During one of Napoleon's military campaigns, Edouard Delmont, a young officer, promised to marry Alinska, a Hungarian girl. Back in France, he goes back on his vows and marries someone else. Several years later, Alinska suddenly reappears in his life, transformed into an avenging vampire. She threatens to kill his wife and children unless he honors the vows he made to her... In La Vampire (1825), tienne-L on de Lamothe-Langon tells the story of the first, implacable, female vampire. What makes Alinska stand out in the ranks of female vampires is that she is not a predator, but the instrument of a higher power, working for God as the tool of Divine Wrath.

From the depths of ancient ages, when Atlantis fell, to the Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian eras, and to the burgeoning 20th century, CROSSOVERS is a massive timeline of crossover stories in which characters, situations, or universes are linked together in order to build the Crossover Universe. Lovingly compiled by Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, CROSSOVERS upwards of 1000 crossover stories which outline the secret history of the land of fiction. With an introduction by Kim Newman (ANNO DRACULA), this volume is illustrated with over 200 book and magazine covers, and contains an appendix covering myriad television crossovers.

At long last, Ars ne Lupin's greatest epic battle is presented in English in a single omnibus volume. Countess Cagliostro (1924) marks the first great adventure of a 20-year-old Lupin, pitting him against the beautiful but deadly Countess Cagliostro, in an attempt to find the treasure of the Candlestick with Seven Branches. It is presented here for the first time in a new, unabridged translation. The 1935 novel Countess Cagliostro's Revenge, never before translated, tells of the lethal Countess's revenge upon a 50-year-old Lupin. The book also includes The Queen's Necklace, a short story recounting an adventure of Lupin when he was a child which ties in with the Cagliostro legend, the all-new The Death of Countess Cagliostro, written by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, and a timeline.

From the mid-Twentieth Century, when The Spider clashed with Mr. Hyde; The Domino Lady worked with The Black Bat, The Avenger, and Airboy; Batman variously teamed up with The Shadow, Captain America, The Spirit, and Sherlock Holmes; Philip Marlowe had a brush with the Deep Ones and later worked with Sam Spade; the Nyctalope teamed up with Professor Quatermass; Bulldog Drummond combined forces with Richard Hannay for one last adventure; Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, Lord Peter, Perry Mason, and Mike Hammer solved a murder; and Vampirella teamed up with or fought just about everyone... ...To the Twenty-first Century, when Frankenstein's Creature battled Dracula and Mr. Hyde, and traveled to the Lost World; Witchblade and the Darkness joined forces with Vampirella; the worlds of Boston P.I. Spenser, Sheriff Jesse Stone, and detective Sunny Randall came together; and a modern-day Van Helsing went up against the current incarnation of the Black Coats... ...To the far-flung future, when Spock claimed Holmes as an ancestor and Ishmael flew with the wind whales... Crossovers is a massive timeline of crossover stories in which characters, situations, or universes are linked together in order to build the Crossover Universe. Lovingly compiled by crossover and Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, Crossovers lists upwards of 2000 crossover stories, with innumerable additional timeline entries which outline the secret history of the land of fiction. With an introduction by Jess Nevins, this volume is illustrated with over 300 book and magazine covers, and contains an appendix covering Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series.

Scientist and world-saving explorer Doctor Ardan was created in 1928 by French author Guy d'Armen in the pages of the magazine L'Intrépide five years before Doc Savage.

In The Hurricane Master (1931), Doc Ardan is asked to investigate mysterious hurricanes that disturb maritime traffic in the French Pacific. He is able to expose and defeat the science pirate Krakatax, the master of Hurricane Island, and rescue the daughter of American billionaire William Dorgan, with the help of an operative from the Continental Detective Agency and flying ace Phineas Pinkham.

In The Secret of Frigidopolis (1933), Doc Ardan receives a mysterious inheritance from a long-lost uncle and goes looking for a futuristic city hidden in the icy wastes of Patagonia.

These two new ground-breaking SF adventures in this popular French series have been translated and adapted by Michael Shreve.

stories by Jason Scott Aiken, Tim Newton Anderson, Jean-Michel Archaimbault, Matthew Baugh, Atom Mudman Bezecny, Thom Brannan, Nathan Cabaniss, Bill Cunningham, Matthew Dennion, Paul Di Filippo, Brian Gallagher, John Gallagher, Martin Gately, Lex Gil, Micah S. Harris, Travis Hiltz, Riley Hogan, Matthew Ilseman, Rick Lai, Roman Leary, Sean Lee Levin, Jean-Marc Lofficier, David McDonald, Rod McFadyen, Nigel Malcolm, Xavier Mauméjean, William Patrick Maynard & Anna Victoria Maynard, Jess Nevins, Christofer Nigro, John Peel, Neil Penswick, Anthony Perconti, Dennis E. Power, Pete Rawlik & Sal Ciano, Josh Reynolds, Chris Roberson, Robert L. Robinson, Jr., Frank Schildiner, Artikel Unbekannt, Nathalie Vidalinc and David L. Vineyard.

essays & reminiscences by Stephen R. Bissette, Neil Gaiman, Stuart Gelzer, Robin Hobb, Stephen Jones, K.A. Laity, Randy Lofficier, Tim Lucas, Frank J. Morlock, Kim Newman, Sharan Newman, Henry Lion Oldie, David J. Schow, Michael Shreve, John Skipp, Brian Stableford, Antifas de Torquemada, Rob Walton, Lance Weiler, Douglas E. Winter and Thomas Yeates.

This 20th-and yes, final-tome of Tales of the Shadowmen is, as befits a 20 year-old series, a very special volume, collecting all new stories by many of our past and present collaborators, as well as personal reminiscences by illustrious authors about the role or influence that French fiction might have played in their creative lives.

During its existence, Tales of the Shadowmen is proud to have introduced unknown classics of French popular literature to the English-speaking public, including the nefarious Black Coats, Doc Ardan, Doctor Omega, Felifax, Harry Dickson, Madame Palmyre, the Nyctalope, Sâr Dubnotal, the Vampire City, and many more, in addition to keeping legendary pulp heroes such as Arsène Lupin, Captain Nemo, Fantômas, Judex, the Phantom of the Opera, Robur and Rouletabille, in the limelight.

In this volume, writers from Australia, Canada, England, France, Ukraine and the United States pay homage to all those great detectives and master villains who enchanted our adolescence with a smorgasbord of tasty tales that span all of Earth's history-and beyond.

A classic tale of secret identities and swashbuckling vengeance stretching across decades, The Hunchback has thrilled readers since it first came out in 1857. Dashing young swordsman Henri de Lagard re vows justice for the treacherous murder of his friend, the Duke of Nevers, but first he has to raise Nevers's beautiful daughter Aurore as his own child -- and protect her from the same powerful villains who killed her father.

Regency Paris in the early 1700s is a time of debauched courtesans and dueling swordsmen. And among those, no one is more feared than the outlaw Lagard re, who alone knows the secret of the Nevers attack -- a fencing move that kills by striking right between the eyes

Paul F val's swashbuckling classic is as well-known and beloved in France as Dumas's Three Musketeers and has been adapted more than a dozen times for cinema and television. This is the first time it is presented in English in a complete and unabridged translation.

This book also includes a bibliography, a filmography and an overview of the eight prequels and sequels written by Paul F val's son.

Writer/artist Rick Veitch's career bridges the underground comix of the 1970s, mainstream DC and Vertigo Comics, and the self-publishing revolution of the 1980s and 1990s. In that extraordinary body of work, Brat Pack(R) remains a landmark, and Teen Angels & New Mutants is the first book-length, in-depth study of a creator and graphic novel worthy of the autopsy. En route, Teen Angels offers a crash-course on teen pop culture and superhero sidekick history, fresh analysis of Dr. Fredric Wertham's seminal books, ponders real-world new mutants like Michael Jackson, The Olsen Twins, and Justin Bieber, and charts the 1980s comicbook explosion and 1990s implosion--and more.

Written in 1879 (18 years before Dracula) by 19-year-old Marie Nizet, Captain Vampire, in its method and tone alike, is way ahead of its time. Although its plot has supernatural elements, and its antagonist is manifestly demonic, the novel's true purpose is to bring out the horror of war. A significant work in the history of horror fiction, it is undoubtedly one of the finest literary works ever to have made use of the vampire motif.

Leo Saint-Clair, alias the Nyctalope, was created in 1911 by Jean de La Hire, one of France's most prolific serial writers. Gifted with night vision, hypnotic powers and an artificial heart, Saint-Clair is a fearless hero who battles colorful super-villains. His adventures, which spanned 30 years, created a template that was later adopted by such pulp heroes as Doc Savage (1933), before providing the core mythology of American comic books. In The Nyctalope on Mars (1911), Leo faces the megalomaniacal Oxus, master of the secret society of the Fifteen, who is plotting to conquer Earth from his secret base on Mars. After defeating the Fifteen, the Nyctalope must then face an ever more fearsome foe: H. G. Wells' Martians. The Nyctalope on Mars predicted the course that popular fiction was to follow in the next 50 years. Brian Stableford.

It all begins innocently enough when the corpse of a London boxer is discovered at sunrise on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. But the man was reportedly seen in London only a couple of hours earlier... A great English detective and France's leading investigative reporter team up to solve a baffling mystery that will ultimately take them to a network of vast caverns under Paris inhabited by prehistoric monsters, waiting to be released... Jules Lermina's Panic in Paris (1910) combines the tradition of utopian fiction with both the scientific advances of the 19th century and the pseudoscientific trappings of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871). It also features some intriguing anticipations of two key works by Arthur Conan Doyle, prefiguring both The Lost World (1912) and The Poison Belt (1913).

During an expedition to the North Pole, French aeronauts Jean-Louis de Venasque and Jacques Ceintras stumble upon an alien society of technologically-advanced reptilian humanoids living in a secret enclave that has been isolated from the world for millions of years. Charles Derennes (1882-1930) was one of the pioneers of French science fiction who followed in the footsteps of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. He penned this remarkable Lost World novel in 1907, five years before Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic. The most original component of The People of the Pole is that Derennes, unlike Verne or Doyle, makes the assumption that progressive biological evolution would have continued, to the extent that the iguanodons isolated in the remote past would have developed a quasi-humanoid form, along with high intelligence and sophisticated technological capability. Brian Stableford.

Stories by Matthew Baugh, Atom Mudman Bezecny, David Friend, Martin Gately, Travis Hiltz, Paul Hugli, Jean-Marc Lofficier, Nigel Malcolm and John Peel.

The mysterious traveler through the aether known only as Doctor Omega was created by Arnould Galopin in 1906 in his eponymous novel, first published into English by Black Coat Press in 2003.

Since then, many talented authors have created new adventures for him. This new collection presents fourteen Doctor Omega adventures. Follow the enigmatic Doctor from the swamps of Romney Marsh to the arid plains of Mars, from the City of Light to the furthest reaches of the cosmos, as he encounters a host of other heroes and villains such as Doctor Syn, Rotwang, Rick Blaine, the Lectroids, Professor Moriarty and the Little Prince...

When inhuman monsters walk the Earth, threatening the good and the helpless, Justice has no stronger defenders than Harry Dickson and his assistant Tom Wills, who fight the forces of evil and cast them back into the Darkness from whence they came. Harry Dickson began as an unauthorized Sherlock Holmes pulp series in Germany in 1907, before changing its name and morphing into a hugely popular saga in Holland, Belgium and France, with 178 issues published between 1927 and 1938, especially after it was entrusted to the editorship of Belgian horrormeister Jean Ray. This volume includes three original episodes and one short story: The Heir of Dracula: From the rat-infested swers of Limehouse to the dark forests of Bavaria, Dickson hunts for the mysterious red-eyed vampire, Count Dragomin. The Iron Temple: Deep beneath London, monstrous creatures engage in bloody sacrifices in their amazing, futuristic lair. The Return of the Gorgon: A beautiful but deadly woman who may be a reincarnation of Medusa has the power to turn men to stone. This famous Holmesian pastiche has been translated by award-winning authors Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier and includes original cover illustrations and a foreword about the Harry Dickson phenomenon.

Noblesse Oblige Privilege entails responsibility, and requires a person who holds an elevated status fulfills certain responsibilities -- an attitude illustrated here by fourteen stories in which some of the bravest heroes of popular fiction display their true nobility by acting beyond reproach

The Phantom Angel must find out who killed one of the Seven Dwarves... Ars ne Lupin borrows a page from Maigret to unmask a villain... Doctor Omega ponders over the schemes of Professor Moriarty... Felifax crosses path with Doctor Moreau... Young Robur learns how to become a Conqueror in the Old West... Doctor Cornelius returns in Sarajevo... The Nyctalope starts a revolution to overthrow a future dictatorship... And Fant mas finally meets his match... All this, plus Judex, Irene Adler, Doctor Jekyll, the Timeslip Troopers, the Sea Hawk and the ever-monstrous Skull Island

In this seventeenth volume of Tales of the Shadowmen, the only anthology dedicated to international heroes and villains of pulp literature, writers from England, France and the United States unite to pay homage to those great champions and master criminals who enchanted our adolescence.

Every Baron de Luizzi has, for centuries, sold his soul to the Devil for wealth, knowledge, and power. The latest, Armand de Luizzi, comes to sign his own pact in which he will be required to prove that those things have made him happy for ten consecutive years. If they do not, he must surrender his soul. Luizzi also asks for the right to publish all that the Devil reveals to him-The Devil's Memoirs.

However, the Devil warns him that, once his narration begins, it cannot be stopped and Luizzi will be reluctant to see and hear some of the things he will reveal. He gives him a purse with coins inscribed, One month in the life of Baron de Luizzi. Anytime Luizzi finds he can't bear to see, hear, or participate in any event, he can opt out by returning a coin to the Devil and be exempted, but he will also shorten his life by the same amount.

The Devil's Memoirs (1838) is filled with tales of terror, wickedness, depravity, and cruelty. In it, the worlds of nobility, finance, even crime, are laid bare with a cruel lucidity and a rare psychological truth. Frédéric Soulié (1800-1847) shows us the worst aspects of 1830 France, driven by lust, the lure of easy money and the thirst for revenge. The Devil is not just the author's spokesperson, but his avenger. Few writers have achieved such evocative power in condemning the world in which they lived. The book is, in that respect, surprisingly modern.

In this collection of Cruel Tales, we meet a unique and colorful cast of extraordinary characters such as Akedysseril the Queen of India, Mayeris the big game hunter who capured the sacred white elephant, Maryelle the courtesan, Catalina the gypsy toast of Santander, Mahoin the brigand, the murderous Doctor Hallidon, Grand Inquisitor Tomas de Torquemada and Tomolo K K the Antipodean who traversed the Earth. The Comte de Villiers de l'Isle Adam (1838-1889), pioneer of the Symbolist Movement, is known for his proto-science fiction works Axel (1885) and L'Eve Future (1886). He also wrote many cruel tales, only a handful of which have ever been translated before this publication of The Scaffold. Poet Paul Verlaine called Villiers' works a genial melange of irony, metaphysics and terrorand translator Brian Stableford dubs it a bizarre literary landmark. Brian Stableford has published more than fifty novels and two hundred short stories. This book is the first English-language edition, and includes an authoritative introduction and historical notes.

Jaleb began in the magazine Futura in 1972, which heralded the Second Age of French publisher Editions Lug, introducing an entire range of new characters such as Homicron, Aster, the Time Brigade, Jeff Sullivan, etc.

These were the brainchildren of science fiction writer Claude Legrand, who was influenced by the novels of great masters such as Poul Anderson, Robert Heinlein and Theodore Sturgeon.

Jaleb is accidentally left behind on Earth as a baby by a team of explorers from a Galactic Federation of telepaths. He is found and raised by a couple of Oregon farmers. As an adult, he uses his inherited telepathic powers for good as a private detective, but a chance encounter with a Federation Observer leads him to discover his true origins...

The first three episodes of this ground-breaking series by Legrand and artist Annibale Casabianca are collected here for the first time in English as part of a set devoted to the origins of the heroes who are later gathered together in Strangers.

When inhuman monsters walk the Earth, Justice has no stronger defenders than Harry Dickson and his assistant Tom Wills, who fight the forces of evil and cast them back into the Darkness from whence they came.

Harry Dickson began as an unauthorized Sherlock Holmes pulp series in Germany in 1907, before changing its name and morphing into a hugely popular saga in Holland, Belgium and France, with 178 issues published between 1927 and 1938, especially after it was entrusted to the editorship of Belgian horrormeister Jean Ray.

This volume includes four original episodes: Mysteras, in which Dickson meets his match in a villain who relies on elaborate and deadly illusions; The Tribunal of Terror, in which the dreaded Mysteras returns, vowing vengeance against Dickson; The Path of the Gods, in which Dickson faces a blood-thirsty Chinese ghost; and The Devil's Bed, in which Dickson discovers the last living ancient Babylonian priests -- plus a bonus short story, Harry's Homecoming.

This famous Holmesian pastiche has been translated by Stuart Gelzer and includes the original cover illustrations.

In Electric Life (1892), Albert Robida imagined the life of the future, imbued with all kinds of fantastic devices meant to simplify the lives of their users. The father of science fiction illustration, and the author of The Clock of the Centuries and The Adventures of Saturnin Farandoul, Robida (1848-1926) was the most significant of all of Jules Verne's successors. The novel follows the adventures of the great inventor Philox Lorris, who wants his son to marry a woman whom he does not love, instead of his sweetheart, whom Philox dislikes. This traditional love triangle allows Robida to unleash his sarcastic predictions, extrapolating them to what he thought were absurd extremes; but which today's readers will think tame in comparison with our modern world. Electric Life no longer qualifies as futuristic fiction, or alternative history, but it does qualify as steampunk fantasy -- perhaps the ultimate steampunk fantasy, given that it possesses an innocence that no modern writer, jaded by an excess of historical knowledge, could ever duplicate. ILLUSTRATED WITH 100 ORIGINAL ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALBERT ROBIDA.