Crossover Covers: Area 52

Area 52 is a secret government storage facility in Antarctica where super-weapons, occult items, and other weird stuff are stored. Items held within Area 52 include wreckage from Roswell, the Ark of the Covenant, the Super-Soldier formula, Mjolnir, Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth, the Time Machine, and an alien power ring that shoots green energy. The Ark of the Covenant is from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, of course. Apparently the Ark was moved to Area 52 from the government warehouse where it was stored in 1936. The Super-Soldier formula turned the frail Steve Rogers into Captain America. Mjolnir is the hammer wielded by the heroic god Thor; it must have passed into Area 52’s hands millennia after Conan gave it to Crom, following the events of “What If Thor of Asgard Had Met Conan the Barbarian?” Wonder Woman’s lasso is self-explanatory. The Time Machine is from H. G. Wells’ novel of the same name. The alien power ring is the one wielded by the superhero Green Lantern. Several of Simon R. Green's novels mention an Area 52 in the Antarctic, further bolstering this series' connection to the CU.

Crossover Cover: Toros & Torsos

Craig McDonald is the author of a series about author Hector Lassiter. In a previous post, I covered the Lassiter novel The Great Pretender, which had references to the Pink Rat bar, the Cobalt Club, and Moe "Shrevvy" Shrevnitz from the Shadow novels. Toros & Torsos takes place fro August 31, 1935-July 2, 1961, and has crossovers as well. Harriet Blair tells Hector she has read all of his novels and Holly Martins,’ and she just finished Martins’ Lone Rider of Santa Fe. The art pieces owned by Lassiter include a couple of pieces by Nick Hart and a Matisse he picked up from the estate of Bertram Stone. Hector has a friend from Paris named Libby who now has an art gallery in Cannes. At Chicote’s, Hector chats with an older woman named Roslyn, who lived for many years in Alaska and met Kafka and Houdini. Holly Martins is from the movie The Third Man, starring Orson Welles as Harry Lime and Joseph Cotten as Holly. Interestingly, Welles himself is a recurring character in the Hector Lassiter series. The Third Man must be a slightly fictionalized account of Holly Martins and Harry Lime’s real exploits in Vienna. Roslyn and her friend Cicely are the founders of the town of Cicely, Alaska on the television series Northern Exposure. Nick Hart, Bertram Stone, and Libby Valentin are from the movie The Moderns.

Crossover Cover: H: The Story of Heathcliff's Journey Back to Wuthering Heights

Heathcliff (from Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights) discovers he is the biological son of Mr. Edward Rochester and his first wife, Bertha Mason (from Emily’s sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre). However, the events of Wuthering Heights take place decades before those of Jane Eyre, creating a chronological issue that cannot be resolved, and therefore I place this novel in an AU.

Crossover of the Week

1898

A PROFESSIONAL MATTER

In 1902, Adam Adamant tells Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson the tale of how Inspector Ganimard recruited him to apprehend Arsène Lupin four years ago. A Collector received a note warning Lupin would rob him of his green paste idol of Princess Hermonthis. Adamant meets Inspector Ledoux at the scene of a murder. The victims are members of the Diogenes Club, in Paris on orders from Mycroft Holmes. The Collector gives a grimoire to Griffin, an invisible English scientist who is currently in league with a cult of Nyarlathotep worshippers. The grimoire was written by Charles le Sorcier, an alchemist and magician, the son of Michel Mauvais. Adamant heard about Nyarlathotep and his follower Pharaoh Nephren-Ka from the Curator at Miskatonic University. Adamant receives a letter from Lupin, revealing the thief had impersonated the real Ledoux, who died in 1879 while hunting the Phantom of the Opera.

Short story by Sam Shook in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Adam Adamant is from the 1960s BBC television series Adam Adamant Lives! Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft, Dr. Watson, and the Diogenes Club are from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories. The Collector and the idol of Princess Hermonthis are from Théophile Gautier’s short story “The Mummy’s Foot.” Inspector Ledoux is from the 1925 film version of Gaston Leroux’s novel The Phantom of the Opera. Griffin is from H. G. Wells’ classic science fiction novel The Invisible Man. After escaping Adamant and Lupin’s clutches in this story, Griffin returns to England, where he takes up residence in a private girl’s school, as seen in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Volume I. Nyarlathotep, Charles le Sorcier, Michel Mauvais, and Nephren-Ka are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft.

Crossover Cover: Uncertain Logic

The immortal Flint, now going by the name Willem Paul Abramson, works on a neural computer, based on what his mentor in cybernetics called “bionic plasma,” though “Abramson” prefers the term “bioneural gel.” Flint’s mentor in cybernetics is Dr. Emil Vaslovik from Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s TV movie The Questor Tapes. Flint used the identity of A.I. expert Dr. Emil Vaslovik in Jeffrey Lang’s Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Immortal Coil, implying he may have met the 20th century android and cyberneticist.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes in America

This anthology of short stories featuring Sherlock Holmes solving crimes in the U.S. includes three crossovers. In Robert Pohle's "The Flowers of Utah," Holmes and Watson travel to Utah to track down Tom Dennis, Jefferson Hope’s accomplice. There, Watson encounters Lucy Ferrier Hope, who reveals with Dennis’ assistance she is helping young Mormon women wishing to avoid polygamy flee to Wyoming. She further says she would do it alone if she could, or be a Masked Rider like her old friend Bess Erne. Tom Dennis, Jefferson Hope, and Lucy Ferrier are from the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study in Scarlet. This story reveals both the true identity of Hope’s accomplice who used the alias "Mrs. Sawyer," and that Lucy Ferrier’s apparent death was a deception. Bess Erne is from Zane Grey’s Western novel Riders of the Purple Sage, thus bringing that classic work into the CU. A reference to President Garfield places this story in 1881. In "The Minister's Missing Daughter" by Victoria Thompson, Holmes and Watson vacation in New York City, where they attend a dinner party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt. There, they meet Mrs. Sarah Brandt, who asks them to investigate the disappearance of Harriet Penny. Working on the case with them is Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy. Brandt and Malloy are the protagonists of Thompson’s Gaslight Mysteries series of novels; this crossover brings them into the CU. A reference to William McKinley as "the newly-elected American president" places this story in 1897. In Paula Cohen's "Recalled to Life," Holmes is in New York in 1893, during the Great Hiatus. Using the alias Simon Greaves, he meets disgraced ex-police captain Robert Battle. The two attend the opera, where Battle points out Henry Ogden Slade, his ward, and Slade’s best friend, Thaddeus Chadwick, who was responsible for Battle’s downfall. Holmes forces Chadwick to clear Battle’s name. Two years later, Battle and his wife visit Holmes and Watson in London, where Battle tells Holmes Chadwick was murdered by a young woman with whom he was living. Henry Ogden Slade, his ward (Clara Adler), Thaddeus Chadwick, and the young woman (Lucy Pratt) are from Cohen’s novel Gramercy Park. Watson wrote up this case after Holmes’ retirement.

Crossover Cover: Dark Congress

Buffy Summers, the Slayer, is recruited as the mediator of a gathering of demons and monsters, the Dark Congress, in Providence, Rhode Island. Providence was once the site of a Hellmouth that was closed by the death of H. P. Lovecraft in 1937, something that makes Lovecraft a figure of great disdain among the monsters. Among the creatures present for the Congress are “shambling shuggoths” and a race of tentacled demons called “Yurgoths.” The “shuggoths” are likely shoggoths from the works of H. P. Lovecraft, and the Yurgoth demons are clearly named in honor of Yuggoth, another of Lovecraft’s creations. Furthermore, the closing of a Hellmouth with Lovecraft’s death fits perfectly with Lovecraft’s appearance in the Supernatural episode “Let It Bleed.” This novel takes place after the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Chosen,” but in a very different continuity from the official Season 8 comics, which feature the public becoming aware of Slayers and vampires, and which do not fit into CU continuity. This fact, coupled with the Lovecraftian material, leads to the conclusion Dark Congress details the CU version of Buffy’s activities after “Chosen.”

Crossover Cover: Queen of Wands

The second novel in John Ringo’s Special Circumstances series. A duo named Artie and Claudia show up to collect an artifact from Barbara Everette and company. There is a reference to a group of Asatru covering the Caucasus, led by a demon-possessed former SEAL. Artie and Claudia are Artie Nielsen and Claudia Donovan from the television series Warehouse 13. The group of Asatru is the Keldera, while their leader is Michael Harmon; both are featured in Ringo’s Paladin of Shadows series. Since Warehouse 13 takes place in the CU through connections to Eureka, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and others, so do both of Ringo’s series.

Crossover Cover: Super Sidekick Sleepover Slaughter

Slasher hunter Cassie Hack and her partner Vlad battle a slasher killing a group of teens who have used a device called “the godbox” to gain superpowers and adopt the mantles of 1940s superheroes Nightmare, the Black Fury, Crash Kid, Fantomah, Flamingo, the Heap, and U.S. Jones. Crimebuster, Daredevil, and Airboy are mentioned, and pictures of those three, Black Angel, Judy of the Jungle, and Captain Fight are shown. Nightmare’s sidekick Sleepy appears in flashback. The original Fantomah was imprisoned by the Crime Cabal, which consisted of Dr. Mortal, the Great Question, Dr. Dracula, the Puzzler, and an unidentified fifth individual. Fantomah is eventually freed and takes her revenge on the current Crime Cabal. Many of the characters referenced here are Golden Age comic book characters. Nightmare and Sleepy appeared in Clue Comics, published by Hillman. Airboy, the Heap, and the Black Angel were also published by Hillman, and are already in the CU. Crash Kid appeared in two issues of Rural Home Productions’ Cannonball Comics. Fantomah, created by the notorious Fletcher Hanks, appeared in fifty issues of Jungle Comics, published by Fiction House. Captain Fight appeared in Fight Comics, another Fiction House title. Flamingo was a costumed aviator who appeared in the Aviation Press title Contact Comics. The Black Fury appeared in Fox Features Syndicate’s titles Fantastic Comics, V...Comics, and Blue Beetle. U.S. Jones appeared in Wonderworld Comics and two issues of his own series, both also published by Fox. The villainous Dr. Mortal was the subject of his own strip in Fox’s Weird Comics and The Flame. Bart Hill, aka Daredevil, appeared in Silver Streak Comics and his own series, both published by Lev Gleason, and is not to be confused with the later masked vigilante who called himself Daredevil, Matt Murdock. Crimebuster appeared in every issue of Boy Comics, another Lev Gleason title. Dr. Dracula was the archnemesis of Captain Battle, who appeared in Silver Streak Comics as well as his own self-titled series. Judy of the Jungle appeared in Nedor’s Exciting Comics. The Puzzler was a foe of Nedor’s best-known hero, the Black Terror. The Great Question is the arch foe of the Centaur character Amazing Man. It is as yet uncertain whether Captain Battle, the Black Terror, and Amazing Man themselves exist in the CU. I have been unable to identify the fifth member of the original Crime Cabal. With the exception of Fantomah, most of these characters have no superpowers or very low-level powers; they must be CU versions of their comic counterparts, and of course their exploits must have been less colorful than the comics depicted.

Crossover of the Week

Here's a belated Crossover of the Week post, since I forgot to do one yesterday.

1857–1868

KEMOSABE

Young John Reid rescues and befriends a Potawatomi boy named Tonto. Ben Reid, John’s father, is a member of the Texas Rangers alongside Al King, Bobby Stuart, and Jake Cutter. A man named Favor appears. Tonto honed his tracking skills under a Kickapoo scout who often worked for the Rangers. Over a decade later, a grown Tonto comes to the aid of John Reid, now a Ranger himself, who has been wounded and his comrades killed in an ambush at Bryant’s Gap.

Short story by Matthew Baugh in The Lone Ranger Chronicles, Matthew Baugh and Tim Lasiuta, eds., Moonstone Books, 2012. This story recounts the first meeting between John Reid, the future Lone Ranger, and his faithful companion Tonto. Al King is a reference to Allen King, the Ranger’s alter ego in the 1938 film serial The Lone Ranger; obviously, the CU version of King is a distinct individual from the Ranger. Bobby (or Bob) Stuart is also from The Lone Ranger serial. Texas Ranger Jake Cutter is from Paul Wellman’s Western novel The Comancheros, and was played by John Wayne in the 1961 film version. Favor is Gil Favor, the trail boss from the television series Rawhide. The Kickapoo scout is Famous Shoes from Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove novels.

Crossover Covers: The Halflife Chronicles

Chris Cséjthe finds his life turned upside down when he discovers vampires, werewolves, and other supernatural creatures exist, and he himself is now halfway through the transition between human and vampire. Dracula appears prominently in the first novel, One Foot in the Grave, as do tanis leaves, legends of which inspired the tana leaves in Universal Studios’ Mummy movies. A vampire named Barnabas who carries a wolf’s head cane appears; this is Barnabas Collins of Dark Shadows fame. A New Orleans vampire enclave with literary pretensions is mentioned, a reference to Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. In the fourth book, Dead Easy, Chris encounters the Great Old Ones and Captain Nemo. Nemo tells Chris Professor Aronnax was fictional and Verne made The Mysterious Island up out of whole cloth. Nemo died in the 19th century, and was later resurrected as a rakshasa, a spirit being from Hindu mythology. Several individuals experienced in dealing with the supernatural are mentioned: a wizard in Chicago (Harry Dresden from Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files novel series); a necromancer in St. Louis (Anita Blake from novels by Laurell K. Hamilton); a waitress in Bon Temps (Sookie Stackhouse from Charlaine Harris’ Southern Vampire Mysteries); a weather warden (Joanne Baldwin, the protagonist of a series by Rachel Caine); and a guardian in London (Aisling Grey from novels by Katie MacAlister). Simmons’ take on Captain Nemo is very different from his established history in the CU. Combined with the fact both Sookie Stackhouse and Anita Blake’s exploits take place in worlds where the public is aware vampires and other supernatural entities are real, this places The Halflife Chronicles in an alternate universe.

Crossover Cover: Monster Hunter Nemesis

Agent Franks of the Monster Control Bureau, a Frankenstein monster built by the alchemist Johann Dippel, battles a cult trying to raise an Old One off the coast of California. Some of the cultists are Deep One hybrids. There is a reference to shoggoths. Special Task Force Unicorn has access to a werewolf disabling poison made from a rare plant that only blooms on out of the way mountains under a full moon. Johann Dippel is an historic figure who has been identified as an ancestor of the Frankenstein family in several sources. The Old Ones, the Deep Ones, and the Shoggoths are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft. The rare plant is the Mariphasa plant from the movie Werewolf of London.

Crossover Cover: Viva Las Buffy!

Wesley Wyndam-Price reads a book on demonology that has a picture of Idpa. The demon Idpa is from Scott Allie, Paul Lee, and Brian Horton’s comic The Devil’s Footprints, also published by Dark Horse, bringing that miniseries into the CU.

Crossover Cover: A Likely Story

The Italian restaurant Tre Mafiosi appears. This eatery can also be seen in Westlake’s Dortmunder novel What’s So Funny?, as well as another non-series novel by Westlake, Money for Nothing. Since the Dortmunder books take place in the CU, so do A Likely Story and Money for Nothing.

Crossover Cover: The Invisible-Box Murders

A New York newspaper called the Daily Planet appears. The Daily Planet newspaper in New York is not to be confused with the Metropolis paper of the same name, which employs Clark Kent, aka Superman. Dent wrote three stories for All Detective Magazine in 1934 featuring Foster Fade, “the Crime Spectacularist,” who worked for a New York newspaper called the Planet.

Upcoming crossovers: Batman '66

Although DC Comics' ongoing Batman '66 series based on the Adam West show is coming to a close, there are crossovers in the works with The Avengers (as in John Steed and Emma Peel) and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. I won't have time to include these in the books, but they sound like worthy additions to the CU, and I will absolutely read them anyways.

Crossover Covers: The Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries

Win included the first five books in Carrie Bebris' Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries, which feature Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice alongside characters from Austen's other novels, in the AU section of the original Crossovers volumes, as the chronology of Bebris' series does not fit with CU continuity, where the events of Pride and Prejudice must take place before 1795 due to Darcy and Elizabeth being married (and Elizabeth pregnant) when they were exposed to the radiation of the Wold Newton meteor. Two more books have appeared since then, and I will be including them in the AU section of the new volumes. The Deception at Lyme (Or, The Peril of Persuasion) features characters from Persuasion, while The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, The Disappearance of Lady Denham) has the Darcys meeting characters from Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon.

Crossover of the Week

2006

DEAD BEAT IN KHUSRA

Dillon, spending a few days in Khusra after his latest adventure, reluctantly teams up with Sly Gantlet when his old flame and Sly’s current lover, Princess Sathyra of Tosegio, is kidnapped. Appearing or mentioned are: a member of the Khusran royal family who achieved some notoriety adventuring around the world back in the 1930s and ’40s; a Forrester tux; U.N.C.L.E.; F.L.A.G.; Globex; Thema Sidibe (aka Tracy); the “Long Noodle” plague; Jekyll Island beer; Madeline Scocco; the Otwani tribe; Cry, Cry Again; See You Next Wednesday; Comanapracil; Al-Julhara; and the Willis-Brennan JJ/59 aircraft, aka the Skyspear.

Novella by Joel Jenkins and Derrick Ferguson in The Specialists, PulpWork Press, 2015. Dillon is the protagonist of a series of novels and short stories by Ferguson, while Sly Gantlet and his brothers, rock stars who double as mercenaries, appear in books by Jenkins. This story takes place immediately after Ferguson’s novel Dillon and the Last Rail to Khusra. Dillon and Sly first met in Jenkins and Ferguson’s story “Dead Beat in La Esca.” The member of the Khusran royal family who achieved some notoriety adventuring around the world back in the 1930s and ’40s is Fortune McCall, the hero of another series of stories by Ferguson. Thema Sidibe, Fortune’s cousin, used the name Tracy Scott in that era during her adventures alongside him. The “Long Noodle” plague and the Otwani tribe are also from the Fortune McCall tales. Madeline Scocco is the granddaughter of Ronald Scocco, one of Fortune’s aides. The Forrester tux is a reference to the Forrester family that owns the fashion house Forrester Creations on the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. U.N.C.L.E. is from the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., of course. F.L.A.G. is from the TV series Knight Rider. Globex is from “You Only Move Twice,” an episode of the long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons. Since that show is too overtly absurd in its events to be incorporated into CU continuity, Globex must exist in both the CU and the Simpsons’ native universe. Jekyll Island beer has appeared in several TV series, including Burn Notice, Dexter, and Lost. Cry, Cry Again is a fictional movie from the Seinfeld episode “The Little Kicks.” See You Next Wednesday is a film that appears or is mentioned in several of John Landis’ films, including An American Werewolf in London, The Blues Brothers, and Trading Places. Comanapracil is a drug seen in “Believe in the Stars,” an episode of the sitcom 30 Rock. Al-Julhara is from the movie The Jewel of the Nile, a sequel to Romancing the Stone. The Willis-Brennan JJ/59 aircraft is a reference to Willis Aircraft Company owner Leland Willis and his employee Lt. Col. Matt Brennan from the film Chain Lightning. Matt must have become a partner in the company after the movie’s events.

Crossover Cover: Skin Game

A monster locked up under Demonreach uses the word “fthagn.” Drakul is listed as one of the supernatural beings who keep a vault in Gentleman Johnny Marcone’s mob bank. “Fthagn” (or rather “fhtagn”) is a R'lyehian word from the Cthulhu Mythos. Drakul is better known as Dracula.

Crossover Cover: Captain Midnight Chronicles

This anthology of new stories of the classic radio hero contains three stories with crossovers. In "Captain Midnight at Ultima Thule" by my illustrious predecessor Win Scott Eckert, who included it in the original Crossovers volumes, the Captain battles the German pulp hero Sun Koh. The story subtly ties Sun Koh to Farmer's Ancient Opar series, among other crossovers. Two other stories with crossovers will be in the new volumes. In Trina Robbins' "Death Master of the Secret Island," Captain Midnight and Chuck Ramsey travel to a remote island to rescue a Swedish nuclear physicist who has been kidnapped by Midnight’s archnemesis Ivan Shark and his daughter Fury. The Captain speculates the lost race that built the statues on the island may have been early representatives of the cult of Cthulhu. The other story is "Captain Midnight Meets Airboy," which is fairly self-descriptive.

Crossover Covers: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs

This anthology of new stories featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters has three stories with crossovers. One is "Tarzan and the Land That Time Forgot" by Joe R. Lansdale. Traveling back to civilization in the O-220 zeppelin after another visit to Pellucidar, Tarzan and the ship’s crew find themselves shipwrecked on the island of Caprona. Tarzan first traveled to Pellucidar in the O-220 in Burroughs’ Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. The destruction of the O-220 in Lansdale’s story must be an exaggeration, as Tarzan used it to travel to Pellucidar again in both 1960 and 1986, as seen in the Sunday Tarzan comic strip stories "Dead Moon of Pellucidar" (aka "The Jewel of Pellucidar") and "Back to Pellucidar," respectively. Tarzan will make at least two more trips to Caprona (aka Caspak) in the future, as seen in the comic book Tarzan in the Land That Time Forgot and the Sunday Tarzan strip story "Return to the Land That Time Forgot." In F. Paul Wilson's "The Dead World," David Innes refers to the Minunians, the Ant Men of Africa. Innes discovers Pellucidar was created by an alien race called the Fashioners. The Minunians are from Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Ant Men. The description of the Fashioners makes it clear they are meant to be the Great Race of Yith from H. P. Lovecraft’s "The Shadow Out of Time," thus connecting Burroughs’ Pellucidar series to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Peter David's "Moon Maid over Manhattan" is a sequel to Burroughs’ The Moon Maid. Barsoom and John Carter are mentioned. This story takes place in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Alternate Universe, or ERB-AU for short.

Crossover Cover: Darklost

Victor Renquist and his Los Angeles-based vampire Colony fight human cultists who intend to free Cthulhu. A coven member named Julia thinks New Orleans vampires “had gone so far as to form a secret society called Les Enfants du Sangre, and had for a while been totally exploited by a ronin outcast nosferatu who had used the name Eccarius, until the creature had been nailed out in the sun by Cassidy, the notorious loner and wandering iconoclast, one of the few hobo diamonds left among the undead.” Renquist “had lived through the era of the professional witchfinders and vampire hunters of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; the depredations of Kronos, Van Helsing, and the unspeakable Feldstein, all of whom had made a professional practice of entering the daytime refuges of his kind to impale with their wooden stakes…” Cthulhu is the most well-known of the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft’s Mythos. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is from Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. Kronos is from the Hammer film Captain Kronos–Vampire Hunter. Feldstein is an original character. Cassidy is from the comic book series Preacher; his confrontation with Eccarius and Les Enfants du Sangre was told in the one-shot Preacher Special: Cassidy–Blood & Whiskey. The Preacher series takes place in a universe where the American president (implicitly Bill Clinton) had a nuclear weapon dropped on the Navajo and Hopi reservations. Since no such event happened in the CU, the Preacher Special: Saint of Killers miniseries and Blood & Whiskey are being treated as the only Preacher stories to have definitely occurred in the CU.

Crossover Movie Poster: Inglourious Basterds

Sgt. Donny Donowitz is one of the Basterds. A pack of Red Apple Cigarettes can be seen at a table in the La Louisiane tavern. Sgt. Donowitz is the father of film producer Lee Donowitz from the film True Romance. One of the main characters of True Romance, Alabama, is also mentioned in Reservoir Dogs. Red Apple Cigarettes also appear in Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, From Dusk Till Dawn, Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, Kill Bill: Vols. 1 and 2, and Planet Terror, as well as several stories by Win Scott Eckert. Rick Lai notes, “The movie alters WWII history. In June 1944, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, and Martin Bormann all die in a Parisian movie theater. Presumably real-life actor Emil Jannings perished there as well. References to ‘Americans...on the beach’ place these supposed deaths after D-Day (June 6, 1944). How does this square with history? All the answers can be found in the adventures of Doc Savage. In my Doc Savage chronology (The Revised Complete Chronology of Bronze, Altus Press, 2010), the events of Violent Night (aka The Hate Genius) transpired in June 1944. Hitler attempted to flee Germany only to be caught in Switzerland by Doc Savage. The novel asserted that Hitler had left a double in Germany to impersonate him. It was this double who was killed at the Paris cinema. The other Nazi leaders present were doubles as well. In my Doc Savage chronology, I argued that Jonas Sown (The Screaming Man and The Frightened Fish) was behind Hitler’s flight. All the doubles behaved like their originals in Paris because they were under the influence of Sown’s mind control device. Sown arranged for Hitler’s escape from Allied custody in Switzerland (the dictator arrived in Germany only to be nearly killed in the July bomb plot, Operation Valkyrie). As for Emil Jannings, he must have miraculously survived the attack on the Parisian movie house. He actually died in 1950.”

Crossover Cover: The Devil of Harbor City

This collection of stories has crossover connections to other pulp characters, as well as one of the author's own New Pulp characters. In "Enter the Devil," the Harbor City police commissioner asks Officer Frank Devlin to become a vigilante. Devlin replies, "Well, now, do you want me dressing up as a bat or a spider or something? Or should I just blend in with the shadows?" The Commissioner replies, "Criminals are a superstitious and cowardly lot, but I’d rather them be afraid of a crazy cop with a license to kill." Devlin is referring to Batman, the Spider, and the Shadow. In "Deal with the Devil," Sergeant Benjamin Campbell dismisses the idea of Devlin hiding in darkness: "That was what that guy in New York would do. Devlin’s not one to play with shadows." The Police Commissioner introduces Devlin to Michael Shaw, a New Yorker who owns a private investigation agency, whose services he has enlisted to clean up the courts in Harbor City. Shaw refers to underworld hangouts in New York such as the Pink Rat and the Black Ship. 'That guy in New York" is the Shadow. The Pink Rat and the Black Ship are underworld dives from the Shadow novels. Michael Shaw operated in the 1930s as the vigilante called the Nightmare, as seen in a series of stories by French. In "The Devil's Wake," Devlin is apparently killed by men working for New York City gangster Wolf Hopkins. Hopkins planned his attempt on Devlin’s life with a Harbor City crook at the Red Thorn in New York, which has the same reputation as the legendary Pink Rat and Black Ship, bars where the police dare not go. The Police Commissioner, Sergeant Benjamin Campbell, and private investigator Michael Shaw attempt to avenge Devlin’s death, but he turns out to be very much alive. In the 1930s, Wolf Hopkins was the archenemy of the Nightmare. In "Devil's End," Devlin finally ends the menace of Wolf Hopkins. Afterwards, he and his bride-to-be Angela Martinelli accept a job with Michael Shaw’s private investigation firm.

Crossover of the Week

1945

THE SECRET OF THE AERO PLANE

Major Henderson and Captain Cody meet Captain Hercules Hurricane at a bar in Walkabout Creek, Australia. Henderson tells Cody during World War I, a splinter enemy group claimed to be empowered by Thor and the Norse gods. He also says Hitler allegedly lost major expeditions trying to find the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant, and dispatches Cody to meet the enigmatic pilot Captain Aero.

Short story by Erwin K. Roberts at the Planetary Stories website. Captain Cody and Major Henderson will later be known as Commando Cody and Mr. Henderson from the film serial Radar Men from the Moon and the television series Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. The superhumanly strong Captain Hercules Hurricane appeared in the British comic Valiant during the 1960s and 1970s, though his stories were set during World War II. Walkabout Creek, Australia is from the film Crocodile Dundee. The German splinter group is the titular organization from Roberts’ two-part novella “The Sons of Thor.” The Nazi expeditions to find the Holy Grail and the Ark of the Covenant were seen in the movies Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and Raiders of the Lost Ark, respectively. Captain Aero’s exploits were published by the American comic book company Holyoke during the 1940s.

Crossover Covers: The Shadow: Year One

The Shadow makes his debut in New York, and battles an old foe that is precipitating a gang war. Journalist Maxwell Grant offers to be the Shadow’s biographer, saying “Samuel Johnson had Boswell! Holmes had Watson!” The details about Kent Allard and Margo Lane’s families given in this series conflict with their family histories in the CU. Additionally, the Maxwell Grant seen here is clearly not Walter Gibson, who in both the CU and “our” universe wrote the Shadow novels under the Grant pseudonym. Because of these factors, I consider this series an AU.

Crossover Movie Poster: Chopping Mall

Janitor Walter Paisley appears, as do gourmets Paul and Mary Bland. Walter Paisley is played by Dick Miller, who first played the role in the film A Bucket of Blood and went on to reprise it in a number of other films, including The Howling, which Win included in Volume 2. Walter’s apparent death here should not be taken at face value, just as his apparent death in A Bucket of Blood should not. Paul and Mary Bland are played by Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov, who originated the roles in Bartel’s 1982 film Eating Raoul.

Art's Reviews interview about the books

At FarmerCon, my buddy Art Sippo briefly interviewed me and Win about the new volumes for his podcast, Art's Reviews. Here's the link for anyone who's interested. Please excuse my stammering throughout, it was my first interview. ;) Thanks, Art!

Crossover Cover: The Informant

The hitman known only as the Butcher’s Boy seeks revenge on the Mafia. Among the mobsters gathered for a meeting are Paul Castiglione, Phil Langusto, Salvatore Molinari, Giovanni “Chi-chi” Tasso, and Danny Spoleto, an underling for Mike Catania. The various Mafiosi first appeared in Perry’s novel Blood Money, the third book in a series featuring Jane Whitefield, a Native American woman who helps people who need to disappear create new identities. The Butcher’s Boy appeared under the alias “the Grocer’s Boy” in Justin Gustainis’ novel Sympathy for the Devil, the third entry in his Morris and Chastain Supernatural Investigations series, which has many crossover references bringing it into the CU. This crossover brings in Jane Whitefield.

Crossover Cover: The Eye of Darkness

As those who've read some of my previous posts know, Teel James Glenn's pulp-era hero Dr. Shadows in the CU through connections to other pulp heroes. You can click on the Teel James Glenn label at the bottom of this post to see what I've shared here in the past about his work. In this story, aboard a ship bound from Hong Kong to San Francisco, Dr. Shadows hunts a killer who is trying to get his hands on precious medallions found on an archaeological expedition led by Dr. Henry Gordon. The other surviving members of the expedition, including Gordon’s daughter Nyoka, are also on the ship. The Gordons are from the 1942 serial Perils of Nyoka.

Crossover Cover: Indiana Jones and the Cup of the Vampire

Indiana Jones and Mihail Tepes, a descendant of Dracula, hunt for the Cup of Djemsheed, which grants eternal life to those who drink human blood from it, encountering the Romanian Anti-Vampire League and other foes in the process. The Cup is buried in the grave of Dracula himself. Indy inadvertently awakens Dracula, who wipes out the League. This book allows you to choose what courses of action Indy takes, and gives corresponding page numbers to flip to for the outcome of those actions. Indy’s awakening of Dracula is the most likely final outcome for the CU. It is implied drinking from the Cup of Djemsheed is what turned Dracula into a vampire, but there were probably more factors at work than just that.