| Helmut Rellergerd | |
|---|---|
| Born |
January 25, 1945 Altena-Dahle, Sauerland, Germany |
| Nationality | Germany |
| Occupation | writer |
| Years active | 1973–present |
| Website | Website Bastei-Verlag (German) |
Jason Dark is the 'nom de plume' of Helmut Rellergerd, a prolific author of horror detective fiction in the German language. His work has been favourably compared to that of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Helmut Rellergerd pseudonym: Jason Dark (born January 25, 1945 in Altena-Dahle, Sauerland) is a German writer, under the pseudonym of Jason Dark. Jason Dark is one of the most read authors in Germany in his genre.
Helmut Rellergerd was born in 1945 in Dahle, the Sauerland and grew up in Dortmund. He and wrote his first novel after he had finished school and the Bundeswehr. However, this debut release was rejected by the publishers. The first novel published at Bastei Publishing House was Im Kreuzfeuer des Todesdrachen in the crime series Cliff Corner. He wrote the 1973 novel Die Nacht des Hexers and created the fictional character John Sinclair. The Adventures of the English hero appear in the Bastei-Verlag in book and paperback form and developed from the 1970s to the most successful German horror series. Since the 1980s the John Sinclair radio play Since the 1980s, runs the successful radio play runs. Many novels have been translated into other languages.
Beyond the success of the John Sinclair series, Rellergerd invented other horror fiction series like Professor Zamorra and Damona King. Under the pseudonym Red Geller he wrote the youth book series Das Schloß-Trio. Since 2006 he has written under his pseudonym for the Blanvalet Publishing House the crime fiction series Don Harris Psycho-Cop.
Rellergerd lives in a district of Bergisch Gladbach.
From 1973 onwards Jason Dark started publishing horror detective stories of the pulp fiction variety, centred on an English Scotland Yard inspector named John Sinclair. The latter's surname was inspired by the "Sinclair" character played by Roger Moore in the popular 1970s TV series, The Persuaders. The stories (usually of around 100 pages in length) have mostly been published as pulp magazines and have now reached the astonishing number of nearly 2,000 separate novels. The plots generally entail Inspector Sinclair's fighting against the forces of darkness (vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, zombies, etc.) and vanquishing them at the end of each tale. This positive disposition of the narratives has, Helmut Rellergerd believes, helped explain the popularity of the books, particularly amongst women, who (according to Rellergerd in a recorded radio interview) appear to number the most enthusiastic and largest group of his readers, not least because the stories are not excessively violent, but display a certain humanity.