I recently picked up the revised and expanded edition of Gideon Cain: Demon Hunter, edited by Van Allen Plexico and published by his White Rocket Books in 2022.
The first version came out in 2010 from Airship 27 with seven stories by various authors. This has been expanded to 14 stories, but keeping the original interior artwork by Rob Davis.
There is an introduction by Kurt Busiek and an article by Plexico. Cover art is by Jeffrey Ray Hayes, who has been doing several great New Pulp cover art lately. Authors of the stories include I.A. Watson, K.G. McAbee, Plexico, and others. There is even a comicbook story with art by Davis.
Gideon Cain was created as a pastiche of Robert E. Howard‘s Solomon Kane, but with some differences. The afterword by Plexico goes into the creation of the character, in which he and Busiek were involved. Gideon Cain would be a Puritan, fighting evil, but now with a more defined purpose rather than just aimless wandering. Thus, his story has a definite beginning, middle, and end.
Here he is on the trail of a demon, Azazel, who is himself on a quest to free his imprisoned body. Cain is armed with a pair of flintlock pistols and an English mortuary sword inscribed with special sigils. And while Cain is a Puritan, he is from America — Salem to be exact — thus his travels take him across the American Colonies, and then over to Europe.
A linking theme of the stories is that of Cain’s son, Absalom, who is reading letters sent back to his family in Salem. These stories take Cain to Charleston, Savannah, further to New Orleans, then Labrador/New France, over to England and France, with the hint of a time in Africa, then toward the Middle East.
Each story is different. In a couple set in the Southeast, Cain works with Native American tribes against the demon. After being stranded in Labrador/New France, he deals with other evils. In one story, he finds a town being subjected to another demon. And in the next, he must contend with an evil family.
In England, there is a two-part story which finds Cain going back to the town of his birth: Dunwich, which has fallen into the sea. During his adventure in France, we learn a little about his time in Africa. I would have liked to learned more, but I assume that since Solomon Kane spent a lot of time in Africa, maybe to avoid copying too much, they chose not to do the same for Cain.
In the final two stories, both by Plexico and set in the Middle East, Cain’s story comes to a conclusion. While we do get hints that further stories could be written with his son, I somehow doubt we will get them.
Overall, I found this a great read. I missed getting the original edition and am glad I got this one. If you like Solomon Kane, occult detectives, and the like, this is one to get.
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