Edith Piaf liked to sing about la vie en rose, "life in pink," in other words, life seen through rose-tinted glasses. This volume of Tales of the Shadowmen is another kind of song altogether, one dedicated to la vie en noir, the darker side of life. And what could be darker than the Black Coats, that sinister brotherhood of criminals and their legendary treasure, a malignant self-aware entity that is the embodiment of greed and avarice? But the Treasure of the Black Coats is not the only dark facet of life covered in this volume. You will also find twenty stories about the evil Fantomas and...

This dual nature of the vampire, stretching between love and death, creates a moral ambiguity which is omnipresent in its literary treatment, incorporating and contrasting seduction and horror, heroism and villainy. It only reflects the nature of life after death, and how it is perceived by its surrounding culture. Is it a desirable dream, or a hateful abomination? A reward or a punishment? And what price must one pay for such survival? The stories contained in this collection, featuring some of the most famous vampires in literary history, incorporate all of these contradictions; in them,...

The stories contained in this collection, featuring some of the most famous vampires in literary history, incorporate all of these contradictions; in them, vampires can be both super-human and sub-human, sexual predators and impotent, romantic and passionate, and yet devoid of soul. Ultimately, the vampire is our own face, reflecting in the mirror of our beliefs, the incarnation of our spiritual choices. stories by Matthew Baugh, Henri Be, Anthony R. Cardno, Matthew Dennion, Win Scott Eckert, Brian Gallagher, Micah S. Harris, John Peel, Steven A. Roman, Brian Stableford, and Jared Welch with...

Rudolf Kesselbach, a South African billionaire, is murdered in a Parisian palace. Arsene Lupin is framed for the crime, and must escape from the clutches of the wily M. Lenormand, the head of the French Surete, while looking for the real murderer, an enigmatic figure dressed in black who signs his crimes "L. M." Both Lupin and L. M. also seek to acquire Kesselbach's secret which may completely overthrow the political map of Europe, the key of which is encapsulated into a mysterious cryptogram: 813. 813, written in 1910, is Arsene Lupin's greatest adventure, taking him from the prison of La...

Stormshadow introduces the tale of a man who survives a car crash, but finds himself trapped in a private clinic at the mercy of its lunatic owner, the terrifying Doctor Despair. The Doctor seeks to use him as a pawn in a monstrous scheme of revenge against the wife who once betrayed him. The hero struggles to save her, but in Doctor Despair's asylum, no one is ever sure of what is a lie and what is the awful truth... Doctor Despair is a comic-book adaptation of a classic French horror novel by renowned author Marc Agapit.

Sang Froid, i.e. Cold Blood The ability to stay calm in difficult or even dangerous situations... as exhibited by French sleuth Joseph Rouletabille aboard the transiberian "Horror Express..". Or martial arts master Caine and Jed Puma confronted by an insane plan to seize the Wild Wild West... Not to forget the great warlock Quentin Moretus Cassave coming face to face with the Dark Gods, Doctor Omega determined to solve a most enigmatic temporal murder, SAr Dubnotal battling Dracula, and Sir Wilfred Ivanhoe sworn to defeat the evil Bishop of Aquila...

All this, plus the return of...