Diamondback: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time by Derrick Ferguson

Diamondback: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time
by Derrick Ferguson
2021, Pro Se Productions

Believed dead, gunman Diamondback Vogel returns to the gang run city of Denbrook and inserts himself into a war of organized crime and corrupt police. It has a near future setting, just enough to account for societal decay and the occasional technological advancement. Solid action, but too many pages of gangsters telling each other what happened in other scenes.

There's a subplot involving a wife looking for her missing husband and whether Vogel is who he thinks he is, but that will sadly be left dangling.

From Amazon

Dillon and the Alchemist's Morning Coffee by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon and the Alchemist's Morning Coffee
by Derrick Ferguson
2013, Pro Se Press

Dillon witnesses the theft of the mysterious Alchemist's Morning Coffee at an auction and goes on the hunt to recover it. Excellent bike on jeep chase scene through the interior of a massive palace riddled with explosions. Ferguson excels at cinematic action, and for me this one had almost a Lupin III feel.

Available from Amazon

Dillon and the Judas Chalice by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon and the Judas Chalice
by Derrick Ferguson

After a rousing car chase, Dillon is recruited to recover the Judas Chalice. Fun, if a less memorable entry.

Available in Dillon Annual 2018, available from Amazon

Derrick Ferguson Bibliography

Below is what I believe to be a complete bibliography of Derrick Ferguson. I know he posted some fan fiction, as well as blog posts, etc, that aren't included. Much of this is already out of print.

Adventures of Fortune McCall

Black Pulp - Dillon and the Alchemist's Morning Coffee

Peculiar Adventures, Vol 1 - The Secret Whispers of Each Other’s Watch

Pro Se Presents Masked Gun Mystery 2 - The Scarlet Courtesan of Sovereign City

Pro Se Presents Fantasy and Fear 3 - The Day of the Silent Death-a SOVEREIGN CITY tale

The New Adventures of Foster Fade - The Cider King Murder

Baby Daddy in Hollis PI; Will Write for Food

Tales of Fortune: For Violent Fires that Soon Burn Out

Search for the Beast

Dillon Annual 2019

    Dillon and the Night Before Christmas

    Dillon and the Night of Krampus

    Dillon and the Prophecy of Fire

A Town Named Affliction - Bass Reeves Frontier Marshal Volume 1; Will Write for Food

The Bixbee Breakout - Bass Reeves Frontier Marshal Volume 2; Will Write For Food

Derrick Ferguson's Dillon: The Odd Jobs

    Dillon and the City of Stone

    Dire Learning

    Dillon and the Sisters of the Machine

    Dillon and the Devil's Mercy

Will Write for Food: The Freelance Stories of Derrick Ferguson

The Madness of Frankenstein

Diamondback: It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

The Vril Agenda

The Undercover Puzzle - Dan Fowler: G-Man Volume Two; Will Write For Food

Dillon Annual Collection 2018

    Dillon and the Bad Ass Belt Buckle

    Dillon and the Judas Chalice

    Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira

    Dillon and the Alchemist's Morning Coffee; Black Pulp

    Dillon and the Last Rail to Khusra

Mystery Men (& Women) Volume 3 - A Man Called Mongrel pt 2

Mystery Men (& Women) Volume 2 - A Man Called Mongrel pt 1

Young Dillon in the Halls of Shamballah

Sinbad and the Voyage to the Land of the Frozen Sun - Sinbad - The New Voyages; Will Write for Food

The Knobloch Collection Assignment - Tales from the Hanging Monkey Volume 1; Will Write For Food

Fight Card: Brooklyn Beatdown

Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell

Dillon and The Voice of Odin

Straight Outta Deadwood - The Relay Station at Wrigley's Pass

Four Bullets for Dillon

    Dillon and the Bad-Ass Belt Buckle

    Dead Beat in La Esca

    Dillon and the Escape from Tosegio

    Dillon and the Judas Chalice

Nightscape

The Specialists (The Gantlet Brothers #4)

Diamondback

Derrick Ferguson's Movie Review Notebook

All-American Sports, Volume 2 - Brooklyn Breakdown

The Return of Derrick Ferguson's Movie Review Notebook

How The West Was Weird: Campfire Tales - The Tale of the Baron's Tribute

How the West Was Weird - Of All the Plagues a Lover Bears

Legends of New Pulp Fiction - Voodah of Thunder Mountain

How the West Was Weird: Vol. 3: One Last Bunch of Tales from the Weird, Wild West - Sorrowful are the Souls that Sleep with Gold

PulpWork Christmas Special 2014 - Dillon and the Night of Krampus

Pulpwork Christmas Special 2012 - Dillon and the Night Before Christmas

Black Power: The Superhero Anthology - In Need of a Friend

The Ruckerville Arrangement - Will Write for Food

Fenris the Dreaded One in: And I Say That Unto You is Born…Rayge! - Will Write For Food

Dark Worlds, Spring 2009 - The Tale of the Baron's Tribute

Genesis Science Fiction Magazine #3, Summer 2012 - Another Day on the River

All-Star Pulp Comics Volume Two

Dillon And The Pirates of Xonira by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon And The Pirates of Xonira
by Derrick Ferguson
2012 Pulpwork Press

Dillion is hired to investigate his old friend Lord Chancellor C'jai of Xonira, accused of piracy. We get submarine battles and swordfights, but not near as over-the-top as other entries. 

Available from Amazon

Dillon and the Bad Ass Belt Buckle by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon and the Bad Ass Belt Buckle
by Derrick Ferguson
2011

After Dillon and Eli rescue a kidnapped actor in the jungles of Burma, they come across a bandit settlement called Cheap Prayer. Dillon challenges the leader to a deadly concentration course for their freedom, and for the Bad Ass belt buckle. Fun short.

Available in the Dillon Annual Collection 2018, from Amazon

Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell by Derrick Ferguson

Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell
by Derrick Ferguson
2010 PulpWork Press

Mercenary with a heart Dillon is hired to locate the Golden Bell, and ancient artifact, to unify the people of a pirate nation. I've read a couple of Ferguson's stories, including the first Dillon, but this one is on another level.

Dillon faces jetpack assassins, a feline shape shifting femme fatale, a bungee jumping lost race, and an entire army. Longer than most new pulps, Ferguson keeps up the pace throughout without getting tiresome or episodic as is the tendency for the genre.

Dillon is described by others in the story as cocky and arrogant, but he's less Ashley Williams, more Fred Williamson as far as confidence levels. The story is populated with other colorful characters and references to past adventures which give the feeling the series has gone on much longer than it has.

I think there was a reference to the 70s being 60 years ago, setting this in the near future, but all the cultural elements are contemporary, or earlier. There's some advanced technology and a little bit of the supernatural.

Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell has some of my favorite action sequences put to print. It has just enough detail to paint the picture, but gives room for your imagination to fill in the spaces. Probably the character I would most want to see on the screen.

Kindle ebook from Amazon

The Madness of Frankenstein by Derrick Ferguson

Madness of Frankenstein
by Derrick Ferguson
PulpWork Press 2014

Doctor Peter Holden is sentenced to an insane asylum for following the work of Victor Frankenstein.  He arrives to find Frankenstein running the asylum under an alias.  If this sounds familiar, it's because it's deeply derivative of Frankenstein and the Monster From Hell.



And I'm totally cool with that.  I've always liked Hammer's depiction of the doctor as being the real monster, a complete sociopath with no regard for human life.  This was my favorite of the series, and I don't mind seeing a literary remake.

The doctor teams up with a seductress witch to give his creation a soul, while a zealous justicer gathers up a mob of angry villagers to raid the asylum.  Things start out slow, but get good and over the top once villagers and escaped lunatics face off.

There's a little bit of the kitchen-sink approach I've seen with some of the new pulp writers, here in the shape of witchcraft and a magic artifact, but not enough to be distracting.

Derrick Ferguson is a new pulp writer I've been meaning to check out, mainly known for his Dillon series.