This anthology of X-Files prose stories from IDW Publishing includes “Not Gratum Anus Rodentum” by Brian Keene. Walter
Skinner investigates a were-rat. At one point, Skinner and a group of
homeless kids discuss the Herod slayings, which were
depicted in Keene’s story “Slouching in Bethlehem,” which
connects to other works by Keene.

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.
Saturday, April 30, 2016
Friday, April 29, 2016
Crossover Cover: Wanted: Señorita Scorpion
This anthology published by Pro Se Productions includes the story "Wanted: Señorita Scorpion" by my fellow New Wold Newton Meteoritics Society member Brad Mengel. Bounty
hunter Bellem pays a call on Anse Hawkman at the advice of Waxahachie
Smith. Hawkman wants Bellem to track down the outlaw Señorita
Scorpion, who is said to shoot faster than Dusty Fog. Bellem dented
his rifle pistol-whipping a man he was paid to track down by a banker
in Yellowdog. Waxahachie
Smith, Dusty Fog, and the town of Yellowdog are from the Floating
Outfit novels by J. T. Edson, which are already firmly in the CU.
Therefore, this crossover brings in Les Savage, Jr.’s Señorita
Scorpion, who appeared in eight stories in the pulp magazine Action
Stories from
1944 to 1949.
Thursday, April 28, 2016
Crossover Cover: Sharper Than a Serpent's Tooth
John
Taylor returns from the past to stop his mother from destroying the
Nightside. Appearing or mentioned are: Rollerball t-shirts (referring to William
Harrison’s story “Roller Ball Murder,” which depicts a
corporation-driven future that is one of several possible futures for
the CU); a cyborg
with golden eyes from an alternate future (one
of the Hadenmen from Green’s Deathstalker books); a sonic screwdriver (from
the TV series Doctor
Who); a
Water Baby (from Charles
Kingsley’s novel The
Water Babies); the Yellow Sign (from
Robert W. Chambers’ The
King in Yellow,
and incorporated into the Cthulhu Mythos by H. P. Lovecraft in
the short story “The Whisperer in Darkness”; Sneaky Pete (Pete
Hutter from the television Western The
Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.); the Holy Hand Grenade of
St. Antioch (from
the movie Monty
Python and the Holy Grail,
although the events seen in that movie must have been exaggerated for
comedic effect) ; the Doormouse (a
member of a group of shapeshifting mouse hippies from Green’s novel
Drinking
Midnight Wine); the Bazaar of the Bizarre (from
Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser short story of the same
name); Shadows Fall (from Green's novel of the same name);
Carcosa (from
Ambrose Bierce’s short story “An Inhabitant of Carcosa,” which
H. P. Lovecraft incorporated into the Cthulhu Mythos); Old Father Time (from Shadows Fall); the Street of the Gods (from
Green’s Hawk and Fisher novellas Winner
Takes All and
The
God Killer); a Kandarian punch
dagger (connected
to the Kandarian demons from the Evil
Dead film
series); Julien Advent, the Victorian Adventurer (intended
to be Adam Adamant from the TV series Adam
Adamant Lives!; in
fact, at one point in the novel he is referred to as Adamant); Alf’s Button
Emporium (a
reference to W. A. Darlington’s fantasy novel Alf’s
Button); faeries hiding from the hordes of the Adversary (from
Bill Willingham and Lan Medina’s comic book series Fables,
which is set in an AU); the
Traveling Doctor (Doctor Who); Colonial Marines (from
the science fiction film Aliens,
setting up the Alien
franchise
as another possible future of the CU.); the Eaters of the Dead (from
Michael Crichton’s titular novel); Worms of
the Earth (from
Robert E. Howard’s short novel of the same name); Time Tower Square (from Shadows Fall); Elder Spawn (from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos); Dead-Eye Dick, who was
featured in a series of dime novels (a
reference to an episode of the television Western The
Virginian entitled
“Dead-Eye Dick;” although the episode does not mention the
Dead-Eye Dick dime novels are based on the adventures of a real
person, it doesn’t say they aren’t either); Rats’ Alley (from
T. S. Eliot’s poem “The Waste Land”); Haceldama (from
Green’s Deathstalker
books); a blazer belonging to a retired secret agent, which
has a button with the number six on it (from
the cult TV series The
Prisoner); and the Prospero and Michael
Scott Memorial Library (Prospero being from
William Shakespeare’s The
Tempest.)
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Green Flag
The titular story in this collection by Arthur Conan Doyle has a connection to the Sherlock Holmes canon. In it, the
Royal Mallows, an Irish regiment, fights to protect a green Fenian
flag during the Mahdist War. In
“The Adventure of the Crooked Man,” Sherlock Holmes investigates
the death of Colonel Barclay, the former commander of the fictional
Royal Mallows, which is replaced with the real Royal Munsters in many
American editions. The Holmes connection brings the
events of “The Green Flag” into the CU.
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Crossover Covers: Masks 2
A sequel to Chris Roberson, Alex Ross, and Dennis Calero's series Masks, which takes place in an alternate universe, as I discussed in a previous post. Heroes from three different time periods team up to fight a villain called the Red Death, including two Green Hornets, two Katos, the Black Bat, two Miss Furys, the Shadow, the Black Terror, two Black Sparrows, the Spider, the Green Lama, Lady Satan, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. The contemporary Hornet and Kato are the ones from Dynamite's ongoing Green Hornet comic, which is incompatible with NOW Comics' take on the character, further cementing this series as an AU.
This series, along with many other works of fiction, will be included in my forthcoming two-volume tome Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, an authorized companion to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert. The books will debut at FarmerCon/PulpFest on July 21-24, where Win (who also will be providing the foreword for Vol. 1) and I will be signing copies at the booth of Meteor House, the books' publisher, which Win runs along with Michael Croteau and Paul Spiteri. Keith Howell, who provided the covers for both volumes, and William Patrick Maynard, who is contributing the foreword for Vol. 2, will also be on hand to sign copies.
Monday, April 25, 2016
Crossover Cover: Bothon
This issue of Amazing Stories includes Gerald S. Whitehead's "Bothon," a tale of Atlantis and reincarnation. R'lyeh, the sunken city from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos tales, is mentioned. Bothon is originally from Whitehead's Gerald Canevin story "Scar-Tissue." The Canevin story "The Shut Room" has a crossover reference to William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki story "The Whistling Room," further cementing this story in the CU.
A write-up of Whitehead's story along with many other short stories, books, movies, TV shows, audio dramas, and comics, will be included in my forthcoming books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2 from Meteor House, companion volumes to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert. Both sets of books, when read in conjunction, give one a true feel for the scope of the Crossover Universe, a term originally coined by Win. The books will debut at FarmerCon/PulpFest in Columbus, OH, on July 21-24, 2016. Win and I will be at the Meteor House booths signing and selling copies, and Keith Howell (cover artist for both volumes) and William Patrick Maynard (author of the foreword for Vol. 2; Win is providing Vol. 1's foreword) will be there and available to sign the books as well.
Sunday, April 24, 2016
Crossover of the Week
July 1939
THE
BREATH OF DESTRUCTION
District
Attorney Harry Fields bursts into flames at the Cobalt Club. One of
the other members of the Club, a hawk-faced millionaire recently
returned from the Orient, attempts unsuccessfully to douse the fire.
At New York’s docks, Smitty questions Pappy, a grizzled old sailor
who once served on the Sea
Girl.
Short
story by Frank Schildiner in The
Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files,
Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, eds., Moonstone Books, 2011. The
Cobalt Club is from the exploits of the vigilante who operates in the shadows. The
hawk-faced millionaire is probably the shadowy pulp hero disguised as a certain
wealthy man from New Jersey. Pappy is Poopdeck Pappy, father of
Popeye the Sailor Man in E. C. Segar’s comic strip Thimble
Theatre.
The comic book story “The Revenge of Shiwan Khan” portrayed
Popeye as an agent of the shadowy vigilante; doubtless his exploits
were greatly exaggerated by Segar. The Sea
Girl is
the ship on which Robert E. Howard’s Sailor Steve Costigan serves.
In the pulp novel Tuned
for Murder,
it is mentioned the Avenger had led armies in Java; this story
elaborates on that reference.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Crossover Cover: Four Bullets for Dillon
This collection of stories by Derrick Ferguson featuring his New Pulp hero Dillon includes two stories with crossovers. The first is "Dead Beat in La Esca," coauthored with Joel Jenkins. Dillon
and rock star/mercenary Sly Gantlet manage to evade a group of
would-be killers despite having downed several drugged drinks. Sly
has partied in the fleshpots of cities such as Morocco, Cairo,
Isthmus City, and Casablanca.
When Sly challenges Dillon to an arm-wrestling contest, Sly’s date
suggests they rent the best room at the Cobalt Club after he wins to
celebrate. Isthmus
City is from the James Bond film Licence
to Kill.
The Cobalt Club is from Walter Gibson's pulp novels about a vigilante who knows the evil lurking in men's hearts. This
crossover also brings in Jenkins’ Gantlet Brothers, sibling
musicians who moonlight as mercenaries, who appear in the novel The
Nuclear Suitcase and
the collections The
Gantlet Brothers’ Greatest Hits and
The
Gantlet Brothers: Sold Out.
John Velvet from the Dillon series appears in The
Nuclear Suitcase. This story was originally published in the anthology Thrilling Tales, and was reprinted again in The Gantlet Brothers' Greatest Hits. Dillon and Sly worked together again in three novellas by Ferguson and Jenkins collected as The Specialists. I covered the first story, "Dead Beat in Khusra," in a previous post. The other story in Four Bullets for Dillon with crossovers is "Dillon and the Judas Chalice." Dillon,
being chased by police through the city of Denbrook, tells his ally
Wyatt Hyatt he took some training from a French race car driver named
Vaillant. A potential client, Diogenes Morales, tells Dillon his
former best friend, Cornelius Spoto, is plotting to overthrow the
Caribbean island republic of San Monique. Dillon’s comrade Reynard
Hansen claims to have been trained by the Thieves Guild of Seville.
Morales’ daughter Fiesta attended the Higgins School of Higher
Learning for Girls. Spoto worked with Dillon’s enemy Cecil Henshaw
in Parmistan. The
city of Denbrook, created by Mike McGee, was the setting of nine
serialized novels by various authors on the online fiction site
Frontier
Publishing.
The French race car driver is the title character of Jean Graton’s
comic book series Michel
Vaillant.
San Monique is from the film version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond
novel Live
and Let Die;
since most of the Bond movies take place in an alternate universe to
the CU, the San Monique mentioned in this story and Frank
Schildiner’s “The True Cost of Doing Business” must be the CU
version of the island. The Thieves Guild of Seville is a reference to
Miguel de Cervantes’ short story “Rinconete and Cortadillo.”
The Higgins School of Higher Learning for Girls is named after
Professor Henry Higgins from George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion,
adapted as the stage musical My
Fair Lady.
Parmistan is a fictional country from the movie Gymkata.
Friday, April 22, 2016
Crossover Cover: Kill Whitey
Larry
Gibson, an employee of Globe Package Service, finds himself in
trouble with the Russian mob, in particular one Zakhar “Whitey”
Putin, a descendant of Rasputin with superhuman abilities. The Sons
of the Constitution are mentioned. Whitey’s organization was at one
time in competition with the Marano crime family; it’s mentioned
Marano’s top guy, Tony Genova, disappeared some time before. Larry
used to work with a guy named Sherm, who was killed in a botched bank
robbery. Bathroom graffiti at the Odessa includes the name Kaine, as
well as the phrase “Jesus saves, but Ob rulez.” The Kwan and
Black Lodge are mentioned. Whitey’s group disposes of bodies in
LeHorn’s Hollow. Whitey refers to himself as “Homo superior.”
When police dredge Lake Pinchot for Whitey’s body, they instead
find the body of a young girl murdered when her car broke down on an
Interstate exit ramp. Globe
Package Service is a branch of the Globe Corporation, which appears
throughout Keene’s works. The Sons of the Constitution are a
right-wing terrorist organization that has appeared most prominently
in Keene’s novel Castaways.
Tony Genova, an enforcer for the Marano crime family, appears across
Keene’s multiverse, most notably in the Clickers series; the
version here is the CU version, distinct from the Clickers-verse
Tony. Sherm and the botched robbery are from Keene’s novel
Terminal.
Kaine is a name that turns up across Keene’s multiverse, in tales
such as “Full of It,” “Two-Headed Alien Love Child,” and
Clickers
vs. Zombies.
Ob is one of the Thirteen, and is the main villain of Keene’s The
Rising
series. The Kwan are an occult group from the works of horror author
Geoff Cooper, and play a prominent role in Keene and Cooper’s novel
Shades.
LeHorn’s Hollow is a major setting in Keene’s works, such as “Red
Wood,” Dark
Hollow,
and Ghost
Walk.
“Homo superior” is a term first used to describe superhumans in
Olaf Stapledon’s novel Odd
John,
and later in other works such as Marvel Comics’ X-Men titles (as a
scientific designation for mutants) and the television series Babylon
5;
at least two Marvel Comics mutants, Piotr “Colossus” Rasputin and
Illyana “Magik” Rasputina, are also descendants of Rasputin;
although the X-Men’s stories do not fit into CU continuity, the CU
obviously has a mutant descendant of the Mad Monk among its
inhabitants as well. The murdered girl is implied to be a victim of
The Exit, a serial killer from Keene’s stories “I Am an Exit”
and “This is Not an Exit,” who murders people at highway exits.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Crimson Mask Takes Over
This anthology includes "The Crimson Mask Takes Over" by Terrence P. McCauley. According to this story, the
Rue Morgue in Paris is one of the many places where Robert “Doc”
Clarke (aka the Crimson Mask) trained to become a crime fighter. The
Crimson Mask appeared in stories by “Frank Johnson” (pseudonym
for Norman A. Daniels) in the pulp Detective
Novels Magazine. The
Rue Morgue in Paris is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the
Rue Morgue.”
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Crossover Cover: Casting the Stone
In John Pocsik's contribution to this 1964 Arkham House anthology, an
occultist’s library includes The
Book of Eibon,
Cultes
des Goules,
Judge Pursuivant’s Vampiricon,
and John Thunstone’s Myth
Patterns of the Shonokins. The
Book of Eibon and
Cultes
des Goules are
tomes associated with the Cthulhu Mythos, and were created by Clark
Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch respectively. Judge Keith Hilary
Pursuivant is the protagonist of a series of stories by Manly Wade
Wellman;
The Vampiricon is
mentioned in the Pursuivant stories. John Thunstone is another
Wellman hero, who sometimes battled the man-like creatures known as
the Shonokins; however, the book Myth
Patterns of the Shonokins is
Pocsik’s invention.
Tuesday, April 19, 2016
Crossover Covers: The X-Files: Conspiracy
The
X-Files: Conspiracy, series of one-shots from
IDW Publishing. The Lone Gunmen (who are revealed in The
X-Files: Season 10 comics to have faked their
deaths) investigate a series of documents from the future that lead
them to investigate a series of “urban legends” that turn out to
be true, including the Ghostbusters, the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles, the Transformers, and the Crow. The premise of the
Transformers, involving giant robots using Earth as a battleground,
is incompatible with the premise the CU resembles the world outside
our window, at least on the surface, and therefore I consider this an
AU.
Monday, April 18, 2016
Crossover Cover: Infernal Night
This story is available in the all-crossover print anthology FaceOff, as well as a separate e-book. Private
investigator Michael Quinn and urban mercenary Repairman Jack cross
paths when Jack is hired by the wealthy Jules Chastain to retrieve an
ancient ring from his family mausoleum, which he is afraid to go into
himself lest he suffer the wrath of Madame de Medici, the ring’s
previous owner. Madame
de Medici is a recurring character of Sax Rohmer’s, appearing in
“The Key to the Temple of Heaven,” “The Black Mandarin,” and
“The Treasure of Taia.” Since Wilson's character Repairman Jack and Madame de Medici are in the CU, this
crossover brings in Graham’s Michael Quinn, a private eye who works
with curio shop owner Danni Cafferty in acquiring and, when
necessary, destroying powerful artifacts.
Sunday, April 17, 2016
Crossover of the Week
2006
DON’T
JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS TITLE
Ash
Williams travels to France, searching for the Necronomicon.
Ash reached out to several people in the paranormal community for
leads on the book, including some Ghostbusters in New York and an
elderly Frenchman called the Sâr
Dubnotal. Inside the cabin where he believes the Necronomicon
to be, he drives off a creature called Baal, ending its alliance with
the vampire Countess Irina. Irina’s giant servant says the book Ash
seeks is the Necronomicon
Ex Mortis,
while the book Irina holds is the First
Necronomicon,
written by the Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred. When Irina asks if he is “the
one destined to fight the forces of darkness,” Ash responds, “The
same…although I did hear something about a girl named Buffy who
hangs out with the band Slayer, I think.”
Short
story by Matthew Dennion in Tales
of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure,
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014;
reprinted in French in Les
Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 16),
Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2015. Ash
Williams and the Necronomicon
Ex Mortis are
from the Evil
Dead film
series. Although this story supposedly takes place in 1993, shortly
after the third Evil
Dead
movie, Army
of Darkness,
this cannot be correct. In the CU, the films take place from
1982–1983,
and Ash spent over twenty years in a mental institution after the
events of the comic book miniseries Army
of Darkness: Shop ‘til You Drop Dead,
only to escape in 2005, as seen in Army
of Darkness vs. Re-Animator.
Furthermore, 1983 would be well before Buffy Summers (from the movie
and TV series Buffy
the Vampire Slayer)
discovered she was the latest in a long line of Slayers. Therefore, I
have placed this story in 2006, a year after Ash escaped from Arkham
Asylum in Massachusetts. The Ghostbusters in New York are from the
movie Ghostbusters
and
its sequel, as well as the cartoon The
Real Ghostbusters.
The animated series Extreme
Ghostbusters is
set in the 1990s, and features a younger group of investigators who
have taken up the mantle of the retired original Ghostbusters. Ash
probably contacted the latter-day team. The Sâr Dubnotal is an
occult investigator who appeared in a French pulp series. Baal is
from Renée
Dunan’s novel of the same name, which has been translated by Brian
Stableford for Black Coat Press. Countess Irina Karlstein is from the
film Female
Vampire.
In the movie, which was made and takes place in the 1970s, Countess
Irina is mute. How she gained the ability to speak is unknown. The
Necronomicon
penned
by Abdul Alhazred is from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, of
course.
Saturday, April 16, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Rise and Fall of Babylon
This book consists of two connected stories by John Urbancik and Brian Keene. In Urbancik's "Babylon Rising," a man is drawn back in time to the days of ancient Babylon as part of a
spell to bring an evil wizard to the present so he can summon
Kandara, one
of the Thirteen in Keene’s Labyrinth mythos. The
name Kandara is clearly a reference to the Kandarian demons of the
Evil
Dead films. Keene's story is "Babylon Falling." In
Iraq, U.S. soldier Don Bloom and his infantry unit are kidnapped by
remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen, and tortured by an ancient
wizard as part of a ritual to summon Kandara. The Daemonolateria, a
fictional book of magic that recurs in Keene’s works, appears.
Friday, April 15, 2016
Crossover Cover: Love is a Battlefield
This anthology of new stories about Lars Anderson's classic pulp heroine the Domino Lady published by Airship 27 Productions contains a story by Greg Hatcher in which she borrows a pistol that fires "mercy bullets" from her friend Andrew at Mayfair Labs in New York, who has a crush on her. Mayfair is an aide to a famous "Doc."
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Crossover Cover: From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker
A Praed Street Dossier is a collection of short stories, essays, and marginalia by August Derleth dealing with Solar Pons, his detective patterned after Sherlock Holmes. One of the stories is "The Adventure of the Snitch in Time" by Derleth and Mack Reynolds, which Win included in the original Crossovers. Another story, authored by Derleth alone, is "From the Notebooks of Dr. Lyndon Parker," which describes the early days of Pons and Parker's partnership, and will be included in Crossovers Expanded. On November 21, Mr.
Howard Robinson, a potential client, tells Pons, “I looked in on Thorndyke, but he was in Scotland. I
took the liberty of coming to you without an appointment.” This
reference confirms Pons exists in the same universe as R. Austin
Freeman’s sleuth, Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke.
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Venetian Betrayal
Cotton
Malone battles Irina Zovastina, supreme minister of the Central Asian
Federation. Zovastina was previously suspected of being behind the
theft of several endangered animals, a crime that was investigated by
Painter Crowe at Sigma. James
Rollins’ Sigma Force novel Black
Order had
a reference to Malone. This crossover further cements Cotton Malone
and Sigma’s coexistence within the CU.
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Crossover Cover: A Dream of Flying
IDW Publishing did two volumes of The Rocketeer Adventures, an anthology comic featuring new stories of Dave Stevens' character by a diverse range of writers and artists. The first issue of the second volume contains the story "A Dream of Flying" by Stan Sakai. Flying
through a rural area, the Rocketeer is attacked by a young man with
red hair wielding a shotgun. After Cliff falls through the roof of a
barn, the redhead demands his rocket pack, saying he’ll disassemble
it to see how it works and build a better one. Cliff’s enemy is
attacked from behind by a young boy with a spit curl in his black
hair, and Cliff delivers a knockout blow to the would-be thief. The
boy says of the thief, "Pa always said that Lex is a bad apple."
He expresses excitement at Cliff’s ability to fly, and says he has
always dreamed of doing so himself, but it’s impossible. Cliff
takes off into the air with the ecstatic boy in his arms, then brings
him back to the ground and flies off into the distance. The boy’s
parents arrive home from shopping to find him with a sheet tied
around his neck, proclaiming he flew. When his mother comments on the
boy’s imagination, his father says, "Now, Martha, a bit of
imagination is good for a boy his age.” The boy plays happily,
saying “Up, up, and away!" as his dog follows him. The boy is
clearly a young Clark Kent, and this takes place before he discovers
his superpowers. However, the CU version of Clark was already a grown
man and active as Superman by the time Cliff Secord became the
Rocketeer, thus placing this story in an AU.
Monday, April 11, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Crown Jewel Caper
In one of the stories in this anthology comic, the
Black Cat steals an alleged treasure map leading to the Crown Jewels
of France for antiquarian Hervé Marat, who calls the Kingpin to tell
him the Cat is about to fall into a police trap. However, the female
thief manages to escape the gendarmes. Inspector Gorlier is
nevertheless glad they have recovered the fake map they planted,
since it can be used as evidence, and they have outwitted the Cat.
One of the gendarmes serving under Gorlier, Henri Poirot, is pleased
to have an entertaining story to tell his great-uncle. Henri’s
great-uncle is, of course, Hercule Poirot. Julian Symons has placed
Hercule’s birth in 1864, which would make him 125-years-old at the
time of this story; however, Rick Lai’s essay “Partners in Crime:
Fu Manchu and Carl Peterson” (Rick
Lai’s Secret Histories: Criminal Masterminds,
Altus Press, 2009) provides a possible explanation for the Belgian
sleuth’s longevity. Both the Black Cat and the Kingpin have
independent links bringing them into the CU.
Sunday, April 10, 2016
Crossover of the Week
December 1999
VOICE
OF PAIN
FBI
Agent-in-Charge Jeffrey Reynolds tells Police Lt. Ralph Adams he has
been reading classified official reports about vigilantes such as the
Voice. The most recent report was dated in the late sixties, and
concerned a disguise artist referred to as Mr. Jones who worked for
the Bureau. The Voice refers to George Sanchez as “my Burbank.”
Reynolds considers asking his Great-Uncle Lynn about the vigilantes
of the old days. Former police chief Cobbins refers to vigilantes (or
“Independent Operators”) who were involved in World War II,
including an Australian who served with his country’s military
while wearing a mask and using the code name “the Phantom
Commando.”
Story
by Erwin K. Roberts in Double
Danger Tales #52,
Tom and Ginger Johnson, eds., Fading Shadows Publications, May 2002;
reprinted in Casebook
of the Voice,
Modern Knights Press, 2014. Mr. Jones appeared in Dennis Lynds’
story “The Man of a Million Faces,” published in the June 1968
issue of Mike
Shayne Mystery Magazine under
the house name of Robert Hart Davis. Burbank is an agent of a shadow-cloaked pulp hero, specializing in communications. Reynolds’
great-uncle Lynn is FBI agent Lynn Vickers, who appeared in stories
by Bryan James Kelley in Public
Enemy (later
retitled Federal
Agent).
The Phantom Commando is an Australian comic character created by John
Dixon who appeared in his own series from 1959–1970.
Saturday, April 9, 2016
Crossover TV Series: Goober and the Ghost Chasers
Goober and the
Ghost Chasers are a group of youths who investigate supernatural
occurrences a la Scooby-Doo and Mystery, Inc. However, most of the
ghosts Goober (a talking dog) and company face are real, and they work for a magazine
on the supernatural, rather than being private investigators. Perhaps
Goober is a relative of Scooby’s, explaining their common talent
for speech, though Scooby doesn’t share Goober’s ability to turn
invisible when scared. Perhaps someone fed Goober a variant on John
Hawley Griffin’s serum. In the episode "Assignment: The Ahab Apparition," they come to the
aid of the Partridge kids, who are vacationing in Peaceful Cove,
where a mansion is haunted by the ghosts of Captain Ahab and Moby
Dick.Moby Dick and Captain Ahab are already
firmly in the CU; therefore, this crossover brings in Goober and the
gang. The Partridge kids are from The
Partridge Family,
thus bringing that show and its spin-off Getting
Together into
the CU. The Partridges appeared in eight of the sixteen episodes of
Goober
and the Ghost Chasers. Subsequent episodes have more crossovers. In "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," Goober
and pals come to the Partridge kids’ aid when their concert is
canceled due to Macbeth’s ghost attacking the Globe Theatre. In "The Singing Ghost," Frankenstein’s
Monster III tricks the Partridge kids into coming to his mansion so
he may steal Danny Partridge’s voice. Goober and the Ghost Chasers
prevent this from happening. It
is as yet unknown which of the many monsters created by members of
the Frankenstein family is "Frankenstein’s Monster III." In "Is Sherlock Holme?," Goober
and pals travel to England to investigate a series of thefts at a
haunted mansion, aided by Detective Sergeant Roger Sherlock, a
relative of Sherlock Holmes. Since
Sherlock Holmes is not known to have any ancestors with the surname
Sherlock, it is possible Roger’s full name is Roger Sherlock
Holmes, and he shortened it for professional reasons.
Friday, April 8, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Shut Room
In this story by Henry S. Whitehead, his series character Gerald
Canevin and his friend Lord Carruth investigate a room haunted by a
highwayman who died there. Carruth mentions a “parallel case”
that happened years earlier in Britain. Canevin realizes the case is
that of a court jester who haunted the room in which he died, and
mentions the case was recorded by William Hope Hodgson in Carnacki
the Ghost-Finder. Carruth
and Canevin’s comments treat the events of Hodgson’s Carnacki
tale “The Whistling Room” as a real occurrence. Canevin is an
American writer from a Virginia family who travels the Caribbean,
where he keeps encountering Voodoo manifestations and ghosts. This
crossover brings him into the CU.
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Crossover Cover: Hungry Heart
This anthology contains a Nightside story by Simon R. Green. John
Taylor is hired by a witch to recover her heart, which has been
stolen by her ex-boyfriend. Appearing or mentioned are: one of
Dracula’s coffins, complete with original grave dirt and a
certificate of authenticity; the mummified head of Alfredo Garcia,
smelling strongly of Mexican spices; the mirror of Dorian Gray; and a
phial of heart’s blood from Varney the Vampyre. Dracula’s
coffin is from Bram Stoker’s novel, of course. The mummified head
of Alfredo Garcia is from the film Bring
Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia.
The mirror of Dorian Gray is a reference to Oscar Wilde’s novel The
Picture of Dorian Gray.
Varney the Vampyre is the title character of James Malcolm Rymer’s
penny dreadful serial.
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
Crossover Movie Poster: Andy Hardy's Blonde Trouble
Andy
Hardy’s father, Judge James K. “Jim” Hardy, is treated for
tonsilitis by the Brooklyn-born Dr. Lee Wong How. Dr.
Lee Wong How is from the Dr. Gillespie film series, which is itself a
spin-off of the Dr. Kildare films; Kildare and Gillespie originally
appeared in stories by Max Brand. Since Dr. Kildare is in the CU, so
are Dr. Gillespie and Andy Hardy.
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Crossover Cover: Bacon
This anthology contains the story "Bacon" by Charlaine Harris. A
witch says the only sorcerer who’s gone public is in Chicago, and
she hears that he’s struggling. This is a reference to Harry
Dresden from the Dresden
Files series
by Jim Butcher. “Bacon” is set in the continuity of Harris’
Southern
Vampire Mysteries series,
which depicts vampires and other supernatural beings living openly
alongside humans, and therefore takes place in an alternate reality
to the CU. It is worth noting another of Harris’ series characters,
Lily Bard, turns up in two of the Southern
Vampire Mysteries novels,
Definitely
Dead and
Dead
Reckoning.
Harris’ Midnight,
Texas series
features Bobo Winthrop from the Lily Bard series, Manfred Bernardo
from the Harper Connelly books, and Sheriff Arthur Smith from the
Aurora Teagarden series.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Letters of Cold Fire
John
Thunstone’s foe Rowley Thorne is unsuccessful in acquiring a copy
of the Necronomicon,
and instead acquires a book belonging to a student of the Deep
School, an extradimensional school that provides students with
instruction in sorcery. The
reference to the Necronomicon
provides
further proof John Thunstone’s exploits take place in the CU.
Sunday, April 3, 2016
Crossover of the Week
1921
THE
FACELESS FIEND
Charles
St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass battle a psychically-created
invisible creature that uses humans’ brains and spines as host
bodies. St. Cyprian asks Gallowglass if he did or did not give her
Harzan’s monograph on the detection of ab-human manifestations,
traces the Voorish Sign in the air, and scrawls out the Sign of Koth.
St. Cyprian recalls Hesselius’ encounter with something like the
creature: a vicar overindulged in exotic teas and accidentally forged
a psychic conduit between himself and a nasty entity from elsewhere.
St. Cyprian spreads the powder of Ibn Ghazi to make the creature
visible.
Short
story by Josh Reynolds on The
Royal Occultist website.
The invisible creature is related to the one seen in Amelia Reynolds
Long’s short story “The Thought Monster,” which appeared in
Weird
Tales in
1930, and was adapted in 1958 as the film Fiend
Without a Face.
Harzan is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki story “The Haunted
Jarvee.” The Voorish Sign and the powder of Ibn Ghazi are from H.
P. Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror.” The Sign of Koth is
from Lovecraft’s story “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath” and
novel The
Case of Charles Dexter Ward.
Dr. Martin Hesselius is from the stories collected in J. Sheridan Le
Fanu’s In
a Glass Darkly,
including “Green Tea,” which depicts the incident involving the
vicar.
Saturday, April 2, 2016
Pulp Crazy - Crossover Special - Conan vs. Rune by Barry Windsor-Smith
In celebration of the announcement regarding the books, my friend Jason Aiken has done a post on his video blog Pulp Crazy discussing both Win's volumes and mine and a comic Win included in Crossovers Volume 1. Thanks to Jason for the recognition!
Friday, April 1, 2016
Crossover Cover: The Difference a Day Makes
John
Taylor and Dead Boy help an ordinary woman figure out why and how she
came to be in the Nightside, and also try to reunite her with her
husband. Appearing or mentioned are: the Maltese Falcon (from
Dashiell Hammett’s private eye novel of the same name); Something
from a Black Lagoon (a
reference to the Universal horror film Creature
from the Black Lagoon); one of Frankenstein’s female creations (from Mary Shelley's novels and its various sequels and adaptations);
knockoff Hyde formula (from
Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel The
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde); a lipstick-red Plymouth Fury with a dead man
grinning at the wheel (the
titular car from Stephen King’s novel Christine); a great black beauty of a car, driven by an
Oriental in black leathers, and a man in the back in a green face
mask and a snap-brimmed hat (the
Green Hornet and Kato, with this particular pair probably being Paul
Reid and Kono Kato, who began working together in 1993); and worms from the earth (a
reference to Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story “Worms of the
Earth.”)
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