Died During Production: The original artist, Jim Holdaway, dropped dead suddenly in 1970, causing a lengthy period of rotating artists that lasted for much of the rest of the strip's run until Romero took over full-time.
The metafictional graphic novel Goldtiger, by Guy Adams and Jimmie Broxton, is a blatant pastiche of the comic strip. In-universe, the comic strip Goldtiger is explicitly acknowledged as a rival publishing company's rip-off of Modesty Blaise.
Early Draft Tie-In: The first novel is a novelisation of O'Donnell's script for the 1966 film, without the major subsequent changes of the finished movie.
In Pulp Fiction, the first novel is often read by Vincent Vega whenever he is heading to the toilet.
The 1966 film
Acting for Two: In the 1966 film, Clive Revill plays both Sheikh Abu Tahir and Gabriel's accountant McWhirter.
Creator Killer: The 1966 film killed off Monica Vitti's international career just as it was starting. From then on, she restricted her efforts to Italy.
Fake Brit: In the 1966 film, the Minister is played by Canadian actor Alexander Knox, with a Scots accent.
Questionable Casting: The general reaction to the casting of Monica Vitti, a blonde Italian known for playing neurotic or languid middle-class types in arthouse movies, as the wiley, raven-haired, EXTREMELY British Action Girl that Modesty is in the comics.
What Could Have Been: Peter O'Donnell floated Barbara Steele as Modesty and Michael Caine as Willy.note Ironically, Caine wound up taking the title role in Alfie, a role originally written for Terence Stamp.
The 2004 film
Ashcan Copy: The 2004 direct-to-DVD film My Name Is Modesty: A Modesty Blaise Adventure is the cinema equivalent, a movie made quickly and cheaply to satisfy a contractual obligation and let the studio hold on to the film rights.
