Here we have Weird Worlds of Joel Jenkins, Vol. 3, the third and (so far) final in the series. This series collects several short stories by New Pulp author Joel Jenkins.
Some are standalone works; others are part of a series, some of which are or will be collected into other volumes. Some appeared elsewhere first; others appear for the first time here. For those stories that are part of a series collected elsewhere, I won’t go too far into them.
If you’re not familiar with Joel’s works, these volumes are a good intro to them. While I have read some of them, at least one here has only recently been turned into further works that I plan on looking into getting.
For this volume, we get the following:
“The Scream Hammer” is a new story using classic pulp hero Jim Anthony, reprinted from the fourth volume from Airship 27. Jim Anthony is a kind of Doc Savage clone from the more spicy pulps. The story is set in Mexico with just Anthony and his friend and associate, Tom Gentry.
In the days after Pearl Harbor, Anthony is investigating stories of a possible Nazi infiltration close to American borders. In addition, we have Anthony being involved with a local girl and thinking of marrying her. The author has said this story is set in the “early days” of Anthony’s career, before he met Dolores Colquitte, the daughter of a U.S. senator and his fiancée. The only problem is that the original stories start in 1940, and probably set a little earlier, so a story set in 1942 is not in the “early days.” Despite this issue, this was a good story with Nazis, drug running, a giant snake, and a sonic weapon.
Joel’s werewolf, Jack Scarlet, is back in “With the Reaper at My Side,” though the main character is Maura Mackenzie. Both appear in a further work, but I’m not familiar with them.
“On Sepulchral Winds” is another zombie action-thriller, starring a skateboarder, and a convenience-store clerk, that has since been expanded to a novel, Eyes of the Night. Here, they run into a group with a zeppelin.
We get another City of Bathos tale in “The Shores of Idumea,” which is a series of dark fantasy books.
“The Wolf Witch of Chance” is another fantasy tale set in Saffronyia, since collected in Swords of Saffronyia.
The Dark Star Detective Agency is a group of 1970s female detectives featured in “The Bralkivenous Equation,” which is the longest work here and on the cover of this volume. Think Charlie’s Angels, if you will, crossed with other ’70s characters from movies and TV, but with them facing more supernatural issues.
We get an out-of-work stunt-woman, a bookie with a price on her head, a tennis star who lost her legs and fiancé in a car crash, and an itinerant martial artist tortured by the ghosts of the dead. The tennis star is clearly based on the Bionic Woman. I haven’t identified the others, though I think one is based on Foxy Brown. It has since been turned into a pair of novels and I think this one is probably incorporated into the first one. This is the first time our team has come together to look into a missing-persons case.
Using characters by Josh Reynolds, “Vaults of the Dark Burgeoning God” is a Royal Occultist tale, showing Charles St. Cyprian dealing with a summoning going wrong. (It’s always important to get that pronunciation right, don’t you know.) I always enjoy Royal Occultist stories and wish the reprint series would continue.
A different supernatural tale, “The Bastion of St. Gervais,” is kind of the Four Musketeers vs. Cthulhu, if you will. I enjoyed this one.
Derrick Ferguson‘s hero Regency is the star of “Formula 23.” I’m not familiar with this character, so I don’t know where else he has appeared. Sadly, with Ferguson’s death, I’m not sure how that will affect their availability. This was a fun one.
“Death in Black” is an Eel and Adder story, about this strange pair who fight against the Nazis in pre-WWII New York. All their stories have been collected in Midnight Avengers, which I’ve reviewed. I hope we’ll see more stories with these characters, especially as they have kind of expanded their little group.
We get a “sword and sandal” story in “The Bow of Heracles,” which is based on Greek myth. In this case, the Odyssey, focused on Odysseus and Diomedes.
Thus, it’s another good volume. I wonder if we’ll see a fourth one? Time will tell.
