Макс Коллинз - Road to Perdition

As the author of the original graphic novel Road to Perdition (1998), I am in the unusual position of basing a novel on another writer’s screenplay... based on my own work.

Having written numerous movie tie-in novels — including one for a previous Tom Hanks/DreamWorks production, Saving Private Ryan (1998) — I felt a prose version of that three-hundred-page comic-book novel was called for. I feared the original illustrated book would not reach readers who do not regularly partake of the comics medium... which is unfortunate, as that medium is as vital and compelling as motion pictures themselves.

I have done my best to honor David Self’s fine and faithful screenplay, and am particularly grateful to him for heightening the Mike O’Sullivan/John Looney father-and-son relationship; at the same time, I’ve expanded his fundamentally condensed version of my narrative with material culled from the graphic novel, as well as adding new elements designed to bridge those two sources.

Both John and Connor Looney existed, the latter truly nicknamed Crazy Connor, and a loosely factual basis underlies this tale. Much of the background the narrator provides at the start of each chapter is true.

I stumbled across the story of the Looneys in researching True Detective (1983), the first of my Nathan Heller novels, one of three books comprising the Frank Nitti Trilogy . My research associate on those books, George Hagenauer, offered information and insights during the writing of this work, as well.

The time frame of this novel is consistent with history where Al Capone and Frank Nitti are concerned; however, much of the Looney material is moved up in time from the 1920s (though Looney’s organization and the Capone mob were indeed connected). A few other liberties have been taken; the screenplay’s use of the Lone Ranger (I had used Tom Mix exclusively in the graphic novel) had a nice resonance for me, and I retained it — though that character did not make its radio debut until January 1933.

My late friend Bj Elsner’s Rock Island: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1988) was a key reference work for both this novel and the original graphic novel. Elsner also provided further background material and came through like a champ at a difficult time (our mutual friend, author David Collins, died during the writing of this book).

Thanks also to Bill Wundrum of the Quad City Times . Bill got me interested in John Looney in the first place, when I approached him while doing Nathan Heller research; for this novel, I drew upon articles of Bill’s as well as several of his locally produced books about the Quad Cities (the Tri-Cities, in John Looney’s day). Bill and I met, incidentally, at the Lexington Hotel, the night Geraldo opened Al Capone’s vault.

Among many gangland reference works consulted were Capone (1971), John Kobler; Capone (1994), Lawrence Bergreen; The Legacy of Al Capone (1975), George Murray; and Mr. Capone (1992), Robert J. Schoenberg. Various WPA Guides on the states through which the O’Sullivans travel were also used, as was the fine historical picture book I Remember Distinctly: A Family Album of the American People in the Years of Peace: 1918 to Pearl Harbor (1947) by Agnes Rogers and Frederick Lewis Allen. Also, I used the article “Smashing Rock Island’s Reign of Terror” by O. F. Claybaugh in the December 1930 issue of Master Detective .

Dean Zanuck and his late father, Richard — producers of the motion picture Road to Perdition — went out of their way to see that this novel came “home” to me. Kristy Cox of DreamWorks was generous with photographic materials and updated scripts; it might be of interest that this novel, like most movie “novelizations” (dreaded word), was by necessity written before I had access to the film. Writers of movie tie-in novels almost always are imagining what the film will be, working (like a director) with a screenplay and creating their own version.

I would also like to acknowledge the illustrator of the original graphic novel, Richard Piers Rayner, who so wonderfully brought this story to life; his artistry had much to do with attracting the attention of Hollywood to this material. Thanks, too, to Andrew Helfer, the graphic novel’s editor, whose story sense was unerring; without Andy’s dedication to this project, and his belief in it, none of this would have happened. Thank you Paul Levitz of DC Comics for publishing the graphic novel, and helping clear the bramble of rights to enable the writing of this prose version. I urge readers who enjoy this novel — and/or the Sam Mendes film version — to seek out our original work.

I would also like to thank my wife Barbara Collins and son Nathan, for their love, inspiration, and support; my friend and agent, Dominick Abel; and Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, for liking my story.