This week I want to alert you to two volumes that should be of interest to anyone who’s dropped by here. I have emphasized Return of the Maltese Falcon, True Noir, Death by Fruitcake and a few other things of mine in recent weeks (months?) and a few pertinent publications have been wrongfully ignored here.
First:
Publisher: Crazy 8 Press
In each volume, Crazy 8 Press continues to honor the Golden Age of pulp storytelling, which proved formative and inspirational to generations of authors. Now, in this fifth volume, we explore new worlds, revisit old friends, and provide more pulse-pounding, two-fisted exploits for your reading pleasure
Returning authors include Derke Tyler Attico, Russ Colchamiro, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Mary Fan, Michael Jan Friedman, Robert Greenberger, Paul Kupperberg, Aaron Rosenberg, Hildy Silverman, and Will Murray.
Making their debut in this volume are Christopher D. Abbott, Beth Cato, Max Allan Collins & Matthew V. Clemens, Esther Freisner, Alisa Kwitney, JM DeMatteis, and Steven Grant.
Fans of recurring characters will be delighted: Sherlock Holmes, Ticonderoga Beck, Sword & Sorcery, Birr Blackjaw and friends, and Max Wiser are all included. Additionally, there are new adventurers and sleuths to meet within these pages, plus a brand-new Lupin tale.
The Kindle edition is available for pre-order here. My understanding is that a physical media (you know – book) version will also be available. I’ll keep you posted.
The story Matt Clemens and I wrote was the second of two Holmes yarns we did for a jigsaw puzzle company, who paid us but dropped the program before the second story was published. We heavily rewrote it, but that’s where it began.
This is available right now:
by Mickey Spillane
Edited by Max Allan Collins & Lynn F. Myers, Jr.
Cover by Martin Baines
41 fast-moving short-short stories by the creator of Mike Hammer! Revised and expanded with fourteen new stories, including “A Turn of the Tide,” a previously unpublished tale.
Before Mike Hammer, P.I. made his explosive debut in
I, the Jury, author Mickey Spillane (1918-2006) toiled in relative obscurity, writing short-short stories as filler material in Golden Age comic books. Their purpose to fulfill a postal requirement, these stories were the literary boot-camp for the future king of hardboiled fiction.In commemoration of the Spillane centenary, Bold Venture Press released the newly revised and expanded edition of
Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941 – 1942. This unique anthology, long out-of-print and largely unavailable, contains additional material never before reprinted — and a newly discovered, previously unpublished story by Spillane.In this collection, you’ll meet high-flying soldiers, a prospector exploring a Lovecraftian mine-shaft, a light-fingered con artist, an overworked cub reporter, a hapless exterminator, and many others.
Readers have the opportunity to see a master develop his craft.
Primal Spillane collects the earliest short stories bylined Mickey Spillane — Each story moves fast, and concludes with the trademark Spillane “socko finish.”Today’s combined cost of the rare comic books in which these text pieces first appeared would be more than that of a new Cadillac; but these short stories provide their own memorable rides. Their value as a training ground for the 20th Century’s top crime-fiction writer is priceless when compared to the millions of fans across the world entertained by Mickey Spillane’s prose.
Introduction by Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers, Jr.
Get it here in trade paperback and e-book:
Directly from Bold Venture Press.
Bold Venture also offers a hardcover version.
My buddy Heath Holland and I did a commentary for the Mickey Spillane-starring 1954 film Ring of Fear. That film, in glorious color and cinemascope, is included in the latest Essential Film Noir Collection (Vol.6) from Australia’s Imprint label. Here’s a great review (scroll down).
Now Imprint’s releases play just fine in American Blu-ray players. This is a beautiful if pricey (about a hundred bucks for four Blu-rays) boxed set, available from my friends at the reliable Diabolik.
This is an interesting Den of Geek take on the Dick Tracy movie. Pretty smart.
For those of you who wonder why I stayed in Muscatine, Iowa (frankly, sometimes that group includes Barb and me), here’s a nice look at the town. I like this, because it’s a rare time I’m listed fairly prominently with Mark Twain.
M.A.C.
Tags: Dick Tracy, Mickey Spillane, Spillane
‘Preciate the Muscatine link, and your mention is well deserved.
If I had written the piece, I would have listed Muscatine writer, all around good egg, and Iowa hugging champion Barbara Collins !
Couldn’t agree with you more, Stephen!