Black Coat Press was established in 2003 by authors and editors, and husband and wife, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier as an imprint of their Hollywood Comics company.
Black Coat Press publishes both reprints and New Pulp work, but the difference is the reprints are from French pulps, and the new works are usually using the characters from French pulps.
For many, it’s been through the annual Tales of the Shadowmen volumes, which have been coming out for over 15 years, that many of us were introduced to these characters. As noted, Black Coat has reprinted translated (or adapted) works of many of them, and then further new works by others. And I have been posting reviews of Tales and other works they have done. And they have gone further than just pulp heroes and villains, but works of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and more from France and Europe that are largely unknown here in the United States.
Some of the characters have been Fantomas, Judex, Arsen Lupin, Belphegor, Doc Ardan, Doctor Omega, Harry Dickson, Madame Atomos, The Nyctalope, Roulatabille, Felifax, Les Vampires, Sar Dubnotal, the Black Coats, and many many more. For many of these characters, this is your only source for reading these in English.
They have been fortunate to have folks like Brian Stapleford, Nina Cooper, and others doing translation work.
In addition to their published works, I’ve enjoyed their associated websites for Cool French Comics and French Wold Newton Universe, which have been useful in my understanding of these works.
As noted, I’ve been reading the Tales series and will be doing the next volume, #17, when it comes out toward the end of the year. I’ve reviewed several of their works and will have more on the way.
