Collins was born in 1948 in Muscatine, Iowa.

He received an A.A. from Mescaline Community College and a B.A. and an M.F.A from the University of Iowa.

He has worked as a professional musician and songwriter and has taught English, journalism, and creative writing at the college level.

He has also authored the Dick Tracy comic strip (1977-93) and a number of novelizations of films as well as novels based on characters from televison series.

In the St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, Jon L Breen quotes Collins as saying:

For many years now I've been in love with the private-eye novel: the lean prose, the sharp dialogue, the understated poetry at least as found in the works of those three proponents of the form, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Mickey Spillane. ("Max Allan Collins")

Breen again quotes Collins:

But when I began writing my own suspense novels in the early 1970s I found myself uncomfortable with the private eye: my heroes tended to be antiheroes, perhaps reflecting the troubled times around me as I worked. ("Max Allan Collins")

• Dick Tracy comic strip (1977-93)
• a series of suspense novels featuring Nolan, a thief who does detective work
• a series of novels about Mallory, a small-town mystery writer who also solves crimes
• a series of novels and stories about Quarry, a Vietnam veteran and hired killer
• a series of novels set in the 1930s and featuring Nate Heller, a former Chicago policeman who is now a private investigator
• Road to Perdition (1998), a graphic novel
  • made into a film of the same name

InfoMarks (About InfoMarks)

• Max Allan Collins, Jr. in Contemporary Authors Online

• F.O.M.A.C. (Friends/Family/Fans of Max Alan Collins), the author's official web site, maintained by his son Nate