Mystery,
Inc. is summoned to Gotham City by Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn to
help them end an apparent curse that has been on them since they
stole an opal. The “ghost” responsible turns out to be Catwoman.
Ultimately, the gang works with Batgirl to apprehend all three
larcenous ladies.

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.
Monday, November 30, 2015
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Crossover of the Week
Tomorrow is Win's birthday, so in honor of my friend and mentor, here's a write-up of a story by him that has strong ties to the Wold Newton event. Happy early birthday, Win.
December
11–13, 1795
THE
WILD HUNTSMAN
In
1720, XauXaz of the Nine is killed by a man who appears through a
mirror-like portal and is almost identical to himself, and who takes
his place. XauXaz’s Other has a pocket watch embossed with a
sapphire representing the star Capella. In 1795, at Blakeney Hall,
the lord of the mansion, Sir Percy Blakeney, along with two of his
guests, General Sir Hezekiah Fogg and Dr. Siger Holmes, are the first
to discover a corpse, followed by Colonel Bozzo-Corona, his man
Albert Lecoq, Sir Hugh Drummond, and Honoré Delagardie. John
Gribardsun, who is known to them as Sir John Gribson, cuts down the
body. Sir Percy identifies the dead man as Iain Bond, aide-de-camp to
William de Winter, the king’s representative at his conclave. This
is the second murder in as many days; both were accompanied by the
sound of nine bells clanging. Delagardie complains about the previous
victim, Gerolstein’s advances towards Philippa, Delagardie’s wife
and Drummond’s sister. Gribardsun, investigating the grounds,
catches a familiar scent. Peering upside-down through a window, he
listens in on the men gathered inside a room, including Blakeney;
Fitzwilliam Darcy; Fogg; George Edward Rutherford, the 11th
Baron Tennington; Holmes; de Winter; and John Clayton, the 3rd Duke
of Greystoke. Apart from Fogg, Holmes, and de Winter, all of the men
in the room are Gribardsun’s ancestors. Sir Percy summoned all
these people to Blakeney Hall to strategize about ending the Reign of
Terror in France. Holmes witnessed Lecoq’s meeting with Countess
Nadine Carody at the Calyx Bar last month. Sir Percy implies
Marguerite and Alice have assured him Carody prefers the company of
her own gender. Colonel Bozzo-Corona and his Brothers of Mercy
provided Marguerite and Alice with the Heart of Ahriman, so they and
Percy could use it to defeat Baron de Musard. Gribardsun shifts his
attention to the women present at the gathering: Alice Clarke
Raffles, Lady Blakeney, Elizabeth Darcy, Countess Carody, Miss
Caroline Bingley, Philippa Delagardie, Alicia, Lady Greystoke, Lady
Tennington, Violet Clarke Holmes, Elizabeth de Winter and Lady
Drummond. Gribardsun remembers killing another Baron de Musard in the
late 1500s in France. Gribardsun later looks in on the Continental
group, which includes Gerolstein’s brother, Gustavas Kramm, and
Carody. The following day, Miss Bingley is discovered dead. Sir Percy
remarks Darcy will have a hard time writing a condolence letter to
her brother. Gribardsun later spies on Lecoq playing cards with Louis
Lupin, Delagardie’s coachman. He finds no sign of the other two
coachmen, Arthur Blake and Etienne Austin. However, he finds Blake is
also spying on them, and watches him report to Sir Hezekiah and Sir
Percy. Sir Percy, who calls Blake “cousin,” believes someone at
the gathering is a Capellean. Sir Hezekiah believes that person
suspects not only that Blakeney is an Eridanean agent, but that Fogg
himself is an Old Eridanean, and also believes the clanging comes
from a distorter. Gribardsun, considering the distorter, thinks that
his own ship, the H.
G. Wells I,
was a sort of teleportation device. He also considers whispers
throughout the ages of a group called the Nine, which in turn leads
to associations in his mind with the nine bells and the significance
of the number nine in Khokarsan culture, including the nine-sided
temple of Kho and the Door of Kho that leads into the temple, and
Kho’s nine primary aspects. Gribardsun wonders if the Capelleans
and the Eridaneans could be extraterrestrials, remembering his past
experiences in Africa with exotic plants and a massive crystalline
root system, both obviously alien in origin, which devastated the
continent of Khokarsa. On December 13, the members of the party set
out on their coach ride. Holmes’ friend Dr. Sebastian Noel
accompanies them. Dr. Jacob Moishe, the head of the team that
invented the time machine utilized by Gribardsun, had proven the
actions of time travelers merely spurred historical events.
Gribardsun catches the familiar scent again, and flashes back to
Khokarsa in 10,814 B.C. In that time, he also smells a familiar
scent. Gribardsun has enlisted a tribe of the Neanderthaloid Gokako
to perform excavations in his attempt to find the source of the
crystalline root system running through Central Africa, which will
some day destroy Khokarsa, and whose devastating effects he first
encountered in 1918. His current location is the future site of a
city, founded by Lupoeth, priestess of Kho, which is very important
to him. He turns to face an old acquaintance. When Gribardsun last
met him, in Africa in 1912, he resembled an African witch doctor, and
Gribardsun saved his life. The grateful man offered Gribardsun a
concoction that granted him everlasting life. The man before him now
looks very different, and identifies Gribardsun as Sahhindar, the
Gray-Eyed Archer God, and also the god of plants, bronze, and Time.
He states he has realized Gribardsun is an immortal time traveler,
like himself. This individual states he wants Gribardsun’s secret
of eternal life, having not yet met him in his own future. Gribardsun
performs the ritual upon the man, who calls himself Kethnu, which
means “head man.” In 1795, Gribardsun finds himself face-to face
with the man once known as Kethnu. The blue sapphire on the former
Kethnu’s pocket watch reminds Gribardsun of the nethkarna,
the seed of the Tree of Kho, which the oracles of Khokarsa used to
tap into the root system. Greystoke’s fellow immortal gives his
current name as XauXaz. XauXaz has used a time distorter to travel to
the year 1795. The duo battles and XauXaz boasts he is Gribardsun’s
grandfather several times over. Finally, XauXaz persuades Gribardsun
to let him turn on the distorter. The coachmen, recognizing the
sound, turn the carriages around, just as a meteor falls from the
sky. XauXaz reveals he hopes a descendant of one of the individuals
present at the gathering will be able to assist him someday, and
comments many of those descendants will have remarkable talents, such
as Gribardsun’s ability to survive his jungle upbringing. He adds
he had received an elixir from “my friends who are also my enemies”
before he first met Gribardsun that was less effective than the one
the jungle lord shared with him, but even the second elixir he took
is beginning to wear off. About one hundred years ago from XauXaz’s
perspective, he was impersonating a seal-hunting schooner captain
named Larsen, and began experiencing debilitating headaches as a
result of the failure of the second elixir, causing him to fake his
death. He believes the meteor’s effect on his ancestors was
responsible for the elixir’s efficacy upon Gribardsun, and hopes
direct exposure to the meteor will have a similar effect upon him. If
that doesn’t work, he hopes a descendant will uncover the key to
the perfect elixir. He mentions the elixirs that have already been
created by descendants of those present by his native time, including
a Royal Jelly treatment whose vital elements include a shard of the
Wold Newton meteor. In both 1917 and a few years afterward, XauXaz
will attempt to steal such a shard, and battled with Sherlock Holmes
over it. Another elixir, the “Oil of Life,” will be created by a
Mastermind from the Far East, who will be the 3rd Duke of Greystoke’s
grandson. XauXaz has high hopes his grandson, James Clarke Wildman,
will be able to perfect the elixir. XauXaz, disguised as a German
Baron, clashed with him near the end of the Great War, and sparked
his interest in such an elixir. He states Wildman and his wife have
not been seen for many years, but he is convinced Wildman is as young
as ever. XauXaz tells Gribardsun the British Secret Service were
interested in the latter’s instances of the “human magnetic
moment.” XauXaz wonders before returning to his own time if the
meteor would not have landed in Wold Newton if Gribardsun had not
been right there to guide it to that very spot. Back in 1972, XauXaz
reflects on his discovery of the Capellean distorter in the 1930s. In
the 1940s, he discovered how to suppress its clangings if he so
wished, and used it to puzzle the Gray Man of Ice with his impossible
comings and goings. In 1972, hearing of similar advances, XauXaz has
modified his distorter to travel through time as well as space. He
learned of the divergent parallel universe, which was created tens of
thousands of years ago, in 1720 when the Shraask entity touched his
mind, and his allies-enemies in the Nine, Anana and Iwaldi, also
existed in that reality. In 1972, the time distorter and Shraask, who
had been invoked by the other world’s Nine in 1720, enabled him to
travel to that particular time and reality, where he killed his
counterpart. XauXaz traveled back and forth between his own universe
and the parallel world, where he impersonated his counterpart. On his
counterpart’s Earth, XauXaz’s brothers Ebnaz XauXaz and Thrithjaz
died before Shraask’s advent, whereas the brothers of the XauXaz
who encountered Gribardsun had died due to his refusal to share
Sahhindar’s elixir with them. When the otherworldly Nine became
suspicious in 1968, XauXaz faked his death. Impersonating an elderly
man named Mister Bileyg, XauXaz injected himself into the bloodline
of John Cloamby, Lord Grandrith and his half-brother, Doctor James
Caliban, becoming their grandfather. Now, he intends to begin the
next phase of his plan, having read in a newspaper about the alleged
death of Doctor Wildman and his wife, following the disappearance of
Greystoke and his own wife. He thinks of his prior battles with his
grandson, who had known him as Baron von Hessel. Wildman’s last
known location is a private clinic in New York. XauXaz considers
extracting information from Wildman’s daughter Patricia.
Short
story by Win Scott Eckert in
The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3: Portraits of a Trickster,
Michael Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2012; reprinted in Tales
of the Wold Newton Universe,
Win Scott Eckert and Christopher Paul Carey, eds., Titan Books, 2013.
This story explains the reason why so many people were at the remote
village of Wold Newton when a meteor fell there in 1795. XauXaz, the
Nine, Anana, Iwaldi, Ebnaz XauXaz, Thrithjaz, John Cloamby, Lord
Grandrith; and Doctor James Caliban are featured in Farmer’s
trilogy of novels consisting of A
Feast Unknown,
Lord
of the Trees,
and The
Mad Goblin.
In these novels, XauXaz is portrayed as the inspiration for legends
of the Norse god Wotan. In Tarzan
Alive,
Farmer noted Wotan was an ancestor of the jungle lord, and suggested
he may have been responsible for the meteor coming to Earth in Wold
Newton. Shraask is from the unpublished fourth book in the
Grandrith/Caliban series, The
Monster on Hold.
The latter novel implies, and this story confirms, Grandrith and
Caliban’s exploits occur in a parallel universe to the CU.
Characters from Farmer’s Tarzan
Alive
and Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
include: Dr. Siger Holmes and his wife Violet Clarke, ancestors of
Sherlock Holmes; Albert Lecoq, father of Lecoq of the Black Coats and
grandfather of Monsieur Lecoq; Sir Hugh Drummond and his wife, Lady
Georgia Dewhurst, ancestors of Bulldog Drummond; Honoré Delagardie
and his wife Philippa Drummond, ancestors of Lord Peter Wimsey; Alice
Clarke Raffles, companion of Sir Percy and Marguerite Blakeney, and
Sir Percy’s future second wife; George Edward Rutherford, 11th
Baron Tennington and his wife Elizabeth Cavendish, ancestors of the
jungle lord; John William Clayton, 3rd Duke of Greystoke, and his
wife Alicia Rutherford, also ancestors of the jungle lord; and Arthur
Blake, ancestor of Sexton Blake. The Capelleans and the Eridaneans
are warring alien races from Farmer’s novel The
Other Log of Phileas Fogg,
which is also the source of the distorter. Another time distorter,
albeit operating on different principles, is used by Farmer himself
in stories by Paul Spiteri. General Sir Hezekiah Fogg was mentioned
as the great-grandfather of Phileas Fogg (from Jules Verne’s Around
the World in Eighty Days)
in
the Have
Gun–Will Travel episode
“Fogg Bound.” However, according to The
Other Log of Phileas Fogg,
Phileas’ stepfather Sir Heraclitus Fogg was an Old Eridanean, a
native member of the race rather than an adoptee. Therefore, Eckert
proposed in “A Chronology of Major Events Pertinent to The
Other Log of Phileas Fogg”
(found in the 2012 Titan Books edition of Other
Log)
Sir Hezekiah was a prior alias used by Sir Heraclitus himself, who
later posed as his own descendant. John Gribardsun, the H.
G. Wells I,
Project Chronos, and Jacob Moishe are from Farmer’s novel Time’s
Last Gift;
Gribardsun is actually the jungle lord, who received an immortality
elixir from a grateful witch doctor according to Edgar Rice
Burroughs’ novel Tarzan
and the Foreign Legion.
The timeline was split into two divergent realities when the H.
G. Wells I’s
second trip to 14,000 B.C. was diverted to 26,000 B.C. by
Gribardsun’s presence in their intended time period, as chronicled
by John Allen Small in his story “Into Time’s Abyss” (The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 2: Of Dust and Soul,
Michael Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2011). Sir Percy Blakeney and his
wife Marguerite are from Baroness Orczy’s Scarlet Pimpernel novels.
Percy, Alice and Marguerite battled Baron de Musard in Eckert’s
story “Is He in Hell?” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010). The
Baron de Musard in that story is an ancestor of the Baron de Musard
referred to in Farmer’s Doc Wildman novel Escape
from Loki.
Gribardsun’s battle with a member of that family in the 1500s was
alluded to in Farmer and Eckert’s novel The
Evil in Pemberley House.
Colonel Bozzo-Corona and his Brothers of Mercy are from Paul Féval’s
novels about the criminal conspiracy known as the Black Coats. Iain
Bond is an ancestor of British Secret Service agent James Bond.
William de Winter and his wife Elizabeth Richmond are from Jean-Marc
Lofficier’s articles “Will There Be Light Tomorrow?”
(Shadowmen:
Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction,
Black Coat Press, 2003) and “The Tangled Web: Genealogies of the
Members of the French Wold Newton Families–Rocambole and Fantômas”
(found at The
French Wold Newton Universe
website); William is descended from Milady from Alexandre Dumas’
The
Three Musketeers.
Gustavas Kramm is the ancestor of Dr. Cornelius Kramm from Gustave Le
Rouge’s Le
Mystérieux Docteur Cornelius,
while the surviving Gerolstein brother is the father of Rodolphe de
Gerolstein from Eugène Sue’s The
Mysteries of Paris;
both were identified as present at the meteor strike by Lofficier
in“Will There Be Light Tomorrow?,” which also first proposed the
reason why those present at the meteor strike were gathered together.
Fitzwilliam Darcy, his wife, the former Elizabeth Bennet; Elizabeth’s
sister-in-law, Miss Caroline Bingley; and Caroline’s brother
Charles are from Jane Austen’s Pride
and Prejudice.
Countess Nadine Carody is from the film Vampyros
Lesbos.
The Calyx Bar is from Louis Feuillade’s film serial Judex.
The Heart of Ahriman is from Robert E. Howard’s Conan novel The
Hour of the Dragon.
Etienne Austin was identified as present at the Wold Newton meteor
strike by Cheryl L. Huttner in her creative mythographic essay “Name
of a Thousand Blue Demons” (Myths
for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe,
Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain Books, 2005); he is an ancestor of
Professor Challenger’s chauffeur-butler Austin as well as Seabury
Quinn’s occult detective Jules de Grandin. Dennis E. Power revealed
Sexton Blake was related to the Scarlet Pimpernel in his series of
articles “The Wold, Wold West” (found at the Wold
Newton Universe: A Secret History website),
a theory that was adopted by Eckert for his essay “The Blakeney
Family Tree” (The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions, Michael
Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2010). Khokarsa is featured in three
novels by Farmer, collected in the omnibus Gods
of Opar.
The Gokako are also from the Opar books, and Greystoke/Gribardsun
appears in the series under the name Sahhindar. The Temple of Kho
also appears in the Opar books. The nethkarna
and the Door and Tree of Kho appear in Christopher Paul Carey’s
novella Exiles
of Kho.
Lupoeth is mentioned in the Opar books, and her founding of Opar is
depicted in Exiles
of Kho.
The city founded by Lupoeth is Opar itself, which is originally from
the Lord Greystoke books. Dr. Sebastian Noel is from Rick Lai’s
essay “The Secret History of Captain Nemo” (Myths
for the Modern Age);
he is the father of Dr. Noel from Robert Louis Stevenson’s “The
Suicide Club” and the grandfather of Professor Moriarty. The
crystalline root system is from Eckert and Carey’s story “Iron
and Bronze” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 5: The Vampires of Paris,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2009). The
root system is an extension of the star-shaped mineral-vegetable king
from J.-H. Rosny aîné’s novel L'Étonnant
Voyage d'Hareton Ironcastle,
translated and adapted by Farmer as Ironcastle,
and is also related to the Crystal Tree of Time, which the jungle
lord encountered in 1918 during the events of Farmer’s The
Dark Heart of Time: A Tarzan Novel (based
on ideas from “Crystal Corridors in the Farmerian Monomyth,”
presentation by Christopher Paul Carey and Dennis E. Power, FarmerCon
III, Peoria, Illinois, July 26, 2008). Wolf Larsen is from Jack
London’s The
Sea Wolf,
and was identified as Doc Wildman’s grandfather in Tarzan
Alive.
Baron von Hessel is from Escape
from Loki;
Christopher Carey identified Larsen and von Hessel as aliases for
XauXaz in his essay “The Green Eyes Have It–Or Are They Blue? or
Another Case of Identity Recased” (Myths
for the Modern Age).
The Royal Jelly treatment was created by Sherlock Holmes, as revealed
in William S. Baring-Gould’s biography Sherlock
Holmes of Baker Street.
XauXaz’s attempt to retrieve a shard of the Wold Newton meteor was
chronicled in Watson and Eckert’s story “The Adventure of the
Fallen Stone” (Sherlock
Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook,
Howard Hopkins, ed., Moonstone Books, 2012), which also revealed the
British Secret Service’s interest in the “human magnetic moment,”
first identified in Tarzan
Alive.
The Oil of Life was created by Dr. Fu Manchu, who was identified by
Farmer as the grandson of the 3rd Duke of Greystoke in Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
Wildman’s wife is Adélaïde Johnston Lupin, who appears in
Eckert’s stories “The Eye of Oran” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 2: Gentlemen of the Night,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2005) and “Les
Lèvres Rouges” (Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 3: Danse Macabre,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2006). Their
daughter is Patricia Clarke Lupin Wildman, the protagonist of The
Evil in Pemberley House.
The Gray Man of Ice is Paul Ernst’s avenging pulp hero; Eckert has
chronicled his battles with XauXaz in a trilogy of stories for
Moonstone Books’ anthologies featuring the character. The private
clinic is Doc Wildman’s Crime College.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
Crossover Cover: Vampirella vs. Fluffy the Vampire Killer
Vampirella
goes undercover as a teacher at a high school to investigate a series
of teen murders, and winds up working with a vampire-slaying student
named Fluffy. “Fluffy”
is a thinly-veiled parody of Buffy Summers of the television series
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer,
and therefore it can be assumed in creative mythographic terms, she
is indeed Buffy. However, the death of “Fluffy’s” friend
“Sallow” (Willow) must be considered a distortion. The date is
based on the fact the principal of the school, who is portrayed as
Vampirella’s ally Criswell, states the previous principal was
eaten. Two Sunnydale High principals were devoured: Robert Flutie (in
the Buffy
episode
“The Pack”), and R. Snyder (in the two-parter “Graduation
Day.”) Since the events of “Graduation Day” resulted in the
school being destroyed, I have concluded Criswell’s presence is
mere fictionalization and the principal is actually Snyder.
Furthermore, the presence of “Fluffy’s” vampire boyfriend
“Cherub” (Angel) indicates this story takes place before the
temporary removal of Angel’s soul and his equally temporary death
in Season 2. The high school being shut down at the end of Vampi and
“Fluffy’s” adventure is another distortion, as are references
to the iPhone “There’s an app for that” ad slogan, Ryan
Seacrest, and Bristol Palin.
Friday, November 27, 2015
Crossover Cover: Sex, Lies, and Private Eyes
This anthology from Moonstone includes two crossovers. In C.J. Henderson's "The Mind of the Dead," psychometrist
Lai Wan comes to the aid of Carl Kolchak when they turn out to be
investigating the same series of crimes. Kolchak
also encountered Lai Wan in Spring 1997 during the events of
Henderson and Joe Gentile’s novel Partners
in Crime.
September 15 is a Saturday, placing this story in 1997 as well, after
Partners
in Crime.
“The Mind of the Dead” does not address whether Kolchak and Lai
Wan have met before. In John Lutz's "Recreational Vehicle," a St.
Louis private eye named Nudger travels to Florida to help his
girlfriend’s aunt and uncle, who are being blackmailed, and works
with his fellow P.I. Fred Carver to resolve the situation. Lutz’s
P.I. Fred Carver is in the CU through a mention of Robert B. Parker’s
eye Spenser in his first appearance, Tropical
Heat,
as well as a brief appearance in Robert J. Randisi’s Miles Jacoby
novel Hard
Look.
This crossover brings in Lutz’s other series P.I. character, Alo
Nudger.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Web Weaver
A sequel to Siciliano's Holmes vs. the Phantom of the Opera novel The
Angel of the Opera,
which has already been placed in an AU. The
Duke of Denver, presumably Lord Peter Wimsey’s father or
grandfather, is mentioned.
Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Dogs of War
Kurt
Semmler once served in the OAS, a French terrorist group, under
Colonel Marc Rodin. Rodin
is from Forsyth’s novel The
Day of the Jackal,
which takes place in the CU via a reference to M’s club, Blades,
from Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
Crossover Cover: The First Commandment
CIA
paramilitary operative Rick Morrell tells his subordinate Mike
Raymond he is going to call in a favor from an ex-Department of
Justice operative turned book dealer named Malone to verify whether
or not former Navy SEAL and current Secret Service agent Scot Harvath
is in Zurich.
Malone
is Cotton Malone, who appears in thriller novels by Steve Berry.
Since Malone is in the CU, this reference brings in Scot Harvath.
Monday, November 23, 2015
Crossover Cover: Trouble in Paradise
Velma
and Daphne are invited to Paradise Island by Wonder Woman on Batman’s
recommendation, partly to learn the ways of the Amazons, and partly
to help them stop the spate of mythological creatures that have been
attacking recently. This is somewhat complicated by Fred, Scooby, and
Shaggy being unable to set foot on the mainland due to the Olympian
gods’ edict. Since the Amazons are canonically immortal, and other stories set in the CU have Wonder Woman active in the 1970s and early '80s, there is no problem with including this story, even though Diana was first active in the 1940s.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
Crossover of the Week
October
31, 1921
THE
GOTTERDAMMERUNG GAVOTTE
Charles
St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass team up with a group of occult
detectives to prevent the Great Old Ones from being unleashed upon
the world. Appearing or mentioned are: Semi Dual; No. 472 Cheyne
Walk; Harley Warren; John Silence; Ravenwood; Sar Dubnotal; de
Grandin; Thunstone; Pursuivant; Ms. Crerar; Kirowan; Zarnak; Thomas
Carnacki; the Nameless One; a Tibetan lama with an unhealthy
fascination for the color green; the Third Ritual of Hloh;
Tserpchikopf; the Great Detective; the Hog; the Shambler; the Walker;
the Lurker; the Yimghaz Sign; fire vampires; the dust of Ibn Gazi;
Naacal; Thorne; openers and closers; the Drones Club; and Captain
Drummond.
Story
by Josh Reynolds in
The Lovecraft eZine #18,
Mike Davis, ed., October 2012. Semi Dual is an occult detective
created for the pulps by J. U. Giesy. Thomas Carnacki is from William
Hope Hodgson’s collection
Carnacki the Ghost-Finder.
Carnacki lives at No. 472 Cheyne Walk. The Hog is from the Carnacki
story of the same name. Harley Warren appears in H. P. Lovecraft’s
“The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and is mentioned in “The
Silver Key” and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” The
Naacal language is also from “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.”
John Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection of the same
name. Ravenwood was the hero of a series of stories by Frederick C.
Davis in the pulp magazine Secret
Agent X;
the Nameless One is Ravenwood’s Tibetan mystic mentor. The Sar
Dubnotal was the subject of a French pulp series by an anonymous
author who may have been Norbert Sevestre. Tserpchikopf is one of the
mystic’s foes. Jules de Grandin is an occult detective created by
Seabury Quinn. John Thunstone is the hero of a series of stories by
Manly Wade Wellman, as is Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. Rowley
Thorne is Thunstone’s archenemy. Ms. Crerar is Sheila Crerar, an
occult detective appearing in stories by Ella Scrymsour. John Kirowan
is a recurring character in the works of Robert E. Howard. Anton
Zarnak is an occult investigator created by Lin Carter; his
adventures have been continued by a number of other authors. The
Tibetan lama is Kendell Crossen’s pulp hero the Green Lama. The
Ritual of Hloh and the Yimghaz Sign are from “The Case of the
Bronze Door,” one of Margery Lawrence’s stories about psychic
detective Miles Pennoyer. The Great Detective is Sherlock Holmes, of
course. The Shambler is a reference to Robert Bloch’s “The
Shambler from the Stars.” The Walker is Ithaqua (aka the
Wind-Walker), from August Derleth’s story of the same name. The
Lurker is Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep; the Lurker appellation is an
allusion to Derleth’s The
Lurker at the Threshold.
Fire vampires are from Donald Wandrei’s story “The Fire
Vampires.” The Dust of Ibn Gazi is from Lovecraft’s “The
Dunwich Horror.” The openers and closers are from Roger Zelazny’s
A
Night in the Lonesome October;
although the events of that novel have been placed in an alternate
universe, there is nothing to prevent the Crossover Universe from
having openers and closers of its own. The Drones Club is a recurring
London gentlemen’s club in the interconnected works of P. G.
Wodehouse. Captain Drummond is H. C. McNeile’s hero Hugh “Bulldog”
Drummond.
Saturday, November 21, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Bone Clocks
As I've discussed in previous posts, the connected works of author David Mitchell are in the CU through references in Joe Hill's novel NOS4A2, which also has references to Hill's father Stephen King's work. In this novel, the following appear or are mentioned: Dr. Marinus; Alan Wall; Hugo Lamb; Dominic
Fitzsimmons; Felix Finch; Jonny Penhaligon; Kilmagoon Special
Reserve; Elijah D’Arnoq; Spyglass
magazine;
Dwight Silverwind; and The
Voorman Problem. Dr.
Marinus, who is capable of reincarnation, is from The
Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.
This incarnation of Marinus debuted in Mitchell’s libretto for
Michael Van der Aa’s opera Sunken
Garden.
Johnny Penhaligon is a descendant of the Captain Penhaligon that
appears in The
Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.
Alan Wall, Hugo Lamb, and Dominic Fitzsimmons are from Black
Swan Green.
Felix Finch and Spyglass
magazine
are from Cloud
Atlas.
The Afterword included in the paperback edition of this novel reveals
Elijah D’Arnoq is the son of Mr. d’Arnoq, a minor character in
Cloud
Atlas.
Kilmagoon Special Reserve is a fictional whiskey that recurs in
Mitchell’s works. Dwight Silverwind is from Ghostwritten.
The book The
Voorman Problem is
the basis for the movie of the same name in number9dream.
The section of the book entitled “Sheep’s Head: 2043” takes
place on an Earth ravaged by climate change, and therefore must
represent an alternate future, which also appears to be the setting
of Mitchell’s story “The Siphoners.” This section also has an
appearance by Mo Muntervary from Ghostwritten.
Friday, November 20, 2015
Crossover Cover: Brimstone
Aloysius
Pendergast encounters Count Isidor Ottavio Baldassare Fosco. Fosco
is identical in name, appearance, and personality to Count Fosco from
Wilkie Collins’ novel The
Woman in White,
which he actually refers to at one point. Therefore, the contemporary
Fosco is probably a descendant of his earlier namesake.
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Crossover Covers: The Luke Challenger series
This series features Luke Challenger, Professor Challenger's grandson. The
first book, Return
to the Lost World,
takes place in May–July
1933. 14-year-old Luke and his cousin Nick Malone, who is the same
age, travel to Maple White Land to rescue Luke’s mother, Lady
Harriet Challenger, from the Sons of Destiny, a multinational group
dedicated to allowing fascism to rise so they can take over the
world. The second book in the series, Return
to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,
takes place in June–August
1934. Challenger Industries is contacted by Jessica Land, the
16-year-old great-granddaughter of Ned Land, who has found out her
great-grandfather had been willed the Journals of Captain Nemo by
Professor Aaron X. Perrier (who Jules Verne disguised as Pierre
Aronnax). Luke and Nick join the expedition to locate the Nautilus
in a race against the Sons of Destiny to gain the nuclear secrets of
the submarine. It is possible references to the Nautilus
being
nuclear-powered and The
Mysterious Island being
fictional are influenced by Professor H. W. Starr’s essay “A
Submersible Subterfuge, or, Proof Impositive.” The third book,
Return
to King Solomon’s Mines,
takes place from December 1934–January
1935. Luke and Nick go to Ethiopia to visit Luke’s mother on an
archaeological dig. Accompanying them is Elsa Fairfax,
great-granddaughter of Allan Quatermain. The expedition comes across
Kukuanaland, and discovers the people were ruled by the reincarnation
of the High Priestess Gagool after the death of King Ignosi. Nick
Malone is the son of Ned Malone and the late Enid Challenger. If he
and Luke are both 14-years-old in 1933, they would’ve been born
around 1919. However, Ned and Enid fell in love during the events of
Doyle’s The
Land of Mist,
which Rick Lai has dated to 1926. Combined with the dismissal of The
Mysterious Island as
fictional, this argues against placement of these books in CU
continuity.
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
Crossover Cover: Quest for Mystery!
Scooby-Doo,
Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne team up with Jonny Quest, Hadji, and
Race Bannon to rescue Dr. Quest from the clutches of Dr. Zin.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Crossover Cover: Fortunehead!
The 50th and final issue of the DC Comics series Secret Origins featured the origin stories of several DC heroes, including the Western hero Johnny Thunder (not to be confused with the Justice Society member of the same name.) In this story, Johnny rescues
his father, Sheriff Bill Tane, from a criminal named Rand. A
flashback shows Johnny preventing a bank robbery as Rand rides into
town. Rand asks a witness who the hero is; the man begins telling a
story of a group of Texas Rangers who were massacred. The only
survivor swore a vow. Another bystander contradicts him, saying
Thunder “wasn’t thet guy.” As this discussion takes place, an
image of a masked cowboy clad in blue and wearing a badge is shown. The
bystander has confused Johnny Thunder with his fellow lawman, the
Lone Ranger. Presumably, he has heard rumors of the Ranger’s
origins.
Monday, November 16, 2015
Crossover Cover: Cold Days
Queen
Mab of the Fae tests Harry Dresden by making a number of creative
attempts to murder him, which he must survive. A ticking crocodile is
mentioned as one of them. This must
be the same one seen in J. M. Barrie’s Peter
Pan.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Crossover of the Week
December 1896
CUT
THE BRANCH
Appearing
or mentioned are: the Black Coats; Joséphine Balsamo; the House of
Crafts; Dr. Antonio Nikola; Catarina Corbucci; Count Salvatore
Corbucci; Professor James Moriarty; Madame Fourneau’s College for
Young Women; Norman Head; Noel Moriarty; Irina Putine; the Chupin
Detective Agency; Urania Caber; the golden ram crest of the
Cagliostro family; the Gentlemen of the Night; Orianne Coyatier;
Rochelle Moreau; Ramirez; Professor Chavain; Madame Sara (aka Sarah
Warrender); Colleen Pegler; the White Lodge; Frank Moran; Colonel
Sebastian Moran; Patrick Dickson; Hamish Webb; Stangerson’s
Disassociation
of Matter Through Electricity;
the Brotherhood of the Seven Kings; Gordo Reloj; Pilar; Aguilar; the
All-Father; Dominick Moriarty; Marga Sandorf; Aristide Orlowsky
Sandorf; Baron Von Schulenberg; Manny Bennet; Solly Bennet; Corben
Caine; Wilmot Rogers; Jefferson Gonzales; the Lanky Gunman; the
Yankee Whistler; a friend of Gordo’s; Dupont-Verdier (aka Satanas);
Jillian Blake; Leonard; Etienne Cressy Raimond D’Arcourt; Sharita;
the Duchy of Strackenz; the Thuggee cult’s alliance with Naga
worshippers; Achmet Genghis Khan; Gruesome Clayton; Carfax Abbey;
Dracula; and Ballmeyer.
Short
story by Rick Lai in Sisters
of the Shadows: The Cagliostro Curse,
Black Coat Press, 2013. The Black Coats are a criminal conspiracy
featured in novels by Paul Féval. Orianne Coyatier is the
granddaughter of Jean-François Coyatier (aka the Marchef), who acted
as the Black Coats’ executioner. The All-Father is the leader of
the Black Coats. The Gentlemen of the Night are from Féval’s The
Mysteries of London.
Joséphine Balsamo battled Arsène Lupin in Maurice Leblanc’s The
Countess of Cagliostro.
Leonard is also from that novel. The House of Crafts is an allusion
to the criminal organization known as Krafthaus in John Buchan’s
The
Power-House.
Dr. Antonio Nikola is a scientist and criminal mastermind featured in
novels by Guy Boothby. Catarina Corbucci is meant to be Madame
Koluchy from L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace’s The
Brotherhood of the Seven Kings.
Norman Head is also from Meade and Eustace’s novel. Madame Sara is
from Meade and Eustace’s The
Sorceress of the Strand;
her alias of Sarah Warrender is meant to imply she is the mother of
Miss Warrender from Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Uncle Jeremy’s
Household.” Achmet Genghis Khan was identified as Miss Warrender’s
father in Doyle’s tale. Count Salvatore Corbucci dueled with A. J.
Raffles in E. W. Hornung’s “The Fate of Faustina” and “The
Last Laugh.” Professor James Moriarty is Sherlock Holmes’
archenemy. Noel Moriarty (whose full name is James Noel Moriarty) is
the Professor’s younger brother mentioned in The
Valley of Fear.
Colonel Sebastian Moran is Professor Moriarty’s second-in-command
from “The Adventure of the Empty House.” In The
Power-House,
the Krafthaus’ leader Andrew Lumley lives in a house called the
White Lodge; the implication of the White Lodge reference in Lai’s
story is Lumley is actually Noel Moriarty. Madame Fourneau’s
College for Young Women is from the Spanish horror film La
Residencia.
Irina Putine is an alias for Irene Tupin from the same film.
Professor Chavain is based on Madame Fourneau’s reference to her
former student, a noted botanist. The Chupin Detective Agency, run by
Victor “Toto” Chupin, is from the works of Emile Gaboriau. Urania
Caber is meant to be Urania Moriarty, the Professor’s daughter,
whose existence was revealed by Philip José Farmer in Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
Jillian Blake is based on a reference to a Jill Fagin who married a
Blake in Farmer’s book. The golden ram crest of the Cagliostro
family is from the animated Lupin III film The
Castle of Cagliostro.
Rochelle Moreau is the daughter of H. G. Wells’ Dr. Moreau and the
niece of Bernard Moreau, who is mentioned in La
Residencia.
Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez is from the film The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
“Colleen Pegler” is an alias for Peg Cullane from Louis L’Amour’s
The
Man Called Noon.
Frank Moran is Francis “Colt” Moran from the film Today
It’s Me…Tomorrow You! Patrick
Dickson is meant to be Tricky the Gambler from the movie The
Fighting Fists of Shanghai Joe.
Hamish Webb is meant to be James Webb from the movie Black
Killer.
Stangerson’s Disassociation
of Matter Through Electricity is
from Gaston Leroux’s first Rouletabille novel, The
Mystery of the Yellow Room.
Ballmeyer is Rouletabille’s father. Gordo Reloj is meant to be
Gordo Watch from the film Arizona
Colt (aka
The Man from Nowhere);
“reloj”is Spanish for “watch.” Pilar and Aguilar are from the
film A
Stranger in Town.
Dominick Moriarty is meant to be Dominick Medina from John Buchan’s
The
Three Hostages.
Marga Sandorf is the niece of the title character of Jules Verne’s
novel Mathias
Sandorf.
Aristide Orlowsky Sandorf is meant to be the Hungarian villain
Orlowsky from the movie Django
Strikes Again.
Baron Von Schulenberg is from the movie The
Big Gundown.
Manny Bennet is meant to be Manuel from the film Cemetery
Without Crosses.
Corben Caine and Wilmot Rogers are Ben Caine and Will Rogers from the
same film. Solly Bennet is Solomon “Beauregard” Bennet from the
movie Face
to Face.
Jefferson Gonzales is from the film Ringo
and His Golden Pistol.
The Lanky Gunman is Hank “Lanky” Fellows from the movie A
Taste for Killing.
The Yankee Whistler is the title character of the movie Yankee.
Gordo’s friend is Frank Talby from the movie Day
of Anger.
Satanas is from Louis Feuillade’s film serial Les
Vampires;
in the English language translation of the serial, Satanas’ real
name is given as Claude Dupont-Verdier. Etienne Cressy Raimond
D’Arcourt and Sharita are from Gardner F. Fox’s novel
Woman of Kali.
The Duchy of Strackenz is from George MacDonald Fraser’s Royal
Flash;
here, it is implied to be the same country as the Duchy of Cagliostro
from The
Castle of Cagliostro.
The alliance between the Thuggee and Naga worshippers is from Emilio
Salgari’s Sandokan novels. Gruesome Clayton is Sir William Clayton
from Farmer’s Tarzan
Alive and
Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.
Carfax Abbey is from Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Saturday, November 14, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Flaming Curse
In this issue's installment of his feature, the
masked and winged hero Hawkman, looking into the background of a
supposedly cursed man, receives some help from a retired detective
who deduces his true identity. The
detective, though unnamed, is clearly meant to be Sherlock Holmes.
This crossover brings a version of Carter Hall, the Golden Age
Hawkman, into the CU.
Friday, November 13, 2015
Crossover Covers: Inferior Five
This series features a
team of incompetent second generation superheroes. Parodies of
various CU characters appear, including Reed Victor, the
Yellowjacket, and his chauffeur Plato (Britt Reid, the Green Hornet,
and Kato); Caesar Single and Kwitcha Belliakin of
C.O.U.S.I.N.F.R.E.D. (Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin of
U.N.C.L.E.); John Claypool, Lord Gravestone, aka Darwin of the Apes
(the jungle lord); Sir Chauncey Berkeley, the Crimson Chrysanthemum
(Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel); and Allergy Queen
(Ellery Queen). Parodies of several Marvel heroes also appear. While Dennis E. Power did a Wold Newton article regarding this series, for CU purposes, I consider it an AU.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
Crossover Cover: Who's Scared?
When
the Scarecrow douses Mystery, Inc. and the Mystery Analysts of Gotham
City with his fear gas, it’s up to Scooby-Doo and Ace the Bathound,
who as non-canines are unaffected by the drug, to save the day. The
Mystery Analysts present for the meeting include Batman and Robin,
Roy Raymond, Mysto, Doctor Thirteen, Kaye Daye, Slam Bradley, and
Jason Bard. Paintings of Detective Chimp and Sam Simeon are also
seen. Roy
Raymond, TV detective, appeared in Detective
Comics from
1949–1961.
Mysto, Magician Detective appeared in his own back-up feature in the
same series in 1954. Doctor Terrence Thirteen, “the Ghost-Breaker,”
appeared in Star-Spangled
Comics from
1951-1952. Kaye Daye is one of the original Mystery Analysts of
Gotham City that appeared in Batman
in
the 1960s and 1970s. Slam Bradley appeared in Detective
Comics from
1937–1949.
Slam’s older brother Biff Bradley was involved in an affair on
Dinosaur Island alongside several other adventurers in 1927, as seen
in Guns
of the Dragon,
while Slam himself had an adventure with the third Batman and Robin
team, the Elongated Man, and an elderly Sherlock Holmes in 1986, as
seen in “The Doomsday Book.” Jason Bard first appeared in a
Batgirl story in Detective
Comics in
1969 before spinning off into his own back-up feature, which ran
until 1973.
Detective Chimp (Bobo, a chimpanzee skilled at solving crimes) had a
back-up feature in The
Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog from
1952–1959.
Sam
Simeon, a talking ape who works as a P.I. with the curvaceous and
brilliant Angel O’Day, was featured in the comic Angel
and the Ape.
These characters are all CU counterparts of their equivalents in the
DC Comics Universe.
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Crossover Cover: Kill Fee
N.Y.P.D.
Lieutenant James Murtaugh attempts to apprehend a contract killer
named Pluto, who picks his targets first and seeks money from people
who stand to profit by their deaths only after the hit. Murtaugh went
on to appear in Paul’s Marian Larch novels. Win included Paul's
novel The Fourth Wall in
Volume 2 due to references to Archie Goodwin and Dr. Vollmer from the
Nero Wolfe series, and noted that some of the characters from that
novel went on to appear in the Larch series.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Game's Afoot
This anthology contains three stories with crossovers. In M.J. Elliott's "The Adventure of the Hanging Tyrant," set in 1894, Holmes
investigates a case that involves Oswald Crawshay, who learned the
art of housebreaking from his uncle, a suspect in the theft of the
Melrose Necklace. Oswald's
uncle is Reginald Crawshay from E. W. Hornung’s Raffles stories "Gentlemen and Players" and "The Return Match," both of which
are included in the collection The
Amateur Cracksman. In Christopher Sequeira's "The Adventure of the Haunted Showman," set in October 1897, Inspector
Lestrade brings a potential client to Holmes, who says he is engaged in a pressing affair involving an unclaimed
rare book recently auctioned after the sale of the Al Hazred
Collection, and he shall not be free until a courier returns from
Amsterdam with a message he requires. After the woman and Lestrade
leave, Holmes admits to Watson he was lying about the prior case. Despite
Holmes’ falsehood, he must be aware of the real "Mad Arab"
Abdul Alhazred, the author of the Necronomicon
in
H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. "The Return of the Sussex Vampire," also by Sequeira, is set in 1926. The elderly Holmes and Watson
investigate a case of vampirism plaguing Josiah Ferguson’s
daughters, similar to a case involving Josiah’s nephew Bob’s
infant son that occurred years ago. Bob Ferguson is from Doyle’s "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire." Watson is uncertain what
to do with notes from some of Holmes’ cases, including that of the
Nikola Formulae. This is a reference to Guy Boothby’s master
criminal Doctor Nikola. Watson has grown children (including at least
two sons) and young grandchildren at the time of this case. However,
in Farmer’s The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer,
Watson
states Nylepthah is the only one of his four wives to bear him a son,
that child being born in November 1918. Combined with a reference to
Watson attending Mycroft Holmes’ funeral in 1919, this places
Sequeira’s tale in an alternate reality to the CU.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Crossover Cover: Man Bat and Robbin'
Scooby and the gang go to Gotham City to investigate monster sightings, and wind up working with Batman and Robin to pursue the source of the sightings, the Dynamic Duo's old foe Man-Bat. I am planning on reading the rest of this series in order to determine which stories can fit into CU continuity and which cannot. It's probably safe to say the ones featuring the Super Friends, the animated version of the Teen Titans, and Secret Squirrel don't take place in the CU. This story takes place a few years after The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and Fred refers to Mystery Inc. and Batman and Robin previously encountering the Joker and the Penguin.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Crossover of the Week
Early
January–May
4, 1891
THE
PROBLEM OF THE FINAL ADVENTURE
Colonel
Sebastian Moran recounts the events leading to Professor Moriarty’s
battle with Sherlock Holmes at the Reichenbach Falls. Appearing or
mentioned are: Watson; Colonel Moriarty; the third James Moriarty;
“an Irish spinster scribbler”; the Fat Man of Whitehall; the
Diogenes Club; Billy the Page; Charlie Vokins; Lestrade; Mackenzie;
MacDonald; Simon Carne; the Ranee of Ranchipur; the Lord of Strange
Deaths; Fal Vale; Sophy Kratides; Harold Latimer and Wilson Kemp;
Charles Milverton; Dan Levy; Les
Vampires;
the Grand Vampire; Irma Vep; Kingstead Cemetery; La
Castafiore;
Thomas Carnacki; Van Helsing; Bulstrode & Sons; Baron Maupertuis;
quap; Mr. Beebe; the Daughter of the Dragon; Doctor Nikola; Madame
Sara; Margaret Trelawny; the Hoxton Creeper; Doctor Mabuse; Alraune
ten Brincken; Arthur Raffles and Bunny Manders; Théophraste Lupin
and Joséphine Balsamo, Countess Cagliostro; Doctor Jack Quartz and
Princess Zanoni; Rupert of Hentzau; Irene Adler; the Si-Fan; Queen
Tera; the Jewel of Seven Stars; the Black Pearl of the Borgias; the
Duke of Shires; Dr. Syn; Barchester Cathedral; the Forsyte tomb;
Colonel Clay; Jim Lassiter; Diggory Venn; Sir Augustus Moran; Von
Herder; a skull-faced “ghost” in the khanum’s
palace at Mazenderan; Parker; the Reverend John Jago; the Mountmains;
Colonel Sapt; Princess Flavia; Birdy Edwards; Grimesby Roylott; John
Clay; Bert Stevens; Fred Porlock; Birlstone Manor; Paul Kratides;
Ruritania; Rudi; Michael; Rassendyll; The
Englischer Hof;
and Peter Steiler. The endnotes to the story reveal Kate Reed ghosted
for her friend and later lover, Charles Beauregard, and the Diogenes
Club traded as Universal Exports in the 1950s. Paul Forrestier is
mentioned in the same endnote.
Short
story by Colonel Sebastian Moran, edited by Kim Newman in Professor
Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles,
Titan Books, 2011. Moriarty, Moran, Holmes, Watson, the Fat Man of
Whitehall (Sherlock’s brother Mycroft), the Diogenes Club, Billy
the Page, and Lestrade are from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Further
references from the Holmes stories: Colonel Moriarty, Inspector
Patterson, the Englischer Hof, and Peter Steiler from “The Final
Problem”; the third James Moriarty (the stationmaster, later known
as the second Professor Moriarty), MacDonald, Birdy Edwards, Fred
Porlock, and Birlstone Manor from The
Valley of Fear;
Sophy Kratides, Harold Latimer, Wilson Kemp, and Paul Kratides from
“The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter”; Charles Milverton from
“The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton”; Baron Maupertuis,
mentioned in “The Adventure of the Reigate Squire”; the Black
Pearl of the Borgias from “The Adventure of the Six Napoleons”;
Sir Augustus Moran, Von Herder, and Parker from “The Adventure of
the Empty House”; Grimesby Roylott from “The Adventure of the
Speckled Band”; John Clay from “The Adventure of the Red-Headed
League”; and Bert Stevens from “The Adventure of the Norwood
Builder.” Moran’s claim he shot Moriarty as the latter grappled
with Holmes at Reichenbach must be considered spurious; Holmes would
surely have noticed, and The
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen depicts
Moran and Campion Bond tending to Moriarty after his plunge down the
falls. Moran must have lied to conceal the fact the Professor
survived his painful fall. The “Irish spinster scribbler” is Kate
Reed, a “deleted” character from Dracula
who
appears in several stories by Newman, and also has a counterpart in
the Anno Dracula Universe. Charlie Vokins is from “The Horizontal
Witness,” an episode of the television series Cribb.
Arthur Raffles, Bunny Manders, and Mackenzie are from the Raffles
stories by E. W. Hornung. Dan Levy is from the novel Mr.
Justice Raffles.
Given that Philip José Farmer identified Raffles as the father of
Arthur Upfield’s Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, Moran and Sophy must
be mistaken about Raffles and Bunny’s sexual orientation. Simon
Carne is from Guy Boothby’s collection of stories A
Prince of Swindlers.
Ranchipur is from the film The
Rains of Ranchipur.
The Lord of Strange Deaths is Fu Manchu; the Si-Fan is the criminal
organization Fu Manchu runs. The Daughter of the Dragon is presumably
meant to be Fu Manchu’s daughter, Fah Lo Suee; however, this
conflicts with Fah’s established birthdate of 1896. Fu must have
had another daughter before Fah Lo Suee. Fal Vale is from Arnold
Ridley’s play The
Ghost Train.
Les Vampires,
the Grand Vampire, and Irma Vep are from Louis Feuillade’s serial
Les
Vampires.
Kingstead Cemetery and Van Helsing are from Stoker’s Dracula.
La Castafiore
is Bianca Castafiore from Hergé’s Tintin comics. Thomas Carnacki,
“the Ghost-Finder,” was created by William Hope Hodgson.
Bulstrode & Sons is a reference to the British sitcom That’s
Your Funeral.
Quap is a radioactive compound from H. G. Wells’ novel Tono-Bungay.
Mr. Beebe is from E. M. Forster’s novel A
Room with a View.
Doctor Nikola is the master criminal created by Guy Boothby. Madame
Sara is from L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace’s The
Sorceress of the Strand.
Rick Lai has identified Madame Sara as the mother of Miss Warrender
from Doyle’s short story “Uncle Jeremy’s Household” in his
own fiction, and therefore Moran is wrong about Sara’s sexuality as
well as Raffles and Bunny’s. Margaret Trelawny, Queen Tera, and the
Jewel of Seven Stars are from Bram Stoker’s The
Jewel of Seven Stars.
The Hoxton Creeper is from the Sherlock Holmes film The
Pearl of Death.
Doctor Mabuse is the subject of fiction by Norbert Jacques, as well
as a film trilogy by Fritz Lang. Alraune ten Brincken is from the
novel Alraune
by Hanns Heinz Ewers. Théophraste Lupin is the father of Maurice
Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin, while Joséphine Balsamo
is Arsène’s future nemesis. Doctor Jack Quartz and Princess Zanoni
are foes of dime novel detective Nick Carter. Rupert of Hentzau,
Colonel Sapt, Princess Flavia, Ruritania, Rudi (Rudolf V), Michael
(Black Michael), and Rassendyll (Rudolf Rassendyll) are from The
Prisoner of Zenda and
Rupert of Hentzau by
Anthony Hope. The Duke of Shires is from the Sherlock Holmes film A
Study in Terror. Dr.
Syn, aka the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh and Captain Clegg, is from the
series of novels by Russell Thorndike. Barchester Cathedral is from
Anthony Trollope’s Chronicles
of Barsetshire novels.
The
Forsyte Saga
is a series of novels by John Galsworthy. Colonel Clay is from the
novel An
African Millionaire by
Grant Allen. Jim Lassiter is from Zane Grey’s novel Riders
of the Purple Sage.
Diggory Venn is from Thomas Hardy’s The
Return of the Native.
The skull-faced “ghost” in the khanum’s palace at Mazenderan is
the Phantom of the Opera, from the novel by Gaston Leroux. The
Reverend John Jago is an ancestor of Anthony Jago from Newman’s
novel Jago,
and also has a counterpart in the Anno Dracula Universe. Paul
Forrestier is also from Jago.
The Mountmains are likely kin to the Mountmains who appear in
Newman’s Seven
Stars.
Charles Beauregard is from Newman’s Diogenes Club stories, and has
a counterpart in the Anno Dracula Universe. In Billy Wilder’s film
The
Private Life of Sherlock Holmes,
the Diogenes Club was portrayed as a front for the British Secret
Service, a theory Newman has adopted for his own fiction; here, it is
revealed the Club eventually became Universal Exports, the front for
the BSS in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. However, the BSS must
have still privately used the Club’s name at times, as demonstrated
by Richard Jeperson’s exploits.
Saturday, November 7, 2015
Crossover Cover: Don't Ask
John
Dortmunder once again crosses paths with guards working for the
Continental Detective Agency. The country of Klopstokia is mentioned,
as is the Frankenstein family. The
Continental Detective Agency is from Dashiell Hammett’s stories
about the Continental Op. The Frankenstein family needs no
explanation at this point. Klopstokia is from the film Million
Dollar Legs.
Friday, November 6, 2015
Crossover Cover: The Templar Salvation
FBI
agent Sean Reilly tells his girlfriend, archaeologist Tess Chaykin,
about his friend Cotton Malone, a former government agent who has
retired, moved to Copenhagen, and opened an antique bookshop. Cotton
Malone, who appears in a series of novels by Steve Berry, is already
in the CU. Therefore, this crossover brings in Reilly and Chaykin.
Thursday, November 5, 2015
Crossover Movie Poster: Friday the 13th
A reboot of the horror franchise. An obnoxious jock named Trent is one
of Jason Voorhees’ victims. This is meant to be Trent DeMarco from
the movie Transformers,
directed by Friday
the 13th
producer
Michael Bay. Travis Van Winkle played Trent in both films. The events
of the Transformers
films, involving giant shape-changing robots engaging in very public
and destructive battles, are incompatible with CU continuity, and therefore I consider those films and this one as taking place in an AU.
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