Crossover of the Week

Autumn 1939

THE GREEN LAMA: CRIMSON CIRCLE 

The Green Lama battles a scientific enclave called the Collective that threatens not only him, but his aides as well, and has recruited several of his former allies and enemies. Lt. John Caraway wonders where Rick Masters is when you need him. The Lama broke the central tenet of his faith when he murdered Karl Heydrich in R’lyeh. The Collective can confirm his work against the Medusa Council in 1935. An unpublished article by Betty Dale of the Herald-Tribune correctly postulates that the Lama is really Jethro Dumont. The hero tells Gary Brown and his wife Evangl Stewart-Brown about his battle with Cthulhu. The Collective is based in Black Rock. Morgue attendant Dan Rohn refers to the Tipton murders. When Dumont left America years ago, there were more pressing matters to deal with, such as whether Wentworth and Van Sloan would ever get married. Not too long before the Green Lama debuted, a predecessor of his encountered a killer matching the description of Collective member Omega. In a flashback, Evangl reminds herself to ask her friend Diane Elliott of the Amalgamated Press about the Lama’s battle with the Medusa Council, and Evangl’s mother says vigilantism “seems to be going around with the bat fellow and that doctor gentleman.” The Lama’s lover Jean Farrell remembers running from a shoggoth in R’lyeh. At the Herald-Tribune offices back in the present, Betty Dale talks to her fellow journalist Luke Jaconetti. Commissioner Woods has an impassioned conversation with former Commissioner turned Governor Kirkpatrick. Detective Crevier says, “When it comes to vigilantes, copycats are a dime a dozen. You remember how many guys we had running around with a black fedora and trenchcoat back in the day?” Dr. Barry Dale, a researcher on atomic energy and Betty’s brother, meets with the President to brief him on the Collective, and tells him the Intelligence Service Command has denied any knowledge of them. Nyarlathotep appears before the Collective. 

Novel by Adam Lance Garcia, Moonstone Books, 2015. The Green Lama is Kendell Foster Crossen’s pulp hero. Rick Masters had his own backup feature in Spark Publications’ Green Lama comic. R’lyeh, Cthulhu, the shoggoth, and Nyarlathotep are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The Lama’s battle against the Medusa Council was seen in the anthology Day of the Destroyers, edited by Gary Phillips. The Intelligence Service Command is from the same book. Reporter Betty Dale is Secret Agent X’s girlfriend. Black Rock first appeared in Garcia’s story “The Black Rock Conspiracy,” included in the anthology The New Adventures of Foster Fade, the Crime Spectacularist. Fade appeared in stories by Lester Dent in All Detective Magazine. In “The Black Rock Conspiracy,” Fade battled an unnamed Omega. The Tipton Murders are a reference to Garcia’s other story from that anthology, “Dead Men’s Guns.” Wentworth and Van Sloan are Richard Wentworth, aka the Spider, and his beloved Nita Van Sloan. Governor (formerly Commissioner) Stanley Kirkpatrick is also from the Spider novels. Diane Elliott is Operator #5’s girlfriend. “The bat fellow” is the Black Bat, while “that doctor gentleman” is the pulp hero commonly known as “Doc.” Luke Jaconetti first appeared in “The Black Rock Conspiracy” before appearing in Garcia’s The Green Lama: Scions, as well as Day of the Destroyers. Detective Crevier is referring to the shadowy hero, the Spider, and possibly others. Barry Dale is the alter ego of another Spark Publications hero, Atoman, created by Crossen and Jerry Robinson. His appearance here foreshadows his future superhuman identity. 

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: Sherlock Holmes & the Green Lama: The Heir Apparent

 

Are you a fan of Kendell Crossen's pulp hero the Green Lama?

Then you'll love this novel in which the future Lama, Jethro Dumont, teams up with Sherlock Holmes!

For more details, consult my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Much like the first two volumes, this one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The Green Lama Unbound

I covered the original version of this novel some time ago. Since then, a revised and expanded version has been published by Moonstone Books. The Green Lama battles Cthulhu. Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep; R’lyeh; the Great Old Ones; the Outer Gods; the Necronomicon; the Deep Ones; Abdul Alhazred; Glyyu-Uho; Vhoorl; flying polyps; the Great Race of Yith; shoggoths; Arkham, Massachusetts; Innsmouth; the Miskatonic River; Miskatonic University; Professor Randolph Carter; and Zkauba are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft. This novel also makes use of characters and places from Cthulhu Mythos tales by August Derleth (the Elder Gods); Brian Lumley (Chthonians and Shudde M’ell); Ramsey Campbell (Baalbo, Yifne, and Tond); Walter C. DeBill, Jr. (Ogntlach); Lin Carter (Xoth); and A. A. Attanasio (Yaksh). Rick Masters and Twin Eagle had their own feature in Spark Publications’ Green Lama comic book series. “That guy who lives in the Empire State Building” is a well-known bronze-skinned pulp hero. Arnold Toht is from the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, while Colonel Ernst Vogel is from the third film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Neville Sinclair is from the film version of Dave Stevens’ comic The Rocketeer. Since the comic book has already been incorporated into the Crossover Universe, the Sinclair mentioned here must be the CU counterpart of the Sinclair from the film, which follows a different continuity than the comic. The phrase “klaatu barada nikto” appears in both the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Foster Fade, “the crime spectacularist,” appeared in three stories by Lester Dent in All Detective Magazine in 1934. Richard Knight appeared in the pulp magazine Flying Aces in stories by Donald E. Keyhoe. The Black Bat was created by Norman Daniels and appeared in Black Book Detective. The Lama’s old detective friend in London is Sherlock Holmes. Elisha Pond is a false identity used by Secret Agent X, who appeared in a titular magazine. The original version of the novel has a few references that were deleted from the revised version, such as a rampaging ape (King Kong), Captain Hazzard (a one-shot pulp hero created by Paul Chadwick), Dan Fowler (an FBI agent appearing in the pulp G-Men Detective), Lance Star (a Canadian pulp hero recently revived by Bobby Nash and other writers), and Jim Anthony (who appeared in the magazine Super Detective).

Crossover Cover: The Invisible-Box Murders

A New York newspaper called the Daily Planet appears. The Daily Planet newspaper in New York is not to be confused with the Metropolis paper of the same name, which employs Clark Kent, aka Superman. Dent wrote three stories for All Detective Magazine in 1934 featuring Foster Fade, “the Crime Spectacularist,” who worked for a New York newspaper called the Planet.

Crossover of the Week

Summer 1935-1936

DAY OF THE DESTROYERS

            Jimmie Flint, Secret Agent X-11 of the Intelligence Service Command, battles Colonel Lucian Starliss and his Medusa Council, who seek to oust President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and take over the United States. Along the way, he receives aid from the Phantom Detective (Richard Curtis Van Loan), the Black Bat (Tony Quinn), the Green Lama (Jethro Dumont), and the Gray Face (Owen Tull.) Herald-Tribune reporter Luke Jaconetti moonlights for the Amalgamated Press, which employs Jimmie’s girlfriend Kara Eastland. Luke receives a phone call from Betty Dale. After the Council is defeated, Kara says that Dumont is organizing other wealthy men such as himself, including Van Loan and “that odd chap, Wentworth” for a Patriots for Progress group.

            An anthology of linked stories by Gary Phillips, Tommy Hancock, Aaron Shaps, Jeri Westerson, Ron Fortier, Eric Fein, Joe Gentile, Paul Bishop, and Adam Lance Garcia, edited by Gary Phillips, Moonstone Books, 2015. Luke Jaconetti first appeared in Garcia’s story “The Black Rock Conspiracy,” featuring Lester Dent’s pulp hero Foster Fade; he also appeared in Garcia’s novel The Green Lama: Scions. Reporter Betty Dale is the girlfriend of Secret Agent X, who has no known connection to Secret Agent X-11. “That odd chap, Wentworth” is Richard Wentworth, aka the Spider. This crossover brings Secret Agent X-11 (a character created for this anthology) and the Gray Face (another original character, created by Phillips), into the CU.

Crossover of the Week

May 1938

THE IRON PHANTOM

            Richard Benson learned hobo code from a man named A-Number One. Nellie Gray and Smitty get into a fight with two men, one of whom is short and apelike, the other well-dressed and wielding a sword cane. Benson goes to the offices of the Classic newspaper seeking information. The editor expresses surprise that Benson came to them rather then the Times or the Planet. Benson asks a Classic reporter named Burke about his interview with inventor Elias Martinson. Martinson at one point was working on a mechanical man, but complications caused him to seek the aid of another inventor, Charles Link. Benson later tells Nellie and Smitty that the men they fought are actually in the same line of work as they are, and that their battle was the result of a misunderstanding.

            Short story by Matthew Baugh in The Avenger: Roaring Heart of the Crucible, Nancy Holder and Joe Gentile, eds., Moonstone Books, 2013. A-Number One is from the movie Emperor of the North. Nellie and Smitty’s opponents are Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks, two of Doc Savage’s aides. Clyde Burke, besides being a reporter for the New York Classic, is also one of the Shadow’s agents. The New York Planet is the newspaper that employs Foster Fade, “the Crime Spectacularist,” who appeared in three stories by Lester Dent in All Detective Magazine in 1934. Elias Martinson is meant to be the unnamed inventor from Robert E. Howard’s unfinished El Borak story “The Iron Terror.” Charles Link is the creator of “Eando Binder’s” (Earl and Otto Binder) robot Adam Link.

Green Lama: Scions

The Green Lama investigates a cruise ship that has crashed on Liberty Island, all but one of those aboard having killed themselves. Two gangsters that work for Pete Barry witness the crash while disposing of a body. The Lama’s ally Police Lieutenant John Caraway captures crime lord Tzu-hao Ming-yu, who claims to be “the son of Doctor Fu—” Caraway first read about the Lama in the gossip section of the Sentinel. The Lama, in his civilian identity of millionaire Jethro Dumont, is interviewed by Betty Dale of the Herald-Tribune. One of Betty’s coworkers is crime reporter Luke Jaconetti. The Lama’s agents Gary Brown and Evangl Stewart-Brown have a small farm outside Black Rock. Commissioner Woods refers to the Tipton Murders. The crew and passengers of the ship were possessed by the Old Ones. Betty remarks that now she knows how Din feels over at the Planet. Falsely suspecting Frankie Annor, Jr. of being a disguised vigilante, Betty remarks, “Next thing you’re going to tell me is you prefer to be called a letter or some kind of arachnid.”  The Green Lama appeared in stories by “Richard Foster” (Kendell Foster Crossen) in the pulp Double Detective. Pete Barry is from Garcia’s story “Dead Men’s Guns,” in which the Tipton Murders occurred. The town of Black Rock and Luke Jaconetti are from another story by Garcia, “The Black Rock Conspiracy.” Both of the aforementioned stories appeared in the anthology The New Adventures of Foster Fade, the Crime Spectacularist, featuring new stories of Lester Dent’s pulp hero, and both had cameos by an unnamed Caraway. Black Rock is also the setting of Garcia and Heidi Black's graphic novel Sons of Fire. Dinamenta “Din” Stevens is Fade’s ghostwriter for The New York Planet newspaper. “Doctor Fu—” is Sax Rohmer’s criminal mastermind Doctor Fu Manchu. The Sentinel is the New York branch of the newspaper published by Britt Reid, aka the Green Hornet. Reporter Betty Dale is the girlfriend of Paul Chadwick’s pulp hero Secret Agent X. The Old Ones (also known as the Great Old Ones) are the malevolent alien beings worshipped as gods in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Betty is suggesting that Frankie could be either Secret Agent X or the Spider.

Crossover Cover: The New Adventures of Foster Fade, the Crime Spectacularist

This anthology from Pro Se features new stories about Foster Fade, a journalist, amateur sleuth, and inventive genius who works for the New York Planet newspaper. Fade appeared in three stories by none other than Lester Dent in the pulp All Detective in 1934. Three of the stories have crossovers. Derrick Ferguson's "The Cider King Murders" has references to orchestra leader King Mantell from the movie The Princess Comes Across and Black Pony Scotch from Otto Preminger's film noir Laura. Aubrey Stephens' "Voodoo Death" features a well-dressed lawyer named John Brooks, who refers to his brother Theodore and the latter's old friend from the Great War, Lt. Col. A.B. Mayfair. Theodore and A.B. are better known as "Ham" Brooks and "Monk" Mayfair, two of the five aides of Dent's most famous creation, Doc Savage. (It's worth noting that Dent's Doc Savage pulp novel The Invisible-Box Murders contains a reference to a New York newspaper called the Planet, which is presumably meant to be the same paper Fade works for.) Finally, Adam Lance Garcia's "The Black Rock Conspiracy" has Fade's ghostwriter, Dinamenta "Din" Stevens, asking her date to accompany her in helping out Fade, an invitation described as the equivalent of getting asked to join the Freemasons, Skull and Bones, and the Diogenes Club all at once. Since the Freemasons and the Skull and Bones Society are real organizations, the implication seems to be that in Fade's world, so is the Diogenes Club from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. On a related note, the town of Black Rock is also mentioned in Garcia's recent novel The Green Lama: Scions, which also has an allusion to the events of "Dead Men's Guns," another story by Garcia in The New Adventures of Foster Fade.