Ms. Tree - The Cold Dish (The Third Ms. Tree Graphic Novel)

It felt SO good to sit down and read this third collection of Ms. Tree stories from Titan Comics.  For those who haven't read my prior posts (about Ms. Tree collected editions Volumes 1 and 2), I have been a fan of this series since way back in the early 1980s when I walked into my local comic store in Louisville, Kentucky (The Great Escape, a fantastic store which, by the way, is still there on Bardstown Road!) and saw that cover to Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures no. 1, with the title character standing with her back against a wall, wearing that iconic blue trench coat shooting at an unseen assailant.  Being a fan of crime/mystery novels and being a fan of female-led comics, this was a no brainer.  I picked up that first issue, despite its $1.00 cover price (DC and Marvel comics, which had pretty much been my only source of comics up until that point, were still only 60 cents per issue back then), and I was quickly hooked.  The story by Max Allan Collins quickly drew me in ... the character, particularly Ms. Michael Tree herself, were not your standard superhero fare that I was used to at that point ... and the art by Terry Beatty - well, all I can is WOW!  This book literally had it all!  (NOTE - I had not realized at the time that Ms. Tree had starred in a six-part serialized story in Eclipse Comics, a magazine size anthology comic published by Eclipse - it wasn't until years later that I was able to finally track those issues down and read that "origin" story.)

Anyway, Ms. Tree: The Cold Dish collects that initial six-part story (reprinted here in its original black-and-white format), as well as the first two stories told in Eclipse's ongoing series, which came out in issues one through eight, and a special Ms. Tree/Mike Mist cross-over story from issue nine (which happened to be the last issue published by Eclipse Comics before the series switched publishers).  For those who don't know, Mike Mist was a Collin/Beatty creation that was a one-page strip in each issue of Ms. Tree with a murder for Mist to solve (and the reader had the opportunity to figure it out before turning the comic upside down to read the solution at the bottom of the last panel of each story).  Those first issues also featured a back-up story of a character called "The Scythe," as well as centerfold pin-up pages drawn by Frank Miller (one of which, in issue four, happened to be my very own favorite female sleuth, Nancy Drew!).  And I'm probably one of the very people in the world who actually liked that Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures title to the comic - I know that Collins hated the name - but by issue four, the title became simply Ms. Tree, which lasted until the end of the series, and on into the DC Comics series (which issues were reprinted in the first two volumes of the Titan collection).  

All that aside, re-reading these stories brought back so many good memories for me.  Memories of rushing to The Great Escape each week, hoping the next issue came out.  The excitement I felt when I saw a new issue on the shelf.  The anxiety I felt when I finished reading that issue and knew I would have to wait a whole 'nother month before the next issue came out (and, well, let's face it - with independent comics back then, a "monthly" schedule was not always monthly!).  And the absolute thrill I felt when one story finished and a new one began!

"I, for an Eye" tells the story of how Ms. Michael Friday met detective Michael Tree, became his secretary, then his partner, and then his wife.  And how, on their honeymoon, Mr. Michael Tree was murdered.  And how Ms. Michael Tree (simply Ms. Tree now, an obvious play on the word "mystery") took over her husband's detective agency and set about hunting down her husband's killer.  There is a clear difference in the art style here than in the ongoing monthly title that came out after - not sure if it's black-and-white versus color, or if it's because Beatty was getting his feet wet with the characters in the Eclipse magazine serial, or some other reason.  Ms. Tree still basically looks the same, but a number of the other characters resemble Dick Tracy-style characters.  It's also in this six-parter that readers meet Anne Tree, Mike's first wife, as well as Mike, Jr. (his son by his first wife); we are introduced to Dan Green and Roger Freemont, the licensed investigators in the detective agency; we meet Effie, the secretary who fills Ms. Tree's position; and we get the notion that there are mob dealings at work behind the scenes...

"Death Do Us Part" is the seven-part story that appeared in the first three issues of Ms. Tree's Thrilling Detective Adventures (yes, I'm going to say that as many times as I can, since this is the only chance I'll get!).  Mike Tree is dead, his killer has been caught, and Ms. Tree is now having to deal with the aftermath.  Coping with the loss of a loved one is never easy, particularly when it's your husband and you lose him in such a brutal way on your wedding night.  So, Ms. Tree is seeing a psychiatrist, who recommends a vacation to get away from it all.  The only problem is, the vacation setting resembles an on-going dream she has been having - and when a young couple are gunned down on Ms. Tree's first night at the mountain getaway, it seems she is back in the thick of things.  It's in this story we meet Sgt. Rafe Valer, a trusted friend of Ms. Tree's deceased husband; we also learn more about Dominic Muerta, the mob boss who may have had a connection to her husband's death.  The art here is definitely more refined, as Beatty is beginning to get into the groove with all of the characters, but I'll be honest - one of the best things I love about these early issues is the lettering.  The lettering is exact, almost typewriter-like, and reading it makes me feel like I'm reading a novel, only with the pictures attached.  I loved this back when I first picked up the comic, and I still love it today.  I think it gave Ms. Tree something distinct that other comics did not have, and I was sad to see the book go with more traditional lettering with issue five. 

 

"The Cold Dish" is a ten-part story that ran from issue four through issue eight of Ms. Tree (yes, the "Thrilling Detective Adventures got dropped after issue three), and was by far probably the biggest story of Ms. Tree's long list of adventures, as it had so many life-altering events that occurred within it.  Anne Tree was killed - Mike Jr. went to live with Ms. Tree - Mr. Bryan Hand, a specially trained tutor enters the picture to teach and protect Mike Jr. - Ms. Tree confronts Dominic Muerta for the first time, igniting the feud that fuels many a story in this series - the offices of Ms. Tree's detective agency are blown to bits - Dan Green suffers some life-changing injuries - I mean, the list goes on and on.  The story picks up literally right after the end of "Death Do Us Part," as the police chief is none-too-pleased that Ms. Tree is walking away scott-free after having killed several people ("They killed each other" is her story).  And as always, there is no rest for the weary, because before you know it, Anne Tree asks Ms. Tree to take Mike Jr. if something should happen to her - which it quickly does. This starts a feud with Anne's parents, who believe Mike Jr. should be with them.  Meanwhile, Ms. Tree believes someone wanted Anne dead, and she soon discovers why - Anne had information on corruption with the police force, connections to the Muerta mob family, that she was going to turn over to the state attorney.  The violence is definitely upped in this story, which is the longest Ms. Tree story at this point.  The art remains consistently beautiful, and other than the change in lettering style, I am still in awe of this book!

"Murder at Mohawk" is a self-contained, one-issue story where Ms. Tree teams up with Mike Mist to solve a murder that has ties to an old bank robbery from some years back.  Mist is there to act as bodyguard to a writer researching the story.  Ms. Tree is there to get some peace and rest after the events of the past few months.  But when a supposed suicide turns out to be murder, the two detectives team-up to figure out just who killed the man and how that connects to the famous crime that occurred at the hotel some thirty years prior.  It is a true Agatha Christie-style mystery, with all of the suspects front and center, each with their own story to tell and each with a reason to kill the man.  This story was fun, because it was the first time (at least, in this comic) that we see Mike Mist spending more than just a few panels and one page to solve a murder!  Sadly, this was also the last issue published by Eclipse Comics, as well as the last full-color issue of Ms. Tree until the comic was picked up by DC Comics some years later.

The collection is rounded off with two short prose stories:  "Red Light," which originally appeared in The Files of Ms. Tree, Volume One, and "The Little Woman," which originally appeared in The Files of Ms. Tree, Volume Two.  These volumes were printed back in the '80s by Aardvark-Vanheim Press and Renegade Press, respectively, and collected the same stories reprinted in this Titan collection, only they were reprinted in black-and-white in those collections.  

This volume of stories is probably my favorite of all of them, simply because it was my first introduction to Ms. Tree back in the 1980s, and it began my love of independent comics in general (it is because of this comic that I tried DNAgents, Somerset Holmes, Elementals, Jon Sable, Freelance, and so many more indy comics back in the day!).  But more than that, the story and the art worked so seamlessly together that I felt like I was not only reading, but I was "seeing" a crime detective novel come to life right in front of me.  I still keep hoping and praying that one of these days Collins and Beatty will team up for more Ms. Tree thrilling detective adventures, because Ms. Tree deserves more stories!

RATING:  10 sand-plugged gun barrels out of 10 for creating the perfect female detective and telling some of the absolute best stories out there in any market!