No Good War
With his man of mystery and monsters, JJ Lee, in ‘The Man in the Long Black Coat: Bekker’, takes us from an almost recognizable world into an outright terrifying one.
In our interview with JJ, he told us, “I love the zombie war movie or the sci-fi Western. So I guess melding [worlds] energizes me. TMITLBC is really a pastiche of everything I love, from Captain America to Indiana Jones to Michael Moorcock’s Elric. I wanted to unashamedly bring it all together.“
For more from our interview with JJ, pick up a copy of Issue 24, Autumn 2019, ON SALE now until April 30th.
Want more Bekker? Pick up a copy of Issue 8 for his first appearance in Pulp Literature, and Issue 34 for his most recent.
The Man in the Long Black Coat: Bekker
by JJ Lee
May 2, 1945 — Baby Face was trying to give a piece of chocolate to a Polish PW when somebody called out, “You Heck, John Heck?”
Baby Face turned to a lieutenant colonel with an M1 carbine slung over his shoulder.
“Yes, sir.”
The officer looked Baby Face up and down.
“I heard you were big, but they were obviously being euphemistic. Heus, latine loqueris?”
Baby Face hesitated. He passed the whole candy bar to the liberated man. For a second he glanced at his squad mates. Buck, Pops, Gunner, Scout, and Lil Red were crouched on the ground, going through their bags, figuring out what else they were willing to share with the former prisoners. He caught Buck’s eye. Baby Face then replied to the officer, “Vero, domine. Yes, sir.”
Word had spread pretty fast in the 386th that Baby Face could speak Russian, Polish, Yiddish, and a bunch of other languages. The unit had stumbled across a network of work camps and hidden factories near the border of Czechoslovakia. The camps used prisoner labour from all over Europe, and while lots of guys could speak German — you only had to look at names like Brinkmann, Meltzer, and Frankel to figure that out — nobody knew as many languages as Baby Face.
“Come with me,” the officer ordered.
Baby Face hesitated. The squad got on their feet. Buck scrambled to catch up and pleaded, “Sir, we’re down to six here.”
They had started with a full twelve in France, but Sarge and Boom Boom bought it in the Ruhr. Three others were out of action in field aid stations, and Four Eyes had been called up to Division because he could touch-type.
Find out what happens next, in Issue 24, Autumn 2019, ON SALE now until April 30th !
JJ Lee wrote the memoir The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit. He writes and records a Christmas ghost story, broadcast on CBC Radio, one of which we published in Issue 17. JJ’s monster-chaser Bekker has appeared in Pulp Literature twice before, in issues 8 and 34. His pulpy, stark, black and white illustrations perfectly embellish his Man in the Long Black Coat stories. In addition, JJ has provided us with two covers: ‘Fallen Angel’ in Issue 7, and the killer teddy bear of Issue 2, featuring his story ‘Built to Love’.
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