by Mickey Spillane
Edited by Max Allan Collins & Lynn F. Myers, Jr.
(Available in softcover and hardcover)
41 fast-moving short-short stories by the creator of Mike Hammer! Revised and expanded with 14 new stories, including "A Turn of the Tide," a previously unpublished tale.
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 Spillane centenary, Bold Venture Press released the newly revised and expanded edition of Primal Spillane: Early Stories 1941 - 1942. This unique anthology, long out-of-print and largely unavailable, contains additional material never before reprinted — and a newly discovered, previously unpublished story by Spillane.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.
Read more about Primal Spillane in the blog post "Sudden Fiction" — publisher Rich Harvey offers a few insights in the latest installment of "Bold Venture Bulletins."
Read "Trouble — Come and Get It!" by Mickey Spillane, selected by Rich Harvey from Primal Spillane.
Story list
The stories numbered 1-28 appeared in the original Gryphon Books edition (2003). Stories numbered 29-41 are unique to this new edition; #41 "A Turn of the Tide" was previously unpublished and appears for the first time anywhere.
- Trouble — Come and Get It!
- A Case of Poison Ivy
- Clams Make the Man
- Creature of the Deep
- Fresh Meat for a Raider
- The Curse of Tut Ken Amen
- Flight Over Tokyo
- Devil Cat
- Jinx Heap
- Jap Trap
- Killer’s Return
- The Man in the Moon
- Scram, Bugs
- The Sea Serpent
- The Ship in the Desert
- Undersea Champion
- Woe is Me
- Spook Ship
- Terror in the Grass
- Tight Spot
- Lumps of Death
- Satan Himself
- Sky Busters
- Last Ride
- The Sea of Grassy Death
- The Secret of the Wreck
- The Woim Toins
- Woodman’s Test
- Fast Thinking
- Death in the Sea
- Phony Fish
- Goon With the Wind
- Fighting Mad
- No Prisoners
- Ham For a Yegg
- I l l Wind
- Spy Paper
- Target Terrors
- The Mouse Fights Back
- Shot in the Dark
- A Turn of the Tide
