Mike Hammer (character)

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Mike Hammer
First appearance I, the Jury (1947) (first novel by Mickey Spillane)
Created by Mickey Spillane (series continued by Max Allan Collins after Spillane's death)
Portrayed by
In-universe information
GenderMale
OccupationPrivate detective
NationalityAmerican

Michael Hammer is a fictional character created by the American author Mickey Spillane. Hammer debuted in the 1947 book I, the Jury . Hammer is a no-holds-barred private investigator whose love for his secretary Velda is outweighed only by his willingness to kill a killer. Hammer's best friend is Pat Chambers, Captain of NYPD Homicide. Hammer was a World War II army veteran who spent two years fighting jungle warfare in the Pacific Ocean theater of World War II against Japan.

Contents

Creation

In 1942, when he was a comic book writer, Spillane created the private detective Mike Lancer published in Green Hornet Comics #10 (December, 1942) by Harvey Comics. [1]

In 1946, Spillane worked with illustrator Mike Roy and Edwin Robbins to create the private-eye character Mike Danger for proposed comic-book or comic-strip publication. Unable to sell the project as a comic, he reworked the story as the novel I, the Jury , converting Mike Danger to Mike Hammer and supporting character Holly to Velda. [2] "Mike Hammer originally started out to be a comic book. I was gonna have a Mike Danger comic book," Spillane said in a 1984 interview. [3] Two Mike Danger comic-book stories were published in 1954 without Spillane's knowledge, as well as one featuring Mike Lancer (1942). These were published with other material in "Byline: Mickey Spillane," edited by Max Allan Collins and Lynn F. Myers, Jr. (Crippen & Landru publishers, 2004).

Character

While pulp detectives such as Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe are hard-boiled and cynical, Hammer is in many ways the archetypal "hard man": brutally violent, and fueled by a genuine rage against violent crime that never afflicts Raymond Chandler's or Dashiell Hammett's heroes. In The Big Kill, Hammer describes himself to a bargirl as a misanthrope. Spillane admitted to pulp writer Carroll John Daly, generally regarded as the inventor of the hard-boiled private eye figure, that Hammer was also loosely modeled on Race Williams, Daly's most frequently used detective character.

While other hardboiled heroes bend and manipulate the law, Hammer often views it as an impediment to justice, the one virtue he holds in absolute esteem. Hammer nevertheless has a strong respect for the majority of police, realizing they have a difficult job and their hands are frequently tied by the law when trying to stop criminals.

Hammer is also patriotic and anti-communist. The novels are peppered with remarks by Hammer supporting American troops in Korea, and in Survival...Zero Vietnam. In One Lonely Night , where Hammer attends a communist meeting in a park, his reaction to the speaker's propaganda is a sarcastic "Yeah."

So far as violence is concerned, the Hammer novels leave little to the imagination. Written in the first person, Hammer describes his violent encounters with relish. In all but a few novels, Hammer's victims are often left vomiting after a blow to the stomach or groin.

Hammer is an ageless character. Spillane said of his character: "See, heroes never die. John Wayne isn't dead, Elvis isn't dead. Otherwise you don't have a hero. You can't kill a hero. That's why I never let him get older."

The Washington Times obituary of Spillane said of Hammer, "In a manner similar to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry, Hammer was a cynical loner contemptuous of the 'tedious process' of the legal system, choosing instead to enforce the law on his own terms." [4]

Novels

By Mickey Spillane

By Mickey Spillane with Max Allan Collins

  • The Goliath Bone (2008) - chronologically follows after King of the Weeds
  • The Big Bang (2010) - chronologically follows after The Will To Kill
  • Kiss Her Goodbye (2011) - chronologically follows after Survival... Zero!
  • Lady, Go Die! (2012) - chronologically follows after I, the Jury
  • Complex 90 (2013) - chronologically follows after The Big Bang
  • King of the Weeds (2014) - chronologically follows after Black Alley
  • Kill Me, Darling (2015) - chronologically follows after Kiss Me, Deadly
  • Murder Never Knocks (2016) - chronologically follows after Complex 90
  • The Will To Kill (2017) - chronologically follows after Dig Two Graves
  • Killing Town (2018) - chronologically precedes I, the Jury
  • Murder, My Love (2019) - chronologically follows after Masquerade for Murder
  • Masquerade for Murder (2020) - chronologically follows after The Killing Man
  • Kill Me If You Can (2022) - chronologically follows after Kill Me, Darling
  • Dig Two Graves (2023) - chronologically follows after The Snake
  • Baby, It's Murder (2025) - The Final Mike Hammer Novel

Short stories

By Mickey Spillane

By Mickey Spillane with Max Allan Collins

In other media

Several films and radio and television series have been based on the books in the Hammer series. The actor most closely identified with the character has been Stacy Keach, who portrayed Hammer in a CBS television series, Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer , which ran from 1984–1987 and had a syndicated revival in 1997–1998. (An earlier syndicated version, originally aired in 1957–1958, starred Darren McGavin as Hammer.) Spillane himself played Hammer in a 1963 motion picture adaptation of The Girl Hunters . Spillane himself favoured ex-Marine and former Newburgh, New York police officer Jack Stang, on whom he based the character, to play him. Stang appeared with Spillane in the 1954 film Ring of Fear and in the film adaptation of I, the Jury .

Films

Feature films

DVD cover of The Girl Hunters The Girl Hunters (1963 film) DVD boxart.jpg
DVD cover of The Girl Hunters

Television films

  • Margin For Murder (1981 TV movie), Kevin Dobson plays Hammer in this made-for-TV movie.
  • Murder Me, Murder You (1983 TV movie), Stacy Keach played Hammer in this TV pilot for the TV Series that ran in the 1980s. This update featured a traitor to the U.S. and a daughter Hammer does not know he has.
  • More Than Murder (1984 TV movie), Stacy Keach again played Hammer as a high-stakes poker game is robbed and police Captain Pat Chambers intervenes as the thieves make their getaway. He is shot in the back and then framed as a drug dealer. Hammer makes it his job to clear Pat and find out who nearly killed him.
  • The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer (1986 TV movie), Stacy Keach reprises his role as Hammer in this pilot for the third season of his Hammer TV show AKA The New Mike Hammer. In this April 1986 TV movie, a young girl is kidnapped and there is an attempt on the daughter of a well-known actress, after which the kidnapper then turns up dead. Hammer is hired to protect the girl and travels to Los Angeles.
  • Mike Hammer: Murder Takes All (1989 TV movie), Keach reprises his role of Hammer co-starring Lynda Carter, Michelle Phillips and the pre-stardom Jim Carrey . He is asked by a Las Vegas entertainer named Johnny Roman (Edward Winter) to come to Vegas. Mike refuses, he is then knocked out and dropped literally into Las Vegas.
  • Come Die with Me: A Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer Mystery (1994 TV movie), Rob Estes plays Hammer in this TV movie, opposite Pamela Anderson as his secretary, Velda.
  • Mike Hammer: Song Bird (2003) (V) – a direct-to-video compilation of Mike Hammer, Private Eye's 1998 episodes of "Songbird: Part 1" and "Songbird: Part 2", where Stacy Keach played Mike Hammer and Shannon Whirry played his secretary Velda.

Television

There have been several television shows based on the exploits of Mike Hammer.

Comics

Mickey Spillane, Ed Robbins and Joe Gill's From the Files of... Mike Hammer (January 31, 1954). Mikehammer13154.jpg
Mickey Spillane, Ed Robbins and Joe Gill's From the Files of... Mike Hammer (January 31, 1954).

A short-lived comic strip starring Mike Hammer was distributed by Phoenix Features Syndicate from 1953 to 1954. It was entitled From the Files of... Mike Hammer and written by Spillane, Ed Robbins and Joe Gill, with art by Ed Robbins. Collections of the strip were published in the 1980s. [7]

In 1956 the Turkish comics artist Oğuz Aral created a parody of Mike Hammer titled Hayk Mammer. [8]

Walt Kelly wrote two parodies of Mike Hammer first published in collections of original work of his Pogo comic strip. They were: "The Bloody Drip - by Mucky Spleen" (Uncle Pogo So-so Stories, 1953) and "Gore Blimey - The Bloody Drip Writhes Again " (Pogo Peek-A-Book, 1955).

In 2013 Hermes Press reprinted the complete "Mike Hammer" comic strip, with a special introduction by Max Collins. [9]

In 2018, Titan Comics published a four part "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" comic series, written by Max Allan Collins with artwork by Marcelo Salaza and Marcio Freire. Later that same year, these four issues were collected as the graphic novel Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer: The Night I Died.

Audio

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References

  1. ↑ Cronin, Brian (2023-04-24). "Was Mickey Spillane's Iconic Detective, Mike Hammer, Nearly a Comic Book First?". CBR. Retrieved 2024-08-07.
  2. ↑ Mike Danger at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on March 8, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Mickey Spillane's State Of Mind". CBS News . 23 July 2006.
  4. ↑ Washington Times – Mystery novelist Spillane dies
  5. ↑ "Quarry & Mike Hammer News « Friends/Family/Fans of Max Allan Collins".
  6. ↑ Walker, Peter; et al. (n.d.). "Mike Hammer". ThrillingDetective.com. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  7. ↑ Walker, ThrillingDetective.com, "Comic Strip"
  8. ↑ "Oğuz Aral".
  9. ↑ "Hermes Press opens THE FILES OF MIKE HAMMER". Comiclist.com. Retrieved 11 September 2013.
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