The first three novels in the Dire Planet series (Pulp Work Press, 2009).
Covers by Mats Minnhagen, Noel Tuazon, and Michael Dean Jackson

Joel Jenkins has written 9 books in his Dire Planet series, and a tenth is planned, which Joel suggests may end the series. The published books are:

Dire Planet
Exiles of the Dire Planet
Into the Dire Planet
Strange Gods of the Dire Planet
Lost Tribes of the Dire Planet
Abominations of the Dire Planet
Immortals of the Dire Planet
Forbidden Cities of the Dire Planet
Final Outpost of the Dire Planet

Garvey Dire is representing the West in a space race with China to establish the first manned base on Mars. Garvey’s ship crashes though, and as he lies dying, he is visited by an image of a green skinned woman swordslinger and ends up being transported 50,000 years into Mars’s past. From there Garvey’s adventures follow the pattern established by ERB in his Barsoom books, although with many fresh details and inventive twists.

Jenkins is an unabashed pulp writer and has written a lot of other works, including weird westerns. I’ve been in contact with him on Facebook and email, but he’s a bit reticent when it comes to personal tidbits. He is apparently a realtor by day and did mention a little bit of his writing regimen. He wakes up, works out, and tries to hammer out a thousand words before going to work. Day in and day out.

Being quiet about himself leads me to suspect that Joel is an immortal, perhaps of the Highlander persuasion. Is he a mere 1,000 years old? Or 50,000? Only Joel can answer. But can we believe him? Perhaps he IS Garvey Dire. I’m only asking questions.

Above are the covers to the first three Dire Planet books. I like these quite a bit. #1 is by Mats Minnhagen and #2 by Noel Tuazon. Joel Jenkins tells me the cover of book 3 is by Michael Dean Jackson, and that he did all the rest of them as well. These are all available on Amazon.

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Charles Gramlich administers The Swords & Planet League group on Facebook, where this post first appeared. His last article for Black Gate was Andre Norton: Gateway to Magic.