Crossover Movie Poster: Reefer Madness

 

Are you a fan of exploitation movies?

Then you'll love this infamous film, which has nods to both Dick Tracy and the James Cagney movie Something to Sing About!

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of 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: Skin Deep

 

Are you a Dick Tracy fan?

Then you'll love this storyline from the comic Ms. Tree, written by onetime Dick Tracy writer Max Allan Collins, which has a cameo by a member of Tracy's supporting cast!

For more information, be sure to purchase copy of 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 of the Week

February 1935

WEB OF THE BROWN RECLUSE 

Professor Anton Macek considers consulting a doctor at the Empire State Building, but he is out of town. He decides against contacting a hotel owner with a legendary temper instead. A paperboy hawks the day’s copy of the Clarion. With his jet-black hair and square jaw, some say Kent Hardy resembles a certain famous cop from Chicago. Hardy is one of the best freelance criminologists in New York City, though some, such as Hammond or Noel, have greater reputations. Macek is a member of a group of scientists that also includes Dr. Lemuel Grimes. In its day, New York has seen masked marauders, murderous purple lights, skyscraper phantoms, and even a giant monkey. President Roosevelt tells Hardy, “It seems super-criminals like [the Brown Recluse] are coming out of the woodwork these days. The Black Star, Dr. Satan, the Whispering Shadow, the Tiger Shark...the list seems to go on and on.” 

Short story by Greg Gick in Mystery Men (& Women) Volume 3, Ron Fortier, ed., Airship 27 Productions, 2012. The doctor at the Empire State Building is the bronze-skinned pulp hero. The hotel owner is Jim Anthony. The New York Clarion newspaper is from the Phantom Detective pulp novels. The Chicago cop is Dick Tracy. Wade Hammond appeared in stories by Paul Chadwick in the magazine Ten Detective Aces. The murderous purple lights are from the Hammond story “Doctor Zero,” while the skyscraper phantom is a reference to the Hammond story “Skyscraper Horror.” Dorus Noel’s exploits were chronicled by Arthur J. Burks in All Detective Magazine. Dr. Lemuel Grimes is related to Dr. A. J. Grimes from the Danny Dunn juvenile adventure novels by Raymond Abrashkin and Jay Williams. The giant monkey is King Kong. The Black Star’s stories were told by Johnston McCulley in Detective Story Magazine. Dr. Satan is a villain created by Paul Ernst for Weird Tales. The Whispering Shadow is from the serial of the same name. The Tiger Shark is from the serial The Fighting Marines. 

This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which is to 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 Comic Strip Story: Dick Tracy vs. Abner Kadaver

Dick Tracy tells cartoonist Vera Alldid his favorite comic strip was Fearless Fosdick. Dick calls journalist Hank O’Hair of The Daily Flash to ask her about a dead criminal found at Abner Kadaver’s Halloween attraction. Hank says the criminal’s name turned up in connection with a story Brenda was investigating. Sam Catchem tells Dick his own favorite strip was always Derby Dugan. Fearless Fosdick, a fictional comic strip parodying Dick Tracy in Al Capp’s comic strip Li’l Abner, is mentioned in the November 2 strip. Hank O’Hair is from the comic strip Brenda Starr, Reporter, and appears in the strip on November 10. Derby Dugan is a fictional strip from Tom De Haven’s Funny Papers trilogy of novels, consisting of Funny Papers, Derby Dugan’s Depression Funnies, and Dugan Under Ground. Sam mentions Derby Dugan in the November 16 strip.

The Quest for Annie

Hey, like Dick Tracy?

Then you'll love this crossover between the square-jawed detective and Little Orphan Annie!

All the details can be found in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, coming out next month from Meteor House!

Crossover of the Week

2012

THE RESURRECTION OF ABNER KADAVER

A woman claiming to work for the Emilio Lizardo Crematorium appears at the State Prison to collect Abner Kadaver’s body. Dick Tracy and his wife Tess take some time off to go fishing. A boat with the name “Swee’pea” on it is seen. Tess is offered a cup of coffee by a woman named Olive, who says Dick is out fishing with Olive’s own husband at the dock. We see Dick with a man with a large forearm that has a tattoo of an anchor on it, who is holding a can of spinach. Olive and Tess discuss what first attracted them to their respective husbands, namely their chins. As they return home, the Tracys’ son Joe refers to both Olive’s husband and Dick being ex-Navy. Dick smokes a corn cob pipe and says, “I yam what I yam!” Dick’s granddaughter Honeymoon tells him she is going to a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert on Sunday night, and she hopes to get an autograph from Perfect Tommy.

Dick Tracy strip by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, October 22, 2013–January 4, 2014. The crematorium, mentioned in the October 22 strip, is named after Dr. Emilio Lizardo from the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. The couple who are also vacationing is Popeye and Oliver Oyl from E. C. Segar’s classic comic strip Thimble Theatre. Swee’pea is the name of Popeye’s adopted son. The boat appears in the October 27, 2013 strip, and Popeye and Olive first show up on October 28. The leader of the Hong Kong Cavaliers, who were mentioned in the strip on November 7, 2013, is Buckaroo Banzai himself. Perfect Tommy is the Cavaliers’ rhythm guitarist, and also designed the suspension system on Buckaroo’s Jet Car.

Crossover Movie: Alphaville

Lemmy Caution searches for his fellow secret agent from the Outlands, Henry Dickson. Both Dick Tracy and “Guy l'Éclair” have disappeared in Alphaville before Dickson. Lemmy Caution is an American detective appearing in mystery novels by Peter Cheyney. Here, he is played by Eddie Constantine, who also portrayed the character in several non-science fiction films. Henry Dickson’s name is a nod to pulp character Harry Dickson, who appeared in German, Dutch, Belgian, and French pulp magazines. Jean-Marc Lofficier’s “J.C. in Alphaville” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010), which serves as a prequel to Alphaville, reveals that Henry is Harry’s son, and that both Henry and Lemmy were sent to Alphaville by Mr. Klamm and Herr Erlanger from Franz Kafka’s The Castle. “Guy l'Éclair" is the name by which Flash Gordon is known in France. Klamm and Erlanger must have also sent Gordon and Dick Tracy to Alphaville, although they presumably resurfaced soon after these events. Alphaville is my favorite film by Jean-Luc Godard, one of my favorite directors. I was lucky enough to be able to see it on the big screen a week ago today at the Gene Siskel Film Center here in Chicago.

Crossover Covers: Justice, Inc.

The Shadow, Doc Savage, and the newly-minted Avenger battle Rodil Mocquino and John Sunlight, who seek to master time itself. In #3, Doc says that one of his ancestors was a Vandal. The implication of this statement is that Doc is descended from the immortal DC Comics supervillain Vandal Savage. The Shadow compares the death of Richard Benson’s wife and daughter to “that murder case last May…only there the child survived while the parents were slain.” The child is Bruce Wayne, later known as the Batman. In #5, John Sunlight has two-way wrist radios, which were stolen from “those detectives I killed last month,” a reference to Dick Tracy and Sam Catchem. Michael Uslan’s annotations in the back of the issue indicate that Sunlight only thought he killed Tracy and Catchem. In #6, a Nazi agent named Kruger appears. This is meant to be Heinz Kruger, the Nazi agent who killed Dr. Reinstein, the creator of the Super-Soldier Serum that empowered Captain America. This series offers a completely different take on the circumstances of the Avenger’s origin than Paul Ernst’s original pulp novel Justice, Inc. A time-traveling Doc Savage from the 21^st century appears; this is meant to be the version of Doc seen in Dynamite’s Doc Savage miniseries. However, that series is incompatible with the details of Doc’s later life given in Philip José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert’s The Evil in Pemberley House. Also, Bruce Wayne’s parents died in 1929 in the CU, not 1938. Therefore, this series must take place in an alternate universe.