Turquoise

TURQUOISE

Creator: John French

Characters

Donna Cahill

Detective Darryl Larkin (Top Detective)

Colonel Bishop (Police Commander)

Max Hammond (Crime Scene Tech)

She suddenly appeared during a catastrophe, rescuing victims. Dropping out of the sky like a comet, she moved faster than anything normal, just a blur of blue and green, moving heavy pieces of roadbed, tearing open car doors like paper. One lucky witness caught her in a video, but her face was a blur, and the blue-green costume like a comic book super hero. The figure was feminine.

The mayor wants her identity in order to control her for his purposes, and forces the police commander, Colonel Bishop, to assign his top detective, Darryl Larkin, to uncover her identity. The police don’t want to reveal her identity, but they are forced to do their job. Bringing in their best crime scene tech, Max Hammond, it doesn’t take long to find the clue they need. But Max finds a way to block the power-hungry mayor, and Donna Cahill remains the city’s protector, with only three men aware of her identity.

This is another short-run series by author, John French. Only two short stories were published that I am aware of:

1)   “Turquoise” DOUBLE DANGER TALES #25 (2/99)

2)   “Betrayal” DOUBLE DANGER TALES #27 (4/99) 

Frank Devlin

FRANK DEVLIN - THE DEVIL OF HARBOR CITY

Creator: John L. French

Cast of characters:

         Detective Sergeant Frank Devlin (aka The Devil) of the Harbor City Police Department

         Detective Sergeant Benjamin Campbell of the Harbor City Police Department

         Harbor City’s (unnamed) Police Commissioner

         Anton Szold, head of Harbor City Police Department’s Internal Affairs Unit

         Michael Shaw (formerly the vigilante known as the Nightmare but not identified as such)

         Louis Martinelli, gang boss

         Angela Martinelli, Martinelli’s beautiful daughter.

         Nicholas, Martinelli’s top aide

         Alexander Tomas, Enoch Kruger, Jonas Lombardi, Harry Pratt – gang bosses

         Wolf Hopkins – out of town criminal

Harbor City was ruled by the gangs. City Hall, The DA’s office and the courts were in their pockets. Thanks to a quirk in the law, only the Harbor City PD was relatively free of the corruption that plagued the city. In desperation, the police commissioner promotes Officer Frank Devlin to sergeant and charges him to clean up the town “anyway he can.” And so Devlin launches his campaign, one in which he does whatever it takes to make things right.  But what will be the cost of Devlin’s saving the city – his life, or his soul?

The Frank Devlin stories first made their appearance in Tom Johnson’s Fading Shadow magazines. They were then reworked into the novel The Devil of Harbor City which was first published by Wild Cat books and which is now available from Dark Quest Books.

The Grey Monk

THE GREY MONK

Creator: John L. French

Cast of characters:

            The Grey Monk aka “Lewis.”

            Father Richard Harper, pastor of Saint Sebastian’s Catholic Church

            Amos Hoffman, police detective

            Tremaine, drug kingpin

            Kevin Little (aka Little Kev), Andray Davis and Andre Smith, members of Tremaine’s gang

            Dorothea Watkins

various members of the Pure Race Fellowship

           

Dressed in a hooded, dark grey habit, the Grey Monk stalks the streets of a modern day big city, meting out justice to those beyond the reach of the law. The city is unnamed, but bears a remarkable resemblance to Baltimore, MD. More than a crime fighter, the Grey Monk believes that he has been divinely appointed to fight the evil that infests the city. “Vengeance is Mine, sayeth the Lord  ...” The Grey Monk is his agent.

The Grey Monk is assisted by Father Richard Harper for whom he (the Monk) acts as sexton. The Monk is reluctantly aided by Detective Amos Hoffman, who knew Father Harper when the latter was a cop.

The Grey Monk made his first appearances in Tom Johnson’s Fading Shadows magazines. Some of these stories were reprinted in volumes 1-3 of Tales of Masks and Mayhem (edited by Virginia E. Johnson).  The complete chronicles of The Grey Monk are collected in Souls of Fire, which was originally published by Wild Cat books and which will be reprinted by Padwolf Publishing as The Grey Monk: Souls on Fire.

Nightmare

THE NIGHTMARE

Creator: John L. French

Cast of characters:

         The Nightmare aka Michael Shaw

         Police Lieutenant Jerome Easton

         Seamus Moran, leprechaun and owner of Moran’s tavern.

         Kaye Chandler, aka The Pink Reaper

         Nemesis, Goddess of Vengeance, aka Leda Troy

         Tyche, Goddess of Luck

         The Phoenix

         Parker Avery, adventurer and collector

         Wolf Hopkins, crime boss

         and assorted monsters, creatures, thugs and ne’er-do-wells

The Nightmare first appeared in The Devil of Harbor City but only as Michael Shaw, owner of an international private investigation agency. Shaw was called in by the police commissioner to assist Sgt. Frank Devlin in cleaning up the city. (Wolf Hopkins also makes an appearance).

The Nightmare’s next appearance was as an unnamed “dark avenger” in a flashback segment of “The Living Goddess,” a story in The Grey Monk: Souls on Fire.

The Nightmare first appeared as himself in “The Undead Killer,” a story in Wild Cat Books’s Zombies in Time and Space.

Michael Shaw was a bored millionaire when the murder of his chauffer’s daughter in a gang shootout caused him to don the black suit and mask to avenge her death. A chance remark to a surviving crook, “I’m your worst nightmare,” gave him his name. Since then, he’s joined the ranks of New York’s other dark clad vigilantes in meting out justice when the law fails. Unlike his better known contemporaries, the Nightmare fights not only crime and criminals but also supernatural menaces such as zombie hitmen, giant undead gorillas and the gods themselves.

In addition to the above the Nightmare has appeared in:

1) FROM THE SHADOWS (Dark Quest Books, 2012) in which he teams with Patrick Thomas’s characters Nemesis and the Pink Reaper.  Virginia E. Johnson has called FROM THE SHADOWS “the best new pulp I've read in years.”

2) “Wolf Hunt” TALES FROM THE PULPSIDE (Dark Quest Book, 2013). This story tells the tale of the Nightmare’s final encounter with gang boss Wolf Hopkins.

3) “A Plague on the Land” APOCALYPSE 13 (Padwolf Publishing, 2012). This story features the Nightmare teaming up with my character Bianca Jones to save mythic Ireland from a disastrous fate.

4) “After the Fall” HELLFIRE LOUNGE 2: RAT PACK REDUX (Marietta Publishing 2011). In this story, a giant ape falls from the top of the tallest building in the world but somehow revives. The Nightmare teams with Lieutenant Jerome Easton and tries to stop its rampage through the city.

As soon as enough stories have been written and published, Padwolf plans to publish a Nightmare collection.