Comments on: If the public likes you, you're good.

If the public likes you, you're good.

Smart Dalek — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:48:58 -0800

Frank Morrison "Mickey" Spillane, 1918-2006. Author, actor, circus performer, comic book writer.

By: matteo

matteo — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 00:52:21 -0800

By: Clay201

Clay201 — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:06:40 -0800

Max Allan Collins, mentioned in the "comic book writer" link, is the author of Road To Perdition and a whole slew of other stuff and is also the hugest Mickey Spillane fan in the world. He wrote a book about the guy called "One Lonely Knight: Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer." Not sure whether it's still in print. I haven't read it, but in other venues, Collins argued vociferously that Spillane was one of America's great mystery writers and deserved a place in the hall of fame alongside Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 01:21:52 -0800

Of course, "Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler" deserve a place under Ross MacDonald. ;) Seriously, Spillane was a helluva writer and anyone who tries to tell you differently hasn't really read him. You might disagree with his biases (in fact, I'd be disappointed if you didn't), but give im credit as a craftsman.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 02:47:04 -0800

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:11:31 -0800

just blazed through a double edition of day of the guns/death dealers (tiger mann stories) in a day at the end of june. "relentless sex and violence!" as a tagline/blurb on the back of his books: well who could refuse that?

By: StickyCarpet

StickyCarpet — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 03:17:48 -0800

I'm looking for, but not finding, reference to an incident where Spillane broke the jaw of a journalist who asked him if there wasn't too much violence in his books. Anybody?

By: unrepentanthippie

unrepentanthippie — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 04:05:07 -0800

By: barjo

barjo — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 04:40:23 -0800

The Girl Hunters is worth sitting through, but only for Spillane's performance. While you wouldn't call him an actor, he's very believable as Mike Hammer. He was also decent in that Columbo episode where he gets killed by Jack Cassidy.

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 04:52:00 -0800

By: pax digita

pax digita — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 04:57:29 -0800

Interestingly, Mickey Spillane has something in common with Donald Rumsfeld: Both were instructor pilots in their respective services -- Spillane in the US Army Air Corps (the forerunner of the USAF) in World War II, Rumsfeld in the US Navy in S-2 ASW aircraft. (Hmmm, whom would I rather have chewing me out for rookie airedale mistakes? Decisions, decisions...) Also, Spillane lived and AFAIK died in one of my favorite places in South Carolina: Murrells Inlet, a wonderful place to be if (a) you don't mind coping with humidity and insects and (b) you have a hurricane evacuation plan in place.

By: substrate

substrate — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:03:46 -0800

. I learned to appretiate reading partially on pulp fiction novels. My dad had hundreds of them. I spent many afternoons devouring a Tiger Mann story or other pulp fiction novels. For some reason he didn't have any Mike Hammer stories. I've read a couple of more modern pulp fictions but none of them had the same appeal. My dad sometimes buys a stack of books based on the combination of "look, they're science fiction" or "look, they're crime novels" and "they were on sale four for a dollar at Big V". I think that rather than trying to write something that's appealing to men on a base level they try to write something that's like the old pulp fictions and it just doesn't work. Pulp fiction novels are kind of the male equivalent of a romance novel. Instead of all that girly crap in romance novels you have manly things like swilling whiskey, womanizing and weapons. /me drains a fifth of whiskey in memory.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 05:51:20 -0800

By: bashos_frog

bashos_frog — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:15:12 -0800

By: dobbs

dobbs — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:21:56 -0800

"On most women, flesh was flesh. But on her it was an invitation to dine." Probably misquoting the fuck outta that. .

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:22:47 -0800

"I, the Buried." .

By: SmileyChewtrain

SmileyChewtrain — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:35:53 -0800

Robert Aldrich's "Kiss Me Deadly" being my favorite all-time noir film (and one of my all time favorite films), it wasn't long until I had 15 or so Spillane books on my shelf. And read them all. Well, except for a few, which will now (along with my Philip K. Dick super secret rainy day reserve) be saved for those moments when I need a "new" Spillane. Heck, even those ones he wrote in the 90's, "The Killing Man" and "Black Alley," were pretty good! He didn't seem to alter his style too terribly much from the good ol' pulp days.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:43:56 -0800

Somehow, a period just doesn't seem like the way to honor a hard-boiled mystery writer... ?!!

By: cass

cass — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 06:50:46 -0800

By: tommasz

tommasz — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:08:26 -0800

I've always thought I, The Jury was a helluva title for a book.

By: hortense

hortense — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 09:09:17 -0800

. cues up Harlem Nocturne

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:10:34 -0800

By: sighmoan

sighmoan — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 11:44:24 -0800

. . . For one of Ayn Rand's favorites... (heh heh)

By: lumpenprole

lumpenprole — Tue, 18 Jul 2006 23:49:09 -0800

This is a bit embarrassing, but I never could get into Spillane. God knows I love the movies made from his stuff (which I guess he didn't). And I love, love, love, Chandler and Cain and Hammett. But Spillane's prose always made me wince. I don't know what the writerly equivalent of 'chewing up the scenery' is, but that's what it always felt like. There always felt like this weird contradiction between the tight-lipped tough guys in his books and his own florid prose. But hey, I've only tried a couple and they weren't the ones that got made into movies, so maybe I should try again.