Mickey Spillane (1918–2006)

I am really drawn to the Hard Case Crime series, with retro eye-catching graphics and real hard-boiled authors, but, I must say, I have bben consistently disappointed by Spillane's entires. I often find his writing jerky, uneven, and sometimes even child-like, or as in comic book blurbs. I prefer Cain and Block and others, including Collins himself, to Spillane. Another tendency of Spillane which I could do without is how the stories often slide into sci-fi or fantasy, as with the mysterious uranium max in 'The Last Stand'. The novelette or magazine story from his early days, 'A Bullet for Satisfaction' more palatable.… (mais)

I have to admit I have not read any Mike Hammer novel before. I chose this one to be a starting point because I expected it to be a quick-and-dirty introduction to the character and considering that Max Allan Collins was the author of the story (and his books about Quarry are truly good - if you have not read anything from the series do yourself a favor and start reading it :))

Unfortunately this did not work as expected... First the story. It was short and with a twist (alas it does require some knowledge of protagonist's biography but lately I have been reading a lot of books from the wrong end in the series so I did not mind :) ) and it gave me an idea about who is Mike Hammer, who are his allies and his stand on the topic of crime fighting (reminds me very much of Frank Castle because of his negotiation skills :)).
But unfortunately art was a true let down for me. All the characters are so blocky and lifeless - they seem to be completely artificial looking. I have read a lot of comics and graphic novels and I prefer some styles over the others but this one did not click with me. I think it is just not matching the story setting - i.e. similar art is in the Altered Carbon comic Download Blues but here all characters are strangers in their own bodies so to speak, so this blockiness made sense. Here that is not the case.

So overall good crime story that for me could benefit from the different art approach. Recommended to fans of noir and crime.… (mais)