Crossover of the Week

Summer 1920

THE DOOR OF ETERNAL NIGHT 

Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass meet Harry Houdini and Arthur Conan Doyle, the latter of whom says Holmes used to talk to himself. Holmes and Carnacki worked together on a case in 1899 involving a man named James Phillimore. Doyle says Watson spoke of that affair once or twice. After the case, Carnacki became Edwin Drood’s apprentice. Supposedly, the King of Ruritania lives at Claridge’s when he isn’t serving as the doorman at Barribault’s. Colonel Bobdillo is taking Houdini, his wife, and Doyle to dinner. St. Cyprian draws the odd angles of the Voorish Sign and has a vision involving the three-lobed burning eye. An old man called Captain James Basil helps St. Cyprian and company out of a spot. St. Cyprian knew a man during the war who knew a little something about clouding men’s minds and had the most eerie laugh. Gallowglass refers to a previous case involving Bellingham and his mummy. Ten years ago, a cult in Cairo sealed Houdini into a pyramid. St. Cyprian tries to use a move on his opponent the Thin Man that Captain Drummond had shown him one night in Marseille. The Thin Man is St. Cyprian’s old foe, the mummy Nephren-Ka. If it hadn’t been for the debacle in Seven Dials, Bellingham’s influence among the subtly inclined might have grown to outstrip that of Crowley or Mocata. Doyle wonders if Bellingham is the same man a surgeon of his acquaintance named Abercrombie Smith spoke of. The Starry Wisdom is an offshoot of the Cult of the Great Pyramid Bat. Bobdillo knows the night-music of Khem. Houdini, recognizing Bobdillo from Egypt, asks him whatever happened to Abdul Reis. Captain Basil, who is really Sherlock Holmes, says Colonel Bobdillo was not a real Colonel, but took up the rank when the late, unlamented Colonel Sebastian Moran was locked away. 

Novella by Josh Reynolds, 18thWall Productions, 2016, reprinted in Casefiles of the Royal Occultist Volume One: Monmouth’s Giants, 18thWall Productions, 2019. James Phillimore is the subject of an untold Sherlock Holmes case mentioned in Doyle and Watson’s “The Problem of Thor Bridge.” This Phillimore is a distinct individual from the shape-changing alien who used that name in Farmer and Manders’ “The Problem of the Sore Bridge – Among Others.” Holmes used the alias of Captain Basil in “The Adventure of Black Peter.” Colonel Sebastian Moran is from “The Adventure of the Empty House.” Holmes’ description of Moran as “late” should not be taken literally, as the Colonel will not meet his end until 1935, as described in Kim Newman’s “The Man Who Got Off the Ghost Train.” Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. Edwin Drood is from Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The ex-King of Ruritania and Barribault’s are from the works of P. G. Wodehouse. Ruritania itself is originally from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda. Colonel Bobdillo is from Elliott O’Donnell’s “The Mummy Worshippers.” The Voorish Sign is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The three-lobed burning eye is an avatar of Nyarlathotep from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” Nephren-Ka and the Starry Wisdom Church are also from that story. Houdini’s interment in a Cairo pyramid and Abdul Reis are from “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs,” supposedly a factual account by Houdini himself, but a fictional story penned by Lovecraft. Khem is from both stories. The man St. Cyprian knew during the Great War is the future pulp hero of the shadows. Edward Bellingham and Abercrombie Smith are from Doyle’s “Lot No. 249.” Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is H. C. “Sapper” McNeile’s hero. Mocata is from Dennis Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out. The pyramid bat is a fictional species seen in Sax Rohmer’s Brood of the Witch-Queen. The bat is also mentioned in Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak story “Curse of the Black Pharaoh.” Nephren-Ka appears in that tale under the name Khotep, and as Kephren in “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs.”

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by 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: Challenge

 

Bulldog Drummond and Ronald Standish investigate the murder of a colleague of theirs who was traveling to Newhaven by boat. This 1937 novel by “Sapper” (H. C. McNeile) marks the third and final crossover between Drummond and Standish. 

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by 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: Bulldog Drummond at Bay

 

Are you a fan of H. C. "Sapper" McNeile's Bulldog Drummond novels?

Then you'll love this book, which is the second team-up between Drummond and another of McNeile's series characters, Ronald Standish!

For more information, consult my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by 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: Maxim Gunn

Pro Se Press has collected Nicholas Boving's Maxim Gunn novels in two omnibus editions. In the first novel, Gunn is an agent of the British Intelligence group known as the Organization, but in the following novels he works independently of them. Given that Boving has contributed to the Tales of the Shadowmen series and other anthologies for Black Coat Press, it is not surprising that the series has a few crossovers. In the first novel, The Chaos Project, Gunn battles the evil Wanda Liszt, who is planning to conquer the world with the aid of Queen Sheba’s Necklace. Wanda’s father, Otto Liszt, had been cast in the mold of the great criminals, like Carl Peterson and Professor Moriarty. Queen Sheba's Necklace is from John Buchan's novel Prester John. Buchan’s Richard Hannay novels contain references to John Laputa and Captain Arcoll, both of whom appear in Prester John. Carl Peterson is Bulldog Drummond’s archenemy. Professor Moriarty needs no further introduction. Philip José Farmer identified Peterson as Professor Moriarty’s grandson. In the second novel, The Demon Plan, MI5 sends Harry Pearce to recruit Gunn, now retired from the Organization, for a mission. Pearce is from the TV series Spooks (aka MI-5 in the United States.) In the fifth book, The Sun Fortress, Gunn rescues the kidnapped Princess Alicia Flavia of Ruritania. Gunn, who is revealed to be a descendant of Rudolf Rassendyll, is also acquainted with a half-Chinese Shaolin priest in California. This is a reference to Kwai Chang Caine II from the television series Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, himself the grandson of the original Kwai Chang Caine from the Western series Kung Fu. In the sixth novel, The Leopard Legion, Gunn meets Alex Arcoll, the great-grandson of Captain Arcoll from Prester John, and his Shaolin monk friend is mentioned again.

Crossover of the Week

1911

THE LEGACY OF ARSÈNE LUPIN

            Arsène Lupin, disguised as Prince Sernine, tells his biographer Maurice Leblanc a tale involving the Comte de Guy’s ownership of d’Artagnan’s sword, having heard rumors of how the Comte acquired it: “There’s been talk of dealings with the Chinese fence, Hanoi Shan—his path has crossed Lupin’s before—rumors of a murderous thug named Gurn…half-whispered rumors of Cagliostro, Saint-Germain, and the Englishman Barrington, who had defrauded the great Cagliostro of a fortune and the sword; talk that the sword had once been the trust of one Prince Rodolphe; that it was stolen by Colonel Bozzo-Corona or by that young rogue Rocambole; that British cracksman took a shot at it; and there was a suggestion the Devil Doctor in Limehouse had shown an interest; Josephine Balsamo’s name came up…” The sword was brought to Lupin’s attention by the young journalist Rouletabille. The Comte asks Lupin, in his guise as M. Lenormand, head of the Sûreté Nationale, to guard his valuables at a masked ball. Lupin says, “Even old Lecoq might have found himself challenged by this problem!,” and assures the Comte, “The cracksman Bunn is in Perth, by all accounts, and that Englishman Raffles who has plagued Scotland Yard has not been heard of since the Boer War.” The Comte introduces “Lenormand” to his daughter, the Comtesse Emmeline de Guy. Lupin encounters a young boy who calls himself “Stephen Tarleton” and wishes to steal the sword from the Comte. The Comte stores his valuables in a safe made by the Dale company in New York, which the American called the Gray Seal had remarkable luck in cracking. Marie Antoinette’s necklace was stolen by Cagliostro, then in England by George Barrington, the Picaroon, king of the London underworld, and from the Dreux-Soubize family by Lupin himself, as a boy. Lupin recognizes members of Paris’ infamous Vampires and the Union Corse from Marseilles at the ball, as well as deadly enemies of the English cracksman, Cleek.

            Short story by David L. Vineyard in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Arsène Lupin, the Dreux-Soubize family, and Josephine Balsamo are from Maurice Leblanc’s novels. The Comte de Guy is one of the many aliases used by Carl Peterson, the archenemy of H.C. “Sapper” McNeile’s adventurer Bulldog Drummond. The Countesse Emmeline is really Carl’s mistress Irma. Hanoi Shan is from H. Ashton-Wolfe’s Warped in the Making: Crimes of Love and Hate. Hanoi Shan encountered Lupin in Vineyard’s story “The Jade Buddha” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 5: The Vampires of Paris, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2009.) Gurn is better known as Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s villain Fantômas. Count Cagliostro was a historical figure, who also appeared in novels by Alexandre Dumas, and was identified as the founder of a villainous branch of the Wold Newton Family by Philip José Farmer. The Comte de Saint-Germain was also a real person, and has appeared in a number of works of fiction. George Barrington is from Ernest Dudley’s novel Picaroon. Prince Rodolphe is from Eugène Sue’s The Mysteries of Paris. Colonel Bozzo-Corona is the leader of the gang known as the Black Coats in novels by Paul Féval. Rocambole is the villain-turned-hero of novels by Ponson du Terrail. The British cracksman is E.W. Hornung’s A.J. Raffles. The Devil Doctor is Sax Rohmer’s Doctor Fu Manchu, whom Farmer conflated with Hanoi Shan in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Apparently, it is not common knowledge that Fu and Shan are the same person, and doubtless that is how the criminal mastermind prefers it. Rouletabille is a young reporter featured in novels by Gaston Leroux. Lecoq is Emile Gaboriau’s detective. Smiler Bunn is a thief appearing in comedic stories by Bertram Atkey. “Stephen Tarleton” is really Simon Templar, who will later be known as the Saint, the “laughing Robin Hood of crime” created by Leslie Charteris. Lupin thinks that Templar is fourteen years old. In fact, Templar would be ten years old in 1911. The Dale company is owned by Jimmie Dale, aka the Gray Seal, who appears in books by Frank L. Packard. The Vampires are from Louis Feuillade’s silent film serial Les Vampires. The Union Corse is a real organization, but a fictionalized version of the group appears in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Hamilton Cleek, “the man of forty faces,” was the protagonist of books by Thomas W. Hanshew.

Crossover of the Week

July 1942

THE HORROR OF HYPERBOREA

            Thunder Jim Wade and his aides Dirk Marat and Red Argyle battle the Nazi mad scientist Baron Victor von Hammer and his son Franz, who have abducted Professor Isaac Levi in the hopes that the scholar can lead them to the lost civilization of Hyperborea, planning to use its secrets to take over the world. Von Hammer is actually Baron Victor von Frankenstein, the illegitimate and long-lived son of the legendary Baron von Frankenstein and a barmaid he bedded while hunting his creation, while Franz is really one of the younger Baron’s own creations. A Bedouin aiding Wade and company against Frankenstein’s living corpses uses the language of ancient Stygia. The Bedouins invoke the name of Mitra. Levi’s daughter Lise says that her father witnessed the execution of a member of the Frankenstein family who created a creature that killed dozens of people in his and nearby villages, and a member of her mother’s family lost an arm fighting against one of the Frankenstein monsters. This ruined his dreams of being a soldier, though he did become a police officer. Lise tells Wade about traps in Hyperborea, the first being the anger of Zath, the lord of spiders and the earth. Wade and company store their Thunderbug ship in a warehouse owned by a doctor colleague of Wade’s who uses his vast fortune and amazing mind to save the world. Marat refers to the time Argyle destroyed an Oparian outpost by accident. Frankenstein, who has captured Wade and friends, tells Wade that he once defeated Bulldog Drummond in London. Zath served Bel, the masked maker of chaos. A statue of Louhi, witch queen of Hyperborea, appears. The second trial of Hyperborea is the many mouths of Xotli, the Atlantean lord of blood. Wade, Frankenstein, and the others are attacked by the witch men of Hyperborea. Louhi tells Frankenstein that she was ancient when his people were food for the Elder Worms and slaves to her people and their Acheron rivals, and that only ancient Gagool and Ayesha have lived nearly as long as her. She subjects Wade and the rest to the Trial of Bori, and thinks of a barbarian who nearly killed her thousands of years ago.

            Novella by Frank Schildiner, Pro Se Press, 2014. Thunder Jim Wade appeared in five stories by “Charles Stoddard” (a pseudonym for Henry Kuttner) in the pulp Thrilling Adventures in 1941. The elder Baron Victor von Frankenstein and his creation are from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, of course. The younger Victor was formerly known as Victor Saville, the protagonist of Robert Myers’ novels The Cross of Frankenstein and The Slave of Frankenstein. Hyperborea is from Robert E. Howard’s stories of Conan the Barbarian, as is Stygia. Mitra is a deity from the Conan tales. Bel is from the Conan story “The Queen of the Black Coast.” Acheron appears in The Hour of the Dragon and other Conan tales. The member of the Frankenstein family that was executed is from the Hammer film The Curse of Frankenstein. Creative mythographer Chuck Loridans has identified this member of the family as Victor Frankenstein III, the son of the former Victor Saville and the grandson of Shelley’s Victor. The police officer who lost an arm to one of the Frankenstein monsters is Inspector Krogh from the Universal film Son of Frankenstein. Zath is from L. Sprague de Camp’s novel Conan and the Spider God. Louhi is from de Camp and Lin Carter’s Conan story “The Witch of the Mists.” Xotli is from de Camp and Carter’s novel Conan of the Isles. The witch men of Hyperborea are from de Camp and Carter’s “Legions of the Dead.” Wade’s doctor colleague is Doc Savage. The New York warehouse owned by Doc is used for the storage of his many vehicles, and is disguised as the headquarters of a business called the Hidalgo Trading Company. The lost city of Opar in Africa is from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan books. Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is from a series of novels originated by H.C. “Sapper” McNeile, and continued after McNeile’s death by Gerard Fairlie. The Elder Worms are a reference to Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story “Worms of the Earth.” Gagool is from H. Rider Haggard’s first Allan Quatermain novel, King Solomon’s Mines, while Ayesha is the title character of Haggard’s novel She and its sequel and prequels. Bori (or Borri) appeared in “Twilight of the Grim Grey God” by Roy Thomas, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Sal Buscema, Conan the Barbarian #3, February 1971, Marvel Comics. The story was adapted from Howard’s “The Grim Grey God Passes,” which featured the Norse god Odin rather than Borri.

Crossover Cover: Knock-Out

In this novel (also known as Bulldog Drummond Strikes Back), Bulldog Drummond teams up with another series character created by H.C. "Sapper" McNeile, sportsman and consultant with the War Office Ronald Standish.

The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow

In the first issue of Howard Chaykin's miniseries The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow, published by Dynamite and set in the early '50s, the Shadow attends a dinner party with several other adventurers. Though not named, the host is Nero Wolfe, and the other guests are Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Bulldog Drummond. Farmer identified all of those present as members of the Wold Newton Family. But the really cool part of this scene? The picture hanging on the wall in the background is a photograph of the real monument to the Wold Newton meteor. I for one love this, and will definitely take note of it when I write this series up for the books.