Spillane wrote only four Tiger Mann novels: Day of the Gun (1964), Bloody Sunrise (1965), The Death Dealers (1965), and The By-Pass Control (1967). Although the series sold well (almost all of Spillane's books have sold well) they did not by any means equal the Mike Hammer series in popularity. By the late 1960s, Spillane was interested in developing some of his nonseries ideas.

The genesis for wanting to branch out a bit probably developed during the 1950s when he temporarily stopped writing Mike Hammer novels and spent almost ten years working on shorter fiction for the men's magazine market, a period when he was released from the series restrictions and could expand his characters and plot ideas.