Ms. Tree, Vol. 1: One Mean Mother

Ms. Tree (Hard Case Crime) #1

by Max Allan Collins, Terry Beatty (Illustrator)

“Despite the tragic scenarios, ruthless characterisations and high body count, this is a clever, funny affair steeped in the lore of detective fiction, dripping in the truly magical gratification that shows complete scum finally get what’s coming to them.” – Comics Review

The collected casebooks of famed ‘80s private eye, Ms. Tree.

When her private detective husband is murdered by the Muerta crime family, Ms. Tree takes over the business! Cold, calculating and tough as nails, no case is too small, no violence too extreme, so long as a mystery is solved… and Ms. Tree is paid.

The creation of award-winning crime and comics writer Max Allan Collins (Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer, Road to Perdition, Quarry’s War). Illustrated by co-creator and pulp legend Terry Beatty (Johnny Dynamite, Mike Danger, Rex Morgan M.D.)

Collects five classic Ms. Tree stories for the first time since the ‘80s, plus the rare Ms. Tree prose story “Inconvenience Store”.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Mystery, Crime, Noir, Pulp, Comic Book

264 pages, Paperback

First published September 3, 2019

About the author

Received the Shamus Award, "The Eye" (Lifetime achievment award) in 2006.

He has also published under the name Patrick Culhane. He and his wife, Barbara Collins, have written several books together. Some of them are published under the name Barbara Allan.

Book Awards
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1984) : True Detective
Shamus Awards Best Novel winner (1992) : Stolen Away
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1995) : Carnal Hours
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1997) : Damned in Paradise
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (1999) : Flying Blind: A Novel about Amelia Earhart
Shamus Awards Best Novel nominee (2002) : Angel in Black

Japanese: マックス・アラン・コリンズ
or マックス・アラン コリンズ

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pulpy goodness all the way through.
Ms. Tree takes no prisoners, gives no fucks about the law, and likes to shoot people who piss her off. I was shocked - and I mean that in the best way possible.



I'm somewhat embarrassed to admit that it took me reading the title of the book out loud to my daughter for me to realize that "Ms. Tree" was a play on words.
I may or may not have actually facepalmed myself when it hit me.



These stories are (I believe) collected from a run in the 80s, so just know that going in and prepare yourself for an odd moment here and there. But I think for the most part these stand the test of time as Ms. Tree rocks it like a boss.



The very skinny gist is that Ms. Tree is the owner of a very successful P.I. firm with underlings who are smart, supportive, and resourceful. She's the headliner and all-around badass whose name is the selling point of the agency, mainly due to her successful and bloody vendetta against the mob boss who killed her husband. Her stepson lives with her and despite some teenage turmoil, there's some real family love underneath it all.



There's a bit of a Romeo-Juliet storyline as her stepson and the niece of the mob boss who killed his father have fallen in love. That plays into several of the (comic) issues that bring the two families together and makes for odd bedfellows at times.



The last few issues deal with Ms. Tree finding out she's pregnant by {spoiler!} and kicking ass while pregnant, and then a kidnapping of her infant daughter where everyone comes together to kick ass and rescue the baby.
She does not play when it comes to family, btw.



Maybe this reflects badly on me, but I love that she is always smiling when she kills someone.
I just...I don't know. It liked her more because she didn't feel bad about it.
Embrace yourself, I say!
I also want to point out how refreshing it was to see a woman portrayed in the same way a man would be when it came to the way she was dressed. She wasn't slinking around in fishnets or a leather bodysuit. Normal clothes!
Thank you.

Recommended.

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first of what I understand is to be five volumes collecting one of the longest running comics detective series, by Max Collins (Road to Perdition) and Terry Beatty. This is not intended to be detective fiction as High Literature, it's pulp, hard-boiled fiction. I read it because Todd G suggested it and because I love Collins's Road. I hadn't recalled it at all but once I got into it I recalled this rare woman detective and must have read some floppies years ago when they came out.

The stories are not fancy, they hark back to the fifties and sixties, the art is very basic pulpy style and my general feeling reading along in this first volume was that it was maybe three stars, it was fine, not edgy and sophisticated such as Brubaker and Phillips, but it grew on me and now I want to keep reading.

Collins wanted to come out strong so instead of just giving us all the issues in chronological order he chose what he felt was his strongest work, a roughly episodic shape of a graphic novel centering on Michael Tree's encounters with the Muerta Family, and in particular Don Donnie Muerta. it's pretty good stuff, very period cheesy and fun.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Tree is a hard-boiled detective set in the modern day of the time (The 80's). It's great noir and I can't wait to read more. This is a curious collection though. Collins has cherry-picked 5 random issues from the 1990 DC run. The comic was published at several different houses during the 90's, Eclipse, Aardvark-Vanaheim, and Renegade Press before finally rolling over to DC. From an advertisement at the back, it looks like Titan is planning at least 5 volumes. I'm not sure why they just didn't print these in chronological order. Supposedly, these 5 stories constitute one big graphic novel even though the stories are all self contained and their only similarity is that they all deal with Ms. Tree's nemesis, the Muerta crime family. I would have liked to see some standard straight up detective noir thrown in, but Collins thinks this is his best work and wanted to get it out there first. Curiously, the covers were not included, but a short prose story was. The book is also printed in a smaller, non-standard comic book size.

[Jameson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without double-checking my floppies, this trade collects issues #1, 4, 7, 8, and 9 of “Ms. Tree Quarterly,” the follow-up series by DC to the fifty-issue series by a handful of smaller publishers. Boy, is it nice. I’m going to gripe a little in a sec, but just to see Ms. Tree reprinted at all, and in color, feels like Christmas. Thank you, TPTB.

Before I gripe, if you’re a fan of hard-boiled detective fiction, buy this right now. Stop reading reviews. Just buy it. I cannot fathom anybody interested enough to find themselves reading this review could possibly be disappointed in Ms. Tree. You are in for a treat. Ms. Tree is a genuine ‘bad mother,’ and you’ve probably never even heard of her. She is poised to become one of your all time favorite characters.

Now, far be it from me to second-guess TPTB, but I’d much rather they publish all of Ms. Tree chronologically. I read MAC’s justification (that sales for graphic novels usually trail off and in order for all of the issues to be hopefully published at some point it makes best business sense to start as strong as possible.) I’m a fan. The only reason I even knew of this book is because I periodically search the internet for Ms. Tree news. Usually, I’m disappointed. (How is she not a bigger deal in comics fandom or pop culture in general?!) But this smattering of issues is a wee bit disappointing. Michael Tree’s story is episodic but it’s also a great, early example of cohesive, long-form storytelling in comics. There is no Marvel Time here; there’s time. There’s no illusion of change; there’s change. And I’m not sure how these stories will read to fresh eyes (those lucky, lucky fresh eyes!) But, hey, if the numbers crunchers are right, by all means—do whatever you have to do to get these stories out into the world in this form and on my bookshelf.

Another minor gripe: the size! Good things come in small packages, sure. The panels look squished onto the page, though. Beatty’s beautiful work deserves better. Here’s hoping this is a success and in a few years’ time I’ll be leaving a five star review for the Ms. Tree Omnibus coming out to capitalize on Cinemax’s highly-praised adaptation.

Last gripe: the letters pages are missing. If you’ve read the floppies of Ms. Tree, you’ll know that hands down they are the best letters pages ever to see print. Would they be controversial to print nowadays? Sadly, yes. Does that mean they should not be reprinted? No! We need to stop memory-holing the past. No wonder people don’t think society has improved—they’re being sheltered from their own past. Max, Titan: please, when you publish the rest of Ms. Tree, have some stones and publish the letters. They’re fascinating. At least publish them as back matter. Michael Tree would approve, undoubtedly.

Well, Ms.Tree is back. God bless, Titan Comics!

Oh, and if you are one of those people that tweets about wanting strong female characters in comics, or any other medium for that matter, put your money where your mouth is and buy this book. No matter what side of the aisle you’re on, everyone can find something to love in these stories. Pure fun that’s not just for the fun of it.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally we get a top quality reprint of one of the best PI comics ever made. The only collections of this before being from the early 1980's and then nothing more. The series travelled to many a publisher and was much loved back when it was out but since then it has never been seen, and I really have no idea why!

Taking stories from later on in her publishing career, probably because they are in colour and therefore more likely to pull in readers then the earlier B&W issues, this is crime fiction at its very best. Ms Tree is a great character and these stories are just fabulous. Well done Titan for bringing them out and I hope that this is successful enough that they bring out all 5 (at least that is how many they have mooted) volumes

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

For those who are not really into graphic novels, you will change your mind when you read this one. It's everything you could want out of a Hardboiled graphic novel. Featuring a sort of "best of" Ms. Tree, a Hardboiled private eye comic that debuted in 1981. Ms. Tree is so tough and relentless you'd swear she's a female version of Spillane's Mike Hammer. You wouldn't be wrong. Collins, who wrote the Ms. Tree series is a big fan of Spillane. The storytelling here is fluid and easy to follow. The action is nonstop, as well as dark. And, Ms. Tree isn't some retro phase but a modern woman of the eighties, juggling career and motherhood. When's volume two coming out?

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great pulpy noir fun that feels of its time (the early '80s, baby! complete with ponytailed yuppies and car phones) but also pretty progressive and right on. I'm glad these got re-released with colour, definitely worth reading this century as well.


FUN FACT: According to the writer the late Raquel Welch was attached to play Michael Tree in a TV adaptation in the early '90s but the fates (and networks) dictated otherwise.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these stories when they came out in comic book form back in the '90s, and it was pleasant to revisit them in this new collection, the first volume of a new series hoping to collect all the Ms. Tree stories from their many different publishers. In an unusual choice, the creator and editors have chosen to eschew chronological order, skipping the Michael Tree's original anthology appearances and her first series run, to reprint here issues 1, 4, 7, 8 and 9 from the second series. It seems random at first glance, but as Collins points out in his introduction, the stories effectively introduce the character and have an overall arc that follows her through an unexpected pregnancy.

These tales hold up pretty well -- even if the writing and art can be a bit stiff -- and actually allow readers to see through some unusually large cracks in Ms. Tree's normally hardboiled personality. It was never one of my must-read comic books back in the day, but until now I hadn't realized how much I missed Ms. Tree and her employees at Tree Investigations, Inc. I will certainly check out future collections.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Tree: One Mean Mother is a collection of comics originally released by DC Comics written by Max Allen Collins and art by Terry Beatty.

Michael Tree is a female private eye with a quick wit and a quicker hand. Ms. Tree owns and runs her own detective Agency and has a long history with the Murray Family, and Italian mafia family who is trying to legitimize their business.

I had never heard of Ms. Tree until recently and found out it’s the longest running private eye comic. The comics have been produced Eclipse, Aardvark-Vanaheim, Renegade, and DC Comics and are now being re-released under the Hard Case Crime publishing line. Instead of releasing this comics in chronological release/publishing order, Collins curated 5 issues from the DC Comics run. I thought that was an interesting because new readers won’t get the rich history of the character but Collins though that this was some of his best work and made a cohesive story.

I really enjoyed this presentation. When I read the forward and saw how much history I was missing, I was a worried. I’m a completionist and I like reading a story from the beginning. I was going to miss YEARS of story in this collection and I thought I would have had trouble figuring out the backstory. But Collins does a great job of getting the reader caught up with any prehistory at the beginning of each issue. And each issue is a graphic novella in itself so there is a decent amount of story per issue. While I would have still preferred starting from the beginning, this was a great introduction to the character. The art is strong and consistent throughout with every character having a unique look and style. I’m really looking forward to continue to read more adventures of Ms. Tree.

[William M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a chance with this first collection of Ms. Tree crime stories and really enjoyed it. While the art is rather plain, the characters and story more than made up for it. Following the adventures of a no-nonsense female private investigator who can more than handle her own, the twists and turns had me constantly hooked. Some of the surprises and revelations were a bit predictable, but that did not dampen the overall enjoyment. This is a large graphic novel, so you really get a great value. Looking forward to the next volume.

[JW · Rating 3 out of 5]

As pulpy as I expected.

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had previously read Max Allan Collins A Killing in Comics and enjoyed it very much. Collins has had an extensive career in comics, script writing etc. so I thought it might be worth trying one of his graphic novels. Ms. Tree, Vol. 1: One Mean Mother was my choice. It's a collection of comics from the Ms. Tree collection; as he explains it in the preamble, it's a selection of ten issues (not from the beginning of the series) but what he considered the best work in the series. It starts with Gift Of Death and ends with a throw-in short story.

Ms. Tree, Michael Tree, is a PI who took over her husband's business after he was murdered on a case. Mike, her husband, was an ex-cop turned PI (yes they have the same first name). Ms. Tree now lives with her stepson (guess what, he's also a Michael), in a somewhat fractious relationship. Tree's PI business is quite successful, she has two partners and from what I we gather, a busy team of operatives. Ms. Tree is quick with her anger, her fists & her gun, all quite successful and in high heels as well. It's pulp, gritty detective stories at the best. But there is a twist; in one of the later issues Ms. Tree will discover the joys of motherhood, her softer more feminine side. But like any mother wolf, she can be one mean mother when her family is threatened.

The cases in this particular graphic novel tend to revolve around the Muerta crime family. The leader of the gang Dominic had Ms. Tree's husband murdered and she, in turn, exacted revenge on him (We learn this all in flashback. Throughout the course of this novel, Ms. Tree will have regular contact with various members of the family, both negatively and positively. Oh and young stepson is in love with the daughter of Dominic Muerta. Shades of the Montagues and Capulets, you say?

All in all, it's an action filled comic series. Excellent, crisp artwork, tense stories. Ms. Tree is super and her team (when they get in on the action) are solid and loyal. Each individual story stands on its own and the book makes a comprehensive, intertwined story. I've ordered the second book in this series and am looking forward to reading it. Give it a try (3.5 stars)

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ms. Tree reads better in prose. Love all the Hard Case Crime type dialogue. As a comic it misses the mark because the art is so basic. Rarely any background.

[Derrick Adair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun noir pulpy goodness all the way through, Ms. Tree is definitely one mean mother.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining and tough 90s noir graphic novel collection of Collins’ series in a glossy Volume 1 format, with others on the way.

Ms. Michael Tree is the no-nonsense PI that shoots first and maybe asks a question later. Great graphics support the five chronological episodes in this volume. And although the stories move a little too fast and don’t spend much time in detail, they are all rip roaring bloody fun.

Cheers to Titan for restoring these lost gems and bringing them to a fresh audience.

[Matt Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Glad to have given this a shot as I can remember advertisements for Ms. Tree in other comics I was reading at the time, but this is definitely feeling its age. For all the violence and occasional sex, these stories come off as kind of quaint - some of that is likely trying to emulate serials but it gets rather goofy at moments. I don't have much to say about the art other than it's perfectly functional and I wonder if it could have been better as a black & white.

[s.j.hannaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

🆒

Great series, the storyline is excellent as is the graphics, she really kicks ass & I will definitely be looking out for more .

[Rick Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read the occasional one off issue of Ms. Tree (those Quarterly issues put out by DC were frequently found on cheap bins of comic stores), but now I'm taking the plunge into reading through as much of Ms. Tree in collected editions I can. Titan and Max Allan Collins have opted to collect the Ms. Tree stories in more of a 'machete order' - each volume collects issues out of order to make the stories flow together better. This felt particularly true for this volume, with each issue feeding directly into the next seamlessly. So while I'm not a fan of collected editions going out of sequence, I have to admit Collins and Titan Comics did pretty good with this one. A small gripe is the reduced trim size of the book - it's quite a fair bit smaller than the single issues, but I suppose it's meant to match the aesthetic of cheap pulp paperbacks. Though if that's the case, these should be much cheaper than $25 a book. Strange pricing, given that the single issues can be found for < $2 easily and this only collects five issues.

Production issues aside, I had a great time with this. "One Mean Mother" collects five issues from the DC Quarterly series, with each issue collecting an individual case. Despite the discretized nature of the storytelling, each case leads into the next, making this collection read like a fully realized graphic novel with five individual chapters.

The first story, "Gift of Death" (from Ms. Tree Quarterly #1), re-establishes the character of Ms. Michael Tree (her father always wanted a boy) for new readers. She's a recent widow to her husband, Michael (hilariously shares the same name) and now navigates the complicated world of P.I. work while maintaining a relationship with her stepson, Mike. The story opens to Ms. Tree taking out a hitman, who is incidentally the same assassin who took out her husband. Ms. Tree connects the dots of the conspiracy to Dominique Muerta, the new leader of the Muerta crime family. I like how economical the storytelling is - very quickly does the reader understand every relevant detail about Ms. Tree and the secondary characters, and this applies to most issues in this collection.

The second story, "Drop Dead Handsome" (from Ms. Tree Quarterly #4), has Ms. Tree rekindle a childhood crush with Billy Powers, a billionaire who is on the wrong end of some extortion and marital issues. This was probably my favorite story of the bunch since the twists were extremely well laid out.

The third story, "The Family Way" (from Ms. Tree Quarterly #7), involves the Muerta family hiring Ms. Tree to take out a ruthless distant cousin who leans in hard on taking control of the organization. Ms. Tree's own personal life gets in the way, and the story ends in a hook for the next two issues.

The fourth and fifth stories, "Maternity Leave" and "One Mean Mother" (from Ms. Tree Quarterly #8-9), serve as the climax to this volume. Ms. Tree, a new mother, has to balance motherhood with her P.I. work, and her ever growing list of enemies make this an immense challenge.

What I like most about most Ms. Tree stories is that she is not portrayed as the traditional femme fatale. While she can on occasion rely on her sexuality to get ahead, she mostly is competent in all avenues of detective work. She handles herself well in a fight and applies deduction readily. Even though there are moments of camp in Ms. Tree comics, there is a baseline of storytelling rigor that Max Allan Collins goes for and it pays off. These aren't the same level of gritty noir comics that Brubaker & Phillips pull off, but it's a damn good approximation and Collins & Beatty were doing it for years before the aforementioned duo.

Terry Beatty's artwork is so good. There is a bit of a stiffness to the action, but I found it rather charming throughout. The spot colors and screentones are all extremely well applied, creating some gorgeous contrasts. As I've seen some of the Eclipse & Renegade Press issues of Ms. Tree to know that the series wasn't always in color, I think the addition of colors in the Quarterly series was really well done and a welcome addition.

If you're a fan of classic detective fiction, there's really no reason not to give Ms. Tree a shot. Given Collins' ability to write each issue in such a compressed way, you can't go wrong by picking up any random issue or volume and starting there.

[Craig Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Tree was the first and longest running female private eye in comics. Max Allan Collins' stories are a unique blend of 1950's hardboiled action mixed with commentary on social issues from the 80's and 90's. Terry Beatty's art is clean and perhaps just a shade retro. Ms. Tree herself is based on Velda, who was Mike Hammer's secretary in the Spillane novels. The premise of the series is actually based on the question: "What would happen if Mike Hammer were killed and Velda took over the agency?"

This graphic novel is the first of six trade paperbacks from Hard Case Crime that will collect the entire Ms. Tree run of comics from 1981-1993, minus a couple of crossover appearances. This volume does not start at the beginning. The author chose to kick us off with five connected novellas from the DC Comics era (Ms. Tree Quarterly, which ran from 1990-1993).

The plots of these graphic novellas are fun, if far-fetched and sometimes predictable. My only quibble is that the creators take liberties with the laws of physics every time Ms. Tree defeats a well-muscled man twice her size in hand-to-hand combat.

"Gift of Death" (1990) -- Dominique Muerta has been murdered, and Ms. Tree is the prime suspect. In order to clear her name, Tree must find out who wanted to prevent the Muerta crime syndicate from going legit. Dominque may not have been a bad sort, but some of her relatives are up to their old tricks…

"Drop Dead Handsome" (1991) -- Ms. Tree reignites an old flame for a high school sweetheart who is being shaken down by the Muerta family. Or so he says. This tale of passion and greed ends with multiple bodies strewn across multiple boudoirs…

"The Family Way" (1992) -- Ms. Tree's stepson Mike Jr. is engaged to Lisa Muerta. When Lisa is kidnapped by a crazy uncle, Ms. Tree gets entangled in a mafia power struggle inside her arch-enemy's family. This story ends on a noteworthy twist…

"Maternity Leave" (1992) -- Unexpectedly pregnant in her late thirties, Ms. Tree wrestles with guilt and regret over an abortion she had a decade ago. Plus, she gets to kill a few goons who have figured out her unborn child is the heir to a billion-dollar real estate fortune. (I don't know if the abortion story was from the earlier issues of the series or whether it was a retcon. I imagine it would have been controversial in the early 80's.) A memorable and at times poignant story…

"One Mean Mother" (1992) -- Remember that billion-dollar real estate fortune? Yeah, so do the bad guys. They're still after Tree's newborn daughter. This is going to end in a hail of bullets and death…

Next up… Ms. Tree: Skeletons in the Closet.

[Jacob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm fairly unfamiliar with the Ms. Tree series, though if I'm interpreting this volume's introduction correctly, this volume features some of the newest Ms. Tree comics, while later volumes will be older comics. Even these newer stories feel a bit dated (as they were written/released in the early 90s), but by and large this is a fun and interesting read.

Meet Ms. Michael Tree. She's a detective. She solves mysteries. Yes, her name is a pun don't worry about it. She's distinctly middle-aged, widowed, with a stepson as her only family. Ms. Tree has had issues with the Muetra family, a mob-like crime family that is, at least to the public, going straight with legitimate business. She doesn't like them and the feeling is mutual. But there's one problem for both families: Michael Tree, Jr. (Ms. Tree's stepson) is in love with a Muerta daughter.

In standard serialized fashion, multiple mysteries make up v.1, but the tension between Trees and Muertas, especially in terms of the central love that brings these two enemy families together, forms an overarching theme to unite these stories. It's a tension that allows these stories to remain compelling even today even as some of the gender dynamics feel... dated, to put it nicely. And while dated, they could have been MUCH worse. Probably the worst offender on this front is some casual anti-abortion sentiments, which is properly presented as the pregnant mother deciding for herself based on very reasonable sentiments to keep a pregnancy a lot of people would logically think would be aborted. And it's not so much that she keeps the child, or the logic she uses, but rather some of the language used that assumes a pretty clear "abortion is murder" stance. I personally didn't find it strong enough or preachy enough to be more than an "ah, interesting" sidenote as I read, especially when you consider the vintage, but it's there.

Aside from that, you've got a fun protagonist in Ms. Tree, a nice slate of side characters (especially the morally ambiguous Don Donnie), and some interesting mysteries that Ms. Tree applies her talents to.

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was puzzled why the first in a reprint series would start with some of the last stories but Collins' explains it in the intro — these form a cohesive arc so he and the artist figured it would generate the most sales which would lead to more reprints. Which makes sense, though I'd still prefer continuity.
Michael Tree was a PI's secretary, then his wife, then his widow. She became a detective herself, as much for getting revenge on her hubby's killers as anything. The series, which started in the 1980s, has solid detective yarns and a very hardboiled female lead ("When you threw him off the building did you know the fire escape was there?").
I'm a long time Ms. Tree fan but this only gets four stars. It loses points for the second story, which is so obvious I saw what was happening two pages in. And wrapping up Ms. Tree's adventures by her having a baby is way cliched, more so because they skip a lot of the stuff like sleepless nights and cranky days (nope, everything is just wonderful and she feels soooo fulfilled). Still worth reading though.

[Rex Hurst · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume collects a number of the Ms. Tree Quarterly issues published by D.C. comics in the early 90s. Unlike previous incarnations of the character, these are in color -rather than black and white – and these seem to be the tail end of the character. No new stories were published afterwards until 2007’s Deadly Beloved. The comic itself has had a weird publishing history bouncing from Eclipse, to Aardvark -Vanaheim, then finally Renegade Press where it lasted fifty issues.

The detective angle is a little thin in most of these. The stories do slope toward a soap-operaish angle. Ms. Tree’s stepson is now going out with the daughter of a hatred rival from the Muetra Crime Family. Ms. Tree becomes pregnant by a man she ends up having to kill. The baby is kidnapped, and so on, and so on. Ms. Tree is a great character, slightly crazy and trigger happy, and with a bad tendency to muscle her way through problems, this is a very fun volume.

[Ramon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Admittedly, this one was a little rough for me. I always want to like this style of comic more than I end up actually liking it, but for what it is, it's pretty good. Collins has essentially taken the old EC crime/horror/thriller/etc model and flipped a few things in it to make it a PI serial.

Ms Tree (get it) is a PI, her first name is Michael, which was also her late husband's and her stepson's name (it's a little too clever). She's a tough broad, doesn't take any shit, and while that's fun, I think having to fit these stories into comic form, where panels and page limits can only do so much, can make them sound stilted or clunky. And it's too bad, because the actual stories in here are solid crime yarns!

I definitely appreciate the attempt to fit crime narratives into this format, to be clear, and I'm glad I read this one.

[Nick LeBlanc · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-collected better than average series of pulpy "detective" fare. For my taste, it's light on mystery and detective work and heavy on revenge stories. I could also critique the lack of internal motivations and the over-reactionary nature of the protagonist, but these were comic books not novels. It was fun to read, great for a break from proper novels. The art had that 80s/early 90s style of colorful shading/lighting and anatomy that I've always thought works well for comics (particularly noirish stuff like this and Batman). Don't expect any mind-blowing story beats or character development, but it's a fun read.

[Dan Seitz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Tree is an odd mix of comic-strip soap and hardboiled violence. The inspiration from Dick Tracy is obvious, not least in how the mildly freakish villains almost inevitably wind up dead. Terry Beatty's deliberately flat, sharp-edged artwork also emphasizes the comic-strip tone.

Yet at the same time, it's decidedly different. Michael Tree faces some pretty serious consequences for her actions (something Collins hints is tied to her gender, not her crossing any sort of line) and life throws her curveballs.

As a result, it's probably one of the better hardboiled comics, and if you like the genre, in prose or comics, it's worth picking up.

[Printable Tire]

I've been slowly collecting Ms. Tree comics for cheap over the years, but being a hoarder and all I haven't read many of them and took this collection out of the library, go figure! I'm glad I like it... it's got a sorta 80's TV cop show vibe to it, like Wiseguy, Miami Vice, or even Sledge Hammer . Actually, I've never really watched those shows so I don't really know what I'm talking about, but it does have a vibe, ya gotta believe me. Sometimes the exposition is a little thick (lots of conveniently-placed portraits) but the writing is wisecrackin'. The art is nothing fancy and it's all pretty ridiculous.

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew of Max Collins from his Heller, Quarry, and Nolan novels, and I remember a lot of back-and-forth over Ms. Tree in COMICS JOURNAL in the early '90s. But with a corny title like 'Ms. Tree' I wrote it off as some sort of funny animal comic. So this volume was my first exposure to Ms. Tree and boy, was I missing out! Title aside, the stories are very good--serious, and not shy on the action and violence. I'd put them on a par with Ed Brubaker's CRIMINAL work, Jessica Jones, or Donald Westlake's Richard Stark novels. Way ahead of their time in the '80s.

[Hisham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection doesn't include the earliest Ms. Tree stories, but the first stories that were published through DC Comics. Despite this, the introduction and recaps in the stories tell you enough to appreciate the stories.

The collection includes the stories that involve Ms. Tree's pregnancy and her gradual reconciliation with the Muerta family.

The writing by Max Allan Collins and the art by Terry Beatty are both solid. It provides good hard-boiled detective fiction with a feminine touch.

[Mikel Pfeiffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read some single issues of Ms. Tree way back in the 90's and remembered liking them. I read this collection in breaks between books. Ms. Tree is pregnant in much of this one and the handling of the pregnancy and newborn baby added some emotional depth to the stories. As a whole it's a very enjoyable comic with good writing and artwork. Ms. Tree is a strong, gritty Detective and her life outside of her work is always interesting. The short story wasn't the best but it was an extra so it's hard to downgrade it on that.

[Jake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining but after the initial story, I was hoping for more. Instead, it was the same story rewritten in different ways...
1. Ms. Tree reminiscing on the past while ruing the present.
2. A shadowy man appears.
3. Chaos
4. Something to do with the Muerta Family
5. Ms Tree saves the day

Again, entertaining but I thought these would have a broader reach and was a bit disappointed when they didn't.