During a recent in-house editorial discussion here, the notion was floated that we should be showing naked female breasts on this website, as part of an attempt to increase search engine rankings and site traffic.* To address this lack of undress, we’d like to present you with The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, whose slogan is “Making Reading Sexy”. Their raison d’etre:
We’re a group of friends, and friends of friends, and friends of friends of friends, and complete strangers, who love good books and sunny days and enjoying both as nearly in the altogether as the law allows. Happily, in New York City, the law allows toplessness by both men and women. So that’s the way we do our al fresco reading. If you’re in New York and the weather’s good, won’t you join us sometime…?
And yes, you can go to their website, which features many photos of them in Bryant Park and other New York City locales fulfilling their organizational mission. (Of course, the site is probably Not Safe For Work.) They’ve been working their way through a recent contribution from Hard Case Crime who generously supplied them with free copies of some of their latest, including [[[Seduction of the Innocent]]] from our good friend Max Allan Collins. We hope he got a good back cover blurb out of it.
They don’t appear to have gotten around to comics and graphic novels yet, but we’re sure we can find something for them by the time the weather in New York gets nice again. And no, despite what you might think, we’re not going to send them a bunch of mini-comics. We just aren’t cynical enough for Cynicalman.
* Yes, this is what goes on in our workplace when we aren’t figuring out how many dimensions Cynosure intersects with. Arguing about whether Thor is stronger than the Hulk is for newbies.
John F. Kennedy was the first American Catholic to become president back in 1960. That was a big deal for this reviewer who was Catholic, 13 years old and entering his freshmen year at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a parochial school in Southern New Hampshire. Three years later, while sitting in a study hall as a junior, we were interrupted by the announcement over the public address speakers that President Kennedy had been shot while riding in a motorcade through the streets of Dallas, Texas.
As much as that news was a tragedy for the entire country, those of us too young to realize the consequences of such a murder watched the transition of power take affect just as we’d been taught in our civic classes and found comfort in that process. Five years later, while serving in army in Vietnam, the news of Bobby Kennedy’s assignation during his own campaign for the presidency had a much deeper impact. Here we were in a strange, foreign country supposedly fighting for freedom and democracy while back home the nation’s future was being decided by an insane gunman’s bullet. The world seemed to have gone completely mad.
The Twentieth Century certainly had its defining moments, many of them acts of violence forever imprinted on our national consciousness. Naturally the public wanted answers and within week’s of the President’s death a government investigation was launched and came to be known as the Warren Commission. At its conclusion, it declared that Kennedy had been slain by one lone, crazed gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald. As all of you are well aware, Oswald was gunned down in front of the Dallas jail within days of his capture and died before ever going to trial. His killer was the owner of a local strip joint with mob connections named Jack Ruby.
Ruby swore he acted on his own until his death in prison of cancer. Yet to many people his silencing of Oswald seemed to be a cleverly staged killing orchestrated by Machiavellian forces that wanted the truth kept hidden; the same cabal that was actually responsible for Kennedy’s death. As years passed, many investigators, both private and public, began to uncover mountains of damning evidence that in the end turned the Warren Commission’s finding upside down and definitively proved them to be one massive cover up foisted on the American people.
When we learned that Max Allan Collins’ newest Nathan Heller historical thriller would involve the Kennedy assassination we were naturally intrigued. What new light could the talented Collins and his phenomenal research partner, George Hagenauer, shed on one of the most overexposed criminal events in all of history? Having just finished reading “Target Lancer,” the answer to that question provides the basis for one of the most gripping mystery plots ever put to paper. As usual, Collins sets a historically accurate background then superimposes his own thoughts and beliefs about its scenario via his fictional hero, Nate Heller; the owner of the A-1 Detective Agency of Chicago. At the book’s opening, Heller is recruited by the Chicago branch of the Secret Service to help with security measures for the president’s planned visit to the Windy City. Apparently during the Fall of 1963, Kennedy’s people had begun to organize his re-election campaign via several big city visits to include Tampa, Chicago and then Dallas. With only one year remaining in his term, it was time to start politicking once more.
Within days of agreeing to help the local authorities, Heller is sent to interview a Chicago detective who he has come in contact with an irrational ex-marine who might pose a genuine threat. From this slim lead, Heller and his partner, a black Secret Service agent named Eben Boldt, learn of a professional hit squad made of two Americans and two Cuban refugees apparently surveying the proposed route of the president’s motorcade through the city. As each new element is uncovered, Heller starts mentally assembling a jigsaw puzzle that perfectly defines a clandestine military operation. By the books end, he has unraveled a murderous conspiracy made up of gangland figures and corrupted government agents to eliminate Lance; the Secret Service code name for President Kennedy.
What “Target Lancer” exposes is that the there were three identical hit squads, and their duped patsies, established in all three cities prior to that fateful November in 1963. As with all Heller books, the historical afterward Collins provides is just as informative as his fiction is captivating. Upon finishing the book, this reviewer couldn’t help but wonder, now that most of the real principles have all died and gone to their eternal court of judgment, what it is we, as a nation can learn from such history? Evil men do exist and that we must be ever vigilant to assure they do not usurp the rights of the many by their insidious acts of violence.
For both students of history and lovers of suspense mysteries, “Target Lancer” is a masterful work not to be missed. Collins just keeps getting better and better.
I am a fan of Max Collins’ historical detective series, the Nathan Heller mysteries. From the 1940s through the 60s, each book has taken Heller on an incredible journey connecting him with many of the most celebrated criminal cases of the twentieth century. Now comes this collection of three Heller novellas, each a delicious reading gem and worthy addition to the Heller canon.
What is even more entertaining is Collins’ introductory essay on the matter of the short literary form itself. What is the difference between a novella and novelette? Or are they the same thing and is that best described as a long short story or a short novel? The fun of the essay is his insightful comprehension that the form is the product of the classic pulp tales of the 1930s and 40s. It is evident that short novels were born in the pulp magazines and have sadly morphed in an awkward, literary white elephant in this age of bloated, fat thriller novels. Collins details the history of each of the three pieces in this volume, collected here for the very first time, and how length did factor into the writing of each.
First up is “Dying in the Post-War World,” my personal favorite of the three and by far the most convoluted and gruesome. The story centers on the infamous Lipstick Killer case of 1946 where a young girl was kidnapped from her home, murdered and dismembered. A veteran of the World War Two, Heller is trying to fit into this supposedly brighter new tomorrow with a new business and a pregnant wife. Along comes this brutal case and he’s left wondering what kind of a world it truly is he and his fellow soldiers fought to persevere.
“Kisses of Death,” is an interesting entry in that it gives us Heller’s first meeting with Marilyn Monroe and their burgeoning relationship which is later explored in his recent novel, “Bye Bye Baby.” It also has Heller working in New York City, Mickey Spillane’s old stomping grounds. The tale also peeks in to the life of Chicago journalist turned screenwriter Ben Hecht is another winner.
Finally comes “Strike Zone,” about one of the most bizarre moments in professional baseball which this reviewer, a fan of the game, had never heard before. It caused me to spend a few hours on-line checking out the histories of several of these characters who participated in a madcap publicity stunt concerning the most unusual pinch hitter to ever step up to home plate in a Major League contest.
If like me, you’re a Nathan Heller fan, then you have to pick this up. If you are one of those yet to have encountered Collins’ pragmatic, world-weary hero then we can’t think of a better way to make that introduction. “Triple Play,” is very much a grand slam, no matter what your favorite sport is.
Given her enduring appeal fifty years after her death, it can easily be argued that Marilyn Monroe was the signature pop culture icon of the 20th Century and her allure is lasting well into the next century. Last year, I read Max Allan Collins’ take on Marilyn’s death before watching Michelle Williams portray her in My Week with Marilyn. Her career has become the spine for the NBC series Smash. Her image is found in commercials, artwork, music videos, calendars, and on and on. While her appeal and persona don’t grab me, I respect her impact on America and the world.
Out this week form 20th Century Home Entertainment, in time for the morbid memorial, is the seven-disc Blu-ray set Forever Marilyn. Included in the set are the recently released Blu-ray editions of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), How to Marry a Millionaire (1953), River of No Return (1954), There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955) and the Blu-ray debut of Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Misfits (1961). The cardboard packaging does not properly serve a collection of this magnitude. Similarly, there’s a paucity of extras to codify just how special Marilyn Monroe was as a personality, performer, and woman.
It’s not a comprehensive collection of her films and afficianados are upset over the deletions but in the grand scheme of things, this collection is a pretty solid sampler of her greatest works. If you’re feeling selective, they are also now available as individual releases. The reason has as much to do with the material as it does with the performer. Monroe was well situated, placing herself in the hands of directors Billy Wilder and Howard Hawks along with some very smartly written roles. While she might have been a wreck in her personal life, her choice of parts was pretty spot on as witnessed in this septet of films.
Of the films included, the only special feature love was showered on The Seven Year Itch which includes Audio Commentary by Billy Wilder Biographer Kevin Lally, Isolated Score Track, Deleted Scenes, Still Galleries, Theatrical Trailers, “The Hays Code: Picture-in-Picture with Sexual Innuendo Meter”, Marilyn Monroe Interactive Timeline, “Monroe & Wilder: An Intersection of Genius”, Fox Movie Channel presents “Fox Legacy with Tom Rothman”, “Hollywood Backstories: The Seven Year Itch”, and “Fox Movietonews: The Seven Year Itch” Given that the film gives us the iconic shot of Marilyn and the upblown skirt and a statue of that image is entitled Forever Marilyn, this is all very fitting.
The transfers to Blu-ray are fairly excellent and uniform, looking and sounding very impressive. And it’s fun rewatching the classics because they hold up nicely. You can enjoy them as film fare, recognizing Marilyn added to their luster and was not the cause. Credit has to be given to the writer, director and costars, which includes some fine work by Ethel Merman, Jane Russell, and Betty Grable. and Lauren Bacall.
Most of these are slight fare compared with other works of the time, but they remain marvelously entertaining starting with Gentlemen where Marilyn and Jane sing and dance in search of husbands. A variation on that theme is in the non-singing Millionaire with Marilyn, Betty, and Lauren as models (back when models had some meat on them). Merman is the focal point of Show Business, of course, but the story of The Five Donahuesis nicely told. You can’t go wrong with a supporting cast including Donald O’Connor, Mitzi Gaynor, and Dan Dailey.
More dramatic fare is River where Robert Mitchum is a widower taken advantage of by gambler Rory Calhoun. When Calhoun’s wife Marilyn nurses him back to health things grow complicated. Director Otto Preminger shot this at the Jasper and Banff National Parks a so the scenery rivals Marilyn for beauty.
The two Wilder films remain the strongest in the set starting with Itch, a story of temptation in the form of Monroe as the sexy next door neighbor. She helps herself to Tom Ewell’s air condition while his wife and son are away and it’s all he can do to honor his vows. While entertaining, it treads a fine line between comedy and betrayal but it merely was a warm up to Some Like it Hot, one of the funniest films of the century. Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis were never sharper as men in drag, performing with Sweet Sue and Her Society Syncopators, an all-girl group, so as to avoid mobster George Raft. Monroe took all her screen personas and poured them into “Sugar” Kane Kowalczyk, a memorable character. A lovesick Joe E. Brown steals the film with the immortal last line.
The Misfits is remembered best as her final film, but it was also Clark Gable’s last screen appearance as he died within two weeks of wrapping production. Written by Arthur Miller, it’s a somber story to begin with and was given added weight for the bookend it provided her screen career. As their marriage was unraveling, Miller continued on rewrites which led to some autobiographical material seeping into the story which was conceived to put Monroe’s dramatic chops on display. Legendary John Huston oversaw a troubled shoot, drawing what he could from an ailing Gable and a drug addicted Monroe. Despite the credentials of director and writer and the talent of the cast, the finished film is uneven and never quite achieves its lofty goals.
Whether you’re eternally infatuated with Marilyn or not, there plenty of reasons in this collection as to why she captivated one generation after another. In Blu-ray, these dazzle and delight, offering you a good reason to sit down and enjoy these all over again.
In case you weren’t following our Twitter feed on Friday (and why weren’t you?) you missed the winners of the International Association of Media Tie-In Writer’s annual Scribe Awards ceremony, held Friday night at Comic-Con in San Diego.
[[[Kevin J. Anderson]]] was awarded this year’s Grandmaster award for remarkable achievements in the tie-in field, which include more than one hundred novels, adding up to over 20 million books in print in thirty languages. His work includes the Star Wars “[[[Jedi Academy]]]” books, three internationally bestselling [[[X-Files]]] novels, the Superman novels The Last Days of Krypton and Enemies & Allies, many novelizations ([[[Sky Captain And The World of Tomorrow]]], [[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]], etc.) and ten globally bestselling [[[Dune]]] novels he has co-authored with Brian Herbert.
But he wasn’t alone accepting honors on Friday. [[[Cowboys & Aliens]]] by Joan D. Vinge was the winner for Best Adaptation, [[[Dungeons & Dragons — Forgotten Realms: Brimstone Angels]]] by Erin M. Evans took the prize for Best Speculative Original Novel, [[[Mike Hammer: Kiss Her Goodbye]]] by Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane won for Best Original Novel, [[[Thunderbirds: Extreme Hazard]]] by Joan Marie Yerba was honored for Best Young Adult Novel, and [[[Mike Hammer: Encore for Murder]]] by Max Allan Collins & Mickey Spillane won the Best Audio award.
The IAMTW (*I Am* a *T*ie-In *W*riter) is dedicated to enhancing the professional and public image of tie-in writers, working with the media to review tie-in novels and publicize their authors, and providing a forum for tie-in writers to share information, support one another, and discuss issues relating to their field.
Of all the characters Dan Ackroyd played on Saturday Night Live back when the show was actually funny and clever, my favorite was a guy named Leonard Pinth-Garnell, a tuxedoed teevee critic who hosted segments called, alternatively, Bad Playhouse, Bad Cinema, Bad Ballet, and so on. Whereas the premise was obvious, the ambiance was brilliant. Pinth-Garnell was an über-snob, the kind who pontificate with their noses so high up in the air you’d think they’d drown in a light drizzle.
Needless to say, damn near everybody who ever applied letters to opinions has a bit of Leonard Pinth-Garnell in him, her, or it. Some of us try to keep him locked up in a dark corner of our brainpans, but he keeps on popping up on our shoulder like the devil that torments Donald Duck, or, more to my point, Tom Hulce in Animal House.
Then the Internet came along and freed our inner-Pinth-Garnell. Now we had a forum where we could say anything. Of course, with great power comes great dues and we have to subject ourselves to comments from the masses. As I see from elsewhere on the Wild Wild Web – certainly not here at ComicMix, where I have come to regard our commenters as family – some responses can be quite abusive.
Well, what goes around comes around.
The problem with criticism is that, categorically, it’s like shooting ducks in a barrel. It’s simply too easy to criticize someone for doing something you didn’t like. Of course, when you do you’re pissing off all those people who did like your target. Doubtlessly, you are aware of the famous aphorism known as Sturgeon’s Law: “ninety percent of everything is crap.” This led to my own definition of a cynic: “he who believes Sturgeon was being conservative.”
Here’s something that confirms your suspicion: occasionally, some critics (never me, of course) often are exploiting their target so they can get their audience all riled up and generate a lot more page-site hits, which inure to the benefit of the advertising revenue. My dear friend, author Max Allan Collins, once referred to this technique as “tossing a hand grenade into the audience and then throwing your body on top of it,” and nobody does that with a bigger smile on his face than Mr. Collins, my generation’s version of Richard L. Breen.
Such criticism is among ComicMix’s raisons d’être. Whereas I do not impose these (or hardly any other) standards upon our sundry columnists and commenters, I strive to be informative in this acre of bandwidth. I like turning people on to cool stuff they might not have come across, or, better still, they were considering but hadn’t decided upon. Like all writers I admire a well-turned phrase, particularly my own. The reason why I never got a vanity plate is because back in my First Comics days Rick Oliver and I saw a car license that read “BLIND.” I can’t beat that one.
Occasionally, we all come across an unavoidable target: one so well promoted that commentary is necessary to preserve the greater societal sanity. This is often known as “the Emperor’s New Clothes,” or “What is Frank Miller doing next?”
Yeah, a little Leonard Pinth-Garnell every once in a while sure is good for the soul.
After returning home from World War II, veteran Mickey Spillane was prepared to go back to his civilian job of writing comics. But instead, he opted to take an idea for a new comic series and turn it into a private eye novel called, “I, The Jury.” Released in 1947, it was the first book to feature tough-as-nails Mike Hammer. (His last name pretty much defining everything he was about.) The book was a phenomenal success and the publisher was eager to get Spillane to do more. Three years later the first Mike Hammer sequel, “My Gun is Quick” appeared on the bookstore shelves and became as big a seller as the first. Both Spillane and his creation were on their way to becoming literary icons.
When Spillane passed away several years ago, he left his notes and such to his friend and protégé, Max Allan Collins. Among these files were bits and pieces of unfinished Mike Hammer mysteries. Getting the green light from several excited publishers, Collins set about finishing these projects and getting them in print. Thus far we’ve seen three;
“The Goliath Bone” (2008), “The Big Bang” (2010) and last year’s “Kiss Her Goodbye.”
Now comes the fourth and perhaps the most anxiously awaited of the entire lot. You see, according to Collins’ prologue notes, “Lady, Go Die” is actually the original sequel Spillane had intended to follow “I, The Jury.” Why he never finished it and instead completed and offered up “My Gun is Quick” is a puzzle no one will ever be able to fully solve. Still, it adds a generous slice of real mystery to this story that was envisioned by one of the greatest writers of our times nearly seventy years ago.
Taking up where the first Hammer book left off, “Lady, Go Die” finds the irascible P.I. and his gorgeous brunette secretary, Velda, traveling to a little beach resort town in Long Island for some R & R. Velda and Hammer’s cop pal, Det. Pat Chambers, think the emotional battering he suffered in his first case has left Hammer in need of some quiet time. Alas, as they discover all too speedily, Hammer’s personal shadow is called Trouble. No sooner does the couple arrive in Sidon, nearly deserted in its off-season, then they witness the brutal beating of a slow-witted drifter by three policemen, one known to Hammer as a dirty cop from the City.
Hammer steps in, pounds a few heads and rescues the helpless young man. Within hours, he and Velda learn that the small community is in a tizzy, as its most popular citizen, a famous ex-dancer turned media celebrity has vanished without a trace. Days later, her nude body is found draped over the stone statue of a horse in the park on the public beach.
Hammer smells the familiar odor of corruption and begins to investigate on his own. He soon learns the dead woman’s mansion was in actuality a secret gambling casino being fronted by a mob personality whose identity is carefully hidden. As if that weren’t enough to keep Hammer and Velda busy, dodging lead and wrestling with gangster muscle, their inquiries also unearth other, supposedly unrelated murders; all of young women in neighboring towns and counties. Now the savvy Hammer has to follow two different trails and decide if they connect or not. Suddenly he’s confronting dangerous mob gunsels at the same time hunting a twisted serial killer who may be targeting his next victim.
“Lady, Go Die” is another terrific Mike Hammer caper that moves non-stop like a flying cheetah across the reader’s field of imagination and comes to a pouncing kill in a truly classic Spillane finale. A big tip of the pulp fedora to this one, gents.
Sixty three year old Max Collins has been at this writing game for a while coming onto the mystery private-eye scene with his 1994 Shamus Award winning “True Detective,” published the year before.Since that monumental debut, Collins has gone on to produce several continuing series both in comics and prose; these include his comic book female P.I. Ms. Tree and the morally ambiguous hit-man, Quarry. The one fictional character Collins is most recognized for is Nathan Heller from his historical crime novels.Heller is a Chicago based investigator who over the course of his career rubs shoulders with personalities such as Al Capone and Eliot Ness and worked on such mysteries as the Lindberg baby kidnapping and the disappearance of aviatrix Amelia Earhart.His most recent Heller case was the critically acclaimed “Bye Bye Baby” wherein the fiftyish shamus becames involved with the death of Marilyn Monroe.All of these books are excellent and worthy of your time and attention.
Over the years Collins, at the request of anthology editors, also penned short stories featuring Heller.With the assistance of his research colleague, George Hagenauer, Collins adapted true crime stories and then wove his tough guy hero into their fabric so that the history and fiction elements become indistinguishable.This volume has taken that baker’s dozen and for the very first time presented them in chronological order from the first which occurs in 1933 to the last set in 1949.The settings range from Chicago to Cleveland and Hollywood.Here is a sampling of what is included between the covers.
“Kaddish for the Kid,” Heller is hired to protect a retailer from a crooked union scam in reality a protection racket.During a street shootout, his young partner is killed and the angry private dick goes after the killers with a vengeance.
“The Blonde Tigress,” has Heller investigating a trio of stick-up artists led by a female boss who tries to manipulate him into aiding her escape justice.
“Private Consultation,” has a well known Chicago doctor accused for murdering her daughter-in-law and her son hires Heller to investigate. What he uncovers is a sad testimony to a loveless marriage where none of the participants are innocent of wrong doing.
The Perfect Crime,” finds Heller in Los Angeles to help a friend. Before he can pack up and head home, he’s hired by the beautiful blonde star, Thelma Todd to act as her bodyguard. Miss Todd suspects mobsters wish to do her harm for refusing to allow Lucky Luciano to use the top floors of her famous restaurant as a casino.When she is found dead in her garage from carbon monoxide poisoning, Heller knows the coroner’s accidental death ruling is pure bunk. He decides to extend his trip to catch a killer.
In “House Call” a caring doctor is brutally murdered while answering a night summons to aid a sick child.This time Heller joins forces with the Chicago P.D. to hunt down the vicious killers and bring them to justice.
“Marble Mildred” tells the story of woman trapped for fourteen years in a loveless marriage who discovers a humiliating secret which she’d rather go to the electric chair rather than having it made public.A tragedy Heller is helpless to prevent.
“The Strawberry Teardrop” is based on the case of Cleveland serial killer, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run and how he was finally caught by the famous lawman Eliot Ness.
There is not a lemon in the batch.Collins writing style is terse and economically efficient.He uses words like a scalpel carving up the psychological motivations that induce people to do bad things.All the while Nathan Heller is his surgeon, meting out equally doses of justice and compassion.The title, “Chicago Lightning,” is gangster slang for gunfire and is only fitting as this book comes heavily loaded with pure pulp pizzaz.Don’t miss it.
Like everyone else, I watch too much TV and see the occasional movie or read a book or two and I have my own reactions to them. Here’s some of what I’ve seen, good bad and indifferent.
Boss, on Starz starring Kelsey Grammar as a tough mayor of Chicago. I’m an old time Chicago boy and a series set in Chicago, dealing with its mayor, and using actual Chicago locations, will always attract my eye. I was so looking forward to this. However, by the third episode, I was taping it and I haven’t gotten around to watching those episodes and then I just stopped. I didn’t care. Too much melodramatic bullshit.
The main character, Tom Kane (obviously named for Tom Keane, a formerly very strong alderman in Chicago, later imprisoned), is diagnosed in the opening moments with some sort of brain disease that can’t be cured, can’t be operated on, and is going to mess him up royally before the end and, of course, he opts to tell no one. We never get a chance to see who he is without the disease; it’s part of what defines the character from the beginning. His wife is an ice queen although very supportive politically. They have a daughter who is now an (I think) Episcopal minister. The parents are estranged from her because she has also been a junkie in the past and looks like she’s going to be that way again. The mayor also has a young female aide who is pretty and has sex with inappropriate men apparently in semi-public places because, you know, ratings.
The creators have a good cast but they don’t apparently trust the setting enough to generate real material because they saddle it with all the nonsense above. You only have to look at political drama in Chicago and Illinois in recent years to find plenty of material. The prison bound Rod Blagojevitch alone could have been a stunning model for a TV series if some of his doings (real or alleged) didn’t appear so preposterous. He sounds too made up. He’s also a hell of a lot more interesting to me than Boss turned out to be.
You want something of Chicago that has real snap and bite? Max Allan Collins has released a volume collecting his Nate Heller short mysteries called Chicago Lightning. I recommended his Nate Heller novel, Bye Bye Baby, earlier and I’m equally enthused for this. It runs the gamut of Nate Heller’s career and is great reading. Highly recommended.
Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve gotten heavily into Westerns. I’ll plug myself by reminding folks that DC is releasing The Kents historical western miniseries that I wrote. It was originally done in twelve monthly issues and then gathered into a single TPB. This time they’re releasing it in three 100-page spectaculars, each gathering four issues (it was written that way, every four issues an arc). The first two of these are now out and the third will be out next month. Some of my best stuff, I think, and my artists – Timothy Truman and Tom Mandrake – have been my partners-in-crime for a long time.
Anyway, this is really a prelude to my looking in on AMC’s western Hell On Wheels. Another series I was looking forwards to and, again, I started taping it and then abandoned it. Very violent (which is okay but it seems violent for the sake of violence) and I haven’t gotten into the characters. You could spot who was going to be dead early on. It wants to be Deadwood which, even with its faults, was superlative. I may give it a try again at some point but I’m just not feeling drawn to it right now.
Finally, to end on an up note – Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. Saw it and loved it. It’s a love letter to the movies from a master film maker who loves movies. It drew me in from the opening frames. There’s a long tracking shots (who does long tracking shots these days? How many directors can?) that pulls you right in. I’ve seen some grumblings about its length and pace, but you won’t hear that from from me. Scorsese loves movies but he also loves story and he weaves a wonderful, rich, emotional story with a wonderful cast and an eye towards detail.
We saw it in 3-D and that’s how it should be seen. Simply one of the best uses of 3-D I’ve seen, and I’m including Avatar. This is what happens when a master filmmaker gets a new tool – not a gimmick, but a tool – and figures out how to use it. Every effect is to tell the story and make it more real, more immediate.
I also know a lot of people who are waiting to see it on DVD or their iPhones or iPads or whatever and that would be a mistake. It’s meant to be seen in a theater; if I could find it somewhere near me in IMAX, I would go see it that way. I’ll own the eventual DVD but it will simply remind me of the experience I had at the movie theater. That’s what Hugo was for me – an experience and one I’m so glad to have had.
All the above are just my reactions. Your mileage may vary.
For those of you who won’t have a clue to what I’m talking about, let me explain.. Nate Heller is a fictional private eye in a series of historical hardboiled detective novels and short stories written by the redoubtable Max Allan Collins. Some of you will know Max from his comic work on Ms.Tree and Wild Dog and more will know him from his graphic novel, Road to Perdition, which was made into a terrific movie by the same name which maybe even more people will know. (Actually, it’s fun to spring that on a lot of non-comics reading folks. The usual comic book movies – Superman, Batman, Iron Man, X-Men and so on – they know but lots of unsuspecting folks are stunned they when get told that Road to Perdition started as a graphic novel.)
What you should know Max for, though, is the Nate Heller series as well as the rest. A quick disclaimer – I know Max personally and like him but I got into the Heller novels before I met him and was a big fan of the series from the start. Heller is a private detective set largely in Chicago in the 1930s when the series begins and he gets neck deep in cases involving the famous, the infamous, and the scary from that time. Max, along with his research buddy George Hagenauer and, early in the series, Mike Gold, aids in the research on these cases and often comes up with interpretations and theories that I think are rock solid.
For example, in his Heller book on the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, Stolen Away, for which he won his second Shamus Award in 1992, Max posits that the “corpse” of the baby that was found could not have been the Lindbergh baby so convincingly that I think it should be in every history book.
Above all, what Collins does over and over again is take historical characters, people we know from histories or news reels or whatever, and make them real in ways that, perhaps, regular history can’t. They’re complicated, conflicted, contradictory human beings. Yes, Max makes up things for them to say and do but they are so close to what we know of their historical selves that it rings true to me, over and over again.
A case in point is the latest in the Heller series, and the first in nine long years, named “Bye Bye Baby.” It deals with the death of Marilyn Monroe and this is the place where you get the standard SPOILER WARNING. I may reveal things that are in the book and if you want to not take a chance I’ll spoil it for you, skip to where it says it’s okay to read again.
Heller, and Collins, make a strong argument that Marilyn Monroe did not commit suicide, so strong that its past arguing as far as I’m concerned. What’s more important is that Max fleshes out Marilyn as a person and a creative artist and not some poor bimbo who was a victim of her own success.
She’s not the only historical character Max brings to life in this book. Frank Sinatra, Sam Giancana, Jimmy Hoffa, Peter Lawford, Joe DiMaggio (in a not very flattering portrait), and especially Bobby Kennedy are all featured and really well drawn. While I’m not totally crazy about the solution to the mystery of Marilyn’s death, it plays and works within the context of the novel. I’d be really interested to talk to Max and find out who he really thinks was responsible but this is a mystery novel and something has to be worked out that is satisfying to the genre, the lead character, and ultimately the reader.
OKAY, IT’S SAFE TO COME BACK NOW. I’m recommending not just this latest addition to the Nate Heller series but all of the books which I believe have come back into print. Max himself suggests starting with his “Nitti trilogy” of True Detective, True Crime, and The Million Dollar Wound but it’s also true you can pick up just about any of the novels and start there. He also a collection of the Heller short stories out in paperback called Chicago Lightning. I haven’t read it yet but I’m going to and soon. Max says it’s also a good place to sample Nate Heller.
If you like a good hard boiled tale told well or just a chance to watch history really come alive on the page, give ‘em a try. You’ll come back and say, “Ostrander, I owe you one.” Glad to do it, my friend. Glad to do it.
During a recent in-house editorial discussion here, the notion was floated that we should be showing naked female breasts on this website, as part of an attempt to increase search engine rankings and site traffic.* To address this lack of undress, we’d like to present you with The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society, whose slogan is “Making Reading Sexy”. Their raison d’etre:
