Thu 7 Feb 2013
A Review by Walter Albert: MAX ALLAN COLLINS – A Killing in Comics.
Posted by Steve under Comic Books, Cartoons, Comic Strips , Reviews[5] Comments
MAX ALLAN COLLINS – A Killing in Comics. Berkley, trade paperback, May 2007. Illustrations by Terry Beatty.
Another of Collins’ historical crime novels, this one is set in New York in 1948 in the world of comic book publishing. As usual, Collins has researched the period and subject (giving particular credit to Gerald Jones’ Men of Tomorrow).
A number of pioneers in the field are present in disguise, with Superman and his creators Joe Siegel and Jerry Schuster recast as Wonder Guy and Harry Spiegel and Moe Shulman. The narrator is Jack Starr, stepson of Maggie Starr, who’s running Jack’s late father’s newspaper syndicate, distributor of the Wonder Guy strip. When a rival publisher is murdered, Jack conducts an unofficial investigation, with the author vividly evoking the colorful world of the comics and their creators.
February 7th, 2013 at 11:36 pm
Don’t know how it happened, but I seem to have missed both this one and Starr’s followup adventure. Collins is one of those authors who write books faster than I can read them!
February 8th, 2013 at 1:54 am
Sometimes real life is stranger than fiction. Talk about a killing in comics, the long time editor of the comicbook CRIME DOES NOT PAY, Bob Wood, did not take the advice of the comic.
The NYC newspapers had a field day when Wood, during a drunken orgy, killed a girl with a clothes iron in a NYC hotel. I remember reading the accounts as a child and being impressed by the lurid scandal.
Wood served a few years in prison and upon released was murdered, perhaps because of gambling debts.
February 8th, 2013 at 3:58 am
Sounds like one I’d like. I need to review one of his historicals soon.
February 8th, 2013 at 8:49 am
Thanks for this. The Bob Wood story is part of the new (pubbed in May from Hard Case Crime) SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT with Jack and Maggie Starr.
February 8th, 2013 at 9:21 am
Max
I hadn’t caught the fact that Jack and Maggie are in this one too. Sounds like a must have to me!
— Steve