Riviere Blanche :: May: CROSSOVERS, DOCTORED MAN, MYSTERIOUS FORCE

JM Lofficier

Our May releases are up:
http://www.blackcoatpress.com/

First, the much anticipated Volume 1 of Win's CROSSOVERS, 460 pages, over 200 illustrations -- a massive encyclopedia of "crossover fiction", i.e.: works bringing together various characters from popular literature, film, comics, etc. that starts at the Dawn of Time and ends on the eve of WWII. Reading this is like a stroll through a wonderful library of the imagination with Win as the erudite but also funny guide giving you a tour of the pulp universe. We are very proud of having published this tome, which perfectly embodies Black Coat Press' raison d'être. There is a lovely and substantial intro by Kim Newman, and the crossover cover is by the wonderful Mark Maddox.

Next is the fourth (out of 5) volume in the series of translations of Maurice Rensard, the French HG Wells, entitled THE DOCTORED MAN, which is a collection of ground-breaking (and very Wellsian) stories ranging to 1913 to his very last works in 1939. The title novella, The Doctored Man (from 1921), is truly remarkable: a soldier who lost his eyes because of a gas attack in the trenches of WWI is kidnapped by mysterious people -- Russians? Atlanteans? Aliens? the mystery remains -- who graft a pair of bionic eyes which enable him to see in extra-dimensional space and perceive invisible entities who share the same space as we do. He manages to escape and return to France, but the mysterious folks who gave him powers are after him... Am extraordinary piece of work. The cover is by Gilles Francescano.

Finally, we have the third (out of 7) volume in the series of translations of J.-H. Rosny Aîné. This one, entitled THE MYSTERIOUS FORCE includes the title novella (1913) in which Earth is invaded by a mysterious aliens who are made of light, and indeed change the properties of light on our planet. It is not unlike Doyle's Poison Belt (which came later) meets The Xipehuz. The other major piece in the book is HARETON IRONCASTLE'S AMAZING ADVENTURE (1922) in which a brave American explorer travels to darkest Africa to investigate the spread of a mysterious, intelligent (alien?) vegetal life form. This is the original version of the story which PJ Farmer loosely adapted and retold in the 1970s. The cover is by Vincent Laik.

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