#mickey spillane

[novlr]

Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it’s a letdown, they won’t buy any more. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book. — Mickey Spillane

[litteratured]

[ufonaut]

Up until that point, a particular literary genre had nurtured the American vision of homosexuality, a genre whose point of departure was a burning curiosity to know what really goes on in the lower depths: the hardboiled crime novel. While the reform-minded social realists (Crane, Norris, Farrell, et al.) had never had much time for homosexuality -- perhaps sharing the notion that it was chiefly an aristocratic pastime typical of pallid Etonians -- the hardboiled writers from Hammett onward found it hard to keep away. Although gays are not as commonly associated with tough-guy fiction as racketeers, crooked cops or B-girls, the fact remains that all the main contributors to the genre -- Hammett, Chandler, Cain, Spillane, Ross Macdonald, John D. MacDonald, among others -- helped to elaborate a gay stereotype. As the influence of hardboiled realism spread, the incidence of homosexual characters increased dramatically in mainstream mystery writing.

"Juno Was a Man; or, The Case of the Hardboiled Homophobes" - Geoffrey O'Brien, The Armchair Detective Vol. 18 #3 (Summer 1985)

[citizenscreen]

Mickey Spillane and Shirley Eaton during filming of the Mike Hammer movie, THE GIRL HUNTERS (Roy Rowland, 1963)

[smbhax]

From "Secret Arsenal" in The Human Torch #6, Winter 1941. Mickey Spillane script, Carl Burgos pencils & inks.

Info from Grand Comics Database

[obsidian-sphere]

Mickey Spillane - The Big Kill, 1951 Cover Artist: Lu Kimmel

[writerswritecompany]

In this post, we explore what hardboiled fiction is, who the hardboiled detectives are, and how to write hardboiled fiction – with examples.

How To Write Hardboiled Fiction

In this post, we explore what hardboiled fiction is, who the hardboiled detectives are, and how to write hardboiled fiction – with examples.

[cantsayidont]

Robert McGinnis painting for a 1966 Dutch paperback edition of Mickey Spillane's red-baiting Mike Hammer novel ONE LONELY NIGHT, published with the Dutch title SPIONNE MET EEN ZWOELE LACH (SPY WITH A SULTRY SMILE).