Max Allan Collins is a multifaceted mystery writer with a long list of titles to his credit. He’s probably best known for graphic novel “Road to Perdition” which was the basis of the Academy Award-winning 2002 film. He’s also been a writer for the “Dick Tracy” comic strip and was also the creator of the long running “Ms. Tree” comic book. Beyond comics, he has a long novel writing career, which includes his “Quarry” series, which is currently in development to be a TV show on Cinemax.

After Mickey Spillane died in 2006, Collins started co-authoring several Mike Hammer novels started by Spillane. During my Miss Mizzou research, Collins helped with some information when I was researching a character Mickey Spillane wrote into his book “Kiss Me Deadly” that was similar to Miss Mizzou. When it came to thinking about people to get advance quotes for my book, Collins was definitely on my list. Here’s what he wrote about the Miss Mizzou book:

“Milton Caniff was inarguably the 20th Century’s most influential cartoonist in the story-strip field. Marilyn Monroe was the quintessential movie star of that same century. The impact of both continues to be felt. When the two collided, it had to be worth writing about and J.B. Winter has done that very thing, in a tome as entertaining as it is well-researched.”

I love this summary of the character and how it relates to Marilyn Monroe. Collins has written a little about Monroe himself, which we’ll get to in our next section…

Recommended reading:

• If you’re a fan of Miss Mizzou, you might be a fan of Marilyn Monroe. Collins has written a volume in his Nate Heller series that deals with the death of Marilyn Monroe called “Bye Bye, Baby.” It’s a riveting read, chock full of real life research about Monroe put into fictional form.
• One of Collin’s latest books that would interest comic fans is “Seduction of the Innocent.” In this book he takes a look at the real life 1950’s comic book scare started by Fredric Wertham and puts a fictional spin on situation with a pulp mystery at its core. Only someone as steeped in comics and 1950s nostalgia as Collins could have written such an intriguing book. The book stands alone, but is the third book in a series that began with “A Killing in Comics” and was followed up by “Strip for Murder.”
  

Recommended viewing:

• If you’re a Columbia, Missouri, comic fan, you’re probably familiar with Alley Oop, who was created by a former MU student V.T. Hamlin. Collins created the documentary “Caveman: V.T. Hamlin & Alley Oop“ which I remember being shown in town during the 75th anniversary of Alley Oop events that happened in 2008.
• You might also want to catch the Collins documentary “Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane” from 1998 that was repackaged in the 1955 film “Kiss Me Deadly” released by the Criterion Collection. Watch the beginning of “Kiss Me Deadly” for a glimpse of a character similar to Miss Mizzou that I reference in my book.