League of Monsters
Pub Date: October 2022
Mechanoid Press
The Monsters
Count Dracula
Frankenstein’s Monster
A reluctant werewolf
A gill creature
Following a desperate final battle with Professor Abraham Van Helsing, Count Dracula is destroyed and entombed in a secret mountain monastery. In the intervening century, a group of Van Helsing’s acolytes create the Order of Van Helsing to protect the world from Dracula’s return as well as other supernatural threats.
In the 1950s, wealthy businesswoman and leader of the Order Moira Harker, a descendant of Jonathan and Mina Harker, descends on the monastery with a mercenary team to retrieve Dracula’s body. Pulling the stake from his heart, she causes him to reconstitute and uses a powerful magic artifact to keep him under control. Her reason for reviving him: to save the world.
Moira has brought together humanity’s nightmares, a so-called League of Monsters–to protect the world from human monsters. A group of Nazis has banded together in the wake of World War II to gather occult artifacts so they can, at last, fulfill Hitler’s dream of a Third Reich. They call themselves the Last Reich. Not every story needs to deal with this group of Nazis. There can be other evildoers hatching any number of sinister plots as well, as well as other monsters showing up to menace our unlikely heroes.
To stop them, Moira has assembled the most fearsome creatures in history:
Count Dracula
Frankenstein’s monster.
A somewhat reluctant werewolf.
A gill creature, accompanied by its beautiful telepathic handler.
Monster Origins
Frankenstein’s Monster
After a final battle in which he killed his creator, the sad creature wandered the frozen north in a grief-stricken daze, at last returning to more temperate climes. He joined the crew of a merchant ship, where his size and strength were a great help to his fellow sailors. He did this for a couple of decades but was tired of this life as the aging crew began to resent him for not showing any signs of age. He tramped across Europe, coming to terms with the fact that he might be functionally immortal. He lived on his own for the first half of the twentieth century, shunning crowds because people were afraid of him. He ran into a traveling carnival run by a man calling himself Professor Prospero. Prospero used his powers of mesmerism to hypnotize Victor Frankenstein’s creation, turning him into a mute, mindless brute and used him in his sideshow.
He remained Prospero’s prisoner for many more decades until Moira Harker and Count Dracula tracked him down. Prospero attempted to ensorcell the vampire, whose own powers of mental manipulation were far beyond his own, and Dracula killed him, freeing Frankenstein’s Monster from the man’s spell. Feeling great guilt over not only what Prospero made him do, but the murder of his creator, FM swore unending fealty to Moira and her cause and accompanies the team on their various missions.
FM is well-read, thoughtful, and erudite. He has tasked himself with becoming familiar with the occult lore they will need to know to do battle with the forces of darkness. He goes by the name Henry Clerval, but everyone has taken to calling him Hank.
The Gill Creature – Discovered by a research team searching for a cancer drug in a remote section of the Amazon, the creature was brought to a Florida aquarium for study, where it was befriended by a beautiful marine biologist named Dr. Stephanie Gordon. They developed a telepathic link, whereby the creature shares its thoughts and feeling with the use of “word pictures.” Feeling sorry for it, Dr. Gordon helped it escape, and the pair were further aided by Moira Harker, who funds Dr. Gordon’s research in exchange for getting the creature to help in her cause.
The Wolfman – Ned Nyland didn’t want any of this. A journalist researching a werewolf sighting in the Catskills, he was bitten and turned. He wandered the world seeking a cure (like the Hulk) until he encountered Moira Harker, who promised to find a cure if he would use the wolf to help her. Ned has a crush on Dr. Gordon, which is another thing in his life he feels powerless to do anything about. The gill creature loves her too, which makes for a weird love triangle.
Character Descriptions
Moira Harker
Age: 32
Height: 5’11
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Occupation: CEO of Harker Industries; monster hunter
Moira bears a striking resemblance to her great-great-grandmother Mina Harker, a fact which Dracula reminds her of constantly. She is a multi-millionaire, owner of a medical supply company among other concerns, and uses this vast wealth to hide the League. As the last surviving member of the Order of Van Helsing, she is skilled in hand-to-hand combat, all manner of weaponry, and several styles of martial arts.
The Seal of Van Helsing-an amulet containing a powerful ward or geas that repels vampires. She wears it at all times and gave one each to Ned and Stephanie. Dracula won’t bother with FM because he’s an amalgam of dead flesh and chemicals, or the gill creature because he’s part fish. He’s also wary of biting Ned for fear of what might happen when a vampire bites a werewolf or vice versa.
Count Dracula
Age: 521 (looks 45)
Height: 6’1″
Hair: black
Eyes: brown
Occupation: Vampire
In this version, Dracula was finally killed by Van Helsing when he drove a stake through his heart and buried him on holy ground in a secret monastery high in the Transylvanian Alps. The monestary was abandoned before WWI, leaving Dracula’s crypt unguarded. Moira found it and reconstituted him, so he feels both in her debt and frustrated that he can not claim her as his next prize.
Dracula is astonished by how far and how fast the world has moved on in his absence, and, after learning about both WWI and WWII, is convinced that mankind has done more harm to itself than he or his kind ever could. He has decided that the Nazis were the true monsters, and vows to help Moira stop them if only so he can go back to being the only creature mankind should fear.
He loves this new, less sexually repressed time, but still affects an old-world aristocratic air and is overly formal, especially with women, who find his demeanor charming, until it’s too late. Moira keeps his bloodlust in check by providing him with bags of blood from her medical supply company. He’d rather have it pumped warm from a still-beating heart, but at least this way he won’t die, and his vampiric powers stay at their peak when needed to make the world safe for democracy.
Powers and Abilities
Drac’s powers here hew closely to those in Bram Stoker’s book. He can go out in the daytime, but his powers are greatly muted. He can eat regular food and drink, though he must drink blood to maintain his vampiric abilities and his immortality.
Frankenstein’s Monster
Age: 162 (apparent age indeterminate)
Height: 7’1″
Hair: black
Eyes: grey
Occupation: Librarian
FM is a giant with a gray, sickly pallor. He is also covered in old scars at the wrists, neck and other joints. goes by the name Henry “Hank” Clerval, taken from a friend of his creator, Victor Frankenstein. One of Moira’s companies provides him with dark custom, tailormade suits and special shoes, making him slightly better dressed than his Universal and Hammer counterparts. He is sensitive and quiet, but well-spoken when he does speak. He acts as the League’s librarian, keeping the Order’s often disheveled occultic records in some semblance of order, and he always studies up on whatever new supernatural or occult menace the League is about to face. He is strong and powerful but shuns violence as only a last resort because it reminds him not only of the murder of his creator by his hands but the years he spent in the thrall of the mesmerist Prospero. He has been rendered functionally immortal by the process that created him, though he is certain that he could be killed, and is especially afraid of fire.
Gill Creature
Age: unknown
Height: 6’1″
Hair: none
Eyes: yellow
Occupation: Missing link
This gill creature looks more like one of Lovecraft’s Deep Ones than Universal’s Creechie (in fact, he might be one). In typical gill creature fashion, he is a sickly green and covered in scales, with big webbed–and clawed–feet and hands. Like Creechie, he doesn’t speak, but unlike Creechie, communicates telepathically with Stephanie Gordon through what she calls “word pictures.” He has developed a strong bond with Dr. Gordon bordering on the romantic and is jealous of any other man who gets close to her. He will go to violent lengths to protect her when he perceives she is in danger, even if the danger isn’t real.
Evolved to live in the high pressure of deep ocean depths, the gill creature is immensely strong and can survive out of water for up to an hour. He has both gills and lungs, and can survive in both fresh and salt water.
Ned the Wolfman
Age: 31
Height: 5’9″
Hair: brown
Eyes: brown
Occupation: Reporter; werewolf
Ned Nyland was a tabloid journalist investigating a werewolf sighting in the Catskills when he is attacked and bitten by the legendary creature. Now when the moon is full he becomes a werewolf, and has traveled the world ever since seeking a cure for his peculiar condition (think the Incredible Hulk TV series). He gets on Moira’s radar when he breaks into one of her labs seeking a serum he read about and encounters Moira and Dracula. Dracula and the wolf fight, and Moira sedates him. When he regains consciousness (and human form), Moira enlists him to her cause, promising to find a cure in return for his–and the wolf’s–abilities.
He became smitten with the lovely Dr. Gordon soon after their first meeting but cannot get up the courage to do much about it, and she is unaware of his affections. He is afraid of the creature lurking inside him as well as the creature protecting her.
As the wolf, Ned keeps a somewhat human appearance, just like the classic Universal Wolfman.
Dr. Stephanie Gordon
Age: 30
Height: 5’7″
Hair: blond
Eyes: Green
Occupation: Marine biologist
Dr. Stephanie Gordon is beautiful, with curly, short blond hair, long legs and an athletic build. She is a strong swimmer, which serves her well as a marine biologist. Being a woman in a male-dominated field has its challenges, which she overcomes by being smart, clever and assertive.
League of Monsters HQ
Every super-secret league of monsters needs a super cool hideout. When not traveling the globe in a private plane the League resides in a secluded mansion near the New Jersey pine barrens. An airstrip and hangar on the grounds houses Moira’s plane, which she pilots. The bottom floor has a pool for the gill creature that connects via tubes to other parts of the house.
A Note on the Stories
We’re shooting for pulpy action adventure with a classic horror vibe. Not all the stories have to deal with the Last Reich. You may create other baddies as well. Use your imagination. Go nuts. You may include other monsters if you want. Golems, mummies, an invisible man. If you want to include an occult artifact from history run it by me first so that everyone doesn’t choose the Spear of Destiny.
The Down and Dirty Details
6k-10k
Standard Manuscript Format
Email stories to jamespalmerbooks@gmail.com as an attached doc or docx file. Subject Line: League of Monsters
Payment: Royalty Split
Deadline August 15, 2022