Friends of the Belanger Brothers: David Marcum

Hello and Happy Holidays! Over the next few weeks, we'll be spotlighting some of our favorite authors who we've been fortunate enough to work with. First and foremost is our good friend David Marcum.

A few months ago, I was having dinner with a friend and mentioned that Derrick and I were about to launch our Kickstarter campaign for The Papers of Solar Pons. I told him how excited we were to be working with Arkham House on the project, and that all the new stories were written by David Marcum.
"YOU KNOW DAVID MARCUM?!?" My friend was shocked. "I love his stuff! He's one of the best Sherlockian writers out there!"
David is a well-known Sherlockian author whose pastiches closely mirror the style and tone of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's original stories. His passion for the canon and his precise attention to detail made him a natural choice when it came to finding an editor for our anthologies. How passionate, you ask? One time, I asked David if he could possibly model as Sherlock Holmes for a project we were collaborating on. Did he happen to own a deerstalker cap? Several, he said.  Several dozen.  And a few Inverness capes. Plus a few pipes, and magnifying glasses. And that doesn't even come close to all the Sherlockian volumes spilling forth from his crowded bookshelves. He... well, why not let David tell you himself? From his Amazon page:

"David Marcum plays The Game with deadly seriousness. He first discovered Sherlock Holmes in 1975, at the age of ten, when he received an abridged version of The Adventures during a trade. Since that time, David has collected literally thousands of traditional Holmes pastiches in the form of novels, short stories, radio and television episodes, movies and scripts, comics, fan-fiction, and unpublished manuscripts. He is the author of "The Papers of Sherlock Holmes" Vol.’s I and II (2011, 2013), "Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt" (2013) and "Sherlock Holmes – Tangled Skeins"   (2015).  

 Additionally, he is the editor of the three-volume set "Sherlock Holmes in Montague Street" (2014, recasting Arthur Morrison’s Martin Hewitt stories as early Holmes adventures,) and most recently the ongoing anthology series, "The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories" (2015- ).

He has contributed stories and essays to "The Baker Street Journal", "The Watsonian", "Beyond Watson", "Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine", "The Solar Pons Gazette", and "The Gazette", the journal of the Nero Wolfe Wolfe Pack. He began his adult work life as a Federal Investigator for an obscure U.S. Government agency, before the organization was eliminated. He returned to school for a second degree, and is now a licensed Civil Engineer, living in Tennessee with his wife and son. 

He is a member of The Sherlock Holmes Society of London, The John H. Watson Society (“Marker”), The Praed Street Irregulars,

(“The Obrisset Snuff Box”), The Solar Pons Society of London, The Occupants of the Full House, (A Baker Street Irregulars Scion,) and The Diogenes Club West (East Tennessee Annex), a curious and unofficial Scion of one. Since the age of nineteen, he has worn a deerstalker as his regular-and-only hat from autumn to spring. In 2013, he and his deerstalker were finally able make a trip-of-a-lifetime Holmes Pilgrimage to England, where you may have spotted him. If you ever run into him and his deerstalker out and about, feel free to say hello!"


His writing skills also made him an obvious choice when we were granted permission by Arkham House to bring back their classic pulp detective Solar Pons for a new series of stories. Best of all -- the stories are fantastic!


I also have the pleasure of working with David on the cover design for Steve Emecz's brilliant MX Anthology of New

Sherlock Holmes Stories series. Those aren't just public domain images on the covers --- there's a lot of subtle touching-up and restoration that goes into every Grimshaw painting used on each volume, and David will let me know if something seems... mmm... just a little... off. What's infuriating is that he's always right. The final covers are worth it.

David Marcum writes Sherlockiana, and edits, and somehow manages to make frequent pilgrimages to London's 221B Baker Street... AND 24 Montague Street (Holmes's address prior to meeting Watson)... AND 7B Praed Street (Solar Pons's address)... I tell you, he really sets the bar high for Sherlockian pastiches. I wouldn't have it any other way.


-- Brian Belanger



Selections from David Marcum's bibliography:

About Sixty
Beyond Watson
Holmes Away From Home: Adventures From The Great Hiatus Vol. I 1891 - 1892
Holmes Away From Home: Adventures From The Great Hiatus Vol. II 1893 - 1894
Imagination Theatre's Sherlock Holmes
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part I:  1881 - 1889
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part II:  1890 - 1895
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part III:  1896 - 1929
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part IV:  2016 Annual
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part V:  Christmas Adventures
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part VI:  2017 Annual
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part VII:  Eliminate the Impossible 1880 - 1891
The MX Book of New Sherlock Holmes Stories Part VIII:  Eliminate the Impossible 1892 - 1905
The Papers of Sherlock Holmes Vol. I
The Papers of Sherlock Holmes Vol. II
The Papers of Solar Pons
Sherlock Holmes and A Quantity of Debt
Sherlock Holmes:  Before Baker Street
Sherlock Holmes:  Montague Street Vol. I
Sherlock Holmes:  Montague Street Vol. II
Sherlock Holmes:  Montague Street Vol. III
Sherlock Holmes:  Tangled Skeins
The Stranger's Room III

Belanger Books is a small press owned by artist Brian Belanger and author Derrick Belanger specializing in new Sherlock Holmes books, Children's books, Steampunk, and genre specific anthologies.  Some of our books have been #1 bestsellers in their categories on Amazon.