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March 1997

1. Featured Stories

So, what's the big deal about Dolly?

"How are our projects doing?"

"Much as we anticipated. If anything, too well. I'm afraid Hulga has seen them, -- twice, possibly three times now. And over a period of a few months."

"My wife, who has spoken to the little witch, hinted at that. And I don't like this bit about Lancz becoming interested in her."

excerpt from a conversation between Loxus Abraham Ryne and Baron Tyrtod von Alptraum (January 13, 1938) -- from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'

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Can souls be xeroxed?
-- headline for an article in Time Magazine, March 10, 1997

Cerebrus snapped conscious almost as soon as they turned the corner. "Bloody strange," he mumbled.

"What'd you say, David?" asked Thalassa.

"Bloody strange sensation," he elaborated. "I don't know how to explain it really. I was there then I wasn't then I was again. Like my mind was just photostatted. I feel violated."

"Maybe you finally got a taste of your own trash, kid," smirked Aires.

excerpt from a conversation between Cerebrus David Ryne and the Terrible Twins (December 3, 1980) -- from 'The War of the Apocalyptics'

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2. Introductory Remarks

First off, welcome back, if you've been here before; greetings, if this is your first visit to PHANTACEA on the Web. While we're only about halfway through the first two 'Launching' serials, the first book in 'Heliodyssey' is now four 'subsections' shy of completion. As promised however, I've been deleting earlier chapters of all the story sequences for the last couple of months, -- in fact, the 'Helioddity' material has been gone for quite awhile already. Of course the synopses for everything that's been online are still there, plus entries for the five new installments that I've just put up. Lots of good reading this time around therefore.

There's also some new graphics, the usual additions to various character listings, adjustments to the slots where I put some of my previous Web-Publisher's Commentaries, where I put the new ones, and some notes on past PHANTACEA projects. Of particular interest to those who, like me, tend to get lost in someone's web-pages, I've constucted a framed version of the Main Menu.

Though I can't test it out properly until I go online, theoretically this will allow those of you who have browsers that can 'read' frames to retain a side link to anywhere connected from the Main Menu to the depths of whatever's still available on these web-pages. [No theory any more. It works fine]

I recently spent a lost weekend trying to organize faster loading graphics, which inevitably led me to revamp many of my web-pages however slightly. [Didn't take, -- the faster loading graphics, I mean --, but that's another story, one I don't feel like getting into right now.] Serves me right for taking a course in Advanced HTML, I suppose. For the future, with a little more work of course, I should be able to construct an interactive form that runs off the Index page (where the counter is). This will allow you to click in if you want to be notified everytime I put up a new installment of PHANTACEA ON THE WEB.

Maybe next time. For now though, let's get on with the subject at hand. Which is:

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3. 'Ants, Anheroics, and Anarchism in PHANTACEA' has been moved to Anarchism's very own webpage.

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4. A Quick Note on Graphics

As I wrote when I was talking about the so-called 'Spear of Destiny' and 'Serendipity', I was in Vienna last September and took a few decent snaps that I said were in that month's contribution to PHANTACEA ON THE WEB. Guess what? They weren't! Some of them are in this installment of 'Postcards from the Present' however.

Got a shot of one of Medea's lamia from an Egyptian sarcophagus and surprisingly good likenesses of Magister Joseph Mandam (left), complete with what might be an eye-stave, and (right) his much younger brother-in-law, Abe Ryne, to name three of them. It was also in Vienna that I spotted Jervish Murray, as Ian Bateson first drew him, Mystery Might (Clymene Atreides, Laodice's mom), and Vayu Maelstrom, Devil Wind, -- though not in the proverbial flesh. In Seventeenth Century paintings by Peter Paul Rubens, no less! Check out 'Character Likenesses' for a boo and, by the way, the balding, bearded guy in the Mystery Might painting is a fair representation of what Old Joe might have looked like without his hood.

In the same place, 'The Kunsthistorische Museum', I found passable approximations of such characters as Hush Mannering, Pyrame, Mater Matare, Alpha Centauri, and even Count Molech as he might appear later on in 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'. This last, a painting by Floris signed and dated 1565 ('The Last Judgment'), might come in handy if ever decide to take a stab at designing a cover for 'Manoeuvres'. All the central character in this painting really lacks is a serpentine lower body and some appropriately daemonic bat-wings.

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February 1997

1. Featured Story

"Once you're past witches and warlocks, mystery rites that actually have some validity, Persian Magi-Magicians and doomsday-serious sorcerers, vampires and werewolves, fairies and frights, Antheans and Afrites, genies and Afreets, the Rhinegold and treasuries of the pagan gods, -- are devils and angels so hard to accept?"

- Hulga once Faust always Volsung to Baron Tyrtod von Alptraum (January 13, 1938) -- from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'

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2. Introductory Remarks

So, the idea was to put up the latest installments of the various serial sequences, do three new story synopses, and leave it at that for the time being. I signed up to take a course on preparing graphics so that next time around (March/April) I'd have a much more appealing website. Then the old 'aft gang agly' bogey made an appearance and the course got cancelled due to a lack of local interest. So it was back to the drawing board, the graphics board more like, to try a couple of tricks I'd read about.

I hope the results are quicker loading graphic summaries for 'The Launching of the Cosmic Express' and 'Heliodyssey', as well as for the 'Postcards from the Present' and 'Character Likenesses' features, -- but I won't really know until I load up and have a gander at the goose; proof, pudding, and all. Also, although the previous warning re graphics will remain somewhat in effect, all the heavily image-oriented webpages are now accessible from PHANTACEA's Main Menu.

Partially to make up for my na(t)ive bungling and slowness when it comes to keeping up with keeping up on the times, I've thrown in a bonus story his month, albeit one without a synopsis as yet, from 'The Moloch Manoeuvres'. Finally, as the slow bits are mostly over in the other serials (there never were any 'slow bits' in Apocalyptics), the only other addition to the site is a new section entitled: 'Devils and Saints, Supras and Deviants'. That's where you'll eventually find listings by group affiliations, some images, and character descriptions for just that, just them (which is most of my characters, in one way or another) -- a webpage henceforth to be known as DSSD.

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December 1996

1. Introductory Remarks

I'm back, batteries recharged and with likely more than just a temporarily-renewed confidence. It's been three months since I updated PHANTACEA on the Web but, for those of you who've been popping in and finding nothing new or wondering if I've abandoned web-publishing, I trust you'll find the wait worthwhile. There are a lot of reasons for the delay, however, it's at least partially because I bought and had to learn how to operate some new additions to my system. One was a program that not only lets me type straight to HTML but to transfer my stories to it as well. Turned out I only used it for the latter purpose because I couldn't figure out how to transfer my previously written HTML stuff accurately. Maybe by next time. Besides, better the deva you know and all that.

I also splurged on a scanner. Which, while it should save me a bundle of bucks, not to mention time, in the long run, together with the upgrades needed to make it work, cost me my Annual Spring Vacation. [Yeah, yeah. Poor, poor, pitiful me; cry me a river; and so on.] Still, it'll be worth it, assuming I decide to keep going, -- though, without putting too jagged an edge on it, that's by no means a certainty. Recidivistic optimist that I am however, I'm still expecting to see some encouraging (read: financial) rewards somewhat closer than the horizon if you happen to be stuck in the doldrums in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The other thing about graphics, self-scanned or hired out, is that they take up tons of space on your home PC; a subject I'll get to momentarily.

Note: the masks I scanned in by Robert Davidson for this installment have gone the way of the two 'Helioddity' stories. They may well still be out there in vapourland somewhere but they're no longer available from here. Apologies have been made, -- and are hereby made again.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying there are three new story installments, hopefully with no glitches in any of them, seven new synopses, lots of new images, and additions to the two graphic summaries that I started compiling back in August for 'The Launching of the Cosmic Express' and 'Heliodyssey'.

Finally, during my hiatus from web-publishing, I completed the latest version of 'Coueranna's Curse', the third book in the (projected) Heliodyssey Tetralogy. As well as any other still available PHANTACEA product, you can get it on disk, now theoretically in the word-processing program of your choice, for ten dollars U.S. As an added incentive, while supplies last, I'll throw in copies of PH-2, 3, & 4 as well as a copy of Phase One #1 (and only) at no extra cost. How's that for a deal!

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2. A Note on Graphics

Although I'm a very visual kind of guy and would like to see my stories illustrated, chapter-by-chapter at the very least, when it comes to graphics I may be going somewhat overboard out here in cyberspace. For example, as you may have noticed, the full-sized colour images of the old comic book covers do take a long time to load. I've therefore altered a few links so that you have to hit an anchor command to get to the big ones after you come to a smaller one on a page otherwise devoted mostly to text.

With reference to Manoeuvres, yes, there really is a Tomb of Cecilia Metella in Rome and, yes, she was the daughter of the Roman Conqueror of Crete and the daughter-in-law of Marcus Linius Crassus. The severed head of this Croesus of a Crassus was cleaned out, filled with molten gold, adorned with jewels, and sent back to Rome with words to the effect of 'I believe this is yours' -- hey, would I lie to you?

The Tower-Tomb does have a circular, tholos-like configuration, a deep pit called, interestingly enough, an abaddon (like the Angel of the Bottomless Pit in Revelations and like the Unity of Chaos in PHANTACEA), which with minor work would be suitable for a Taurobolium Ceremony, and sculpted oxen or bulls heads at its entrance.

There is such a thing as Brainrock, only the underwater boulder of the Godstuff that I snapped in the Caribbean wasn't glowing at the time. The Mycenaean Tomb of Agamemnon, which is where the Celestial Superior took Memory of the Angels in 1916 to be Trigregos-tested, is shaped liked a huge beehive and has an antechambre with some kind of rock-altar in it. As well, so does the only nearly intact Tholos Ghost-Guest House I located in Crete during October's Travels in My Pants.

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September 1996

It's vacation time so really all that's new this month are installments from the four serials being presented on the Web: 'Centauri Island', 'The War of the Apocalyptics', 'The Moloch Manoeurvres', and 'Helioddity'. Sorry, but there's no synopses for these yet. That'll have to wait until October.

Plans are still afoot for everthing promised last month, though it'll probably take until November before any of them are realized. So keep reading. And send any comments you might have to jmcp@phantacea.com.

 

Is a baby's babble the Universal Tongue? Is the Faerie Goddess of War really called Baby? Were all ancient pantheons actually one? Were the gods and goddesses, the demons and monsters of mythologies, devazurs -- what were reduced to the status of devils by early Christians and their confederates, Illuminated Xuthrodites and Anthean Witches, during the Dark Ages? Were they reborn during the Summoning of 1920? If Genesis is at all accurate, the Universal Tongue would have to be Babel and one of the Irish (Celtic) Morrigans was named Badhbh (bibe), which certainly sounds like Baby. As for the rest of it, -- sorry, that'd be telling. You'll have to follow the Saga of the Summoning Children every month, right here in 'PHANTACEA on the Web', to find out!

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August 1996

This is the third time up for PHANTACEA on the Worldwide Web. There is not a lot of new material this month but plans are afoot to keep folks coming back to this Website even if they aren't following any of the stories. For example, the Terms Pages are ever-expanding and new images are being taken from the Web to bolster their already considerable good looks. Something else to entice you back is that, come November at the latest, there will be new images taken from the original comic books and the graphic novel, 'Forever and Forty Days'.

A 'Web-Friendly Bibliography' is being constructed and, on every page you hit, there is already a way to send your comments to me at jmcp@phantacea.com. Also in the planning stages is a feature tentatively entitled 'Postcards from the Present'.

These images won't be postcards as such; will be actual pictures I have taken on my various jaunts around the western world. Don't think Brainrock/Gypsium exists? Hey, I've a picture of a Brainrock Boulder, -- only it isn't glowing. (Must be my cheap camera.) What about eye-staves? Look no further than Terms for a depiction of one made well before Christ was born. (No, I wasn't there, -- but devils , at least in PHANTACEA, were!)

By the way, if you're not ready to read any of the story serials right now but are curious about what's going on in the PHANTACEA Mythos, check out the 'Heliodyssey' and 'The Launching of the Cosmic Express' Webpages for visual recapitulations. Finally, if you really want to read my monthly commentary, here's the place.

All that said, as promised, there are new installments from three of the four serials being presented on the Web: 'Centauri Island', 'The War of the Apocalyptics', and 'The Moloch Manoeurvres'. The debut story from 'Helioddity' (though it's actually from 'Kore's Curse' , the third book in the projected 'Heliodyssey' Tetralogy) is still up and, for the last month, so are the opening chapters of the other three serials.

 

As in the tried-and-true tradition (and inspiration) of movie serials, each installment of these effectively Web Wheaties ends in a cliffhanger and, next time around, a synopsis will be provided as to what went on previously. These synopses will remain, month after month, but the chapter and story cereals previously put on the Web will be replaced by new ones.

Of course you can save yourself the bother of tuning in every month by ordering disks containing the complete text of each book!

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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 |

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Current Web-Publisher's Commentary

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

PHANTACEA: THE WEB SERIALS

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Last Updated: Summer 2006

Written by: Jim McPherson -- jmcp@phantacea.com
© copyright 1996-2006 Jim McPherson (PHANTACEA)

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