No disrespect is intended to these classic cartoonists, both of whom have been favorites of mine since childhood; the feud between two of my favorite cartoonists has long fascinated me, and I remember vividly hearing on the radio (at age seven or eight) about Fisher’s suicide and being deeply troubled and confused. This novel reflects a long-held desire to address this real-life conflict, and previous notions had been to do a nonfiction work or possibly write a short story or novella about Capp and Fisher in my Nate Heller series. Strip for Murder, I think, represents the best way for me to have exorcized these four-color demons.
For the record, I agree with Jack Starr that Li’l Abner is the greatest of all comic strips, a satiric masterpiece; and Joe Palooka is also high on my list, a wonderfully written (and well-drawn) strip much maligned in recent years by commentators who clearly haven’t read much if any of it. Whatever human faults Al Capp and Ham Fisher may have had, they were giants of the comic strip world and I continue to unabashedly admire them for their impressive bodies of work.
A few small-press Palooka reprints can be found if you dig for them, and a good deal of Li’l Abner is available. My friend Denis Kitchen’s ambition to collect the complete Lil Abner in book form unfortunately stalled in 1997 at Volume 27 with the 1960 strips; but the best years of the daily strip had been covered, and three wonderful volumes covering Sunday pages from 1954 through 1961 (the period when Frank Frazetta assisted on the strip) have since been published by Kitchen with Dark Horse in 2003 and 2004.
Also in 2003, Capp’s classic Shmoo continuities were collected as The Short Life and Happy Times of the Shmoo by Overlook with an excellent Harlan Ellison introduction. The Hollywood version of the Broadway musical Li’l Abner is available from Paramount on DVD, preserving the play with most of the original cast in a way few films ever have. (One of my proudest accomplishments in life has been to convince Leonard Maltin to upgrade this film in his annual Movie Guide from two and a half stars to three stars.)
Among the many books I consulted were Kitchen’s aforementioned Li’l Abner volumes, whose historical introductions were always helpful, in particular Mark Evanier’s definitive articles on the Broadway play and the Hollywood film, respectively, in Volume 22 (1956 dailies) and Volume 25 (1959 dailies).
Also helpful were Al Capp Remembered (1994), Eliot Caplin; Classic Comics and Their Creators (1942), Martin Sheridan; A Flame of Pure Fire: Jack Dempsey and the Roaring ‘20s (1999), Roger Kahn; Inside Story (1974), Britt Hume; Jack Dempsey: The Manassa Mauler (1979), Randy Roberts; Lotus Grows in the Mud (2005), Goldie Hawn; My Well-Balanced Life on a Wooden Leg (1991), Al Capp; Nothing in Moderation: A Biography of Ernie Kovacs (1975), David Walley; and Sing a Pretty Song (1990), Edie Adams and Robert Windeler.
For New York color I again leaned heavily upon New York: Confidential! (1948) by Jack Lait and Lee Mortimer.
Thanks in particular to the source (who asked not to be named) who many years ago gave me copies of the National Cartoonists Society file on the Fisher/Capp dispute, including copies of legal documents, correspondence and the Capp strips as doctored by Fisher.
Thanks to the following: Terry Beatty for again helping incorporate graphic novel elements into this prose work; my longtime research associate, George Hagenauer, who gathered Fisher/Palooka and Capp/Abner materials for my use; editor Natalee Rosenstein for her patience, support and imagination (doing a mystery series about the world of comics was her notion); my agent and friend, Dominick Abel, the air traffic controller in the seat next to mine; and my wife, Barbara, my invaluable in-house-editor-cum-Daisy-Mae-look-alike.
MAX ALLAN COLLINS was hailed in 2004 by Publishers Weekly as “a new breed of writer.” A frequent Mystery Writers of America Edgar® nominee, he has earned an unprecedented fourteen Private Eye Writers of America Shamus nominations for his historical thrillers, winning for his Nathan Heller novels, True Detective (1983) and Stolen Away (1991). In 2006 he received the Eye, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the PWA.
His graphic novel Road to Perdition is the basis of the Academy Award-winning film starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, directed by Sam Mendes. His many comics credits include the syndicated strip Dick Tracy; his own Ms. Tree; Batman; and CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, based on the hit TV series for which he has also written video games, jigsaw puzzles, and a USA Today bestselling series of novels.
An independent filmmaker in the Midwest, he wrote and directed the Lifetime movie Mommy (1996) and a 1997 sequel, Mommy’s Day. He wrote The Expert, a 1995 HBO World Premiere, and wrote and directed the innovative made-for-DVD feature, Real Time: Siege at Lucas Street Market (2000). Shades of Noir (2004), an anthology of his short films, includes his award-winning documentary, Mike Hammer’s Mickey Spillane, and is featured in a DVD collection of his films, Black Box. His most recent feature, Eliot Ness: An Untouchable Life (2006), based on his Edgar-nominated play, is available on DVD from VCI.
His other credits include film criticism, short fiction, songwriting, trading-card sets, and movie/TV tie-in novels, including the New York Times bestseller, Saving Private Ryan. Currently he is writing the Criminal Minds tie-in series for New American Library’s Obsidian imprint. Collins lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, writer Barbara Collins. Their son, Nathan, a recent University of Iowa graduate, has completed a year of postgrad studies in Japan.
TERRY BEATTY has collaborated with Max Allan Collins on various comic book series, including Johnny Dynamite, Mickey Spillane’s Mike Danger and their co-creation Ms. Tree. For the past eight years, Terry has been part of DC Comic’s “animated-style” Batman art team, currently inking The Batman Strikes. He teaches cartooning at MCAD (Minneapolis College of Art and Design), where he is currently “visiting artist.”
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