The Obscure Works of Joel Jenkins, Part 2

The Eel and Adder tales take place during World War II and are written in homage to the pulps of the time. The Eel is a former escape artist and burglar who turns his talents to fighting for justice and against the forces of evil, and the Adder is a former thespian of great renown and a master of disguise whose mental stability is in question. In The Dust of Death they meet and join forces against a Nazi menace which hopes to spread death to all those living on Manhattan Island.

From that time forth the Eel and the Adder combine their efforts against the Nazi Threat in such tales as Death in Black, Iron Monster of Death, and Fire the Asylum. Some of these were published electronically via the daily pulp emails of Electronic Tales, but both Dust of Death and Iron Monster of Death saw print publication.

Originally Dust of Death was published in the pages of Double Danger Tales #28, a zine-style publication that has a great logo and great cover art (done by Damon Orrell). Though it is not as obvious in the photograph, the cover art was shrunk length-wise to fit the cover, and was not shrunk proportionately in the vertical direction--so the cover depicting the Eel and the Adder is not quite as nice as it should have been. It appears that a few of these back issues are still available at the Fading Shadows website for $6.30 post paid.

The Journal of Pulse Pounding Narratives contains Iron Monster of Death which introduces the intrepid Emma Trubody who goes undercover for the Eel to find the truth about a Nazi shipment that contains weapons capable of razing New York City. However, the Journal of Pulse Pounding Tales doesn't appear to be available anymore at the Moth Axle (the publishers) website--and searches on Amazon turned up nothing.

Tales of Masks and Mayhem, which contains a reprint of Dust of Death is easiest of all to find and is available at Amazon for around $20.00.

One day I'd like to publish all four Eel and Adder tales in the same place, but I have additional stories to tell about their adventures, so perhaps one day I'll have enough of their stories to make a novel length collection. In my mind I've tentatively titled this yet-to-be-completed tome, The Midnight Avengers.