Welcome to F.O.M.A.C. (Friends/Family/Fans Of Max Allan Collins), the official website of CSI author and Road to Perdition creator, Max Allan Collins.  Here you can find information on Max and his latest works.  I'm his son, Nate, and I am doing this page for him because I love and admire him . . . and it beats paying rent. As you may have noticed, this website has been overhauled -- mostly "under the hood" changes -- everything should be familiar, but it is now compliant with current web standards and search engines and will be much easier to update.  Some older browsers may have some display errors -- please make sure you are using a current version of your browser (I recommend the free Firefox).  If you notice any problems, or have other features you would like to see, please e-mail me.

This page will be updated frequently, so don't forget to come back later. Last updated 01/15/2008, when I added information for the following upcoming books: Red Sky in Morning, Criminal Minds: Killer Profile, and Strip for Murder. Black Hats is also coming out in paperback this April, and I added some cool/funky drawings from the Ukrainian edition of Road to Paradise.

New short film premieres at Border's Davenport

"An Inconsequential Matter," a new short film by local filmmakers Max Allan Collins, Phil Dingeldein and Mark Johnson, will receive its Quad Cities premiere at Border's Davenport at 8 pm November 16. The seven minute black-and-white film, shot in March in Des Moines as part of a Iowa Motion Picture Association workshop, is featured on the team's new DVD of their award-winning 2006 film, "Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life," receiving national release from VCI Entertainment.

"When Phil and I were asked to create a short film for the IMPA Workshop," Collins said, "we jumped at the chance. We were already working on the DVD of 'Ness' and thought 'An Inconsequential Matter' would make the perfect bonus feature." The short is shot in black-and-white in what the filmmaker describes as "the style of the old Alfred Hitchcock show."

The screening of the noir-style short is the centerpiece of the DVD release party of the Ness film. The filmmakers will present a panel discussion and do a Q and A on the making of both films.

A signing will follow, featuring the DVD as well as recent books by Collins, including the current New York Times bestseller, American Gangster (currently the number one film at the box office nationally), and Jump Cut, first in a series of a novels based on the highly-rated Criminal Minds television series. Collins and his wife Barbara will also be autographing their collaborative mystery novel, Antiques Maul, the second in their bestselling "Trash 'n' Treasures" mystery series under their joint "Barbara Allan" byline. Barbara Collins was the line producer on both the "Ness" film and "Inconsequential Matter."

The "Ness" feature was shot in Des Moines in August of 2005, with all post-production handled at dphilms and its next-door neighbor Brass Sail Recording Studio in the Rock Island District. Brass Sail honcho Johnson handled all location and post-production sound, collaborating on a jazz-influenced score with Scott Morschhauser.

"We've loaded the DVD up with extras," said Dingeldein, the film's cinematographer and editor. "It includes a feature-length commentary with our star actor as well as Max and me, plus a fun behind-the-scenes documentary. The short demo film we made in 2001, which was done to create interest in the bigger project but went on to win several film festivals, is also included. So 'An Inconsequential Matter,' of course."

"Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life" tells the real story of America's most celebrated ? and misunderstood ? true detective, whose story has been turned into Hollywood myth from the Robert Stack 1950s "Untouchables" TV series to the Kevin Costner 1987 film.

The original play was presented in August 2005 at the Des Moines Playhouse to enthusiastic audience response and overwhelmingly favorable reviews. Between weekend performances, Collins and Dingeldein led an Iowa/Illinois crew on a demanding Hi Definition shoot.

Developed in part with a grant from Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Arts, the one-man show stars Des Moines actor Michael Cornelsion. The veteran performer's Hollywood credits include the films "Lost in America" and "Where the Buffalo Roam" as well as guest star turns on such classic TV series as "Hill Street Blues," "Dallas," "Knots Landing," "Remington Steele," "Hunter" and "Greatest American Hero."

Cornelison starred in, and co-produced, Frank Darabont's first film, "Stephen King's Woman in the Room." Mostly recently he played a major supporting role in the Iowa-shot baseball film, "The Final Season."

For a DVD release, Collins contacted Robert Blair, president of Oklahoma-based DVD distributor VCI, because the two had collaborated before. After VCI successfully distributed a VHS release of Collins' films "Mommy" and "Mommy 2: Mommy's Day," Blair approached the filmmaker/mystery writer to provide commentary tracks for several classic film noir DVD releases. VCI's impressive library of noir films convinced Collins that the label was the perfect home for the story of a man who lived the kind of life noir mythologizes.

The DVD will be available wherever DVDs are sold as well as at the familiar online outlets.

MESSAGE FROM M.A.C. -- July 7, 2007

First off, the paperback of ANTIQUES ROADKILL has just hit the stands as I write this. The hardcover did very well - sales and reviews - and "Barbara Allan" (that's Barb and me) hope the paperback will boost the series further. The second novel in the Trash 'n' Treasures series, ANTIQUES MAUL, will be out in September in hardcover. Barb is working on the rough draft of the third, ANTIQUES FLEE MARKET, right now, and I'll be getting to my draft in the fall.

We have just signed with VCI home video for ELIOT NESS: AN UNTOUCHABLE LIFE to come out very soon on DVD - September 25, to be exact. Phil Dingeldein and I are putting together bonus features right now, including a new short noir film that emerged from another workshop (a la "Three Women" which became part of the SHADES OF NOIR DVD). When we have artwork, we'll post it here. The film (recording for posterity Michael Cornelison's definitive Ness) was entered into two regional festivals and won BEST FEATURE at both, as well as BEST DIRECTOR and BEST EDITING at one.

The mini-book tour for BLACK HATS and A KILLING IN COMICS was quite successful, with particularly good turnouts at the Muskego Public Library (where Ted Hertel and Gary Neibuhr expertly grilled research associate George Hagenauer and me) and at Centuries and Sleuths in Forest Park. Barb and I have been discussing cutting way back on such personal appearances, but these well-attended events were encouraging. We also did very well at the new Mystery Cat bookstore in Cedar Rapids, a used/collectible shop that is a real delight, and worth a trip for midwesterners.

The brevity of the tour had to do with my heavy schedule this year, even heavier than usual. Already this year I've written three novels, a nonfiction book and a screenplay.

The nonfiction book is a return to the pin-up world, a biography of my late friend Earl Mac Pherson; Collector's Press (who did just a wonderful job on HISTORY OF MYSTERY) had a coffee-table book essentially ready to go and asked me to contribute a full 10,000 word bio on Earl. I contributed more art and photos from my own collection, as well - don't know exactly when this will be out.

The screenplay is my own adaptation of ROAD TO PURGATORY, which we are in the early stages of attempting to mount right here in the midwest with me directing. I'm partnered with some very good people, including longtime crony Phil D., and it's an exciting venture - if we can pull off the fund-raising, it will be the most ambitious project I've ever attempted in any medium. The script was submitted to the Iowa Motion Picture Awards and won the Award of Excellence for Unproduced Screenplay.

AMERICAN GANGSTER, my movie tie-in for the Ridley Scott film starring Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, will be out in November along with the film. It's a fact-based early '70s druglord tale and the screenplay was first-rate; this is my first novelization (dreaded word) since THE PINK PANTHER and I'm proud of it. TOR is publishing.

I have also completed a long-contemplated novel based on my late father Max A. Collins Sr.'s experiences in the Navy during World War II, when he was one of a handful of very young white officers in charge of a large body of black sailors loading ammo in the Pacific. The book is essentially my CAINE MUTINY (albeit with a murder mystery at its heart) and I believe it came off very well. My title is USS POWDERKEG, and I hope it will remain such, but you never know - my editor at Morrow may have another idea. Matthew Clemens got involved in this one, doing extensive research and helping develop the plot. This may be published as the second "Patrick Culhane" bylined novel, but that's up in the air - the jury's still out on whether the Culhane byline was a good idea or not. Should be out in the fall of 2008.

As you may know, I am no longer doing CSI novels. Instead, my researcher Matt Clemens and I are doing at least three novels based on the hit show, CRIMINAL MINDS. We have completed the first book, JUMP CUT, and it came off very well - working with profilers rather than crime scene investigators was liberating, because a lot of Holmes/Wolfe-style speculation can come into play. The novel will be out in November.

Next up for me is the second Jack & Maggie Starr mystery for Berkley Prime Crime, probably called STRIP FOR MURDER. It's based on the Al Capp LIL ABNER/Ham Fisher JOE PALOOKA feud. Terry Beatty will again be providing comics panels for chapter headings as well as a "challenge to the reader" comics chapter toward the end of the novel. The response to the first novel, A KILLING IN COMICS, has been very gratifying - after a limp review from Publisher's Weekly (complaining that the book was not a Nate Heller), online reviews have been overwhelmingly favorable, even glowing. Readers seem to "get" the retro fun of a Rex Stout-ish mystery in the context of the world of post-war comics.

The biggest news I'm saving for last: I have signed with Otto Penzler's Harcourt line to complete three Mike Hammer novels begun by Mickey Spillane. I am working from substantial partial manuscripts - at least half of each book already written by Mickey. That I will be collaborating with Mickey on at least three Hammer novels is thrilling to me beyond words. This is highly unusual, because I am working not only with his wife Jane's blessing, but Mickey's own: he asked me to complete these novels. First up: THE GOLIATH BONE, the final Hammer chronologically. (Other novels will be given time frames according to when they were begun by Mickey.)

Mickey's file of unpublished material was extensive - another trio of Hammers can follow, if these three do well. This is a very big deal - there are only 13 Mike Hammer novels, and adding another three (or six) to the canon is unheard of for so famous a mystery series.

I have already completed Mickey's last crime novel, DEAD STREET, for Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime; it will be out in December - I edited the existing eight chapters and completed the last three from Mickey's notes. I am not taking a byline on DEAD STREET, however, though will be sharing byline with Mickey on the Hammer novels. (My afterword explains the process.)

Also from Hard Case is DEADLY BELOVED - the first ever Ms. Tree prose novel. This came about as an offshoot of the current MS. TREE TV option (with Oxygen Network), though no film has yet been made. MS. TREE co-creator Terry Beatty has done a lovely cover - among the best Hard Case has done, and that's saying something - and I spent a lot of time revising and polishing, trying to make DEADLY BELOVED a novel that would work equally well for longtime fans of the graphic novel series and readers unfamiliar with the character/series. Look for it in December.

Barb and I may go out on another mini-tour late in the year to promote ANTIQUES MAUL, the ELIOT NESS DVD, AMERICAN GANGSTER, CRIMINAL MINDS: JUMP CUT, and DEADLY BELOVED. But if we don't have time, I bet you'll understand....

M.A.C.

Now order The Black Box: Shades of Neo-Noir online!

Click the image above to order Max's new box set from SendMeMovies.com. The Black Box includes the new 10th anniversary editions of MOMMY and MOMMY'S DAY; REAL TIME: SIEGE AT LUCAS STREET MARKET; and SHADES OF NOIR, which includes the short "Ness" demo film, "Three Women," Quarry in "A Matter of Principal" and the documentary MIKE HAMMER'S MICKEY SPILLANE.

Comic Strip Documentary by Collins

CAVEMAN: V.T. HAMLIN & ALLEY OOP is a new documentary from Iowa novelist/filmmaker Max Allan Collins, best known as the writer of the graphic novel, ROAD TO PERDITION, which became an Academy Award-winning 2002 film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman.

CAVEMAN, written and directed by Collins and produced by the University of Iowa Video Center, tells the story of Vincent T. Hamlin, the innovative cartoonist who created the dinosaur-laden, long-running comic strip, ALLEY OOP, from which the popular '50s song derived. The strip has been credited with inspiring everything from THE FLINTSTONES to JURASSIC PARK. Hamlin was born and raised in Perry, Iowa.

"My father grew up around Perry," Collins said, "and as a kid fascinated by comics, I was excited when I learned that OOP's creator had been brought up within a stone's throw of my dad."

Read the full press release.

Books

Max's book covers, descriptions, excerpts, reviews, and more.

Movies

Covers, stills, and other information on Max's movies.

Music

Information on Max's band, Crusin', and how to order their two CDs.

Downloads

Road to Perdition and other wallpaper can be found here.

About Max

Wondering who this Max Allan Collins person is?  Go here to find out.

News	Seeing as this is the FOMAC website, I thought I should put up the FOMAC newsletters.  Past messages from M.A.C. that appear on this website are archived here, as well as book tour listings.

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  This page and all text and pictures within are copyright 2005, Nathan Collins, except in certain instances: Excerpts from books are copyrighted by Max Allan Collins, while the excerpts from Road to Perdition are copyright DC Comics and book covers may be copyrighted by each publisher.  Images from Road to Perdition are copyright Dreamworks SKG and Alley Oop is copyright NEA Syndicate. Reviews are copyrighted by their respective writers, and are included here with permission.  You may not use any portion of this page without my written permission.   E-mail me at if you wish to use any portion of this page or if you have any questions or comments.  Thanks!

visitors since August 19, 2003.