Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother

To celebrate Noirvember this year, I dug into the latest compilation of Ms. Tree stories, One Mean Mother. And when I say latest, it has been some time in coming. Ms. Tree is a series that begin in the heyday of independent comics, the early 1980s, when it bounced around a couple of different publishers during its 50-some-odd-issue run. In the 1990s, the series ended up at DC Comics, where it was published as a series of larger-size, self-contained quarterly stories. This volume collects the first six of those tales.

Michael Tree is a classic, hard boiled detective. She runs her agency with a few trusted allies, and she is at constant war with the Muerta crime family, who were responsible for the death of her husband. Here, the family appears to be moving into more legitimate ventures as it is trying to extricate itself from crime altogether under the leadership of the latest young hotshot Don Donnie. Ms. Tree is not so sure that this clean streak is for real, and of course there are lots of conflicts, double crossings, and subterfuge.

Adding a different wrinkle to the works is that Ms. Tree gets pregnant and has a baby in the middle of this volume. Never one to shrink from conflict, she finds herself in new territory in having to think differently before throwing herself into violent situations. It is interesting to see how she adjusts her life after becoming a parent while still being a kick-ass heroine.

These stories are well crafted crime tales, with snappy dialogue and a good share of action and violence. Tree is a tough as nails woman who has her own code of justice, and I very much enjoy following her adventures. Occassionally, this book has a few dated references to things like Thirtysomething, but they do not really detract from the general timelessness of the tales. If you like classic crime stories told and drawn in excellent manner, this is a book for you.

Ms. Tree was created by Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty. Collins is a mystery writer with years of experience writing short stories, comic books, novels such as his Quarry series, the Dick Tracy newspaper strip, and the graphic novel Road to Perdition, which was made into a major motion picture. Beatty has drawn lots of comics over the past four decades, including the co-creating the Wild Dog series with Collins and inking many issues of Batman Adventures. Both creators speak about the return of Ms. Tree to publication in this article.

I have not been able to locate many reviews of this book, but the ones I have seen are positive. C.J. Bunce wrote, "As you’d expect from Max Allan Collins, this is another great read.  It has good characters, nicely plotted mysteries, and Terry Beatty brings in a classic noir style." You can find more reviews at Goodreads, where it has a 4.12 (out of 5) star rating as of this writing.

Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother was published by Titan Books/Hard Case Crime, and they offer more about it here.

Road to Perdition

Before it was adapted into a movie starring Tom Hanks and Paul Newman, Road to Perdition was a graphic novel written by Max Allan Collins, a mystery writer with years of experience writing short stories, comic books, novels such as his Quarry series, and the Dick Tracy newspaper strip. The art was provided by Richard Piers Rayner, a British artist whose meticulous style takes time to produce. He has done a range of work for Marvel, DC, and this book's publisher, Paradox Press.

The plot of the book follows Michael O'Sullivan, an honorable and efficient assassin for a mobster, as he is left bereft of allies after the death of most of his family. Left alone with his son Michael Jr., he strives to travel undetected to mount separate attacks on the parties that have wronged him. His years of experience working in organized crime give him a great many resources to gather weapons and wealth while also striking where his enemies would hurt most. In seeking his revenge, he crosses paths with John Patrick Looney, a real life gangster who operated out of Rock Island, Illinois. The actual Looney appears to be a colorful character from various accounts. He was also quite brutal at times, as is seen in the multiple attempts he makes to stop O'Sullivan's vendetta dead.

Road to Perdition is inspired by the classic manga series Lone Wolf and Cub, which follows the exploits of a traveling assassin and his infant son in feudal Japan as they try to get revenge and regain their family's honor. Only this tale is set in the Depression era US Midwest, with cameos by Eliot Ness, Al Capone, and a few other notables. The popularity of the book and movie spawned a sequel series of graphic novels, called On the Road to Perdition, with art by José Luis García-López, which told of events that ran concurrently with the original tale. Additionally, there are two prose novels that depict Michael Jr.'s life as he ages and begins his own career, first as a soldier then in organized crime.

Critics generally enjoy the book even if many offer that the story itself is not a very original one. Bruce Kratofil enjoyed reading the book, even with limited experience reading graphic novels. Time Magazine's Andrew D. Arnold said that the book was "a neglected work of smart, tense, hard-boiled crime comix with more going on than just the usual violence." David Kozlowski called it "a solid, fast read." If not original, at least the story is well told.

A preview of the book is available here.