Ms. Tree

Ms. Tree was a comic book series and character co-created by writer Max Allan Collins and the series' artist Terry Beatty. In addition to its obvious play on the word "mystery", Ms. Tree was also the name of the series' main character.

Character Biography and Synopsis

The title character is Michael Tree, a female private detective who takes over her husband's investigation business when he is murdered. In her first case, she captures the murderer and discovers his link to the Muerta organized crime family.

Ms. Tree's dead husband was named Michael Tree, the joke being that after the marriage they had the same name. (The female main character's real first name actually is Michael; when friends want to irritate her they deliberately mispronounce it as "Michelle." Michael Tree hates being called Michelle.) Series creator/writer Max Allan Collins makes no secret of the fact that Ms. Tree was inspired by Velda, Mike Hammer's secretary, a stacked, gun carrying, six-foot tall brunette and Mike's lover, who was almost as tough as he was. The basic premise of Ms. Tree was, "What if Velda and Mike Hammer eventually got married, and on their honeymoon he was murdered?"

Throughout the series, in addition to isolated cases that often touch on social issues of the day, Ms. Tree's vendetta against the Muerta family is a major plot thread. Her methods often include deadly violence which she uses with little hesitation. In contrast to genre conventions, she faces serious consequences throughout the series for these violent actions including arrest, imprisonment, commitment to a mental hospital, and involuntary medication.

In another genre divergence, the male Michael Tree's son, Mike (of course), inadvertently falls in love with the daughter of the Muerta matron. The female Michael disapproves of this arrangement but respects her stepson's decision while observing with amusement the Muerta matron's futile attempts to discourage it. To Ms. Tree's shock, when the relationship grows enough to make marriage probable, the Muerta family decides Mike's stepmother is now family and initiates a reconciliation with her while going legit.

In addition, Michael is impregnated by an old flame who is manipulating her to kill his wife. She decides to keep the baby, creating a unique series of adventures of this homicidal PI fighting off criminals even while dealing with a full term pregnancy while the mob family she hates moves to protect her in their own way.

Hard Case Crime

In 2007, Hard Case Crime published Deadly Beloved, the first novel about Ms. Tree and the character's first appearance in 14 years. The book was written by Max Allan Collins, with a painted cover by Ms. Tree co-creator Terry Beatty.

Topicality

Ms. Tree was extraordinary in that it frequently dealt with controversial political and sexual issues, yet never used that as a venue to push a particular biased opinion. As Kevin Burton Smith, editor of the Thrilling Detective Web Site put it, "How many other P.I.s have...dealt with the topics of homophobia, abortion [and bombing of abortion clinics], devil worship, child pornography, date rape and incest? And not just dealt with them, but asked some pretty damn hard questions that aren't easily answered by either end of the political spectrum. And all this in a comic book! It's a shame how many readers will never know of the existence of this series (due to the medium) because Ms. Tree is one of the most thought-provoking, and entertaining, private eyes around."

Parentage

One of the series' conceits, often alluded to in the narrative but never acknowledged explicitly in the comic books, is that its title character is the daughter of Dragnet protagonist Joe Friday. In Deadly Beloved we finally see the character, pre-marriage, referred to as "Miss Friday".

Weaponry

Throughout much of the series, Ms. Tree is armed with a Sterling .380 - a poor quality handgun. Eventually Collins reconsidered and had her carry a SIG P225 9mm, a far more serious choice.

The character frequently uses her handbag as a weapon, bludgeon style swung on the end of its straps, which, weighted with her SIG, proves a 9mm can stop people in more ways than one.

Production

Ms. Tree's adventures were published by four different comic book companies including Eclipse Comics, Aardvark-Vanaheim, Renegade Press, and finally DC Comics.

Her introduction and first storyline appeared in the first six issues of Eclipse Magazine, a newsstand-magazine-sized, black-and-white anthology title; shortly thereafter Eclipse began featuring the character in her own black-and-white, regularly sized comic book. The first three issues of the Eclipse Comics series were titled Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Stories. This was shortened to Ms. Tree with issue #4.

Most storylines were multi-issue affairs. A notable exception was DC Comics' Ms. Tree Quarterly (renamed Ms. Tree Special for its last two issues) which was comic-sized but much thicker than a typical comic book, with a much higher page count, and presented a full-color, complete Ms. Tree story in every issue.

Publication History

Eclipse Comics

• "I, for an Eye", Eclipse Magazine #1, May 1981 (first appearance of Ms. Tree) thru #6, July 1982
• "Death Do Us Part" (1982, Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Stories #1-3)
• "The Cold Dish" (1983, Ms. Tree #4-8)
• "Murder at Mohawk" (1984, Ms. Tree #9)

Aardvark-Vanaheim

• "Deadline" (1984, Ms. Tree #10-13)
• "Skin Deep" (1984, Ms. Tree #14-15)

Aardvark-Vanaheim/Renegade Press co-publishers

• "Runaway" (1985, Ms. Tree #16-17)
• "Muerta Means Death" Part 1 (1985, Ms. Tree #18)

Renegade Press

• "Muerta Means Death" Parts 2-4 (1985, Ms. Tree #19-21)
• "Right to Die" (1985, Ms. Tree #22-23)
• "Prisoner in Cell Block Hell" (1985, Ms. Tree #24-25)
• "Heroine Withdrawal" (1986, Ms. Tree #26-27)
• "Roger's Story" (1986, Ms. Tree #28)
• "The Other Cheek" (1986, Ms. Tree #29-31)
• "Runaway II" (1986, Ms. Tree #32-34)
• "New Year's Evil" (1986, Ms. Tree #35)
• "When Dynamite Explodes" (1987, Ms. Tree #36)
• "Like Father" (1987, Ms. Tree #37-40)
• "Coming of Rage" (1987, Ms. Tree #41-44)
• "Murder Cruise" (1988, Ms. Tree #45-48)
• "Fallen Tree" (1989, Ms. Tree #49-50)
• "Death, Danger and Diamonds" (1985, Ms. Tree 3-D)
• "Music to Murder By" (1986, Ms. Tree Rock & Roll Summer Special)

DC Comics

• "Gift of Death" (1990, Ms. Tree Quarterly #1)
• "The Devil's Punchbowl" (1990, Ms. Tree Quarterly #2)
• "Skeleton in the Closet" (1990, Ms. Tree Quarterly #3)
• "Drop Dead Handsome" (1991, Ms. Tree Quarterly #4)
• "Cry Rape" (1991, Ms. Tree Quarterly #5)
• "Horror Hotel" (1991, Ms. Tree Quarterly #6)
• "The Family Way" (Spring 1992, Ms. Tree Quarterly #7)
• "Maternity Leave" (Summer 1992, Ms. Tree Quarterly #8)
• "One Mean Mother" (1992, Ms. Tree Special #9)
• "To Live and Die in Vietnam" (1993, Ms. Tree Special #10)

Hard Case Crime

• Deadly Beloved (Novel) (2007)

Other Appearances

Ms. Tree had her own one-issue 3-D comic, called, appropriately enough, Ms. Tree 3-D. Every issue of this throwback to the 1950s (in 1985!) came with its own pair of 3-D spectacles.

First Comics published a three-issue limited series entitled The P.I.s, a cross-over story featuring Ms. Tree and Michael Mauser.

Max Allan Collins has written four Ms. Tree prose short stories. "Red Light" (1984) and "The Little Woman" (1985) appeared in issues #1 and #2 of The Files of Ms. Tree. "Louise" (1992) and "Inconvenience Store" (1994) appeared in the prose anthologies Deadly Allies and Deadly Allies #2.

Collections

• The Files of Ms. Tree (1984) reprints “I, for an Eye” (Eclipse Magazine #1-6) and “Death Do Us Part” (Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Stories #1-3)
• The Cold Dish: The Files of Ms. Tree, Volume 2 (1985) reprints "The Cold Dish" (Ms. Tree #4-8)
• The Mike Mist Casebook: The Files of Ms. Tree, Volume 3 (1986) reprints "Murder at Mohawk" (Ms. Tree #9)
• Ms. Tree (1988, small paperback collection, reprints Ms. Tree #16-23)

External links

• Page on Ms. Michael Tree
• Ms. Tree at The Comic Book Database
• Ms. Tree Quarterly (1990) at The Comic Book Database
• Ms. Tree at Don Markstein's Toonopedia