Macabros

Macabros was a booklet series originally written by the German author Jürgen Grasmück and published under his pseudonym Dan Shocker from 1973 to 1983. From March 2008 to September 2014, Christian Montillon , Dennis Ehrhardt (partly also as Dario Vandis ) and Andrea Bottlinger (as Susanne Wilhelm ) wrote the continuation of the series. The series consists of a mixture of horror and fantasy literature that was unique at the time of the first series (1973-1983).

history

The novels tell the adventures of Björn Hellmark in the fight against demons, monsters and people who are in league with evil. Hellmark had a fatal accident in a car race . Hellmark's inexplicable recovery is accompanied by the appearance of the voice of Al Nafuru, a priest from Xantilon. Al Nafuur reveals to Hellmark that Hellmark is the chosen one, Kaphoon, the son of the dead God , a descendant of the kings of Xantilon, a long-lost island and culture. In his second life, Hellmark follows ancient prophecies of a Xantilonian prophet. He finds allies and weapons against the black priests and their followers who want to subjugate humanity and work against the resurrection of Xantilons. Hellmark gets help mainly from Macabros , his inviolable double made of bioplasma . Hellmark can create and direct macabros through his thoughts; with his help, Hellmark can teleport himself .

Novels

The first series of novels comprises 125 issues. It was published as the first edition from 1973 by Zauberkreis Verlag . For health reasons, Grasmück ended the series for the time being. The slow slump in sales in the novel booklet market in the mid-1980s and a change in the publisher's board of directors meant that the series - contrary to the hopes of the fans and the author - was discontinued.

There were two incompletely finished new editions of the series. First, the first 45 titles were repeated between 1976 and 1980, then between 1982 and 1986 the issues from 1 to 98 were published again. In contrast to the demon killer that was discontinued almost at the same time, the readers were not directly informed of the final termination of the series . Instead, there was only a white area to be seen at the point where the preview of the upcoming episode was usually located. The booklets have been reissued as paperbacks by Blitz Verlag since 2000 . Two novels are summarized in a paperback. Björn Hellmark had one last short appearance in the independent saga Murphy published by Blitz Verlag, later continued in Cassiopeia Press , edited by Jürgen Grasmück himself. It appeared under the title "Beyond Darkness"; Authors: Alfred Wallon and Marten Munsonius . The novels have also been published as e-books by vph eBooks since 2005 and by story2go since 2009.

In the 50th novel in the Rha-Ta-N'mys Leichenschlucht series , Björn Hellmark meets Larry Brent , the main character in another successful series of novels by Jürgen Grasmück. There were other overlaps between the two series. So z. B. Björn Hellmark in the 56th novel: The Corpse Mushrooms come Larry Brents' car in front of the entrance of the PSA headquarters.

With the hero figure of the Miracle , Grasmück created a sub-series within the Macabros novel series, which however did not make it into a series of its own. Some issues of this sub-series were the only Macabros novels that Grasmück did not write himself. Due to the double burden of two series, his poor health and the intention to establish Mirakel as a separate series, the Macabros novels 55, 57, 61 and 72 were written after exposés by authors selected by Grasmück.

Sequence index of the novel booklets

1. The monster maker
2. Curse of the druid
3. Attack of the undead
4. Konga, the human frog
5. The goddess of terror
6. Horror trip
7. Deadfield of demons
8. The ghost caves
9. Rain of blood
10. Duel with the spirits of hell
11. In the corpse labyrinth
12. Molochos carousel of the dead
13. Mandragora, mistress of fear
14. Bone seeds
15. Phantoma, daughter of darkness
16. Host of spirits from beyond
17. Dwylup, city of monsters
18. Bone tunnel into the horror
19. In the mouth of the hell serpent
20. The blood gardens of Sodom
21. Abraxas, curse of the magician
22. Phantom from the invisible
23. Trapped in the dead maar
24. Puppets of Terror
25. Uga, prehistoric beast
26. Elixir of Doom
27. Dead boat to Xantilon
28. In the trap of the Shadow Lord
29. Marubur, lord of the halls of madness
30. Temple of the Petrified
31. The terrible one from the well of the dead
32. Creature of damnation
33. Escape to the ghost swamp
34. Galley of horror
35. Miracle, Man of Secrets (Miracle 1)
36. Tomb of bad dreams
37. Under the demon whip
38. Miracle, phantom from space (Miracle 2)
39. In the dungeon of the witch dragons
40. Valley of a Thousand Tortures
41. Tschinandoah - Where the stones live
42. Hades, lair of the forgotten
43. The horror temples of Skyx
44. Miracle, Lord in the spirit land (Miracle 3)
45. The secret of the gray giants
46. Molochus' blood seal
47. Formicatio - world of calamity
48. The parasite tomb
49. The jellyfish from the micro world (miracle 4)
50. Rha-Ta-N'My's corpse canyon
51. Skelettus - Prince of the Bone Castle
52. Revolt of the bone monsters
53. Skull moon
54. Femgericht of the spherical heads
55. Mysterion of the Soul Catcher (Miracle 5)
56. The mushrooms are coming
57. Demon Plague (Miracle 6)
58. Oceanus, spirit of the black waters
59. The man-eating shadows
60. Dwahl's brain puppets attack
61. When Shimba-Loo's death cry rang out (Miracle 7)
62. Shieba-Loo sends the vengeance demon (Miracle 8)
63. The fire beasts from Kh'or Shan
64. The Ursen madness awakens
65. Xantilon - the ancient continent from the ashes
66. The monster towers of Kh'or Shan
67. Arson - trapped in nothing
68. Apokalpyta's first vision
69. Gigantopolis - nightmare city
70. Ice Storm Land of the Dragon King
71. Spider knights attack
72. Nh'or Thruus Doom Sleeper (Miracle 9)
73. The plasma monster
74. Rainbow People's Crypt
75. Ustur - in the chains of the uncanny
76. Call to Oblivion (Miracle 10)
77. Citadel of Horror
78. Apocalypta's deluge hell
79. The night souls of Zoor
80. The honeycomb monsters
81. Wreck of the nameless gods
82. The magical legacy of the gray giants
83. Apocalypta's deadly armada
84. Horron - continent of the forgotten
85. Oceanus' army of the dead
86. The Horron Barbarians
87. Myriadus, the thousandfold
88. The whispering pyramids
89. Return to the Well of the Dead
90. Den of Doom
91. The plague riders
92. Mandragora's magic gardens
93. Curse of the snake goddess
94. Black witch's cry of death
95. Lost in Dwylup
96. In the arena of the dragon slayers
97. The grave in Lemuria
98. Demon war
99. The soul eater of Lemuria
100. Rha-Ta-N'My's horror center
101. Fall into chaos
102. The darklings of Krosh
103. Fog labyrinth of Tschonn
104. Haunted hell
105. Hunt for the horror idol
106. The glass demons of Etak
107. Murder Clan of Men in Black
108. House of the Cruel Druid
109. Vontox - The magician from Lemuria
110. Fight in the nightmare city
111. Molochos escape into the afterlife
112. Army of the Dead "Nekromos"
113. The madness balls
114. Kaphoon's grave
115. Skorokka - stream into the land of the dead
116. The drug of the gods
117. Rampage of the lost
118. Star castle of the dead God
119. Flee when the shadow man comes
120. Poison sting of the scorpion demon
121. Hell puppets
122. Doc Shadow - spirit of the shadow world
123. The haunted ruins of Maronn
124. Drudan, the mystery maker
125. The magic parchment

Books

In March 2008, Zaubermond Verlag published The Order of the Corpses of Itaron, a continuation of the booklet series of novels. Shortly before his death, Dan Shocker was still involved in the development of this continuation project. The new novels were written, among others, by Christian Montillon , who previously worked on series similar to Professor Zamorra . The series was discontinued in September 2014 with the appearance of the 13th volume.

Itaron - where time coagulates cycle

• Volume 1: The Order of the Corpses of Itaron.
• Volume 2: Ath'krala - Plague breed of Molochos.
• Volume 3: Procession of the Lost.
• Volume 4: The Cursed of Trutzmorodor.
• Volume 5: Rha-Ta-N'my's city of the dead.

The mystery of the demon goddess cycle

• Volume 6: Xantilon death procession of the white priests.
• Volume 7: Swarm of demons of the thousandfold.
• Volume 8: Shab-Sodd's Lying Dreams.
• Volume 9: Hell Dance of the Bony.

The hierarchy of horror cycle

• Volume 10: Phantoma's Snow Creatures. 2012.
• Volume 11: The Killing Curse of the Aanss. 2013.
• Volume 12: Kaphoon's Bloody Tears. 2013.

Graduation tape

• Volume 13: The flying coffins of Rha`loshem. 2014.

Radio plays

Europe

Macabros was also produced as a radio play series on the Europa label in 1983 and 1984. Under the pseudonym Charly Graul , Douglas Welbat , his wife Katja Brügger and Bertram von Boxberg wrote radio play scripts based on the booklets. The novels were especially enriched with humor. Welbat wrote the character of Björn Hellmark, which he also speaks in the radio plays, on his own body, according to an interview. The resulting lively monologues, in which Hellmark addresses the listener or comments on scenes, are one of the reasons for the continuing popularity of the radio play series.

Only 10 radio plays were made. The story goes that the series was discontinued because an episode of the Larry Brent series was indexed and the radio play publisher feared further indexing. The fact is, however, that the last Macabros episode was produced and sold as early as 1984, the Larry Brent episode "The Snake Heads of Dr. Gorgo" was not indexed until 1986.

The radio play series begins with the setting of the second novel, Curse of the Druid .

In its series The Return of the Classics , Europe brought all radio plays from 2000 back onto the market. A number of changes have been made to the radio plays with this release. Pieces of music that could no longer be used due to a legal dispute with the composer Carsten Bohn were exchanged and, in addition to particularly brutal passages, some dialogues were shortened.

Episode index of the European radio plays

1. The curse of the druid
2. Attack of the undead
3. Konga, the human frog
4. The horror trip (mainly includes The Goddess of Terror )
5. The ghost caves
6. The rain of blood
7. Duel with the spirits of hell
8. In the corpse labyrinth
9. Molochos carousel of the dead
10. The bone seeds

Radio plays world

From August 2006 the label Hörspiele Welt released new radio plays based on the novels. Björn Hellmark will be spoken by Simon Gosejohann and Carminia Brado from Nandini Mitra . The first Macabros speaker Douglas Welbat was given an honorary role as Alfred Hellmark, Björn's father. The first episode was the first novel Der Monstermacher with a running time of 136 minutes, in which the origins of MACABROS are explained.

Radio Play World has announced that it will set all 125 novels to music, including the ten episodes that have already been released on the EUROPA label after their license has expired. For this reason, z. B. Episode 5 ( The Goddess of Terror ) as the second episode before episode 2 continued the series.

In June 2012, Hörspiele Welt announced the start of sound editing for episode 7, but this has not yet been published. Since then there has also been no further official information on the continuation of the series.

Episode index of radio plays from Radio Play World

1. The Monster Maker (double CD) (August 2006)
2. The Curse of the Druid (July 2008)
3. Attack of the Undead (September 2008)
4. Konga, the human frog (September 2010)
5. The Goddess of Terror (September 2007)
6. The Horror Trip (May 2012)

Winter time

Since 2015, the material has been set to music and released by Markus Winters Label WinterZeit under the title Macabros Classics in the form of audio books that are typical for WinterZeit and expanded with game scenes and music. Brigitte Carlsen is the narrator, Dennis Schmidt-Foss , Christian Rode and Andrea Aust can be heard in the scenes from the game .

After the Macabros Classics series started in 2015 and was initially discontinued, it will be continued from January 2017 as a joint production with MARITIM-Verlag and the R&B Company. Episodes 1 and 2 were reissued in January 2017 and appeared together with episode 3. Another episode is then planned every two months. WinterZeit AUDIOBOOKS plans to continue to produce the series in the lead in the same style. There should be some more game scenes, as there are no longer any restrictions due to legal constraints.

Episode index of the radio plays by WinterZeit

1. The Monster Maker (double CD) (2015, January 2017).
2. The Curse of the Druid (double CD) (2015, January 2017).
3. Attack of the Undead (double CD) (January 2017)
4. Konga, the human frog (double CD) (April 2017)
5. The Goddess of Terror (August 2017)
6. The Horror Trip (September 2017)
7. Demon Dead Field (November 2017)
8. The Ghost Caves (January 2018)
9. Blood Rain (March 2018)
10. Duel with the spirits of hell (2018)
11. In the corpse labyrinth (2018)
12. Molochos' Carousel of the Dead (2019)
13. Mandragora, Mistress of Fear (2019)
14. Bone Seed (2019)
15. Phantoma, Daughter of Darkness (2020)
16. Hosts of Spirits from Beyond (2020)

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} From demon hunter to space hero - an interview with one of the most versatile fantasy authors in Germany. Interview with Christian Montillon, conducted by Florian Hilleberg on Feb. 7, 2008.
2. ↑ ^{a b} Florian Hilleberg: The flying coffins of Rha'loshem. Reviewed by Literra, September 16, 2014.
3. ↑ Interview with Jürgen Grasmück.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) at: natuerlichvoneuropa.de
4. ↑ Interview with Douglas Welbat. In: forklift driver Klaus - The first day at work. Anolis DVD 2002.
5. ↑ Macabros ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , List of changes and abbreviations of the radio play texts at Hoercuts.de, accessed on May 26, 2015.
6. ↑ Production diary on hoerspiele-welt-macabros.de , accessed on February 10, 2016.
7. ↑ Macabros Classics series on the WinterZeit Audiobooks website , accessed on February 10, 2016.
8. ↑ Markus Winter: No more DAN SHOCKER productions - “LARRY BRENT-Neuefalls” continues as a radio play series. In: winterzeitstudios.de , July 18, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017.
9. ↑ Markus Winter: The MACABROS CLASSICS are back !. In: winterzeitstudios.de , October 13, 2016. Retrieved February 20, 2017.

Web links

• gruselromane.de Information, reviews, ratings on the novels and radio plays