Rex Miller
Rex Miller was a multifaceted American creator known for his work as a disc jockey, collector, and author, particularly recognized for his horror and suspense novels. His most notable work features the character Jack Eichord, a homicide detective, introduced in his debut novel "Slob," which explores the chilling pursuit of a morbidly obese serial killer. This novel earned a nomination for the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and marked the beginning of the Chaingang series. Outside of the horror genre, Miller wrote "Saint Louis Blues" and "Profane Men," the latter set during the Vietnam War. He also contributed short stories to notable anthologies. Born in 1939 in St. Joseph, Missouri, Miller had a brief but colorful career in radio, known for his humor and unique style, before transitioning to a successful mail-order business focused on collectibles. Unfortunately, his later years were marked by health struggles, and he passed away at the age of sixty-five. Miller's legacy includes his contributions to both literature and the collectibles community, reflecting a distinctive blend of creativity and passion.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Rex Miller
Writer
- Born: April 25, 1939
- Birthplace: St. Joseph, Missouri
- Died: May 21, 2004
- Place of death: Sikeston, Missouri
Biography
Disc jockey, collector, and author Rex Miller is best known for his horror and suspense novels featuring homicide detective Jack Eichord, who appeared in Miller’s first novel, Slob. The novel recounts Eichord’s efforts to track Edward Bunkowski, a morbidly obese serial killer, the slob of the title. Slob was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and was the first book in the Chaingang series of novels featuring either Eichord or Bunkowski.
Miller wrote two novels outside of the suspense genre, Saint Louis Blues, released in a limited edition, and Profane Men, set during the Vietnam War. Some of Miller’s short stories were anthologized and appeared in the collections Hot Blood: Tales of Provocative Horror (1989), Masques 3 (1989), and The Crow: Shattered Lives and Broken Dreams (1998).
Miller was born Rex Miller Spangberg in 1939 in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of Victor and Dixie Miller Spangberg. He worked in radio while he was in high school and then briefly attended junior college, dropping out to study broadcasting at the Elkins Institute of Radio in Dallas, Texas. He worked as a radio announcer and engineer beginning in the late 1950’s. Miller had engineering and announcer positions at radio stations around the country, including WNOX in Knoxville, Tennessee, and KQV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he became an immensely popular and zany overnight disc jockey soon after his arrival in 1968. Miller was talented, knowledgeable, and extremely funny but undisciplined, and he lacked a commitment to radio; after he had been on the overnight position at KQV for only a few months, he accepted a job in Charlotte, North Carolina, but he never showed up to work, provoking the station to enlist its listeners in an on-air search for him.
Miller abandoned his radio career in 1971 and started his own mail-order business, selling memorabilia, particularly theatrical, film, and comic character items. He became an expert on these characters and on juvenile collectibles in general, including old-time radio premiums. In addition to his horror writing, he wrote several price guides on these toys and was respected by collectors for researching and documenting the development and marketing histories of many familiar comic characters. Miller’s mail-order business continued until 1998, when he suffered a stroke and became too ill to continue working. Like his serial killer character Bunkowski, Miller had been obese for most of his life, weighing more than three hundred pounds. He required a special chair in the radio booth to accommodate his size.
Miller spent the last years of his life going in and out of hospitals and nursing homes. He died at the age of sixty-five at a hospital in Sikeston, Missouri. He had been married to Carol McCormack but they had divorced, and at the time of his death his only surviving relatives were three cousins living in Washington state, Colorado, and Kentucky. He is buried in Mounds Cemetery in New Madrid, Missouri.