Crossover Covers: The Big Bleed Out

 

Private eye and monster killer Cal McDonald briefly teams up with Larry Van Helsing, another member of the line of monster hunters.

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: Criminal Macabre/Count Crowley: From the Pit They Came

 

Are you a fan of Steve Niles' comic Criminal Macabre?

Then you'll love this crossover between its protagonist, Cal McDonald, and the title character of David Dastmalchian and Lukas Ketner's comic Count Crowley!

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when it is 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: The Dead Don't Die

This collection of Cal McDonald stories by Steve Niles includes "The Dead Don't Die," in which Cal

puts down a zombie outbreak in the California desert. While commenting on zombies, he mentions “what happened with radiation in Pittsburgh in the late sixties.” The incident in Pittsburgh is clearly meant as a reference to the events of the first Night of the Living Dead film. Although later films in the series (Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead, and Survival of the Dead) involve the world being overrun with the walking dead, other sources, such as the Return of the Living Dead films and the Nathaniel Cade novels, show this particular incident was actually very isolated. Some hero must have stopped whatever caused the outbreak to spread in other universes.

Crossover Cover: The Goon Meets Hellboy

Hellboy gets knocked on the head, and upon regaining consciousness finds himself at a different location, where he meets a zombie-killing palooka known as the Goon. After another knock on the head, Hellboy finds himself back where he was when he received the first blow to the head. The exploits of Powell's adventurer the Goon take place in the present day, but in a very surreal world with 1930s trappings, and therefore likely occur in an alternate reality to the Crossover Universe. Hellboy must have somehow been transported to the Goon’s universe from the CU. The two would later cross paths again at the end of the one-shot Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide. Cal McDonald recognized Hellboy, so they must have both come from the CU, and other crossovers in the Criminal Macabre comics and prose stories support this.

Crossover Covers: Two Red Eyes

The ancient vampire “Nosferatu” travels to Los Angeles and picks a fight with monster-hunting P.I. Cal McDonald. “Nosferatu” is clearly Graf Orlok, the vampire from F.W. Murnau’s film Nosferatu, ein Symphonie des Grauens.

Crossover Cover: Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide

Paranormal private investigator Cal McDonald comes face-to-face with the zombie-killing palooka known as the Goon, and ultimately joins forces with him to defeat a man who is bringing his imagination to life with an occult tome. The man summons Hellboy, who Cal recognizes, before being defeated. The exploits of Eric Powell's adventurer the Goon take place in the present day, but in a very surreal world with 1930s trappings, and therefore likely occur in an alternate reality to the Crossover Universe. However, both P.I. Cal McDonald of Steve Niles and Christoper Mitten's comic Criminal Macabre and Mike Mignola's monster-fighting demon Hellboy (whom the Goon met in a 2004 issue of his own title) have independent links to the CU, and given that Cal knows who Hellboy is, it is very likely that the two were transported to the Goon's universe from the CU.

Crossover Covers: Criminal Macabre: The Eyes of Frankenstein

Cal McDonald and Mo’Lock assist the Frankenstein Monster once again, having met the Monster previously in a 2011 Free Comic Book Day one-shot.

Crossover Cover: Criminal Macabre: Final Night - The 30 Days of Night Crossover

Steve Niles' comic series Criminal Macabre and 30 Days of Night already had links to the Crossover Universe independent of each other even before this miniseries definitively confirmed they take place in the same universe. It's also worth noting that one issues shows a photo of Cal McDonald, the protagonist of Criminal Macabre, with Eric Powell's character the Goon,  a reference to the crossover Criminal Macabre/The Goon: When Freaks Collide.