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Max Allan Collins

kevinburtonsmith

Pseudonyms include Patrick Culhane, Barbara Allan
(1948–)

 Jack of all trades, and master of a ton of ’em. Iowa’s MAX ALLAN COLLINS is a baby-boomer renaissance man in the crime and mystery genre. He’s done comic strips, comic books, trading cards, short stories, novels, film, and even television novelizations. He’s written hard-boiled, noir, cozies, horror, sci-fi and superheroes. He’s been a president of The Private Eye Writers of America, and won or been nominated for numerous Edgars and Shamuses for his large (and constantly expanding) body of work, both for fiction and non-fiction. And he plays in a couple of rock bands. My guess is he hasn’t slept since about 1953 or so…

He’s also created several series characters, most notably comic book P.I. Ms. Tree to historical private eye Nate Heller. He’s co-written, with James L. Traylor, what must stand as the definitive defense/critique of Mickey Spillane. In fact, Max, certainly one of the most vocal defenders of Spillane’s work in the genre, has teamed up on numerous occasions with his idol for a number of projects, including the comic book adventures of Mike Danger, and a series of themed anthologies.

Collins’ first series character was professional thief Nolan, who made his debut in 1973’s Bait Money (published when Max was only twenty-five!). Nolan was probably inspired in a large part by also one-named professional thief Parker created by Richard Stark (aka “Donald Westlake”).

Continuing the Parker influence, Collins followed the Nolan series with one featuring an equally amoral criminal. Arguably the first series dedicated to a professional hitman, Quarry first showed up in The Broker (1976). Even now, years after the last novel in the series was published, with the character appearing in occasional short stories, Collins admits that “I get as much mail on this character as Heller; making Quarry truly a cult fave.”

In 1977, at the same time he was beginning his career as a novelist, Collins landed a plum gig in the comics world, scripting Chester Gould’s Dick Tracy comic strip. By all accounts, Collins revitialized the strip, returning an outdated relic to its gritty, exciting roots, and continued to script the strip for the next sixteen years, finally calling it quits in 1993.

In 1979, Collins teamed up with fellow Iowan, cartoonist Terry Beatty, to create The Comics Page, a weekly syndicated comics page of jokes,activities and, most notably, a solve-it-yourself puzzle/comic, starring private eye Mike Mist. Although the feature only lasted a few years, Mist managed to survive for considerably longer, and Collins’ partnership with Beatty turned out to be a long and fruitful one. Subsequently, the Mist short stories appeared in several issues of Mystery Magazine, a monthly mystery digest, and as an occasional backup feature in the pages of the E-Man comic book.

And then in 1981, Collins and Beatty unleashed Ms. Tree, a female private eye with a hard-on for the gangsters who murdered her husband (on their wedding night, no less!). It’s without a doubt Collins best-known comic creation, and became the longest-running comic book private eye comic book of all time, and, in my opinion, some of the best work Collins has ever done. Collins and Beatty soon brought Mike Mist into the fold, first as a backup feature in Ms. Tree, and later as a sometime-partner.

Collins and Beatty used Ms. Tree as a springboard to launching seeveral other comics projects. including Wild Dog, about an ordinary joe turned crime-fighting vigilante, which ran as a four-part mini-series and at least one special for DC. And in 1987, Collins did a bit of work on another, decidedly more flamboyant, ordinary joe turned crime-fighting vigilante for DC as well: some guy called Batman.

Collins and Beatty also helped revive Johnny Dynamite, Pete Morisi’s old, 1950’s Hammeresque private eye, publishing reprint as a back up feature in Ms. Tree, and later as a mini-series for Dark Horse. In 1995, Collins teamed up with his idol, and by-then good buddy Spillane to create Mike Danger, a typical 1950’s, hardboiled private eye whisked into the future.

In 1998, Collins published Road To Perdition, an excellent graphic novel from Paradox about a mob hitman out for vengeance, with his young son along for the ride.

But all the time Collins was doing all this comic work, he was busy writing novels and short stories. In 1983, the same year Ms. Tree got her own comic book, he published the first books of two new series. Mallory isn’t a private eye, but a young, idealistic writer who ends up involved murder and mayhem rather frequently. Think of it as a more hard-boiled Murder, She Wrote.

But the single best-known — and most significant — creation of Collins has to be private eye, Nate Heller. A former Chicago cop in the days of Al Capone, Heller seems to have since wormed his way into every major American crime story of the twentieth century, from the Lindbergh kidnapping to the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to the murder of Bugsy Siegel to the assassination of JFK. Meticulously researched, always intriguing, often controversial, the Heller books should be recommended reading for anyone in this genre. But the fan who reads them, and doesn’t bother with any of Collins’ other work, in comics or short stories and fiction, is missing out on some of the best current writing in the P.I. genre.

Remember I told you Collins doesn’t appear to sleep? He also set up a lucrative sideline as the writer of film novelizations, including Maverick, The Fugitive, Saving Private Ryan and, of course, Dick Tracy.

“I urge you not to avoid these dreaded ‘novelizations.’ I write these with both hands on the keyboard and both eyes open, and my brain fully engaged, so check ’em out, ” Collins reassures us.

He’s also responsible for a few original novels based on the characters from television’s NYPD Blue, including one in which Detective Simone moonlights as a private eye. Hell, the man even wrote a book to cash in on the Titanic craze, 1999’s The Titanic Murders. And his is mercifully both Celine- and Leo-free.

Collins has crossed over into other genres, most notably with his stories about Chicago private eye, Richard Stone, which combine fantasy elements with the P.I. story. Collins considers the first Stone story, “A Wreath for Marley” his gene-splice of The Maltese Falcon and Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. It’s also served as the basis for a film script, Blue Christmas, which eventually saw the light of day in 2024.

Because evidently writing isn’t enough. Collins has also become something of a filmmaker. He’s written and directed Mommy and Mommy’s Day, two low-budget but well-received thrillers, the documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane and Real Time: Siege At Lucas Street Market, based on “Inconvenience Store,” a 1994 short story feauring Ms. Tree, although the script substitutes a non-PI character for our favorite comic book lady dick (the character is played by Brinke Stevens in a very Ms. Tree-like manner, however). Another of the co-stars is Ed Gorman’s wife Carol. Imagine a cross between Dog Day Afternoon and The Blair Witch Project.

2002 brought us the film adaptation of Collins’ graphic novel Road To Perdition, about a hit man and his young son on the run from gangsters in the 1930’s, directed by Sam “American Beauty” Mendes, and starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman. It was a class act all the way, with some fine nuanced performances, masterful directing and cinematography that would take your breath away. Max even appeared on Bravo-TV’s Page To Screen show, in one of the better episodes I’ve seen, mostly because for once, they actually interviewed the author in a lot more depth than usual (Max liked the film, but thought — correctly — that his ending was better).

Even better, Collins got to write the novelization of the film that was based on the film adapted from his own work, and then parlayed that into agig writing three-issue series of mini-graphic novels and two prose novels, Road to Purgatory (2004) and Road to Paradise (2005) .

Lately, Collins has been cranking out some original novels based on the popular TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigations, some standalone historicials, and capitalizing on the success of Road To Perdition\ have kept Collins busy over the last few years, and coming up in the next little while are Black Hats, which will be pubbed under Collins’ open-secret pen-name Patrick Culhane. According to Collins, “we’re trying to develop a brand-name for standalone historicals (which could open the door to me doing Heller again under my own name). It’s set in 1920 and is about Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson… and Al Capone.”

He’s also written a trilogy of mysteries set against the history of comic strips and books. This first one, A Killing in Comic Books (2007), is a roman à clef about Siegel and Shuster and Superman, narrated by private detective Jack Starr, a “Heller-esque first-person P.I. narrator, though not as tough.”

Other current projects include a fun cozy-ish mystery series, starting with Antiques Roadkill (2006, that he did with his wife Barbara.

He also co-wrote the screenplay for The Last Quarry (2009), a feature film based on hisfpopular hitman series character Quarry, that’s an expansion of his own short film, “A Matter of Principle,” based (of course) on his short story of the same name. Collins being Collins, he also wrote a novelization of the feature film.

And speaking of films, there’s a boxed set of Collins’ indie films called The Black Box, featuring his two Mommy movies, Real Time Siege at Lucas Street and a new anthology of his shorter films, Shades of Noir (which includes the aforementioned “A Matter of Principal” as well as his heartfelt tribute/documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, and the Brian Keith-starring, Blake Edward written-directed 1954 Hammer pilot film as a bonus feature). He’s also wrapping another indie project, Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life, a film version of his play about the life of Ness based, in turn, on his one-man show starring his frequent star Michael Cornelison). That’s about it for now….

As you can see, Collins likes to keep himself busy. Very busy.

So busy, in fact, that rumours have spread that nobody was interested in publishing the Nate Heller series — a rumour that I may have inadvertently spread. The truth is that, according to Collins, he’s simply too busy right now, with his publisher already having him lined up for several other projects. He also says that Heller is not dead but resting… fitfully. And that’s good news for P.I. fans.

Somewhere along the line, Collins has also managed to pick up a family. He’s married to fellow mystery writer Barb Collins, and they have a son, Nate, who does Collins’ web site (and whose godfather is Mickey Spillane).

In 2016, Cinemax unleashed a TV series based on Quarry, which had already inspired reissues of the novels and–knowing Collins–no doubt a new novel or two. Or six.

But even more scary than Collins’ output is the fact that he’s so consistently, god-damnably good. In September 2006, at the Shamus Awards dinner in Madison, Wisconsin, Collins presented a moving tribute to his childhood hero and subsequent good friend and occasional writing buddy, the late Mickey Spillane, and then was presented himself with the highest honour the PWA bestows: The Eye, for Lifetime Contribution to the Genre, a long-overdue recognition that once and for all officially establishes him as a member of the very upper ranks of P.I. writers.

As though, for this fan, there was ever any doubt.

And still the hits kept on coming.

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL

COMIC STRIPS

COMIC BOOKS

GRAPHIC NOVELS & COMIC COLLECTIONS

TRADING CARDS

NOVELS

SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS

COLLECTIONS & OMNIBUS EDITIONS

COLLECTIONS & ANTHOLOGIES (AS EDITOR)

NON-FICTION

FILMS

TELEVISION

PLAYS

DVD COLLECTIONS

PODCASTS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Bluefox808 for the nudge, and a tip of the fedora to Eric Harper.

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