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Welcome to a pH-Webworld Archival Page

- Preserving a couple of Web-Publisher's Commentaries from the late 1990s -

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| pH-Webworld's Welcoming Page | Internal Search Engine | Main Menu | Online PHANTACEA Primer | Ongoing PHANTACEA Features | pHantaBlog | Information for ordering by credit card | Information for ordering by certified cheque or money order | Serial Synopses | Contact | pH-Webworld Miscellanea | Lynx to additional websites featuring Jim McPherson's PHANTACEA Mythos | Bottom of Page Lynx |
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Phantacea Publications in Print

- The 'Launch 1980' story cycle - 'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' Fantasy Trilogy - The '1000 Days' Mini-Novels - The phantacea Graphic Novels -

The 'Launch 1980' Story Cycle

The War of the Apocalyptics

Front cover of War Pox, artwork by Ian Bateson, 2009

Published in 2009; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here;

Nuclear Dragons

Nuclear Dragons front cover, artwork by Ian Bateson, 2013

Published in 2013; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here;

Helios on the Moon

Front cover for Helios on the Moon, artwork by Ricardo Sandoval, 2014

Published in 2014; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here;

The 'Launch 1980' story cycle comprises three complete, multi-character mosaic novels, "The War of the Apocalyptics", "Nuclear Dragons" and "Helios on the Moon", as well as parts of two others, "Janna Fangfingers" and "Goddess Gambit". Together they represent creator/writer Jim McPherson's long running, but now concluded, project to novelize the Phantacea comic book series.

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'The Thrice-Cursed Godly Glories' Epic Fantasy

Feeling Theocidal

Front Cover for Feel Theo, artwork by Verne Andru, 2008

Published in 2008; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here

The 1000 Days of Disbelief

Front cover of The Thousand Days of Disbelief, collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010

Published as three mini-novels, 2010/11; main webpage is here; ordering lynx for individual mini-novels are here

Goddess Gambit

Front cover for Goddess Gambit by Verne Andru, 2012

Published in 2012; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here

Circa the Year of Dome 2000, Anvil the Artificer, a then otherwise unnamed, highborn Lazaremist later called Tvasitar Smithmonger, dedicated the first three devic talismans, or power foci, that he forged out of molten Brainrock to the Trigregos Sisters.

The long lost, possibly even dead, simultaneous mothers of devakind hated their offspring for abandoning them on the far-off planetary Utopia of New Weir. Not surprisingly, their fearsome talismans could be used to kill Master Devas (devils).

For most of twenty-five hundred years, they belonged to the recurring deviant, Chrysaor Attis, time after time proven a devaslayer. On Thrygragon, Mithramas Day 4376 YD, he turned them over to his Great God of a half-father, Thrygragos Varuna Mithras, to use against his two brothers, Unmoving Byron and Little Star Lazareme, in hopes of usurping their adherents and claiming them as his own.

Hundreds of years later, these selfsame thrice-cursed Godly Glories helped turn the devil-worshippers of Sedon's Head against their seemingly immortal, if not necessarily undying gods. Now, five hundred years after the 1000 Days of Disbelief, they've been relocated.

The highest born, surviving devic goddesses want them for themselves; want to thereby become incarnations of the Trigregos Sisters on the Hidden Continent. An Outer Earthling, one who has literally fallen out of the sky after the launching of the Cosmic Express, gets to them first ...

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The '1000 Days' Mini-Novels

The Death's Head Hellion

- Sedonplay -

Front cover for The Death's Head Hellion, collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010

Published in 2010; main web presence is here; Character Companion starts here; ordering lynx are here;

Contagion Collectors

- Sedon Plague -

Front cover for Contagion Collectors, collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2010

Published in 2010; main web presence is here; Character Companion starts here; ordering lynx are here;

Janna Fangfingers

- Sedon Purge -

Front cover for Janna Fangfingers, collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2011

Published in 2011; two storylines recounted side-by-side, the titular one narrated by the Legendarian in 5980, the other indirectly leading into the 'Launch 1980' story cycle; main web presence is here; Character Companion starts here; ordering lynx are here;

In the Year of the Dome 4825, Morgan Abyss, the Melusine Master of the Utopian Weirdom of Cabalarkon, seizes control of Primeval Lilith, the ageless, seemingly unkillable Demon Queen of the Night. The eldritch earthborn is the real half-mother of the invariably mortal Sed-sons but, once she has hold of her, aka Lethal Lily, Master Morgan proceeds to trap the Moloch Sedon Himself.

In the midst of the bitter, century-long expansion of the Lathakran Empire, the Hidden Headworld's three tribes of devil-gods are forced to unite in an effort to release their All-Father. Unfortunately for them, they're initially unaware Master Morg, the Death's Head Hellion herself, has also got hold of the Trigregos Talismans, devic power foci that can actually kill devils, and Sedon's thought-father Cabalarkon, the Undying Utopian she'll happily slay if they dare attack her Weirdom.

Utopians from Weir have never given up seeking to wipe devils off not just the face of the Inner Earth, but off the planet itself. Their techno and biomages, under the direction of the Weirdom of Cabalarkon's extremely long-lived High Illuminary, Quoits Tethys, have determined there is only one sure way to do that -- namely, to infect the devils' Inner Earth worshippers with fatal plagues brought in from the Outer Earth.

Come All-Death Day there are more Dead Things Walking than Living Beings Talking. Believe it or not, that's the good news.

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phantacea Graphic Novels

Forever and Forty Days

- The Genesis of Phantacea -

Front cover of Forever and Forty Days; artwork by Ian Fry and Ian Bateson, ca 1990

Published in 1990; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here

The Damnation Brigade

- Phantacea Revisited 1 -

Front cover of The Damnation Brigade, artwork by Ian Bateson, retouching by Chris Chuckry 2012

Published in 2013; main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here

Cataclysm Catalyst

- Phantacea Revisited 2 -

Front cover for Cataclysm Catalyst, artwork by Verne Andru, 2013

Published in 2014, main webpage is here; ordering lynx are here

Kadmon Heliopolis had one life. It ended in October 1968. The Male Entity has had many lives. In his fifth, he and his female counterpart, often known as Miracle Memory, engendered more so than created the Moloch Sedon. They believe him to be the Devil Incarnate. They've been attempting to kill him ever since. Too bad it's invariably he, Heliosophos (Helios called Sophos the Wise), who gets killed instead.

On the then still Whole Earth circa the Year 4000 BCE, one of their descendants, Xuthros Hor, the tenth patriarch of Golden Age Humanity, puts into action a thought-foolproof, albeit mass murderous, plan to succeed where the Dual Entities have always failed. He unleashes the Genesea. The Devil takes a bath.

Fifty-nine hundred and eighty years later, New Century Enterprises launches the Cosmic Express from Centauri Island. It never reaches Outer Space; not all of it anyhow. As a stunning consequence of its apparent destruction, ten extraordinary supranormals are reunited, bodies, souls and minds, after a quarter century in what they've come to consider Limbo. They name themselves the Damnation Brigade. And so it appears they are -- if perhaps not so much damned as doomed.

At least one person survives the launching of the Cosmic Express. He literally falls out of the sky -- on the Hidden Continent of Sedon's Head. An old lady saves him. Except this old lady lives in a golden pagoda, rides vultures and has a third eye. She also doesn't stay old long. He becomes her willing soldier, acquires the three Sacred Objects and goes on a rampage, against his own people, those that live.

Meanwhile, Centauri Island, the launch site of the Cosmic Express, comes under attack from Hell's Horsemen. Only it's not horses they ride. It's Atomic Firedrakes!

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Celebrating 25 Years of Anheroic Fantasy Illustrated

Collage prepared by Jim McPherson, 2001

- Double-click to enlarge in a separate window -

[Logo reads Web-Publisher's Commentary as prepared on PHOTOSHOP by Jim McPherson, 2002]

February 1999

1. Featured Story

2. Introductory Remarks

 

Front Cover for pH-3, artwork by Richard Sandoval

© copyright 2003 Jim McPherson

November 1998

1. Featured Story

2. Greetings

3. Notes on Graphics

 

-- Why Publish PHANTACEA --


| PHANTACEA on the Web Main Menu | Online PHANTACEA Primer | Ongoing PHANTACEA Features | Ordering Information | Serial Synopses | Contact | Web Publisher's Commentary |


Featured Story -- February 1999

The Cosmicaptain propelled himself to the cosmicar. Once he was aboard and all systems were restored, he shucked his pod and removed his helmet. Nidaba helped her husband out of the rest of his spacesuit. He helped her out of hers. They looked at each other. She gasped.

"Mik, your forehead!"

A THIRD EYE GLARED OUT OF IT!

-- from 'Helios on the Moon'

Introductory Remarks -- February 1999

Mythic, or as I prefer, Mythter Jim here. This in contrast to Mister Jim because, out here on the Web, I don't spray when I speak. As listed immediately below, there are six new stories this time up. I didn't put up any new images or synopses this time around. Nor did I revise any of the story sequences. Which'll give you the opportunity to see how I wrote in 1992-1994. (Isn't much different than I do now, is it?)

Email me at jmcp@phantacea.com if you find any glaring inconsistencies between what's been up previously and what's contained in these new-old sequences.

As always, -- good reading!

Featured Story -- November 1998

Mik Starrus piloted one of the planes that hit Trigon. His bomb struck an outcropping of Gypsium on the Aegean islet's third peak. The whole landform shook visibly then vanished.

POOF! Gone, -- Trigon, Heliopolis, the Spartae! No blaze of glory, no volcanic eruption, marked its passage. It just wasn't there any more.

-- from the debut of 'Helios on the Moon'

 

 


1. Greetings -- November 1998

First of all, a couple of announcements. Yes, there's yet another 'PHANTACEA And ...' Section out here in Cyberia. This one, as you might expect if you read this page last time up, has to do with tholoi. Entitled 'Beehive Ghost Houses', it's also where you'll find, appropriately enough, one of my brother's ghosts. Vetala, artwork by Vern Andru

As for the rest of PHANTACEA on the Web, other than a (count 'em!) 2-chapter debut of 'Helios on the Moon', which is amply dealt with below, there are more installments of 'Centauri Island' and 'The Trigregos Gambit'. Their synopses as well. Plenty of other stuff, dirty-dog-ditto.

Portion of Front Cover for pH-3, artwork by Richard SandovalAmong other things I've been scanning in some new images from the old comicbooks and adding to the long neglected 'Twenty Years Later' webpage. Lastly, I hope you noticed this page's latest logo. It's from the cover of pH-3, is of Heliosophos, as in Sophos the Ys, doing a Y (not to be confused with his later-on Laird of the Lethal Letters routine), and goes to the primary Moon page.

As for the pretty lady above, her image is from the cover of pH-5, is of Nergal Vetala, the Vampire Queen of the Dead, and goes to the primary Gambit page. (NOTE: The somewhat imperfectly-reproduced next image is from the cover of the never-finished pH-7, is of a couple of Crystallion's Hell's Horsemen, and takes you to Island's synopses.)Hell's Horsemen, from the never-finished pH-7, artwork by Ian Bateson

All of which serves to remind us -- me in particular -- that there wouldn't be a PHANTACEA on the Web if there hadn't first been a 6-issue series of comic books entitled PHANTACEA. Which, in turn, takes us to


2. Topic for November 1998: Y-PHANTACEA

Okay, Y's a bit of a pun, albeit more of a play on a letter than words. Then again, 'Why PHANTACEA' would hardly have attracted your attention, would it?

Besides, even though to make money is my proverbial bottom line, Y-wood you be interested in all the other reasons I have for publishing PHANTACEA, -- either on the web or anywhere else?

I mean, Y-knot? Especially when this time up features the first two chapters of 'Helios on the Moon'.

Y-especially? Mostly because the Male and Female Entities are probably my favourite characters. Yet, they have rarely if ever appeared in PHANTACEA on the Web. Not as the Male and Female Entitities at any rate.

(Actually, strictly speaking, that's not quite true. But, for reasons purely mercenary, I've decided not to serialize the rest of Helioddity. Not yet anyhow.)

We have, however, come across the probable future parents of the former over in 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'. (Which is no longer being serialized out here in Cyberia for much the same reason.) As for the latter, we've come across more than just her parents prior to Moon. We've come across her! The Black Rose of Anarchy, artwork by Peter Lynde, 1978

Don't believe me? Hey, I'm not making this up.
(Did that a long time ago!)

Where they have appeared before, as the Male and Female Entities to boot, is in the old PHANTACEA Comic Books and graphic novel, 'Forever And Forty Days'.

What's so special about Cyberia's 'Helios on the Moon' is that, unlike Apocalyptics or Gambit, I never got around to publishing its conclusion in comicbook format. In fact, pH-7 was only partially drawn.

"The Black Rose" , artwork by Peter Lynde, 1978 Consequently, and perhaps appropriately, PHANTACEA Phase One will finally finish out here on the Web.

Or, to put it more diplomatically, some twenty years after it should have ended in its comicbook format, we'll have a (prose) form of closure on the Moon sequences that first saw the light of day in 1977.

(And, as you can see from the partial reproduction of pH-7's cover above, the ending of 'Centauri Island' too!) "Anarchy", artwork by Peter Lynde, 1978

So, to get back to where we started this commentary, let's take it as a given that the Male Entity was born Heliopolis. Nowadays (as in December 1980) though, he goes by the name Heliosophos.

Other than it sort of rhymes with Heliopolis, why's that, you might ask. Because he also goes by the appelation of Helios called Sophos the Wise. Y's that again, eh? But there's more to Y-PHANTACEA than just lethal letters. The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen

Has a lot to do with a certain Visionary of Weir and a seemingly very uncertain Astronomer of dot-dildo, see. More specifically, as is noted in Moon's first chapter, the latter's obscurantist-obstinacy as much as the former's yclept Y-Vision:

The judge was the visionary. He was black-skinned and tattooed with the symbols of his office, -- in his case the letter, or chromosome, 'Y'.

Would sit blindfolded and listen to the person or persons making their case or cases.

Would take in their arguments with both ears then open both eyes, the horns of the Y, and look into the future, the shaft of the Y. [And ...]

As with any prognosticator he would see any number of potential futures. His task wasn't just to see 'the future' however. The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen The Ubiquitous Uncle Universe, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen Rather, it was to judge the best possible future and to pass sentence on appropriate ways to attain it.

His ruling was made public and almost invariably heeded. At least until circumstances changed such that it must 'needs be' changed as well.

Sometimes by the same visionary. Sometimes by other ones.

And, other than giving me an excuse to make tons of puns and scan in scads of images from my previous publications, that's really why Y-PHANTACEA!


3. Notes on Graphics for November 1998: More Images from PHANTACEA, the Comic Books

  1. The Black Rose of Anarchy, from pH-2, art by Gordon Parker
  2. Helios doing a Y, from the cover of pH-3, art by Richard Sandoval
  3. Full cover of pH-3, art by Richard Sandoval
  4. Image of Helios, from pH-3, art by Richard Sandoval
  5. Image of Mnemosyne, from pH-3, art by Richard Sandoval
  6. Helios as the Laird of Lethal Letters, from pH-3, art by Peter Lynde
  7. The Black Rose of Anarchy, from pH-3, art by Peter Lynde
  8. Image of the UNES Liberty, from pH-3, art by Peter Lynde
  9. The Black Rose of ..., from pH-3, lettering by Peter Lynde
  10. ...Anarchy, from pH-3, lettering by Peter Lynde
  11. The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen
  12. The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen
  13. The Visionary of Weir, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen
  14. The Ubiquitous Uncle Universe, from pH-4, art by Reginald Klassen
  15. Helios on the Moon, from pH-4, lettering by Gene Day
  16. Image of Mnemosyne, from pH-4, art by Gene Day
  17. Image of Vetala, from the cover of pH-5, art by Verne Andrusiek
  18. Image of the Smiling Fiend, from the cover of pH-6, art by Verne Andrusiek
  19. Image of Crystallion and another one of Hell's Horsemen, from the inside back cover of pH-6, art by Ian Bateson
  20. Image of Crystallion, from the inside back cover of pH-6, art by Ian Bateson
  21. Image of a Nuclear Dragon, from the inside back cover of pH-6, art by Ian Bateson

For more artwork from PHANTACEA, the Comic Books, check out 'Twenty Years Plus'


Last Updated: Summer 2003
Written by: Jim McPherson -- jmcp@phantacea.com
© copyright 1977-1981, 1996-2003 Jim McPherson (PHANTACEA)


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Webpage last updated: Summer 2015

There may be no cure for aphantasia (defined as 'having a blind or absent mind's eye') but there certainly is for aphantacea ('a'='without', like the 'an' in 'anheroic')

Ordering Information for PHANTACEA Mythos comic books, graphic novels, standalone novels, mini-novels and e-booksSun-moon-kissing logo first seen on back cover of Helios on the Moon, 2015; photo by Jim McPherson, 2014

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