Which author created the detective Mike Hammer?

The author who created the detective Mike Hammer is Mickey Spillane. Hammer first appeared in Spillane’s 1947 debut novel, I, the Jury, a hard-boiled crime story set in New York. The detective is a tough, violent private investigator whose cases combine personal revenge, sexual danger, and underworld intrigue.

Spillane originally developed the character for comics. Earlier versions were called Mike Lancer and Mike Danger, but he transformed the concept into Mike Hammer when he rewrote it as a novel. I, the Jury became a major bestseller, helping establish Spillane as one of the most commercially successful crime writers of the twentieth century.

Hammer is sometimes confused with detectives created by other hard-boiled writers, including Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade. Spillane also played Hammer himself in the 1963 film The Girl Hunters. After Spillane’s death, Max Allan Collins completed additional Hammer manuscripts and stories.