-MICKEY SPILLANE / MIKE HAMMER
In fact Spillane was making scripts for the Marvel group in
his early days
(he was still a student I think) writing stories for series
like Captain
America, Captain Marvel, Target.
Much later, when the fame of Mike Hammer was strongly
established by huge
sales of Spillane's novels, appeared a comic series named
MIKE HAMMER based
on original scripts by Spillane. That was more or less back
to square one,
and happening during the period when Spillane put his
novelist career on
hold (roughly from 1951 to 1961 - I the Jury, his first MH
book was
published in 1947).
The Mike Hammer comic series started in newspapers in 1953
and ended during
1954, with Ed Robbins for the drawings and as writer for the
continuities.
Apparently, the series stopped because Spillane refused to
scale-down the
violence and adult situations found in the strips. Some part
of the
"right-thinking" public was protesting and publishers asked
to change the
stories. Spillane refused. That was the end of the Hammer
comic series.
But, 1954...! That's the year of the publishing of "Seduction
of the
Innocent" written by a psychiatrist , Fredric Wertham, and
that linked the
comics to the increasing of juvenile delinquency and
violence. Comics were
branded as the culprits.
Some members of Parliament used the book to crusade for the
ban of all
comics for the youth. The comic industry (specially comic
books) went on the
verge of total collapse, until they invented "the decency
code". In between,
autodafe of comics were organized all over America to proof
it was really evil.
But, hey! 1954? Is this not still the McCarthy era ...?
Interesting slice of American history.
E.Borgers
Hard-Boiled Mysteries
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
>> Mike Hammer did indeed begin life as a comic book
character called Mike
>> Danger. new Mike Danger episodes are now being
published and are written
>by
>> prolific mystery writer Max Allan Collins. the
series has also been
>optioned
>> by Miramax Films.
>As far as I know, the Mike Danger comics series is no
longer being
>published. It had a pretty interesting premise--a PI
from the 1950s wakes
>up a hundred years in the future--which I suspect was
far from what
>Spillane's original idea was.
>
>James Reasoner
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