Rebels in Hell

Marilyn Monroe as she is represented in fiction.

Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1960s however,... a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other media. Stories involving , paranormal magic and terrible monsters have existed in spoken forms before the advent of printed literature. Homer's Odyssey satisfies the definition of the fantasy genre with its magic, gods, heroes, adventures and monsters. Fantasy literature, as a distinct type, emerged in Victorian times, with the works of writers such as William Morris and George MacDonald. J. R. R. Tolkien played a large role in the popularization and accessibility of the fantasy genre with his highly successful publications The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings . Rarely does one consider modern fantasy without conjuring the memory and image of Tolkien and his creations. Tolkien was largely influenced by an ancient body of Anglo-Saxon myths, particularly Beowulf, as well as modern works such as The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison.
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Bangsian fantasy is a fantasy genre which concerns the use of famous literary or historical individuals and their interactions in the afterlife. It... is named for John Kendrick Bangs who often wrote it. According to E. F. Bleiler, in his 1983 Guide to Supernatural Fiction, "Bangs' most noteworthy achievement was a contribution to literary typology: the so-called Bangsian story, in which important literary and historical personalities serve humorously as characters in a slender plot line. Bangs did not invent this subgenre, but his work gave it publicity and literary status". This definition does not take into account that some of Bangs' stories took place in the afterlife. Jess Nevins' 2003 definition in Heroes & Monsters: The Unofficial Companion to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen says it is "a fantasy of the afterlife in which the ghosts of various famous men and women come together and have various, usually genial, adventures", which closely agrees with Rama Kundu's 2008 definition. ARSDnet suggests it is a fantasy "which focuses primarily on the exploration of the afterlife and possibly where various ancient and influential figures ended up in the scheme of things.
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