saltzman’s company was Eon Productions, with “Eon” being their shorthand for “Everything or Nothing.” There are some who say Thunderball was when the James Bond productions lost their specialness and entered the world of just gadgets… but, to me, Thunderball is not only the best of the Sixties’ James Bond thrillers, it remains my favorite Bond movie. Since December 21 is the 60th anniversary of Thunderball’s release in the U.S., and since so much of the film involved underwater action, let’s take a “deep dive” into 13 things you may not know about the film. Enjoy! — 1. BACKGROUND Of all the Bond movies, Thunderball was probably the most litigious. In 1959, film producer Kevin McClory, screenwriter Jack Whittingham, and Ian Fleming banded together to create a new, original James Bond script because McClory felt that none of the novels lent themselves to a big screen treatment. The screenplay they created was called “Longitude 78 West.” Fleming did some rewriting, renamed it Thunderball, shopped it around but got no takers. It’s also been suggested he backed out of the project due to feeling nervous that McClory’s only movie as a producer, The Boy and the Bridge (1959), which McClory also wrote and directed, was a critical flop. With no film deal in sight, Fleming decided to adapt Whittingham’s script into a new James Bond novel, which he still called Thunderball. Published in 1961, Fleming’s novel included elements that McClory and Whittingham felt they had created, but they did not see any acknowledgment in his book. They took Fleming to court. The case lasted a few years, apparently longer than Whittingham could hold out because of the continuing legal fees he could no longer afford. In 1964, before a legal decision was made, Fleming decided to settle out of court. He was in ill health and no...
A BIRTHDAY SALUTE: The celebrated Mr. K crosses universes with a DC workhorse… — UPDATED 12/17/25: The late Dick Dillin was born 97 years ago! Perfect time to reprint this piece from 2020. Dig it. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG In 1968, Dick Dillin (December 17, 1928 – March 1, 1980), the penciller of DC Comics’ Blackhawk, hovered on the periphery of my comic fan awareness. I was a superhero fan first and foremost, and titles in other genres had to work very hard to get my attention. Blackhawk was somewhere in between superhero and not; created in 1941 for Quality Comics by Chuck Cuidera, Bob Powell and Will Eisner, it was originally a World War II military aviation feature that evolved postwar into an adventure strip. When DC acquired the Quality catalogue in 1956, Dillin, who had been penciling the book, came along for the ride. And what a deal! With a solid style and sense of storytelling, Dillin easily accommodated stories crammed with seven regular characters and their Grumman XF5F Skyrocket airplanes without dropping a layout. Dillin clocked an amazing 177 issues of Blackhawk between 1951 and 1968, when the title’s new editor, Dick Giordano, changed up the creative team. You’d think after his 17-year marathon, anyone would have wanted to take a little break. But not Dick Dillin. Blackhawk #241 was cover-dated June/July 1968; the first issue of his next regular gig, Justice League of America #64 was August 1968. He didn’t even take a month off before diving into what was to become his next long haul; 119 issues over the next dozen years. Oh, and to make it even crazier, Dillin’s very first issue was Part 1 of the annual JLA/Justice Society of America crossover event, doubling the number of heroes featured in the story! And, as many memorable Dillin-drawn issues as there were, it’s his work on these crossovers that I’m spotlighting here in honor of his birthday. JLA is a lifelong favorite title of mine, discovered when it was still being drawn by Mike Sekowsky. The annual Earth-One/Earth-Two crossovers with the Golden Age JSA characters (initiated by editor Julie Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox beginning in 1963’s JLA #21–22) became probably the most eagerly awaited event of the DC Comics year. I’d originally intended to write about the Earth-One/Earth-Two JLA/JSA stories...
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