‘The Pontine Dossier, Millennium Edition’ Vol. 1, No. 1

I’ve posted several times about Solar Pons, a popular character inspired by Sherlock Holmes that was created by August Derleth, continued by Basil Copper and more recently by David Marcum. (I think calling him a pastiche doesn’t do him justice.) We’ve gotten reprints of the original works and collections of new stories, and now we get the return of the scholarly journal on Solar Pons: The Pontine Dossier.

Originally The Pontine Dossier came out in the 1960s and ’70s for about 10 issues (I think). The original was put out by the Praed Street Irregulars and PSI founder Luther Norris, while this new version is put out by Belanger Books, which has reprinted Derleth’s Pons stories and put out the collections of new stories.

This new version is called The Pontine Dossier Millennium Edition. The first issue, volume 1, number 1 is dated Winter/Spring 2020, and recently came out in print and ebook on Amazon. The plan is to do this as an annual publication, maybe twice a year if there is enough interest.

This first issue is about 80 pages with seven articles plus an introduction. Chris Chan provides a couple of articles: One looks at August Derleth and his literary works, and the second looks at whether Pons really meet Hercule Poirot. David Marcum gives an overview in his introduction to Solar Pons and explains how the new stories and reprints came about. Other articles look at various details in several stories.

Overall I enjoyed this first issue. It makes me want more to revisit the original Pons stories, which I haven’t read since I first read them in college.

As I write this another new collection of Solar Pons stories is coming, this time combining H.P. Lovecraft‘s Cthulhu Mythos. Titled The Necronomicon of Solar Pons, this collection should come out this April.