“I see,” Surrisy said, and paused for a moment before adding: “My mother is not long dead...”
“Exactly,” Temple agreed. “Mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters are dying daily, very few of them unloved. Humankind has been the helpless victim of grief and tragedy since the dawn of consciousness and conscience. Now, the war has begun in earnest. You might try to make your government see that, as I shall try to do in England. It will not be easy.”
“No,” Surrisy conceded. “It will not.”
The next day was the first of December, but the cold relented somewhat as clouds came in from the Atlantic, bringing a steady rain to harass the roads. It did not deter Gregory Temple and Ned Knob from waiting at Miremont crossroads for the patache to Paris.
“Since you have forgiven me for giving Suzanne’s letter to Henri, and for being on friendly terms with your daughter while you were not,” Ned Knob announced, portentously. “I shall forgive you for having me knocked over the head on the quay near London Bridge and arresting me in Jenny Paddock’s. You will remain my enemy, of course, while you remain Lord Liverpool’s lackey and spy, but you shall have my respect.”
Temple shook his head wearily. “That is very civil of you, Mr. Knob,” he said, in a voice that sounded very unlike his own, in tone and sentiment alike. “I, in my turn, shall hope that I am not forced by circumstance to have you arrested or hit over the head again.”
“You might be forced to do something of the sort,” Ned Knob conceded. “Some things never change, despite the fact that everything does. I suppose we ought to be grateful for that, or there would be no sense to life at all.”
There was no denying it, so Temple contented himself with saying “True” as the patache rolled up–no more than ten minutes behind its stated time–to start them on the long journey home.
END OF PART TWO
Part Three of The Empire of the Necromancers, “The Return of Frankenstein,” will appear in Tales of the Shadowmen 4, and subsequent episodes will hopefully continue to appear as long as the series may endure–unless, of course, I become incapacitated before Black Coat Press does. A roman feuilleton whose episodes appear annually is inevitably different from one whose episodes are published daily or weekly, as the episodes of all the great French romans feuilletons were, but its presentation as a series of more-or-less self-contained novellas will hopefully counter some of the problems associated with the long time lapse. One of the benefits of writing alternate history is that a series can be extrapolated, along with the history, indefinitely. All literary “endings” are, in any case–as Percy Shelley probably observed while Gregory Temple was deliberately not listening to him–mere aesthetic artefacts, so it will not matter in the least how long the series might eventually turn out to be.
Brian Stableford
Credits
The Heart of the Moon
Starring:
Doctor Omega
Telzey Amberdon
Captain Kronos
Hyeronimos Grost
Solomon Kane
Maciste
Baron Iscariot
Baroness Phryne
Count Orlok
Introducing:
Yvgeny
Also Starring:
Prince Vseslav
And:
Selene, the Vampire City
Created by:
Arnould Galopin
James H. Schmitz
Brian Clemens
Brian Clemens
Robert E. Howard
Giovanni Pastrone
& Gabriele d’Annunzio
Paul Féval
Paul Féval
Henrik Galeen
& F. W. Murnau
Matthew Baugh
Paul Féval
Written by:
Matthew BAUGH is a 43-year-old ordained minister who lives and works in Sedona, Arizona, with his wife Mary and two cats. He is a longtime fan of pulp fiction, cliffhanger serials, old time radio, and is the proud owner of the silent Judex serial on DVD. He has written a number of articles on lesser known pop-culture characters like Dr. Syn, Jules de Grandin and Sailor Steve Costigan for the Wold-Newton Universe Internet website. His article on Zorro was published in Myths for the Modern Age (2005). He is a regular contributor to Tales of the Shadowmen.
Long Live Fantômas
Starring:
Doctor Krampft
Enrico Gioja
Saladin
Clampin (a.k.a. Pistolet)
Claudius Bombarnac
Lord Edward Beltham
Paterson
Father Rodin
Professor Moriarty
Gurn
Lady Maud Beltham
Also Starring:
Kaiser Wilhelm
Heinrich Schliemann
Hyppolite Marinoni
Created by:
Marcel Allain
Paul Féval
Paul Féval
Paul Féval
Jules Verne
Marcel Allain
& Pierre Souvestre
Pierre-Alexis
Ponson du Terrail
Eugène Sue
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Marcel Allain
& Pierre Souvestre
Marcel Allain
& Pierre Souvestre
Written by:
Alfredo CASTELLI was born in Milan in 1947. He started his career in comics in 1965, when he became an editor for Kolosso and drew Scheletrino for Diabolik. A year later, he founded the popular and influential fanzine Comics Club 104. He has become best known for writing comics, which he started doing in 1967. In 1978, he adapted Allan Quatermain in comics for the magazine Supergulp. Castelli’s most famous creation is Martin Mystère, which started in 1982, drawn by Giancarlo Alessandrini. Since then, Castelli has also written issues of Dylan Dog, Zagor, Mister No and Zona X.
Next!
Starring:
Barbarella
James T. Kirk
Ying Ko (a.k.a. The Shadow)
Created by:
Jean-Claude Forest
Gene Roddenberry
Walter Gibson
Written by:
Bill CUNNINGHAM is a pulp screenwriter-producer specializing in the DVD market and a regular contributor to Tales of the Shadowmen. A recognized authority and speaker on low-budget filmmaking, his web-site, www.D2DVD.blogspot.com, offers screenwriters and filmmakers useful tips and insight into the DVD industry. He is currently producing the motion pictures Stainless and The Gore Gore Gore-met with legendary exploitation filmmaker Herschell Gordon Lewis.
Au Vent Mauvais...
Starring:
Madame Atomos
Gaspard Zemba III
Ozu
Also Starring:
Walter Cronkite
Arthur C. Clarke
Robert Heinlein
Neil Armstrong
Buzz Aldrin
Created by:
André Caroff
Jean-Marc Lofficier
based on Walter Gibson
François Darnaudet
Written by:
François DARNAUDET began his writing career with the critically-acclaimed thriller Le Taxidermiste (1985), before contributing numerous short stories to a variety of genre magazines and anthologies, including the prestigious Territoire de l’Inquiétude (1993). During that time, he also wrote two horror novels in 1989 and 1990. His works include the fantasy thriller Le Fantôme d’Orsay (1999) and its sequel, Les Dieux de Cluny (2003). He has also published two science fiction novels for the Rivière Blanche imprint: La Lagune des Mensonges (2003) and Le Regard qui Tue (2004; co-written with Pascal Metge). Darnaudet lives south of Perpignan on France’s côte vermeille.
Return to the 20th Century
Starring:
The 20th Century
Professor Calculus
The Cat Women of the Moon
Also Starring:
Jungle Alli (a.k.a. Alice Bradley Sheldon, a
.k.a. James Tiptree, Jr.)
Created by:
Albert Robida
with additional material by
Paul DiFilippo
Hergé
Roy Hamilton
Written by:
Paul DiFILIPPO’s career began either in 1977, when his first story appeared in Unearth magazine; or in 1982, when he quit his job as a COBOL programmer to devote himself fulltime to writing; or in 1985, when his second and third stories appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and The Twilight Zone Magazine; or in 1995, when his first book, The Steampunk Trilogy, debuted. Whichever date one chooses, 2006 will see the publication of his 25th book, Top 10: Beyond the Farthest Precinct, a milestone he is very proud of. He intends to retire now in stages over the next 40 years.
Les Lèvres Rouges
Starring:
Ilona Harczy
Countess Elisabeth Bathory
Nestor Burma
Doc Ardan
Lt. Montferrand (a.k.a. Roger Noël)
Jens Rolf
S.N.I.F.
Florimond Faroux
Le Chiffre
Plaster
Cabiria
Manon Lescaut
Zavatter
The fish-men
Audrey (a.k.a. The Vine)
Also Starring:
Adélaïde Lupin (a.k.a. Monique d’Andresy)
And:
The Silver Eye of Dagon
Le Cordon Jaune
Radium-X
Created by:
Pierre Drouot, Jean Ferry, Manfred R. Köhler
& Harry Kümel
Pierre Drouot, Jean Ferry, Manfred R. Köhler
& Harry Kümel
Léo Malet
Guy d’Armen
Lester Dent
Vladimir Volkoff
Anonymous
Vladimir Volkoff
Léo Malet
Ian Fleming
Will Eisner
Federico Fellini,
Ennio Flaiano & Tullio Pinelli
Henri-Georges Clouzot
& Jean Ferry
based on Abbé Prévost
Léo Malet
H. P. Lovecraft
Charles B. Griffith
Win Scott Eckert
Roy Thomas
based on Robert E. Howard
& H.P. Lovecraft
Ian Fleming
John Colton,
Howard Higgin
& Douglas Hodges
Written by:
Win Scott ECKERT holds a B.A. in Anthropology and a Juris Doctorate. In 1997, he posted the first site on the Internet devoted to expanding Philip José Farmer’s concept of the Wold Newton Family. He is the editor of and contributor to Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe (2005) and a contributor to Lance Star, Sky Ranger (2006). His article “The Black Forest and the Wold Newton Universe” is included in The Black Forest 2: Castle of Shadows (2005), and he recently contributed the Foreword to the new edition of Farmer’s seminal “fictional biography,” Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (2006). He is a regular contributor to Tales of the Shadowmen.
Beware the Beasts
Starring:
Doctor Omega
Tiziraou
Jinn
Phyllis
Q
Created by:
Arnould Galopin
Arnould Galopin
Pierre Boulle
Pierre Boulle
Gene Roddenberry
& D. C. Fontana
Written by:
G.L. GICK lives in Indiana and has been a pulp fan since he first picked up a Doc Savage paperback. His other interests include old-time radio, Golden and Silver Age comics, cryptozoology, classic animation, British SF TV and C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton. He is, in other words, a nerd and damn proud of it. He is a regular contributor to Tales of the Shadowmen.
The Ape Gigans
Starring:
Becky Sharp
Professor Lidenbrock
Talisa the Mahar (a.k.a. Fatima Talisa)
Lemuel Beesley
Captain Obed Marsh
Kong (a.k.a. The Ape Gigans)
Also Starring:
Benjamin Disraeli
And:
Kôr
Skull Island
Pellucidar
Created by:
William Makepeace
Thackeray
Jules Verne
Micah Harris based on
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Micah Harris
based on Michael Moorcock
H. P. Lovecraft
Merian C. Cooper
& Edgar Wallace
and Jules Verne
H. Rider Haggard
Merian C. Cooper
& Edgar Wallace
Edgar Rice Burroughs
Written by:
Micah HARRIS is the author (with artist Michael Gaydos) of the graphic novel Heaven’s War, a historical fantasy pitting authors Charles Williams, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien against occultist Aleister Crowley. Micah teaches composition, literature and film at Pitt Community College in North Carolina. He is currently developing several comics and prose projects including When the Stars Are Right: the Eldritch New Adventures of Becky Sharp.
A Dance of Night and Death
Starring:
Irma Vep
Fantômas
Satanas
Created by:
Louis Feuillade
Marcel Allain
& Pierre Souvestre
Louis Feuillade
Written by:
Travis HILTZ started making up stories at a young age. Years later, he began writing them down. In high school, he discovered that some writers actually got paid and decided to give it a try. He has since gathered a a modest collection of rejection letters and had a one-act play produced. Travis lives in the wilds of New Hampshire with his very loving and tolerant wife, two above average children and a staggering amount of comic books and Doctor Who novels. This is his first published story.
The Lady in the Black Gloves
Starring:
Madame Fourneau
Irene Chupin/Tupin (a.k.a. Irina Putine)
Josephine Balsamo
Catarina Koluchy (a.k.a. Mrs. Moriarty)
The Black Coats
Louis/Luis Fourneau (a.k.a. Maurice d’Andresy)
Gaston Morrell (a.k.a. Bluebeard)
Mabuse (a.k.a. Dr. Maubeuge)
Dr. Biron
Mary Holder
Helen Lipsius
Inspector Lefevre
Isadora Klein (a.k.a. Jacques Saillard)
Also Starring:
Maurice Joyant
And:
Van Klopen, Tailleur pour Dames
Created by:
Narciso Ibañez-Serrador
& Juan Tébar
Narciso Ibañez-Serrador
& Juan Tébar
Maurice Leblanc
L. T. Meade
& Robert Eustace
Paul Féval
Narciso Ibañez-Serrador
& Juan Tébar
Pierre Gendron,
Arnold Phillips
& Werner H. Furst
Norbert Jacques
Marcel Allain
& Pierre Souvestre
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Machen
Pierre Gendron,
Arnold Phillips
& Werner H. Furst
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
E. W. Hornung
Emile Gaboriau
Written by:
Rick LAI is a computer programmer living in Bethpage, New York. During the 1980s and 1990s, he wrote articles utilizing Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe concepts for pulp magazine fanzines such as Nemesis Inc, Echoes, Golden Perils, Pulp Vault and Pulp Collector. Rick has also created chronologies of such heroes as Doc Savage and the Shadow. He is a regular contributor to Tales of the S
hadowmen.
The Murder of Randolph Carter
Starring:
Hercule Poirot
Randolph Carter
Inspector Owen
Charles Dexter Ward
Lavinia Whateley
David Marsh
Malpertuis
Also Starring:
Jean Ray
Created by:
Agatha Christie
H. P. Lovecraft
Thomas Owen
H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Jean Ray
Written by:
Jean-Marc & Randy LOFFICIER, the authors of the Shadowmen non-fiction series, have also collaborated on five screenplays, a dozen books and numerous comic books and translations, including Arsène Lupin, Doc Ardan, Doctor Omega and The Phantom of the Opera, all published by Black Coat Press. They have written a number of animation teleplays, including episodes of Duck Tales and The Real Ghostbusters and such popular comic book heroes as Superman and Doctor Strange. In 1999, in recognition of their distinguished career as comic book writers, editors and translators, they were presented with the Inkpot award for Outstanding Achievement in Comic Arts. Randy is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West and Mystery Writers of America.
Tales of the Shadowmen 3: Danse Macabre Page 39
