Two Great Flavors. One Great Read.

Mike Danger may not be a familiar name to some, but he was a hard-boiled private detective who headlined a new comic-book idea dreamed up by a young writer named Mickey Spillane in 1940. No one bought the comics concept at the time, however, and Mike Danger got an overhaul, being reborn as Mike Hammer, star of several crime noir novels and later a television program.

But Mike Danger was just too tough a character to roll over and die to make way for another.

In 1995, a new comics company named Tekno Comix began publishing several different titles representing a variety of genres. They had super-heroes with the I-Bots, mystical elements empowered women to take up the mantle of Lady Justice, science fiction was the name of the game for Lost Universe and Primortals. Tekno almost served as a precursor to CrossGen in that regard and one other. The company had a number of big-name creators in their stable and serving as inspiration, folks like Neil Gaiman, Gene Roddenberry, George Perez and Max Allen Collins.

Collins, no stranger to crime fiction, worked with Mickey Spillane to finally bring Mike Danger to the medium the character was created for. Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger was one of Tekno's debut titles and continued for a total of two volumes and 21 issues, all of them written by Collins.

In those adventures, Mike Danger begins in the world of 1952, a private detective who often solves cases for his war buddies with the help of his beautiful secretary/confidante/partner, Holly. Mike travels from 1952 into the future by means of the first story arc and subsequently spends a great deal of time "trapped" in the year 2052, so much of the series combines the familiar trappings of both the crime noir and sci-fi genres to great effect.

Art chores are handled by a variety of greats such as Eduardo Barreto, Steve Leialoha, Frank Miller, Peter Grau, Walter Simonson, Steve Erwin, Terry Beatty and Brad Gorby.

The second volume of the series began in 1996 when Tekno Comix changed its name to Big Entertainment, and all of the publisher's books re-launched with new No. 1s. There was no break in the series story-wise. So just imagine that Vol. 2, issue No. 1, of Mickey Spillane's Mike Danger is really just issue No. 12 and you get the idea.

I highly recommend the series. If you've never tried it before, seek them out. These are truly good comics, combining humor, drama, imagination and a whole lot of two-fisted action, kiddie cops!