BookTuber reviewing classic Fantasy Novels.

The name of the YouTube Channel is The Everyman Reads.

The idea is he's going to review 500 major Fantasy Novels in the order they were written.  He's still very early in the project having just reviewed George MacDonald's Lilith.  And it's a very good video everyone should watch it. 

In this video he defines how he divides Fantasy into 6 Eras. He's probably about right in what his divisions are, but the Pedantic in me can't help but be annoyed by the labels he chose, the point of naming eras after precious Metals is to repeat the Greek Mythological format, Gold then Silver then Bronze and then Iron.  His timeline goes Bronze, Silver, Classic, Golden, Modern and the current recently started but not definitively named era.  Which is the other pedantic complaint, Modern is by definition current, if we aren't in the same era as 2005-2020 anymore then that era needs a new name. 

Now as I said when talking about Eras of Anime The Golden Age is the first full era of greatness, but there can be a proto or pre history. So I would call his Bronze Age the formative years, then his Silver Age The Golden Age, then his Classic age the Silver Age and his Golden Age the Bronze Age and his Modern Age the Iron Age.

The 500 books he's selected are naturally biased towards the English speaking canon. And that's fine actually, there is a lot to cover just there. I just want to use this framing as a jumping off point for mentioning some foreign works I feel deserve more credit and attention.  Because what foreign language country's fiction I'm interested in changes depending on the era. 

The first two eras line up well with my Froncophilic interests I hold thanks to CoolFrenchComics.com and BlackCoatPress.

Paul Feval wrote only one book I'm confident can be considered Fantasy enough to definitely count, La Ville Vampire translated into English by the late Brian Stableford as Vampire City, first serialized in the 1860s.  Stuff straddling that early transitional line would include some of the works in Anne of The Isles. Some of his books set in modern Paris I would draw inspiration from when writing Urban Fantasy though they wouldn't actually count since the Supernatural element is always left ambiguous if present at all, The Vampire Countess, Revenants, Knightshade and The Blackcoats saga whose 6th volume The Companions of The Treasure is in my view the most Tolkienesque thing written before Tolkien. 

The Angel and The Sphinx from 1889 by Eduard Schure and translated by Brian Stableford.

The Enchanted City by Eugene Hennebert from 1893 including in BlackCoatPress's upcoming French Tales of Lost Worlds anthology.

In 1908 and 1909 Gustave Le Rouge wrote two novels that directly anticipate the Barsoom series, these were Translated and published together as Vampires of Mars. 

1919's L'Atlantide is like She in some ways but not in others, the author Pierre Beniot had not read She. It has had a similar if more forgotten cultural impact, for awhile being directly adapted every decade but also in the name of it's Femme Fatale Antinea influencing even more films.

As far as arguing that 1990-2004 was the best era of Fantasy Prose Novels, this wouldn't be the only time where what I call The Bronze Age is also the age I would argue is the best, that's certainly the case with Anime and kind of is for some DC characters. And that is where my Weeb interests come in.  

I haven't read these books, I haven't even seen all the Anime based on them, but I know a lot about their cultural importance.  And these are only stories that were originally prose novels which Light Novels count as, I won't be including anything that started as a Manga, Anime, Video Games or Visual Novels though they certainly have plenty of their own contributions to making this an exciting decade and a half for the Fantasy genre.  

The Heroic Legend of Arslan series started in 1987 but continued all through this era. 

Majuu Senshi Luna Varga is referred to as being based on a Light Novel but I can't find any publication dates for it, it's probably the most randomly obscure thing I'm going to list here.  The OVAs came out in 91 so it could turn out to be too soon for this era. 

Slayers started in 1990.

The Twelve Kingdoms started in 1992 and is one of the many GRRMs of Anime source materials in that it's still unfinished. 

On the subject of Urban Fantasy I'm unsure what does and doesn't count but I feel 1998 started a peak era for Japanese Urban Fantasy with Boogiepop and Others in February and the first Kara No Kyoukai in October.  I also recall Trixie The Golden Witch mentioning an anthology book of Light Novels like these from this era called Faust. 

Maybe a short story shouldn't be considered eligible for this but Kinoko Nasu's Angel Notes from 99 is pretty important. 

Scrapped Princess was from 1999 to 2003.

Legend of The Legendary Heroes started in 2002. 

2002 is also the same year as the original Web Novel for Sword Art Online, which isn't a Fantasy novel but has become undeniably important to the history of Fantasy in Japanese media.

Baccano! started in 2003 as did The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya if you count either as Urban Fantasy.

The year 2004 was the start of at least three important Light Novel sagas. 

The Familiar of Zero was very popular and a website that started as a fan site for it would go on to be the main incubation chamber for modern Isekai.

And then two more where I'm unsure if they count as Urban Fantasy for now.  Durarara!! and A Certain Magical Index.

And in December of 2004 Hakubō no Dendōshi by Gen Urobuchi was published. 

Q is Chekhov’s Gunman

I’ve currently only seen three James Bond films in their entirety, the first two Daniel Craig movies and most recently earlier this year The Man With The Golden Gun.  But I’ve seen clips of other movies before and I watched a bunch of Bond relevant Video Essays on YouTube this year because they simply were what was trending a few times.

Bond has been a very influential franchise,  so I can see Bond’s fingerprints on plenty of other media I’ve consumed.  Lupin III has been called the James Bond of Japan, a few of the 60s and 70s Godzilla films are referred to as being James Bond influenced.  There are direct James Bond references in the Anime Moriarty The Patriot. 

What’s interesting though is how one of the key signs that something is really leaning into the Bond influence structurally is if there is a Q analogue. When Batman Begins was being hyped up Nolan was very open about the James Bond influence, and a key factor always pointed out was Lucius Fox as played by Morgan Freeman being Bruce’s Q.  Nolan's love of drawing on Bond continued with Inception and Tenet which also both have their Q analogues. 

And a thing I’m sure I’m not the first to notice about Q is how his role is essentially to provide Chekhov’s Guns.  Professor Agasa has been referred to as Detective Conan’s Q, and it's in several of the movies that it's really on the nose, just like Q he introduces some new invention early on which then plays a key role in the climax. 

The wording of Chekhov’s Gun is that because something is seen early on it should be used.  But no sane person is really going around criticizing every time some innocuous detail from act one doesn’t come up later. No it’s considered good writing advice for the opposite angle, anything that plays an important role in the resolution should be set up earlier, that’s how you avoid a Deus Ex Machina accusation. 

So Bond style movies without a designated Q character still have a scene or two that like Q serve the purpose of introducing something in the protagonist's arsenal that will be important later. Maybe the protagonist themselves invented whatever gadgets they’re going to use, like many non Nolan versions of Batman. 

And this is why I struggle at being an actually interesting blogger. I make lots of observations like this I want to share, but they don’t always lead me to any profound revelation or theory.  Rather than continuing this Chekhov’s Gun train of thought I kind of want to share other random Bond related thoughts I’ve had this year. 

Ya know the Obi-Wan Kenobi parts of Attack of The Clones could be compared to a Bond movie just as much as they can to Film Noir Detective films. Ewen McGregor has a similarly dry sense of humor to Roger Moore and Christopher Lee is the villain.

I watched a Book YouTube video that separated all the Bond Novels both by which they felt were the good ones and which ones’ namesake films are a reasonably faithful adaptation of at least the same basic sequence of events. And the only novel that was both good and doesn’t have a close enough adaptation is Moonraker, which is interesting for in the Book having a villain who is a surviving Nazi War Criminal, not the most original idea for a Pulp Villain but they annoyingly keep staying relevant. 

When it comes to the various pitches Bond fans keep saying they want for the next movie, I kind of hope the Period Piece idea is the one Amazon doesn’t do.  Because when the Bond Novels (except maybe Thunderball) enter the Public Domain pretty much everywhere but the United States in a decade, period piece films that directly adapt those novels distinctly unlike how the Movies have typically been are exactly what people independent of Amazon will most easily be able to make without Amazon shutting it down.  

So I say an old fashioned Black and White mid 50s set Moonraker adaptation is exactly what some independent filmmakers should right now begin preparing to make. In fact you can already do it in Canada. Maybe give it a different name since Pop Culture now associates that name with something distinctly NOT in the book. 

My other advice for people planning to make their own PD James Bond projects in a decade is if you want to avoid Spectre because of the question mark that might still hang over Thunderball, just use Paul Feval’s Les Habits Noirs translated The Blackcoats as your international criminal secret society. Their English branch is sometimes called The Gentleman of The Night and it's leader The Lord of The Night is sometimes plotting to liberate Ireland from British rule which I mention because another Bond video I saw talked about the lack of Ireland in the Bond movies.

In some small ways certain writers have always gotten away with treating Bond like he’s quasi PD.  Like incorporating the Mycroft Holmes was the original M fan theory.  Is there any fictional character from the same era whose name happens to begin with the letter Q who was also a scientist/inventor?

Anime Recommendations for Inklings.

Anime is such a vast and diverse medium that I truly believe it has something for everyone even though a lot of it will struggle to appeal outside the specific subculture that created it.  So one recurring theme of this Blog is me as a person who was once a more normal western Nerd with a wide range of interests for a long time before Anime took over my brain appointing myself as an expert recommender.  And of course one of my top Western Nerdy interests is J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis.

Now if any long time followers of this blog exist you may think I’ve already covered Tolkien and Lewis like Anime in various ways, but the truth is the prior examples of one or both of them and Anime coming up in the same post were more the other way around if anything.  In this post I want to focus on Anime that I think could have appealed to Tolkien and Lewis themselves if they were still around, not merely fans who like their work but also a lot of stuff very unlike them.

So for example while I’ve made a few posts on why Fantasy Anime even at its most Generic and Gamerfied would appeal to someone whose tastes in the Genre were shaped by them more then the slew of GOT wannabes that western “Prestige” television spewed out in the 2010s.  I am still not insane enough to think either of them would like a show that’s basically literally about being in a Video Game.

Maquia and Frieren are the top two Fantasy Anime I would truly call Tolkienesque.  Maybe Grimoire of Zero and Dawn of The Witch could fit in.  Something that actually qualifies as Isekai would have a better shot with Lewis then Tolkien but not most modern Isekai.  Lewis and Tolkien’s different views on Allegory would have me recommending something like Princess Tutu or an Ikuhara show to Lewis way before Tolkien.  The third Pokémon movie Spell of The Unown might be able to appeal to both.

Also Tolkien's anxieties about Technology and Nature make him a bit of a kindred spirit with Miyazaki but that's not something people needed me to learn about, there's already a YouTube Video Essay on it.  I have also already stated that the ending of Nausicaa counts as a Eucatastrophe, also an observation I didn't make on my own.

However I want to remind people that Tolkien was capable of enjoying more kinds of fiction than just the genre he's most well known for writing.  

For example I was intrigued when I learned that Tolkien was a fan of Arthur C Clarke’s Childhood’s End.  Now the first Anime that I would recommend to any Clarke fan is the Gundam franchise, the Childhood’s End influence is there right form the original Mobile Suit Gundam, I often feel like I’m the only western fan who notices that the term Newtype itself is basically a Childhood’s End reference.  However I feel the best Gundam in many ways including as a Clarke homage is Gundam 00, now 00 like a lot of non UC Gundam Anime in my opinion struggles in its early episodes. I was lucky I caught Gundam 00 randomly in the middle of season 1 on the SciFi channel.  (The Witch From Mercury finally avoided this problem by just making its Pilot a remake of Utena’s pilot).

Heck I’m gonna leave Anime for a second to mention how I see a lot of thematic similarities between Tolkien and the works of 19th Century French Novelist Paul Feval.  They are most apparent in The Companions of The Treasure the 6th and in my headcanon last Volume of The Blackcoats saga, a Tolkien fan reading it will be reminded of a number of things.  Part of it might be how Feval was also a Roman Catholic seemingly specifically to be contrarian (it wasn’t rare in his nation like it was Tolkien but was among those writing serialized novels for newspapers).

Anime that reminds me of Paul Feval are also something I’ve already talked about on this blog.  But which ones do so in specifically a way that speaks to why I compare Feval to Tolkien?  Well I suspect Princess Principal may exist at exactly the right crossroads for that.

Since Tolkien was a Linguist first and foremost he might have been amused by some of those Detective Conan episodes that play on language for a key clue.  Like episode 651 which used differences between the Kansai and Kanto dialects of Japanese.  Or that subplot from the latter part of the Clash and Red and Black where Conan used a sort of reverse Shiboleth.  

Thing is I have no idea if Tolkien ever had any interest in Detective Fiction as a genre.  Lewis did make a Sherlock Holmes reference once and I will definitely recommend Detective Conan aka Case Closed to any Holmes fan, it’s a way better modern reimagining then what the BBC and Hollywood have given us in the last 20 years.

Given the interest Tolkien seemed to have in the idea of Cursed objects that kind of Doom their possessor I’m almost inclined to wonder if even Death Note would have an appeal.

Update February 10th: I recently learned about both Tolkien and Lewis being fans of Voyage to Arcturus thanks to the Media Death Cult youtube channel.  I'm sure there are a number of Anime you could compare to Arcturus but they aren't on the tip of my tong right now.

Update November 18th 2025: Narnia is the obvious C.W. Lewis reference for discussing Isekai, but  when I watch one of the rare Isekai that actually at first tries to have the protagonist communicate with the residents of the new world through a language barrier instead of immediately ignoring or handwaving that issue, I immediately think of Out of The Silent Planet when Ransom first meets Hyoi and begins learning the Hross language.   I wish I could remember which Isekai those were off the top of my head, it kinda happen in YU-NO which doesn't become an Isekai till episode 18.

I remember reading once about how the climax of Peralandra is compared to The Lord of The Rings because they both involved a confrontation in a subterranean cavern where the villain winds up falling into lava.  And today as I rewatched my favorite Anime Noir I realized how it's final confrontation can also be described the same way.

Update March 2024: And ya know what that also applies to the ending of Fate/Stay Night Heaven's Feel too.

Update August 9th 2026: I feel like adding that The Ribbon Hero has scenes that feel like what an Anime adaptation of The Fall of Gondolin could look like.

Genealogies of Public Domain Fictional Characters

I have been imagining my own framework for a shared continuity between various Public Domain fictional sags and characters for the purpose of stories I may write in the future.  It is influenced by the Wold Newton Universe but ultimately different, starting with my disinterest in the very plot device it is named after.  But it is particularly influenced by the French WNU work on CoolFrenchComics.com.

One idea constantly floating around in WNU circles I particularly don't like is Captian Nemo being the same person as Professor Moriarty.  First of all it contributes to the White Washing of Nemo, Nemo should be Indian which is one of the few things I give Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman credit for.  But also it just doesn't fit personality wise or archetypically, Nemo like Robur opposes the British Empire from without not from within.  I'm all for the idea of Moriarty actually being a nationalist rebel against Britannia, but based on him and Moran having Irish surnames and The Valley of Fear it would be Irish nationalism carrying on the mission of Fergue O'Breane (Of Feval's The Mysteries of London) and Sarah O'Neil (Of Feval's John Devil) through The Gentlemen of The Night.  (The recent Anime Moriarty The Patriot is a pretty decent exploration of the idea of Moriarty as a Revolutionary, I haven't seen season 2 since it's not Dubbed yet but I suspect it will be.)

While Public Domain characters are the focus, plausible connections to non PD characters for the purposes of Fan Fiction will come up occasionally.

My unique combination of interests makes me an Otaku looking to strengthen the ties between the lore of Lupin III and and the original Arsene Lupin.  The CoolFrenchComics Lupin Genealogy has connections I like and would keep and others I would discard or adjust.  I think their Arsene Lupin Timeline is pretty solid except that I would probably at least not directly mention any stories not written by Maurice Leblanc.  I won't be able to comment on the Borostyria=Montenegro theory till I read The Woman with Two Smiles for myself.  Now the only versions of Lupin III that can really fit a shared universe like this, at least with the "Third" part being literal, are period pieces set in the 60s and 70s, of which my starting point would always be The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.  Maybe some stuff set in the 80s or early 90s could still work if you're willing to imagine the characters actually now look older then they're at face value being drawn, after all the original Arsene Lupin had a career the spanned over 30 years.

The mother of the Arsene Lupin The 2nd who's the father of Lupin The Third I have decided should be Florence Lavasseur.  I have also decided that Albert d'Andresy descends from Hortense Daniel, that of course probably conflicts with the Nestor Burma theory CFC endorses, but I imagine that theory had problems on it's own.  It's a decision that is symbolic of my viewing Albert d'Andresy as the heir of the 813 form of Arsene Lupin (Jean-Marc & Randy Loffcier's analysis of 813 in the introduction to their translation is spot on).

[Update June 2025: I've been considering changing my mind are arguing Lupin II's mother is Raymonde from The Hollow Needle who died in 1909, but I'm unsure there is room in the timeline of their relationship for a pregnancy, been awhile since I read the book.]

As far as the ancestry of the original Arsene Lupin goes.  For those who don't know Theophraste Lupin comes from Maurice Leblanc himself.  C .Auguste Dupin actually being a Lupin and Theo's father with Poe simply changing the first letter for some reason I like, however I feel the generation between Dupin and Balzac's Bibi-Lupin (who I think could be the same person as Alexandre Dumas' Monsieur Jackal in The Mohicans of Paris) is unneeded, Bibi could easily have sired Dupin directly.  And their lineage going back to the protagonists of Paul Feval's The She Wolf and The White Wolf I also like.

Next is the question of the Lecoq line.  Farmer created Albert Lecoq to be the grandfather of Gaboriau's Lecoq with probably no idea a candidate for the in-between generation already existed, in fact I bet Farmer only knew of Gaboriau's Lecoq because he was mentioned in A Study in Scarlet.  

I am going to keep Feval's Lecoq as the father of Gaboriau's Lecoq in-spite of it's problems because of how it fits on a Meta-Level with Feval having been Gaboriau's Sensei, and Gaboriau contradicted himself on Lecoq's backstory anyway.  I also keep the Ballmeyer-Rouletabille connection and the Lecoq children who kept the last name in the Fan Fiction of Fortuné de Boisgobey, William Busnach & Henri Chabrillat and the 1908 La Fée au Vitriol memoir of Lucien, and I'd like to somehow add Beautrelet of The Hollow Needle. [Note: I'd missed or forgotten that Beautrelet was already on CFC's Lecoq family tree, still I think I may want to change where, I think I like Beautrelet as a younger brother of Rouletabille.]

However my imagination extends the genealogy even further to make Lecoq the real meaning of the L designation in Death Note, Lawliet can still be his forename, he wouldn't be the first Lecoq named alliteratively.

Albert Lecoq is rendered unnecessary by no longer keeping Wold Newton itself.  Albert as the forename of Toulonnais L'Amitie's father certainly isn't a problem, but what Wold Newton writers familiar with Feval and The Blackcoats like Rick Lai and Win Scott Eckert tend to do with Albert doesn't actually fit Feval's lore.  A Normandy family like the Lecoqs would not have become affiliated with The Colonel or the Veste Nere until they first set up shop in Paris in 1818.  In fact I'm pretty sure The Colonel didn't actually use the title of Colonel or even set foot outside of Corsica till then either.

But there is an even bigger issue I have with the CFC's Lecoq tree, and that's making Marguerite Sadoulus the mother of Monsieur Lecoq and Albert's wife a descendent of Milady De Winter.  

First of all in Heart of Steel it's pretty clear to me that Marguerite's relationship with Lecoq doesn't begin till 1832 so it exists 100% contemporary with her marriage to Joulou and her formally holding the title of La Comtesse DeClare, so any son she bore then would be presumed to be Joulu's and raised as a potential DeClare Heir and thus not have had the Lecoq name even if Lecoq was the real biological father, so Inspector Lecoq must have had a different mother, maybe a secret marriage Toulonnias had in his native Normandy.

But also, given how often there are Meta symbolic reasons for these Wold Newton style genealogical connections.  Why make Marguerite's boyfriend an heir of Milady De Winter rather then Marguerite herself?  

Usefulcharts did a series of videos on hidden European Matrilineal family trees starting with the House of Garsenda, in order to try breaking away from how patrilineal by default the study of genealogies has long been.  Well the writing of fictional genealogies has mirrored reality in this regard.  So I've been working on constructing a Matrilineal family tree of fictional French Femme Fatales with Marguerite Sadoulus being the focal point.  I shall post here what I have so far but it is subject to change.

Update; I'm already half regretting some aspects of that, but the gist of that is still my starting premise.

I've been thinking about my French Pulp Fiction interests again.

I did a post recently on how Anime still isn't Mainstream, but the thing is Anime isn't even the most Niche thing I'm into.  Anime at least has enough of an active online fandom presence that I can Tweet about it and find lots of interesting YouTube videos and Tumblr posts and Fan Fiction.

What I'm talking about in this post I'm not even sure what to call it, it's way more specific then what most people who'd call themselves a Francophile mean.  I often use Shadowmen as a short hand after the anthology series Tales of The Shadowmen or the nonfiction book Shadowmen: Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction.  

The main fan-site is CoolFrenchComics.com and the main modern publisher of relevant content is Black Coat Press.  They publish lots of English Translations of 19th and early 20th Century Pulp Fiction, but also some books that contain new stories using these characters or related themes.  The Editors who run BCP are Jean-Marc & Randy Loffcier and some of the books they Translate themselves.  However a lot of their flagship books are translated by Brian Stableford.  A number of them, including some that may benefit from a Female perspective were translated by Nina Cooper.  It seems everything that's a Stage Play rather then Prose is translated by Frank Morlock.  Another notable contributor is Rick Lai who I'll talk more about later.

BlackCoatPress has made some marketing decisions I consider unfortunate.  Starting with their decision to say "Adapted by" rather then "Translated by" on the covers of all their translations. Now they have an explanation for this on their website on a page called Adapted vs Translated, where it's basically because they're trying to distinguish themselves from old Public Domain translations that are little better then what we in the Anime Community would call Machine Generated Translations, they want to give their translators credit for the skill they provide in making their translations actually pleasing to read, it's not because they are actually changing or rewriting anything.

The problem is that explanation isn't on the back of the every book.  And so for example when I'm trying to convince fellow Anime fans to try one of them out, a Translation openly branding itself as an "Adaptation" is going to make them think of 90s Hack Dubs where the names are all Americanized, and Croissants are called Jelly Donuts, and Death is euphemized as "leaving this world", and Eugenie Danglars & Louis d'Armilly are referred to as "cousins".

Rest assured BCP's Translations are the opposite of that, preserving the French cultural characteristics in ways modern Anime Dubs and even Subs still struggle with, like keeping rather then translating French nicknames and Honorifics.  I watched a YouTube video once where someone talking more about Manga translations actually said that Honorifics should be translated or dropped entirely, that they simply don't work in English and only pretentious Weaboos want to keep them.  And I've come to realize that's just plain Racist, only when talking about East Asian media is it at all controversial to preserve their Honorifics, no modern respectable translation of Les Misérables for example would dare change Monsieur to Mister or Mademoiselle to Miss, some of those old PD translation that BCP wants to distinguish themselves from so badly did, but everyone today agrees that's stupid.  No one considers it jarring in the Musical when these French honorifics are spoken by the Cockney accented Thenardiers, it actually works just fine.  Japanese honorifics are way more different from English honorifics then French ones are, what they communicate about the culture is even more important to preserve and any attempted 1 to 1 equivocation of them to English words will be way less accurate in their connotations.

Another marketing mistake is that a few books will on their back cover blurbs describe aspects of what happens in ways that might feel a bit like a bait and switch once you've read them.  So for example don't read The Wandering Jew's Daughter expecting The Wandering Jew to be Superman.  The Wandering Jew's Daughter is itself not one of the best of Paul Feval's novels, but the BCP translation is worth buying just for the information Stableford provides in the Introduction for cultural context, so much history of how the Wandering Jew legend was used in French literature and melodrama that you won't find on Wikipedia.

Stableford's translations always have very in-depth educational Introductions, extensive Footnotes, and more often then not an insightful Afterward as well.  With both John Devil and The Vampire and The Devil's Son I definitely agree with Stableford's Afterward provided interpretations of what actually happened in the story. Companions of The Treasure is another one where Stbaleford's interpretation is basically Canon to me.

The Phantom of The Opera is such a classic of literature and pop culture in general not just in France that you would probably think surely a good faithful and complete English Translation existed before Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier published theirs in the 2000s, but you'd be wrong.  Multiple reviews of their translation affirm that no one before even kept the basic format of how the story is told.  But because theirs came so late and most people assume that "certainly a Penguin Classics edition can be trusted" their English version remains rarely read even by younger readers.  Half the Phantom of The Opera content on YouTube is from Lindsay Elis, and one thing you learn in those is how pervasive is the opinion that Andrew Lyod Webber's musical is better then the original novel, and I can't help but blame the fact that most of these Musical Theater Kids have never read the real novel.

Speaking of Lindsay Ellis she did a video on The Persian, lamenting the constant either White Washing or Demonizing of that character.  So it's a shame she never read Rick Lai's Shadows of The Opera, in that series The Persian is not exactly a main character but they are from what I recall faithfully preserved as both a Persian and a good person.

Speaking of which, now is a good time to mention that there is some relevant material published by other publishers.  A number of Frank Molock's stage play translations were published by Borgo Press, and the first volume of Rick Lai's Shadows of The Opera was from Wild Cat Books, but BlackCoatPress took over for the follow ups.  BCP hasn't published any Rocmabole stuff besides two Stage Plays in one volume, Basil Balian has made a very abridged translation of the entire Rocambole saga, and Jean De Ponson du Terrail has made complete translations of the first two volumes.

I did mention above my desire to sell this stuff specifically to fellow Anime fans.  Rick Lai's Shadows of The Opera and Sisters of The Shadows series is a good place to start.  It began with Rick Lai making a female version of The Shadow, and then things get increasingly implausible with how nearly all the major players in this epic saga are female.  It's a series waiting to be made into an Anime. 

But as interesting as I find Rick Lai's work, some of the characters he uses I really don't want his takes on to be people's introductions to them.  Chiefly Paul Feval's The Blackcoats saga and Maurice Leblanc's The Countess Cagliostro, both have been translated by BlackCoatPress.

The Countess Cagliostro is however the Prequel of the Arsene Lupin saga, and not the only book of that saga to take place before some books already published when it was written.  So is the Lupin Saga one where it's appropriate to read in Chronological rather then Publication order?  Well I still haven't read all of them, but for the essentials of what I have I'd say go ahead.  Basically the essential Arsene Lupin works are the ones translated by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier and the original short stories included in Arsene Lupin: Gentleman Burglar which basically all take place between Countess Cagliostro and The Blond Lady aka The Blond Phantom.

Paul Feval's works are the most interesting to me.  My introduction to him began as part of my prior Vampire phase, it was The Vampire Countess and Vampire City which caught my attention first and which I read in that order.  Both are great and so are Knightshade and Revanants.  Countess and Revanants are from an earlier phase of Feval's career when he hadn't gotten as ultra Meta yet.  

There is something said in a few reviews of Vampire City I consider misguided, and that's making it sound like Polly Bird is in any way Trans representation, she was simply the subject of supernatural gender bending and it isn't even emphasized all that much, and in the end it would certainly be problematic to read her as Trans representation.

John Devil is the best of Feval's novels, but also the longest at least of what BCP has translated.  I think the best entry point to The Blackcoats saga would be either Salem Street or The Invisible Weapon, but 6 out of 7 of them are worth reading and fairly capable of standing on their own, The Cadet Gang is the one that he clearly was forcing himself to write after losing all passion for the topic so I'd say don't bother with it.  

Thing is while a good deal of the Prose content relevant to this interest is available in English now (there are some still untranslated I want to see get translated), most of the French Movies and TV shows about these characters have no English Subtitled release I can watch.  It's in this area where fans of Japanese entertainment media are lucky, even the most obscure stuff can usually be found Subbed in some capacity.  But for French stuff I wanna watch, the 60s Fantomas trilogy, the 63 Judex, the 96/97 film version of Paul Feval's Le Bossu titled on Amazon as On Gaurd, and the 2004 Arsene Lupin have Subs I can watch, but that's it.  However I also wanna see some of the films based on Eugene Sue's The Mysteries of Paris, or Rocambole, or all of the other Le Bossu adaptations (it seems one gets made about once a decade), or the TV adaptations of Les Habits Noirs and Le Loup Blanc.

Update: I forgot to talk about something important.

If I have piqued anyone's interest in buying stuff from BlackCoarPress, I know from talking with them that buying the book using their website directly gives a larger percentage of what you spend to the Author or Translator then they would get when using a site like Amazon as the middle man.  However that also costs the consumer more on shipping and handling.  And more often then not I get the book faster when I use Amazon, but that's because of the same circumstances that force their delivery drivers to piss in bottles.

It's another unfortunate symptom of Capitalism that what's more affordable for the consumer results in less of the money spent going to who actually deserves that money.  I am in a financially difficult situation right now.  But anyone who is in a fairly comfortable situation financially I would ask to be willing to spend the extra money necessary to support BlackCoatPress directly.

Well, I'm hooked on Detective Conan now

The people following me on Twitter are aware of this already, but I figure I should mention it on my Blog.

How much I like the Mystery Genre itself seems to fluctuate.  But I now think Conan really is the modern Sherlock Holmes.  

I have been aware of this show for awhile, I knew it was one of those Anime super Popular in Japan but has been very limited in it's ablity to catch on in the States.  The show wasn't what I expected, I was expecting the Anime version of something like Nancey Drew, and indeed some of the one off episodes have that vibe.  But the show can get pretty serious and "dark", it also involves duel identities and a super secret international crime syndicate that keeps making me think of Paul Feval's Les Habits Noirs/The Blackcoats.  But most importantly has fun likeable characters.

Thus far I have still only seen a small percentage of episodes, at the moment all Dubbed content but that includes some Fandubed episodes.  That range of what I've seen is a lot of stuff from the earliest years including the first 6 movies dubbed by Funimation, and the most recent movies which have been Dubbed by BangZoom.  I am willing to try watching episodes Subbed, but suspect this genre is going to be difficult to watch Subbed, it demands since one has to pay close to all the little things.  Speaking of which especially when Dubbed this franchise often goes under the altname name Case Closed.

My very first introduction was watching the theatrical crossover with Lupin The Third, and I would have to say that is a pretty ideal crossover movie.  It deliveries plenty of the kinds of fun interactions someone already a fan of both would want to see, but can also serve as a good entry point to either franchise for fans of the other.

But also for fans of Lupin The Third and the genre he represents any Kaitou Kid/Kid The Phantom Thief story should be worth checking out.  Of course in many key ways Kid is more like the original Arsene Lupin then Lupin III.

I might do a follow up post on my Detective Conan experience in the future, for now just know it's a show I recommend.

Another post on Watch Orders

Debating about unconventional watch orders has become a hot topic again lately.  Watching something in its release order is never inherently a bad order but there are plenty of cases where I feel it’s not the best.

For an example of a case where I do favor the release order even though a dispute kind of does exist, The Chronicles of Narnia books should be read in the order Lewis wrote them.  A Horse and His Boy does stand on its own in a way none of the others but the first do, so it can perhaps be read a little out of sequence and maybe if you're into stuff with a 1001 Night flavor it would benefit you to read it second, but definitely start with Wardrobe and save Last Battle for last.  In Anime terms AHaHB can perhaps be considered a Gaiden rather than part of the main saga.

For Star Wars I strongly feel Episodes I-VI should be watched in chronological order, and then the rest I really don’t care about as long as you see nothing before finishing the 6 George Lucas movies.  I actually think it would be hilarious to have someone watch the Disney Sequel Trilogy backwards and see what perspective that causes.

For the Raildex franchise I shall offer an incomplete recommended viewing order, incomplete since Railgun season 3 is still airing.  This is neither the release order or chronological order strictly speaking.

A Certain Scientific Railgun season 1 (skip episode 2 on the initial viewing but besides that all of it)
A Certain Magical Index season 1 (all of it if you can but if you don’t like it the rest of Railgun can stand on its own.)
A Certain Scientific Railgun S
A Certain Scientific Accelerator (currently has only one 12 episode season)
A Certain Magical Index II (the first 7 episodes)
A Certain Magical Index The Movie: The Miracle of The Endymion
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (First episode)
A Certain Magical Index II (episode 8)

A Certain Scientific Railgun T (Episodes 2-3)

A Certain Magical Index II (Episodes 9-13 the Daihasei festival arc)
A Certain Scientific Railgun T (episodes  4-15)

[Update: I've decided you should finish IndexII before seeing the rest of Railgun T]

The Blackcoats novels (English name of the French Les Habits Noirs) were published by BlackCoatPress in a different order then Paul Feval originally wrote them.  Nonetheless in the afterward of the last one they published both the translator and editor expressed the opinion that the books should ideally be read in Feval’s order.  I’m not sure I agree, but it’s complicated.

For the way my brain works Salem Street was the ideal first impression and The Invisible Weapon a great second.  But Salem Street has an element most modern readers will likely be put off by, (but I know of some specific people who’d love it).  They all stand on their own pretty well, but the actual first book is the longest of them and so perhaps a little overwhelming for someone new to reading 19th Century pulpy French Novels no one considered worth translating into English till over a hundred years after the author died.  The Invisible Weapon is in my opinion the absolute best of them and so I see no reason not to simply start with it.  Cadet Gang should be saved for last only because I kind of don’t recommend reading it at all.

My doing this post now was partly because of a recent Mother’s Basement video.  I have currently no direct knowledge of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, but I know Part 6 is the first female Jojo so I’ve been intending for a while to start with it when the Anime comes, I don’t care how confusing it will be.

I’ve saved Fate/ for last because that is the most contentious topic.  I am a firm start with Fate/Zero person.

A lot of people will claim it’s only the convoluted nature of how Fate/ has been adapted that makes there be any dispute at all and if only more people would just read the Visual Novel it’d be fine.  However I disagree, even if you are willing and able to consume each Fate/ story in it’s original medium first, I still say read Fate/Zero first.  But I mostly just recommend watching the Anime, translations of Light Novels and Visual Novels suck, but the Aniplex Dub of the UFOtable Anime is perfect.

Fate/Zero simply is by nature the most accessible.  Every person who would like Fate/Stay Night but not Fate/Zero is already into Fate/, they don’t need to be talked into giving it a chance.  There are lots of people for whom Fate/Zero is the only Fate/ they would enjoy.  And I think there are other potential Fate/Zero fans who’d enjoy Fate/Apocrypha before anything else.

What Genre is Anime bad at?

I recently made a blog post disagreeing with a common claim that Anime is somehow not good at Horror.  But is there any Genre that even I as an enthusiastic Anime Evangelist have to admit Anime hasn't done that well?

Well the genre I have in mind is more of a Sub Genre of a Sub genre, but I think the one very popular Genre Anime hasn't done right yet is the Mafia movie.

Now what I mean when I say "Mafia" movie is much more specific then Gangster.  I'm sure there's plenty of Anime that can scratch one's Gangster movie itch, after all certain Anime were a major influence on Tarantino.  I'm sure Japanese entertainment media is the best place to go if you want fiction about the Yakuza.  And I'm kind of surprised how often Street Gangs in Anime remind me of American media about Street Gangs of the 50s and early 60s.

Now I'm gonna express an opinion that might be a bit controversial and hard to fully explain. What I mean by "Mafia" fiction is even more specific then just being technically specifically about the Italian Mafia, and depicting Italian characters with Italian names and maybe Italian accents.  For example I can't truly count any Golden Age 30s/40s Gangster films as Mafia movies even though plenty were basically just about Al Capone.  Yet what I mean by "Mafia" movie still has enough variety within it that it can include The Godfather Trilogy, Goodfellas/Casino and at least some episodes of The Sopranos.

When I say I wanna see a Mafia movie, I want an atmosphere that makes me crave Spaghetti with Marinara Sauce, but Anime tends to give me Egg Noodles and Ketchup.

Much of what you'll see in any alleged "Top 10 Mafia Anime" list is based on treating "Mafia" and "Gangster" as synonyms.  Here is a site recommending 6 that at least knows to stick to the Italians.
https://www.fandom.com/articles/6-must-see-mafia-anime
Most of those seem to be set in the 30s and with a look that tells me they are more inspired by those Golden Gangster films.  One is an over 200 episode Shonen monstrosity involving a hitman who's a baby and an MC who's character design is aping Hunter x Hunter.

I've watched two episodes of Arcana Famiglia, it looks fine as an Anime, in fact I'm optimistic for how it'll compare to other Reverse Harems with genre elements.  But it does not succeed in capturing that proper Mafia movie vibe.  I'd very much like to see an Anime combine what I love about mafia movies with what's distinctly Anime, like a Mafia Princess walking around in Twin Tails, Zettai Ryouiki and the voice of Luci Christian.  But something is just inherently missing.

The one time Anime has come at least close to giving me a vibe like a Godfather movie are certain episodes of Noir, my favorite Anime.  As I've said before Noir was the first proper Anime I ever watched, and interestingly enough the first episode of Noir I watched was episode 9, the second part of a two part episode about the Mafia.  One of the reasons those 20 minutes of Japanimation kept my attention was how much it reminded me of The Godfather Part III, the last Godfather movie most people would intentionally want to evoke but my personal favorite of them.

In total I'd say there are 4 episodes of Noir that have this Godfatheresque quality, 8 & 9, 14 and 17, but it's mainly the parts of those movies where they're in Sicily they remind me of.  Coincidentally enough those are the same four episodes that are the main basis for why I like to Headcanon this Anime being part of The Blackcoats Universe.

I think the obstacle here is a cultural one.  Now I'm not someone who normally thinks that's a problem, I think lots of stories can be re-imagined into or adapted by other cultures.  But Mafia fiction isn't just about one culture, it's not just American or Italian, it's Italian-American.  And the definitive Mafia movies I refereed to above were the ones that had Italians as more then just actors but as the key creative minds, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola (and his father who did the Music) and Martin Scorsese.  So even though you can say these movies are problematic in how they relate to negative Italian Stereotypes, the good ones are about how the American Dream failed for many of those who immigrated here, and the hypocritical corruption of Capitalism.

I hope someone can find me an Anime that can refute this premise, I definitely want to find Anime that can succeed in filling every nerdy niche.

John Devil Expanded Universe

I want to talk here a bit about my personal plans for expanding on the John Devil universe in future writings.  

Tales of the Shadowmen 13: Sang Froid is now availible to order

http://www.blackcoatpress.com/fiction-tales-of-the-shadowmen-13-sang-froid.html

Tales of the Shadowmen 13: Sang Froid

Price

$23.95  

Reference

DEC16

Availability

In stock

 

 TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 13: SANG FROID
edited by J-M. & R. Lofficier
cover by Michel Borderie
stories by Jason Scott Aiken, Matthew Baugh, Adam Mudman Bezecny, Nicholas Boving, Nathan Cabaniss, Matthew Dennion, Brian Gallagher, Martin Gately, Travis Hiltz, Paul Hugli, Rick Lai, Nigel Malcolm, Christofer Nigro, John Peel, Frank Schildiner, Sam Shook, Michel Stéphan, David L. Vineyard and Jared Welch.

US$23.95/GBP 15.99 - 6x9 tpb, 300 p. - ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-578-9
Sang Froid, i.e. Cold Blood! The ability to stay calm in difficult or even dangerous situations... as exhibited by French sleuth Joseph Rouletabille aboard the transiberian "Horror Express"... Or martial arts master Caine and Jed Puma confronted by an insane plan to seize the Wild Wild West... Not to forget the great warlock Quentin Moretus Cassave coming face to face with the Dark Gods, Doctor Omega determined to solve a most enigmatic temporal murder, Sâr Dubnotal battling Dracula, and Sir Wilfred Ivanhoe sworn to defeat the evil Bishop of Aquila...

All this, plus the return of Fantômas, the People of the Pole and the Enchanted City of Africa, Vampires in Berlin and Los Angeles, and a host of Frankenstein Monsters!

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

Contents:
Jason Scott Aiken: Galazi in the Enchanted City starring Galazi, Queen Toulommia
Matthew Baugh: A Dollar’s Worth of Fists starring Kwai Chang Caine, the Black Coats, Jed Puma
Adam Mudman Bezecny: Harry’s Homecoming starring Harry Dickson, Doctor Ox
Nicholas Boving: The Aquila Curse starring Renaud the Montauban, Ivanhoe, Etienne de Navarre
Nathan Cabaniss: From Paris with Hate starring OSS 117, Fantômas, Diabolik
Matthew Dennion: A Purpose in Life starring Micharl Myers, the Black Coats
Brian Gallagher: The Berlin Vampire starring Captain Vampire, The Vampire Countess, Von Bork
Martin Gately: Rouletabille Rides the Horror Express starring Rouletabille, Sir Alexander Saxton, James Wells
Micah Harris: The Goat of Saint Elster starring Quentin Moretus Cassave
Travis Hiltz: The Island of Exodus starring The People of the Pole, The Wandering Jew
Paul Hugli: As Easy as 1, 2, 3... starring John Carter, Jean Saint-Clair, Nikola Tesla
Rick Lai: Eve of Destruction starring Dr. Mabuse, Fantômas, the Black Coats
Nigel Malcolm: Maximum Speed starring M. Lecoq, Loveday Brooke, Simon Carne
Christofer Nigro: Bad Alchemy starring the Frankenstein Monsters
John Peel: Time to Kill starring Doctor Omega, Bob Morane
Frank Schildiner: The Taking of Frankenstein starring Gouroull, Wu Fang, Dr. Xavier
Sam Shook: Bringer of the Outer Dark starring Hareton Ironcastle, Sâr Dubnotal, Chandu, El Borak
Michel Stéphan: One Summer Night at Holy Cross starring Bob Morane, Harry Callahan
David L. Vineyard: The Moon of the White Wolf starring Arsène Lupin, John Silence, Bulldog Drummond
Jared Welch: Styrian Rhapsody starring Eugenie Danglars, Louise d'Armilly, Mircalla Karnstein
Credits

As usual my story is last.

The BlackCoatPress website was revamped a couple months ago

So I realized I should provide some new linked to the Tales of The Shadowmen volumes I have stories published in, since the old Links don't work anymore.

I've had Three Published already in Volumes 10, 11 and 12.  So far my story has always been last thanks to my surname.

http://blackcoatpress.com/fiction-tales-of-the-shadowmen-10-esprit-de-corps.html

http://blackcoatpress.com/fiction-tales-of-the-shadowmen-11-force-majeure.html

http://blackcoatpress.com/fiction-tales-of-the-shadowmen-12-carte-blanche.html

And it seems likely my new story will be in Volume 13 which comes out this December.

http://blackcoatpress.com/forthcoming-tales-of-the-shadowmen-13-sang-froid.html

TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN 13. Sang Froid

edited by J-M. & R. Lofficier
cover by Michel Borderie

US$23.95/GBP 15.99 - 6x9 tpb, 300 p. - ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-578-9

Contents:
Jason Scott Aiken: Galazi in the Enchanted City
Matthew Baugh: A Dollar’s Worth of Fists
Adam Mudman Bezecny: Harry’s Homecoming
Nicholas Boving: The Aquila Curse
Nathan Cabaniss: From Paris with Hate
Matthew Dennion: A Purpose in Life
Brian Gallagher: The Berlin Vampire
Martin Gately: Rouletabille Rides the Horror Express
Micah Harris: The Goat of Saint Elster
Travis Hiltz: The Island of Exodus
Paul Hugli: As Easy as 1, 2, 3...
Rick Lai: Eve of Destruction
Nigel Malcolm: Maximum Speed
Christofer Nigro: Bad Alchemy
John Peel: Time to Kill
Frank Schildiner: The Taking of Frankenstein
Sam Shook: Bringer of the Outer Dark
Michel Stéphan: One Summer Night at Holy Cross
David L. Vineyard: The Moon of the White Wolf
Jared Welch: Styrian Rhapsody
Credits

Sang Froid, i.e. Cold Blood!

Doctor Ardan meet the People of the Pole! Doctor Omega teams up with Ki-Gor to find the secret of the Yeti! Maigret, Father Brown and Dr. Watson face a terrifying supernatural threat! Felifax ends up on Dr. Moreau's island. Sâr Dubnotal and the Werewolf of Paris fight the vampires! Arsene Lupin duels with Raffles! Captain Vampire defies the Reds! Rouletabille is trapped on the Mysterious Island! Spiridon investigates a vampire murder in Paris! The Phantom of the Opera finds death in Persia! Sherlock Holmes meets Lecoq and Mephista Leonox!

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

This one again stars Eugenie Danglars and Louise d'Armilly, this time they encounter Carmilla, The Lesbian Vampire.

Prequels are a long established part of Genre Fiction

An ongoing thing that comes up in discussing the Star Wars Prequels are arguments against doing Prequels in general.  I already did a post on Why I Like Prequels.

What I want to talk about here is that they are not some inherently new gimmick devised by Hollywood executives who ran out of Sequel ideas.  They are just as much an established part of Literary tradition as Sequels are.

I could go on a long diversion about the ambiguities of applying modern terms like Sequel, Prequel and Reboot to ancient, medieval and renaissance literature, poetry and theater.  But I don't think that's necessary.

The Sequel in the sense of how we mean that in talking about modern Nerdy Genre Fiction was probably invented by Alexandre Dumas, as he and his French peers laid all the foundations of modern Popular Fiction.  He wrote sequels to many of his works but by no means all (he never did a follow up to The Count of Monte-Cristo).  But the ones that probably most mark the birth of the modern Popular Fiction Sequel would have to be his sequels to The Three Musketeers.  In fact you could even call the D'Artagnan Romances the first modern Trilogy.

The Three Musketeers novels are among other things literary ancestors of Star Wars.  The Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon style serials that inspired George Lucas, and the Pulp Fiction they were based on, were largely predicated on taking the tropes of the Swashbuckler genre codified by The Three Musketeers as well as Paul Feval and placing them IN SPACE.  Star Wars Rebels I feel was very much acknowledging this.

The Three Musketeers sequels are at least to the English speaking world not quite as popular and well known as the original.  But Dumas also wrote Prequels, and it was his Prequels that had a tendency to surpass their original.

Le Chevalier de Maison-Rouge was the first written but chronologically last of what are called the Marie Antoinette Romances.  It was successful and influential enough on it's own to be a direct inspiration for The Scarlet Pimpernel.  But the chronological first two books, Joseph Balsamo aka Memoirs of a Physician and The Queen's Necklace were a far bigger deal, as relatively unknown in English as everything of Dumas but his big two, but in the French World they have come to define the legacy of Count Cagliostro.  And like the Star Wars Prequels they were the story of a Villain more so then of a Hero, they played a vital role in creating the modern Super Villain, and I see much of Joseph Balsamo in Darth Sidious, (an argument can be made that Althotas is the prototype of the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise).

Also The Whites and the Blacks is a prequel to The Companions of Jehu.

Next in line is Eugene Sue.  His Les Mysteries du People series was his intended magnum opus.  The volume set during the original French Revolution, The Sword of Honor, became also a prequel to both Les Mysteries de Paris and The Wandering Jew, setting up the hero of the former and villain of the latter.  Then the next and last book of the series set during the 1848 Revolution, became a sequel to both said novels, creating perhaps the first Shared Universe.  So his main Prequel came before his main Sequel.

Paul Feval's first significant success was Le Loup Blanc (The White Wolf), which is arguably the first masked vigilante.  Later Feval wrote a prequel to that called La Louve (The She-Wolf), which is pretty indisputably the first female masked vigilante.  So that is a pretty important literary innovation that was done in a prequel, he retroactively made his Heroine predate his first Hero.

Later Feval wrote Salem Street and The Invisible Weapon to be Prequels to the main narratives of the original three novels of The Blackcoats saga.  However the continuity divergences make them more like an alternate continuity, or a different timeline created when Superboy Prime punched a wall.  The Invisible Weapon is generally considered the best Blackcoats novel, by modern fans at least.

Emile Gaboriau created in his 1866 novel L’Affaire Lerouge the character of Monsieur Lecoq, in this first novel he was a supporting character but he became the lead in later stories, he was a French Master detective who predated Sherlock Holmes.  In 1869 he wrote a prequel novel titled Monsieur Lecoq about his first major case.  This prequel quickly became the most successful of his novels, so much so that many think the reference to Lecoq in A Study in Scarlet was based on that novel alone.

The Holmes stories were not written in chronological order ultimately.  So much so that all four full novels are set before The Final Problem even though half were written later.  None are a prequel in the traditional sense since none give Holmes an Origin Story or set up any story-lines we'd already seen the ending of.  Still Hound of the Baskerviles tends to be labeled the best Holmes story, yet the reader knew even when it first came out that Watson will live to witness The Final Problem, so he was never truly in danger, according to traditional anti-Prequel logic.

The son of Paul Feval wrote a series of interquels to the D'Artangan saga, set between the first two novels.  Known as the In Between Years series. 

However with Arsene Lupin we again have a prequel origin story novel, La Comtesse de Cagliostro, that becomes possibly the most popular of all his adventures, it's the main basis of the 2004 movie and a superficial influence on the Lupin III Anime film Castle of Cagliostro.  And fittingly this novel's lore is largely derived from Alexandre Dumas' most important Prequels.  I highly recommend the English translation done by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficer for Black Coat Press titled Arsene Lupin Vs Countess Cagliostro.

Other Lupin books written after WWI were also set before some of his earliest adventures, like The Damsel with the Green Eyes.  But in fact the first Lupin Prequel was The Crystal Stopper, written after 813 but set before his major Holmes crossovers.

Now applying the term to Tolkien's Legenderium can be controversial because the first age stories were what he began writing first just never published.   Regardless creating Numenor, then The Hobbit and then LOTR caused him to change things about the first age.  Sauron was really created for those later stories, in the oldest version of Beren and Luthien, the only First Age story Sauron is important to, his role was played by a sort of WereCat.

Regardless the basic argument against prequels still applies, when they were finally published the readers knew Morgoth would be defeated in the end and that Galadriel wouldn't die, and that Numenor would end up being Atlantis, and so on.  Because the LOTR books told us so.

All of these are parts of sagas and from writers that laid all the foundations of modern Popular Fiction, in more then one way I could argue we'd have no Indiana Jones without Arsene Lupin.  So Prequels were a part of the kind of fiction Lucas was making long before he made the decision to call his 1977 film Episode IV.

So let me clarify my premise.  Without certain Prequels that were popular and influential before George Lucas or his critics were even born, we would not have Star Wars or Indiana Jones at all.

Some sagas shouldn't have prequels because arguably doing a Prequel is a symbolic betrayal of what it's about, like Star Trek, I never supported Enterprise, or the 2009 film even before I heard it was an alternate timeline Reboot rather then a Prequel, nor the new series being set before TNG.  I want a 25th Century Enterprise with a Pansexual Korean Woman as the Captain.

But Star Trek and Star Wars are in many ways opposites (one is SciFi and the other is Fantasy) including on this very issue.

Star Trek begins with

"To boldly go where no Man has gone before".

Star Wars begins with

"Long Long Ago".

Star Wars is about the past, it always has been.  Therefore I never really cared what happens post ROTJ, hell I barely care about post ROTS.  The only spin-off idea thrown around I'm interested in is the Young Yoda film, because that can take us centuries into the past, to what was "Long Long Ago" to the people of Episode 1.  And Maz Kanata is older then Yoda so you can throw her in there to appeal to the New Trilogy fans.

1838 is the most eventful year in the fictional history of France

You might have noticed this if you've been studying 19th century French Popular fiction and the French WNU.

Since real life history doesn't seem to mention much happening in France in 1838 at all.  I figure this is likely to have happened from later authors homageing the first who probably picked that year at random.

It begins with Eugene Sue who effectively founded several new genres when he wrote The Mysteries of Paris, originally serialized in 1842-43.  It's events are all set in 1838, and it was wildly successful.

Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte-Cristo was a project that began when he was prompted by his publisher to write something to copy the success of Sue's Mysteries of Paris.  While the Novel's story spans from 1815-1844, the bulk of the main narrative, Dantes actually carrying out his revenge plan, pretty much everything that the Anime Gankutsuou adapts, is set in 1838, (as well as all the scenes featuring Eugenie Danglers and Louis d'Armilly).  So pretty much everything people actually want to see.

Much later Paul Feval would write his Blackcoats saga.  The second half of Salem Street and the entirety of The Invisible Weapon are set in 1838.

In the introduction for his translation of The Invisible Weapon Brian Stableford talks about how that novel is perhaps the most Suesque of Feval's novels, echoing many things Sue did but also doing them very differently.  Most of the parallels he mentions are to The Wandering Jew besides that it features a character locked up in the same Paris prison as The Mysteries of Paris.  But I think that it's being set the same year as The Mysteries of Paris is not likely to be a coincidence.

Spoiler for The Blackcoats novels ahead

Especially since setting those events in that year caused one of the major continuity hiccups of the saga.  What we're told about Saladin in the original novel and Heart of Steel (written before) and The Companions of The Treasure (written after) place Saladin's birth in 1840, this novel alone contradicts that by featuring him in 1838.

There's no major reason you couldn't move the events of the novel up two or three years to fix that issue.  But it'd still be a problem that it effectively depicts the break up of Echolat and Simolor before we ever meet them in the original novel.  And makes one wonder why Maman Leo is completely absent for their story-lines in the events set in 1842 and early 43 in the first two novels.

Sue's second major novel was mostly set in 1832, that year was also of interest to later writers.  But it has more real life historical significance due to the June Rebellion (fictionalized in Les Miserables by Victor Hugo) and other lingering aftermaths of the July Revolution.  Dumas's novel set then (She-Wolves of Machecoul; The Last Vendée) was also based on real history of that year, and for Feval's secret history it's only the extended prologue of Heart of Steel, Marguerite's origin story, that is set during 1832, and is early in the year during Lent.

I wish Internet Fandom communities would discover Paul Feval

The opportunities that could come from doing Fan Fiction and Fan Art and Cosplay and so on inspired by Paul Feval's characters is quite rich.  And other writers of interest to BlackCoatPress as well.  Including the lesser known works of well known authors like Alexandre Dumas.

Now of course everything written in Tales of the Shadowmen fits the basic definition of Fan Fiction,  Crossover Fics to be exact.  (I don't how many TOTS writers would be the kind of writer to be offended by that comparison, I would hope none and I'm optimistic in that regard.)  But they're distinct from what we generally think of as fan fiction, in terms of the concerns that drive the Authors, besides arguably myself.

Nearly all TOTS contributors have been male so far, but anyone who'd like to contribute is free to take a shot at it.  There is contact info at their Website.  For my first contribution I just emailed a description of the basic idea to see if it would fit and we went from there.  Also if anyone multilingual is interested in helping Translate more Public Domain French poplar fiction novels and plays not yet available in English.  They are the ideal Publisher I'd recommend for submitting your translation to.

Of Feval novels still not yet available in English, the one I largely most want to see done next is La Louve (The White Wolf), the first Female Maksed Vigilante in all of literature, that I'm aware currently and I'm aware of some pretty obscure stuff.  Written in the late 1850s, it was a prequel to Le Loup Blanc (The White Wolf) but it wouldn't be the first time BlackCoatPress started a series with prequels (Salem Street and The Invisible Weapon) and I'm a Star Wars Prequel Evangelist so I'm all for doing them first, I'd bet Feval likely meant it to be able to work as a stand alone.  Besides three Public Domains translations of The White Wolf exist, they are impossible for an average person to find right now but since Libraries have them I suspect they'll wind up online eventually.

But back to the subject of Fan Fiction.

Warning, Spoilers for various Feval novels will occur, though generally not more then what CoolFrenchComics spoils, which is a website ran by BlackCoatPress.

1. Fan Reinterpretation.

Dawn Felagund's survey showed that

only 21.5% of participants chose Agree or Strongly Agree for the statement, “It is important to keep my stories consistent with Tolkien’s moral beliefs.” Just about twice as many writers, on the other hand (52.1%), agreed or strongly agree with the statement, “Writing fan fiction lets me challenge Tolkien’s worldview.”

Thing about Feval is, he may very well be even more Conservative then Tolkien.  None the less he unwittingly contributed a lot to the history of Popular Fiction for Liberals including Feminists to be interested in.  And he probably does do better by his female characters overall then Tolkien, he certainly created far more.  But he's also not without problems.

Brian Stableford's Afterward for Revenants shows how Death of The Author is quite applicable to that story.  And in his Afterward for Heart of Steel he calls that book "unintentionally Proto-Feminist", and he also laments the fact that that story's real Hero has to be married off at the end, that subject I'll return to later.

But there is one opinion Stableford expressed in that Afterward I disagree with, when he says Marguerite isn't as strong a character as Lecoq.  As someone who read quite a bit about The Blackcoats online before I was able to buy the books myself.  Lecoq is the character I considered the most disappointing.  My post comparing him to PLL's Wilden shows the value I see in the character, but I feel he pales in comparison to most Super Villains that Feval created.  For The Blackcoats, The Colonel is definitely number 1, but the real number 2 to me is Marguerite Sadoulas.

Lecoq also ultimately never actually moved against The Colonel, even when he was on his death bed he refused to act till The Colonel was dead.  That tells potentially interesting things about his character, but it's also a missed opportunity.  And I think in-spite of himself Feval too may have like Marguerite more, since he never retconed Lecoq's demise as he did for others (it would have been easy, just say the ending of the first novel was changed for a more conventional ending and Lecoq's fate was in fact what Mayoneta originally planned, for him to go to prison).  And it was Marguerite who gets to confront The Colonel (officially not the same character but really it is) in the high council's ultimate rebellion in The Companions of The Treasure.

In the end Heart of Steel may not even be the most female driven Blackcoats novel, that honor may well go to The Invisible Weapon.

2. Shipping, including Slash.

Not all Fan Fiction is shipping, and not all Shipping in fan communities is Slash.  But those trends are common and important and Feval gave us plenty to ship.

Any discussion of slash potential in Feval I feel must begin with Echolat and Similor.  In at least this case, I feel confident Feval himself intended us to consider a Homoerotic subtext to their long (chronologically confusing) and complicated relationship.  The fact that in almsot every book they appear in (which is 6 our of 7 Blackcoats novels, they are almost the R2-D2 and C-3PO of that saga) they are compared to Orestes and Pylades, plus that they're raising a son together.

Now in Feval's canon this relationship is not the most positive one, Echolat is ultimately good but Similor is the opposite, and Echolat's redemption tends to correlate to marrying a woman (though a not traditionally feminine one).  But I feel to modern readers they have the potential to come off as the Harley and Ivy of the 19th Century.

Now to return to The Heart of Steel.  The most difficult thing to interpreting the book in a Feminist fashion is how everyone has to be hetero-normatively married off in the end.  Especially since Feval intentionally portrayed the three male romantic leads weak and ineffectual (as he often does).  I suggest the fan community should screw that and make Rose and Nina a couple.

If you're hoping for a Femslash option for Marguerite, in The Companions of The Treasure in the second half, she has a three chapter long conversation with Irene Carpentier all about her talking her into letting her stay in her room.  I've intentionally misled the context there, but regardless it's an intense scene.  While there is really no real interaction between them in the books to use as a starting point, I like to consider Marguerite and Fanchette possible, I've written Fanchette to be Pansexual in The Piano Maidens.

The 1996/7 film version of Le Bossu very heavily encourages the audience to read a subtext into Lagardere and Nevers.  And we get to see Aurore dressed as a guy briefly, if you're one of the many women or men into a Bifauxnen looking women, that sequence will be fun.

Fandom does do Het pairings and even sometimes supports canon pairings.  In which case not quite all of Feval's canon pairings are boring. John Devil and the first Blackcoats novel both have some fun Love Dodecahedrons going on.  Of course some of the not boring ones have other potential issues going on.

Incestuous ships are sometimes popular.  (And I don't think enjoyment of such a thing in fiction in anyway tells us if a person would do it in real life).  And in this context Sarah O'Niel and Robert Surrisy in John Devil have potential, I personally feel it more then the pairings that were the endgame.  And since some people still insist on thinking of Cousins as taboo Feval has a quite few Cousin relationships.

One thing that is sometimes a problem for a modern reader in enjoying a work of 19th Century literature is the 19th Century's tendency to be okay with relationships with significant age gaps (usually the Man is older) including a relationship that starts out as quasi father-daughter and then becomes romantic.  This makes Vrai uncomfortable with the relationship between Edmund and Haybee in the Count of Monte-Cristo and why Vrai supports the romantic aspect being removed in Gankutsuou.  I for one think Edmund/Haydee is very important, and didn't even notice on my own that the Anime had deromanticized it.

However such relationships are not without supporters in the modern world, and sometimes they become popular for Fan Fiction writers even if it was never canon.  From Spike and Dawn in the Buffy Fandom to Sansa and Sandor for GoT.  Well there is nothing Father-Daughter like about either of those, but they're what pops in my head.

That I know of Feval has only two books (and only one is yet among those BlackCoatPress has translated) where he expects the reader to root for such a relationship.   I have a problem with neither, but others might so I shall mention them here.

One is Lagardere and Aurore in Le Bossu, Rick Lai has suggested that the potential problems with this relationship is why Hollywood has never adabted this novel that the French Film industry takes a crack at every decade.  And suggests The Mask of Zorro was an attempt to repackage the plot with that issue removed (and with the more marketable to English speaking Zorro brand).  (I think an equally likely factor is that the novel doesn't have an English translation that doesn't suck.)

Salem Street was the first Blackcoats book Stableford translated.  In the Afterward for The Sword Swallower both Stableford and Jean-Marc express that regardless of their publication order the books should ideally be read in the order Feval wrote them.  I don't necessarily agree, though I would recommend saving Cadet Gang for last simply because it's the only one I don't recommend reading at all, and is certainly dependent on Companions of The Treasure and Heart of Steel being known to the reader.  But I would save Sword Swallower for after the other 5 good ones.

Parisian Jungle can work as an introduction to Blackcoats, but neither it or John Devil I would recommend for introducing one to Feval in general, they're the longest Feval books BCP has done and that's because Feval meanders more in them, not the way Ponson tended to but he does.  Both are great Books, but I feel you need to be used to Feval a bit when you read them.

I started with The Vampire Countess and that worked out well, Knightshade is also pretty good, both are really more Crime Novels in-spite of their Vampire aspect.  For The Blackcoats, The Invisible Weapon is absolutely the best, and not truly dependent on any prior knowledge.  Though I read it second following Salem Street.

Salem Street was designed to be an introduction to the world essentially, it was a Reboot of sorts.  And as a shorter novel is a better intro to Feval in general then the original first book.  But it's atypical of the other books in a few ways, including lacking Echolat and Similor.  Pistolet is Feval's most successful attempt at writing a Detective type character while also being Genre Savvy and willing to Crossdress, and so to many he'd be this book's greatest strength.  It's the only book where The Colonel, Lecoq and Marguerite are all 3 featured and all as more then just Cameos, but none of those three is quite the central villain of this one, that would be the false Prince.

But now to finally return to what I was talking about before diverging to what order to read a non chronologically written book series in.  The one downside to starting with Salem Street is if you're the kind of reader who'd be turned off by the relationship between Suavita and Paul Labre, where she is younger and he at first views her as a daughter.  From her standpoint the relationship was always romantic however, and is definitely a bit of a coming of age story for her.

I haven't talked about Fan Art or Cosplay yet, which I also mentioned at the top.  Much of what you do with them overlaps, for Cosplay I'll just say if you have a Quaker Hat you have the first step to being John Devil The Quaker.

It is only Fan Fiction I can myself contribute to, and I shall try to do just that, while mostly saving my Crossover Fics for TOTS, I'll try to get to writing more restrained stories I can put on more traditional Fan Fiction sites.

I am guilty of an Anachronism in my story The Piano Maidens.

Published in Tales of The Shadowmen Volume 12.  But that I've also made available online.

The anachronism is that the story is set in 1839, yet I refereed to the existence of Eugene Sue's The Wandering Jew, which didn't begin serialization till 1843.  My mind I guess just focused on that when that Novel takes place was in 1832 so it's already part of Father Rodin's history.  I made this mistake and I'm amazed how long it took me to notice it, I proof read it several times before sending it to Jean-Marc.

I should have known better, I wrote this as I was obsessing over every minutia of the development of French Popular fiction in the mid 19th-early 20th centuries.

In the past I have felt annoyed at other writers making such mistakes.  Now I've made one myself that I should have known better and thus forfeited my right to complain.

I am of course free to re-write the story in a way that corrects the problem, it would be perfectly intellectually and morally consistent as I defend George Lucas by pointing to the precedent of Tolkien and Mary Shelly.  But I'm unsure how.

One option is I could change when it's set to a later date.  I don't want to do that because I wrote this story imagining Eugenie and Louise as teenagers or very early 20s, my ambition here is to write a YA Lesbian Romance in a Shadowmen setting,  But more directly important the Blakccoats lore tie in depends on The Colonel being alive and were made with it being the same year as Coriolani's rebellion as a subtle backdrop (the character of Gian-Paolo dies before the end of 1839).

And I also want the lead Heroines to have not aged much since they left the narrative of TCoMC in 1838.

The second option is to remove the reference.  Problem there is first that it's a decent chuck of the conversation with Rodin though not what's important to the direct plot-line I'm setting up.  And I was particular on how I handled the topic changes in the conversions.

But also thematically I wanted to set up that in this fictional universe some fictional novels exist even though events they depict also happened.  So that the references to the Jane Austen novels do not rule out those characters also existing.  I realize that's already a given for the TOTS fan-base, but I also want to this to work as a possible introduction for my own fictional shared universe.

Thing is I will probably be least faithful to Eugene Sue's among all the Public Domain characters I use.  His moral outlook was often to simplistic and did not usually do well by female characters.  My Rodin I intend to have be a more nuanced character, even though I do share Sue's anti-Catholic sentiment for a different reason.

Which is why I was deliberately ambiguous about if we should view Sue's novel as a reliable account of the events in question (but equally on how reliable a source of info Rodin himself is).  I kind of don't want the title character to be real since that myth is Aniti-Semitic in origin.

I've been meaning to look into exactly when Father Rodin would have been born, Sue also had him pop up already during the French Revolution.

I'll probably decide in favor of the second option, but I'll need to work on that, and I'm trying to write this story's sequel (might not be a direct one, but it'll also star Eugenie and Louise) right now.  I will remember to ignore the discussion in question.

Tales of the Shadowmen 12 is now available to order. Including my story The Piano Maidens

Tales of the Shadowmen 12 is now available to order.  Including my story The Piano Maidens, this is the most important story I’ve written thus far.
http://blackcoatpress.com/talesshadowmen12.htm 

My Eugenie Danglars story will be in TOTS 12

Tales of The Shadowmen Volume 12

12. CARTE BLANCHE edited by J-M. & R. Lofficier READ AN EXCERPT

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US$22.95/GBP 14.99 - 6x9 tpb, 304 p. - ISBN-13: 978-1-61227-447-8

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Contents:
Jason Scott Aiken: Ardan at the Pole starring Doc Ardan, The People of the Pole
Matthew Baugh: The Lament of the Duke and the King starring Doctor Omega
Adam Mudman Bezecny: The Revelation of the Yeti starring Doctor Omega, Nora, Ki-Gor
Nicholas Boving: The Evil Among Us starring Dr. Watson, Maigret, Father Brown
Nathan Cabaniss: House of El Hombre Loco starring Count Waldemar Daninsky, Dr. Génessier
Christophe Colin : Of Beasts and Men starring Felifax, Dr. Moreau
Matthew Dennion: Turning Point starring Sâr Dubnotal, Werewolf of Paris
Peter Gabbani: A Bond between Gentlemen starring Arsène Lupin, Raffles
Brian Gallagher: The Stake and the Sickle starring Captain Vampire, Von Bork
Martin Gately: Rouletabille on Mysterious Island starring Rouletabille
Travis Hiltz: The Case of the Curious Cadaver starring Spiridon, Van Helsing, Doctor Omega
Rick Lai: The Tomb of the Veiled Prophet starring The Phantom of the Opera,
Nigel Malcolm: The Adventure of the Orcival Rain starring Lecoq, Sherlock Holmes, Gourroull
Jean-Marc Mouiller: Behind the Mask of the Ripper starring Sherlock Holmes, Harry Dickson
Christofer Nigro: Justice and the Beast starring Judex, Doctor Cornelius, Professor Tornada
Pierrick Rival: The Inn of the First Voyage starring Long John Silver, Surcouf
Frank Schildiner: Ancient Space Lizards and Other Visitors starring Jean Kariven, Gussie Fink-Nottle
Sam Shook: The Eldritch Stones starring Sar Dubnotal, Chandu, El Borak
Michel Stéphan: The Submarine "Gustave Le Rouge" starring William Boltyn, Dr. Moreau
Artikel Unbekannt : Leonox Meets Mephista starring Mephista, Leonox
David L. Vineyard: The White Star of Atlantis starring Arsène Lupin, Terence O'Rourke
Jared Welch: The Piano Maidens starring Eugenie Danglars, The Black Coats

Once again I am last by virtue of the Alphabet.

The Piano Maidens is much more like the kinds of stories I generally like to write then my prior two TOTS contributions.  Because I generally like to write female leads/POV characters, and also really like including LGBT representation in my stories.  This story is also a dialogue driven one, no action.

The story stars Eugenia Danglars and Louise d'Armilly from Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte-Cristo.  They are Lesbians who were removed from the oldest English Translation of the Novel as well as most adaptations.  But they are fully restored in the Penguin Classics translation.  And in Matthew Baugh's The Vampire Count of Monte-Cristo.

I am depicting both of these characters as exclusively Monosexually Homosexual.  In my Headcanon for these characters, and actual Canon of any stories I write, neither ever has or ever will be intimate with a man.

Like all TOTS stories it's also a crossover, It features and mentions a lot of both fictional and historical figures.  It's a very Nerdy story.

I include a number of little Easter eggs only fellow PLL will get.

I hope actual Lesbians will be able to enjoy how I write these characters.  So if any LGBT people read this story and has any criticism of it, please feel free to let me know.  I'd really, really appreciate it if by some off chance Heather Hogan did a review of it.

The Book will come out this December, please buy the book, BlackCoatPress does a lot of important work, they deserve more success.

Other works from the same Publisher that should interest those of us who want more Female representation in Genre Fiction include Rick Lai's Shadows of The Opera and Sisters of The Shadows series.  And Nina Cooper's translations of some early female lead detective and spy stories.  And I of course always recommend Paul Feval as translated by Brian Stableford.