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.

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.

Among 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.)

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!

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.

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!)

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.

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. 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'