Gutbrain Records

Thursday, 06 April 2006

For a while I've been keeping an eye on this independent publishing company called Black Coat Press. They publish a range of material but what interests me most are their translations of early and obscure French pulp fiction.

Take for example Paul Féval's 1862 novel Jean Diable, published in English by Black Coat Press a few years ago as John Devil, which anticipated Fantômas. Another interesting title is Arnould Galopin's Doctor Omega (Le Docteur Omega), published in France in 1906 and perhaps a prototypical Doctor Who.

Last week I found out that Black Coat Press is also publishing French comics in English translation. Their Hexagon Comics Library promises more than 40 volumes of comics first published in France between 1963 and 2003.

I discovered this by finding the first volume of Wampus on a bookstore shelf. Wampus is a shape-shifting alien, in service to a mysterious and malevolent cosmic entity, who comes to Earth for the sole purpose of terrorizing — and ultimately destroying or enslaving or something — humanity.

The first volume contains the first four issues of the 1969 comic-book series. Wampus goes to a different country in each, getting more evil and destructive with each succesful act of destruction and mayhem. He visits France, Germany, the United States and Japan.

There is an amusing moment when Wampus is in New York City. He spends some time looking around and checking out the scene. Eventually he sits on a bench by the Hudson River and thinks, "There's so much chaos and anarchy here that my presence is almost unnecessary..."