John Thunstone is a fictional character and the hero of a series of stories by author Manly Wade Wellman. Thunstone is a scholar and playboy who investigates mysterious supernatural events. He has the typical attributes of a heroic character being physically large and strong, intelligent, handsome, and wealthy. He is also well-read in occult matters and has access to several weapons that are especially potent against vampires, werewolves and other supernatural creatures. From the Greek , in mythology and folklore, a hero (male) or heroine (female) usually fulfills the definitions of what is considered good and noble in the originating culture. ... Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903 - April 5, 1986) was an American writer of fiction and non-fiction. ... A scholar is either a student or someone who has achieved a mastery of some academic discipline, perhaps receiving financial support through a scholarship. ... Playboy is an American adult entertainment magazine, founded in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, which has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc. ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to the knowledge of the secret or knowledge of the hidden and often popularly meaning knowledge of the supernatural, as opposed to knowledge of the visible or knowledge of the measurable, usually referred to as science. ... Philip Burne-Jones, The Vampire, 1897 This article deals with vampires in folklore and legends. ... A werewolf in folklore and mythology is a person who changes into a wolf, either by purposefully using magic in some manner or by being placed under a curse. ...

The name Thunstone is meant to evoke that of Saint Dunstan, patron saint of silversmiths and a noted opponent of the Devil. Thunstone has a sword-cane with a silver blade said to have been forged by the saint. The blade is inscribed with a text from Judges chapter 5 in the Vulgate, "Sic pereant omnes inimici tui" — "thus perish all your enemies". [1] The sword-cane had also been used by Wellman's earlier character, Judge Pursuivant, who passed it on to Thunstone when his advanced age made him too weak to effectively wield it. Dunstan is also a village in Northumberland, and a lake in New Zealand Dunstan shoeing the Devils hoof, as illustrated by George Cruikshank Dunstan (909 - May 19, 988) was an Archbishop of Canterbury (961 - 980) who was later canonized as a saint. ... The Devil is a title given to a supernatural entity, who, in most interpretations of the Abrahamic faiths, is the central embodiment of evil. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Atomic mass 107. ... Book of Judges (Hebrew: Sefer Shoftim ספר שופטים) is a book of the Bible originally written in Hebrew. ... The Vulgate Bible is an early 5th century translation of the Bible into Latin made by St. ...

In addition to the ghosts and other traditional supernatural beings, several of Thunstone's enemies are Wellman's unique creations. These include the shonokins, a race of human-like creatures who claim to have ruled North America before the coming of humans. Thunstone's most persistent foe is a sorcerer named Rowley Thorne, who appears in a number of the stories. Thorne was loosely based on the real occultist Aleister Crowley. A manufactured image of a ghostly woman ascending a staircase. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ... Magic or sorcery are terms referring to the alleged influencing of events and physical phenomena by supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. ... For other uses of this term, see occult (disambiguation). ... Aleister Crowley, born Edward Alexander Crowley, (12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947; the surname is pronounced // i. ...

Thunstone originally appeared in short stories published in the pulp magazines. Wellman would later write two novels with Thunstone: What Dreams May Come (1983) and The School of Darkness (1985). All his Thunstone short stories have been recently collected in The Third Cry to Legba and Other Invocations (2000). Pulp magazines, often called simply the pulps, were inexpensive text fiction magazines widely published in the 1920s through the 1950s. ...

In 1988, John Thunstone appeared in an episode, entitled "Rouse Him Not", of the anthology TV series Monsters. He was played by the actor Alex Cord. Alex Cord is an American actor who is perhaps best known for portraying the role of Archangel on the television series Airwolf. ...