There’s always a thrill visiting with old girlfriends. Years ago, I visited one, and we ended up getting married!

Ms. Tree wasn’t exactly a girlfriend, but I certainly loved her comics series over the years. Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty created this tough female detective with a nod and wink to their favorite detectives (Mike Hammer, Dragnet’s Joe Friday, etc. ), and detective genres, but she became her own thing.

Fans like me followed her exploits amongst various publishers for years. Recently, Titan Comics, through their brilliant Hard Case Imprint has been reprinting the entire collection of Ms. Tree comics. It’s all in a fun format: sturdy paperbacks that are little-smaller-than-a-comic.

Beatty’s straight-ahead artwork really pops in this reduced format. Italian artist Claudia Caranfa outdid herself with this stunning cover. But don’t worry, Terry Beatty’s glorious original covers are included within each of these volumes. Surprisingly, these archival editions have not been printed sequentially, but that’s made it even more fun.

I just love this Titan series, and I’ve written about it before here.

This year at San Diego Comic-Con, Max Allan Collins was on hand as the publisher was excited to showcase his Ms. Tree work and his new Mike Hammer/Mickey Spillane book. Back in August, I reviewed that one, Baby, It’s Murder, as part of With Further Ado’s annual Beach Books column.

Ms. Tree: Fallen Tree brings this reprint celebration to a close. This final volume reprints the last few issues from Ms. Tree’s “original run” at Renegade Press (issues #35 and # 37-to-the-end-at #50). They are peppy, on-point, and hold up so very, very well. Max Allan Collins editorial is entitled “The Last Great Ms. Tree Project”, so it really feels like the party’s over. It’s bittersweet to say to goodbye to a woman you’ve loved for a second time.

Thanks to the one-and-only Andrew Sumner for his engaging and entertaining series of SDCC/Max Allan Collins panels and enthusiastic support of this project.