Crossover Cover: The Book of Yig: Revelations of the Serpent

 

Are you a Cthulhu Mythos fan?

Then you'll love this anthology, which contains among other stories Mark Howard Jones' "Still Life with Death" (which has a nod to a Philip Marlowe story) and Peter Rawlik's "Revelations" (which references my all-time favorite television series, Twin Peaks, among other things)!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when Meteor House publishes it! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Akai

 

In 1941, Shi (Ana Ishikawa) meets British aviatrix and spy Victoria Cross. This 1940s version of Shi is an alternate take on the more familiar character, also named Ana Ishikawa, whose exploits take place in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The comic Shi: East Wind Rain introduces the World War II-era Shi’s granddaughter, herself named Ana. Researcher Brad Mengel theorizes the 1940s Ana Ishikawa is therefore the grandmother of her latter-day namesake. Victoria Cross went on to appear in Victoria Cross #1/2 by Tucci, published by Crusade in 2002, in a story set in 1937 entitled “Operation Wounded Condor.”

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Cartouche

 

Are you a fan of the Carry on films?

Then you'll love this episode of Endeavour, which has a nod to Carry on Cruising, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Covers: Adler

 

In 1902, nurse Jane Eyre returns from the Boer War and takes up rooms at Briony Lodge with Irene Adler. Soon, they must stop Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, from destroying London. Along with various characters from the Holmes stories, also appearing are Estella Havisham (from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations), Carmilla, Arthur Raffles, King Rudolf V of Ruritania, Queen Flavia, Rupert of Hentzau, Dr. Seward, the Demeter, Phileas Fogg, and Dr. Jekyll. Various anachronisms and reinterpretations of characters make this an AU. 

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Case for Sergeant Beef

 

Are you a fan of Margery Allingham's detective Albert Campion?

Then you'll love this novel, which has a shout-out to Campion, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1939 

THE SONG OF THE STORM 

A gangster’s henchman brings I. V. Frost the remains of a manuscript his boss burned, about one of Thomas Carnacki’s cases. In the manuscript, Carnacki identifies the charm on Sir Evan Chichester’s watch as the Talisman of Byagoona, which legend holds dates to antediluvian Stygia, and can allegedly switch one person’s mind into another’s body. The ancient sorcerer currently inhabiting the gangster’s body was given the Talisman by Byagoona. He tells Frost about some of his old foes, including the greatest swordsman in Spanish California and a famous gunfighter and his lover. The entity Rhagorthua taught him how to summon a storm by singing. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in I. V. Frost: Tales of Mystery and Scientific Detection, Joe Gentile and Kim Perisin, eds., Moonstone Books, 2017. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. Byagoona is a Great Old One from James Ambuehl’s “The Bane of Byagoona.” Stygia is from Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories. The sorcerer wielding the Talisman battled Zorro in Baugh’s story “Zorro and the Bruja” (More Tales of Zorro, Richard Dean Starr, ed., Moonstone Books, 2010), and a fictionalized version of the historical gunfighter Mysterious Dave Mather in his tale “Trail of the Brujo” (Low Noon: Tales of Horror and Dark Fantasy from the Weird Weird West, David B. Riley, ed., Science Fiction Trails, 2012). Rhagorthua is from David Conyers’ “A Handful of Dust.” 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Year of Shadows

 

This collection of stories by Teel James Glenn features his character Anton "Dr. Shadows" Chadeaux, who is already in the CU through various connections. One of the stories included here is "The Eye of Darkness," which I covered in Crossovers Expanded Volume 1. Here's a rundown of the new stories with crossovers.

In "A Personal Demon," Dr. Shadows has Ham Brooks working on getting papers for him and his aides to go to Manchuria. He also has a throwing knife named Ike. Thomas “Trigger” O’Leary tells Chadeaux he owes the hero after he got him out of “that Skullmask murder thing last year.” Akemi Oyama calls Dr. Shadows’ friend and mentor Ki Nam Hoon “your Kato,” but he tells her Hoon is not a servant. The hero didn’t even know what prejudice was until he saw how the neighborhood teens treated his childhood friend Marguerite Sancre when she visited from her native Martinidad. When Chadeaux fakes his death, Moxie Donovan writes a color piece on the adventurer. Brooks is one of the bronze man’s five aides. Dr. Shadows’ knife Ike must be named after the avenging hero with malleable skin’s knife. The Skullmask and Martinidad are from Glenn’s book Weird Tales of the Skullmask. Kato is the Green Hornet’s chauffeur and partner. Moxie Donovan appears in a series of books by Glenn.  

In "Forbidden City Blues," Dr. Shadows says that when he started his career, he thought Clark Savage’s whole attitude toward publicity for himself was missing a chance to reach so many more people. Shadows’ lover Han Ku Lee (“Hank”) tells him, “You think Clark or Dr. Pali don’t fail?” Clark needs no introduction. Kendell Foster Crossen’s pulp hero the Green Lama often assumes the guise of Buddhist priest Dr. Charles Pali.

In "Grave Mistake," Dr. Shadows battles escaped convicts. Pat Chambers is the spokesman for the New York Police. The island of Martinidad is mentioned. Pat Chambers is from Mickey Spillane’s Mike Hammer novels. 

In "Isle Macabre," Dr. Shadows is recruited for a mission in Martinidad by Secret Service agent Rex Bennett. Chadeaux says he can get either Clark Savage or Richard Wentworth to provide him with a cover story. Bennett replies that Wentworth-Cranston Limited made land purchases in Martinidad two months ago. Rex Bennett is from the movie serials G-Men vs. the Black Dragon and Secret Service in Darkest Africa. Savage is the bronze-skinned pulp hero. Richard Wentworth is better known as the Spider. Wentworth-Cranston Limited was first mentioned in Weird Tales of the Skullmask. The co-owner of the company must be Wentworth’s half-brother, another well-known shadowy crimefighter, in one of his favorite disguises. 

These crossovers are four of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Dead Man Walking

 

Are you a fan of Victorian ghost stories?

Then you'll love this novel by Simon R. Green, which has nods to F. Marion Crawford's "The Screaming Skull" and Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost"!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Enter Sir Robert

 

A resemblance is noted between Mr. Scratcherd’s studio and Mr. Krook’s Rag and Bottle Warehouse near Lincoln’s Inn. There is also a reference to “those depressed hangers-on of titled families, like the Bonds’ old cousin the Honorable Juliana Starter, youngest of old Lord Mickleham’s eighteen children and formerly Lady-in-Waiting to Princess Louisa Christina, daughter of Prince Louis of Cobalt and one of the Hatz-Reinigens; or, to compare small things with great, Miss Volumnia Dedlock: only neither of these ladies had families to complicate their lives, not being married.” Sir Robert Graham belonged to a Dining Society at Oxford that also included “that young Lord Lundy who became Governor of New South Wales later.” Like Thirkell's other novels, this book is set in the titular locale of Anthony Trollope's The Chronicles of Barsetshire. Mr. Krook and Volumnia Dedlock are from Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. Dickens’ novel is also mentioned as a real book here, but we can assume it’s based on a true story, particularly since Thirkell has crossover references to it in some of her other novels. Lord Mickleham is from Anthony Hope’s The Dolly Dialogues. Lord Lundy is the title character of a poem in Hillaire Belloc’s Cautionary Tales for Children.

This crossover is one of over a thousand included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2! 

Crossover Cover: The Death Duel of Madam Rogue

 

Are you a Vincent Price fan?

Then you'll love Frank Schildiner's story in this anthology, which has a reference to Dr. Phibes, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Covers: Dept. of Monsterology: Sabbaticals

 

At Dunsany College, Professor Booker’s secretary, Mrs. Chandrasekeran, tells a caller that he is not in, and tries to remember where Emma Hampton is on an expedition with one of Dunsany’s field teams, naming the Leng Plateau and Westchester House as possible sites. Team Carnacki is in Scotland, while Team Challenger is on an expedition in South America, on a plateau inhabited by dinosaurs. Javier de Tovar refers to the Yiggian digs in North Africa and Sardinia. The Plateau of Leng is from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories. Westchester House is from the titular scenario for the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. Team Carnacki is named for Thomas Carnacki from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. The South American plateau must be Maple White Land, which was discovered by Team Challenger’s namesake Professor George Edward Challenger in Doyle and Malone’s The Lost World. Yig is from Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop’s “The Curse of Yig” and “The Mound.”

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The House in the Witch Dreams

 

In this story by Charles R. Rutledge, occult expert Professor Carter Decamp helps college student Nancy Upton discover the source of dreams she’s been having about a witch and a house she senses is her own, though she’s never been in it before. Decamp shows Nancy a painting of a ghoul done by a rather infamous artist named Pickman in the 1920s and says the ghouls’ last recorded uprising was in that decade and was put down by a man named Kharrn. Decamp has a walking stick that conceals a blade. Carter Decamp is a recurring character in Rutledge’s fiction, including the Griffin and Price series, coauthored with James A. Moore. The immortal barbarian Kharrn is another of Rutledge’s recurring heroes. Pickman is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “Pickman’s Model.” The painter’s full name is Richard Upton Pickman, so he and Nancy Upton may be related. As established in Moore and Rutledge’s Blind Shadows, Decamp’s sword-cane is the same one that once belonged to Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detective Judge Pursuivant. Nancy says February 15 was last Sunday, suggesting the year is 2015.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Summer 1936

THE FROST WOLF 

Harry Dickson meets with Prime Minister Caius Keyes and his wife Angelique. Keyes introduces Dickson to Doctor Omega and Captain Gullivar Jones. An object like a comet or meteor has crashed in Clapham Common, which Keyes initially assumed was a precursor to an alien invasion, being as familiar with the historical works of H. G. Wells as anyone. Omega says he is aware of a dog-like wolf with human-level intelligence which manifests itself at certain points in history, calling it the Hound of the Baskervilles, the Hound of Death, and the Beast of Gevaudan. Dickson has enough firearms to equip a fair-sized dinosaur-hunting party to the Lost World. Omega describes lights they see as the Aether’s spatio-temporal vortex. The inhabitant of the crashed time machine, injured from the mesonychid wolf’s attack, identifies himself as Heracles Danby. The injured Omega, Jones, and Danby, as well as another man, are treated in a high dependency ward run by a Dr. Mannering from Cardiff. The third man’s belongings bear the legend Catharus Mine, while his dog tags identify him as Adam Oberstein. Dickson witnesses a scene of horror that reminds him of the Miller’s Court Triptych painted by Walter Sickert depicting the death of the final victim of Jack the Ripper that he had been shown back when he was a member of the Roebuck Cabal. The Prime Minister says he used to be part of the Home Office’s elite Gordian Squad, but Dickson thinks that surely one of the Great Men of Baker Street or Rouletabille would have told him about it. The Frost Wolf is killed by Pandora, who is accompanied by Liandra Ritter and her son Kulath Jr., who refers to Danby as “grandfather.” Omega warns Dickson about Total Security Management and the Cull Men. 

Short story by Martin Gately in Exquisite Pandora and Other Fantastic Adventures, Black Coat Press, 2020. Harry Dickson appeared in pulp stories by Jean Ray and others. Caius Keyes, Angelique Datura, and the Gordian Squad first appeared in Gately’s “The White Box.” Doctor Omega is the title character of Arnould Galopin’s science fiction novel. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s translation of that book identified Omega with Doctor Who. The lights are the Time Vortex from Doctor Who. Gullivar Jones is from Edwin L. Arnold’s Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation. The H. G. Wells reference evokes The War of the Worlds. The wolf first appeared in Gately’s “Wolf at the Door of Time.” The Hound of the Baskervilles is from the titular Sherlock Holmes novel. The Hound of Death is from Agatha Christie’s story of the same name. The Lost World is from Arthur Conan Doyle’s eponymous book. Heracles Danby, Liandra Ritter, and Kulath Sr. are from Gately’s “The Cataclysm Will Not Be Televised.” Dr. Frank Mannering is from the movie Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. The Catharus Mine is from Gately’s “Rouletabille and the New World Order,” and is associated with the Catharus Society, a precursor to THRUSH from the TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Adam Oberstein is related to spy Hugo Oberstein from Doyle and Watson’s Sherlock Holmes tales “The Adventure of the Second Stain” and “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans.” The Roebuck Cabal is from Gately’s eponymous story. As established in Gately’s stories about Gaston Leroux’s journalist and detective Rouletabille, the Great Men of Baker Street are Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, Seaton Begg (from the works of Michael Moorcock), and Victor Drago (from the British comic book Tornado). Pandora is from Gately’s “Exquisite Pandora.” Total Security Management and the Cull Men appear in another story by Gately, “The Unfettered Man,” set in one of the many possible futures for the CU. 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Was Not

 

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Then you'll love this anthology of stories exploring what would've happened if Holmes were partnered with other famous doctors instead of Watson, both real and fictional!

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Striker

 

Endeavour Morse investigates a death threat against the Oxford Wanderers’ star striker, Jack Swift. Swift’s manager has been discussing loaning him out to Fulchester United. The Wanderers’ chairman is Robert Fenner, who runs Fenner Fashions, and says he is in “the rag trade.” The town of Fulchester is originally from the TV series Crown Court, but later became the setting for many of the strips in the British adult comic magazine Viz, including “Billy the Fish,” in which the title character, the half-man, half-fish Billy Thompson, is the goalkeeper for Fulchester United. Although Billy the Fish’s exploits are too outlandish and overtly satirical to fit into the CU, we can assume that Fulchester United has a counterpart there, and that Crown Court is in. Robert Fenner must be a relative of Harold Fenner, who ran the clothing workshop Fenner’s Fashions in the TV series The Rag Trade (1961-1963; 1977-1978). In the 1970s revival, Anna Karen reprised her role of Olive Rudge from On the Buses.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Opera Poster: Utopia, Limited

 

Are you a Gilbert & Sullivan fan?

Then you'll love this opera, which has an appearance by a character from their earlier opera H.M.S. Pinafore!

For more information, be sure to pick up my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Dept. of Monsterology: The Trouble with Harry

 

In a flashback to 1928, Professor Harry Wilmington explores lost Hyperborea, which was once home to a homo serpentine civilization, and which he suggests may be a non-degenerate offshoot of classic Valusian culture that survived the Thurian cataclysm. He also mentions the Yothian Chronicles and the Elder Things of Antarctica. Hyperborea and its Serpent People are from the works of Clark Ashton Smith. Valusia and the Thurian cataclysm are from Robert E. Howard’s Kull stories. Yoth is from H. P. Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop’s “The Mound,” while the Elder Things are from Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.” 

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Fury in Steel

 

Are you a pulp fan?

Then you'll love this novel, in which the Spider encounters Emile C. Tepperman's Suicide Squad!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Till Sudden Death Do Us Part

 

Ishmael Jones is called by Robert Bergin, a former colleague from his days at Black Heir, to prevent his daughter and her groom-to-be from falling prey to the family curse on their wedding day. Ishmael and his lover and companion Penny Belcourt read two books about the Bergin Curse, one of which is authored by Jason Grant. The best man remembers a slogan he saw on a T-shirt once: “Just because I’m paranoid it doesn’t mean I’m not out to get you.” Jason Grant is a minor character in Green’s Drinking Midnight Wine. In Green’s Ghost Finders novel Voices from Beyond, Happy Jack Palmer of the Carnacki Institute wore a T-shirt with the slogan “Just because I’m paranoid, it doesn’t mean I’m not out to get you.”

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

May 26, 1846

THE LAMENT OF THE DUKE AND THE KING 

The so-called Duke of Bridgewater and King of France hop a train, and in the process meet Doctor Omega and his companion Miki. The Doctor gives the conductor a Hynerian sixteen harzmo gold piece. They are joined by the Doctor's other companion, the Steel General. The King says he is the long-lost Dauphin of France, and that he used to be visited by a woman named Madame LaFarge. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge allegedly tried to rescue the King’s mother. An artist named La Salle was sent by the Baron de Batz to rescue the Dauphin and replace him with a lookalike. When he nearly drowned, a man named Moreau rescued him. The General claims he incited Moreau’s animal people to revolt, but the Doctor clarifies that the King means Andre-Louis Moreau, who he and Miki saw costar with Marguerite St. Just in a play called Don Juan Triumphant in 1791. De Batz was working with the Scarlet Pimpernel, who the Duke claims was the Prince-Regent’s butler, Mr. Edmund Blackadder. The Pimpernel turned the Dauphin over to a smuggler dressed as a scarecrow, who handed him off in turn to an American named Bumppo. The Doctor refers to Miki’s colossal, radioactive, reptilian friend, and says General Santa Anna has the services of an evil scientist named Dr. Campos, who has uncovered a mind control device left on Earth centuries ago by an alien named Kukulcan. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 20), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2017. The Duke of Bridgewater and the King of France are from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Doctor Omega is the title character of Arnould Galopin’s novel. Miki Saegusa is from the Godzilla movies. Although the massive level of destruction seen in the films does not fit into the CU, other crossovers indicate a version of Godzilla exists in the CU whose exploits are much less Earth-shattering. The Hynerian Empire is from the television series Farscape. The Steel General is from Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness. Madame LaFarge (or rather DeFarge) is from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge is from Alexandre Dumas’ eponymous novel. Florence de La Salle is from Rafael Sabatini’s The Lost King. The Baron de Batz is a historical figure who appears in both that book and Sabatini’s Scaramouche, whose title character is really Andre-Louis Moreau. The other Moreau and his animal people are from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. Marguerite St. Just is the wife of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka Baroness Orczy’s hero the Scarlet Pimpernel. The play Don Juan Triumphant is the basis for the opera of the same name penned by the title character of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Edmund Blackadder is from the television series Blackadder the Third. The smuggler dressed as a scarecrow is Russell Thorndike’s Dr. Syn, aka Captain Clegg and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Natty Bumppo is from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales. Dr. Campos is from the movie Santo Contra Hombres Infernales. Kukulcan is from the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” and the Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle episode “Tarzan and the Space God.” 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand appearing in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Anno Dracula 1902: The Chances of Anything Coming from Mars

 

Are you a fan of Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series?

Then you'll love the new story in that universe included as a bonus in this book!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Did You Do This? No, You Did It!

 

In this episode of the television series Fargo, set in the same continuity as the Coen Brothers' film of the same name, Rhonda Knutson is mentioned. Rhonda is likely the mother of Bunny Lebowski, or Fawn Knutson to use her birth name, from the Coens' film The Big Lebowski. Fawn's family lived in Moorhead, Minnesota, not far from Fargo, North Dakota. Since The Big Lebowski takes place in the CU, so does Fargo.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Tomb of Ancient Evil

 

Are you a Cthulhu Mythos fan?

Then you'll love this novella by Frank Schildiner featuring Henry Kuttner's pulp hero Thunder Jim Wade that has ties to the Mythos, among other works!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Grand Guignol: Septieme Partie: A Villain’s Tale II

 

Hamilton Drew, a Sherlock Holmes-like occult detective, belonged to the Groves Club, which possessed a copy of Natty Bumppo’s diary. This reference is somewhat surprising, since James Fenimore Cooper portrayed Bumppo as illiterate. Although the Jack Knight version of Starman has a CU counterpart, as do the Elongated Man and the second Phantom Lady (Dee Tyler), who also appear, the “Grand Guignol” storyline has too many appearances by other DC heroes (including a flashback to one of the Justice Society of America’s original cases) to fit comfortably into the CU, so this must be an AU.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Case with Ropes and Rings

 

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Then you'll love this novel in Leo Bruce's Sergeant Beef series, which has a reference to Doctor Watson, among others!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Covers: Changelings

 

Caballistics, Inc. members Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse go up against the faerie queen Gloriana and her servant Puck. Gloriana is from Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene.” Puck is from William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Summer 1911

HOW THE PROFESSOR TAUGHT A LESSON TO THE GNOLES 

Professor Moriarty is hired by the thief Nuth to help him plunder the treasures of the creatures known as the gnoles. Nuth says thieves trace their lineage to Slith, and before him Prometheus, and that the history of thievery is as storied as that of any noble house in Ruritania or Celephais. He also asks Moriarty, “Shall I allow the foreigner Rocambole or the dissolute Raffles to wear the crown that is rightfully mine, then?” Moriarty has a tank which is based on the designs of “a certain Sikh of my acquaintance.” Moriarty says he will teach the gnoles the lessons of Troy, of Sarnath, and of Peking. 

Story by Josh Reynolds in The Adventures of Moriarty, Maxim Jakubowski, ed., Robinson, 2015. Nuth and the gnoles are from Lord Dunsany’s “How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles.” Slith, besides being mentioned in that story, appears in Dunsany’s “Probable Adventure of the Three Literary Men”; both stories are included in the collection The Book of Wonder. Ruritania is from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda. Celephais and Sarnath are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft. Rocambole is Ponson du Terrail’s adventurer. A. J. Raffles is E. W. Hornung’s gentleman thief. The Sikh is Captain Nemo. Rick Lai’s “The Secret History of Captain Nemo” and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen indicate Nemo would have no reason to do Moriarty any favors, so the Professor must have stolen his old foe’s technology. 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand appearing in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Bleeding Through

 

Are you a fan of Brian Keene, J. F. Gonzalez, and Mark Williams' Clickers series?

Then you'll love Charles R. Rutledge's story in this anthology, in which Rutledge's recurring character Kharrn visits the Clickers Universe!

For more information, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The Black Bat and the Purple Scar: Faces of Fear

 

The Black Bat teams up with the Purple Scar to investigate dead gangsters seemingly turning up alive thanks to a villain called Mr. Mask. The Bat uses smoke bombs given to him by his friend and fellow crime fighter Captain Hazzard. Lt. McGrath summons Inspector John Burks to the scene of the Bat’s encounter with a group of crooks. Burks says he has heard the Bat gives McGrath as many headaches as he gets from Secret Agent X. Police photographer Dave Dejune meets with Betty Dale of the Herald about the return of one of the gangsters. The Purple Scar, in his secret identity as Dr. Miles Murdoch, is visiting New York City for a medical conference, staying at the Waldorf Anthony. Betty attends a press conference, as does Steve Huston of the Clarion, who says old man Havens had a fit because Betty and the Herald scooped them. Lawyer Paul Westland asks at the conference, “Who elected Agent X, the Black Bat, or the Phantom Detective to hunt down criminals?” The Bat’s gas bombs were made by Professor MacGowen, the head of research at Hazzard Labs. The Black Bat, whose stories were primarily written by Norman A. Daniels, appeared in the pulp magazine Black Book Detective. The Purple Scar’s stories were told by John Endicott in Exciting Detective in the 1940s. Captain Hazzard appeared in a one-shot pulp magazine by “Chester Hawks” (Paul Chadwick). His adventures have been continued in a series of novels by Fortier. Professor Washington “Wash” MacGowen is one of Hazzard’s aides. Secret Agent X appeared in stories by the pseudonymous “Brant House” (originally Chadwick, then other writers) in a titular pulp magazine. Inspector Burks is from that series. Daily Herald reporter Betty Dale is X’s love interest and closest ally. The Waldorf Anthony is the hotel owned by Jim Anthony, whose exploits were written by “John Grange” (a penname used at different times by Victor Rousseau Emanuel, Robert Leslie Bellem, and W. T. Ballard) in the magazine Super-Detective. The Phantom Detective, Steve Huston, the Clarion newspaper, and Frank Havens are from the pulp magazine The Phantom Detective, written by various individuals using the pseudonym “G. Wayman Jones” and then “Robert Wallace.”

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The Collectors

 

Are you a Doctor Who fan?

Then you'll love this Star Trek novel, which has a nod to that show, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to purchase my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Bonus Crossover of the Week (RIP Rick Lai)

Autumn 1866

THE TOMB OF THE VEILED PROPHET 

Anis-ed-Dowleh, the Shah of Persia’s favorite wife, shows Haji Abdu, the Daroga of the Secret Police, the corpse of a handmaiden allegedly murdered by Erik, the court illusionist. Erik mentioned to the Shah’s spouse he had been trained to kill with the Punjabi lasso by the deposed Maharani of Pankot. Haji Abdu and Erik discuss the rebel leader Mokanna, whose cult was led by Abd Dhulma after his death. Erik shows the Daroga a map he acquired in the mountain citadel Yolgan, which has the words, “The Lord of the Empty Abode,” “The Lord of Illusion,” and “The Lord of the Fourth Axis” written on it. Mokanna appears to the duo, saying they have resurrected him by summoning the Three Avatars of Yog-Sothoth. Mokanna names the sorcerers of Lemuria and Attluma, including Thulsa Doom, Kathulos, Rotath, Mardanax, and Descales, each of whom performed the Black Litany to infuse their souls with the Torch Fire of Nug. Erik’s nom de guerre is derived from Erlik of the Dark Star, whom Mokanna describes as a minor entity eclipsed by the cosmic splendor of the Lord of the Fourth Axis and his twin spawn, Nug and Yeb. Mokanna evokes the Moon of Yian, saying Nug demands a Red Offering in exchange for bestowing his Torch Fire upon Erik. 

Short story by Rick Lai in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 20), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2017. Haji Abdu is from Sir Richard Francis Burton’s poem “The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî.” He is also mentioned in Philip José Farmer’s authorized Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki. Lai conflates Haji Abdu with the Persian from Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Erik is the title character of that book. Pankot is from the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Mokanna is from “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” the first of four poems in Thomas Moore’s collection Lalla-Rookh, as well as Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu. Abd Dhulma is from G. G. Pendarves’ “Abd Dhulma, Lord of Fire.” Yolgan is from Robert E. Howard’s El Borak stories. The Lord of the Empty Abode is the title of Yog in Robert E. Howard’s Conan story “Shadows in Zamboula.” “The Lord of Illusion” and “The Lord of the Fourth Axis” are stories by E. Hoffmann Price. Here, the three Lords are all avatars of Yog-Sothoth, one of the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Attluma and Descales are from the works of David C. Smith. Thulsa Doom is from Howard’s Kull tale “The Cat and the Skull.” Kathulos is from Howard’s “Skull-Face” and “Taverel Manor,” the latter completed posthumously by Richard A. Lupoff. Rotath is from the Kull story “The Curse of the Golden Skull.” Mardanax is from Lin Carter’s Thongor novels. Nug and Yeb are from various Lovecraft collaborations: “Out of the Aeons” (co-written by Hazel Heald), “The Mound” (coauthored by Zealia Bishop), and “The Last Test” (co-penned by Adolph de Castro). The Black Litany of Nug and Yeb is from Joseph S. Pulver’s poem of the same name. Erlik of the Dark Star is from Robert W. Chambers’ The Dark Star. The Moon of Yian is from Chambers’ “The Maker of Moons.” The Red Offering is from Lin Carter’s Cthulhu Mythos story of the same name. 

As I wrote on Facebook yesterday, RIP my friend Rick Lai, an amazing human and writer. In the 1980s, he wrote articles expanding on the Wold Newton concepts of Philip Jose Farmer and continued it after the Wold Newton websites began appearing with Win Scott Eckert’s in 1997. He broke into fiction writing beginning with the story “The Last Vendetta” in the first TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN anthology, and consistently turned out quality work. I am honored to have had my first published story in close proximity to his contribution in the last TALES. I was constantly in awe of the depth of his knowledge and retention of pop cultural details, and I genuinely believe he was a genius. We also shared a love of Spaghetti Westerns, which he drew from often in his fiction. I’m in shock right now, and I am deeply saddened that I will never see him again. FarmerCon this year will be bittersweet without him.