Pulp Apocalypse

In 2020, I was honored to have Justin Marriott, one of my inspirations for creating Paperback Warrior, invite me to write a Foreword for his one-off book Pulp Apocalypse. The testament is roughly a 100-page volume of post-apocalyptic fiction featuring reviews, articles, and loads of black-and-white paperback and magazine covers spruced up with some comic covers and interior art. I wanted to share my write-up with the PW fans and readers that didn't have an opportunity to buy the book. 

“Foreword”

I was about 10-years old when the world ended. I was sitting cross-legged on shag carpet in a double-wide trailer in rural Virginia. It was 1986 and my teenage cousins had scored a VCR over Christmas. They had rented two VHS movies, Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Mad Max (1979). While both films offered contrasting visions of doomsday, the end result was still the same – a violent fight for survival among the decimated and decayed ruins of our civilization. 

As a child of the 80s, the idea that the Soviets were bringing death to our doorsteps was ingrained in our daily American lives. The idea of a nuked-out or plagued America was saturated in popular culture, from cartoons like Thundarr the Barbarian (1980) to books like Stephen King's The Stand (1978) and Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song (1987). Fully embracing the phenomena, it was interesting to see the 1980s nuclear hysteria transform into zombie popuarity. 

Arguably, America's recent pop-culture fascination with zombies could be attributed to three things: Image Comics' The Walking Dead (2003), Brian Keene's novel The Rising (2003), and the popular movie 28 Days Later (2002). All three of those works, crossing three different mediums, have somewhat peculiar plot-lines – man's will to survive in a post-apocalyptic graveyard of undead or infected. Essentially, these works reimagined George Romero's iconic Night of the Living Dead (1968) into a new phenomenon by bringing the apocalypse into our modern world. Movies, books, comics, and even TV shows became saturated in these apocalyptic visions of the walking dead, forming the ultimate man versus nature contest in an extreme Darwinian state – survival of the fittest. 

Pulp Apocalypse is a celebration of doomsday. Thankfully, a fictitious one where we can all escape modern reality, exchanging it for a deformed tomorrow of post-doomsday, action-adventure storytelling. I am honored to join Justin Marriott on this journey as Paperback Warrior's post-apocalyptic fiction correspondent to celebrate the freakishly good, the abysmally bad, and well....Roadblaster. 

Enjoy!

Eric Compton
Paperback Warrior

Get Pulp Apocalypse HERE.

Jon Messmann: Vengeance is Mine

The following article appears in the Afterword of the Brash Books edition of the 1973 hard-hitting vigilante novel The Revenger. I wrote this to commemorate not only this series but also Messmann's long and lasting body of work. I hope you enjoy it. - Eric Compton

"Jon Messmann: Vengeance is Mine"

It's a human flaw, either well-conceived or spontaneous, and often is devoid of any real sense of right and wrong. This reactionary process, often spawned by grief and anger, makes it a swinging pendulum that authors can use to transform characters and enthrall readers. This reliable character arc can spur a story into a tumultuous second or third act. The thrills arise from the metamorphosis as the character changes and responds to some sort of emotionally jarring or horrific event.

The concept has remained a steady, consistent staple of literature dating back to ancient Greek tragedies of the 5th century BC. It consumes the third play of the Oresteia trilogy as Clytemnestra kills her husband Agamemnon for the sacrificial murder of their daughter. This sets off a chain of events in which Clytemnestra's remaining children plot to kill her to avenge the death of their father. A compelling, awe-inspiring cycle of violence as family matters turn to splatters.

William Shakespeare's longest play, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, is perhaps the epitome of revenge tales. Written between 1599 and 1601, the play's central theme is vengeance – served cold and calculated. Hamlet's dead father appears and explains that Claudius murdered him, thus fueling a desire for revenge. Thankfully, it became a rather complicated, emotional murder plot that propelled the play to eternal popularity.

Fast-forward to the 20th century's Western fiction and the classic revenge story becomes a familiar genre trope. Respected author Frank Gruber (1904-1969) codified the Western plots and includes revenge as one of seven basic plots. Gruber described the revenge story as the pursuit of a villain by an individual he wronged, but mentions that it also could involve elements of the classic mystery story. The protagonist's southern drawl can be heard to say something like, “you're the dirty rascal that shot my pa” or “the bastard had it coming.”

Two stellar Western novels exemplify the revenge plot. Charles Portis' 1968 novel True Grit centralizes vengeance as a 14 year old girl hunts her father's murderer with the aid of a rugged U.S. Marshall. The novel explores the price of revenge and the toll it takes on the avenger. It was adapted twice to film, the first time capturing an Academy Award for John Wayne's portrayal of Rooster Cogburn. Two years later, Clifton Adams won his second consecutive Spur Award for the gritty novel The Last Days of Wolf Garnett (published a year before his death). The plot is simplistic, but presented in an atmospheric, crime-noir way. A man is searching for his wife's killer, the despicable Wolf Garnett. But, he later learns that Garnett may already be dead and his opportunity for vengeance has been stolen. It's as dark as a mortuary drape and explores the seeded, deep longing for vengeance.

In men's action-adventure literature, the undisputed catalyst for the 1970s-1990s vigilante heyday is War Against the Mafia. It was authored by Don Pendleton and originally purchased by Bee Line, who then published the book in 1969 under a subsidiary called Pinnacle Books. In the novel, Sergeant Mack Bolan is serving as a U.S. Army sniper in the Vietnam War. With 97 confirmed kills, he earns the bleak moniker, The Executioner. Unlike the decades of vengeance tales before it, Pendleton incorporated a murder-suicide into the character arc. Bolan's sister and father became financially controlled by the Mafia. The stress and financial burdens provoked Bolan's father into killing his wife and daughter before committing suicide. Bolan learns of the deaths and flies home, never to return to the military. Instead, he becomes a one-man army to exact revenge on the Mob. In essence, it is the classic revenge story modernized.

Early editions of War Against the Mafia suggests the book was originally planned as a one-off. However, the sales solidified the idea that readers desired more of Mack Bolan's vengeance. Later printings would include the #1 to indicate that the book was a series debut. Don Pendleton authored another 36 installments before selling the series to Harlequin. Under their subsidiary, Gold Eagle, The Executioner became the most popular men's action-adventure series of all-time with an astonishing total of 464 installments through 2020.

Beginning in 1970, countless publishers wanted to create another Mack Bolan clone to capture the same success that Pinnacle was experiencing. The Executioner directly influenced countless novels, series titles and publisher demands for more revenge stories with a gritty, violent delivery. Like the pulps of the 1930s and 1940s, these titles needed a tragic origin story to propel the hero into action. Publishers, desperately wanting The Executioner readers and consumers to gravitate toward their titles, pitched their ideas and marketing designs to a revolving door of blue collar, working man authors. Along with the look and feel of a vigilante story, the publishers (including Pinnacle and Gold Eagle) created names for their heroes that sounded similar to the word “Executioner” - Butcher, Terminator, Avenger, Hawker, Dagger, Penetrator, Enforcer, Sharpshooter, Stryker, Ryker, Keller, Peacemaker, Liquidator, Inquisitor. Even Marvel Comics received permission from Pendleton to clone Bolan as The Punisher, one of their most consistently selling comic titles of the last 50 years. Obviously, the prerequisite for any proposed paperback warrior was that the title had to end in the letter R.

Or, in some cases begin and end with that letter. Like, The Revenger.

John Joseph Messmann created The Revenger series in 1973 for publisher Signet, then a division of New American Library. But, Messmann's path to vigilante fiction was the proverbial long and winding road. Born in 1920, Messmann began his artistic career by playing the violin, an extracurricular activity forced on him by his parents. By 1940, Messmann began writing for the up-and-coming comic industry, a period known as the Golden Age of Comic Books. His first gig was for Fawcett Comics, an early, successful comic book publisher of that era. His co-workers were a dream-team of comic book icons including Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Chic Stone. Messman wrote for a decade on titles like Captain Marvel Jr., Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, Gabby Hayes, Don Winslow of the Navy, Tex Ritter, and Nyoka: The Jungle Girl. He even created a comic strip technique as an education program conducted for the United Nations Information Office.

In 1950, Messmann, now using Jon J. Messmann, co-created Carousel, an 8-page tabloid comics section in the Pittsburg Courier. This featured many of Messmann's ideas including secret agents, historical romance, sea adventure, private-eyes, jungle girls and even fairy tales. Carousel lasted five years and was distributed by New York's Smith-Mann Syndicate. Over time, Messmann was no longer content with the comic industry.

Beginning in the 1960s, Messmann’s transition into paperback, full-length novels began with Lyle Kenyon Engel’s star franchise, Nick Carter: Killmaster. Messmann’s first contribution was the series' 37th installment, 14 Seconds to Hell, published in 1968. The series, authored by a selection of ghost writers under the name Nick Carter, was a firm stepping stone for Messmann. The series paralleled the pulp industry in terms of campy, over-the-top secret-agent action. Messmann’s experience writing comics and comic strips made him a useful workhorse for Engel to rely upon. The author contributed 14 more installments through 1970 before departing the series.

Engel, pleased with Messmann’s production, paired him with another Killmaster author named George Snyder for a series called Hot Line in 1970. The series lasted only three installments with Messmann only contributing to the debut, Our Spacecraft is Missing!. Again, this allowed Messmann to develop a modern secret-agent, in this case a President’s Man type of hero named Fowler. Also in 1970, while writing Killmaster novels and Gothic romance titles (as Claudette Nicole), Messman wrote two books starring a vagabond hero named Logan. They were inspired by John D. MacDonald’s successful character Travis McGhee.

It was just a matter of time before publishing trends would align with Messmann’s literary strengths. His experience in spy-fiction, Gothics, and action-adventure is a product of that era. Genre fiction was consistently reliable for publishers and there were plenty of ideas, authors, and healthy competition. After The Executioner began to develop banner sales numbers for Pinnacle, it was only fitting that Messmann made his own vigilante footprint. In 1973, The Revenger was born.

It’s a mystery on who originally had the idea for Ben Martin, the former military veteran turned Mafia buster. It could be that Messmann had read Don Pendleton and wanted to try his hand or Signet simply approached Messmann’s agent about the story and needed an experienced writer to tell it. By 1973, Messmann had authored books for Award, Fawcett Gold Medal, Belmont-Tower, and Pyramid. He never played hard to get and had a knack for the business dating back 30 years at that point. With the key words “personal tragedy”, “vengeance”, “hero”, “violence”, “sex”, Messmann’s typewriter lit up with possibilities.

Like any 1970s traumatized hero, Messmann’s Ben Martin is a Vietnam veteran. When the series began, it was during the end of America’s involvement in Vietnam’s affairs. Saigon fell. The world moved on. American soldiers were left to rebuild their lives, overcome emotional distress, and become domesticated. Vietnam veterans became the dominant heroes of 1970s and 1980s men's action-adventure literature in the same way that 1950s and 1960s crime-noir was dependent on WW2 veterans. The buyers and readers that were consuming these books could easily identify with these heroes because they shared the same war experience. Arguably, these books served as a type of therapy. These characters, like Ben Martin, understood the “trial by fire” awakening, just like their readers.

When Messmann introduces Martin, he is an honest living, blue-collar family man who owns a grocery store. His nights of silently awaiting targets in a muddy rice paddy are over. But after the character arc, Messmann is transformed from shop owner back into the prowling warrior. By the book’s fiery finale, he’s either alive or dead. Messmann creates this stirring character arc that feeds off of a very personal tragedy. Like Pendleton’s Mack Bolan origin story, it isn’t a straight-up, traditional “you shot up my family” vendetta. In fact, the tragedy is an accident - caused by evil men - but still an accident. Whether anyone would have died otherwise is in the eye of the beholder. But, Martin’s life is deeply affected, and revenge is the only recourse. In these novels, revenge is always the only recourse. Thus, The Revenger rises.

By the end of the bloodshed, the supposed end of Martin’s war, readers are left to arrive at their own conclusions. Why? The Revenger wasn’t planned as a series. There’s nothing to indicate that Signet had any other plans for Messmann or Ben Martin. The paperback's spine, front and back covers and last pages are devoid of anything suggesting this is a series debut. But, it was. Only Signet and Messmann didn’t know it.

At the very least, the sales must have been satisfactory to warrant a sequel. By that point, five more novels became the new goal. Messmann crafted these novels through 1975 with titles that certainly resonate 1970s men’s action-adventure flare: Fire in the Streets (1974), Vendetta Contract (1974), Stiletto Signature (1974), City for Sale (1975), Promise for Death (1975). While revenge is mostly the catalyst for the first novel, Martin’s life continued to be plagued by violence. Each novel builds to a crescendo with revenge as a silent motivator. The protagonist responds with ample destruction in this profession of violence.

As you read and enjoy The Revenger series, a clear genre standout, take note of Messmann’s special treatment of Martin’s psyche. With an uncanny awareness, he delves into Martin’s warrior soul and deciphers dark emotions for the reader. In many ways, Martin could be the most complex vigilante in terms of repressed feelings and temperament. In the second installment, Martin becomes the vigilante, but he doesn’t really want that burden. He dreams of the life that once was, an existence robbed from him by events outside of his control. The old adage “when you look back, it will be what you’ve overcome” is a staple of Martin’s forward outlook, but it’s a reminder of the scars. In reality, Martin realizes that he’s the blood-craving vampire, only it’s revenge that fuels his existence. The emotion makes him alive and whole, ultimately the reason to rise and exist each day. After nights as a sniper in Vietnam, the ongoing war with the mob, and his transformation into a family man, Martin realizes he’s destined to right the wrongs and be the killer of evil. It was the one constant in his life.

Jon Messmann created another character in 1973 as well, Jefferson Boone: Handyman. It's another series standout featuring a U.S. State Department agent extinguishing international flare-ups that could adversely affect America and its allies. It has the same action-oriented intensity as The Revenger, complete with Boone getting laid...a lot. The sexual escapades of both Ben Martin and Jefferson Boone, as well as the Nick Carter series before that, led Messmann to what would ultimately become his meal ticket.

By 1978, adult Western fiction rose to prominence and was led by a series heavyweight in Lou Cameron's Longarm. The concept was simply to incorporate two to three graphic sex scenes into a traditional western paperback. The main character fights the bad guys and pleases the bad girls. Messmann, following the trend, created The Trailsman series in 1980 for Signet. Like Don Pendleton's The Executioner, Messmann birthed an iconic hero in Skye Fargo – lake blue eyes and bed mattress Olympian – and placed him in nearly 400 total installments. Of those, Messmann wrote nearly half up until his retirement in 1998, a testament to his storytelling skills and craftsmanship.

It was rumored that Messmann had never been to the western regions of the U.S., instead writing every Trailsman novel from the comfort of his Manhattan apartment. He would later die at the age of 84 in a New York nursing home in 2004.

New York Times bestselling author Lee Goldberg and his Brash Books imprint have been doing God’s work for years by reprinting and reintroducing classic novels by forgotten talented authors for modern audiences. Thankfully, Jon Messmann’s stellar body of work has been recognized and included in the publisher’s superb lineup of novels and collections. I can’t think of a more deserving author than Jon Messmann. I also feel that if he were alive today, he would already be writing a new series of heroic fiction for Goldberg and pitching character concepts for another.

The greats like Jon Messmann never ran out of ideas — they just ran out of time.

01/29/2022
Eric Compton
Paperback Warrior

Jon Messmann - Partial Bibliography

As Nick Carter:
Nick Carter: Killmaster #39 Carnival for Killing 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #43 The Amazon 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #44 The Sea Trap 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #45 Berlin 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #48 The Living Death 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #49 Operation Che Guevara 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #50 The Doomsday Formula 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #51 Operation Snake 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #52 The Casbah Killers 1969 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #53 The Arab Plague 1970 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #54 Red Rebellion 1970 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #55 The Executioners 1970 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #57 Mind Killers 1970 (Award Books)
Nick Carter: Killmaster #60 The Death Strain 1970 (Award Books)

Nick Carter: Killmaster #37 14 Seconds to Hell 1968 (Award Books)

As Claudette Nicole:
Bloodroots Manor 1970 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
The Mistress of Orion Hall 1970 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
House at Hawk's End 1971 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
Circle of Secrets 1972 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
The Dark Mill 1972 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
The Haunted Heart 1972 (Pyramid)
The Chinese Letter 1973 (Popular Library)
The Haunting of Drumroe 1973 (Fawcett Gold Medal)
When the Wind Cries 1976 (Pyramid)

As Pamela Windsor:
Forsaking All Others 1977 (Jove)
Rebel's Rapture 1979 (Jove)
At Passion's Tide 1980 (Jove)

Jefferson Boone: Handyman
The Moneta Papers 1973 (Pyramid)
The Game of Terror 1973 (Pyramid)
Murder Today, Money Tomorrow 1973 (Pyramid)
The Swiss Secret 1974 (Pyramid)
Ransom! 1975 (Pyramid)
The Inheritors 1975 (Pyramid)

Canyon 'O Grady series (as Jon Sharpe)
Dead Men's Trails 1989 (Signet)
Silver Slaughter 1989 (Signet)
Shadow Guns 1989 (Signet)

The Revenger:
The Revenger 1973 (Signet)
Fire in the Streets 1974 (Signet)
The Vendetta Contract 1974 (Signet)
The Stiletto Signature 1974 (Signet)
City for Sale 1975 (Signet)
A Promise for Death 1975 (Signet)

Hot Line (as Paul Richards):
Our Spacecraft is Missing! (with George Snyder) 1970 (Award Books)

Logan (as Alan Joseph):
Logan 1970 (Belmont)
Killers at Sea 1970 (Belmont)

Stand-Alone titles:
The Deadly Deep 1976 (New Amerian Librery)
Phone Call 1979 (Signet)
Jogger's Moon (aka To Kill a Jogger) 1980 (Penguin)
The Last Snow 1989 (Random House)
A Bullet for the Bride 1972 (Pyramid)

Non-Fiction:
Choosing a Pet 1973 Grosset & Dunlap

Comics:
Don Winslow of the Navy 1940-1951
Gabby Hayes 1940-1949
Human Torch 1943
Sub-Mariner 1943
Nyoka: The Jungle Girl #50 1945
Tex Ritter 1950

Captain Marvel Jr. 1940-1949

Paperback Warrior Podcast - Episode 116

It's another brand new episode of the Paperback Warrior Podcast! On this episode Eric recaps the recent gifs he received from fans and readers and looks at all of the happenings on the podcast and YouTube channel this month. In addition, a feature is presented on Pat Frank, a mid-20th century writer that is considered one of the first post-apocalyptic fiction authors to emerge after WW2. Also, a feature is presented on Armed Services Editions paperbacks and the history behind this patriotic and monumental printing mission in the 1940s. Listen on any streaming platform, play below, download HERE, or view directly on YouTube HERE.

Listen to "Episode 116: Pat Frank and the Birth of Doomsday Fiction" on Spreaker.

Hammer of the Dogs

Jarret Keene has recently basked in the western spotlight, spurred into action with his Kid Crimson series of wild-west adventures. Those books – Gunpowder Mountain, The Guns of Goblin Valley, Stagecoach to Oblivion – are available from WolfpackPublishing. My first experience with Keene was the debut Crimson novel, an entertaining fast-paced hero tale laced with colorful characters and creative violence. I was excited to observe Keene's craft outside of the western genre. I was delighted to receive his 2023 novel Hammer of the Dogs. It was published by University of Nevada Press and is described as a post-apocalyptic adventure set in war-torn Las Vegas.

The novel's heroine is iron-headed Lash, an intelligent Dystopian warrior that attends a makeshift educational facility aptly titled Academy. With her mother dead and her father missing, Lash relies on the strict behavioral teachings of Professor, a brilliant tech-head that may be a festering warmonger with a penchant for religious fanaticism (think Cyber-Christ). Lash's skillset is an advanced high-level awareness of droids, a technology that is draped over the bombed and revamped Las Vegas strip. There are colorful varieties of drones (and droids) that can cook, heal, interact, screw, and dive-bomb humanity with a plethora of deadly killing devices that would give terrorists nightmares. The victor must control the drones and successfully operate jammer devices to stop the enemy drones.

The book's premise is partly enriched by a feud between the Academy and a warlord named Richter. His mission is to seemingly kill Academy students and continue the downfall and decline of Las Vegas. Needless to say, Lash's mentor and friends all buy into the propaganda that Richter is the real enemy. However, after a terrifying conflict with Richter's forces, Lash becomes a prisoner and learns the real and awful truth that has been withheld from her for years. Additionally, she learns the whereabouts of her enslaved father.

First, from an action-adventure perspective, this is a doomsday feast of energized firefights, drone battles, fisticuffs, and heroic missions that are equally mind-boggling and entertaining. While I didn't always know what a “VAMPIR-launched TBG-29V thermobaric antipersonnel round” was, it never spoiled the fun when that same round splattered a drone's intestinal optical fibers into stringy sparklers. The book was reminiscent of Robert Tine's outrageous 1980s paperback series Outrider, complete with hero Bonner facing a sworn enemy in Leatherman – just replace drones with armed-to-the-teeth dune buggies and inferior prose. But, Keene's nightmarish post-apocalypse is more advanced and contains characters that should appeal to every age group. There's gun porn, but that all plays into Keene's social message.

Keene is never preachy or one-sided, but he delivers some stark social awareness through these downtrodden desperate kids with advanced technology. If that statement alone isn't the real message, then he spells it out quite clearly. Too much technology alienates humanity and feeds the combat quota of Americans versus Americans in fruitless endeavors to outrace, overbuy, overeat, overreach, and overtake each other to prove one side is better than the other – "better than, different than, less than" played out with bone-chilling drones and their insta-killer devices. It rips the population of post-nuke Earth apart in the same ways that it shreds the pre-nuke Earth today. It's by design and we're fools for buying into it. Keene's message concerns too many weapons touted by youth. It also showcases the horror of cold-blooded remote murder that happens today across endless battlefields – mourning and human compassion disappears through a touch screen arsenal of ballistic catastrophe. Keene totally gets it and I applaud him for combining modern fears (and education) with an entertaining action-adventure novel.

Hammer of the Dogs wins across all fronts and I'm hoping I see more of Lash in the future. Highly recommended. Get your copy HERE.

Firebrats #02 - Survivors

Lots of married couples find it hard to live with each other. Some detest spending long periods of the day with their partner for life. Imagine going to work with your wife every day? Thankfully, Scott and Barbara Siegel aren't one of those couples. In fact, their marriage is so strong that it supported both of them living, loving, and working side-by-side. Beginning in the early 1980s, both Barbara and Scott Siegel authored books together under numerous franchises like G.I. Joe, Transformers, Dragonlance, Star Trek, and Dark Forces. The majority of their literary work is the young adult genre.

For years I've hunted for a four-book series by the Siegels titled Fire Brats. It's an odd title, but a familiar scenario. Two Americans attempt to live and survive in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear bomb attack. The books were published between 1987-1988 by Archway, a subsidiary of Pocket Books. At the time of publishing, the paperback market was ripe with post-apocalyptic titles like The Survivalist, Deathlands, and Doomsday Warrior. I've never seen a copy of any of these books out in the wild. The books are scarce, which drives up the second-hand costs. I've seen these novels fetch up to $50 on Ebay. But, archive.org has the last three series installments available to read online.

Skipping a series debut is typically frowned upon in this household, but in this case it was necessary. Jumping into Survivors, the second installment, I quickly get the gist of the series. Matt (male) and Dani (female) are teenagers that grew up in the small town of Fair Oaks. From what I gather through the characters' brief reflections, the United States was nuked by an unknown country and now its major cities and metropolis areas are piles of rubble. Dani and Matt were able to seek shelter underground, and as Survivors begin, they emerge four days later on a journey west. Apparently Dani's parents were killed, but Matt's family may still be alive in California, thus the series will follow their trek through the wastelands.

The two characters spend a night in an abandoned Burger King (in what may be Colorado), and then attempt to cross a large river on a homemade raft. The raft disintegrates and the two are briefly thrust into the raging river to become separated. Eventually, the two reunite and journey into the wilderness and find a cabin that is fully stocked with weeks of food. The place even has running water, farm animals, books, and a fireplace. This is paradise for Matt and Dani, so they decide to stay for a while.

The cabin's owner is an old man named Ordway, who surprises the kids with a pointed shotgun. He has dealt with a lot of bad guys since the bombs fell, so he immediately thinks these teens are out to rob and murder him. After marching the duo outside for an execution, Matt is able to fight the old guy. As a result, the kids wrestle his gun away and Ordway breaks a leg. After explaining they mean no harm, and that they thought the cabin was abandoned, Ordway loosens up and makes a deal with the kids. He'll train them on what they will need to know to survive in this new world. They will help him around the house for a few weeks until his leg heals. 

At 155 pages, Survivors mostly spends the bulk of the book on the two kids interacting with Ordway to learn how to make weapons, hunt, and what to eat in the forest (who knew you could eat tree bark?). The book's last 50ish pages introduces a small band of mean scavengers looking to capture/rape Dani and claim the house. The finale has the kids using slingshots and bows to defend the cabin while Ordway attempts to fend off the attackers with a broken shotgun. 

Despite being juvenile fiction, I found Survivors to be a lot of fun. It reminded me of the first Survivalist novel with the prepping techniques and education, but the quest and action is reminiscent of Survival 2000. Dani, Matt, and Ordway possess endearing qualities that make them lovable. The introduction of the bad guys was inevitable, and the final fight and pursuit was engaging and well-written. While the book lagged a little in the middle, it was a good intermission to prepare for a rowdy end. 

I look forward to reading the rest of the series and I'm grateful that someone took the opportunity to scan most of the books. They are long out of print and very few libraries or book stores carry them in their current catalogs. If you love the 1980s post-apocalyptic stuff, then Fire Brats is sure to please. In a similar fashion, you might also enjoy the dystopian 1980s series U.S.S.A., which seems to be equally hard to find and expensive. Archive.org has at least one of the series' three books.

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Damnation Alley

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) was a Hugo/Nebula award-winning science-fiction and fantasy author. His most noteworthy achievements are the first ten novels of his acclaimed Chronicles of Amber series, published between 1970-1991 and his 1968 post-apocalyptic novel Damnation Alley. The book has been reprinted numerous times and was loosely adapted to film in 1977 starring George Peppard and Jan-Michael Vincent.

In Damnation Alley, the Earth as we know it no longer exists. Decades before, a nuclear war decimated the planet and what's remains is a mere shell of what life originally resembled. In the skies, hurricane-strength winds prevent any form of air travel. The atmosphere is a swirling belt of dust and garbage set into eternal propulsion by the howling winds. The radiation has mutated animals and insects and what remains of America is a fractured ruling class divided into regions.

The book stars a former Hell's Angel biker named Hell Tanner. He's a ruthless anti-hero who was abandoned by his father as an infant. His mother died in his early childhood and Tanner was passed around from home to home until he found a permanent residence within the ranks of the Hell's Angels. When readers first meet Tanner, he's racing his Harley Davidson through the twisting roads of San Diego. His pursuers, the Nation of California's law enforcement, have warrants for his arrest. After successfully outrunning the cops, his day ends with a roadblock and a busted bike.

While in police custody, Tanner is offered a unique proposition. His criminal record of killing three people and resisting arrest, will be wiped clean if he can successfully deliver an antivirus to the city of Boston. The trip across the country has rarely been completed due to the nearly insurmountable odds. With the journey consisting of raging storms, mutants, biker gangs, road bandits and plague, the pathway is referred to as Damnation Alley. Between prison or the road, Tanner chooses to suit up and drive a sophisticated vehicle across the country in hopes of delivering the much-needed medicine and winning his own freedom.

This book would have made more of a personal impact if I read it at the time of its original publication. While its unfair to Zelazny, his post-apocalyptic action tale was used as a blueprint by numerous authors to write better versions of this book. Damnation Alley isn't terrible, but it's a slow burn that never reaches the roaring blaze I had hoped for. Much of the book is simply Tanner driving, eating and sleeping. Every few pages he shoots a giant bat or kills some bikers, but these are just bumps along the road to what is otherwise an unexciting plot. Tanner isn't a likable character by any means, and often I asked myself if I really cared about his success. Other than a partner named Greg, who is quickly written out of the narrative, there aren't many admirable characters. The lack of action, character development or dynamic story were detrimental to the reading experience. However, high praise is still warranted due to what Zelazny created.

Damnation Alley, in both book and film form, are very influential to the post-apocalyptic genre of men's action-adventure novels. There's no question that it inspired a number of commercially successful titles.

- The vehicle that Tanner is driving is similar to what authors Ed Naha and John Shirley conceived with their 1984 series Traveler. Through Traveler's 13-book series, the protagonist drives a fortified van deemed “The Meat Wagon.” While it lacked the sophisticated wizardry showcased in Damnation Alley, the use of van portholes and machine guns to anonymously eliminate potential threats mirrors Zelazny's approach.

- Again, the idea of the “all-terrain fortified vehicle” can be found in the debut of Deathlands, a 138-book series of post-apocalyptic adventures. Series hero Ryan Cawdor is on board a trio of armored tractor-trailer trucks that are equipped with cameras, mounted cannons, numerous guns. Like Tanner, Cawdor and company use the safety of the vehicle as a sort of road residence.

- There is no doubt that Zelazny's conception of a fragmented America can be found within a number of series titles like The Last Ranger, Doomsday Warrior, Out of the Ashes and Endworld. But, perhaps the most similar is Robert Tine's 1984 five-book series Outrider. In it, the former United States is now divided into ruling class sections that surround a metropolis. Like Tanner, the series stars a lone-wolf named Bonner as he navigates the post-apocalypse in a jacked-up dune-buggy equipped with weapons.

- In 1977's post-apocalyptic novel The Lost Traveler, authored by Steve Wilson, a biker hero named Long Range roams a nuked-out wasteland. Like the aforementioned titles, this one also includes a fragmented America and disputes between warring clans. Where Damnation Alley sort of condemns the Hell's Angels, Wilson pulls no punches as he makes the famed biker gang a ruthless and criminal government body.

- In 1984's Angels, the third installment of the four-book series Wasteworld, hero Matthew Chance is pitted against a gang of post-apocalyptic Hell's Angels.

While Zelazny's concept of Damnation Alley is mostly an original, innovative take on doomsday, it does come with a borrowed idea. In 1959's We Who Survived, author Sterling Noel places his heroes in a fortified, all-terrain vehicle that is used for defense, housing and drilling through a post-apocalyptic America ravaged by an eternal ice-storm. Perhaps Zelazny was influenced by Noel's conception of “road warriors” surviving doomsday by using an advanced, nearly indestructible vehicle? I'd suspect so.

Buy a copy of this influential book HERE

Swampmaster: A Paperback Warrior Primer

In the late 1990s, author Jerome Preisler became a prominent contributor to the Tom Clancy spy-world of espionage and covert thrillers. Penning eight Powerplays titles using the Clancy brand, Preisler also wrote television tie-in novels in the CSI, Homicide and NCIS series. Preisler also authored the movie adaptations for Last Man Standing and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Before adding “NY Times Bestselling Author” to his name, he authored two early 1990s horror novels for Leisure, The Awakening and The Pact. But, nothing could quite compare to the three-book post-apocalyptic series that Preisler wrote under the pseudonym Jake Spencer. 

Swampmaster, billed as the “first in the mega-mayhem action series!”, consisted of three post-apocalyptic paperbacks written by Preisler and published by Diamond. Considering the timing of publication - all three novels released in 1992 - the post-apocalyptic pop-culture phenomenon had likely evaporated. With successful titles like Out of the Ashes, The Last Ranger and The Survivalist finding a loyal 80s fanbase, the 1990s began a decline in sales and readers. Nevertheless, the publisher and/or Jerome Preisler pursued the post-apocalyptic genre with this short-lived series. 

The series opener explains that America was nuked and what's left are marauders, mutants and a new government called The National Front. Opposing the sadists, racists and warmongers of The National Front is the Free States, territories that have succeeded from the government's tyrannical union. In one of the Free States, a swampy area in southern Florida, resides series hero John Firecloud. He's a Seminole, trained in the ways of the warrior by his father Charlie. Firecloud is proficient with archery and martial arts, two much-needed assets in this doomsday environment.

After Firecloud's village is attacked, Firecloud himself destroys an Apache helicopter with an arrow and disposes of seven heavily armed men. As his father is dying, he passes on a message of leadership to Firecloud, who will now be known as the impressive Swampmaster. Whatever that means. But instead of Swampmaster fighting hunchbacked, radiated ogres, motorcycle psychos and the number one villain of the book, The National Front, the author provides 120+ pages of a planned bombing in Atlanta. 

There are pages and pages of nonsense about a bomb in a briefcase, who's got the briefcase and a car accident victim. The novel's final chapters has Swampmaster team with two kung-fu dwarfs and a former female swat team member to fight a female mutant called Itchy Peg and her two inbred brothers. After Swampmaster is nearly boob-smothered by Itchy Peg and subsequently saved by the dwarfs, the foursome travel north to hijack a train full of carnival oddities so they can fetch a pilot that can fly an Apache helicopter. The end result has Swampmaster swimming through a bay to climb a fort in St. Augustine, Florida to liberate a scientist that potentially can aid the Free States. 232-pages of dull, unexplained trash-fiction that unfortunately leads to a sequel. 

A few months later, Hell on Earth arrives. This second installment begins with Swampmaster and his acrobatic dwarfs fighting a convoy of National Front troopers. There's a hilarious scene where the dwarfs handspring across the battlefield to draw fire away from Swampmaster. While this is happening, the author introduces a carload of mutants dressed as clowns that are slave mercenaries for the government. It is this sort of stuff that carries Swampmaster into the realms of the ridiculous. I'm not sure if it propels the action or unintentionally serves as a distraction.

The bulk of the narrative has The National Front creating a new military compound off of Long Pine Key in the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is here where they plan on utilizing remote control mutants as soldiers under the tutelage of a vile villain named Groll (who plays video games called Hitler's Legacy and Auschwitz). Of course Swampmaster wants to stop the remote control mutants and put an end to Groll's dastardly deeds. The finale has a captured Swampmaster forced into gladiator combat against a seven-foot tall mutant controlled by Groll remotely. While certainly not top-tier literary fiction, Hell on Earth was somewhat enjoyable and an increase in quality compared to the horrific series debut. 

The series third and final installment, Unholy Alliance, reverses any momentum that Preisler had with the prior novel. Instead, what serves as the series finale is arguably on par with the Roadblaster series written by Paul Hofrichter. In other words, it's a cesspool of literature that should come with a warning label akin to this: Contents inside may put you at risk of blindness, erectile dysfunction and lethargic bouts of coma-like fatigue. Contact your physician or nearest urgent care if you read past page 10. 

The set-up is that warring factions – The National Front and Free States – converge on an abandoned Disneyworld to duke it out. It's a fascinating concept, bad guys running around the most famous amusement park in the world while a war party featuring acrobatic dwarfs and a Seminole warrior are attempting to stop them. Just for giggles, the author throws in eight-pages of a savage black bear fighting a doomsday cowboy while a gladiator game ensues with motorcyclists mowing down human heads while a drooling, wheelchair-bound madman watches from Cinderella's Castle. 

How on Earth can you screw this up? It's an amazing, awe-inspiring premise that Jerome Preisler just shits away! It's like Peter North showing up on the set and having no idea where to put it. This should be an easy one, but instead the reader is subjected to pages and pages of gun porn, mindless conversations about Cuban cartels, pointless backstories on meaningless characters that become decapitated in just a few pages. 

This is absolute garbage. If garbage was alive and had a waste can that it put its own garbage in, this book would be the filth-ridden wallpaper adorning the can's inner aluminum shell. 

Thankfully, this series was trash-canned, thrown onto the back walls of garage sales worldwide, finding solace in its mere obscurity. Who is this lone hero Swampmaster? He's John Firecloud and he'll rain on your Macy's parade every single Thanksgiving. He's the guy who hid the chocolate bunny on Easter and told you asparagus tastes great. He only left you a quarter for pulling that bloody stump of a tooth out of your pink gums and John Firecloud is the guy who crapped in the work toilet and left it there to dissolve knowing you'd see it and never unsee it. 

You know what? Jerome Preisler did all of that too when he introduced the world to Swampmaster.

Doomsday Warrior #01 - Doomsday Warrior

Jan Stacy (The Last Ranger) and Ryder Syvertsen (C.A.D.S.) originally met in the 1960s at Washington Square Park in New York City. Caught up in the beatnik cultural movement, the lifelong friends began swapping story and book ideas as well as songs. After working together on two non-fiction novels, Great Book of Movie Monsters (1983) and Great Book of Movie Villains (1984), the two collaborated on a post-apocalyptic series titled Doomsday Warrior under the pseudonym of Ryder Stacy. The series was published by Zebra and ran for a total of 19 installments between 1984 through 1991. The first four novels, Doomsday Warrior, Red America, The Last American and Bloody America were authored by both Stacy and Syvertsen. The remainder of the series was penned solely by Syvertsen. My review is for the series' debut, Doomsday Warrior.

The first installment is set in the year of 2089 where most of the world is either controlled by the Soviet Union or in a widely contested battle with the communist country. Most of the U.S. was decimated by nuclear bombs and the survivors maintain a meager living either as slaves or wretched scavengers that have succumbed to radiation's side-effects. With the nuclear attack occurring in 1984, the book's characters are all second to third generation survivors, a unique approach that mirrors another popular doomsday series, Deathlands.

The series stars Ted Rockson, an action-oriented adventurer that leads an American resistance group called the American Free Cities. While most of the U.S. is controlled and enslaved by the Soviet Union, underground cities still remain that are free and liberated from communist control. Rockson resides in Century City, an expansive free society that exists under a section of Colorado's Rocky Mountains (similar to Jan Stacy's character Martin Stone in The Last Ranger). Rockson's role is to lead reconnaissance patrols on missions to discover new supplies, weapons and enemy patrols. It's during one of these missions that readers are first introduced to Rockson and his Firefighter Team.

After blowing up a large bridge and a number of Soviet personnel carriers, Rockson's team comes under heavy fire from communist forces. After numerous casualties, the team retreats back to Century City to formulate a new plan of attack. The intense battle is reported back to three Soviet leaders – Killov, Zhabnov and Vassily. The trio, who compete for political power, begin an expeditionary patrol to find more resistance fighters. After locating a few underground cities, the Soviets are able to capture a number of American prisoners. Using an advanced technology called a Mind Breaker, the Soviets are able to pull pertinent information from American prisoners. Soon, the captives begin revealing locations of more underground cities that the Soviets hope to nuke.

The first 189 pages of Doomsday Warrior is clearly a debut novel that focuses on Rockson's attempts to break into a Soviet stronghold in Denver to rescue prisoners. His mission is to retrieve the captives, destroy the Mind Breaker units and prevent the Soviets from gaining the location of Century City. It's a riveting, explosive narrative that rivals and exceeds most of the 1980s post-apocalyptic novels (Wasteworld, Deathlands, Survivalist, Phoenix, Outrider, etc.). While that was enjoyable, the logic behind the book's second half is puzzling.

It is immediately clear that a new book begins at page 189. At 347 total pages, one would think Zebra would have capitalized on this and released the book's second half as second installment. These books were retailing for $2.95 each, essentially Zebra would have been doubling their money from avid consumers. Regardless of the publisher's marketing strategy, Doomsday Warrior's second narrative explores Rockson's attempts to locate a technologically advanced race in America's Pacific Northwest region.

The narrative begins with an expeditionary unit returning to Century City to report a strange mutant male they found near the Pacific coast line. This area remains vastly unexplored and the team was surprised to find people, evolved animals and a swath of jungle and wilderness that remains nearly intact despite the Soviet Union's devastating nuclear attack. Rockson, hoping to journey even further than the former team, recruits three men to assist him in exploring this new, untapped resource.

Stacy and Syvertsen really hit their stride in this second story arc. The narrative finds the crew battling mutant monsters, deadly quicksand, Soviet KGB forces and mutant, Neanderthal men. The team's exploration of a shopping mall was extremely enjoyable with just the right amount of humor to keep me laughing throughout. While the military style tactics utilized in the book's opening narrative are missing, Doomsday Warrior's second half is surprisingly far superior. The epic adventure, fast-paced writing, character development and action was absolutely top-notch.

The Doomsday Warrior series is off to a tremendous start with this rock-solid debut installment. As the series continues, I understand the quality begins to decline. However, knowing what the future holds for the series doesn't spoil the fun of this early volume. If you read nothing else by Stacy or Syvertsen, at least sample this novel. I think it represents everything that fans and readers loved about 1980s post-apocalyptic pop-culture. Recommended.

Buy a copy of Doomsday Warrior HERE

Paperback Warrior Unmasking – Jan Stacy’s End of the World

Beginning in 1986, Popular Library published a 10-book series of men's action-adventure novels titled The Last Ranger. It catered to pop-culture's fascination with the post-apocalypse and was fueled by blockbuster films like Mad Max and The Road Warrior. The books starred a lone hero named Martin Stone, a rugged journeyman searching for his sister after a Soviet nuclear attack destroyed most of North America. The over-the-top action featured zany villains, beautiful women, mutants and monsters all competing for authority in American's wastelands. Each novel of this enjoyable series is credited to an author named Craig Sargent. A deep dive online reveals that Sargent was actually Jan Stacy, a rather unknown author that contributed to other post-apocalyptic novels including Doomsday Warrior and C.A.D.S.

Unfortunately, Jan Stacy died in 1989 and his life has remained a mystery to readers, fans and scholars....until now. Paperback Warrior was able to locate Jan Stacy's only known living relative, his stepbrother Samuel Claiborne. In a lengthy interview, Paperback Warrior was able to piece together Stacy's short but remarkable life including his inspiration for writing, his fascination with doomsday fiction and his talented musicianship. Our latest Unmasking article hopes to answer questions that have been posed for decades about this mysterious author.

The end of the world leads us to the beginning...

Left: Jan Stacy / Right: Samuel Claiborne

Jan Stacy was born in New York City in 1948 and grew up during the “duck and cover” time-frame of Post War hysteria between the communist Soviet Union and the U.S., an era that reached a fevered pitch during 1962's Cuban Missile Crisis. Stacy was just a teenager when his father succumbed to alcoholism. His death eventually led to Stacy's dependence on heroin as a teenager. To break the addiction, his mother sent him to Africa to reside with his uncle, an ambassador. As a testament to overcoming drug addiction, Stacy later started a drug rehab program for teens called Encounter.

After attending the liberal arts college Sarah Lawrence, Stacy found himself as a mainstay in the beatnik culture surrounding New York City's Washington Square Park. It's here that Stacy began his artistic and politically charged endeavors.

“Jan began as a folk singer in Washington Square and it was like a really big network with people like Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe. This hippie culture is where Jan's artwork and his music came from despite the masculine novels that he would later write. Jan's mother was extremely involved in the War Resisters League and worked a lot in The Village counseling young people on how to avoid the Vietnam War draft. I haven't been able to locate it but there is a photo somewhere of Jan burning his draft card in Washington Square in 1966,” explained Claiborne.

In addition to music, the early 1970s found Stacy exploring Xerox Artwork, an artistic trend that had become a staple in the punk music scene.

Claiborne recalls, “I can remember Jan and I would cut the labels off of Campbell's soup cans and he would make these custom labels with odd artwork and put them on the cans. It became a huge hit and Jan would sell them on the street. Campbell's threatened to sue Jan for $16-million over it so he stopped. Later, Jan opened an art gallery in Soho called Fear of Art and it was just around the corner from Talking Heads' singer-songwriter David Byrne. We used to always think that Byrne got the inspiration for the album Fear of Music from Jan's Fear of Art gallery,”

It was in Washington Square that Stacy met his longtime writing partner, Ryder Syvertsen. After Stacy obtained a job working at the New York Times' Classified Advertising Department, both Stacy and Syvertsen began writing music with Claiborne and coming up with book and story ideas. In 1983, the two collaborated on a non-fiction book titled Great Books of Movie Monsters, published by Columbus Books. The two followed a year later with the Great Book of Movie Villains. In 1984, Stacy produced his first solo book titled Rockin' Reels: An Illustrated History of Rock and Roll Movies.

“Jan loved pulp and movie monsters and we shot a music video involving monsters and quite possibly the most cheesy stop-action movie monster of all-time. We loved the cheesy movies where you can practically see the strings. We did band rehearsals every Saturday and then that afternoon we would watch Kung Fu double-features. We would rehearse, then watch 4-hours of Kung Fu movies and then go smoke pot. But Jan loved horror movies and was a fan of Night of the Living Dead,” explained Claiborne.

Beginning in 1984, Stacy and Syvertsen collaborated on a post-apocalyptic series titled Doomsday Warrior under the pseudonym Ryder Stacy. The eponymous first novel is set in the year of 2089 where most of the world is either controlled by the Soviet Union or in a widely contested battle with the communist country. Most of the U.S. was decimated by nuclear bombs and the survivors maintain a meager living either as slaves or wretched scavengers who have succumbed to radiation's side-effects. The series was published by Zebra and ran for a total of 19 installments between 1984 through 1991. The first four novels, Doomsday Warrior, Red America, The Last American and Bloody America were authored by both Stacy and Syvertsen. The remainder of the series was penned solely by Syvertsen.

In 1985, another post-apocalyptic series emerged from Zebra titled C.A.D.S. (Computerized Attack Defense System). It also ran from 1984 through 1991 and consisted of 12 total novels. The house name given was John Sievert but this was a combination of different authors. The first novel, Nuke First Strike, was authored by both Jan Stacy and Ryder Syvertsen. Installments 2-8 were penned solely by Syvertsen with books 9-12 authored by David Alexander (Phoenix).

Jan Stacy's most prominent literary work would emerge in 1986. The Last Ranger series was published by Popular Library and ran for 10 total installments through 1989 (and ultimately Jan's death). The series protagonist, Martin Stone, is introduced to readers as an athletic, cocky teen who defies his father, a stern and conservative military leader. When the Soviet Union begins a nuclear assault on the U.S., Stone and his family retreat to an underground mountain fortress where Stone's father teaches him survival, martial arts and weapons for a number of years. Once his father dies, Stone emerges from the compound only to witness his mother being murdered and his sister abducted. The monomyth series emphasizes Stone's struggles with authority as he searches the wasteland for his sister. It was Stacy's third consecutive post-apocalyptic series of novels, a trend that may have been formulating at a young age.

“The doomsday thing was really a culmination of things. Jan growing up in the 1960s during the Cold War scare. His mom was Jewish and you have to remember that the European Jewish attitude is that God is out to get them. The idea that you just can't rely on anything was prevalent. Think of Woody Allen, a paranoid guy who thought the world was out to get him. Jan was like that and he loved Doctor Strangelove [1964 black comedy film]. Jan and his mom were also at odds and had a strained relationship. She was a committed pacifist and I think sometimes Jan would write these macho books as a way of defying her,” says Claiborne.

The Last Ranger's Martin Stone paralleled Stacy's own life in many ways. Stacy's strained relationship with his alcoholic father and his avoidance of the Vietnam War mirror events in the series self-titled debut. As the series continues, Native American mysticism is introduced as well as Stone's fighting skills in the martial arts.

“When Jan went to Africa to break his heroin addiction, he brought back these gorgeous African spears. I still have one of them. He also brought back a lot of Asian martial arts stuff. Jan was a great martial artist. He studied Chi Kung, Ba Gua, Hsing Yi and Tai Chi. Jan moved Chi around instead of just using brute strength. He was interested in internal martial arts. He also boxed at the famed Wu Tang Physical Culture Association. It was this crazy squatter place in The Village ran by Frank ‘The Snake’ Allen. Jan started training there and was a really short, fast wiry martial artist,” explained Claiborne.

Stacy was in a lot of musical acts from 1978-1988 and when he was age 29 he asked the younger Claiborne to join his band. The two formed a trio with Peter Ford called Things Fall Apart, which Stacy named after the novel by Chinua Achebe. Things Fall Apart existed from 1983 to 1987 and had started to find their own sound and audience. The act began opening on Saturday nights at the famed CBGB club in New York City. Just as the band had begun making strides, Stacy surprisingly told the members he didn't want to play gigs anymore.

Left to Right: Samuel Claiborne, Peter Ford, Jan Stacy
Photo Credit: Peter Ford

Claiborne said, “I can remember Jan acting different by 1987. He stopped sharing his drinks or food with me and told me to start rolling my own. That sort of thing. When he said he didn't want to gig any longer we sort of became apart for a couple of years. I remember my daughter being born in May of 1989 and seeing Jan's mother at the hospital. I told her I had ran into Jan a little while back and he looked like death. She got so upset and I was later told that Jan had tested HIV-positive, but I knew right then he had AIDS. Jan was a bi-sexual in New York City and at the time they didn't know how to treat it. They tried AZT on him but Jan just couldn't tolerate the drug.”

In February of 1989, Zebra published the only stand-alone novel Jan Stacy wrote, a vigilante novel called Body Smasher. Claiborne explains the idea behind the novel:

“The book's cover features the real-life professional wrestler Captain Lou Albano. Jan got to meet the wrestler and talk to him about the book. The idea was the book was going to tie into a wrestling promotion. It was a whole cross marketing idea that was to be a successful series of books.”

Stacy's later installments of The Last Ranger were written in a dark, negative tone with Martin Stone facing extreme adversity. In 1988's The Damned Disciples, the series' ninth novel, Stone is enslaved by a religious cult, drugged and forced to stir an enormous pot containing a sedative called Golden Nectar for weeks. I think this novel best orchestrates Stacy's endless cycle of AIDS medications. His body's resistance to AZT could have been Stone's own resistance to the forced drugs provided by his jailer. Claiborne seems to think this was a case of life imitating art. In fact, Stacy may have been on his deathbed when he authored The Last Ranger series finale, aptly titled Is This The End?

Claiborne remembers Stacy's last days:

“Jan was still working at the New York Times when he got sick. I am speculating that he made about $5K per book for the adventure novels. St. Martin's Press was involved with the non-fiction books and they paid more. Jan also had received an advance on a memoir he was going to write about getting off heroin. But Jan did what a lot of people did with AIDS and just stayed distant. Didn't want to hang out. Didn't want to talk about AIDS or anything. I remember calling Ryder Syvertsen maybe in July or August of 1989 and he told me if I wanted to see Jan to go to the Cabrini Medical Center in New York City because he was in a coma. One of Jan's martial arts teachers, Mr. Chen, was this unbelievable World War 2 veteran and he gave Jan some Chi and was able to wake him up from the coma. Jan left the hospital and wanted to go to Cape Cod, Massachusetts to live with his mother and my father. I drove him up in a Dodge Astro Van and I remember he was so small at the time and he had difficulty getting up the steps. We got to the house and Jan was reserved. He motioned for me to come over and he told me he loved me. That was a rare thing and he told me he didn't want to die. His health got really bad at the house and my father and his mother put him back in the hospital where he eventually succumbed to his illness.”

Stone suddenly knew he'd be seeing his mother and father again real soon. Well, that would be nice. He wondered in a strangely calm way within the storm of his fear just what it would be like to die. And suddenly he wished with a burst of incredible force that surged through his body right up from the depths of his libido that he could get laid once more before he died. - Excerpt from Is This The End?

Jan Stacy Bibliography:

Non-Fiction

Great Book of Movie Monsters (1983) w/Ryder Syvertsen
Great Book of Movie Villains (1984) w/ Ryder Syvertsen
Rockin' Reels: An Illustrated History of Rock and Roll (1984)

Fiction
Body Smasher #1: Body Smasher
Body Smasher #2: Death March
Doomsday Warrior #1: Doomsday Warrior (1984) w/Ryder Syvertsen
Doomsday Warrior #2: Red America (1984) w/Ryder Syvertsen
Doomsday Warrior #3: The Last America (1984) w/Ryder Syvertsen
Doomsday Warrior #4: Bloody America (1985) w/Ryder Syvertsen
C.A.D.S. #1: Nuke First Strike (1985) w/Ryder Syvertsen
Last Ranger #1: Last Ranger (1986)
Last Ranger #2: Savage Stronghold (1986)
Last Ranger #3: Madman's Mansion (1986)
Last Ranger #4: Rabid Brigadier (1987)
Last Ranger #5: War Weapons (1987)
Last Ranger #6: The Warlord's Revenge (1988)
Last Ranger #7: The Vile Village (1988)
Last Ranger #8: The Cutthroat Cannibals (1988)
Last Ranger #9: The Damned Disciples (1988)
Last Ranger #10: Is This The End? (1989)

Buy a copy of The Last Ranger HERE