Who is Fantômas?

French pulp fiction fans have been scratching there têtes over that one for 90 years. About ten years after the turn of the century Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain wrote a monthly novel about an arch villian, Fantômas, terrorizing Paris with impeccable cunning and horrendous deeds. It was a huge hit and spawned numerous movies and a TV series. The French don't have a huge horror tradition, but an interesting fact about the Fantômas novels is horror as a key element - they contain gruesome and bloody murders. Fantômas is also the inspiration for such Euro characters as Kriminal and Diabolik (see Satanik for more info on these guys). The Fantômas Lives website is great and has tons of pictures and information in English.