“Tales of the Shadowmen: La Vie en Noir” (2012) is the ninth volume of this eclectic anthology series from Black Coat Press.
This collection fits into Philip José Farmer‘s “Wold Newton” concept.
A difference in this collection is that seven stories deal with the “treasure” of the Black Coats, a criminal fraternity lead by the mysterious Col. Bozzo-Corona that has been featured in many stories in past collections. The intro explains this and lists the stories by their internal chronology if people want to read them that way. You can also read translations of the original Black Coat novels from Black Coat Press as well.
The stories in this collection are:
• Matthew Baugh: “Tournament of the Treasure,” one of the Black Coat stories, has several characters, including Robert E. Howard‘s Steve Costigan and Edgar Rice Burroughs‘s Townsend Harper (from “Monster Men”) fighting on behalf of several leaders of The Black Coats. The winner will get the “treasure” of the Black Coats.
• Nicholas Boving: “Wings of Fear” teams Harry Dickson (the “American Sherlock Holmes” a character created as a Holmes pastiche in Germany in the early 20th century who became popular throughout Europe and soon became a separate character in his own right) and Bulldog Drummond (a classic early English adventure and sort of proto-James Bond, star of books, movies, etc) against Drummond’s main foe Carl Peterson, who is teamed up with a mad scientist (Doctor Lerne, whose novel is available from Black Coat Press) breeding dangerous dinosaurs. Also featured are Richard Hanney (from “The 39 Steps” and other works).
• Robert Darvel: “The Man With the Double Heart” is a story of the Nyctalope which occurred while he was going to Mars to rescue his fiance. It’s an interesting little story, but the style is unusual, and may be off-putting to some. The Nyctalope is an original French proto-superhero who has appeared in several Shadowmen collections.
• “Visions of The Nyctalope” is a portfolio of interesting spot illiustrations of this character.
• Matthew Dennion: “The Treasure of Everlasting Life,” one of the Black Coat stories, has the Black Coat leader, with Dr. Miguelito Loveless, trying to get the “treasure” of the Black Coats, and forcing Alan Quatermain to help him. The Colonel gets Doctor Dolittle to help him. At the end of this story, Loveless is exiled to the American Southwest…
• Win Scott Eckert: “Violet’s Lament” has Sir Percy Blakeney‘s (the Scarlet Pimpernel) daughter with Sherlock Holmes’ great-grandfather going up against vampires like Countess Nadine Carody. This is part of a loose series of stories by the author that has appeared the prior two collections and a couple of other books (see the intro to the story for more info).
• Martin Gately: “Wolf at the Door of Time” has Doctor Omega, an original French SF character who is visually similar to the first Doctor Who (played by William Hartnell), and so is used in stories in which we can infer that Doctor Omega is the first Doctor (see my posting on him). Here he teams up with Moses Nebogipfel, a time traveler created by H.G. Wells (though we learn there is a connection to Doctor Omega/Doctor Who) in search of a prehistoric wolf let loose in the timestream. They encounter several other characters, such as The Nyctalope.
• Travis Hiltz: “What Lurks in Romney Marsh?” is another story dealing with Doctor Omega, this one is the first of a series of stories by this author that will be appearing here. In this story, the Doctor and his companions have been separated, and they are looking for him, this time meeting Doctor Syn (alias the Scarecrow of Romeny Marsh, who appeared in several books and was later adapted by Disney into a movie).
• Paul Hugli: “As Time Goes By…” is yet another story with Doctor Omega dealing with some villains who caused The Spider (the American pulp hero) some problems (in a story that has recently been reprinted by Moonstone).
• Rick Lai: “Gods of the Underworld” is one of the Black Coat stories. When a scheme to steal the “treasure” again fails, it leads to the creation of a rival criminal mastermind to the Colonel, Vautrin (created by Honore de Balzac).
• Jean-Marc Lofficier: “Dad” is a weird, little story that combines elements of Richard Matheson‘s “Born of Man and Women” with the world of the Wizard of Oz. You should read up on that story to understand this one.
• Nigel Malcolm: “To Dust and Ashes, In Its Heat Consuming” starring Harry Dickson and Professor Quatermass (the scientist/hero from a series of British TV mini-series and later movies) and others dealing with the issue of flying saucers over WWII Britain.
• David McDonald: “Diplomatic Freeze” has Harry Flashman‘s son (Flashman is a character, created by George MacDonald Fraser, who while a coward and a rogue, gets involved in various historical events and comes up smelling like roses. His son, used by McDonald in prior stories, is similar to the father, but not so cowardly) and The Nyctalope’s father on a diplomatic mission to the Lizard people who live at the North Pole (as shown in the French SF novel “The People of the Pole” available from Black Coat Press).
• Christofer Nigro: “Death of a Dream” is one of the Black Coat stories. This has The Phantom of the Opera and his “Angels of Music” (a sort of nod to Charlie’s Angels who have appeared in prior collections) trying to obtain the “treasure.”
• John Peel: “The Benevolent Burglar,” one of the Black Coat stories, has several classic thieves (like The Saint) and detectives (like Maigret, classic French detective) after the “treasure.”
• Neil Penswick: “The Conspiracy of Silence” is a strange, little “story,” actually presented as a series of puzzling vignettes. They deal with Fantômas, the classic French literary villain/terrorist of many books (a few available from Black Coat Press), who has appeared in several past volumes and his main foe Juve (who might be his brother).
• Pete Rawlik: “Professor Peaslee Plays Paris” is another of the Black Coat stories. This interesting tale ties the Black Coats in a very interesting way to the Wold Newton Universe…
• Joshua Reynolds: “Nestor Burma Goes West” stars Nestor Burma, a French noir detective similar to Sam Spade, meeting Jim Anthony Super-Detective, a U.S. pulp character who is a sort of Doc Savage pastiche (see my posting on him). This story is set in the 1950s, so shows Anthony still doing his stuff and hints at his involvement in WWII. (His original stories are set in the early 1940s, but I don’t know if any dealt with WWII.) This creates some new possibilities with the character. Here they deal with Irma Vep and her “Vampires.” These are criminals, not real vampires, who first appeared in a French silent movie serial. The character has appeared in several Shadowmen collections.
• Frank Schildiner: “The True Cost of Doing Business,” one of the Black Coat stories, has Mr. Big (the villain from the James Bond book and movie “Live and Let Die”) going after the “treasure.”
• Bradley H. Sinor: “The Silence” has Michel Ardan (the main hero from Jules Verne‘s “From the Earth to the Moon” and maybe connected to Doc Ardan) dealing with Colonel Moran (Professor Moriarty‘s right-hand man) in a matter that involves John Carter of Mars (the character created by Edgar Rice Burroughs).
• Michel Stephan: “Vampire in the Fist” has Irma Vep in a story based on a 1948 French novel “Viper in the Fist.”
At the end of the volume is information on the characters used and who created them, though this may not help point you to where 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” 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. Sometimes real people and places are mentioned.
As always, a great collection. I look forward to the next one!
