“Tales of the Shadowmen: Espirit de Corps” (2013) is the 10th and latest volume of this eclectic anthology series from Black Coat Press.
Because it’s the 10th volume, it’s also the largest volume yet, clocking in at almost 450 pages! This collection fits into Philip José Farmer‘s “Wold Newton” concept.
The stories in this collection are:
• Jean-Marc Lofficier: “My Life as a Shadowman,” an introduction and followup to his prior intro in vol. 3.
• Matthew Baugh: “Quest of the Vourdalaki” is an interesting story with Cossacks and vampires, including characters from “The Vampire Captain” (from Black Coat Press) and Jean Rey‘s “Malpurtuis.”
• Nicholas Boving: “The Green Eye” returns with Rupert of Hentzau (“Prisoner of Zenda”), now in India, where he gets help from Phileas Fogg, and has a run in with English gentleman-thief A.J. Raffles and some of Rudyard Kipling‘s characters.
• Nathan Cabaniss: “The Great Ape Caper” has Arsène Lupin, the classic French gentleman-thief, going after the Maltese Falcon. But it is currently being watched by a certain doctor-adventurer and his associates in the Empire State Building. To get it away, Lupin will need to create a diversion. A King-size one!
• Anthony R. Cardno: “So Much Loss” had two of the characters from “Dracula” dealing with the legacy of it several years later with the help of Sâr Dubnotal (a French pulp occult detective I’ve reviewed previously).
• Matthew Dennion: “He Who Laughs Last” has Dr. Syn, the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, dealing with The Black Coats.
• Brian Gallagher: “City of the Nosferatu” is a story that uses several vampires, including Boris Liatoukine (who appeared in the first story and is from “The Vampire Captain”), Dracula, and Orlok, as well as Paul Feval‘s Vampire City.
• John Gallagher: “Last of the Kaiju” is a different tale of Barbarella (the sexy French comic-book character) going after Godzilla and King Kong.
• Martin Gately: “Rouletabille vs. The Cat” has Rouletabille, the popular French reporter/detective, put into the plot of the play “The Cat and the Canary” (which has been made into several movies, including a Bob Hope comedy).
• Emmanuel Gorlier: “The Brotherhood of Mercy” has an ancestor of the Nyctalope (created by the author in a prior story), who is also gifted with the ability to see in the dark, working alongside Cyrano de Bergerac and D’Artagnan against a conspiracy threatening the French throne.
• Micah Harris: “The Frequency of Fear” is a strange tale that makes use of alien crystals that bring about horrors within others. Teddy Verano, a French detective who investigates the unusual, appears. The author also mixes in characters and ideas from Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.P. Lovecraft, 1950s horror movies and more.
• Travis Hiltz: “The Next Omega” is another in the author’s series of stories starring Dr. Omega, an early French SF character who is very similar to the First Doctor. Here he meets The Parisian Aeronaut, the title character from a proto-SF novel of the same name (reprinted by Black Coat Press). They must deal with a matter involving The Wandering Jew and Red Lectoids.
• Paul Hugli: “The Veil of Isis” has Chevalier Dupin (the detective created by Edgar Allan Poe) dealing with a unusual case of occult horror.
• Rick Lai: “The Mark of a Woman” is another in Rick’s series of stories with Joséphine Balsamo, the Countess Cagliostro and long-time foe of Arsène Lupin. This time she has a brief encounter with a certain dashing Californian swordsman.
• Olivier Legrand: “The Last Tale” had William Hope Hodgson‘s early occult detective Carnacki confronting The Horla, the sinister creature from the short story of the same name.
• Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier: “Christmas at Schönbrunn” has Lecoq and The Black Coats trying to influence the son of Napoleon.
• Patrick Lorin: “Troubled Waters” has Rocambole (an early French thief turned adventurer-hero) going up against Captain Nemo.
• David McDonald: “The Lesser of Two Evils” is a story of evil vs. evil, with a vampire created by Monsieur Goetzi (a vampire from Paul Feval’s “The Vampire City,” reprinted by Black Coat Press) going up against Nazi evil.
• Nigel Malcolm: “Von Bork’s Priorities” brings together Chantecoq (the French detective who stopped Belphegor, the Phantom of the Louvre), Sherlock Holmes, and Von Bork (German spy who appeared in a later Holmes story).
• Xavier Mauméjean: “The Wayne Memos” is a strange “story” told through a series of memos sent by Leon Trotsky, head of the Russian GRU, who tries meddling with a young Bruce Wayne.
• Michael Moorcock: “The Icon Crackdown” starring Moorcock’s famous character Jerry Cornelius, which touched and mentioned many characters.
• Jean-Michel Nicollet: Included is a portfolio of covers from the cover artist of this volume. All use similar characters.
• Christofer Nigro: “The Privilege of Adonis” stars Felifax (a tiger-man, similar to Tarzan, whose novel has been reprinted by Black Coat Press) in a deadly encounter with The Werewolf of Paris (here after his prior appearance in this series) and a new Hunchback of Notre Dame.
• John Peel: “Return to the Center of the Earth,” is the first of a two-part story, clearly a sequel to Jules Verne‘s story. So it has the characters from the original, who are soon joined by others such as Ned Land and Von Horst.
• Pete Rawlik: “Revenge of the Reanimator” has some of H.P. Lovecraft’s characters cross over into a French surrealist novel called “Locus Solus.”
• Josh Reynolds: “The Swine of Gerasene” is an interesting tale that teams up a trio of occult detectives: Algernon Blackwood‘s John Silence, Sâr Dubnotal, and Carnacki. They go up against M.R. James‘ Count Magus and the “swine things” from Hodgson’s “House on the Borderland.”
• Frank Schildiner: “The Blood of Frankenstein” is a story with Gouroull, a French pastiche of the Frankenstein Monster that is evil, and who has appeared in previous volumes. He travels to Asia were he is involved with the Seven Golden Vampires and a group of martial artists.
• Stuart Shiffman: “True Believers” starring Sâr Dubnotal working to rescue the grandchild of his associates, with the assistance of others including John J. Malone (lawyer created by Craig Rice), Kenneth J. Malone (created by “Mark Phillips“) and the grandson of Morris Klaw, the Dream Detective.
• Brian Stableford: “Malbrough s’en va-t-en guerre” is written as an epilogue to the saga of Dr. Cornelius, a scientist and criminal mastermind from a series of proto-SF French novels that have just been reprinted by Black Coat Press.
• Michel Stéphan: “Nestor Burma in New York” starring Nestor Burma (a French hardboiled detective) in New York after King Kong fell. He has an interesting encounter with The Freaks from the classic horror movie.
• David L. Vineyard: “Interview with a Nyctalope” is a short tale with The Nyctalope, the French proto-superhero, who is in America in the 1930s investigating the emerging American superheroes, like Batman.
• Jared Welch: “The Vampire of New Orleans” brings together Countess Addhema, a vampire created by Paul Feval, and Dashiell Hammett‘s The Continental Op.
At the end of the volume is information on the characters used and who created them, though this may not help point you to where they are from. (Wikipedia is most useful here, along with Black Coat Press’s French Wold Newton site and Cool French Comics site). The “Starring” lists the characters who appear in the story, “Co-starring” lists characters mentioned in the story, and “Also Starring” lists places and things that appear or are mentioned in the story. Sometimes real people and places are mentioned.
I have all the past volumes, and always look forward to this annual series. They’ve already announced the next volume for December 2014! Can;t wait.
