I previously reviewed John L. French‘s pulp hero the Grey Monk. Well, French has written other works, including several stories with a different pulp hero: The Nightmare.
After six stories scattered in different collections and anthologies from as many publishers, those stores plus three new ones are collected in The Nightmare Strikes! Published by Padwolf Publishing in 2015, this is near-complete collection of this character. Unless he’s written further works I’m not aware of.
So who is The Nightmare? A pulp hero is the mode of The Shadow or The Spider, and set in the same time period. He is really Michael Shaw, wealthy man about town. While The Nightmare goes after criminals like those heroes, he also at times deals with inhuman evil as well. However, he is not what I’d call an occult detective, as he doesn’t seek this out nor does he have any special skills or knowledge in the area. Some may take issue with this, as these stories aren’t “pure pulp,” though the character is. In a few of the stories he encounters or works with other pulp heroes created by others, and in several there are mention of others as well (hopefully you can figure out who is being referenced).
His origin is touched on, but we don’t see it. No “origin story.” Basically, when the daughter of his chauffeur is shot during a gang war, he takes action as The Nightmare. And continues to go after criminals. He has a police contact, a Lt. Easton, who suspects Shaw is The Nightmare. But The Nightmare doesn’t have any agents or assistants or even a girlfriend.
He has to deal with a zombie hit man, a mad god (or potential messiah gone bad), a vengeful goddess of luck, a serial killer, and, yes, mobsmen and mob bosses. One mob boss in particular appears over these stories, but the character will have his final fate shown in another book dealing with a different hero.
As noted, The Nightmare also meets other New Pulp heroes, in particular Patrick Thomas‘ Nemesis and the Pink Reaper, who is a pulp heroine in the mode of the Domino Lady. (There are plans for a complete collection of Pink Reaper stories, but it hasn’t appeared to my knowledge.) He also meets French’s own Bianca Jones, more a hard-boiled detective-type that deals with occult matters. There is a book, From the Shadows, where the Nightmare teams up with Nemesis and the Pink Reaper, but only an excerpt is included here.
Overall, this is a good collection of stories. I had enjoyed his Gray Monk, who is set in modern times, and I enjoyed this one as well. French has other works, but most don’t seem pulp-inspired, but still take a look at his other works.
