‘Tales of the Shadowmen, Vol. 11’

It’s 2015, and we have another volume of “Tales of the Shadowmen,” now up to volume 11. It’s subtitled “Force Majeure,” a term which means a catastrophic event or force.

This annual series makes use of Philip José Farmer‘s Wold Newton Universe idea, mixing in a variety of literary characters, with a focus on the various pulp and pulpish characters of France and Europe, such as Arsene Lupin, Fantomas, The Nyctalope, Rouletabille, and many others, as well as those from other countries.

This year’s volume gives us:

• Matthew Baugh: “Gilgamesh Revisited” is a retelling of Gilgamesh with various pulp characters in place of the major players, such as a certain Man of Bronze, “Devil Doctor” and Giant Ape.

• Nathan Cabaniss: “The Darkness in the Woods” has Joséph Balsamo teaming up with Captain Clegg in New Orleans to deal with a serial killer based on Nick in the Woods.

• Matthew Dennion: “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Title” is a short, humorous sequel to the “Evil Dead” movie series with Ash searching for the “Necronomicon.”

• Brian Gallagher: “The Trial of Van Helsing” is set on the eve of WWI, and has the vampires of Paul Feval‘s Vampire City bringing in Van Helsing for the murder of Count Dracula. This includes various other literary vampires.

• Martin Gately: “Rouletabille and the New World Order” has French journalist and detective Rouletabille dealing with a Technological Hierarchy trying to setup a secret base from which they will emerge as the new ruling order after wiping out most of humanity with a plague. He is assisted in this with Captain Anthony Rogers and Hugo Danner, in a story set post-WWI.

• Emmanuel Gorlier: “Once More, The Nyctalope” is another story of the French proto-superhero The Nyctalope, by an author who has become his unofficial chronicler. Set between the wars, The Nyctalope, along with the Phantom Angel (from earlier volumes) and The Invisible Man (not H.G. Wells‘, but one created by the author of The Nyctalope) must confront a group of German “supermen.”

• Micah S. Harris & Loston Wallace: “Meeting with the Mir Beg” has Blaylock (an adventurer created by Harris) teaming up with Rouletabille and Houdini in search of a mysterious desert leader, as they hope to stop him using a deadly gas. Interesting enough, this character ties in with the novel “Hell House.”

• Travis Hiltz: “All Roads Lead to Mars” concludes the adventures of Doctor Omega (an early French SF character who is startling like the First Doctor) and his companions trying to get back together and find the Doctor’s time and space vehicle. They are joined by Black Lectroids (from Planet 10) and the Time Brigade as they try to figure out what is messing up time, which has the Doctor traveling to several different Mars, including Barsoom and Malacandra.

• Paul Hugli: “Dream’s End” has The Time Traveler, Barbarella, and an agent of the Time Patrol traveling to ancient Egypt for different purposes. The results of which are fairly interesting.

• Rick Lai: “Shadows Reborn” is an interesting story that gives hints as to the “origin” of The Shadow (and his ties to other characters) as well as the early history of Margo Lane. To say more would give too much away.

• Nigel Malcolm: “A Fistful of Judexes” is an interesting story of Judex (an early French character who is similar to The Shadow) set on the Channel island of Jersey, the setting of a long British TV series called “Bergerac.” The descendant of one of Judex’s foes tries to embarrass him while in pursue of a hidden fortune.

• Christofer Nigro: “The Noble Freak” has the return of Felifax, the Tiger-Man as he is on the search for his half-brother whom he just learned about. In doing so, he runs afoul of a mad scientist, Professor Tornada (whose adventures Black Coat Press has recently reprinted in three volumes), along with Gouroull (the evil, French version of the Frankenstein Monster who has appeared in previous volumes) and some other creatures.

• John Peel: “Return to the Center of the Earth,” the second part of the story that is the sequel of Jules Verne‘s story, includes Ned Land from “20,000 Leagues” and a character from Burroughs’ “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core.”

• Pete Rawlik: “The Ylourgne Accord” is back with another story of Robert Peaslee (from H.P. Lovecraft), who while in Europe after WWI at a high-level conference among several nations, must confront Dr. Cornelius (evil scientist who runs the Red Hand, whose series is reprinted in three volumes from Black Coat Press) and the horrors of reanimated men.

• Frank Schildiner: “Saint and Sinners” is a tale of Mephista, the embodiment of evil that French detective Teddy Verano confronted in a series of stories. (Black Coat Press will reprint a volume of several of them this year.) Here, they team up to stop a satanic ritual.

• Sam Shook: “A Professional Matter” has Adam Adamant (from the short-lived BBC series of the 1960s) crossing swords with Arsene Lupin along with The Invisible Man (H.G. Wells’ this time).

• David Vineyard: “The Legacy of Arsene Lupin” has Lupine, while he was disguised as the head of the French Surete, trying to prevent a robbery that involves an enemy of Bulldog Drummond, but also an encounter with a young Saint.

• Jared Welch: “The Revolutionary and the Brigand” tells of the recruitment of the criminal group, The Black Coats, to aid the French Revolution.

As always, at the end of the volume there is a list of the characters (and other things) citing their source by their creators. So you may need to make use of Wikipedia or Black Coat Press’s Cool French Comics and French Wold Newton sites to learn more about these characters.

The next volume coming out in December 2015 is already announced.