Final Repository for Some Remnants of Jim McPherson's Previous Web-Publisher's Commentaries

July 1997

1. Featured Story

"Ahriman!"

"Come now, brother. You can do better than that. Or shall I call you Ahura Mazda? Ormazd? Spenta Mainyu? Assur? You are Aiakos Minos and I am ..."

"Rhadamanthys!"

"Let's not be so formal."

"SMILER!"

-- from 'The Trigregos Gambit'

---

2. Introductory Remarks

Since PHANTACEA's now been on the Worldwide Web for just over a year, something in the way of a celebration seems warranted. A new look, a bit of a fresh start perhaps. As you can see, I'm working on the former and, as for the latter, consider it no sooner said than done.

With the debut of 'The Trigregos Gambit' this time up, we take our first step into Year Two. This makes some degree of sense because, as I've been shamelessly teasing quite a bit lately in Centauri's synopses, there's the issue of who the real bad guys are over there.

Answer to that's they aren't over there at all. They're in Gambit. And on Sedon's Head. (Confused? Hey, isn't that what I'm here for?) As soon as 'The Moloch Manoeuvres' ends, we'll take our next step into Year Two. 'Helioddity' will reappear, this time in the mostly unabridged, almost original version.

After that, after the rapidly approaching, what else?, apocalyptic finale of 'War of the Apocalyptics', -- well, I haven't decided yet, truth told. It'll be either 'Helios on the Moon' or 'Ringleader's Revenge'.

Probably the latter as it ties in nicely with both Gambit and Moon. Also, it'll be fun to revisit something I wrote years ago; before I even had a computer. (Hope the typing scans in okay!)

As minimally enlarged upon below however, my financial commitments are such that any new features have to take up old space. Which means that 'Centauri Island' has to cease for Gambit to commence. New series also mean new synopses of course, so the old ones will have to go the way of their story installments as well.

(NOTE: Since it was deliberately designed to invite -- nay, I say, necessitate! -- sequels, which were already written by the time I got around to it, Centauri'll be back periodically. Maybe even on an alternating basis with whatever ultimately takes War's place.)

And who knows? Maybe after some serious scissoring, such that a sequel's superfluous, Moloch might even make it to print.

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3. A Quick Note on Graphics

It's not quite going, going, gone time. Nor is it quite out with the old, in with the new, as yet. I have been wanting to scan in some additional material, however. (Not to mention fool around with Photoshop and Paint Shop Pro, -- as per this image, taken on Saturna Island, a variation of which lies behind the titular section of his webpag.)

Fairly obvious that something's got to give to make room. Figure a good place to start will be the mega-biting, nearly full-sized, full colour images of the original comic book covers. But that'll just be the start. Some of the long-running feature pages will needs be on the chopping block too.

Which isn't to say they won't be back, in one form or another. Only that space is at a premium out here in Cyberia and I don't feel like paying a premium price for it right now. Next time up therefore, in their place, we'll have a whole series of new images from the old comic books, additions to the Postcards from the Present collection, and, maybe, the long promised, illustrated feature on Mithraism.

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June 1997

1. Introductory Remarks

Hey, I just realized this month marks a year since I first put PHANTACEA on the Web. To celebrate, I decided to do what I should have been doing all along, -- just put up the stories, with no synopses and no additional stuff. Which is exactly what I've done.

Pleasant reading!

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2. Today's Topic: 'PHANTAFUN'

(Actually it's last month's topic but, considering I've only had 30 odd hits since I put it up, the subject's as valid now as it was last time around)

So, why do I continue to write PHANTACEA if I don't have a publisher and don't make a living at it? Well, for one thing, it keeps me out of the bars at night (and off the street afterwards). Also, even though writing's what I do for a living, writing PHANTACEA is much more entertaining, not to mention brain-saving. As well, although I enjoy the reading and most of the research that goes into it, I quite like some of my characters.

What follows is a sampling of some of their latest escapades and descriptions. Next time up, unless I get around to doing the Mithras feature I've been promising for months, I may even get into how much delight I take from taking material relatively familiar at least to some people and twisting it to suit my peculiar perspective on just about anything.

For starters, how about Hush, the tricky pixy who appears in Moloch as well as, over forty years later and physically little unchanged, in 'Centauri Island'?

It was a lot easier to pretend to be a fairy, something Antheans, and indeed most ordinary people, accepted as being at least marginally within the realm of possibility, than to try to explain what, who, she actually was. That she had been a seven year old since the age of seventeen, that she was the mother of two children, and that she suffered under a devil's doom, a devil that was also a seven year old, only she'd been one for close to six thousand years, was not particularly believable. Even though she had lived it, Hush still had difficulty believing it herself.

One of her residual girlish pleasures was dressing up. Right now for example she was wearing the grey uniform of an American Confederate army colonel tailored to her size. It came complete with a wide-brimmed hat and sabre, made of wood of course. To top the costume off she also wore an eye patch and was smoking a corn cob pipe. Puffing on it, -- she loved tobacco --, she paraded in front of her mostly stunned, statue-like troops. It was quite the group: eight humans besides herself and two psychopomps, one of whom, Granny Garuda, was much more than just that.

-- from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'

Perhaps not as appealing as the little trickster is another recurring character in the PHANTACEA Mythos: Djinn, the ever-accommodating djinn, a.k.a. the Heliodromus of Lazareme

Next, an hermaphroditic Eblis or genie manifested itself in the air above the throne. Its chest was bare and as red as the diabolical cherubim. It too had female breasts, hairy ones and nowhere near as protuberant as the Gorgons. It also had a black pleated beard in the style of Sargon of Akkad, a multi-coloured Persian turban wrapped around its head, and wore silken pantaloons.

Its nipples were pierced, from them dangled silver chains upon which were appended bear or tiger claws. Like long johns without the flaps, its rear end was uncovered to better show off its hairy ass and barbed, serpentine tail. It had a ring in its right nostril, pierced and pointed ears with an number of glistening objects stuck in them as well, sharpened fangs, and a third eye right in the centre of its forehead.

-- also from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'

As noted elsewhere, Centauri's currently holding auditions, as it were, for a top notch slime-bucket, a villain of the vilest variety, one who truly rates more than just a hoot on the hiss-meter. One of those in the running is definitely Faceless Strife, -- except she's more a virus of the venomous variety.

"She was me," imparted Strife, somewhat disconcertingly to most of those around the table. Dis L'Orca and Milo Mind, who knew more about Strife than the rest, still had difficulty with the concept that the Order's co-leader was some kind of sentient infection. "Unwittingly perhaps and only long enough to give me back to Ramona in '51. As my mother remarked a couple of days ago, we've an affinity for each other. We're sisters, after all."

-- from 'Centauri Island'

The 'she' Strife, Kore-Eris, Discord, is referring to in this conversation is Aranyani Nightingale; the Ramona is Ramona Avar, Lady Guillotine (Boo! Hiss!). Villains don't get the respect they would probably think they deserve in PHANTACEA though. Back in early '38, one of Strife's first shells after escaping Cybele St Synne was this self-same Ramona, then age 9.

Once the six Volsung women left the hospital room, Ramona Avar asked her father if they could visit the D'Angelos. Zygion said no, it was already well past her bedtime. Ramona began to pout. When that did not work, she launched a full scale temper tantrum. Avar could think of only one thing to do.

He spanked her!

-- also from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'

One can have fun with more than just characters though. For example, it's hard to resist a touch of social commentary now and again. While this is a little difficult when dealing with events set in 1938, it's no problem when commenting on the Western World of 1980, which is when both Island and War are set. In the latter case, 1980 was also the year I wrote its first draft.

There was an interesting assortment of people in the second storey Howe Street discotheque that night. Although most were young and white, there was a surprisingly diverse sprinkling of other races as well. Intriguingly, Hindustanis, Chinese, and Japanese seemed the most well-off, -- a quarter century earlier, orientals kept mostly to themselves and there were few East Indians in the city.

Jervis was one of only three blacks in the club. They had seen very few blacks on the streets, which wasn't much different than in the fifties. What was different was the lack of aboriginals. In fact, though she could have appeared to be of any race she chose, the witch was the only Native American in the disco. Natives were clearly no further up the social ladder than they had been years earlier.

Another observation too obvious not to make was the change in sexual patterns. Some of the boys were more feminine than a lot of the girls. Gays, as they styled themselves, were much more prominent than they had been in the early fifties. Androgyny seemed the rage. Of all the earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and anklets at least as many adorned boys as did girls.

Murray remarked that there seemed to be an almost total ban on brassieres. The witch quipped that women's breasts no longer seemed large enough to require them. Jervis spilt a tear into his wine spritzer and had to agree.

-- from 'The War of the Apocalyptics'

Occasionally one has to get serious.

Nearly six thousand years have passed since Xuthros Hor called down the Deluge and Sedon raised the Cathonic Zone. For all but a few millennia in the dim, dark past, Lemuria, Sedon's Head, has been separated from the rest of the Whole Earth. Now, because of the unnatural use of ungodly atomics on the Outer Earth, the Cathonic Dome has sprung a few leaks.

-- also from 'The War of the Apocalyptics'

Fortunately I don't do it that much. What I do do quite often though is write all-out action sequences. There are different ways of handling action however. While it sparks up on occasion, thus far Moloch has mostly relied on the constant threat of action on the horizon to propel it along. When it does come, which it starts to do this time around, you know it's going to be tragic, bloody, and brutal. Vampires are like that, -- except in this case the vamp, or at least Vampire Maker, may well be the one caught in the middle.

Somewhat in contrast, Island is proving more a matter of trying to retain a semblance of control given the complete chaos going on all around its newly-highlighted protagonists, Dolph Dulles, Loxus Ryne, and the aforementioned little trickster. However, as one might expect, War's nearly all action. (Conversely, it also contains more character development than is usual in PHANTACEA.) From now until its perhaps shocking ending, I think you'll find War the most tragic, bloody, and brutal series of ultra-violent sequences I've ever written.

Just to whet your appetite ...

Four-armed Mother Murder wasted no time with words. She strode right up to Tariqartha, unleashed her eye-fire and held him in place. With the Brainrock machete she lopped off his head, let the decapitated body flop to the ground and writhe about for a few seconds, then settled it with her harpoon through the back. She cupped the Dand's severed skull in two of her hands and, without releasing either the noose or hatchet, spoke softly to it.

"I hear you have never been cathonitized, Son of Lazareme. It's an experience you shouldn't miss. Death, on the other hand, is one I wouldn't recommend. It's so everlasting.

"Your body I'll bury. Your head I'll suspend in the air or let sink in the ocean a thousand miles away from here. Your spirit self shall flee toward Cathonia but, before it even gets close to the Sedon Sphere, I'll suck it into my being. Haven't feasted on a devic soul for many centuries, not since Thrygragon as it happens. It'll be a treat."

"Don't go out of your way on my behalf," sputtered the head.

-- also from 'The War of the Apocalyptics'

We are talking Anheroic Fantasy after all!

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April/May 1997

1. Featured Story

John Sundown accepted Raven's long-forgotten saddle bag, rummaged through it, and pulled out a couple of odd-looking items. One was a stone tomahawk with a leather wrist-strap; the other was an atlatl, an arm-length spear-thrower complete with perforated bannerstone weights, balance disc, finger loops and a dozen short spears tipped with flint arrowheads.

Like the witch's cut-anything knife, bow, and arrows, the weapons once belonged to Sundown's childhood bride, Solace nee Sunrise. In her own way, in her own time, Solace had been a great or greater medicine woman, -- 'sorciere' was the Metis term she preferred --, than her fellow sister in Anthea.

He returned the atlatl and hatchet to the witch but held onto the bag and the rest of its contents. "Please keep these. As my wife desired, I no longer count coup the way I once did."

"I understand," said Wilderwitch. Like virtually all of the others, Sorciere did not believe in killing. If she had, she might still be alive!

-- from 'The War of the Apocalyptics'

Forty-two years earlier, in 'The Moloch Manoeuvres', Sorciere is still alive, -- though maybe not for much longer!

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2. Introductory Remarks

Good Afternoon, -- well, it's afternoon right now, right here, as I'm writing this.

It's the May long weekend and the traditional start of summer in Vancouver. Kits Outdoor Pool has just opened and, for a change, it's sunny and warm enough to enjoy it. One of my personal traditions on this day is to knock the winter's cobwebs off my 25 year old ten-speed and, helmet-less, take my first ride of the season. Hopefully I won't get arrested as there's been a law recently passed hereabouts to make it illegal to ride your bike without wearing a helmet.

My theory on laws, by the way, is that for every one enacted two should be repealed, -- until we get down to the only one that really matters: namely 'The Golden Rule' (which doesn't mean if you have the gold then you should rule). But, then again, I'm not big on laws to start with. Neither, as you might have noticed, are a lot of my characters. Which was one of the subjects in last time's Web-Publisher's Commentary.

While on the topic of subjects (or the subject of topics, if you prefer), this time up's is much more seasonal. It's not fun in the sun as such, -- or under the water either, which is where I was yesterday, scuba-diving for the first time in a decade --, but fun with the sun, as in Helios, as well as with the vast majority of my characters, Donar Lancz being a notable exception. In other words, it's 'PHANTAFUN'!

Before we get to that though, I should mention that I haven't spent a lot of time preparing this installment of PHANTACEA on the Web. (Web-work's more a winter pastime after all.) However, primarily because I didn't get around to putting anything up last month, there are two new episodes of each of the three story sequences currently being serialized out here in Cyberia. Together with their synopses, that's basically it.

So, download the latest chapters of your favourite mini-novel, catch up on them later as your bedtime reading assignment, and spend the rest of your time in here browsing the plethora of material you may have missed last time you checked out PHANTACEA. Everything's easily accessible from either the regular or the framed version of the Main Menu.

And, if you're so inclined, please email me your comments as to what you like, and don't like, about on the Web at jmcp@phantacea.com. You do, I promise to let you know when the next segment comes up and maybe even reprint your comments somewhere hereabouts. So long as I get to add a few of mine own in return of course.

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Lynx to some other Web-Publisher's Commentaries

| Autumn 2002 | Summer 2002 | Autumn 2001 | Spring-Summer 2001 | Winter 2000/2001 | Samplings from other Not So Recent Commentaries | June-March '97 | Feb '97-July '96 |