Ambrosius

Real Name: Professor Ambrosius

Identity/Class: “Normal” human being, stretching the definition of “normal” quite a lot.

Occupation: Griezoloog (Horrorlogist, a well advanced student of the nasty aspects of the paranormal.)

Affiliations: Head of Griezologisch Genootschap (Horrorlogical Society); Hong Tong (sidekick/servant).

Enemies: Enemies? If your work, passion and hobby is the entering of the tombs of vampires, lairs of unmentionable horrors and the hiding places of monsters, the interviewing of murdering spirits and you consider the arrival of a supernatural black ship as a tourist attraction, you don’t get enemies who want to be close to you, unless it are those awful people pretending to be an interesting horrible monster for something as mundane as simply counterfeiting, deceiving a poor horrorlogist looking for a real horror to investigate. The entities you investigate may however prove to be extremely dangerous and uncooperative…

Known Relatives: None (as far as I know, but as the series has been restarted after a quarter of a century in the same style I’m not sure about that)

Aliases: None known

Base of Operations: His house, probably somewhere in the Netherlands

First Appearance: Pep1 (1970)

Powers/Abilities: No powers, his handicap is that he is TOTALLY unafraid of the most horrible things, which leaves him a much clearer head than most when confronted with, for instance a hungry werewolf. Clear? In those circumstances he is exalted until the poor creature has turned out to be a fake or has fled from this brave researcher. Ambrosius is clearly seen as a superhero, not because he has any paranormal powers as such, be it that he has very solid knowledge about them, but because he shows in his profession almost impossible courage... or is it courage? He is the character most willing to meet death by the jaws of a werewolf, the hands of a zombie or the tentacles of an Elder God, while making notations... He is simply superbrave, well educated and cool headed.

His knowledge of the more horrible aspects of the supernatural, really body and soul ripping horror, is immense, probably among the most complete in the world, so that it can well be seen as a power.

History: “According to old established custom the Horrorlogical Society gathers on Friday the Thirteenth to involve themselves with dark experiments and horrible things…”, are the words launching this series about the most dedicated Society of true students of the horrible aspects of the paranormal ever seen in comics and their leader, Professor Ambrosius. The first adventure, involving the purchase of a truly haunted house by the society, leads to Ambrosius experimenting with the summoning of spirits, which does not go too well, a ruin is blown up and Ambrosius fails to find a ghost, therefore he goes to the Near East to buy spirits. In his search for the spirits he meets Hong Tong and hires him for financial reasons.

Comments: Ambrosius is the President (or Chairman) of the Griezologisch Genootschap, a Society which seems to have just 13 members at the start of the series, including the late Dr. Frankenstein. Other known members are Herr Spoekenspeller, the librarian of the Society with a Hochdeutsch accent (the spelling of his name appears to be highly variable); Madame Astra Clair, a medium and only known female member; Fu-Du Manchu, Eastern philosopher; Comrade Kletsnjet, ghost master (who is probably not human, and perhaps not even real...); Uche Uche, native American Medicine Man also known as Old Puf Puf (who keeps trying to use Madame Clair as a servant), and Dr. Scalpatus, cynic medic in a horned mask.

Hong Tong, the professor's assistant is a) Chinese, b) Yellow, c) Small, d) Greedy(Dutch comic!), e) TERRIBLY afraid of Paranormal Horrors, f) a martial arts master, capable of taking on an entire gang without fear or possibility of defeat or a real undead vampire, if unaware of the identity of his opponent.

Ambrosius has been published in French too.

http://www.lambiek.net/brugman_g.htm

http://www.webing.tmfweb.nl/strips.html

Profile by Theodoor Westerhof.

Bill Scott notes "The Professor Ambrosius in the comic PEP 1 seems to be the same Professor Ambrosius that appeared in the 1967 Roman Polanski film "Dance of the Vampires" (AKA The Fearless Vampire Killers). Not only do they share the same attributes - super-bravery/ingenuity in the face of evil - but the cartoon Ambrosius looks very much like the character in the film played by Irish actor Jack McGowran.

So added to the History could be : In the late 19th Century Ambrosius travelled to Translyvania and attempted to destroy the "King Vampire", Count Krolock. Unfortunately his mission was an utter failure in that his assistant was turned into a vampire and Ambrosius unwittingly transported him out of Transylvania and thus spread the plague of vampirism to the outside world.

See here for details of the film - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061655/ "

While it's by no means certain that the two identically named Professor's are the same character, it does seem a huge coincindence if, at the minimum, the comic one wasn't inspired by the movie one.

CLARIFICATIONS: Not to be confused with

• Ambrose, youthful looking magician from the Elementals universe

Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.

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