Thursday, November 27, 2014

Crossover Covers: Challenger Storm

Two of Derrick Ferguson's Dillon stories, which have several crossovers bringing them in, have references to MARDL (the Miami Aerodrome Research & Development Laboratories), the organization headed by Don Gates' New Pulp hero Clifton "Challenger" Storm. Both of the two Storm novels published to date have crossovers. In the first novel, Isle of Blood, set in mid-September to early November 1933, a flashback has Storm learning about his parents' deaths after having dinner at the Mortimer Club. The Mortimer Club is from "Dorothy's New Friend," an episode of the sitcom The Golden Girls, which takes place in Miami. The Golden Girls also brings in Empty Nest and Nurses via crossovers, as well as its spinoff The Golden Palace. In the second novel, The Curse of Poseidon, set in November 1933-January 1934, Storm and the members of MARDL travel to their advanced ship the Independence aboard Flying Platform #1 (F.P. 1), whose skipper is Commander B.E. Droste. F.P.1 was once the subject of sabotage by a spy named Damsky, but Droste’s old friend Ellissen and his future wife Claire Lennartz helped save the day. F.P. 1, Droste, Damsky, Ellissen, and Claire are from the 1933 film F.P. 1 Doesn’t Answer, based on Curt Siodmak’s novel F.P. 1 Does Not Reply. A government agent asks Storm to take on a mission related to Miskatonic University’s expedition to Antarctica. This implies that the third book may be a sequel to Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness.

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