It is difficult to believe that Mike Hammer has never had a comic book to call his own. Yes, I am aware that there have been collections of the short-lived comic strip version of Hammer’s exploits published in the 1980s, but that’s not the same. I’m talking about going to the store every month or two and picking up a Mike Hammer comic.

Creator Mickey Spillane never lived to see it, but in the year celebrating what would have been his 100th birthday, Titan Comics, Hard Case Crime and longtime Spillane collaborator and successor Max Allan Collins have resolved that error and omission. It comes in the form of a four-issue limited series titled The Night I Died, an original story written by Collins and wonderfully drawn by artists Marcelo Salaza and Marcio Freire. These four issues have now been collected in graphic novel form with a couple of very cool extras that I describe in greater detail below. (Yes, I am a comic fanboy emeritus.)

"THE NIGHT I DIED is the perfect way to read what Collins hath wrought, given the complex nature of the work --- a tale full of twists, turns and double-crosses of all manners and forms."

The project is a fitting one. Spillane started his writing career during the early days of the 1940s in the comics industry, producing scripts for such titles as Captain America, Superman and Sub-Mariner (among many others), as well as penning several dozen two-page text stories included in the comic books to meet second-class mail requirements. Collins, of course, is no stranger to the sequential art medium, having written the award-winning graphic novel THE ROAD TO PERDITION and the comic book series Ms. Tree (yes, I have a complete run of the series), while taking a turn at the helm of the immortal Dick Tracy comic strip. While Collins has authored or co-authored other Hammer novels, THE NIGHT I DIED is arguably the tip of the spear where everything comes together, due not only to his major writing chops but also to Salaza and Freire, whose artwork is a tribute to Spillane’s written words and the movie and television efforts that were based on them.

THE NIGHT I DIED is the perfect way to read what Collins hath wrought, given the complex nature of the work --- a tale full of twists, turns and double-crosses of all manners and forms. It contains virtually everything one could reasonably want and expect in a Hammer adventure: violence, sex, crime, beautiful women, violence, guns and violence.

The story kicks off with a vignette that features Hammer avenging the death of a friend --- not once, but twice --- before he is lured to an illegal gambling establishment known as the Zero Club. Hammer is supposed to meet a prospective client, who turns out to be a no-show. What he does encounter, though, is a damsel in distress named Helen Venn, who is the former girlfriend of recently deceased mobster Marty Wellman, who in turn was part owner of the Zero Club. Word is that Wellman met his untimely demise because he was skimming the profits of the club out of the Mob’s share. Carmen Rich, Marty’s second in command, supposedly told the Mob about Wellman’s light fingers and is now spreading the word that Helen has the funds that Wellman lifted, which are reputed to total upwards of $10 million. Helen has a lot of angry people after her, and Hammer is all that stands between her and them.

It’s not an unusual position for Hammer by any means, nor is the fact that the passionate feelings he is developing for Helen are standing in the way of his erstwhile relationship with Velda Sterling, his investigative partner. This is one caper that Hammer will find much more dangerous than those with which he is normally involved. As the title indicates, he doesn’t walk away unscathed. In fact, you’ll need to read the book to see if he walks away at all.

THE NIGHT I DIED would be worth the price of admission just for collecting the four single issues in one place, but it offers much more. In addition to presenting the main and variant covers of each of these issues, it includes two of those text stories that I mentioned earlier. They’re not quite what we now call flash fiction, but they’re close. What is remarkable about them is that they demonstrate that Spillane, even at that very early point in his career, was the consummate professional, bringing his rapidly evolving skill set to everything he did. You may not come to THE NIGHT I DIED for the text stories, but you still will want to check them out. I strongly recommended the whole package, even for those who don’t normally read graphic novels.