Hello All,
Today I would like to share a particular interest and field of study of mine that is very near and dear to my heart: The Occult Detective. What is an occult detective, you may ask? An occult detective is the same as your regular fictional detective of crime, except they specialize in cases that feature occult elements. That is to say that while a traditional detective may be trying to figure out who murdered a specific person and why, your occult detective would first have to figure out what murdered that person because it could be a poltergeist, vampire, demon, or some other magical/undead entity. Sounds pretty interesting, right? Now, while today you can find occult detectives all over film, television, comics, and literature, I will mostly be discussing literary occult detectives, as that is where they first appeared. However, I will be discussing comics as well because I believe comics can be just as important as traditional literature.
Before I continue, let’s look at a dictionary definition of the word occult below for fun and further edification:
occult |əˈkəlt|
noun (the occult)
supernatural, mystical, or magical beliefs, practices, or phenomena: a secret society to study alchemy and the occult.
adjective
1 of, involving, or relating to supernatural, mystical, or magical powers or phenomena: a follower of occult practices similar to voodoo.
• beyond the range of ordinary knowledge or experience; mysterious: a weird occult sensation of having experienced the identical situation before.
- communicated only to the initiated; esoteric: the typically occult language of the time.
ORIGIN
late 15th century (as a verb): from Latin occultare ‘secrete,’ frequentative of occulere ‘conceal,’ based on celare ‘to hide’; the adjective and noun from occult- ‘covered over,’ from the verb occulere.
I don’t think anyone needs further explanation of what a detective is, but I think it can be helpful to have an exact definition of occult, as the word is tossed around a lot in literature, film, and the like. Plus, because I am a huge nerd, I think it is cool to look at the origins of words. If we look at the origin of occult above, we can see that it essentially means hidden or secret knowledge, which is spooky and cool!
I don’t think anyone needs further explanation of what a detective is, but I think it can be helpful to have an exact definition of occult, as the word is tossed around a lot in literature, film, and the like. Plus, because I am a huge nerd, I think it is cool to look at the origins of words. If we look at the origin of occult above, we can see that it essentially means hidden or secret knowledge, which is spooky and cool!
I think I have spent enough time defining what an occult detective is, but how did this genre come to exist? Honestly, it seems natural to me that sooner or later someone would send their fictitious detective to investigate something other than crimes committed by mundane humans. Obviously, traditional detective fiction is still important because it provided the foundations for everything I am currently discussing (and it is the greatest of my literary interests). I find it interesting to trace the roots of different literary genres and to discover how and why they’ve emerged, and while researching occult detectives I have relied heavily on the work of Tim Prasil. I discuss him in greater detail below, and I personally consider him to be the foremost expert on occult detective fiction and anything related to it.
Now that I’ve discussed what occult detective fiction is, and a bit about where it came from let’s get to the good stuff: examples you can get your hands on. I’ve had a lot of fun hunting down different sites and examples for you (I am a fiend for the research), and the people who run some of the sites I will be discussing below are much more knowledgeable, and have put in much more work than I have. I am very much indebted to the literal years some of these people have spent researching occult detectives.
First Up, Some Great Overviews:
This is a good starting point, as Mr. Kempt mentions a lot of the big names in occult detective fiction. He discusses John Constantine (a HUGE name in occult detective literature, and the first character in the genre I read), Dr. John Silence, Carnacki the Ghost Finder, and he talks a bit about the origins of the genre. He also mentions Occult Detective Quarterly, which I will be discussing more later, and he provides a link to a great book called The Weiser Book of Occult Detectives: 13 Stories of Supernatural Sleuthing. I do not own this book (yet), but I have read some of the stories it contains, and it seems like a great buy for anyone interested in the subject.
This is a page on a larger site run by Bob Freeman, who is one of today’s leading experts on occult detectives. This page has Freeman’s top ten picks in literature, movies, and TV series. He is clearly well-versed in the subject, so you couldn’t go wrong with any of his choices. He is also a published author and has created his own occult detective character.
Getting Serious:
This is a site run by a guy named Tim Prasil. By all accounts he is the leading expert on occult detectives and occult detective fiction today. Almost every other site or book I encountered in my own research made reference to Tim Prasil and the thoroughness of his research. No one should even try to top the level of knowledge this guy has. The link I have provided is a chronological bibliography Prasil has compiled that traces the origins of the genre, its authors, and their characters from its beginnings in the early 1800s. His bibliography extends all the way to 1938 so far (over 100 years of information he has researched and documented), and includes a key he has created to aid the reader. One of the things that makes Prasil’s work so amazing is that within each character entry in his chronological bibliography he has linked any ways to read the stories online he could find. These are all free of charge, available for you to read at your leisure.
If all of this were not enough Tim Prasil has also compiled The Legacy of Ghost Hunter Fiction: A Chronological Bibliography, that functions in the same way as The Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives. He says ghost hunting is a specialized branch of occult detection. He has a Ghost Hunter Hall of Fame featuring real-life ghost hunters, he has a section on his site with Sherlock Holmes movie reviews, and he has also written his own occult detective/ghost hunter series. This man and his website are a dream-come-true.
Lastly, Tim Prasil recently stated in this blog post that all of his research into early occult detectives should be coming out in book form, in Summer 2019. In my opinion, this book will be a must-purchase.
For Fun:
This is a little article written by Grady Hendrix, who is a clever and funny writer, and who has a lot of interesting things available to peruse on his website. In this article he is largely poking fun at Victorian era occult detectives and discussing how they are essentially bunglers who rarely ever detect anything. Agree or disagree however you like, but it is a fun and informative read. Hendrix may like to crack jokes, but he clearly knows his subject matter, and is very knowledgeable in all aspects of horror. I own his book Paperbacks From Hell, which is a hilarious and informative history of horror fiction.
Two Short Story Anthologies (I do not own either of these books, but I have researched them and intend to get them, so I will recommend them all the same):
This collection of short stories was recommended to me at this year’s 221b Con. It’s came out several years ago (published 2010), but some of the best occult detective fiction is over 100 years old, so who cares about age? This book is presented by the Mystery Writers of America so you’ll be in good company here, with big-name mystery writers like Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins. The collection was also edited by Charlaine Harris of Sookie Stackhouse and True Blood fame.
This is a collection I have had my eye on for a while now, but unfortunately I cannot buy every book I want all at once. This nice little tome is called Dark Detectives: The Supernatural Sleuths, and it is from the legendary Arkham House publishers. Arkham House was founded by August Derleth, a well-respected writer in his own right, as a way to keep the works of his friend H.P. Lovecraft alive and in print. This book is full of great content, and would be a great addition to anyone’s library.
Hellboy and Other Mignola Creations:
Now I must talk about Hellboy and the importance of this character, and his creator Mike Mignola to the realm of occult detective fiction. Everyone knows the importance and significance of John Constantine to occult detective fiction; I mean the Hellblazer series originally ran continuously from 1988 to 2013. Not many comic series have that kind of staying power. However, Hellboy has been around nearly as long, or longer depending on how you count the large amount of side-stories and spinoffs that make up the larger Hellboy Universe. Maybe Hellboy is not counted among other occult detectives because he is not human, perhaps? Whatever the case is, I think it is a shame that he is sometimes left out, because he is exactly what an occult detective is, and he does exactly what occult detectives do. The entire Hellboy series is a great occult detective read, and a great read in general. Mike Mignola and the other artists that occasionally come on board never fail to delight your ocular faculties. The stories are also very imaginative; Mignola is an expert at weaving mythology, tall tales, and other folklore into Hellboy’s story.
If you are looking for more after Hellboy, Mike Mignola has also created two other occult detectives for you to enjoy. If the Victorian Era investigators are your thing, then check out Sir Edward Grey, Witchfinder. For those who have read Hellboy, you should recognize the character (if in name only). There are currently 5 Witchfinder collections out, and they are all quite good.
If you are more into the hard-boiled types, then check out Joe Golem. Joe Golem began as a comic series, and now also includes illustrated novels. I have not read any Joe Golem yet, but it is on my ever-growing list of things to read.
Last but Not Least:
There is a literary magazine called Occult Detective Quarterly that you can purchase and have sent to your home. This publication is only about 2 or 3 years old, but one cool thing about it is that it only features work from contemporary writers of occult detective fiction. I haven't read any issues yet, but it seem like a great way to experience what modern writers are doing with the genre. You can also submit fiction, nonfiction, and artwork to the magazine, which is a great opportunity for anyone with a passion for this genre.
There are currently 4 issues of Occult Detective Quarterly out now, and you can visit their website here for more info. Somewhat disconcertingly, however, there has been no new posting on the site since August 2018. Hopefully they will return to publishing and posting soon.
Thank you if you took the time to read this. I am planning to release more content like this, and possibly some other essays/articles as well, so be sure to keep visiting for more!
-Dan
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