Max Allan Collins

This Time, It’s Personal: Nolan Returns

by Duane Swierczynski

The mob couldn’t kill him
the cops couldn’t catch him
and even time
can’t slow him down
from the jacket copy of Nolan No. 1: Bait Money, Pinnacle Books, 1981

The covers were… okay, I’ll say it. Absurd.

I’m talking about the Pinnacle Books covers for the Nolan novels by Max Allan Collins—though he was just "Max Collins" back then. They come straight out of that strange twilight period of the late 1970s/early 1980s when good taste seemingly went on hiatus, and garish colors, over-the-top illustrations, and goofy cover lines ruled the paperback land. "Playing dirty isn’t Nolan’s style… until he’s taken to the cleaners!" Guys in Hawaiian shirts, car explosions, brunettes with stick-insect legs, bushy white-man ‘fros… you get the idea.

I’m not saying the original Curtis Books covers from the early 1970s were the height of book design, either. But the Pinnacle reissues of the first two novels about Nolan—Collins’ take on the loner bad guy with one name genre—belied the sharp writing, twisty plots, and sheer bad-ass fun inside. They looked like third-rate "Mack Bolan, Executioner" covers. (In fact, Don Pendleton, creator of the Bolan series, thought Collins named "Nolan" after "Bolan," even though Nolan came first.)

Which is why I’m so thankful that this series is receiving a second… well, okay, a third chance with Hard Case Crime, the upstart paperback imprint that’s producing some of the most wonderfully lurid covers in the world. (That’s karma in action for you.) The Nolan series was admittedly inspired by Richard Stark’s Parker, but it quickly found its own voice and tough-guy worldview. I’ve loved every single Nolan book, with the latest in the series—1987’s Spree—perhaps being the best. How often does that happen? For a Parker junkie like me, finding Nolan was like discovering a new kind of drug.

This month, Hard Case Crime releases the first two Nolan novels under the title Two for the Money, including a new afterword. Collins—whose next book is Road to Purgatory, a prose-sequel to his smash graphic novel Road to Perdition—agreed to talk to Noir Originals about the origins of the series, some behind-the-scenes Nolan series trivia, and how Charles Ardai at Hard Case literally got two for the money.

Duane Swierczynski: The first Nolan novel—like the first Parker novel—ended a bit differently, to say the least. Could you explain how the ending changed? And whose idea was it?

Max Allan Collins: First, I need to deal with Mourn the Living, which is chronologically the first Nolan novel, though the most recently published. It's been published a couple of times, notably by FiveStar. That book was written when I was 19, in part at Muscatine Community College and then revised at the University of Iowa, where I studied in the Undergraduate Workshop under the great Richard Yates.

It was sent out a few times, including to Gold Medal, where my future agent Knox Burger rejected it but praised it in many respects. I put the book away and began Bait Money, which was the same character, though I aged him somewhat. I had the notion that I was writing the "last" tough guy novel. Anyway, I stuck the novel in a drawer and pretty much forgot about it until Wayne Dundee at Hardboiled, a fanzine, did an interview with me, and I mentioned the unpublished Nolan novel. He begged me to let him print it, which he did, serializing it.

Then a few years ago, Ed Gorman was putting FiveStar together, and requested collecting the serial into a novel. I should also say that the character was originally called Cord, then became Logan, and finally I landed on Nolan. He was Cord throughout the writing of Mourn the Living; and Logan throughout the writing of Bait Money, but another mystery series about a character called Logan was launched (long since forgotten) and I felt I needed to change it.

Mourn is not a great novel by any means, but I always thought it was publishable—that it was the moment when I became a real writer, after doing five novels in high school that were by no means publishable—though those "trunk" books are definitely where I learned how to do this, and why both Mourn and Bait Money seem so self-assured for books by a kid.

Mourn and Bait Money both reflected my interest, even obsession, with the Parker novels by Richard Stark. Bait Money in particular was designed as a sort of Parker pastiche. That was one of the reasons why I intended to kill Nolan off at the end. Also, I felt the book was about the death of the tough guy. I had this idea that if Steve McQueen went around in real life doing the things he did on the screen, he'd be an old man by 50, or at least ready to retire.

Bait Money was, for a long time, called First and Last Time, reflecting that this would be Nolan’s last job, and young Jon's first... and last... job. But my agent, Burger again, hated the downbeat ending and suggested I change it, saying insightfully, "Robin doesn’t leave Batman behind to die." Being an artiste, I resisted this.

But back in those pre-photocopier days, a manuscript was a precious thing. And when an editor spilled coffee on my manuscript, my agent called and said I had to have it re-typed.

"And while you’re at it," he said, "why don't you take that lousy ending off and put on a new good one?"

We’d been rejected half a dozen times, so I went along with it. I un-killed Nolan. The book sold, next time out.

In addition, Curtis Books asked me to do another Nolan. I went to Don Westlake (the real Richard Stark), who had become a mentor in the last few years, and asked his permission. He was typically gracious and said he thought Nolan and Parker were "completely different characters." Right.

DS: Where did the idea of Nolan come from? Is he based on any real-life heister? (Or perhaps a gruff relative?)

MAC: He was a combination of Parker and the Lee Van Cleef character in For a Few Dollars More and any number of other Italian westerns. I hadn’t lived long enough yet to pull characters out of my experience.

DS: On the same note, I’m guessing Jon is at least, in some part… well, you. How close is Jon to the Max Collins of the 1970s?

MAC: Not terribly close, oddly enough. He definitely reflected my pop culture interests, but he was conceived as a character, with a specific attitude and even look that in no way resembled me. The Mallory character, on the other hand, is me—which is why he bores me to tears and I haven’t written about him for twenty years.

DS: You once quoted Donald Westlake as saying that Nolan was "more human" than Parker. Do you agree? And if so, was that your intention?

MAC: I did want to make Nolan more real—in Mourn he’s pretty much Parker, but in Bait Money he is this older man (though younger than I am right now!) who is coming terms with lots of things, in a human way that Don, intentionally, did not build into Parker.

And Jon was introduced to give this unmarried, childless older man a surrogate son. So, yes—I did intend to make him more real and more human and, in that way at least, transcend homage.

DS: You’re famous for the amount of research you pour into your rich, historical Nate Heller series. Did you do any similar research for Nolan? (I’m reminded of the story about Dan Marlowe corresponding with real-life bank robber Albert Nussbaum to glean some "inside" tips.)

MAC: All the robberies were researched. I’ve been immersed in true crime material for years. My wife used to work at the bank that, essentially, Nolan robbed in Bait Money (and if I recall he robbed it again in Hard Cash, didn’t he?). The term "bait money" is one that Barb told me about, and the quote at the beginning of the book is from the First National Bank of Muscatine's 1968 security program.

The stuff about crime families in Des Moines in Hush Money, for example, has at least some factual basis. I've always scouted book locations as if I were doing a movie—I might spot a house on a trip, and think it would make a good home, say, for a mob guy, and pull over and write a description down on the back of a deposist slip or something, then fold it into a book when the time came.

DS: How did the Pinnacle relaunch of the Nolan series come about? And on the same topic—it seems like many of the Pinnacle-era Nolan novels came out right on top of each other. Were you writing fast and furious to build the series? Or did you have a few on deck?

MAC: I am fuzzy on how the Pinnacle thing happened. I think my then-agent, Burger, had heard that Pinnacle was looking to replace the Mack Bolan series—Don Pendleton had walked—and he sent over the Nolan books. We did indeed have several ready to go, and this appealed to Pinnacle.

After Bait Money and Blood Money were published, Curtis Books had contracted me to write three more Nolans, which I did: Fly Paper, Hush Money and Hard Cash. But Curtis got bought out by Popular Library, and my books went into inventory. We were told numerous times that the books would be published, but they never were—so eventually the rights were returned to me.

The books were written in the mid ‘70s, so I had to do some revising when they were first published about ten years later. In particular, Fly Paper had to be updated to reflect skyjacking security measures that had been enacted in the meantime. The only new book I wrote for Pinnacle was Scratch Fever, which I think is a really strong one. I really love the stuff about Nolan’s response to somebody killing his dog.

DS: Speaking of: what is your writing routine, if you donít mind sharing? And how has it evolved over the years? (Say, when you wrote the first Nolan books, vs. now.)

MAC: I can’t say I’ve ever had a routine. For someone as prolific as I am, you’d think I’d be disciplined, but you'd be wrong.

The big difference is that I used to write at night—through the night, that is, starting at around midnight and working into the morning, sometimes going to bed as late as eight or nine a.m., then sleeping till mabye 1 or 2 pm. I did this for many, many years, throughout the Heller series, too. I would write all night and then present my wife in the morning with a chapter for her to read and criticique.

But my internal clock got screwed up in 1994 and I've never been the same. It was when I directed my first movie, Mommy—you had to get up at six a.m. and be on the set around 7 a.m. This went on for a four-week shoot, and ever since, I’ve worked more normal hours. I work mostly days, doing business and e-mails in the morning, and working in the afternoon and then, sometimes, a few hours later at night, say from ten till midnight or one.

My chief approach is work avoidance: right now I am avoiding work by answering these questions. It’s the best kind of work avoidance, because it’s related to work, so it’s guilt-free.

DS: The last (to date) Nolan novel, Spree, is probably my favorite. And it was the first Nolan novel in quite a few years. How did it come about?

MAC: While I’ve never really been a big success—never been a flavor of the year, like Lehane or Connelly or anything—the Nate Hellers put me on the map a bit, and Dick Tracy had given me a fairly high profile, too. So, ten years or so after the previous Nolan and Quarry novels, I set about to revisit the characters. I had enough juice at the time to get contracts to write both.

DS: I’m sure you’re asked this a million times, but what the hell. Any chance we’ll see a new Nolan anytime soon?

MAC: A few years ago I wrote a Spree screenplay for director Bill Lustig—it almost got made. Now it’s on my short of list of my own projects that I’d like to direct. If that happens, I can about guarantee you I’ll do another Nolan novel. I had a great time writing that screenplay, and though the plot is the same, the dialogue is mostly new.

I also wrote a Quarry screenplay, an original story expanding on the short story (and short film) "A Matter of Principal." The director of that award-winning short film (I wrote and exec-produced it) commissioned me to expand it into a feature. Now I'm discussing novelizing it for the HardCase Crime line. I think the editor there would welcome a new Nolan, as well—but we have to see how that publishing line does, first.

My hope would be to write one more Nolan, and the Quarry is definitely designed to be the last Quarry.

On the other hand, do keep in mind I’m the guy who killed off Nolan, and then wound up doing a series about him, when asked. I’m a total whore in that regard. If some demented billionaire who loves Nolan called up and commissioned another ten, I’d jump at the chance. On the other hand, it would cost the son of a bitch dearly to get me to do another Mallory. And Quarry is my favorite character, next to Heller; they’re about tied, really.

DS: What did you think when Charles Ardai approached you about reprinting the first two Nolan books? (And on a similar note, aren’t you just loving those covers, or what?)

MAC: I do love the covers, and as I’ve said, hope the line is successful so I can do some originals for him. Actually, Charles loves Blood Money, the second Nolan, and it’s the book he wanted to reprint. But Blood Money is so intrinsically a sequel to Bait Money that I suggested he combine them into a single novel—and offered to let him do this for the same money he was offering to just do Blood.

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Copyright © 2004 Noir Originals

Five Things You Might Not Have Known About The Nolan Novels…

by Max Allan Collins

1. Very few people noticed that in Hush Money, I was doing a "realistic" version of The Executioner. I wanted to show what would really happen if one man took on the mob, and I thought this was a cheeky thing to do at Pinnacle, a house built on The Executioner.

Of course Don Pendleton had the last laugh. He thought I was ripping off Bolan with Nolan (because of the name similarity) and sued Pinnacle. That’s why a very successful series was scuttled (Bait Money sold hundreds of thousands of copies in its Pinnacle edition); that’s why Hard Cash did not have Nolan’s name on the cover. This was a pity, because there was probably no crime series of the ‘80s that was less a rip-off of Mack Bolan than Nolan... and Nolan’s first two entries were published prior to the first Bolan book. So it was nonsense that I'd chosen the name because it was similar.

2. The antique shop in Blood Money, Hush Money and Hard Cash is where I bought used comic books as a kid. The building still stands and now sells wireless phones.

3. The Comforts are obviously a reference to the great comic British novel about UK hillbillies, Cold Comfort Farm. I created Cole Comfort almost entirely so I could write a sentence that included the phrase, "Cole Comfort’s farm." In spirit, the Comfort clan harkens back to various Peckinpah era character actors like Strother Martin and Warren Oates. They are also loosely based on a real family of rednecks who, disturbingly, loved my band Crusin’ and followed us gig to gig. I used them in the film The Expert, too—under another name.

4. The barn-like bar that Jon's band plays in in Scratch Fever is based closely on the Dodgeville, Iowa, Pub, where my band Crusin’ played many, many times and made the biggest success I ever enjoyed in rock ‘n’ roll; we ruled there for several years. The wide-open trailer park/food stamp town in Scratch Fever is also real.

5. Nolan’s house in Spree is based on that of my friend Alan Light, the man who created and first published The Comics Buyer’s Guide. The mall is based on the Muscatine Mall; there is no mall in that location in the Quad Cities. The area where Sherry flees is real, though I used Wild Cat Den state park in my mind—it’s near Muscatine (and I later shot the climax of Mommy’s Day there).

Copyright © 2004 Max Allan Collins

A Nolan Checklist

Bait Money (1973, March 1981)

Blood Money (1973, May 1981)

Fly Paper (July 1981)

Hush Money (October 1981)

Hard Cash (1982)

Scratch Fever (1982)

Spree (1987)

Mourn the Living (a Nolan prequel, 1999)

Omnibus editions

Tough Tender (reprint of Hard Cash and Scratch Fever, 1991)

Two for the Money (reprint of Bait Money and Blood Money, 2004)

DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI is the author of six non-fiction books about vice and crime, including THIS HERE’S A STICK-UP: THE BIG BAD BOOK OF AMERICAN BANK ROBBERY (Alpha, 2002) and THE PERFECT DRINK FOR EVERY OCCASION (Quirk, 2003). He’s worked as an editor at Men’s Health, Details and Philadelphia magazines, and is now editor in chief of the Philadelphia City Paper. Swierczynski is such a crime fiction junkie, he named his first-born son “Parker” in honor of the Richard Stark character. Duane's first crime novel SECRET DEAD MEN will be published later this year by PointBlank Press. Next year sees the publication of his second novel, SMELL THE ROSES, from St Martin's Press. He welcomes all comments; his literary agent is David Hale Smith.
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