The Rook is a New Pulp hero created by Barry Reese. Barry mixes in pulp hero, comic book and comic strip characters into his stories, along with occult horror/weird menace — and does a good job. I’ve read and reviewed the prior books of this character.
“The Rook, Vol. 6,” is filled with short stories set in the ’30s and ’40s, and also marks a move from Barry’s old publisher, Wild Cat Books, to Pro Se Productions. The quality hasn’t slipped. In fact, one thing that frustrated me with WCB was the problems with typesetting and proofreading, which seems absent in this volume.
Also included is the latest “Rook Timeline” that places all the stories in the Rook Universe that have been published so far (or soon will be), including the ones in this volume.
This collection has three stories: first is a very long one, then a very brief one, and a sort of medium-length one.
The first story has The Rook go up against Sun Koh. Sun Koh is an actual, real, German “pulp” hero, a sort of “Nazi Doc Savage.” He has been recently revised in the United States by Art Sippo, and Barry used him with Art’s permission. Barry comes up with a way to explain how Sun Koh could exist in the world of The Rook that doesn’t upset things, as well as explain what happened to Sun Koh between the cancellation of his pulp series in 1938 and his appearance in this story set in 1942. Also introduced in this story is a trio of Axis female warriors. They can be seen on the cover.
Another character who makes a too-brief appearance is Rush Randall. Many may not be aware of Rush, but he’s actually a very short-lived Doc clone. He appeared in only one story, written by Doc author William Bogart from a rejected Doc novel. Black Dog Books has reprinted this in their “The Adventurers” collection. Also making an appearance is Ascott Keane, who battles Doctor Satan and has appeared before in Rook stories.
Next is a short story with The Rook dealing with a vengeful ghost.
The final story also serves as an introduction to Barry’s new character, Lazarus Gray. I think this is his first appearance. At this time, 3 Lazarus Gray books are out. See my posts on them. At least two more are in the works.
Overall, this is a great book. If you like The Rook, you will like this one.
