Peter O’Donnell, Creator of Modesty Blaise, Passes

on May 4, 2010 in Uncategorized

I’m sad to share that I received an email this morning from a friend of Peter O’Donnell’s that he died quietly and peacefully in his sleep yesterday morning – just two weeks after his 90th birthday.

He leaves a widow, Constance, two daughters, grandchildren, and a globe of Modesty Blaise fans.

Funeral details have not yet been arranged, though the event will likely take place in mid-May and in Brighton, East Sussex.

Modesty Blaise is my favorite superwoman of all time and is quite a special character to me. As the spy-fi heroine of O’Donnell’s comic strip and novels, she is the most complex, rounded, and unique superwoman I’ve yet to come across — and I just love her. She is little known here in the US, but has been influential in the creation of our pop culture: from Ororo Munroe’s back-story to Kill Bill.

More to come on Modesty and O’Donnell later today, but for now here’s a link to a post I wrote on the 1966 Modesty Blaise film for my Grrrl on Film blog for Bitch.

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