FANTOMAS is the Emperor of Crime, the Lord of Terror, the Genius of Evil, the nihilistic anti-hero of a series of sublime pulps, books brimming with motifs of the "marvellous": nuns, coffins, severed hands, daggers, masks, bells that bleed, corpses, poison flowers, gloves of human skin, lunatics and labyrinths. Fantômas loves criminal atrocities and random acts of "beautiful-compulsive" violence, carnage on a mass scale, outrageous theft, arson and destruction, virtuoso displays of terrorism and chaos compounded by the brutality of the Paris street-gangs under his command. FANTOMAS: THE CORPSE WHO KILLS (Le Mort Qui Tue, 1911), the third and perhaps most inventive book in this astonishing series, was acclaimed by the Surrealists for its dream-like imagery, wanton cruelty, and gallows-black humour. This new edition includes a detailed introduction on Fantômas and the Surrealists.
