Whew. All this talk of early influences and how old we are!
Funny how someone originally divided the list into those born
before 1958 and those after. Being the contrary, annoying,
fence-sitting guy I am, of course I'd be born smack dab in
the middle, right between you old farts, and you young
whippersnappers...
It was also interesting to see how many of you people
mentioned Batman. Coincidentally, I just finished reading
BATMAN: NO MAN'S LAND, Greg Rucka's new novel. I really
enjoyed it, even though it merely filled in a few blanks in
the last year's comic continuity
(which Rucka also wrote a big chunk of). It's a big change
from his Atticus Kodiak books, but there's the same
hard-boiled tone involved, and I don't think I've ever seen
the Joker so matter-of-factly described. When it comes to out
and out evil, Hannibal Lechter ain't got nothin' on the
J-Man. I'm not sure how the book will go over for someone
who's unfamiliar with current comic continuity, though. If
you haven't read Batman since you were a kid, it may be a
shock--Batman is still Bruce Wayne (though for a while he
wasn't), but Robin hasn't been Dick Grayson for a long, long
time, Batgirl is a parapalegic and Gotham City has gone
post-acolyptic. Oh, and stately Wayne Manor and the Batcave
are toast...
And I should point out DC has just published a reprint of
Detective Comics #27, the first appearance of Batman. What's
really cool is that the other stories in that issue are
included, as well, including a Fu Manchu story, and a tale
about Siegel and Shuster's Slam Bradley. Imagine Black Mask
as a comic book, and you've got the general idea what DC was
aiming at, way back then.
Batman was an early influence, but not the first. In roughly
chronological order, my influences were
Cowboy movies Roy Rogers on TV Quick Draw McGraw Daniel Boone
on TV Classics Comics Some little booklets, relating the
Leatherstocking tales of James Fenimore Cooper, found in Post
Alphabit cereal The Bobbsey Twins The Adventures of Radisson
on TV (tales of a real life Canadian
frontiersman/trapper/courier des bois, who helped found the
Hudson's Bay Company) Batman on TV A lot of books about
animals, esp. dogs-Lassie, Big Red, Lad Mannix on TV (I was
allowed to stay up late on Saturdays) Batman comic books The
Hardy Boys-a race was on in Grade five to see who could read
'em all first. Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators
(this is who Stephen asked about. There's a file on my site,
by the way) Sherlock Holmes books-assigned one in school,
read another found in school library, and did a book review
for class, relating in loving detail his cocaine habit. The
teacher was not impressed, and the book disappeared from the
school. The comic book years: Batman, Spider-Man, The Rawhide
Kid (cowboys!), Dracula, House of Secrets, House of Mystery,
Tarzan and Sgt. Rock
(Joe Kubert rules!) Tarzan, John Carter and all that ERB
stuff, in paperback Cannon, Harry-O and The Rockford Files on
TV (an argument could be inserted here that I was still
watching cowboy movies). Then I discovered girls, and my
reading and TV viewing dropped off, although I made it a
point to watch Sunday night late movies on the CBC. They were
hosted by a real movie buff, who worked her way through all
the Tarzans, then the Bogeys, then the Marx Brothers, then
the Thin Man movies. Great commentary and the fact she was
kinda cute in an older woman way ensured Monday morning
classes were always rather snoozy... Around this time (Grade
ten?) I received a Hammett omnibus for Christmas, and read
'em all that Christmas break. A few years later, intrigued by
the paperback covers, I worked my way through Chandler one
winter, while a really bad case of flu worked through me.
That might have been the end, until I picked up a The
Wycherly Woman by Macdonald to read on the bus (I was
commuting to college/art school by now. I was intrigued
enough to read all the Archers in the next year. But again,
that would have been it. Hammett, Chandler and even Macdonald
seemed to be writing about stuff in the past (I know, I know.
Theoretically, Archer was in the seventies, but Archer always
seemed like such a fuddy-dud). I thought that was about it in
the genre. Then I read The Promised Land by Robert Parker,
and I suddenly realized people were still writing private eye
books. Since then I've read backwards and forward in the
genre, going back to Norbert Davis and John D. MacDonald and
Jonathan Latimer and forward to Crais and Liza Cody and
Paretsky and Grafton and Mosley and sideways, I guess, to
Pronzini and Estleman and Greenleaf and Joseph Hansen and
various Collins (Mike and Max remain two of my all-time
favourites, even though they may have a teeny-tiny difference
of opinion about Spillane).
Well, that's it. Oh, and this list, which has convinced me
I'm not really that plugged in and well-read in the genre,
after all. God, I only hope we all live long enough to read
everything we want. Though, come to think of it, that might
be a curse, too. Who wants to live with nothing to
read?
Kevin Burton Smith The Thrilling Detective Web Site http://www.colba.net/~kvnsmith/thrillingdetective/
There's still time to vote for the 1999 Thrillies.
And check out fiction by Don McGregor and Mark Coggins!
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