Meet Silver John

Manly Wade Wellman (1902-1986) wrote several occult detectives over the years as a pulp writer.

But Wellman’s most well-known occult detective is John the Balladeer (sometimes called Silver John), though “detective” may be a poor term for him. Set in the mid-20th century, John (no last name is ever given) wanders the Appalachians with his silver-stringed guitar, learning and sharing folk songs, and confronting evil.

We don’t know much about John. No idea if he has a family (unlikely), and only later is there a love interest. He is a veteran of the Korean War. He also holds to a simple Gospel-based Christianity, but seems to have no problem with simple “folk magic” as opposed to “black magic.” In the stories, a real book of such folk remedies is “The Long Lost Friend.” The Manly Wade Wellman website, The Voice of the Mountains, did an edition you can get off Lulu.com.

On his travels, John comes across matters he gets involved in. He confront problems and evil. He also confronts the Shonokins (John Thunstone also dealt with them) and other mythical beasts. Now, I have never been sure if or how much of these creatures are from actual Appalachian folklore or from Wellman’s imagination — or a mix of both.

The Shonokins are a sort of “aboriginal people of the land,” who ruled America before the coming of man. They look human, but have cat-like eyes and their ring finger is the longest. They play a big part in the novel “After Dark.” Some of the other creatures include the Bammat, which seems to be a woolly mammoth that wanders the woods undetected, almost like the Loch Ness Monster. There is the Gardinel, which looks like an abandoned house, but woe to the traveler who enters it, because they have entered the creature’s stomach. And there are others like Flats, Tollers, and Skims.

John appeared in a dozen stories in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from 1951 to 1963, then came back in more short stories in the 1980s and for five novels. While there are a couple of collections of the short stories out there, the novels have not been reprinted since they first appeared. But I’ve heard a publisher is going to come out with a complete collection that will include the novels.

The short story collections are:

•  “Who Fears the Devil?” (Arkham House, 1963)
•  “John the Balladeer” (Baen Books, 1988)
•  “Owls Hoot in Daytime and Other Omens” (Nightshade Books, 2003)
•  “Who Fears the Devil?” (Paizo Publishing, 2010)

The first collection has fewer works, as there were additional stories written after it appeared. Further, it tried to arrange the stories into a sort of “pseudo-novel.” The others do not do this. And supposedly the Paizo collection has two additional stories that weren’t in the others, having John before he got his silver-stringed guitar.

The novels are:

•  “The Old Gods Waken” (1979)
•  “After Dark” (1980)
•  “The Lost and Lurking” (1981)
•  “The Hanging Stones” (1982)
•  “Voice of the Mountain” (1984)

The last one only appeared in hardcover. A further novel was planned, to be titled “Valley So Low,” but Wellman died before writing it. The title was used for a collection of his Appalachian stories.

“The Old Gods Waken” has John confronting a group of Druids who are trying to setup shop in the Appalachians. As noted, “After Dark” has the Shonokins, as they try to trick John into restoring them to power. “The Lost and the Lurking” has a witch trying to sacrifice John in a bid for power. When a wealthy industrialist tries to build an amusement park, with the centerpiece being a recreation of Stonehenge, John along with Judge Pursuivant, must stop him in “The Hanging Stones.” While trying to discover the mystery of Cry Mountain, John must confront the creatures there and the sorcerer that controls them in “Voice of the Mountain.”

Other media

Believe it or not, there is a Silver John movie. “The Legend of Hillbilly John,” a low-budget movie was released in 1973. I have never seen it. You can apparently get it on DVD, and there are clips you can watch on YouTube.   Nothing I’ve read about it sounds likes it any good.

Sequential Pulp/Dark Horse is working on a graphic novel collection of adaptions of Silver John stories. I look forward to it.

Inspirations

Silver John has inspired other characters. David Drake, a friend of Wellman’s, wrote a novel “Old Nathan,” that was inspired by the Silver John stories. I thought it was pretty good.

I also feel that some of the Hellboy stories (I’ll get to him soon) seem inspired by Wellman, especially the ones where he is wandering around and encounters evil creatures from folklore. Some of the recent Hellboy stories drawn by Richard Corben, especially “The Crooked Man,” were done in clear homage to Wellman, and it shows (in a good way).

So if you are looking for a different kind of occult investigator, check Silver John out. I am hoping the planned complete collection will be out soon.