#solar pons

[tiger-daniels]

What non-Sherlock Holmes stories/character should I make miniature?

Solar Pons

Raffles

Arsene Lupin

someone else you'll tell me about in a comment

Voting ended onNov 21, 2025

[marvelousmop]

I was considering doing a post that was like “Sherlock Holmes pastiche names ranked by how weird their names are”, but that list would just be a bunch of normal names followed by an abrupt leap in weirdness with Solar Pons… seriously, at least “Herlock Sholmes” can sorta kinda register as a name. I’m not sure who has ever called their child “Solar”

[autolenaphilia]

Solar Pons

Look what arrived in the mail today: a book of Solar Pons stories! Pons is a detective that lives on 7B Praed Street in London and his adventures are chronicled by Dr. Lyndon Parker. "Original character, do not steal" - August Derleth, 1929

Of course Pons is an obvious Holmes knock-off, with an even more ridiculous name. But Pons was basically August Derleth’s way of writing and publishing Holmes fan fic without being sued, due to Holmes being copyrighted in his lifetime (Derleth lived 1909-1971). I first knew of Derleth  via his association with Lovecraft, but he was also a Holmes fan. As a teenager in the 20s, he had in fact written to Arthur Conan Doyle when ACD announced the Case-book stories would in fact be the last, asking for permission to write more Holmes stories. He got turned down, but created Pons instead.

Solar Pons strikes me as being very similar to the modern fan fic practice of “filing off the serial numbers”, i.e. re-writing fan fic to be about original characters/worlds so that they can be commercially published.

The stories are quite well-regarded and were quite popular in the Holmes fandom, forming a sub-fandom within it (including a knock-off of the fan org the Baker Street Irregulars called “The Praed Street irregulars”). The Pons stories were in fact so beloved that author Basil Copper continued his adventures after Derleth’s death, fan fic of fan fic, basically. And fans like David Marcum have continue to produce Pons stories in the present.

My copy has a positive foreword by early big name fan Vincent Starrett and a back-cover quote by another famous writer and holmes fan figure Anthony Boucher (who among many other things co-wrote the scripts to many of the Rathbone/Bruce radio shows).. So I’m looking for reading them.

[weirdletter]

The Necronomicon of Solar Pons, edited by Derrick Belanger, Belanger Books, 2020. Cover art by Brian Belanger, info: amazon.com.

From Sherlock Holmes to the Cthulhu Mythos. August Derleth introduced the world to Solar Pons and Dr. Lyndon Parker in the 1920’s. Pons, like Sherlock Holmes, solved crimes using deduction and ratiocination, often referring to Holmes as “The Master” or “My illustrious predecessor”. Since his first appearance, Pons has been a favorite with Sherlockians. In the 1930’s, Derleth coined the term “Cthulhu Mythos” to describe the weird fiction written by the writers in the Lovecraft circle. After Lovecraft died in 1937, Derleth created Arkham House Publishing to make certain Lovecraft and other writers of the Cthulhu mythos, himself included, remained in print. Derleth wrote a number of tales of the Cthulhu mythos including The Mask of Cthulhu, The Trail of Cthulhu, and The Watchers Out of Time (collaborating with Lovecraft). Now, for the first time ever, the estate of August Derleth has authorized a one of a kind anthology combining Derleth’s Solar Pons, the Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street, with his Cthulhu Mythos and horror tales. Join us in the foggy streets of early 20th Century London where horror is lurking on the streets and also at the veil of reality. Nine new tales of terror and detection including: The Rondure of Cthulhu by Stephen Herczeg – Solar Pons must solve the mystery of a man seemingly torn to shreds by invisible forces. The Meandering Mathematician by Robert Perret – A mathematician’s strange disappearance leads to visions of an otherworldly realm, a witch, and a sinister rat with a human face. A Matter of Blood by Nick Cardillo – Dr. Seward brings Pons a case involving a a notorious Transylvanian Count. Fans of Stoker’s Dracula will love this sequel. To Everything There is a Season by Stephen Persing – The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street has a Lovecraftian Final Problem. The Adventure of the Book and the Gate by Eleanor Sciolistein – The Necronomicon is used to access a horrifying power source. Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice by Jeff Baker – Pons must face an evil Arctic entity. The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist by I.A. Watson – How did the body of a recently deceased woman end up in a two century old tomb? It is up to Solar Pons to solve this Dunwich horror. The Man with the Writhing Skin by David Marcum – Mrs. Velda Knoll, a lecturer on “The Great Old Ones” is being stalked by a man with masses of open sores moving about his skin. The Devil’s Tongue of Blue John Gap by Derrick Belanger – Solar Pons must solve the case of strange symbols mysteriously appearing in the fields of Blue John Gap. Plus a bonus Sherlock Holmes adventure!

Contents: Solar Pons & Cthulhu? by Bob Byrne The Sherlock Holmes of Praed Street in the Derleth Mythos by Derrick Belanger The Rondure of Cthulhu by Stephen Herczeg The Meandering Mathematician by Robert Perret A Matter of Blood by Nick Cardillo To Everything There is a Season by Stephen Persing The Lancastrian and the Lake Monster by Derrick Belanger The Adventure of the Book and the Gate by Eleanor Sciolistein   Solar Pons and the Testament in Ice by Jeff Baker The Adventure of the Drowned Genealogist by I.A. Watson The Man with the Writhing Skin by David Marcum The Devil’s Tongue of Blue John Gap by Derrick Belanger The Wylington Lake Monster by Derrick Belanger Special Thanks to Our Kickstarter Backers About the Author

[tomtefairytaleblog]

So I’m reading The Memoirs of Solar Pons by August Derleth and there’s a list compiled by Ellery Queen of Sherlock Holmes parodies/pastiches throughout history (Pons himself is one), and listed among them is one “Fu-erh-mo-hsi,” said to be a name used for Holmes by Chinese writers. What makes this one stand out is that Queen describes him as a hero who “wages deadly combat with ghosts, fox-women, tiger-men, and other supernatural horrors so dear to the heart of the Chinese people” and honestly, that description alone makes me curious enough to want to see what these stories are all about.

[jmreynolds]

Hey, look, a new short story by yours truly now available. My first visit to Praed Street and the inestimable Solar Pons...

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[jmreynolds]

Solar Pons 1919

The Kickstarter for Belanger Books’ newest anthology, Solar Pons: A Year of Mystery 1919, is now live! 1919.  Great Britain has just been through one of her greatest tests: A four-year global war that has left a million of her young men dead, and another million-and-a-half wounded – some horribly for life. The surviving soldiers were shaken by a new kind of war with vile poison gas attacks and…

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[nagi-kirima-style-cateran]

Honestly I prefer Solar Pons to 70% of interpretations of Sherlock Holmes