Posts Tagged ‘Trash ‘n’ Treasures’

Two Books for the Price of…Two Books

Tuesday, October 10th, 2023

[This just in: Max Allan Collins will be a guest on Robservations with Robert Meyer Burnett at 8 pm Central on YouTube today, Tuesday Oct. 10. –Nate]

[Last minute update: This link will go directly to the livestream video. –Nate]

* * *

Too Many Bullets, the new Nathan Heller novel, will be published on Oct. 10 (the day this update first appears). The Hard Case Crime release finds Heller witnessing the RFK assassination and then investigating just what it is that his lying eyes saw.

The new novel by Barbara Allan (Barb Collins and her husband, me) will be published November 7. Antiques Foe is the 17th novel in the series! It is funny as hell. By the way, “foe” in the title is a pun on “faux.”

The book giveaways to support Too Many Bullets are over, and we did not get enough author copies of Antiques Foe to spare any. But good news! There’s still a way for you to get copies of both – buy them. Yes, it’s a radical means of acquiring these novels, but it will work.

Too Many Bullets cover
Hardcover:
E-Book: Kobo Google Play
Digital Audiobook: Kobo Google Play
Antiques Foe cover
Hardcover:
E-Book: Nook Kobo iTunes
Digital Audiobook: Nook Kobo
Audiobook MP3 CD:
Audiobook CD:

For reasons I can’t tell you, advance reviews of Too Many Bullets have been scant to non-existent. Usually the Heller novels are widely reviewed by the “trades” (Publisher’s Weekly, Booklist, Kirkus, Library Journal), but so far…nothing.

Antiques Foe has had a couple of strong reviews from the trades. All I can think of is that the postponed publication of The Big Bundle till early this year has had the two Heller novels crashing against each other (but hopefully not burning). Too Many Bullets is a key Heller, an important entry in the saga, and I hope you will buy it, read it, love it, and review it – that’s not asking too much, is it?

If you received a copy in one of the two Too Many Bullets book giveaways, remember you can post a review today (the book has to have been published for Amazon to post any reviews). Not to mention Barnes & Noble and Goodreads and other review sites where it’s also worth posting.

Todd Stashwick
Todd Stashwick

On the Heller front, on Friday, Nov. 8, a talented cast was gathered in Hollywood by Robert Meyer Burnett and his business partner Mike Bawden to record a pilot for the podcast series based on the Heller novels. Headlining as Nate Heller is Todd Stashwick of Picard and 12 Monkeys fame. A Chicago boy, Todd makes an ideal Heller (I’ve heard the podcast session). That he’s a Star Trek fan favorite is an extra boost.

Although it will not be our first full-length production, the pilot is based on the first chapter of Stolen Away.
Much more about this later.

* * *

Daedalus books has two of my Mike Hammer novels in hardcover for $4.98 each, Murder My Love
and Masquerade for Murder.

Here is Ron Fortier’s review of Too Many Bullets (the first that I know of!) from his excellent site, Pulp Fiction Reviews.

TOO MANY BULLETS
By Max Allan Collins
Hard Case Crime
293 pgs

On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California and pronounced dead the following day. Kennedy, a United States senator and candidate in the 1968 Democratic Party presidential primaries, won the California and South Dakota primaries on June 4. He addressed his campaign supporters in the Ambassador Hotel’s Embassy Ballroom. After leaving the podium, and exiting through a kitchen hallway, he was mortally wounded by multiple shots fired by Sirhan. Kennedy died at Good Samaritan Hospital nearly 25 hours later. His body was buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Kennedy’s assassination prompted the Secret Service to protect presidential candidates. In addition, it led to several conspiracy theories. It was the final of four major assassinations in the United States that occurred during the 1060s.”
For the record, we crimped the above from a Wikipedia page not wanting to repeat what most readers already know, or can easily become familiar with via that site or dozens of history books on Kennedy’s life and his death. What concerns Collins is the locale and the tightly packed hallway into the kitchen pantry where the murder took place. Relying on both voluminous research and his own gifted imagination, he pulls the reader into the midst of that chaos when bullets were suddenly fired into the crowed eliciting screams and panic. He sets Nate Heller, an old Kennedy friend, brought in to act as an impromptu bodyguard for the Senator, down into the middle of it all. Tragically the press of supporters stymies Heller’s effort to reach Kennedy and save him.

What few people today recall is that several other people were wounded in the shooting, thankfully none fatal other than Kennedy. They were wounded because of all the bullets that were fired supposedly by the lone gunman. This is the contradiction that confronts Heller days later when attempting to recall the event. He remembers too many bullets. Ultimately he is hired by newspaper journalist Drew Pearson to personally investigate the shooting and determine the truth.

Weaving Heller through an historical landscape, Collins offers up a suspenseful, well laid out narrative that is rife with inconsistencies and outright falsehoods. Heller knows a cover up when he runs into it head first; but that’s not enough. He needs to know the who(s) and is ultimately led down a highway that goes nowhere near the place called Justice. “Too Many Bullets” is both sad and thought provoking; a testimony to the one inescapable fact, we live in an imperfect world. So does Nate Heller.

* * *

Barb and I have been essentially in quarantine after catching Covid. We both had a couple of rough days, but the subsequent ones were like a bad cold. I am at Day Ten with Barb a day or so behind me. The doctors said we should quarantine for five days and, after that, go out masked. We have basically stayed quarantined for the full ten days.

I have had to work on the pre-production of Blue Christmas mostly from a distance with producer Chad Bishop carrying the ball. I did go out on Friday, masked up, at Menard’s to help our set design guy, Bill Turner, pick out and order materials, with me providing my checkbook.

We have a table read Monday evening. Who was that masked man? Me.

It’s starting to feel real.

If you wish to contribute, $100 will get you mentioned in the credits of Blue Christmas as a friend of the production. You can get an Associate Producer credit for $500. Send your ill-gotten gains to Max Allan Collins, 301 Fairview Avenue, Muscatine, Iowa 52761. [Or at the IndieGoGo crowdfunding page! –Nate]

M.A.C.

Spillane Nominated, Antiques Is Loved, Blue Christmas Begins, and Poirot Returns

Tuesday, September 19th, 2023

Okay, so the nominations for Quarry’s Blood (Edgar) and The Big Bundle (Shamus) did not result in wins. But how about this: Max Allan Collins and Jim Traylor’s Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction has been nominated for BIO’s Plutarch Award, given to the best biography of the year – as judged by biographers. I have no idea how this Bio nomination might play out.

Still, this feels really good, because this book is one I am particularly proud of, and I know Jim feels the same. Obviously we are hopeful for an Edgar nomination, but a win there seems unlikely as the prejudice against Mickey continues in many quarters, particularly coming from people who never read much if any of him.

On the other hand, we received several nice reviews for the current Hammer, Dig Two Graves, and Barb and I just finished listening (in the car) to the Skyboat Media audio book of it, read by the great Stefan Rudnicki, who does his usual stellar job.

The handful of copies of Dig Two Graves that I had to give away here were snapped up eagerly. I am sorry I didn’t have more to offer than that. It’s out today (Sept. 19) – so Happy Publication Day!

Speaking of good reviews, here’s a honey by Sue O’Brien about Antiques Foe by Barbara Allan (Barb and me) from Booklist:

Antiques Foe
By Barbara Allan
Nov. 2023. 208p. Severn, $31.99 (9781448309627);
e-book (9781448309634)

Vivian Borne, co-owner with her daughter Brandy of Trash ‘n’ Treasures, is thrilled to be invited to be a guest on Nicole Chatterton’s video podcast, Killers Caught, until Chatterton ambushes her on her murder-solving record, with Vivian threatening Chatterton and Brandy abruptly ending the interview. When Vivian goes to Chatterton’s hotel room to retrieve her signed release form to prevent the interview from airing, she finds Chatterton dead on the floor and is quickly arrested as the chief suspect in her murder. When Brandy is attacked and badly hurt, Vivian decides on drastic measures to protect her family. Brandy is gutted by the shocking turn of events, but the investigation continues, led by her fiancé, Police Chief Tony Cassato, leading to a plan to trap the killer. This tale is told in first person by both the flamboyant Vivian and the long-suffering Brandy, with the two talking directly to the reader in numerous humorous asides. Framed by small-town life in Iowa, with interesting details on antiques, this fun cozy includes recipes and tips on collecting sports memorabilia.

* * *

One of the things I’ll be doing here at Update Central in the coming couple of months is discuss the ongoing production of my micro-budgeted movie, Blue Christmas, which I scripted and will direct.

We had disappointing news this week when Gary Sandy decided not to do the production out of solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA strikers. He offered to do the film next year, when presumably the strike will be over, and suggested April. We are already going full-steam ahead and had to turn down this generous offer from Gary, who will very likely be in a future production of ours.

This, of course, will have to mean that directing another movie – designed to be user friendly to its aging director, and to be produced reasonably (all right, on the cheap) – is still something I enjoy doing and am able to perform to my satisfaction despite certain limitations due to health issues.

We held auditions this week and they went very well. I cast many of the local players from Encore for Murder, and two terrific pros from Cedar Rapids and the Quad Cities respectively, Rob Merrit and Tommy Ratkiewicz-stierwalt. My team includes Chad T. Bishop, producer (he edited Encore for Murder); Phil Dingeldein, Director of Photography (my longtime friend/collaborator on films); and Karen Cooney, production manager (my co-director of the stage version of Encore for Murder).

Rob Merrit playing Richard Stone
Rob Merrit playing Richard Stone
Tommy Ratkiewicz-stierwalt as Stone’s partner, Joey Ernest
Tommy Ratkiewicz-stierwalt as Stone’s partner, Joey Ernest

We have an excellent set builder tentatively on board, and Chris Christensen (my Seduction of the Innocent bandmate, and the composer of the scores for Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, Caveman and the award-winning Quarry short, “A Matter of Principal”) has agreed to do the score. Chris also contributed to Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market and Encore for Murder.

Also on the indie film front, I looked at the “check discs” of the Blu-ray of the documentary Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane with Encore for Murder as the bonus feature, a DVD of the same, and finally a stand-alone DVD of Encore designed to go out to Golden Age Radio collectors. VCI is putting all of these out, in partnership with MVD, who do some very interesting stuff, particularly in their “Rewind” line that puts ‘80s and ‘90s video store favorites on Blu-ray.

* * *
A Haunting in Venice poster banner

Barb and I took in A Haunting in Venice, very loosely adapted from Agatha Christie’s Poirot novel, Hallowe’en Party. We had both pretty much enjoyed director/star Kenneth Branagh’s first Poirot outing, Murder on the Orient Express, but it was no threat to the Sidney Lumet original. The second Branagh adaptation of Christie, Death on the Nile, was more Meh on the Vile. But this one is a stunner.

Branagh’s Poirot is better etched here, and his direction is moody and immersive, creating a horror film vibe without shortchanging the very tricky murder mystery. Tina Fey as Ariadne Oliver takes some getting used to, but ultimately comes across well. The standout performer is a child actor, Jude Hill, around twelve when this was shot.

It was wise of Branagh to get away from remaking the excellent previous Poirot films (so far, at least, the great Evil Under the Sun has been spared 21st Century re-imagining) and if more of these follow, he might look at the serious, post-war Poirot novels like Taken At the Flood and Five Little Pigs.

* * *

Crime Reads zeroes in on seven novels set in Sin City (Las Vegas) and one of them is Skim Deep. Oddly, my CSI novel called Sin City (co-written by Matthew Clemens) isn’t among them!

Jeff Pierce’s indispensable Rap Sheet shares some things from a recent update of ours right here. Nice write-up, and the lead item!

Screen Rant discusses my version of Robin in (where else?) Batman. My work on that feature seems to be getting a little more respect these days.

Finally, Den of Geek names Road to You-know-where one of the best crime-and-mob movies. Gratifying that this film is holding on so very well as decades pass.

M.A.C.

Encore for Filmmaking

Tuesday, April 25th, 2023

This new e-book collection of the three John Sand spy thrillers by Matthew Clemens and me is available from Wolfpack and, for the first time, includes Murderlized, a collection of our stories, one of which is the first John Sand story.

Max Allan Collins Collection Volume Two: John Sand cover image
E-Book:

An informal meeting of Quad Cities area filmmakers was put on at dphilms on Saturday, April 24. Since I‘ve largely been away from indie filmmaking in the area – though of course I’ve done some screenwriting in the interim – it was a nice opportunity to see some new and old (and in between) faces.

Quad Cities area filmmakers meet at dphilms
Quad Cities Filmmakers Meet at Dphilms, Rock Island. Chad Bishop and Max Collins at far left, Phil Dingeldein centerstage (next to colorful painting).

I had frankly thought filmmaking was behind me. The last thing I shot was an award-winning short in 2007 called “An Inconsequential Matter” starring my friend and longtime collaborator, Michael Cornelison (it’s a bonus feature on the Eliot Ness Blu-ray (), with excellent cinematography by Phil Dingeldein). Mike had starred in both the stage and movie version of Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life in 2005, as well as narrated Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane and my comics-history documentary, Caveman: V.T. Hamlin and Alley Oop (). Mike worked with my right up to the end of his too short life, appearing as Pat Chambers on both Mike Hammer audio presentations, “The Little Death” (winner of an Audie for Best Original Work) in 2010 and “Encore for Murder” (nominated in that same Audie category) in 2011.

Mike Cornelison

Losing Mike – who was as valuable a collaborator to me as is my friend Phil – took the wind out of my filmmaking sails. I have, of course, had some things happen since then in the movie realm – we sold Heller to FX and I wrote the pilot (never produced), Quarry became an HBO/Cinemax series in 2016 (and I wrote an episode) and I’ve written a screenplay, Cap City, for director David Wexler. Recently, Eliot Ness and the Mad Butcher by Brad Schwartz and me has been optioned by CBS Films, Nolan has been optioned by Lionsgate, and Mike Hammer (not just Mickey’s novels but the joint Spillane/Collins ones) just closed a deal at Skydance. Some serious interest is also afoot for the Antiques series, Ms. Tree and Fancy Anders.

With Hollywood, you never know, but there has been a lot going on. The truth is, on these projects my direct involvement is likely to be limited to being the source writer and a consultant, and maybe getting to write an episode of anything that goes to series (Hammer appears to be on track for a feature film, which is great, but there’s no way I would get to write it).

After my heart and cancer surgery, I figured my moviemaking days were over, and they may largely be. We shall see as we shall see. But the “instant” movie that Encore For Murder with Gary Sandy became – a rather last minute decision to shoot the live semi-pro production with multiple cameras – is what really got me going. Sitting with the gifted Chad Bishop in his editing suite, seeing our little movie come to life, reminded me how much I love doing that kind of thing.

This is a good time to remind you that – if you are close enough to Muscatine, Iowa, to make the trip (the Merrill Hotel is great, by the way) – Mickey Spillane’s Encore for Murder, the movie, will be shown at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 5, at Muscatine Community College. The details are here.

We will also be answering questions about our upcoming production of Blue Christmas, my return to serious indie movie production. Chad Bishop, my producer on the project, will be present as well as much of the Encore cast (not Gary Sandy, though).

If you’ve dropped by here in recent weeks, you’ll know that we have launched an Indiegogo crowd-funding effort to raise a mere $5000 (of course in Iowa five grand is not “mere”) intended either to provide some matching funds required by the Greenlight Iowa grant we’re going after, or (should we not get that grant) to help fund a version of Blue Christmas along the lines of a recorded live production a la Encore (however not Golden Age Radio style – plenty of bells and whistles).

As an incentive strictly to those of you nice enough to show up here at my weekly Update, I will offer a perk to anyone who comes in at any level by way of some item from your M.A.C. want list. Now somebody at the $25 or $35 level needs to be sane about what books and such they put on their want list. Larger contributions mean you can shoot higher and, in any event, I will do my best to make it worth your while. (This has a nice Nate Heller sleazy sound to it, doesn’t it?)

Your name will go in the credits at the $100 level, and at $500 you get screen credit as an Associate Producer, enabling you to impress your more gullible friends. There are other perks mentioned at Indiegogo, and at that level you can probably talk me out of something rare from my private stash.

An Executive Producer credit is available at (choke) $2000.

As I write this we are at $1440 – 28% of our goal, with a little over a month left on the campaign.

* * *
Quasi (2023) movie poster

For those of you with a twisted sense of humor, I have a couple of film recommendations for you.

Just debuting this past week on Hulu – wholly unexpected to me – is the latest from the Broken Lizard comedy team, Quasi, the only Quasimodo movie that lacks a bell tower. I love Broken Lizard. They are masters of smart dumb comedy. The movie everyone knows – and most comedy fans adore – is Super Troopers. They write the scripts together and – with the exception of the crowdfunder Super Troopers 2, produced a decade and a half later – always go after a different subject or genre. Hence, Super Troopers 1 & 2 (cops), Club Dread (horror films), Beerfest (well, beer), Slamin’ Salmon (the restaurant game), and now Quasi (historical epic). Various team members have taken the “hero” role in these films, and various of them have directed, most often prolific TV director, Jay Chandraskekhar, although Kevin Heffernan directed both Slamin’ Salmon and Quasi.

The humor in Quasi comes from a cheerfully anachronistic approach to dialogue and a sweetness surprising for a film depicting somebody’s ballsack being nailed to a wooden block. It recalls Monty Python’s Holy Grail (the Broken Lizard guys each play multiple roles) and Start the Revolution Without Me, but despite the nonstop silliness, Quasi is more concerned with story than either of its two probable inspirations.

I watched it twice.

As I’ve mentioned before, a while back Barb and I saw Broken Lizard perform live at the Englert Theater in Iowa City and got to spend some time with them after. They were nice, normal human beings, funny and approachable, exhausted from the show they’d just presented but signing all of our DVDs and Blu-rays with patience and even joy. (Probably helped that I had their somewhat obscure first outing, Puddle Cruiser.)

Streaming on Peacock, the already notorious Cocaine Bear proves to be the funniest gory movie since Evil Dead 2. Its humor is a blend of Coen character eccentricities, Three Stooges slapstick, and jawdropping carnage. It’s largely about parenthood – specifically, motherhood. I realize some horror fans want it to be even gorier and dislike the amount of humor – for me, the fact that I’m laughing to the point of pain while watching humans getting torn apart strikes just the right balance.

* * *

Back Issue, an outstanding magazine on comics history, covered my brief run (one continuity) on the Batman comic strip. It’s really in depth with lots of Marshall Rogers art, and I would encourage you to seek it out.

Finally, here’s a decent Kirkus review of the imminently forthcoming Mad Money, collecting Spree and Mourn the Living, the last of Hard Case Crime’s reprint series of the Nolan novels.

M.A.C.

Bundle Born, Bornes Born, Legends Made, Unlikely Edgar Nom

Tuesday, January 24th, 2023
The Big Bundle cover
Hardcover:
E-Book: Kobo Google Play
Digital Audiobook:

The Big Bundle goes on sale TODAY!

Here is one of my better interviews, probably good because it was conducted by my great editor and pal at Titan Books, Andrew Sumner.

The Big Bundle books went quick, but – interestingly – we had only 11 requests for those 10 copies; in other words, almost everybody who entered won. I suspect people are assuming if they don’t immediately enter, they are screwed; but I hope these giveaways haven’t run their course.

The promised giveaway of Spillane – King of Pulp Fiction is held up because copies I was supposed to receive for this purpose have yet to show up. When they do, I’ll mount another book giveaway.

* * *

Here is a front page (stop the presses!) article from (as I write this) today’s Muscatine Journal, a nice job by Andrea Grubaugh. It details accurately some nice recent news I received.

Muscatine Mystery-series Author
Receives Nomination
for a 2023 Edgar Award

Muscatine’s Max Allan Collins was among the nominees when the Mystery Writers of America announced finalists for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, a series of awards meant to honor mystery-focused stories both fiction and nonfiction. Nominees were announced Thursday, Jan. 19, for the 77th annual Edgar Awards ceremony set for April 27 at the New York Marriott Marquis Times Square.

One of the nominees in the Best Paperback Original category was the novel Quarry’s Blood, written by Collins.

Collins called the nomination “an utter surprise.”

“The Quarry series has always been a cult favorite, and well-reviewed, but this kind of mainstream recognition is unusual, unexpected and appreciated,” he said.

Collins has been nominated for an Edgar Award before, but the honor still is special and exciting.

On Thursday, January 19, the Mystery Writers of America announced its nominees for the 2023 Edgar Allan Poe Awards. Among the nominees for Best Paperback Original, one of the books selected was the novel Quarry’s Blood, written by Muscatine’s very own Max Allan Collins.

“I’ve been nominated several times in both nonfiction and fiction categories,” Collins said, “and in 2017 received a Life Achievement ‘Edgar’ award, the Grand Master. But in a 50-plus-year career, I’ve been nominated perhaps half a dozen times, so it’s not something that happens every day.”

Collins’ Quarry Series was created at the Writers Workshop in Iowa City in 1971, while the first Quarry novel was published in 1976. According to Collins, three more Quarry books were produced, with the series then ending after the publisher didn’t ask for more.

“Over the years, (that series’) cult following grew, and I’d get fan mail about the books — pre-email! So I did one more in the mid-’80s,” he explained. “Then about 20 years ago, editor Charles Ardai at Hard Case Crime asked me to do another, and I took the opportunity to write what I thought would be the final book in the series, The Last Quarry.”

This so-called finale, however, once again proved to be popular, to the point where it became a short film (“A Matter of Principal”) and eventually a movie (The Last Lullaby), both of which Collins wrote. A prequel entitled The First Quarry was also written by Collins in the hopes of filling in the blanks of his now-famous hitman’s career. A one-season show based off the series was also made for Cinemax in 2016.

“The character just keeps going,” Collins said.

As for this latest entry, it takes place in the present time period with Quarry himself being Collins’ age at about 70, which he considers to be old for a protagonist in this kind of story. He felt it was this element plus some surprising emotional content that might have made the story all the more appealing to readers.

“It brings him full circle, back to a book originally published as The Broker and later as Quarry, which was set in ‘Port City, Iowa’ — obviously Muscatine,” he said. “It’s unusual for a series novel to be nominated at all for an Edgar because long-running series usually get overlooked, so this nomination was nothing I was anticipating.”

Although he wasn’t sure if his book would be the one bringing home the award this year, Collins said he still felt touched by the acknowledgment.

“This really is one of those times when just being nominated is a special honor,” he said.

Okay, that’s the article, and a particularly good and accurate one for a local newspaper. I’ve had some doozies written about me around here (in the worst sense of the word “doozy”).

Still, a correction or two, or anyway clarification. First of all, I wish I were 70, but I am 74 and will be 75 soon (I believe there are 37 shopping days left till my birthday on March 3, not yet a national holiday).

Second, not only am I not convinced I’ll be bringing home the award this year, I am convinced – in a way, I’m certain – I won’t be. This nomination is such a fluke I am having trouble processing it – novels in series are rarely nominated by the Mystery Writers of America, and novels in long-running series are really, really, really rarely if ever nominated. Add to that the violence and sex that makes the Quarry novels about as un-Woke as they get. The other nominated titles seem to be much more in step with current tastes.

Third, I will almost certainly not attend, so by definition will not be bringing anything home with me. I would like to attend, but a couple of things discourage me. There’s a book in another category that, should it win, would distress me terribly (particularly since I am likely fated to lose in my category). I will allow regular readers here to determine what that book and who that author that is, but don’t look for me to confirm and/or deny. Also, Barb and I are already preparing to attend Bouchercon and one trip per year for us is plenty. We have not traveled to this kind of event since my open heart surgery and Covid lockdown. While I am more or less back to normal, I do tire much more easily than before – I was a force of nature then, whereas now I’m what remains after a force of nature hits.

It’s probably ironic that just last week, I think it was, I was complaining here that Quarry’s Blood was a forgotten child, published too early in the year to make the various Favorite Books lists for 2022…and further whined that The Big Bundle, a December 2022 publication, hadn’t come out in time to be considered.

Truth is, Quarry’s Blood and The Big Bundle did make a handful of those lists, for which I am grateful. And I will be submitting both for the Shamus awards – Quarry is kind of a shirt-tail PI, but he’s been nominated by the PWA before.

Also, on January 19, I received word that I’m receiving another life achievement award of sorts – I’m being named a Muscatine Community College Legend, which around these here parts is a pretty big deal. I was informed thusly: “Our MCC Legends committee would like to honor you as our 2023 Legend for all of the contributions you have – and continue to make – to advance the fine arts.” More generally, the Legends award honors individuals who have been significant supporters of the college, its students, faculty and staff. I attended from 1966 – 1968, and taught there from 1971 – 1976 (the only real job I ever had, except for bussing tables). Barb and I fell in love there, and married shortly after graduation; so MCC has a special resonance for me/us. There will be a dinner on March 30.

* * *

Last week something else cool happened, albeit kind of odd.

Tom Hanks gave an interview proclaiming Road to Perdition his favorite of his films (yay!) but then wondered why nobody ever asked him about it (huh?).

Here’s the thing – I know that film is talked about often, because I do an Internet search on myself every week – not because I’m an egomaniac but due to the need to provide these updates with links to relevant articles. Okay, and I’m an egomaniac.

Anyway, people are out there all the time talking about Road to Perdition. Usually it’s in a familiar context: a discussion of the best Tom Hanks or Paul Newman or Sam Mendes films; a look back at the best gangster films of the past 25 years; or, often, the answer to the musical question, You Didn’t Know This Movie Came from a Comic Book, Did You?

If you drop by here regularly, you’ve seen me link to those articles frequently. I would imagine Tom Hanks doesn’t spend his time pathetically doing internet searches of himself. And I would guess most interviewers have little to ask of him about a performance that was perfect. So his confusion about RTP’s enduring nature is understandable.

What blew me away was how much coverage this got. I counted something like twenty websites that picked the story up, and any number of newspapers. It was mostly the same story. Like this version.

[This is the interview, queued to the question prompting the Road response. Worth a watch!–Nate]

* * *

Barb and I have completed our drafts of Antiques Foe, and I will be assembling the finished product today from a stack of chapters into one manuscript file for me to proof-read tomorrow and Barb to enter (and approve) my corrections and changes. It should be shipped by Wednesday end of day, at the latest.

In the old days “shipped” meant getting a physical manuscript to a FexEx “mailbox” before the last collection, which I think was five or six p.m. This meant printing out several manuscripts, again physical copies (the one area where I am not so adamant about preferring physical media).

This is a good one. Barb did a magnificent job with Brandy and Vivian Borne’s latest, rather harrowing adventure, and, really, it could have been successfully published before I landed a glove on it. Barb claims to like and approve of the tweaks and additions I’ve made, and continues to be the easiest person to collaborate with on the planet. If I had somebody fooling around with my perfectly good words, I’d have a good old-fashioned coniption fit.

She claims the next book in the series will be the last one, and I can understand why – she works incredibly hard on her manuscripts. Coming off a Nate Heller (Too Many Bullets), I can understand how you can do something you love and dread doing it again.

* * *

CrimeReads highlights The Big Bundle as a book coming out this week.

Quarry’s Blood was one of Glen Davis’s favorites of 2022. (Scroll down.)

Here’s an interesting but odd article on what fans of Road to Perdition don’t know about that film. It claims that the rainy climax took place in a boxing ring in the graphic novel. No, it was a boxing ring in an early draft of the script. In the graphic novel, the rainy death was (as in history) Connor Looney’s, not his father. No boxing ring at all. God save us from experts!

Finally, CBR considers Road to Perdition one of the ten great crime graphic novels! (So do I, but I can’t think of another 9.)

M.A.C.