{"id":5098,"date":"2016-03-07T10:00:20","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/?p=5098"},"modified":"2021-03-21T18:59:29","modified_gmt":"2021-03-21T22:59:29","slug":"meet-fantomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepulp.net\/pulpsuperfan\/2016\/03\/07\/meet-fantomas\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Fant\u00f4mas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fantomas\"<\/a>“Fant\u00f4mas!”
\n“What did you say?”
\n“I said: Fant\u00f4mas”
\n“And what does that mean?”
\n“Nothing…Everything!”
\n“But what is it?”
\n“No one…and yet, yes, it is someone!”
\n“And what does this someone do?”
\n“Spreads terror!<\/strong>“<\/em><\/p>\n

Fant\u00f4mas<\/strong>, Lord of Terror, Genius of Evil, is probably one of the most important villains in popular literature, more so that he carried his own series. When we think of villains who also starred in their own series, we think of Fu Manchu<\/strong>, maybe some of the very short-lived villain pulps, whereas Fant\u00f4mas appeared before them and in many ways has had a wider influence.<\/p>\n

Fant\u00f4mas appeared in France in 1911, created by Marcel Allain<\/strong> and Pierre Souvestre<\/strong>. The two of them pumped out a total of 32 volumes over three years, then Allain would later write a subsequent set of 11 volumes alone after Souvestre’s death in 1914. They put out a new novel each month in a process that had them hash out the plot the first week, then each went off and wrote alternate chapters separately the second week. In the third week they met back up and checked out each other’s work and stitched the chapters together and gave instructions to the cover artists, then sent off the finished work in the fourth week.<\/p>\n

Fant\u00f4mas was inspired by previous villains such as Rocambole<\/strong> (before he went good), gentleman thieves like Arsene Lupin<\/strong>, and perhaps a bit of Zigomar<\/strong>, a crimelord who had his own series of pulp works in France just prior (1909 and later). Like these other characters, Fant\u00f4mas was a master of disguise and stole, but<\/em> unlike characters like Lupin, he had no problems with killing. He seemed to almost delight in it. He could be considered a “terrorist,” except he wasn’t motivated by politics or religion. He seemed more akin to the later “weird menace” villains or the foes that went up against The Spider<\/a><\/strong>. Like a phantom, he actually rarely appeared as<\/em> Fant\u00f4mas, instead usually appearing in disguises that only later were revealed as being him.<\/p>\n

He was opposed by police inspector Juve<\/strong> (inspired by Monsieur Lecoq<\/strong>?), who was later revealed to be Fant\u00f4mas’s twin! Juve was also a master of disguise to the point that his superiors sometimes thought that he<\/em> might be Fant\u00f4mas. Juve was aided by journalist Jer\u00f4me Fandor<\/strong> (inspired by Roulatabille<\/strong>?), whose father was murdered by Fant\u00f4mas, who took his identity, then tried to frame him for another murder in the first novel. But Fandor may actually be a son of Fant\u00f4mas! And then Fandor fell in love with H\u00e9l\u00e8ne<\/strong>, the daughter of Fant\u00f4mas, and despite Fant\u00f4mas’ best efforts to stop it, married her. And if you think that’s twisted, I haven’t gotten into Fant\u00f4mas’ other son and lovers such as Lady Beltham<\/strong>, whose husband was killed by Fant\u00f4mas.<\/p>\n

The original series of novels consist of the following. I given the various titles to help those find them, but not all have been translated into English:<\/p>\n