The next volume of Tales of the Shadowmen came out near the end of 2020. The Black Coat Press series is now up to 17 volumes, and I look forward to them hitting 20 volumes!
This latest volume is subtitled “Noblesse Oblige.” This means “privilege entails responsibility,” basically if you have an elevated status, you must fulfill certain responsibilities to those below you.
As noted previously, this annual series makes use of Philip José Farmer‘s “Wold Newton” concept, mixing in a variety of literary characters, with a focus on the various pulp and pulpish characters of France and Europe, such as Arsène Lupin, Fantômas, The Nyctalope, Rouletabille, and many others, as well as those from other countries. Several authors will come back with further stories of the same characters, creating a loose series within the volumes.
In talking about the series that appear within these volumes, in this one we get the start of two, the ending of another, and the continuation of another. With the old pulp magazines, they used the serials to keep readers coming back, as while one serial was finishing, others had already started up.
This time we get:
A meeting of the Little Prince and Professor Moriarity, thanks to Doctor Omega in Matthew Baugh‘s “The Cubic Displacement of the Soul.” I guess it’s good that I read The Little Prince as a kid.
The Shadow calls upon the assistance of Judex in catching a criminal gunning for him in “Walking on Foreign Ground, Like a Shadow” by Atom Mudman Bezecny. While some try to hint at an influence between the two, we do see a connection.
In one of two stories staring Robur in this volume, Nathan Cabaniss gives us “Master of the Six-Gun,” which has Robur in the Old West in between his two Jules Verne novels. He goes up against Bass Reeves (a real black U.S. marshal), Irene Adler, and the Six-Gun Gorilla.
Matthew Dennion gives us a story about Erik (The Phantom of the Opera) before he moved to the Paris Opera House in “Doctor’s Note.” He first meets Dr. Hellstrom and later Dr Jekyll, who hope to help with Erik’s disfigurement. Instead it seems to lead Jekyll further on his path.
After wrapping up his series with Captain Vampire (recently reprinted in book form), Brian Gallagher embarkes on a new series in “The Doctor of Sarajevo.” This one stars the criminal mastermind Doctor Cornelius Kramm, and is a sequel to both the original series (reprinted by Black Coat Press), and the sequel story by Brian Stapleford in volume 10.
The story kicks off with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand that started WWI. In the early days of the war, Dr. Cornelius is contacted by British intelligence to obtain a certain item from the Austrians. He is opposed in this by Countess Irina Petrovski, who is a character from the movie Horror Express. It will be interesting to see where this series leads, and if the Countess will continue as the doctor’s main foe.
Another new series starts in “The Woodlanders in the Desert” from Martin Gately, after his stories with Rouletabille (also recently reprinted in book form). This one stars Robur and will be a sort of “origin” story, giving his early life and what leads to the character we meet in the Verne stories. Here we meet him as a young man in the strange community located in the American Southwest where he lives, and his interest in science and flying machines. So I also look forward to seeing how this one continues, as I find Robur an under-used character.
“These Are the Voyages…” by Travis Hiltz is a sequel to the early French novel translated as the Timeslip Troopers (published by Black Coat Press). That story, a sequel to H.G. Wells‘ The Time Machine, had a group of WWI French soldiers cast back in time to Spain. Trying to get home, they are scattered over several islands, and Doctor Omega, aided by The Hawk of the Sea, is looking for them on Lilliput, Caspak, Prospero’s Island, and more.
Randy Lofficier brings back The Phantom Angel in “The Phantom Angel and the Dwarves of Death.” She appeared in a few volumes and is Sleeping Beauty, awaken by Doc Arden in the 1920s, who decides to embark on being a vigilante hero. This story is set in the early 21st century, where she is enlisted by a character from a French police procedural TV series called Spiral to help in a murder among fairy tale creatures living in the modern age. Think of “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” “Rapunzel,” and all the rest. An interesting take on this idea of fairy tales in the modern world.
We get the ending of a four-part series in Nigel Malcolm‘s “Traitor to the People.” The Nyctalope had found himself in a fascist France of the near future and is fighting back, aided by an array of other characters such as Sexton Blake, Zenith the Albino, Una Persson, Judex, and Doctor Omega.
In an interesting encounter of villains, Roy McFadyen gives us one of Fantômas going up against Dr. Fu Manchu in “The World Will Belong to Me.” Will they meet again?
We get another entry in a series of stories dealing with Felifax the Tiger-man from Christofer Nigro. In “Wrath of the Cat People,” Felifax (added by Mowgli and others) is still searching for his half-brother Felanthus, now in India. But others are after him as well, including Dr. Moreau‘s “New Men.”
Jules Verne wrote many novels that most casual readers aren’t aware of. One is about an enourmous moving island called Standard Island, inhabited by American multi-millionaires crusing the Pacific. In John Peel‘s “The Child That Time Forgot,” this island discovers Skull Island and the child of a very well-known inhabitant of that island.
French super-villain Fantômas already appeared in this volume, but Frank Schildiner gives us a story of the Eurospy movie version in “Only One.” Here Fantômas is going to steal the Crown Jewels, and British intelligence sends their best assassin against him. He succeeds. Or does he? You never know with Fantômas.
We get an Arsène Lupin story set in post WWII France from David L. Vineyard. In “The Dufort Cameo,” Rip Kirby (the comic-strip detective created by Alex Raymond) is investigating a couple of former war profiteers running an adoption scam. Lupin helps to expose them in revenge for what they did during the war. We also get brief apperances by Mairgret and Nester Burma. Oh, and the war orphan involved is the star of a long-running comic strip, Dondi.
The next volume is named “Eminences Grises,” and I look forward to it, especially with reading the next part of several of these series.
