Paperback Paradise: Hard-Boiled Haul (Mickey Spillane Detective Novels)

[@rinehardt6837]

Just discovered this video got my attention when I saw the name Mickey Spillane. I was lucky enough to know Mickey although I knew him for quite a few years and I did not know he was Mickey Spillane. He was just mr. Mickey this nice older man who used to come in the store where I worked. I told him my grandmother and I used to watch Mike Hammer on TV and she had actually read some of his books. I remember when he passed it was very sad he was such a nice person and I remember making a point to buy his books and start reading them. I love the fact that when he passed Quentin Tarantino said that was one of his favorite authors and influenced him a great deal. Anyway great video thanks for the shout out to a very classy guy who doesn't get nearly enough recognition.

[@justinecooper9575]

Fun fact; the model on the first edition hardback dust jackets and paperback covers for "The Erection Set" and "The Last Cop Out" was Spillane's wife at the time.

[@CalamariAtari]

Almost finished with my first Mickey Spillane volume, "The Tough Guys" and its badass. Can't wait to read more!

[@chrisw6164]

Didn’t know about the WD-40 truck, I’ll have to try it.

[@bridge2space]

Gorgeous. I had to get my own after watching this video.

[@IndiephantomSofaSinema]

Really cool finds. I was grabbing a lot of these hardboiled titles from thrift shops a few years ago. Hard Case crime books like amazing a shelf. They even had a film tie-in with The Nice Guys movie that I picked up a couple years back. I really like those titles and some of the paperback horror and westerns of the seventies and eighties. Highly collectible stuff.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

I love the attention to detail from Hard Case Crime, and I wish more companies would focus on delivering great fiction with beautiful painted covers. As you point out, novels from the sixties, seventies, and eighties have amazing covers that really impact the overall experience and collectibility.

[@themrp4424]

Great haul. Chandler is one of my favorite authors of any genre. My introduction to Mike Hammer and Mickey Spillane was the 80s tv series with Stacy Keach that started when I was in high school. I've only read I, the Jury of the Hammer novels though, but I need to get more. If you like Max Alan Collins, check out his Ms. Tree comic series from the 80s and 90s (and he has done some follow up novels under the Hard Case imprint as well. If you read Hammett, I'd love to see you do a video comparing his originals with the classic film version (any excuse to watch the Maltese Falcon is a good one). PS love the sax as the exit music.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

I will definitely be reading these books, and a comparison to their movie versions is a great idea. Thanks!

[@Robby.Wilson]

Love hard boiled detective novels, the quarry series is one of my favorites, big fan of Philip Marlowe as well.

[@d.christophertatum2936]

I’ve recently started to collect those cool Avenel releases with the uniform look featuring the detective illustrations.

[@dmac7344]

My local Goodwill Outlet sells 4 books per dollar. Whole bunch of first printings (a very select few later printings) Executioner by Don Pendleton Death Merchant by Joseph Rosenberger. I bought these plus other classic books. over 100!

[@CerealAtMidnight]

That's fantastic, and 4 for a dollar is a great deal. Seems like a lot of thrift store prices are going up, not down, so congrats for finding such a great score. Also great to see another Executioner fan! A couple of months ago, I scored 33 pounds of Mack Bolan books and chronicled it in this video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGOzm62AfdpgftE

[@dmac7344]

@@CerealAtMidnight actually it was because of your video that clued me into the series and that what I saw I should snatch up 😜

[@CerealAtMidnight]

That's super cool!

[@justinecooper9575]

I was/am a hard-core SF fan back when I picked up a battered copy of "I, the Jury" ("Spillane's greatest!" "Millions in print!"). After reading it I immediately sought out all of Spillane's books and still have all of them.

[@thesilencer1969]

That is a fantastic haul , Heath !! ( I had one a few weeks ago !! A local bookshop had several shelves of Target Doctor Who and other TV Tie - In novels from the 1960's - 1970's !! ) The Hard Case Crime books have a number on the bottom half of the spine !! " Grifter's Game " is # 1 in the series !!

[@bigfootretro4378]

Great one, man. Awesome finds! I love it when I find cool stuff in old books. And some stuff has Really made me wonder. 😳 Keep em coming, buddy! 👍👍👍

[@joeomalley2835]

Very cool. I love this genre of fiction, especially the rare old paperback editions. Something so awesome about having one to read. Sad to say I've never actually read a Spillane one yet, but that will change. I want to read "I, The Jury"

[@nothingmatters298]

amazing finds

[@robertbeatty9563]

great collection. i would add other hard boiled crime writers to the list including richard s. prather, ross macdonald, john d. macdonald, erle stanley gardner, carter brown, m.e. chaber, brett halliday, richard stark (donald westlake)

[@justmason7672]

Awesome find Heath! I came upon a similar Dashiell Hammett hardcover collection in one single volume at my second hand shop about 2 years ago. I'd always been looking for his stories and pretty much gave up then found them for $3. I'd start with the Hammett then work your way forward!

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Great find for you, Jamie! Also, thanks for the tip to start with Hammett!

[@justinecooper9575]

I have most of the 1970s Spillane paperbacks in my collection.

[@upload4949]

Great video! I think you’d really like the Paperback Warrior Podcast (and blog). They also have a You Tube page, but it’s only the audio podcast. Their Facebook page is a hive of activity as well. In any case, great job. More paperback content, please!

[@CerealAtMidnight]

I like Paperback Warrior! And we have a ton of paperback coverage here on the channel! Check out our Hard Case Crime and Mack Bolan: The Executioner videos! kzbin.info/www/bejne/rqm5Y6htgtKUhc0 kzbin.info/www/bejne/kGOzm62AfdpgftE kzbin.info/www/bejne/o3bddY2hh7WoiLM

[@juniorsalazar499]

I just bought 10 of these for $5 at Half Price Books, all by Mickey Spillane except the last one: The Death Dealers The Snake Killer Mine The By-Pass Control The Twisted Thing The Big Kill Kiss Me, Deadly The Last Cop Out Bloody Sunrise 10th book was Last Stand at Papgowells by Louis L'Amor Gonna research which is the best of the batch and start there

[@stevenventriglia3786]

Ah heath man what are you doing to me i Just brought a 44 book job lot of star wars novels for £45 inspired by one of your videos. and I've always wanted to get into hard boiled detective novels as i love noir and detective films but have never known what to look for. I am going to have zero room lol. Love your video as always man

[@CerealAtMidnight]

What Star Wars books did you grab? You should start a thread in our Facebook group.

[@stevenventriglia3786]

@@CerealAtMidnight yep will do when they come in the post tomorrow. Just posted on someone else's thread on the Facebook group the ones I picked up separately from the job lot

[@mcopado]

Has to be "I the Jury." I think pretty much everyone's introduction to Mike Hammer was through that book. And the Armand Assante movie. Also if you have Amazon Prime the late 90's Stacey Keach tv series version is on there.

[@halloweenmichaelmyers4588]

Is Raymond chandler book any good

[@Melvinshermen]

I want a coen brothers style movie ala the big lebowski for mickey spiliange novels

[@Melvinshermen]

Do more hard boiled Detective books please

[@JonTanOsb]

I have a lot of those books. Plus a 1937 Ellery Queen hardcover. Use alcohol to remove stickers. Rubbing alcohol, not the good stuff. Jon in BC, Canada

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Tried lots of things over the years and found that alcohol will remove color from non-laminated book covers, but a lubricant like WD40 will accomplish the same goal with no color loss. Then a quick wipe with either a dry or slightly damp paper towel should take care of the greasy spot left behind.

[@RobotPorter]

You're very lucky. In all my years of going to thrift stores, and finding all kinds of rare books, I almost never see Spillane's Mike Hammer books. People love 'em and keep 'em. They just don't toss 'em in the direction of a thrift store.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Though I have no way of verifying, I suspect someone passed away. Whenever I see an entire collection of something vintage like these, that's usually my assumption. I can see this being the kind of thing the kids or grandkids would have no interest in, but I'm happy to give them a home.

[@RobotPorter]

@@CerealAtMidnight Probably. One other thing I have to share with you. I had a friend in grade school and he was into two things. Mickey Spillane novels and Barbra Streisand. And he had those seventies versions of the Spillane novels. He got very mad if he got even the tiniest mark or ding.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

That's a bizarre mix, Spillane and Streisand. I can understand wanting to keep the books pristine, though. I've always been very touchy about keeping my new books looking great. Must be an OCD thing.

[@RobotPorter]

@@CerealAtMidnight Bizarre mixes: That's childhood in the seventies in a nutshell.

[@kunider9714]

Were some of those adapted to movies? Besides the 1 or 2 obvious ones

[@CerealAtMidnight]

I believe most of them were. Kiss Me Deadly, The Girl Hunters, I, the Jury, The Long Wait were adapted for film. Then the obvious ones, like you mentioned, being The Maltese Falcon, The Thin Man, etc.

[@evyled]

If I remember correctly Avenel only did these two volumes.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Thanks for the info!

[@jeffolen0001]

I write noir myself, I'd love to share it with you.

[@ericgrigs]

Dude, that thumbnail, intro, & outfit! Could you and your channel be any cooler?!? I could just look at old pulp paperback covers all day. In addition to the books themselves which are a treasure, I wonder how much of the original art/illustration has survived and there must be a community that collects it like movie poster art. And what might be the stories of the main artists behind that genre. I’m fascinated.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Thanks! If I could do this video again, I would have the intro play without music with the sound of rain in the background. Ah well...hindsight is 20/20. As for the preservation of these covers, I'm not sure I've seen such a thing. I know there are art books dedicated to horror paperback covers and I've seen pulp art books as well, but I don't recall seeing anything dedicated to preserving or collecting painted hard-boiled detective novel covers. They're so fantastic, hopefully someone is working on that, or can point out such a thing if it already exists.

[@markmitchell8539]

Great haul! Happy reading! Don’t you love politically incorrect sexist paperback covers!

[@WhatWereYouWatching]

They are truly amazing

[@MaxRager80]

Yup, sadly we now live in a time with whiny people.

[@CerealAtMidnight]

Honestly, I don't even think PC culture is why we've lost cool covers. All book covers are super generic now, from bestsellers all the way through sci-fi, fantasy, etc. The Game of Thrones books look awful. Star Wars book covers are ultra-generic. It seems like the book companies have just given up the fight. Rather than promote artwork that draws the eye, we get something that looks like a legal briefing.

[@WhatWereYouWatching]

@@CerealAtMidnight yeah book covers/album covers and the like seem like a golden opportunity to let an artist do something interesting and risky. Taking risks nowadays is too risky.

[@themrp4424]

@@CerealAtMidnight Part of it is that books are not bought off the shelf, but off the net for the most part, so eye catching covers are not needed to catch the eye of a browsing customer. It's the same with comic books. When there is no need to catch the customer's eye on the spinner rack because the book is preordered, the cover aesthetic changes. It's a change dictated by the changing marketplace and the way customers encounter products more than anything else.

[@danielsweet858]

👍😀