Motivated by his love of comic books and art, Hamill went to art school and became a graphic artist after a period of drifting and living in Mexico. He eventually landed a job at the New York Post, which turned into a writing job and a regular, widely read column. A heavy drinker, Hamill finally quit on New Year’s Eve in 1972. His memoir A Drinking Life (1995) describes his lifelong relationship with alcohol and draws a colorful picture of life in Brooklyn in the 1940s and 1950s. In addition to non-fiction works and journalism collections, Hamill has penned 10 novels and two books of short stories.