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Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic literature, screenplays and comics. His best known work includes the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics (the latter being the basis for an acclaimed film of the same name), and his long-running literary series characters such as steely hitman Quarry, hardened thief Nolan, and antiheroic private investigator Nate Heller. [citation needed] He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.[citation needed]
In 2017, the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master. He is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus”, received the organization’s Eye award for Life Achievement in 2006 and its Hammer award for making a major contribution to the private eye genre with the Nathan Heller saga in 2012.
Collins has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition (which was developed into a film in 2002), created the comic book private eye Ms. Tree, and took over writing the Dick Tracy comic strip from creator Chester Gould. Collins briefly wrote the Batman comic book in 1987 and crafted a new origin for the Jason Todd character. Collins and artist Terry Beatty created Wild Dog at DC that same year in a self-titled limited series. The character later appeared as a feature in the Action Comics Weekly anthology. As of 2016, Wild Dog became a recurring character in the Arrow television series and is portrayed by actor Rick Gonzalez.
Another Collins contribution to the Batman franchise was scripting the English-language translation of Batman: Child of Dreams in 2003. He wrote books to expand on the Dark Angel TV series. He has written books and comics based on the TV series franchise CSI. In 2006 he wrote Buried Deep (also released as "Bones Buried Deep"), based on the TV series Bones.
He has written two sequel novels to Road to Perdition: Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. He wrote three more graphic novels starring the characters from Road to Perdition. These graphic novels, called collectively On the Road to Perdition, form the basis of the film.
He co-founded the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers with Lee Goldberg. The IAMTW is an organization for writers of tie-ins and novelizations. The IAMTW is the parent organisation of the Scribe Awards which has been won 6 times by Collins, either writing alone or in collaboration, and seen him elected Grandmaster of the organisation in 2021.
Collins studied in the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Collins is a fan of the mystery writer Mickey Spillane from childhood and later became close friends with him.[citation needed] The two collaborated on a comic book series in the 1990s called Mike Danger. Upon Spillane's death in 2006, Collins was entrusted to finish various uncompleted works by Spillane including Dead Street, The Big Showdown, and an ongoing series of Mike Hammer novel completions, beginning with The Goliath Bone in 2008. To date, Collins has completed fifteen Spillane Hammer novels, with the most recent being Baby, It's Murder (2025) - The Final Mike Hammer Novel, published in 2025.
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Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins (born March 3, 1948) is an American mystery writer, noted for his graphic literature, screenplays and comics. His best known work includes the Ms. Tree and Road to Perdition comics (the latter being the basis for an acclaimed film of the same name), and his long-running literary series characters such as steely hitman Quarry, hardened thief Nolan, and antiheroic private investigator Nate Heller. [citation needed] He wrote the Dick Tracy newspaper strip for many years and has produced numerous novels featuring the character as well.[citation needed]
In 2017, the Mystery Writers of America named Collins a Grand Master. He is a three-time winner of the Private Eye Writers of America “Shamus”, received the organization’s Eye award for Life Achievement in 2006 and its Hammer award for making a major contribution to the private eye genre with the Nathan Heller saga in 2012.
Collins has written novels, screenplays, comic books, comic strips, trading cards, short stories, movie novelizations and historical fiction. He wrote the graphic novel Road to Perdition (which was developed into a film in 2002), created the comic book private eye Ms. Tree, and took over writing the Dick Tracy comic strip from creator Chester Gould. Collins briefly wrote the Batman comic book in 1987 and crafted a new origin for the Jason Todd character. Collins and artist Terry Beatty created Wild Dog at DC that same year in a self-titled limited series. The character later appeared as a feature in the Action Comics Weekly anthology. As of 2016, Wild Dog became a recurring character in the Arrow television series and is portrayed by actor Rick Gonzalez.
Another Collins contribution to the Batman franchise was scripting the English-language translation of Batman: Child of Dreams in 2003. He wrote books to expand on the Dark Angel TV series. He has written books and comics based on the TV series franchise CSI. In 2006 he wrote Buried Deep (also released as "Bones Buried Deep"), based on the TV series Bones.
He has written two sequel novels to Road to Perdition: Road to Purgatory and Road to Paradise. He wrote three more graphic novels starring the characters from Road to Perdition. These graphic novels, called collectively On the Road to Perdition, form the basis of the film.
He co-founded the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers with Lee Goldberg. The IAMTW is an organization for writers of tie-ins and novelizations. The IAMTW is the parent organisation of the Scribe Awards which has been won 6 times by Collins, either writing alone or in collaboration, and seen him elected Grandmaster of the organisation in 2021.
Collins studied in the Iowa Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa.
Collins is a fan of the mystery writer Mickey Spillane from childhood and later became close friends with him.[citation needed] The two collaborated on a comic book series in the 1990s called Mike Danger. Upon Spillane's death in 2006, Collins was entrusted to finish various uncompleted works by Spillane including Dead Street, The Big Showdown, and an ongoing series of Mike Hammer novel completions, beginning with The Goliath Bone in 2008. To date, Collins has completed fifteen Spillane Hammer novels, with the most recent being Baby, It's Murder (2025) - The Final Mike Hammer Novel, published in 2025.