{"id":3377,"date":"2015-01-28T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2015-01-28T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2025-10-10T15:10:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:10:17","slug":"tales-of-the-shadowmen-11-force-majeure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2015\/01\/28\/tales-of-the-shadowmen-11-force-majeure\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Tales of the Shadowmen, Vol. 11’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"'TalesIt’s 2015, and we have another volume of “Tales of the Shadowmen<\/a>,” now up to volume 11. It’s subtitled “Force Majeure,” a term which means a catastrophic event or force.<\/p>\n

This annual series makes use of Philip Jos\u00e9 Farmer<\/strong>‘s Wold Newton Universe<\/a> 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<\/strong>, Fantomas<\/strong>, The Nyctalope<\/strong>, Rouletabille<\/strong>, and many others, as well as those from other countries.<\/p>\n

This year’s volume gives us:<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Matthew Baugh<\/strong>: “Gilgamesh Revisited” is a retelling of Gilgamesh<\/strong> with various pulp characters in place of the major players, such as a certain Man of Bronze<\/a><\/strong>, “Devil Doctor<\/strong>” and Giant Ape<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Nathan Cabaniss<\/strong>: “The Darkness in the Woods” has Jos\u00e9ph Balsamo<\/strong> teaming up with Captain Clegg<\/strong> in New Orleans to deal with a serial killer based on Nick in the Woods<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Matthew Dennion<\/strong>: “Don’t Judge a Book by Its Title” is a short, humorous sequel to the “Evil Dead” movie series with Ash<\/strong> searching for the “Necronomicon.”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Brian Gallagher<\/strong>: “The Trial of Van Helsing” is set on the eve of WWI, and has the vampires of Paul Feval<\/strong>‘s Vampire City bringing in Van Helsing<\/strong> for the murder of Count Dracula<\/strong>. This includes various other literary vampires.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Martin Gately<\/strong>: “Rouletabille and the New World Order” has French journalist and detective Rouletabille<\/strong> 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<\/strong> and Hugo Danner<\/strong>, in a story set post-WWI.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Emmanuel Gorlier<\/strong>: “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<\/strong> (from earlier volumes) and The Invisible Man<\/strong> (not H.G. Wells<\/strong>‘, but one created by the author of The Nyctalope) must confront a group of German “supermen.”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Micah S. Harris<\/strong> & Loston Wallace<\/strong>: “Meeting with the Mir Beg” has Blaylock<\/strong> (an adventurer created by Harris) teaming up with Rouletabille and Houdini<\/strong> 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.”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Travis Hiltz<\/strong>: “All Roads Lead to Mars” concludes the adventures of Doctor Omega<\/strong> (an early French SF character who is startling like the First Doctor<\/strong>) and his companions trying to get back together and find the Doctor’s time and space vehicle. They are joined by Black Lectroids<\/strong> (from Planet 10) and the Time Brigade<\/strong> as they try to figure out what is messing up time, which has the Doctor traveling to several different Mars, including Barsoom and Malacandra.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Paul Hugli<\/strong>: “Dream’s End” has The Time Traveler<\/strong>, Barbarella<\/strong>, and an agent of the Time Patrol traveling to ancient Egypt for different purposes. The results of which are fairly interesting.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Rick Lai<\/strong>: “Shadows Reborn” is an interesting story that gives hints as to the “origin” of The Shadow<\/a><\/strong> (and his ties to other characters) as well as the early history of Margo Lane<\/strong>. To say more would give too much away.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Nigel Malcolm<\/strong>: “A Fistful of Judexes” is an interesting story of Judex<\/strong>\u00a0(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.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Christofer Nigro<\/strong>: “The Noble Freak” has the return of Felifax, the Tiger-Man<\/strong> 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<\/strong> (whose adventures Black Coat Press<\/a> has recently reprinted in three volumes), along with Gouroull<\/strong> (the evil, French version of the Frankenstein Monster\u00a0<\/strong>who has appeared in previous volumes) and some other creatures.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0John Peel<\/strong>: “Return to the Center of the Earth,” the second part of the story that is the sequel of Jules Verne<\/strong>‘s story, includes Ned Land<\/strong> from “20,000 Leagues” and a character from Burroughs’ “Tarzan at the Earth’s Core.”<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Pete Rawlik<\/strong>: “The Ylourgne Accord” is back with another story of Robert Peaslee<\/strong> (from H.P. Lovecraft<\/strong>), who while in Europe after WWI at a high-level conference among several nations, must confront Dr. Cornelius<\/strong> (evil scientist who runs the Red Hand, whose series is reprinted in three volumes from Black Coat Press) and the horrors of reanimated men.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Frank Schildiner<\/strong>: “Saint and Sinners” is a tale of Mephista<\/strong>, the embodiment of evil that French detective Teddy Verano<\/strong> 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.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Sam Shook<\/strong>: “A Professional Matter” has Adam Adamant<\/strong> (from the short-lived BBC series of the 1960s) crossing swords with Arsene Lupin along with The Invisible Man<\/strong> (H.G. Wells’ this time).<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0David Vineyard<\/strong>: “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<\/strong>, but also an encounter with a young Saint<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u2022\u00a0Jared Welch<\/strong>: “The Revolutionary and the Brigand” tells of the recruitment of the criminal group, The Black Coats, to aid the French Revolution.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> and French Wold Newton<\/a> sites to learn more about these characters.<\/p>\n

The next volume coming out in December 2015 is already announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 Jos\u00e9 Farmer‘s Wold Newton Universe idea, mixing in a variety of literary characters, with a focus on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":3720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_has_post_settings":[],"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"The Pulp Super-Fan looks at 'Tales of the Shadowmen 11: Force Majeure.' #newpulp http:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-St","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[173,147,193,11,204,218,705,227,211,109,62],"hashtags":[],"class_list":["post-3377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-pulp","category-review","tag-arsene-lupin","tag-black-coat-press","tag-doctor-omega","tag-french-pulps","tag-judex","tag-rouletabille","tag-tales-of-the-shadowmen","tag-the-black-coats","tag-the-nyctalope","tag-the-shadow","tag-wold-newton-universe"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/files\/2015\/02\/tales-of-the-shadowmen-11.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3eLo8-St","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21604,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions\/21604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}