Dillon is a New Pulp hero created by Derrick Ferguson.
Dillon is an adventurer with unique skills and abilities, and a mysterious past. And he’s black. Ferguson is one of several authors who are trying to make New Pulp more diverse.
Dillon has starred in a series of books:
- “Dillon and the Voice of Odin” (2003, 2013)
- “Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell” (2010)
- “Four Bullets for Dillon” (2011)
- “Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira” (2012)
- “Young Dillon in the Halls of Shamballah” (2014)
- “The Vril Agenda” (2014)
We first met Dillon in “Dillon and the Voice of Odin.” Like a James Bond movie, we met him as he’s working on the tail end of a case, trying to get away from the bad guys, only to be betrayed by his partner. We get some hints about him. We learn that he has been exceptionally trained, but where is not stated; and learn his mother died defending him at a young age, but against whom we do not know. His next case, a matter of retrieving a ring from a once-lost ship leads him into the major case of the novel: The Voice of Odin. Odin is a mysterious figure, and his “Voice” is a dangerous sonic weapon with which he threatens the world with.
In going after Odin, Dillon must contend with other enemies, as well as forces from Secret Service groups who don’t know if Dillon is on their side or not. In the course of the story, we met some interesting characters who are wiped out, and get more hints on Dillon’s background. And we are introduced to one of his mentors, the aged Eli Creed.
At present, I have not have “The Legend of the Golden Bell,” “Four Bullets for Dillon” (which is a short story collection) or “Pirates of Xonia.” At a future point I will obtain them and do a review.
The more-recent Dillon books actually reveal his earlier life.
First up is “Young Dillon” which, unlike the other works, was published by Pro Se Press as part of their “Young Pulp” imprint. This work reveals Dillon’s origin, to a degree. We learned what happened to his mother and where he was trained. But we don’t know (yet) who his father is (or was) or what lead to the death of his mother.
“The Vril Agenda” was published by Airship 27. The story is set shortly after Dillon returned from Shamballah and is working to prepare himself and he seeks out the classic pulp hero Jim Anthony to be one of his teachers. Thus this book is co-written by Joshua Reynolds who has been the main writer of new Jim Anthony works. In fact, to get the full story of some of the characters that appear here, I recommend people read Reynolds’ stories that have appeared in several “Tales of the Shadowmen” volumes (which I have previously covered).
The main villain of the work is the German pulp “hero”, Sun Koh and his associates, who have been revived by Art Sippo. I was a little disappointed that Art was not given some nod for the work he has done with Sun Koh and associates, especially as they used Ashanti Garuda and she is an original creation of Sippo’s. And I felt their characterization of Jay Mayen off from what Sippo presents. There are some hints to other classic pulp heroes. Hopefully others will pick up on that.
Part of the story is set with Dillon and Anthony in modern times, but we get a section (which I assume was probably written by Reynolds) telling of the meeting of Sun Koh and Jim Anthony in 1937. However, I had problems with this section as what it details is not in line with what we know from the original Anthony stories. Reynolds has Anthony as a WWI veteran (unlikely) and being married and semi-retired in 1937, while the original stories were set in the early 1940s and he’s only engaged and probably in his 30s. Another mistake was making the Pueblo another home of Anthony when it was shown in the second Anthony novel to be a resort he setup, not a home.
Despite those issues, it’s a great story that gives us a view of an earlier Dillon and an elderly pulp original still in action.
Other appearances of Dillon include short stories in “Pulpwork Christmas Special 2012” and “Black Pulp.”
Dillon is an interesting New Pulp hero. He has some interesting adventures, and we still learn more about him. I look forward to reading the other Dillon works and encourage others to check him out. I do hope we get the full story of his background in time.
Funny story…I hadn’t actually read any of the older Jim Anthony stories until well after Derrick and I wrote The Vril Agenda. All I knew about him was that he was a Doc Savage pastiche, who then became a Philip Marlowe pastiche after the first ten stories.
Well, I actually never heard of him until a few years back. And your description was kind of all knew of him at first, until I was able to read the first 3 (now first 6) stories and see he’s more original then just a “Doc clone”. I’ve posted on those first 6 stories.
I particularly found it interesting that the first 3 stories pitted Jim against the same bad guy, and hinted at an earlier encounter between them (something you don’t see in pulps). Hints about his background in the earlier stories I also thought was interesting. And that the 5 and 6th stories are connected. Am really curious to see how these elements continued into the rest of the earlier stories before Jim was changed to a more ordinary detective. If the first few stories are all by the same author, Victor Rousseau Emanuel, what may have been had he been allowed to continue further in that vein??
Derrick is the man. His work helped inspire me to write the Rocket Crockett character.
That’s very kind of you to say that, Christopher. Thank you very much and I’m looking forward to reading more Rocket Crockett adventures for years to come.