The PHANTACEA MythosThrygragos Varuna Mithras as Sol Invictus(Plus shots of a few characters who might object to that presumption) |
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Winter 2006/71. Featured Story: "Rafting
Towards Medusa" |
Image Map: Click on individual graphics in the collage for the Cyberian equivalent of teleportation |
PHANTACEA on the Web- written by Jim McPherson © copyright 2007 Jim McPherson |
Introductory RemarksGreetings. Welcome or welcome back. Somewhat disturbingly, the Winter 2006/7 update of 'pHpubs' marks the entry of PHANTACEA on the Web into its second decade. (If you're in the slightest curious as to the contents of some of its earliest updates, then do be a goose and have a gander at this click.) To order any of the PHANTACEA Mythos Print Publications that are still available, click here. (There's still no way to pay online but I'm working on it.) Next door is the usual Hestia Housekeeping subsection of 'pHpubs'. Immediately below is an alphabetical list of lynx to a number of typically idiosyncratic mini-essays and/or Character Likeness studies I've prepared over the years for on the Web. They illustrate some of the peculiar perspectives I've developed while writing the PHANTACEA Mythos. Contact me [jmcp1749@hotmail.com] and feel free to ask any questions you might have regarding PHANTACEA. I'll do my best to answer them either directly or right here in 'pHpubs'. PHANTACEA Essentials
"Manitoulin's a manatee," said Sorciere. "Actually I'm right here." The blind Cheyenne Shaman was standing on the beach grinning happily. "And Horny Head's her own self. Her name too. Also isn't all manatee. Or all narwhal for that matter." "Has some faerie blood in her," Sorciere confirmed. "Can shift shapes. Quite the beauty, isn't she?" Bump on the head must have been worse than Barsine thought. Had addled her senses. She thought to swoon. Didn't bother. Not because it would give Vetala an easy out either. Didn't want to waste the time. It was much more interesting being conscious right now. Wouldn't want to miss that. Barsine had never seen a unicorn before. Let alone one walking out of the sea. -- from 'Rafting Towards Medusa', the fifth chapter of 'The Vampire Variations' |
Hestia Housekeeping- What's New Intro - Porcine Bats - Feel Theo Progress - Elsewhere Conclusion - Hestia Housekeeping amounts to the 'What's New' section of pHpubs. Consequently I always start it with a 'What's Old' link to where I put its previous update. Now that that's done, we can get on with this edition of Hestia Housekeeping. So what is new in the Winter 2006/7 edition of PHANTACEA on the Web? Primarily, though hardly exclusively, the answer is, surprise, surprise, a whole bucketful of housekeeping items. I say that because, for the first time since 2002, I've revised my home page (the Online PHANTACEA Primer). Which necessitates a link to where the old primer page can be found. As one might expect from something subtitled the home and prime picture gallery page, the new one is so image-intensive it comes with its own warning. It also come with somewhere in the vicinity of 60 lynx. In my view a PHANTACEA web gallery is thoroughly overdue. Truth told, which I always strive to do, I long ago lost count of the number of images I've put up in the now 10- plus years of on the Web. Without actually counting them up, I'd venture there are at least 200 of them by now. Google.Ca has shots of about 40. Since many were taken from my aforementioned, '02-'06 primer page, I figured one of their robots had detected it. As a result of said figurations, I decided to provide a different 40 at the same URL link-site. I did so mostly for the experimental sake of seeing if Google would add the new ones and/or replace the previous ones. If I remember to do so, I'll let you know come summer the endgame of that experiment. Top of Page - Top of Hestia - On to Topic
One image you won't find in any of them is the Porcine Bat to the right of this paragraph. I shot it at the Dublin airport back in 2005. It fits nicely with cracks made by Sorciere (born Solace Sunrise), Bat-Bait (born Barsine Mandam) and everyone's favourite, ever-fishifying Fisherwoman (born Scylla Nereid) over in 'The Vampire Variations'. Which reminds me of something I noted in the Summer of 2006 edition of pHpubs. Sooth said, which means much the same as truth told, I still haven't reread either Vamvar or 'The Volsung Variations', the two Web Wheaties, as in serials, I'm currently presenting out here in Cyberia. However, the PHANTACEA fact of the matter is that, while I haven't finished their teasers as yet either, I have begun their synoptic summary sections. Quite the pair of interrelated sagas they are too, even if I do say so myself. For example, the first four chapters of Volvar constitute some of the most entertaining fight sequences I've written since, well, the PHANTACEA comic books. Either that or the end of "The War of the Apocalyptics"; which, let's face it, was almost wall-to-wall with fight sequences. Needles to say, best get to reading them while they're still online and available for your fee-free perusal. You definitely don't want to miss the debuts of Faerie Flight, Bumble Bums, Mara Macha and old Nuke, though I'm sure there are Socks of Supras who wished they'd foregone the pleasure. Top of Page - Top of Hestia - On to Topic As for "Feeling Theocidal", I had the original draft evaluated. I then took the summer off writing while I contemplated what came back. Next I buggered off to Brazil for 5 weeks in mid-autumn. Put it this way, it's a whole lot longer than it was once. It's also currently making the rounds of literary agents. In the meantime, the image map up top and its counterpart collage down below in the topic section depict Feel Theo's main character(s). That'd be the VAM Entity, who's been around as long as the PHANTACEA Mythos has been around, which is nearly three decades and running now in terms of print-publishing. (Yes, pH-1 came out in the Fall of 1977.) Much of the text accompanying it, and the other image-laden mini-essay in the topic section down below ('The Demons of Salvador'), comes from the novel. Together, they're as close as we'll come in this edition of pHpubs to copping a feel for the real Feel Theo deal. Top of Page - Top of Hestia - On to Topic There are some thought-quotes in Serendipity, though. Plus, there's an external link to a museum you might want to check out online prior to your next trip to Salvador, Brazil. As for what else is new this time around, there's now a list of lynx to the gold-mining boxes found scattered throughout PHANTACEA on the Web. I've also added some material on Tanith Silverhair, who finally starts coming into her own in Volvar. The aforementioned Demons of Salvador constitutes the start of a Brazilian TIMP that I'm working on for next time and I'm sure I've bundled bushels of brilliance more into this edition of pHpubs. That is to say I think I have. I have mentioned my ongoing difficulties with memory (not Human Memory, nor any of PHANTACEA's myriad other Memories) haven't I? Seems I've already forgotten! The synoptic summaries of Volvar and Vamvar would be where I started looking for all this bundled brilliance. The day-glo lynx speckling them are bound to take you somewhere you've never been before on the Web. Feedback encouraged. Oh and, lest we forget, as always, good reading. Top of Page
- Top of Hestia - On to Mosaic
Novels - On to Topic
Stories and Synopses'The Volsung Variations''The Vampire Variations'Top of Page - Top of Hestia - On to Mosaic Novels - On to Topic |
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Lynx to complete mosaic novels within the PHANTACEA Mythos whose potential covers, background information and introductory chapters are still online
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A Collection of Mini-Essays and Character Likeness Studies specific to "Feeling Theocidal" | |||||||
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"Feeling Theocidal" began life in the mid-80s as a 2-part backup strip for the PHANTACEA Phase One Project. As noted on the 25 Years Plus webpage, I abandoned Phase One after only one issue due to a suddenly once again precipitous market. (I collected the backup strips that Ian Fry did complete in the 1990 graphic novel entitled "Forever & 40 Days - The Genesis of PHANTACEA", which can still be ordered.) I wrote a prose version of the basic story for Feel Theo in the early 1990s. Again a 2-parter, I thereupon serialized it as the first and the last chapters of "The Trigregos Gambit". (Entitled Thrygragon, their synopses remain online.) Indeed, 'Thrygragon - 4376 Year of the Dome' is Feel Theo's subtitle. All of which brings me to this time around's character likeness study featuring 'The VAM Entity'.
Here's what he has to say to the, arguably, 'M'-guy maybe a quarter of the way through Feel Theo. (NOTE: Whenever he appears in the PHANTACEA Mythos, Smiler always talks in bold-italics.)
Here's an abbreviated version of the rest of their conversation.
And, other than there's a much earlier, albeit now slightly modified, entry on the 'The VAM Entity' elsewhere, that's about all I care to mention re their, to say the least, strained relationship. As for the image above, at some point during Feel Theo Mithras transforms himself into "a resplendent celestial, the 3-eyed, 30-foot tall, living embodiment of Sol Invictus." He's wearing the Mask of Byron and Lazareme's Cloak of Many Colours. He's holding onto his labarum, the Cross or Crutch of Mithras. All three are somewhat different than I depicted them in the feature I did on the Thrygragos Talismans in the Summer 2006 edition of 'pHpubs' . That's to be expected. Devic power foci are nothing unless they're transmutable. (NOTE {mostly to myself}: Never spell the plural of power focus as 'focuses' because it's a noun, not a verb. You focus with a camera or with your eyes. In that regard, as tempting as it may be, never spell the plural of talisman as 'talismen' because my Funk & Wagnalls doesn't consider that a word.) With reference to the image's caption: Stynx is here whereas the Sedon Sighting is here and the first version of the Cross or Crutch of Mithras is here. A larger shot of the 'V'-guy is here, the latest Mask of Byron is here, the original Star Cape is here and the sun-circled demon is here. Ahriman (Smiler) is represented by the spooky, winged, Icarus-like figure rising skyward behind Mithras as Sol Invictus. A larger shot of Rio de Janeiro's instigatory Icarus can be found here. An unadulterated shot of Rio's famous Giant Jesus ('Cristo Redentor') can be found here. | |||||||
The Demons of Salvador(Setting - Tralalorn's Stynx - Multi-Horns - 2-Faced Demogorgon)Please consider this a foretaste, something to hold you over until I do a full meal deal 'Travels in my Pants' ('TIMP') on my Autumn 2006 trip to Brazil. Salvador da Bahia, as I
believe it's more correctly called, is probably most famous for the deadly
'dance' of Capoeira and as a centre for the practise of what's reputed
to be a sort of voodoo known as the rituals of Candomble, both of which
can be googled for more information. There's an upper and a lower city that you can pass between by using the Lacerda elevator. The Market Modelo or main market's in the the lower city. Just outside it I encountered the section-titular Demons of Salvador. No, they don't wander about freely. They're on a series of tables and walls. In other words, they're handicrafts designed, ostensibly anyhow, to ward off the scary things they resemble. At least so I was informed. [Sectional Note 1: In the PHANTACEA Mythos, third generational devils solidify themselves by occupying the subtle matter bodies of de-brained demons. [Sectional Note 2: I also strive, not always successfully, to differentiate between agathodaemon and cacodemon. The former (daemon) are more indifferent than benevolent whereas the latter (demon) are man-eaters.] What follows, along with some highly edited selections taken from "Feeling Theocidal", is a sampling of the wares presented in or on handicraft booths outside of Salvador's Market Modelo. Put better, it's a sampling of the 'bewares' presented there! Top of Page - Top of Topic - On to Trala's Stynx
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Gold-Mining Boxes |
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6. Graphics: Footnotes and off-page links:
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7. Sites with Loads of Graphics:Google.ca supplies what amounts to a pH-Webworld web gallery. Just go to http://www.google.ca/, hit the images link and type in PHANTACEA. Pasting into the address area of your browser the following Url might work as well: http://images.google.ca/images?q=phantacea&hl=en&lr=&c2coff=1&start=100&sa=N&filter=0 PHANTACEA on the Web is chock-a-block with visuals. Good places to ogle artwork from the comic books and graphic novel are One to Six, 'Twenty-Five Years Plus' and what began as 'The Genesis of PHANTACEA' webpage. Most of the other graphics are scans I did of my own photographs or material I put together using PHOTOSHOP. All the essays are loaded with images. Try out the framed version of the Main Menu. You won't go anywhere else but, then again, you won't get lost either.
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8. Latest List of Lynx to some previous Web-Publisher's Commentaries| Winter 2006/7 | Summer 2006 | Winter 2005/6 | Summer 2005 | Winter 2004/5 | Summer 2004| Spring 2004 | Autumn 2003 | Summer 2003 | Autumn 2002 | Summer 2002 | Autumn 2001 | Spring-Summer 2001 | Winter 2000/1 | February 1999 | November 1998 | August 1998 | Samplings from other Not So Recent Commentaries | June-March '97 | February '97-July '96 | |
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