phantacea.com - latest highlights - today's buzz - Daze today - Gambit tomorrow - get proactive for phantacea - Fresh Graphics

September 30 - October 2, 2011

Vcon2011

Click for Vcon's Website

Personal Appearance announcement:

Jim McPherson, Creator, Writer and Publisher of the phantacea Mythos, will be attending this year's Vcon in Richmond BC.

Look for him at - where else? - the phantacea table in the dealer's room.

And bring bucks

He'll have with him Phantacea Publications dating from 1977 (pH-1) all the way up to Harmony's Feast Day in what would have been (and may yet be) the Year of the Dome 6011 ("Janna Fangfingers").

Daze TodayGambit Tomorrow

Cover and Handout for Godly Glories

double-click to enlarge in separate window
Top of Page - Latest Highlights - Upwards - Downwards - Fresh Graphics - Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

"Goddess Gambit"

- 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' -

Ian Fry's Vetala in a collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2004

Book Three

Coming soon from Phantacea Publications

Top of Page - Latest Highlights - Downwards - Fresh Graphics - Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

Already here ...

"The Thousand Days of Disbelief"

Front cover and closeup of Tura's Calliope4 covers for 1000 DazePhantacea Publications is pleased to announce the three mini-novels constituting "The 1000 Days of Disbelief", Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories', are available for ordering online.

Just as happily, "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" are available for ordering at website prices of $10.00 each.

- 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' -
Book Two

Of course, all three mini-novels can be ordered from the publisher (that's me) for the same price, albeit not by credit card. (Cheques and money orders only, please.)

For the time being, if you order directly from me I will absorb shipping costs and government taxes on all three mini-novels.

The same as the two thus-far-published, full-length mosaic novels featuring Jim McPherson's Phantacea Mythos, "Feeling Theocidal" and "The War of the Apocalyptics", 1000-Daze is set in large measure on the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head.

Its ensemble cast traces, at the top of the food chain, Thrygragos Everyman and his firstborn Unities (the incomparable Harmony, Thunder & Lightning Lord Order and Uncle Abe Chaos) from the unholy heights of their freewheeling unity to the abysmal depths of their inevitably catastrophic disunity.

All three mini-novels contain book-specific character companions. In the 'Anheroic Fantasy Illustrated' tradition of the decades-gone phantacea comic books, augmented versions of these companions are online.

In its entirety 1000-Daze constitutes Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories'. A growing selection of lynx to out-takes from all three parts of the overall novel can be found here.

Top of Page - Latest Highlights - Top of Section - Downwards - Fresh Graphics - Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

"Feeling Theocidal -- Thrygragon, Year of the Dome 4376" (Book One of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy), "The War of the Apocalyptics" (the first entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence), the three mini-novels making up "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" (Book Two of 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories') and "Goddess Gambit" (Book Three of the trilogy and the second entry in the Launch 1980 story sequence) should be available at neighbourhood bookstores and public libraries all over the world.

Please be aware that "Janna Fangfingers", the third and final mini-novel comprising 1000-Daze, rather cleverly doubles as a prequel to the Launch 1980 sequences. Be aware also that e-versions of Feel Theo, Hellion, Contagion and Fangers are available on the Kindle format exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and some of amazon's other European affiliates until the end of March 2012.

If you don't see the novels or mini-novels displayed at your local book stops, kindly direct purchasing agents and/or booksellers to www.phantacea.com in order to help them rectify such a sad situation.

| Rollovers re Mosaic Novels | Notes on Mosaic Rollovers | Newest Mini-Novels | 'The Death's Head Hellion' teaser | 'Contagion Collectors' teaser | 'Janna Fangfingers' teaser | PHANTACEA Mythos print publications | The dot.com website | Fresh Graphics | Excerpts from War-Pox | Excerpts from Feel Theo | Excerpts from its immediate sequel, 'The 1000 Days of Disbelief' | Previous Webpage | Top of Page Restart | Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx | Downwards | Upwards |

Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos

Full covers for first two mini-novels extracted from 1000 Days of Disbelief

The background image for this page and this panel are variations of the collage/cover I prepared for "Janna Fangfingers", which is reproduced in its entirety here; a fuller view of the background for this panel is here; it also double-clicks from image to the left of here; notes on many, if perhaps not all, of the images that appear in some of the other panel backgrounds reproduced on this webpage are here.

Top of Page - Latest Highlights - Downwards - Fresh Graphics - Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

Anheroic Fantasy since 1977

Fangers cover and Gambit handout, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Collages for covers and handouts prepared by Jim McPherson from a combination of his own photographs and scans from magazines as well as postcards bought in situ.

The "Goddess Gambit" handout enlarges by double-clicking on the right side of here.

A fuller view of the background for this panel double-clicks from image to the right of here.

©copyright 1977 - 2011 Jim McPherson

A number of Phantacea Publications, specifically "Feeling Theocidal", "The War of the Apocalyptics" the three mini-novels constituting "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" (namely "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers"), and "Goddess Gambit", can be ordered from amazon.com and its affiliates, including amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk, as well as from Barnes & Noble.

Until the end of March 2012, e-versions of "Feeling Theocidal", "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" can be ordered on the Kindle format exclusively from amazon.com, amazon.co.uk and four of amazon's additional European affiliates.

Libraries, bookstores and bookseller collectives can place bulk orders through Ingram Books, Ingram International, Coutts Information (and Library) Services, Baker & Taylor, and a large network of other distributors worldwide.

Or, if you prefer to order directly from the publisher, email or send your order(s) via surface mail. No matter where you live or what currency you prefer to use, I'll figure out a way to fill your order(s) myself.

As an introductory offer, I will absorb shipping costs and government taxes on "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors" and "Janna Fangfingers" only. Just be aware that I can only accept certified cheques or money orders.

For all the other PHANTACEA Mythos print publications, I'll have to charge an additional 12% to cover Canadian and provincial taxes as well as Canada Post rates for shipping. I do use bubble mailers, though.

BookFinder.com lists both mosaic novels: "Feeling Theocidal" and "The War of the Apocalyptics". Also listed therein are most of the other PHANTACEA Mythos print publications.

Another interesting option for the curious is Chegg, which has a rent-a-book program. Thus far its search engine shows no results for phantacea (any style or permutation thereof) but it does recognize Jim McPherson (a variety of them) and the titles of the novels.

As for the Whole Earth (other than the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head, at least as far as I can say), this page contains a list of a few other websites where you can probably order the novels in a variety of currencies and with credit cards.

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... On to Publicity Announcement ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx ...

Greetings. Welcome or welcome back, as the case may be.

Mini-Novels Now Available Worldwide
| The Death's Head Hellion | Contagion Collectors | Janna Fangfingers |

Black and white version of 1000 Daze cover by Jim McPherson, 2010Colour version of 1000 Daze cover by Jim McPherson, 2010

Ingram, Ingram International and Coutts Information (and Library) Service are among those distributing the three PHANTACEA Mythos mini-novels comprising "The Thousand Days of Disbelief", the second book in 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy.

Entitled "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors", and "Janna Fangfingers", I did collages for their covers as well as some internal illustrations.

"Goddess Gambit", a full-length mosaic novel concluding 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' trilogy, will be released in the Fall of 2011. Verne Andru, who provided the cover for "Feeling Theocidal", the first book in this series, is currently working on Gambit's cover.

The three mini-novels are complete unto itself (themselves). Each contains book-specific character companions (illustrated versions of which begin here) and the opening chapter of follow-up publications under the phantacea imprint. Fangers leads into Gambit which eventually picks up from where War-Pox left off. As such it constitutes a prequel to the 'Launch 1980' story sequences.

Phantacea Publications are released by James H McPherson, Publisher. Contact information below.

As always, good reading!

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... On to first teaser ... On to second teaser ... On to third teaser ... On to More Promos ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

The Death's Head Hellion

Cover for The Death's Head Hellion, art prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010Tura's Allegory of Spring reminds me of Morgan Abyss, the Master of Weir circa 4825 YDIn 4825 Year of the Dome, forces loyal to the Death Gods of Frozen Lathakra threaten to overwhelm the Utopian Weirdom of Cabalarkon. Its demonically-empowered Master counterattacks mercilessly.

In the nearly 5,000 years since the Moloch Sedon preserved it from the Great Flood of Genesis, the Hidden Continent has never experienced such approaching apocalyptic devastation.

Set in the Year of the Dome 4824/5, Hellion presents a terrifying dilemma that Thrygragos Everyman and his firstborn Unities, freewheeling anarchists the loathsome load of them, must resolve lest the post-Thrygragon Era of Empires results in a second Genesea.

As for Master Morgan Abyss, it isn't a matter of better the Devil you know. It's a matter of, when dealing with the Devil above, singular and capitalized, never forget the devils below, small case and plural.

It's a lesson she learns all too rapidly. Ah, but is it a lesson she also learns all too fatally?

Double-click on the images in this frame to enlarge them in a separate window.

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... Back to first teaser ... On to second teaser ... On to third teaser ... On to More Promos ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

Contagion Collectors

Datong Harmonia, collage by Jim McPherson ,2009Cover for Contagion Collectors, artwork prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010Despite often violent suppression by forces blinkered by monotheistic absolutism, at the height of the Renaissance seekers after secrets are determined to discover all there is to know about the universe.

Yet, right here on the earth beneath their feet, there is no bigger secret than that there is a Cathonic Dome. The second biggest secret beyond the Cathonic Dome is that a continent the size of Africa lies underneath it.

Two hundred years earlier, someone who knew all there was to know about the Hidden Headworld was none other than the infamous, panpipe-playing Rat Catcher of Hamelin.

Three Outer Earthlings you may have heard of play howsoever-insignificant roles in Contagion. They are Twisted Tommy (Tomas de Torquemada, age 56), Bosco (Hieronymous Bosch, age 26), and Dire (Albrecht Durer, age 4).

Dire and Drang (a hound, not yet a dachshund) are having a wonderful boy/dog adventure until four already much feared riders on psychopomp-steeds burst into their hence no longer exclusive paradise, the Garden of Earthy Delights.

As for the god by then sitting high above them all, in a Brainrock throne planted atop a mushroom cloud, he's the deviant half-son of two of the terrifying riders, the one with the buzzsaw-scales and the one with the bow and already notched arrow.

Double-click on the images in this frame to enlarge them in a separate window.

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... Back to second teaser ... On to third teaser ... On to more promos ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

Janna Fangfingers

Contagion Collectors aimed to destroy the Inner Earth’s Shining Ones, their devil-gods, by killing off those who would worship them – virtually everyone alive beneath the Cathonic Dome that encloses the Hidden Continent of Sedon’s Head.

Deviant and Devils collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011Full cover for Janna Fanfingers, text and collage by Jim McPherson, 2011Thrygragos Everyman and his firstborn Unities (Harmony, Chaos and Order) thought them sorted after they stormed the Hoodoo Hamlet in 5476 as the four fearsome Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

And so they had … except, it wasn’t just the bringers who needed sorting. It was the poxes and plagues they brought.

The Hidden Headworld needed purging. There could be no doubt of that. Yet the Moloch Sedon had disappeared from the night’s sky years earlier and evinced no signs of returning. Everyone knew what needed to be done yet no one, especially not Thrygragos Everyman, the Lord Laziest of Great Gods, was willing to command the purge begun.

Then someone, ostensibly in the name of love, played a Trigregos Gambit. The Head lost its Balance, capitalized and female. Her immediate brothers regarded each other balefully. No longer restrained, a continental catastrophe of unprecedented proportions ensued.

With calamitous rapidity, nearly 500 years of Panharmonium gave way to seemingly endless despair. The Inner Earth’s populace lost faith in its devil-gods as by far the mightiest of them went at each other unrelentingly, unmindful of those they trampled beneath their gargantuan feet.

The Dead didn’t stay dead, though. They rose, disbelievers no longer. They battled on, their newly puissant goddess to exalt the higher. Came All-Death Day there were more Dead Things marching than Living Beings breathing, let alone fighting back.

Fecundity no longer, the Vampire Queen of the Dead looked to rule the world – both sides of it!

Double-click on the images in this frame to enlarge them in a separate window.

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... Back to third teaser ... ... On to more promos ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

More shameless promo courtesy of the late Summer 2011 edition of www.phantacea.com

Mini-novels are hardly the only PHANTACEA Mythos print publications available for ordering. However, along with the two PHANTACEA Mythos mosaic novels thus far released, "Feeling Theocidal" and "The War of the Apocalyptics", they're the only ones that can be ordered with credit cards through amazon.com as well as many other major online ordering sites.

Dependent on location, booksellers and bookseller cooperatives can place bulk orders for the full-length novels and aforementioned mini-novels via either Ingram Books or Ingram International, as per here.

The gods and goddesses, the demons and monsters, of ancient mythologies have been trivialized, their worship proscribed and the entities themselves mostly confined to another realm.

Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos chronicles their ongoing striving for a return to paramountcy.

========

Front cover for 4Ever40, artwork by Ian Fry and Ian Bateson, 1990Culminating in the Genesea (aka the Great Flood of Genesis), the graphic novel, "Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA", recounts many of the challenges these then only eventual gods and goddesses faced prior to their apotheosis. Of them, about half take place pre-Earth.

Nothing less than the PHANTACEA version of the origin of the Devil himself highlights this 1990 collection of short featurettes drawn by Ian Fry and initially intended for the phantacea Phase One project.

(Secular Note 1: According to some faiths, fallen angels became devils. They had to have fallen from somewhere, which in my books makes them extraterrestrials. Are the heavens not outer space? Of course they are.)

(Pun Alert: As for why Hor looks Japanese on the cover of pH-4Ever, when I first heard about Japan's famous Noh theatre as a kid, I decided it had to be named after Noah. The notion never left whatever else is left of my peabrain.)

========

Lilith and Daemonicus, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010Set primarily on the consequently Inner Earth of Sedon's Head, "Feeling Theocidal" sketches and/or details, more grimly than graphically, many more stories involving these undeniable little gods.

(Secular Note 2: Undeniable because, as per here and here, that is precisely what the word 'devil' means — and don't let anyone tell you any differently.)

Foremost among the tales told is that of Thrygragon. For not just devazurkind in particular, Mithramas 4376 Year of the Dome (Christmas Day 376 AD) may yet prove perhaps the singly most important event in Whole Earth history since Xuthros Hor, the Biblical Noah, caused the Genesea.

Feel Theo also contains an afterword by the author. Albeit with the bonus of three or four contextually nifty photographs taken in Mexico City, it is reprinted here.

========

"The War of the Apocalyptics", the latest in what looks to be a long line of full-length PHANTACEA Mythos mosaic novels, brings their saga into the final fifth of the Twentieth Century our time (the Sixtieth Century of the Dome).

Back cover bluster promises what War-Pox delivers:

"From the creator of the PHANTACEA Mythos and the writer of ‘Feeling Theocidal’ comes Fallen Angel Devils, comes unrelenting Action, comes the Damnation Brigade, comes the first book of the Launch 1980 cycle."

Set on both the Outer and Inner Earth in 19/5980, War-Pox additionally contains a foreword and an afterword by the author. Moreover, it ends with the third (originally the first) chapter of 1000-Daze, the immediate sequel to Feeling Theocidal and the second book in ‘The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories’ trilogy.

========

"The 1000 Days of Disbelief" comprises three distinct, complete-unto-itself mini-novels. Each tells of potentially cataclysmic challenges facing Thrygragos Everyman and his firstborn Unities.

No doubt to the Devil's dismay, what begins, perhaps, as a Sedonplay begets a Sedon Plague that necessitates a Sedon Purge.

The highly idiosyncratic manner that the wildly wilful Lazaremists deal with each new threat to their persistent dream of Panharmonium has ramifications for just about everyone alive — and, yes, even dead — right up to the night before the launching of the Cosmic Express from the Outer Earth's Centauri Island on November 30, 1980.

Should demand warrant, 1000-Daze may be released in late 2011 as an e-book. There's a list of lynx to extracts here. Notes and lynx re the mini-novels comprising 1000-Daze can be found on this page starting here. An illustrated, book-specific character companion for the first of them, "The Death's Head Hellion", begins here.

========

... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... On to even more promos ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

phantacea.com is the only website thus far dedicated entirely to print publications featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos. Unless noted differently in the text or image mouse-overs, everything is written, photographed, scanned-in and/or otherwise prepared by Jim McPherson.

Collage of fauns frolicking, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011All sorts of ever-so-pertinent lynx to all sorts of often impertinent webpages, including where its previous Welcoming Page went, can be accessed from here. That's a dot-ditto for Web Publisher's Commentaries preserved in pH-Webworld.

This particular page also contains a table of graphics with lynx to larger views of the same graphics within this or related websites. As where noted on a slowly increasing number of suchlike graphics tables, you can now double-click on the image in order to enlarge it in a separate window.

Should additionally take this opportunity to mention, hardly for the last time, that Ingram Books and Ingram International has exclusive rights to distribute the most recent phantacea print productions. That means individual copies of "Feeling Theocidal" , "The War of the Apocalyptics" , "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors", and/or "Janna Fangfingers" can be ordered from amazon.com and its affiliates, including amazon.ca and amazon.co.uk, as well as from Barnes & Noble.

Budapest's Anonymous, shot by Jim McPherson in 2010Click the lynx provided or go to their sites, type Jim McPherson, PHANTACEA (any case), or the publication's name(s) into their search engine and proceed from there.

In much the same way, bookstores and bookseller collectives can place bulk orders through the Ingram Book Company, Ingram International and/or Baker & Taylor. I'm assured that the terms you're used to shall apply.

There's a partial list of Ingram's worldwide distribution partners here. I've seen online listings for Feel Theo from as far afield as South Africa, India, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and the UK. A friend of mine in Germany ordered and received it within a few days of doing so; meaning you should be able to order either of the novels wherever you are and in whatever currency you prefer to use.

Or you can email me today and I'll arrange to fill them myself, albeit for a slightly additional cost to cover shipping, tax and customs issues, especially if you reside outside of Canada.

The list price for both mosaic novels is $24.00 CAD in Canada and $23.00 USD in the States. The mini-novels go for $10.00 in Canada, the States, and Australia. As linked from here, the graphic novel, "Forever & 40 Days - the Genesis of PHANTACEA", can be ordered via email from pH-Webworld.

Like the mini-novels, it is still being sold at its original list price of $10.00 in both Canada and the USA. Remainder copies of the first four PHANTACEA comic books are also available for $5.00 per comic in both currencies.

An additional cost of 12% on the complete purchase covers Canadian and provincial taxes. Plus, shipping and handling fees are extra. Be forewarned that I can only accept certified cheques and money orders. Sorry, no Pay Pal or credit cards accepted on this end. To conclude ...

Both "Feeling Theocidal", Book One of The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories trilogy, and "The War of the Apocalptics", the first entry in the Launch 1980 sequence of stories, can be ordered online for delivery virtually anywhere in the world.

The same now holds true for "The Death's Head Hellion", "Contagion Collectors", and "Janna Fangfingers", the three mini-novels comprising 'The 1000 Days of Disbelief'.

Comments are always appreciated. With your permission, I may reproduce some of them somewhere at sometime. Until then, as I used to end off this sort of thing when I was publishing comic books, be pHantacizing you. JMcP

... Recommence ... Top of Page ... Top of Section ... On to Graphics Table ... Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx ...

Lynx to the Latest Graphics and Text Excerpts

| Full cover for "Janna Fangfingers" | Images applicable to "Janna Fangfingers" | Images applicable to "The Death's Head Hellion" | Images applicable to "Contagion Collectors" | Direct Lynx to Bosch and Durer images elsewhere | Notes on the Page and Panel Backgrounds |

- double-click for enlarged images -

"Janna Fangfingers"

Front and back covers for Janna Fangfingers, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Now available from Phantacea Publications
(James H McPherson, Publisher)

Top of Page - Top of Section - Page Contents - Upwards - Downwards - Bottom of Page Ordering Lynx

Devils & Deviants

Devils & Deviants collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Have to say deviants (the half-sons or half-daughters of Master Devas while possessing mortal men or women) tend to be more sympathetic characters than their seemingly immortal half-parent or parents.

Guess that's because mortality makes mamas (and papas) more, um, simpatico.

The Smiler figure's from New York's Metropolitan Museum. Can't currently recall where the Janna figure came from but do know the wild-eyed fellow's from a postcard I bought in Germany.

He was supposed to represent Sraddha Somata. Too bad I couldn't find a picture of a black, bald and bearded hybrid-Utopian in my photo-archives.

Top of Section - Upwards

Raised, not Razed

Embossed version of Fangers' front cover, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Good effect, eh?

It's called "embossing" on Photoshop, in case you were wondering.

What is razed during "The 1000 Days of Disbelief" – or near enough, and not altogether entirely due to the Trigregos Titaness, Hubby Zalman or their Terrible Twins – is the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head.

That it survived, or is surviving, in the Year of the Dome 5980, does not mean it will continue to do so.

Hence the 'Launch 1980' story cycle that began with War-Pox and carries on in "Goddess Gambit".

Top of Section - Upwards

Viennese Vetala

Tiled version of a painting spotted and shot in Vienna by Jim McPherson, , 2009

This effect is called "tiling" on Photoshop. I like it.

As for why I called her the Viennese Vetala, that's because I shot her there. (All right, so I cloned in the 3rd eye. Big Whoop!)

Artist's name is Egon Schiele (1890-1918). A contemporary of Gustav Klimt, the Wikipedia webpage re him is here.

If he was still around I'd hire him. He's captured the relationship between Nergal Vetala and Janna become Fangfingers damn near perfectly — emphasis on 'damn'.

Top of Section - Upwards

1000-Daze Deviants

Deviants collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

There are all sorts of deviants in 1000-Daze. In truth they tend to dominate proceedings throughout much of the novel (or mini-novels, as reality has presented itself).

I'll have to get back to you as to where most of the collage's components came from, but I do want to note especially that I didn't shoot the fellow with the quill in any museum.

Nope, I shot him on the streets of Vancouver.

Yep, he – whom I so often use to represent Squiggly 'The Q's for Quill' Tethys – is a wall-painting.

Top of Section - Downwards

Tomcat Tattletail

Faun spotted and shot in NYC by Jim McPherson, 2009

Tomcat Tattletail is the faerie-type Harmony's so enthralled with in Hellion especially. There's more on him here, here, here, here, here and here.

As you may have already noticed, I used the same image, which I shot in NYC, again in the collage next door.

With respect to the Tura reproduced here, I've commented on it here and here, no doubt among a number of other places by now.

The Legendarian makes mention of it while speaking with APM All-Eyes and some of the Baby Byronics in Contagion.

He claims he met Cosme Tura while visiting Italy sometime previous to the eventful midsummer's night of 5474 YD. Which, I might add, is entirely plausible given Tura's dates (ca. 1430–1495).

What's definitely a, um, phantacea pHact is that Jordy believes Tura must have been on the Inner Earth at some point in time relatively then-recently.

Otherwise, how could he have copied a Tethys original of Morgan Abyss?

Top of Section - Upwards

Fauns Frolic Feverishly

Collage of fauns frolicking, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Sooth said, they do a lot more than frolic feverishly – and I'm not just referring to how fabulously they play the syrinx or panpipes while more like prancing about than dancing.

For one thing, if this collage can be trusted (which it can't), they also seem to float contentedly once they're done whatever they were doing ever so feverishly.

It all has to do with the pheromones they secrete, you see. (In Hellion they are, to say the least, positively demonic.)

As for why this collage can't be trusted, as both Harmony and her triplet brother, Lord Order, discover in Hellion, metamorphic demons do fauns just as well as they do anything else – which isn't perfect but certainly is well enough for the moment.

Simultaneously, or at least almost in the same moment, Uncle Abe and Bedazzling Belialma discover denim-demons can do double-duty as panting pants.

All in all, they'd thereafter all agree, if they got the chance, it's a very hardening experience all around.

Except, that is, for phantacea's most famous fauna, Pusan Wanderlust.

For her, the experience isn't so much electrifying as it is electrocuting.

Top of Section - Upwards

NYC's Faux Bosch

An unidentified painting spotted in the Met Museum in NYC done in the style of Hieronymous Bosch, photo by Jim McPherson, 2009

Many painters tried to emulate Bosch's style in the 16th and 17th centuries.

I took this picture of one such painting (unaccredited as near as I could discover) in New York City's Metropolitan Museum in 2009.

I use part of it at the bottom of Hellion's cover in order to represent Magnus Minus, the mighty Minotaurus of Minius (Absudyl), which lies directly beneath the Weirdom of Cabalarkon (Sedon's Devic Eye-Land on a map of the Hidden Headworld).

inverted map of Sedon's Head, prepared by Jim McPherson and Tim Hammell in 1978

(Double-click to enlarge map to its 1978-standard black on white format.)

A clickable version of the map is on the Peculiar Places page whereas the more than just moderately amazing story of what I spotted in Cairo's Egyptian Museum is retold here and here.

There's more on Magnus Minus, who appears as a daemonic demiurge in Hellion, here, here, here and here.

Top of Section - Upwards

Daemonic Royalty (Daemonicus & Primeval Lilith)

Lilith and Daemonicus, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010

The figure representing Primeval Lilith, the Demon Queen of the Night, is by Henry Fuseli (1741-1825).

I used it on Hellion's cover as well as on the mock-up I prepared for 1000-Daze, two versions of which can be seen here.

Fuseli called her Great Night so how could I not choose her to stand in for one of phantacea's most misunderstood stand-outs?

Below Lunatic Lily (who's still a mass murderer no matter how justifiable her actions could be considered), the Smiling Fiend, or someone similar, seems to be in one of his two-eyed Daemonicus moments.

I took it from a postcard I bought in Germany back in 2008 whereas the background is from a postcard I bought in Sintra, Portugal, on that same 6-week European vacation.

As for whether Demon Queen Lilith or Demon King Daemonicus-Smiler even appear in either mini-novel, well, let's just say not explicitly and leave it at that.

(Or not — after all, as per here, they are noted in Hellion's Character Companion.)

Top of Section - Downwards

The Rat-Catcher of Hamelin

The Pied Piper of Hamelin, as scanned in from Fortean Times, 2010

Yes, I cannot spot the signature of Jordan "Q for Quill" Tethys in this shot either.

Yes also, in the Legendarian's defence, it is a copy of the a stained glass window he purports to have done early in the Outer Earth's 14th Century.

And, no, none of the rats are tee-tees. They're children. The koppen or calvary-like hillock is shaped like a tholos. though.

As for the cave's entrance, well, at a stretch it might pass for a skull-shape or golgotha. Myself, though, I don't stretch that far.

The copy reproduced here dates to 1592. It's by Augustin von Moersperg. The actual window was destroyed in 1660.

(This information is from FT 264, of which more here.)

Top of Section - Upwards

The Anonymous Fiend

Budapest's Anonymous, shot by Jim McPherson in 2010

The Smiling Fiend is obviously not smiling in this shot of Budapest's famous Anonymous.

That said, given what Smiler's main attribute appears to be throughout the phantacea Mythos — namely that no one can remember him unless he's standing right in front of him or her and mindfully wants them to remember him — Anon has to be him.

It's almost impossible to hit a webpage on either of the two main phantacea websites that doesn't reference Smiler.

One taken from Hellion is here. A bunch of others link from here, here, here and here.

Top of Section - Upwards

Herta Heartthrob

Datong Harmonia, collage by Jim McPherson ,2009

As already noted, Albrecht Durer, age 4, and the hound Drang (whose name I admittedly made up) appear a few times during Contagion.

It's my contention that Durer, like Bosch and the notorious Spanish inquisitor, Torquemada, were recruited by Contagion Collectors led by Tomcat Tattletail and Herta Heartthrob and thereafter actually spent some time on the Hidden Headworld.

Strikes me as obvious, especially when it comes to Bosch and Durer.

I mean, where else would they have come up with such fantastical imagery firsthand, especially at the tail end of the Outer Earth's plague-ridden 15th Century?

I initially constructed this image with Harmony, the Unity of Balance, in mind. However, as eventually revealed in Contagion, it might just as easily apply to Herta Heartthrob.

I first described it here but I've since learned that the nose on the statue I shot in NYC (a Roman grave marker) was knocked off deliberately.

To do so apparently prevents the ever-so-lifelike figure coming to actual life. The practice was quite common in the early days of Christianity — it certainly beat decapitating statuary, which Christians were quite fond of doing as well in Mediaeval Europe.

The practice presumably led to our verb 'to deface'.

Top of Section - Upwards

Ring-Gotten Devils

Ringot with Metowl, by Bosch

Virtually ever since I began phantacea on the Web in (gasp!) 1996, I've run a feature entitled Serendipity. It chronicles all sorts of serendipitous discoveries that make me wonder how much I've actually made up and how much of phantacea is real.

Consider now ringots. Those familiar with the comic books (Aristotle 'Ringleader 2' Zeross) and/or the Web Serials (Angelo 'Ringleader 1' Zeross) will have recognized them straightaway.

Centuries before either Zeross, father or son, came along, they figure rather irreplaceably in both Hellion and Contagion.

Intriguingly, nay serendipitously, guess what Bosco, age 26, must have spotted in the aforementioned Garden of Earthy Delights besides the Juggler (double-click for a cut-out)?

Yep, a ringot — and not just any ringot either, but one containing Metisophia, the Legendarian's devic half-mother. How do I know this?

Well, in "Janna Fangfingers", the concluding third of 1000-Daze, guess who returns? As for why she's called Metowl by then, um, well (again), it gets complicated.

Aka Titanic Metis, she doesn't feature in Hellion because she's been ring-gotten. (Her purloined cauldron does, however.)

And the Juggler's on the cover of Contagion at least in part because his belly shows Metis ring-gotten. Only, I just realized that about a year after I prepared the cover.

Talk about serendipity delayed.

Top of Section - Downwards

Covers for 2 1000-Daze mini-novels, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010covers for Contagion Collectors and Death's Head HellionThere are plenty of websites that display artwork by Hieronymous Bosch (Bosco, age 26, in "Contagion Collectors") and Albrecht Durer (Dire, age 4, in "Contagion Collectors"). Wikipedia, for example, has plenty by both. In order to save you a search, I've highlighted a few of them.

In terms of Bosch, I took the Juggler and the lower edge of the front cover for Contagion from a triptych entitled 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'. For reasons made clear therein, it's called the Garden of Earthy Delights in Contagion. The mini-novel also makes clear that Bosch didn't make it up — at least he didn't within the phantacea Mythos.

'The Ascent of the Empyrean', which appears on both the front and back cover of Contagion, is one-fourth of a major work entitled 'Visions of Beyond'. The version I used is from a poster replacing the actual painting in the Doge's palace of Venice. Apparently the original was being cleaned while I was there in 2008.

As for Durer, the putto (who once ate Sinistral Envy), Drang (not yet a dachshund, thus not yet having wolfed down the murine crud containing Camorva Freeflight) and Herta Heartthrob (a technically daemonic, hence soulless, earthborn eidolon given flesh) come from Melancholia.

(Should perhaps add, as a bonus teaser, that Herta is a melancholic angel in the sense that she has wings and is lovely, except she seems plagued by sadness at her own lack of fulfillment. Above all else, she wants to wholly devour the Unity of Balance, whom even she perceives as Beauty Incarnate, instead of simply settling for gathered-up scum-cream left behind on Tholoi hearthstones that Harmony used to get to the Outer Earth in pursuit of Tomcat Tattletail long, and often, pre-book.)

Both Death and the goatish Devil came from 'The Knight'. The 'Four Horsemen' came from just that. Two version of page backgroundsTwo versions of potential cover for 1000 Daze, prepared by Jim McPherson, 2009As for why he depicted the rider with the Scales of Justice (unless it's for weighing produce in times of pestilence, drought, and/or consequential famine) as a man instead of the most incomparably gorgeous woman ever beheld by everyone, well, assuming the phantacea Mythos isn't pure fantasy, Dire was only 4 at the time of Contagion and might have been missing his mother, if not his dog.

The British Museum has piles of Durer's prints. It even puts out a small hardcover that can probably be ordered online as if just to prove it. I scanned in the ones I used for the covers on this page, as well as its background images, from art books I already had at home.

Just by the bye, Durer's Death (upper left corner in graphic beside this paragraph) looks a lot like old King Cold, Tantal Thanatos, did in the comic books. Which is doubly appropriate since Cold is one of the aforementioned Death Gods of Lathakra – the other being immediate sister Methandra, Hot Stuff, Mithras's Virgin (in both Feel Theo and Hellion, though no longer in the comic books) or just plain Heat (after her attribute) – and Thanatos is the name of the Ancient Greek God of Death.

Just as interesting (to me anyhow), Durer's Devil might well be someone the recurring deviant, Pusan Wanderlust, would fall for in both Hellion and Contagion. That's because, as also per here, Pusan's a female faun or fauna and everyone knows what fauns are best at doing, a lot.

NOTE: the last two images in this panel don't double-click. They roll over, rather effectively I feel.

Top of Section - Downwards
The background image for this page and this panel are variations of the collage/cover I prepared for "Janna Fangfingers"; the background image for this panel, and the one above it, are variations of a black and white collage/cover I prepared for War-Pox's 1000-Daze bonus chapter; as also per here and here I did a colour version of it as well; some of the shots that went into these collages can be seen here and here; as for why Durer's 4 Horsemen remind me of Thrygragos Lazareme and his firstborn Unities, that's here;
... Recommence ... Top of Page ... Fresh Graphics ... Bottom of Page Lynx ...

Webpage last updated: Summer 2011

Alternative Phantacea logo from 4-Ever & 40Ordering Information for PHANTACEA Mythos mosaic novels

Downloadable order form for additional PHANTACEA Mythos Print Publications

Current Web-Publisher's Commentary

Jim McPherson's Worldwide Email Address -- jmcp@phantacea.com

PHANTACEA: THE WEB SERIALS


Website last updated: Winter 2011/12

Written by: Jim McPherson -- jmcp@phantacea.com
© copyright Jim McPherson (www.phantacea.com)
Phantacea Publications
(James H McPherson, Publisher)
74689 Kitsilano RPO
2768 W Broadway
Vancouver BC V6K 4P4
Canada

Welcoming Page

Prime Picture Gallery

Main Menu


Logo reads Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA  on the WebWebsites featuring, at least in part, Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos

Phantacea Publications: http://www.phantacea.com

Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos (pH-Webworld): http://www.phantacea.info

pHantacea on pHacebook: http://www.facebook.com/phantacea

Jim McPherson's pre-2010 Travels: http://members.shaw.ca/jmcptimps

Jim McPherson's post-2010 Travels: http://members.shaw.ca/jmcp1749

Top of Page
Webpage validated: Summer 2011