Spillane’s centennial celebrated in books, comics

The hard-hitting, tough as nails private eye Mike Hammer is back in the public eye as 2018 marks the 100th birthday of his creator, author Mickey Spillane, often billed as the most popular American mystery writer of the 20th century.

Max Allan Collins (“Road to Perdition”) has been tasked with completing Spillane’s unfinished manuscripts for the past decade. In 2018, Hammer will again strike in comics and in prose, as will other Spillane characters in novels specially planned for this centennial year.

Mike Hammer also will return to comics from Titan Comics in the miniseries “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.” This series, adapted by Collins, is based on an unproduced Spillane screenplay from the 1950s called “The Night I Died.” Artist Marcelo Salaza and colorist Marcio Friere provide the visuals for the series, to be released from Titan Comics’ Hard Case Crime imprint.

“I am thrilled to join Marcelo and Marcio in bringing Mickey Spillane to the comic book form — particularly since Mickey was a top Golden Age comic book writer himself,” Collins said in a news release. “His Mike Hammer — probably the most influential private eye of all — was initially created with comics in mind.”

Though Mike Hammer has appeared in comic strips, this will be the first official Mike Hammer comic book. The prototype for Hammer, Mike Danger, appeared in comics in 1954 and returned in the 1990s from Tekno Comics. Spillane also wrote the “Mike Lancer” character published by Harvey as a backup feature in Green Hornet Comics in the early 1940s.

The four-issue miniseries is set to kick off in June. Also released or to be released in 2018:

• “Killing Town,” the lost Mike Hammer thriller from 1946 that was abandoned in favor of “I, the Jury,” is set for an April 17 release.

• “The Last Stand,” the final novel completed by Spillane, was released in March.

• “The Bloody Spur,” the latest in the Caleb York western series is derived from a script written for John Wayne by Spillane and finished by Collins; it was released in January.

Spillane died July 17, 2006, at the age of 88. More than 225 million copies of Mickey Spillane’s books have been sold worldwide.

PUBLISHING] [TITAN One of the covers to the first issue of Titan’s “Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer.”

[TITAN PUBLISHING] PHOTO] [AP FILE “Killing Town” is set for an April 17 release. Writer Mickey Spillane appears in character from the film “The Girl Hunters” in New York in this July 1963 photo.