“Tales of the Shadowmen: Danse Macabre” (2006) is the third volume of this eclectic anthology series from Black Coat Press.
It makes use of a concept of Philip Jose Farmer that has various fictional characters set in the same fictional universe, thus they are able to met and interact. Don’t make the assumption that all the stories are linked. They often are not. Most are standalone, can usually be read in any order.
What can be daunting is that this series uses characters of popular literary culture (mainly written, but sometimes film and TV), and not “high brow” characters. And the characters are taken from American, British, French, and other countries’ fiction, so often if you’re not familiar with those characters, it can be confusing. or, it could lead you to start reading the original stories of these characters, which BCP does (such as Fantomas, Nyctalope, the Black Coats, Belphegor, Judex, and many more).
The stories in this collection are:
Matthew Baugh: “The Heart of the Moon” has a group including Telzey Amberdon (a character created by James Schmitz), Captain Kronos (the vampire hunter from the Hammer film), Solomon Kane (Robert E. Howard‘s Puritan adventurer), Maciste, and Dr. Omega (the early French SF character who resembles the First Doctor) visiting Selene the Vampire City of Paul Feval.
Alfredo Castelli: “Long Live Fantomas!” is an interesting tale looking at a Fantomas who existed before the more familiar Fantomas.
Bill Cunningham: “Next!” is a short tale of Barbarella meeting Captain Kirk. And a few others.
François Darnaudet & J.-M. Lofficier: “Au Vent Mauvais…” has Madame Atomos, a vengeful Japanese scientist who plotted against the United States in a series of French novels (now reprinted by Black Coat Press) working with Zemba III, descendant of Zemba, the French supercrook that fought The Shadow.
Paul Di Filippo: “Return to the 20th Century” is a strange tale that makes use of Robida‘s illustrations of what he thought the 20th Century would be.
Win Scott Eckert: “Les Lèvres Rouges,” another Doc Ardan (alias of Doc Savage) story by Eckert, follows the story from the previous volume and has Ardan, with the involvement of other characters, including Nestor Burma, a French noir detective, retrieving the Eye of Oran from Arsene Lupin‘s daughter Adelaide.
Micah Harris: “The Ape Gigans” tells of the adventuress Becky Sharp (from “Vanity Fair”), along with Professor Lindenbrock (from Jules Verne‘s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”) traveling to Skull Island.
Greg Gick: “Beware the Beasts” has Dr. Omega visiting the Planet of the Apes.
Travis Hiltz: “A Dance of Night and Death” shows a class between Fantomas and Irma Vep (leader of Les Vampires, the criminal group).
Rick Lai: “The Lady in the Black Gloves” is a follow-on to his story from the previous volume dealing with Irene Chupin.
Jean-Marc Lofficier: “The Murder of Randolph Carter” has Belgium detective Hercule Poirot dealing with his first case involving the horrors from beyond space.
Xavier Mauméjean: “A Day in the Life of Mrs. Atomos” is a sort of in-between story of Madame Atomos, and her encounters with other female villains such as Sumuru (created by Sax Rohmer), Madame Hydra, and Modesty Blaise (well known British thief turned adventurers/spy).
David A. McIntee: “Bullets Over Bombay” makes use of Dr. Mystère, the Hindu adventurer and scientist from French literature, a Captain Nemo-like character.
Brad Mengel: “All’s Fair…” is a short tale having P’Gell (from Will Eisner‘s Spirit comics) outwitting such characters as James Bond, L’Ombre (French secret agent), OSS 117 (European spy).
Michael Moorcock: “The Affair of the Bassin Les Hivers” has Zenith the Albino (a foe of Sexton Blake whom Moorcock has also tied into his own universe of characters) meeting a variety of French characters such as Inspector Lapointe, Vautrin, and Irma Vep.
John Peel: “The Successful Failure” has amateur detective Isidore Beautrelet (who nearly outsmarted both Arsene Lupin and Sherlock Holmes) teaming up with British adventurer Biggles.
Joseph Altairac & Jean-Luc Rivera: “The Butterfly Files” is another story with Madame Atomos, this time meeting FBI Special Agent William Mulder.
Chris Roberson: “The Famous Ape” is an interesting story set in a world of anthropomorphic animals, such as shown in the world of Babar the Elephant. This one focuses on Curious George.
Robert L. Robinson Jr.: “Two Hunters” has Judex (the early French silent movie character that is similar to The Shadow) meeting Tarzan.
Brian Stableford: “The Child-Stealers” (second part of “The Empire Of The Necromancers”) starring Cagliostro, Paul Feval’s super criminal John Devil and his foe, Inspector Gregory Temple.
At the end of the volume is information on the characters used and who created them, though this may not help point you to wear they are from. (Wikipedia is most useful here, along with Black Coat Press’s French Wold Newton site and Cool French Comics site). The “Starring” section lists the characters who appear in the story, “Co-starring” lists characters mentioned in the story, and “Also Starring” lists places and things that appear or are mentioned in the story.
I have the previous volumes and always look forward to the next in this annual series.
