Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941 - 1942

by Mickey Spillane

Edited by Max Allan Collins & Lynn F. Myers, Jr.

40 fast-moving short-short stories by the creator of Mike Hammer!

Before Mike Hammer, P.I. made his explosive debut in I, the Jury, author Mickey Spillane (1918-2006) toiled in relative obscurity, writing short-short stories as filler material in Golden Age comic books. Their purpose to fulfill a postal requirement, these stories were the literary boot-camp for the future king of hardboiled fiction.

In commemoration of the year-long Spillane centenary, Bold Venture Press is proud to release the newly revised and expanded edition of Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941 - 1942. This unique anthology, long out-of-print and largely unavailable, returns with additional material never before reprinted — and a newly discovered, previously unpublished story by Spillane.

In this collection, you’ll meet high-flying soldiers, a prospector exploring a Lovecraftian mine-shaft, a light-fingered con artist, an overworked cub reporter, a hapless exterminator, and many others.

Readers have the opportunity to see a master develop his craft. Primal Spillane collects the earliest short stories bylined Mickey Spillane — Each story moves fast, and concludes with the trademark Spillane “socko finish.”

The combined cost of the rare comic books in which these text pieces first appeared today would be more than that of a new Cadillac; but these short stories provide their own memorable rides. Their value as a training ground for the 20th Century's top crime-fiction writer is priceless when compared to the millions of fans across the world entertained by Mickey Spillane's prose.

Introduction by Max Allan Collins, America’s top crime-fiction author, and Lynn F. Myers, Jr.