John Sinclair is a fictional character and the protagonist of a popular German horror detective series (of the dime novel or penny dreadful variety). The full title is Geisterjäger John Sinclair, (lit. Ghost Hunter John Sinclair), and the official English title is John Sinclair: Demon Hunter. The long-running series has been ongoing since 1973 and has been released weekly since 1978. Premise In the stories, Scotland Yard chief inspector John Sinclair battles all kinds of undead and demonic creatures, such as vampires, witches, ghouls, and werewolves. Commercial success While falling into the category of 'pulp fiction', the ongoing series is yet remarkable for the relatively wide range of its vocabulary and the inventiveness of its plots. The novels have been a commercial success in Germany, with over 250 million copies sold as of 2020. A recent milestone was the release of issue 2400 of the regular novel series in July 2024. Writers Most John Sinclair stories in the series have been written only by Helmut Rellergerd under the nom-de-plume of Jason Dark. Only a few of the earliest stories have been written by other authors. As of late, creation of new stories is divided among Rellergerd and several new authors, each of them writing separate full episodes; the new writers are attributed for their respective stories. For example, the Oculus duology (2017) was written by Wolfgang Hohlbein, while forensic biologist Mark Benecke was the author of the novel Brandmal. Rellergerd narrates the stories in first person from Sinclair's point of view whenever he is involved. At all other times a neutral narrator style is used. In some stories Sinclair does not appear and one of his friends takes the leading part. Shared universe
The John Sinclair stories and their spin-offs Sinclair Academy and Dark Land are part of a larger shared universe of Bastei Lübbe novels and had multiple crossover events with several other German horror and fantasy series, such as , and among others. The novels take place in an alternate universe within the fictional multiverse and also had numerous crossovers with John Sinclair since the 1976 story Der Fluch aus dem Dschungel. Illustrators Over the decades the Spanish painter Vicenç Badalona Ballestar has created numerous paintings and illustrations for the bestselling series.Vicente Ballestar in: Pulpinternational Other artists that contributed to artworks and cover designs for John Sinclair include Sebastià Boada, Tim White, Les Edwards, Luis Royo, Vicente Segrelles, Ron Walotsky, Alan M. Clark, Michael Whelan, Jim Warren etc. Adaptations In Germany, the stories have been adapted into multiple successful audio drama series and audiobooks,John Sinclair - German Audiobooks in: GermanAudiobooks as well as a television film and a TV series.Geisterjäger John Sinclair: Die Dämonenhochzeit (1997) in: IMDbGeisterjäger John Sinclair in: IMDb Additionally, the novels have also spawned a comic series, tabletop role-playing games and the 1998 video game John Sinclair: Evil Attacks. The novel series is being released in English as of April 2021 by J-Novel Club as part of their J-Novel Pulp imprint.
Characters of the novel series
Heroes John Sinclair is of Scottish descent and the reborn soul of both King Solomon and Knight Templar Hector de Valois. He is a direct descendant of Henry I Sinclair, Earl of Orkney. John Sinclair is described as 1.90m tall, blond in his middle thirties. Like most characters he does not age during the course of the series. His home town is Lauder in the Scottish Borders, which is also where his parents used to live until their deaths in 1997. Sinclair is called the Son of the Light and regularly wields a blessed cross as well as a Beretta handgun with silver bullets, although he has acquired and lost various other weapons during the series. He is a bachelor, rarely having a girlfriend during the series after his relationship with Jane Collins ended. Suko is Sinclair's colleague as a Scotland Yard inspector. He is a Chinese proficient in martial arts. As an additional weapon, he carries a whip made from the skin of a demon which instantly kills all undead or demonic beings except the strongest. He has no first name, being called just Suko or Inspector Suko.Suko was brought up in a Shaolin temple somewhere in China where he learned his martial arts and discipline. Originally the driver of a powerful Chinese patron in London, he joined Sinclair after his patron and the latter's sole daughter were killed by a dragon-worshipping cult. Sir James Powell is the superintendent of Scotland Yard's special division for supernatural phenomena, making him the direct superior of Sinclair and Suko. He rarely gets involved directly into the action, mostly giving information and valuable support from his London office. Sir James can arrange a lot of things due to his status in society and his connections. He has complete confidence in his team. Glenda Perkins is the office secretary, especially famous for her coffee. During 2006 she was injected with a nano-tech serum enabling her to teleport. At first, she could not control her teleporting ability, but recently she has begun to master it quite well and is even capable of taking one or two persons with her. Shao is Suko's longterm girlfriend. She is Japanese and the reincarnation of the Japanese Goddess Amaterasu, also known as the Phantom with the Crossbow. Bill Conolly is a close personal friend of Sinclair's. They have studied together and been friends ever since. Bill is a freelance investigative reporter and sometimes gets involved in Sinclair's cases. He married early in the series.Gespenster-Krimi 31 "Sakuro, der Dämon" Sheila Conolly, née Sheila Hopkins, is the wife of Bill Conolly. Her father was a rich industrialist killed by the demon Sakuro. Johnny Conolly is the only child of Sheila and Bill Conolly, and John Sinclair's godson. He is the only character to age during the series, growing up into a good-looking young man currently attending the University of London. Johnny Conolly occasionally gets involved in Sinclair's cases, much to the dismay of his mother. He is the main character of the spin-off series Dark Land. Jane Collins is a former witch who switched sides during the course of the series. When an agent of Asmodis cut out her heart, she had to have an artificial heart. Collins works as a successful private detective, only occasionally appearing in the series. After the death of Lady Sarah Goodwin, she inherited her Mayfair home and other possessions. Lady Sarah Goldwyn, also called the Horror-Grandma, was a collector of horror books and films as well as antiquarian volumes on magic and the supernatural, making her an expert in the field. She took Jane Collins into her Mayfair home, bequeathing it to her when she was killed by the monster vampires of the Black Death.
Recurring villains Most bad guys are destroyed by the end of a novel, but some arch-villains come up quite often against Sinclair until he finds a way to get rid of them permanently. Due to the horror nature of most of the creatures, some return even after being destroyed, most notably Vincent van Akkeren who started mortal and had to be killed 3 times by powers of the light before he stayed dead. Doctor Tod ("Doctor Death") was the first recurring villain. He committed suicide after a lost battle with John Sinclair. Asmodina and the Spook transferred his soul into the body of Mafia godfather Solo Morasso. In this body, his main objective is to gather recruits for his killer league, an organization consisting of both demons and human criminals since Sinclair would not take human lives, in order to kill him. Sinclair kills him in a later battle. Asmodina was the daughter of the devil Asmodis. Her original shape was Apep, the hell snake. However, her preferred appearance was that of a young, beautiful red-headed woman with horns growing out of her forehead. During the series, she commanded Doctor Tod and his killer league. Later, Doctor Tod wanted to be independent and made a deal with the Spook to kill Asmodina. He managed to do so by taking ownership of Sinclair's silver Boomerang and beheaded her in Spook's realm. Der Schwarze Tod ("The Black Death") is another major demon and one of John's enemies. He is based on the grim reaper and was originally defeated in the episode "Das letzte Duell". Decades later, he was revived in the book "Die Rückkehr des Schwarzen Tods". Der Spuk ("The Spook") is an ancient demon who came into being when the universe was created. He appears in the form of a dark shadow and is the last surviving Great Old One. The "Cube of Doom" is in his possession, a magical artifact that can activate the "Todesnebel", a deadly fog that kills everyone it comes into contact with. Will Mallmann: Formerly one of Sinclair's best friends and allies, he was a commissioner in the Bundeskriminalamt, the German Federal Criminal Police Office. During a vampire hunt, however, he was captured by vampires, fatally wounded and forced to drink a distillant from Count Dracula's blood, turning him into both a vampire and Dracula's heir (he bears the official name of "Dracula II").Geisterjäger John Sinclair 569 "Teufel im Leib" Will has since plagued his former friend time and again with his scheme to turn the world into a vampire realm. A magical item, the Bloodstone, also makes him immune to any conventional means of destroying vampires. He later uses the "Vampirwelt" as his headquarters, a dimension of terror inhabited by vampires that was created by Lucifer. Vincent van Akkeren was a director of horror movies and secretly the leader of the renegade Knights Templar that worship Baphomet. His goal was to become the grand master of all members of the order. He was later transformed into a vampire and eventually killed by the Black Death in the story "Das Versprechen des Schwarzen Tods".Geisterjäger John Sinclair 1359 Das Versprechen des Schwarzen Tods" Belphegor is a powerful archdemon who uses a flame whip as his signature weapon. He is eventually defeated by the Iron Angel with the magical pendulum. Assunga is a shadow witch who wears a magical coat that allows her to teleport and jump between places and realities. For many years she was an ally of Dracula II. Mandragoro is a plant demon who guards forests and nature. Lupina: The Queen of Werewolfs and lover to Fenris, with whom she has a son, Luparo. Her body is that of a wolf, while her head is human looking. She is later poisoned and killed by Mandragoro when she tries to take over the plant demon's forest in Wales.Geisterjäger John Sinclair 461 "Lupina gegen Mandragoro" Die Horror-Reiter ("The Riders of Horror") appear in the form of four skeleton knights who are the servants of AEBA. They ride on fire-breathing horses and are loosely based on the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Saladin was an evil hypnotist and an ally of the Black Death. He later also joined forces with Dracula II. Shimada: A demonic ninja who rivals Amaterasu and uses a sword that was forged in hell. Fenris is an entity from Norse mythology in the form of an enormous wolf. He is the ruler of werewolfs and the father of Luparo. Strigus was the leader of the Strix and had the appearance of a giant monstrous owl. The strix that served him had skeleton heads and were the arch-enemies of vampire emperor Vampiro-del-mar and his army. Akim Samaran was a sculptor who used wax and human skeletons to create living puppets. He held a personal grudge against the Sinclair family and was an ally of the Spook. Samaran was killed in the episode "Das Richtschwert der Templer" when he broke into a crypt and tried to steal a legendary executioner's sword that belonged to the Knights Templar.Geisterjäger John Sinclair 418 "Das Richtschwert der Templer"