Modesty Blaise strip #2457 (May 1971): Captured!

Modesty Blaise began her adventures in 1962, becoming an inspiration for characters such as Emma Peel, the "mod" Diana Prince, Tara "Queen and Country" Chase, and perhaps Elektra Natchios. She's a Greek orphan trained to be an assassin/spy. She leaves "the life" behind her, but somehow danger keeps finding her in various films, novels, and comic strips.

In this installment from the "Death of a Jester" story, Modesty finds herself a bit tied up. The thug Chalkie is supposed to chain her to the wall, without getting too close... how's that going to happen? Her profanity would not have passed muster in an American newspaper, but Britain had different standards.

There are over 10,000 daily strips in this series. Kudos to my friend Alan, the Modesty expert, for helping me track down exactly where this strip fit into her adventures. The back is stamped "13 May 1971." Some of the bricks beside her in the last panel have been whited out, perhaps to make her figure more prominent at the smaller print size. The captions and word balloons are pasted on to the page.