A
meeting about bank robberies being committed by a group of young
radicals is held in the offices of Ward Keane, District Attorney of
Plymouth County. The criminals are later put on trial for murder,
with Special Assistant Attorney General Terry Gleason acting as
prosecutor. The landlord of the Broad Street Grille is quoted in the
Boston
Commoner. Keane
and Gleason were first mentioned in Higgins’ novel Impostors, which also features Roger Kidd from Higgins' Jerry Kennedy series. The first book in that series, Kennedy for the Defense, has a reference to Robert B. Parker's P.I. Spenser. The
Boston
Commoner newspaper
appears in a number of Higgins’ books, including the aforementioned
Impostors;
the Jerry Kennedy series; Wonderful
Years, Wonderful Years;
Victories,
a sequel to the novel Trust;
and Bomber’s
Law.

The Crossover UniverseTM is a companion blog to the books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1-2 by Win Scott Eckert, and the forthcoming Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1-2 by Sean Levin. Material excerpted from Crossovers Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2010-2014 by Win Scott Eckert. All rights reserved. Material excerpted from Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2014-present by Sean Levin. All rights reserved.
Thursday, December 31, 2015
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Crossover Cover: Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist
This ten issue miniseries is a reimagining of Flash Gordon’s first trip to Mongo. In this particular issue, the Phantom and Mandrake have a cameo. This story is irreconcilable with Alex Raymond's original tale, and therefore must be placed in an AU.
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
Crossover Movie Poster: Ricochet
Newscaster
Gail Wallens does a report on discredited Assistant District Attorney
Nick Styles. Gail first appeared in the movie Die
Hard,
which is already in the CU via the appearance of Sgt. Al Powell in an episode of Chuck. Mary Ellen Trainor played Gail in both
films, which were also cowritten by Steven E. de Souza and
co-produced by Joel Silver.
Sunday, December 27, 2015
Crossover of the Week
Today marks my 700th post on this blog. Thanks to everyone who follows this site. In honor, of this occasion, I am doing something a little different for the Crossover of the Week. Instead of sharing a write-up from the main timeline, I am going to provide an excerpt from one of the addendums, "The Anno Dracula Universe and Character Guide."
Anno
Dracula 1968: Aquarius (in
Anno
Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha,
Titan Books, 2012)
- Kate Reed
- Kôr (kingdom ruled by Ayesha, aka She Who Must Be Obeyed, in novels by H. Rider Haggard)
- Jerusalem’s Lot (’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King)
- Gamma Bomb (source of Dr. Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk in stories published by Marvel Comics)
- Bali Ha’i (Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as the musical South Pacific)
- Frank Mills is the title character of a song in the stage musical and film Hair
- Algernon Ford (The Reverend Alexander Algernon Ford; Gavin Reed, The Body Beneath)
- Horatio Stubbs is featured in a trilogy of novels by Brian Aldiss
- Seaton Begg is Michael Moorcock’s alternate reality counterpart to Sexton Blake
- Compact magazine is from the British soap opera Compact
- Bikini Girl magazine is from the film The Night Caller
- Wow Magazine is from the film Cover Girl Killer
- Fred Regent (Richard Jeperson’s policeman sidekick in Newman’s Diogenes Club stories)
- Jim Graham (Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard; Graham is a fictionalized version of Ballard himself)
- B Division and Pickering are from R. Chetwynd-Hayes’ book The Monster Club
- Herrick (William Herrick; Jason Watkins, Being Human)
- The Diogenes Club
- Detective Superintendent Bellaver, Detective Sergeant Griffin, and Keith Kenneth (Alfred Marks, Julian Holloway, and Michael Gothard, Scream and Scream Again)
- Premier Torgu (Ion Torgu; Fangland by John Marks)
- Lord Ruthven
- Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
- Abraham Van Helsing
- Morgan Delt (David Warner, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment)
- Nezumi first appeared in "Anno Dracula 1923: Vampire Romance"
- Arthur Bryant and John May are members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit in novels by Christopher Fowler
- Mycroft Holmes
- Richard Jeperson
- Donna Rogers (Anna Massey) and the Midnight Mess restaurant are from the film The Vault of Horror
- Geoff Brent (Geoffrey Brent; Ian Hendry, Police Surgeon)
- The Crimson Executioner (Mickey Hargitay, Bloody Pit of Horror)
- Carol Thatcher (Janet Lynn, Cool It Carol!)
- Geneviève Dieudonné
- Waldo Zhernikov (Herbert Lom, The Frightened City)
- Hogarth, aka Big Bloodsucker Hog (Peter Egan, Big Breadwinner Hog)
- The Living Dead motorcycle gang is from the film Psychomania
- Inspector Hornleigh (protagonist of a 1930s radio show)
- George Dixon (Jack Warner, The Blue Lamp and Dixon of Dock Green)
- Jack Regan (John Thaw, The Sweeney)
- Timothy Lea (Robin Askwith, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Pop Performer, Confessions of a Driving Instructor, and Confessions of a Summer Camp Councillor; Askwith also played Joe Sickles in Cool It Carol!)
- Peter Steiger (Ralph Arliss, Blood Relations)
- University of Watermouth (The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury)
- St. Bartolph’s and Laura Bellows (Caroline Munro) are from Dracula A.D. 1972
- Walter Goodrich and Doctor Holstrom (Peter Cushing and Edward Woodward, Incense for the Damned)
- Caleb Croft and James Eastman (Michael Pataki and William Smith, Grave of the Vampire)
- Professor Bowles-Ottery (Leo McKern, A Jolly Bad Fellow)
- E. B. Fern is a science fiction author played by Harold Kasket in "Amazing Stories," an episode of the British television anthology Red Letter Day
- Tom Choley was played by Paul Angelis in a six-part adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel A Dog’s Ransom on the anthology series Armchair Thriller
- The Winchester is from the movie Shaun of the Dead
- Neville Hetherington (Robert Crewdson, Her Private Hell)
- Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines, Virgin Witch)
- Sixth Form Girls in Chains, Zarana and Lady Celia (Lady Celia Asquith-Leaves) are from Newman’s story "Soho Golem"
- The Science of Sex is from the movie Deep End
- Bathtime with Brenda is from the movie Terror
- Thomas Nolan is David Hemmings’ character from the film Blow-Up (Newman provided him with his surname, which is the same as that of Hemmings’ character in The Charge of the Light Brigade; Hemmings named one of his sons Nolan in honor of that role)
- Lucy Westenra
- Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing, Corruption)
- Baron Meinster (David Peel, The Brides of Dracula)
- Clive Landseer (Alexis Kanner, Goodbye Gemini; the "white-blonde male and female twins who 'came together'" are Julian and Jacki Dewar, played by Martin Potter and Judy Geeson)
- Syrie Van Epp (Elizabeth Shepherd, The Corridor People)
- The Fevre Dream is from George R. R. Martin’s vampire novel of the same name
- Sebastian Newcastle (Don Sebastian de Villanueva, from vampire novels by Les Daniels)
- Herbert von Krolock and Professor Abronsius (Iain Quarrier and Jack MacGowran, Dance of the Vampires aka The Fearless Vampire Killers)
- Mrs. Michaela Cazaret and Tom Lynn (Ava Gardner and Ian McShane, The Ballad of Tam Lin)
- Paul Durward (Shane Briant, Captain Kronos–Vampire Hunter)
- Canon Copely-Syle (To the Devil a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley)
- Emir Abdulla Akaba was played by Henry Soskin in the "Death a la Carte" episode of The Avengers
- Plainview Oil is a reference to the film There Will Be Blood
- Berkeley-Willoughby (Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, The Adventures of PC 49 radio series)
- Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas, Two Weeks in Another Town)
- Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff, Targets; his role of Clayface is meant to evoke Basil Karlo, the first of several Batman foes to use the name Clayface, who modeled his masked persona after the character he played in the horror film The Terror, which is also the name of Byron Orlok’s last film)
- Countess Addhema (The Vampire Countess by Paul Féval)
- Toby Dammit (Terence Stamp, Spirits of the Dead)
- The Daughter of the Dragon (Fah Lo Suee, daughter of Fu Manchu; her alias of Lin Tang is the name given to Fu’s daughter in the Harry Alan Towers-produced films in the late ‘60s, in which she was portrayed by Tsai Chin, while her role as Thomas Nolan’s personal assistant is a reference to Chin’s appearance as Thomas’ unnamed receptionist in Blow-Up)
- The Lord of Strange Deaths (Fu Manchu)
- Barbara von Weidenborn (Evelyne Kraft, Lady Dracula; her pseudonym Barbarushka is a reference to 1960s fashion model Veruschka, who appeared as a fictionalized version of herself in Blow-Up)
- Edwina (Edwina Lionheart; Diana Rigg, Theatre of Blood)
- Marcus Monserrat and Mrs. Monserrat (Boris Karloff and Catherine Lacey, The Sorcerers)
- Hugh Conway and Shangri-La (Lost Horizon by James Hilton)
- Shambhala is from Tibetan and Indian Buddhist mythology
- K’un-L’un is the adopted home of the Marvel Comics hero Iron Fist
- Kent Allard
- "The secret of killing via shouting" is a reference to the film The Shout
- Catherine Cornelius is the sister of Michael Moorcock’s adventurer and secret agent Jerry Cornelius
- Moira Kent ("The Dancing Life of Moira Kent," strip in the British comic Bunty)
- Fontaine Khaled (The Stud and The Bitch by Jackie Collins)
- Sir Billy Langly was played by Kevin Brennan in "The Human Time Bomb," an episode of the television series Doomwatch
- The Steel Claw is a British comics character
- Vanessa is Richard Jeperson’s lovely companion
- Charles Beauregard
- Danny Dravot
- Whitney is Whitney Gauge from Newman’s "Moon Moon Moon"
- Maureen is Maureen Mountmain from Newman’s "Seven Stars"
- Louise-Ésperance is Madame Louise Ésperance "Mama-Lou" d’Ailly-Guin from Newman’s "The Serial Murders," which is also the source of Corri (Professor Barbara Corri) and The Northern Barstows
- Quelou is Mademoiselle Quelou from Newman’s Doctor Who novel Time and Relative
- CI5 is from the British television series The Professionals
- WOOC(P) (The Ipcress File by Len Deighton)
- The Circus is from the George Smiley novels by John le Carré
- Universal Exports is the front for the British Secret Service in the James Bond novels
- The Section is from the TV series Callan; David Callan’s boss is known as Colonel Hunter
- Sandbaggers are a reference to the British spy TV series The Sandbaggers
- Scalphunters are a reference to le Carré’s Smiley novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
- Edwin Winthrop
- Mildew Manor is from Kim Newman’s story of the same name
- James Manfred, O.B.E. (James Cossins, Raw Meat aka Deathline)
- The Department of Administrative Affairs is from the British sitcom Yes Minister
- Nicholas Dyer (Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd)
- Professor Elwyn Clayton (George Zucco, Dead Men Walk)
- Faber College is from the film National Lampoon’s Animal House
- Santonix (Rudolf Santonix; Endless Night by Agatha Christie)
- Harry Paget Flashman
- Horatio Hornblower
- George Edward Challenger
- Sir Francis Varney
- Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall, Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream)
- Dru is Drusilla (Juliet Landau) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Ricky Strange (Steve Patterson) and Groover’s are from the film Au Pair Girls
- Mina Harker
- Kostaki ("The Pale Lady" by Alexandre Dumas)
- Styles, the Haymarket Strangler (Edward Styles; Michael Atkinson, Grip of the Strangler)
- Constable Thackeray is from the Inspector Cribb novels by Peter Lovesey
- Eric DeBoys was played by Patrick Mower in The Avengers episode "A Sense of History"
- Cathy Castel and Pony Tricot are meant to be the vampires played by Catherine and Marie-Pierre Castel in several films directed by Jean Rollin; "Pony Tricot" is one of Marie-Pierre’s stage names.
- Howard W. Campbell Jr. (Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut)
- Miss Brabazon (Sheila Keith, House of Mortal Sin)
- Scrawdyke (Malcolm Scrawdyke; John Hurt, Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs)
- Withnail (Richard E. Grant, Withnail & I)
- Moïse King is a combination of Moise from the film The Party’s Over and King from the film These Are the Damned; both roles were played by Oliver Reed
- Simon Armstrong (The Feast of the Wolf by Thomas Blackburn)
- Anna Franklyn (Jacqueline Pearce, The Reptile; Pearce also played Marianne Gray in "A Sense of History")
- Fran (Marianne Morris, Vampyres)
- Roquentin (Antoine Roquentin; Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre)
- Elizabeth Bathory
- Hesselius (Dr. Martin Hesselius, In A Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan LeFanu)
- "The vanishing police box" is the Doctor’s TARDIS from Doctor Who
- The Mother of Tears is from Dario Argento’s film trilogy consisting of Suspiria, Inferno, and Mother of Tears
- Carmilla
- Edward Langdon, MP (Lennard Pearce, Face of Darkness)
- Dr. John Hardy (Marius Goring, The Expert)
- Lionel St. Dubois (Lorenzo "L. S. D." St. Dubois; Dick Shawn, The Producers)
- Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern, Rumpole of the Bailey)
- Joe Hawkins is the protagonist of the Skinhead novels by "Richard Allen," a pen name for James Moffat
- Adam Cochran (Dracula and the Virgins of the Undead by "Etienne Aubin," also a Moffat pseudonym)
- Reginald Bird (Ronald "Budgie" Bird; Adam Faith, Budgie)
- Peter Craven (Malcolm McFee, Please Sir! and The Fenn Street Gang)
- Fullalove of the Gazette (James Fullalove; Paul Whitsun-Jones, The Quatermass Experiment; Brian Worth, Quatermass and the Pit)
- Stenning of the Express (Peter Stenning; Edward Judd, The Day the Earth Caught Fire)
- DCI Charlie Barlow (Stratford Johns) and New Town are from the TV series Z Cars and its many spin-offs
- Sergeant Lynch (James Ellis, Z Cars)
- Jasper Lakin was played by John Laurie in The Avengers episode "Brief for Murder"
- Perryman (Det. Sgt. Perryman; Michael McStay, No Hiding Place)
- North (Det. Sgt. Bill North; Roger Rowland, Special Branch)
- The Bowmans, from the titular episode of the British sitcom Hancock, is a parody of the radio soap opera The Archers
- Sister George is from the play and film The Killing of Sister George
- Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham, Dracula A.D. 1972; Joanna Lumley, The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
- Marcus Obadiah (The Dead Travel Fast by Richard Tate)
- Kingstead Cemetery is from Dracula
- The India-Rubber Men are from Edgar Wallace’s novel of the same name
- Graf von Orlok (Max Schreck, Nosferatu)
- John Blaylock (David Bowie, The Hunger)
- Orlon Kronsteen (They Thirst and "Makeup" by Robert McCammon)
- Mavis Weld (The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler)
- Biff Bailey (Roy Castle, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors)
- Marcel DeLange (Martin Kosleck, House of Horrors [no relation to the above])
- The Gorilla of Soho is from the 1968 German film of the same name
- Renfield
- St. Swithin’s and Michael Upton (Barry Evans) are from the television series Doctor in the House and Doctor at Large
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Case of the Gilded Fly
Gervase
Fen has an epiphany about the murder he is investigating, and hopes
Gideon Fell never becomes privy to his lunacy. The
reference to John Dickson Carr’s sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell reinforces
Fen’s inclusion in the CU.
Friday, December 25, 2015
Crossover Cover: PulpWork Christmas Special 2014
This
special from PulpWork Press includes three stories with crossovers.
In
Josh Reynolds' Royal Occultist story "The Teeth of Winter,"
Charles St. Cyprian, hunting down a man-eating wendigo in Alberta
alongside his assistant Ebe Gallowglass and the elderly Native
American gunfighter Lone Crow, makes the third Hloh gesture. St.
Cyprian first met the Inuit angakkuq Ukaleq in London, before
the War, when he was an assistant to Thomas Carnacki. St. Cyprian and
Lone Crow discuss Dr. Silence. St. Cyprian traces the sacred shape of
the Voorish Sign in the air. Lone Crow appears in weird Western
stories by Joel Jenkins. Hloh is from Margery Lawrence’s stories
about occult detective Miles Pennoyer. Thomas Carnacki is from
William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder,
while Dr. Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection John
Silence. The Voorish Sign is from H. P. Lovecraft’s story "The
Dunwich Horror."
Just
as Reynolds' story features a character created by Joel Jenkins,
Jenkins' own contribution to the special is a Royal Occultist story.
On Maitress Island, St. Cyprian and Gallowglass battle the God of the
Dark Burgeoning Deaths. St. Cyprian notes, "Professor Moriarty
Moreau is said to have possession of a fragment of the Pnakotic
Manuscript which contains directions for sealing portals without the
use of human blood." Bella Mae Jobson of the Royal
Archaeological Society comes to St. Cyprian and Gallowglass’ aid.
St. Cyprian and Gallowglass are from the Royal Occultist stories by
Josh Reynolds. Professor Moriarty Moreau’s connection to Professor
James Robert Moriarty and Doctor Alphonse Moreau is unknown. The
Pnakotic Manuscript is from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Bella
Mae Jobson, originally from P. G. Wodehouse’s Drones Club story
"The Editor Regrets," first encountered St. Cyprian and
Gallowglass in Reynolds’ story "Deo Viridio."
The
final story relevant to this blog is "Dillon and the Night of
the Krampus" by Derrick Ferguson. Dillon and his friends Wyatt
Hyatt and Reynard Hansen battle a Krampus in Reynolds, Alaska. Dillon
receives a puppy from Hoover, a man he met years ago. Dillon once
sought out a man named Jim Anthony in New York to learn certain
specialized knowledge from him. Professor Ursula Van Houghton, who
teaches at Grand Lakes University, has been hired by the people of
Reynolds to help them deal with the Krampus and recover their stolen
children. Dillon took some courses in archaeology and cultural
anthropology at the University of Northeastern California under
Professor Sydney Fox. Hoover is Alaska Jim Hoover from the German
pulp magazine Alaska Jim, Ein Held der
Kanadischen Polizei. Jim Anthony appeared in
the American pulp Super Detective.
Dillon first met Alaska Jim and Jim Anthony in the novel The
Vril Agenda, coauthored by Ferguson and
Reynolds. Grand Lakes University is from the movie Back
to School. The University of Northeastern
California is from the sitcom Undeclared.
Professor Sydney Fox is from the television series Relic
Hunter.
Happy
holidays!
Thursday, December 24, 2015
Crossover DVD Cover: Lupin III vs. Detective Conan
Arsène
Lupin III and amateur sleuth Shinichi Kudo, aka Conan Edogawa, become
involved in an investigation into the death of Queen Sakura and
Prince Gill of the kingdom of Vesparand. Conan’s best friend and
would-be love interest, Ran Mori, is a dead ringer for Princess Mira. Shinichi
(or Jimmy in the English dubbed version) Kudo, aka Conan Edogawa, is
from Gosho Aoyama’s
manga
Detective
Conan (aka
Case
Closed)
and its anime
adaptation.
Philip José
Farmer
identified Lupin III’s grandfather, Arsène
Lupin, as a Wold Newton Family member, and therefore this crossover
brings Conan Edogawa into the CU. Lupin
and Conan encounter each other again in the film Lupin
III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Crossover Cover: Ghost of a Dream
The
field agents of the Carnacki Institute investigate a haunting at an
abandoned theater that is up for renovation. Julien Advent, the
Apocalypse Door, the Droods, and Area 52 are mentioned, and Alistair
Gravel appears. The
Carnacki Institute is named after the title character of William Hope
Hodgson’s Carnacki
the Ghost-Finder.
The Apocalypse Door was destroyed by the Drood family in Green’s
Secret
Histories novel
From
Hell with Love.
Julien Advent is from Green’s Nightside novels; he is meant to be
adventurer Adam Adamant, from the television series Adam
Adamant Lives! The
Area 52 referred to in Green’s work is located in the Antarctic,
and thus is probably meant to be the same one seen in the Image
Comics miniseries of the same name. Alistair Gravel is probably meant
to be a relative of combat magician William Gravel from Warren Ellis’
comic Gravel.
Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Crossover Cover: Radiation Wipeout
Matt
Hawke, the Avenger, makes reference to meeting Mark Hardin, the
Penetrator. The Penetrator battled a descendant of Dracula in Quaking Terror, so this crossover brings in the Avenger (not to be confused with the Wold Newton Family member who used that name, or Jim Brandon from the radio series The Avenger). The
fifth book in Cunningham’s Avenger series was published in 2012,
and updated the character so Hawke served in Afghanistan rather than
Vietnam. However, it can be assumed the novel’s events actually
take place in the 1980s, as did its predecessors.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Crossover Cover: I Spy Something...Boo!
Scooby
and the gang team up with Secret Squirrel and Morocco Mole to
apprehend a ghost that repeatedly attempts to disrupt a treaty
between two rival nations. Jonny Quest is mentioned. Secret and
Morocco are anthropomorphic animals, and therefore I place this story
in an AU.
Sunday, December 20, 2015
Crossover of the Week
1911
THE
WHITE LADY OF POURVILLE (LA DAME BLANCHE DE POURVILLE)
Detective
Sexton Blake and his apprentice Harry Dickson travel to Pourville to
investigate the appearance of what seems to be the legendary White
Lady, whose gaze drives men mad. Dickson befriends Adèle
Blanc-Sec. Dickson and Adèle travel to Tiffauges to research the
history of Gilles de Rays, and are told about de Rays and Joan of Arc
by Doctor Jules de Grandin of the Faculty of Forensic Medicine of
Paris. A false de Rays proves to be the archcriminal Fantômas,
who is told to surrender by a policeman named Juve. Fantômas’ plan
involved a Subatlantic locomotive, designed by the great French
inventor, Arsène Golbert, and sabotaged by William Boltyn, the
leader of the so-called “billionaires’ conspiracy.” The alleged
White Lady is actually the mentally ill Paulette Arnaud, whose sister
Thérèse works for the French Secret Service. Most of the cases of
madness suffered by those who encountered Paulette were actually
caused by an Indian poison called Rajaijah.
Short
story by Michel
Stéphan appearing as “La Dame Blanche de Pourville” in in Les
Compagnons de L’Ombre (Tome 10),
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012, and then
in English in Harry
Dickson vs. the Spider,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Harry
Dickson, “the American Sherlock Holmes,” was the subject of
German, Dutch, Belgian, and French pulp magazines, the latter written
by Jean Ray. Sexton Blake is one of the most famous British penny
dreadful detectives. G.L. Gick’s story “The Werewolf of
Rutherford Grange” revealed Dickson served as an apprentice to
Blake in his youth, before he struck out on his own as a detective.
Adèle
Blanc-Sec
will later become a private investigator herself, as seen in Jacques
Tardi’s comic book The
Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec.
Doctor Jules de Grandin is Seabury Quinn’s occult detective, who
appeared in the magazine Weird
Tales.
Fantômas
and Juve are from the novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre.
Arsène Golbert and William Boltyn are from Gustave Le Rouge and
Gustave Guitton’s pulp serial The
Dominion of the World,
which has been translated and adapted in four volumes by Brian
Stableford. Thérèse Arnaud is from Pierre Yrondy’s The
Adventures of Thérèse Arnaud of the French Secret Service,
which has been translated by Nina Cooper for Black Coat Press.
Rajaijah is from Hergé’s
Tintin comic The
Blue Lotus.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
Crossover Movie Poster: Shorts
Toe
Thompson eats a cereal called Great White Bites, which first appeared in Planet
Terror. Robert Rodriguez directed both films. Win included Planet Terror in Volume 2, with the caveat that the film's apocalyptic ending must have been fictionalized.
Friday, December 18, 2015
Crossover Cover: Flashman and the Mountain of Light
Harry
Flashman tells his great-niece Selina the story of a man who lost a
rifle in Paris and tripped over it in West Africa twenty years later. The
man who lost the rifle is Captain Battreau from P. C. Wren’s story
“No. 187017,” included in the collection
Flawed Blades.
“No. 187017” and Wren’s other books and stories involving the
French Foreign Legion are interconnected, including
Beau Geste,
which Philip José Farmer referenced in
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
The main events of Fraser’s novel take place in 1845–1846,
but the framing sequences, which refer to Flashman telling Battreau’s
story to Selina, were written by Flashman after 1894 and before 1902.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Crossover Cover: Dogs of War
I mistakenly posted earlier about Underland, a book I already covered a couple months ago. Here's a replacement.
The
British agent Sparrow mentions the Nazis’ Special Projects
Division from the video game Wolfenstein.
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
Crossover Cover: Horror in Clay
The
Green Lama battles a murderous golem created by a Rabbi who initially
unleashed the creature on the German consulate in New York. The Rabbi
has learned of the Holocaust the Nazis will soon enact against his
people from hieroglyphics in an ancient temple in Jerusalem. The
temple had images on the walls of the Ark of the Covenant, the Staff
of Ra, and crystal skulls. Also in the temple was a statue of a
horrible ancient god named Cthulhu. The Green Lama appeared in
stories by “Richard Foster” (Kendell Foster Crossen) in the pulp
magazine Double Detective.
The Ark of the Covenant, Staff of Ra, and crystal skull references
are meant to evoke the Indiana Jones films; indeed, an earlier
version of this novella that appeared in the anthology The
Green Lama Volume One contains a reference to
“Professor Jones, Jr. at Marshall College.” Cthulhu needs no
explanation at this point. The Lama went on to battle Cthulhu in
Garcia's The Green Lama: Unbound.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Crossover Covers: Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War
The
Enterprise
crew
of the divergent universe seen in the films Star
Trek (2009)
and Star
Trek: Into Darkness
encounter Green Lantern Hal Jordan and the surviving members of six
other Corps bearing different-colored rings that allow them to
harness the powers of the Emotional Spectrum, who were sent there
from their own reality (a possible future of the DC Comics Universe)
to escape the wrath of the embodiment of Death known as Nekron, who
instead follows them to this new universe.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Crossover Cover: Star Trek: The Motion Picture
According
to the novelization of the first Star Trek film, “The moon Io had
held some shocks for the first Earth scientists to land there,
although not nearly as shattering as the earlier discovery that
Earth’s own moon had once served as a base for space voyagers
(their identity still a mystery) who had conducted experiments with
Earth’s early life forms a million or more years before human
history had begun.” This is a reference to the unknown race that
created the Monoliths in the movie 2001: A
Space Odyssey. Since that film is
incompatible with the early 21st century of the CU (or our world),
the beings responsible for the Monoliths must have counterparts in
both universe.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Crossover of the Week
HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY!!!
April 1917
THE
ADVENTURE OF THE FALLEN STONE
Dr.
Watson’s pregnant wife, Nylepthah, is staying with her cousin, Sir
George Curtis. In 1919, Holmes would visit his old friend with a
large financial payment from the English Lord of the Apes, the result
of their adventure in Africa in 1916. Holmes’ gardener, Black Mike
Croteau, has been murdered. After examining the body, Holmes and
Watson are met at the former’s cottage by Harry Dickson, who has
apprenticed with both Barker (Holmes’ Surrey rival) and Blake. He
takes them to the Diogenes Club, where Holmes accuses his brother
Mycroft of knowing there was a possibility he and Watson would be
blown off course during the previous year’s African expedition he
sent them upon. Holmes suggests Mycroft knew all along the ape lord
was actually impersonating his deceased cousin, “William Clayton,
the 7th Duke of Grey—.” Holmes points out Mycroft identified
their flier, Leftenant John Drummond, as the great-nephew of Holmes’
old acquaintance, the 6th Duke. However, if Mycroft had been unaware
of the imposture, he would have identified the Leftenant as the 6th
Duke’s grandson. Mycroft reveals William Clayton was a government
agent reporting directly to him, and William’s alleged shipwreck in
Africa was actually part of his investigation. When he died, the
Duke’s cousin, the ape lord, who had survived a prior shipwreck as
an infant, assumed his identity, wishing to avoid the publicity
attendant to the discovery of an English lord who had been reared and
suckled by apes. The mission involved tracking down the German spy
Von Bork and his bacillus. Holmes deduces Mycroft hoped he and Watson
would encounter the ape lord and asks why. Holmes speculates it has
to do with the many unlikely coincidences the ape man comes up
against. Mycroft says their scientists call it “the human magnetic
moment.” Holmes’ adversary, Dr. Shan Ming Fu, informed Holmes of
the lotus
vitae almost
ten years ago. Holmes’ encounter with the ape man brought him into
contact with the jungle man’s “human magnetic” influence,
causing him to discover the lotus in the hidden valley of Zu-Vendis,
though he asked Watson to omit that discovery from his written
account. The lotus has been stolen from Holmes’ garden. Mycroft
says if Holmes’ bees can be induced to sample the lotus’ nectar,
a particular honey may result, which would be the key ingredient in a
unique concoction. Holmes mentions the “Hellbirds” incident, in
which Von Bork escaped, though Mycroft asked Watson to distort his
account of these events so Von Bork fell to his death from the Eiffel
Tower. Von Bork is being trailed by Sexton Blake. The mastermind of
the theft is a man who has been known by many names, including Wolf
Larsen, Karl Woldheim, and Carl Woldhaus; currently, he goes by the
name of Baron Ulf Von Waldman. He is the Commandant of a seemingly
inescapable German prison camp for those who have escaped from other
camps and been recaptured. The Baron also conducts experiments on
humans. There are rumors Von Waldman is the son of Professor
Moriarty. Holmes, Watson, Dickson and Isis Vanderhoek travel to
Blakeney House. Isis’ father was Mr. Klaw, “the dreaming
detective.” Mycroft tells Sherlock that the Diogenes Club has
recently become more focused on investigating outré and
unexplainable matters that affect the Empire. The butler at Blakeney
House gives Dickson a coded message from Blake, in which he says he
has wired Peter Blakeney in Richmond (with whom he has common
relatives dating back to the mid 17th century), and Blakeney House is
at their disposal, with Blakeney Jr. off at war. Blake soon arrives
with a captive Von Bork in tow. Holmes recalls the tale of Openshaw.
Blake tells his comrades about several places of interest in the East
Riding of Yorkshire, including the village of Wold Newton, where a
meteor fell near Major Edward Topham’s property, the Wold Cottage,
in 1795. Holmes decides they must visit the Wold Cottage and the
monument Topham had placed at the site of the meteor’s fall. Holmes
unmasks “Blake” as Von Waldman. Holmes and his allies free the
true Blake, and discover some fragments of stone. Holmes concludes
the Germans believe exposing the lotus
vitae to
the meteor fragments will result in the prolongation of human life.
Isis mentions Holmes’ own cultivation of the plant. Von Waldman
escapes from his bonds, taking the plant with him; however, Holmes
still has seeds to grow more. When Watson asks Holmes if he thinks
Von Waldman is really the son of Professor Moriarty, Holmes replies
that Mycroft’s files on the Baron indicate that he was born in
1888, that he was investigating Moriarty quite thoroughly at that
time, and that there was no indication of a child born to the
Professor in that period. Dickson suggests Von Waldman may have been
someone else, much older, who once had access to a similar elixir,
but whose supply may have run out, leading him to attempt to find a
means of duplicating it.
Short
story by Dr. Watson, edited by Win Scott Eckert in Sherlock
Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook,
Howard Hopkins, ed., Moonstone Books, 2012. This story serves as a
sequel to Watson’s account The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer,
as edited by Philip José Farmer. Watson’s wife Nylepthah and child
are from that novel; Nylepthah is the daughter of Sir Henry Curtis
from the Allan Quatermain stories (although Farmer says she is
Curtis’ granddaughter, Eckert’s essay “Who’s Going to Take
Over the World When I'm Gone?: A Look at the Genealogies of Wold
Newton Family Super-Villains and Their Nemeses” [Myths
for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe,
Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain Books, 2005] argues she is in fact
his daughter). Nylepthah’s cousin, Sir George Curtis, is from
Farmer’s translation and adaptation of J.-H. Rosny aîné’s
Ironcastle;
Farmer specifically identifies Sir George as Sir Henry’s nephew.
The ape lord is Lord Greystoke, of course. Harry Dickson is “the
American Sherlock Holmes” who appeared in French pulp stories by
Jean Ray and others. Holmes’ rival Cecil Barker first appeared in
the story “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”; Dickson acted
as his apprentice in Eckert’s story “No Ghosts Need Apply” (The
Phantom Chronicles, Vol. 2,
Joe Gentile and Mike Bullock, eds., Moonstone Books, 2010). Sexton
Blake is one of the longest-running British penny dreadful
detectives; Dickson acted as his apprentice in Greg Gick’s story
“The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange” (originally published in two
parts in Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 1: The Modern Babylon,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2005, and
Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 2: Gentlemen of the Night,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2006;
reprinted in Harry
Dickson and the Werewolf of Rutherford Grange,
Black Coat Press, 2011). William Clayton, the 7th Duke of Greystoke,
appears in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels Tarzan
of the Apes and
The
Return of Tarzan;
in his essay “A Case of Identity,” H. W. Starr identified the 6th
Duke of Holdernesse and his son Lord Saltire from the Holmes story
“The Adventure of the Priory School” as the 6th and 7th Duke of
Greystoke, respectively, a theory adapted by Farmer for his biography
Tarzan
Alive.
Leftenant Drummond is the jungle lord’s adopted son John
Drummond-Clayton. Farmer identified the human magnetic moment in
Tarzan
Alive.
Dr. Shan Ming Fu is Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu; Dennis E. Power
revealed the Devil Doctor’s birth name in his essay “The Devil
Doctor: The Early History of Fu Manchu,” found on the Wold
Newton Universe: A Secret History website.
The lotus
vitae is
the plant from which Fu Manchu’s life-prolonging Elixir
vitae
is derived; Fu Manchu told Holmes about the elixir in George Alec
Effinger’s story “The Adventure of the Celestial Snows.” The
honey is the Royal Jelly that, according to William S. Baring-Gould
in his biography Sherlock
Holmes of Baker Street,
has extended Holmes’ natural lifespan. The Hellbirds incident
refers to Austin Mitchelson and Nicholas Utechin’s Holmes pastiche
Hellbirds.
Wolf Larsen is from Jack London’s novel The
Sea Wolf;
in his essay “The Green Eyes Have It—Or Are They Blue? or Another
Case of Identity Recased” (Myths
for the Modern Age),
Christopher Paul Carey argued Larsen and Baron von Hessel (from
Farmer’s authorized Doc Wildman novel Escape
from Loki)
were really aliases of XauXaz from Farmer’s trilogy of novels about
the evil secret society known as the Nine. In his essay “Asian
Detectives in the Wold Newton Universe” (Myths
for the Modern Age),
Dennis E. Power instead offered the alternative theory Larsen was the
son of Professor Moriarty. Isis and her father Moris Klaw are from
Sax Rohmer’s book The
Dream Detective.
The Diogenes Club’s latter-day focus on outré matters is the
subject of many stories by Kim Newman. Blakeney House is one of the
holdings of the Blakeney family, whose most famous member is Sir
Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Blakeney House previously
appeared in Eckert’s stories “Is He in Hell?” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010;
reprinted and revised in The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions,
Michael Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2010) and “Nadine’s
Invitation” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 7: Femmes Fatales,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010). Peter
Blakeney Jr. is Sir Percy’s descendant from The
Pimpernel and Rosemary.
In his series of articles “The Wold Wold West” (found at the Wold
Newton Universe: A Secret History website),
Dennis E. Power argued Sexton Blake was distantly related to the
Blakeney family, a theory Eckert adopted for his essay “The
Blakeney Family Tree” (The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1).
Openshaw is from the Holmes story “The Five Orange Pips.”
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