Crossover of the Week

June 1981

KUMIHO 

Carl Kolchak encounters the fox-maiden from Korean mythology, which can assume the form of a beautiful woman. Tony Vincenzo sends Kolchak to Chicago to cover the de Grandin Metaphysical Symposium. Tony tells Carl there are going to be some important metaphysical speakers there, including John Thunstone, William Sebastian, and Harry Snowden. The moderator is a tall, blonde man named Rhodes. The Kumiho’s former lover shows Kolchak a book called The Darkness Out of the East. Captain Joseph “Mad Dog” Siska is learning tai chi from Master Li Sung. An old contact of Kolchak’s lends him a dog named Casca. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in Kolchak the Night Stalker: Passages of the Macabre, Dave Ulanski and Tracey Hill, eds., Moonstone Books, 2016. The de Grandin Metaphysical Symposium is named after Seabury Quinn’s occult investigator Jules de Grandin. John Thunstone is one of Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detectives. Thunstone’s The Darkness Out of the East appears in the Jules de Grandin story “The Green God’s Ring.” William Sebastian is from the TV movie Spectre. Harry Snowden is from the TV movies Fear No Evil and Ritual of Evil. Dr. Michael Rhodes is from the TV series The Sixth Sense. Li Sung is a blind martial arts master played by Mako in The Incredible Hulk episodes “Another Path” and “The Disciple.” Mako also played a Triad leader named Li Sung in the Kung Fu: The Legend Continues episodes “Tournament” and “Veil of Tears.” This Li Sung could see and was a descendant of the emperor’s nephew killed by the first Kwai Chang Caine in the original Kung Fu. The two Li Sungs are probably related. Casca is named after the immortal mercenary from Barry Sadler’s novels. This story takes place during Kolchak’s tenure with the Hollywood Dispatch, in a year where June 4 falls on a Thursday. 1981 is the first year after the original run of Kolchak: The Night Stalker that fits that parameter. 

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! Like its predecessors, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Autumn 2016

GUIDED TOURS OF FAMOUS SECRET PLACES 

A guide leads a tour group around Paris as part of a magic working, beginning at the Rue Morgue. The members of the tour group are from Arkham, Brichester, Derry, Ingersham, Medicine Man, Mud Creek, and Harrisonville. The first stop is the L’Épi-Scié Tavern, followed by a mansion on the Rue Thérèse. De Castries taught the guide that silver and abstract designs kept his enemies away. The mansion was, and perhaps still is, the meeting place of the Habits Noirs, or the Black Coats in English. The guide lists secret societies that have manipulated humanity throughout history, including the Black Coats, the Si-Fan, the Illuminati, the Shin Tan, the Brotherhood of the Seven Kings, the Black Lodge, and the Power House. The Mona Lisa was stolen twice, the first time by Arsène Lupin, using a secret passageway also used by the notorious Belphégor, also known as the Phantom of the Louvre. Other secret passages in Paris include the room in the Dragon Volant and the passages used by Erik under the Opera House. The guide makes the Voorish Sign and takes the group through the Room of the Barbarous Gods, which includes giant stone statues of the Serpent-Men of Valusia and a black idol from the castle of Joiry. Escaping from the Louvre through the sewers, and feeling like Jean Valjean in the process, the guide and his group resurface not far from the Court of the Dragon. An imitator of Erik battled Lupin’s grandson in the '60s. The next stop after the Opera House is the Rue d’Auseil. The Hidden Places, parts of the world that have been separated from the normal world by powers unknown, include St. Beregonne’s Lane in Hamburg, the cities of Selene and Xebico, the land of Lilliput, and the parts of the Sargasso that Hodgson wrote about. They should not be confused with journeys to other worlds like those of Randolph Carter or the crew of the Mainz Psalter. Occasionally, a person like Erich Zann will find their way into the Rue d’Auseil. A gaping hole in the sky leads into the realm of Azathoth. The guide cries out words in the old tongue of R’lyeh. The man from Mud Creek invokes Cthulhu and Dagon, while the man from Derry sings of the Black Goat of the Wood with a Thousand Young. 

Short story by Matthew Ilseman in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 14: Coup de Grace, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2017; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 24), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2018. The Rue Morgue is from Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Arkham, Massachusetts is the setting of many of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos tales. Brichester is a town in the Severn Valley in Ramsey Campbell’s contributions to the Mythos. Derry is a recurring setting in the works of Stephen King. Ingersham is from Jean Ray’s The City of Unspeakable Fear. The town of Medicine Man is from Gene Wolfe’s The Sorcerer’s House. Mud Creek, Texas is the setting of many works by Joe R. Lansdale. Harrisonville, New Jersey is the home of Seabury Quinn’s occult detective Dr. Jules de Grandin. The L’Épi-Scié tavern and the mansion on the Rue Thérèse are from Paul Féval’s novels about the crime cartel known as the Black Coats. Thibaut de Castries is from Fritz Leiber’s Our Lady of Darkness. The Si-Fan is the society controlled by Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu. The Illuminati is a historical group, but the reference here is specifically to Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson’s The Illuminatus! Trilogy. The Shin Tan is led by Monsieur Ming, the archenemy of Henri Vernes’ hero Bob Morane. The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings is from L. T. Meade and Robert Eustace’s book of the same name. The Black Lodge is from Talbot Mundy’s Jimgrim novel The Devil’s Guard, as well as the television series Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks: The Return. The Power House (aka Krafthaus) is from John Buchan’s The Power House. Arsène Lupin is Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief. Belphégor is from Arthur Bernède’s titular novel and serial, as is the Room of the Barbarous Gods. The Dragon Volant is from the story “The Room in the Dragon Volant,” included in J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s In a Glass Darkly. Erik is the title character of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. The Voorish Sign is from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The Serpent-Men of Valusia are from Robert E. Howard’s Kull stories. Joiry is from C. L. Moore’s tales of Jirel of Joiry. Jean Valjean is from Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables. The Court of the Dragon is from Robert W. Chambers’ “In the Court of the Dragon,” included in The King in Yellow. Arsène Lupin’s grandson encountered an Erik-like villain in “Vissi d’arte, Vissi d’amore,” an episode of the anime Lupin the Third: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine. The Rue d’Auseil and Erich Zann are from Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann.” St. Beregonne’s Lane is from Jean Ray’s “The Shadowy Street.” Selene is from Féval’s Vampire City. Xebico is from H. F. Arnold’s “The Night Wire.” Lilliput is from Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. The Sargasso reference is to William Hope Hodgson’s Sargasso Sea stories. Randolph Carter is from Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle. The Mainz Psalter is from Jean Ray’s titular story. Azathoth is one of Lovecraft’s Outer Gods. R’lyeh is the sunken city where a slumbering Cthulhu is imprisoned. Dagon is from Lovecraft’s “Dagon” and “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” The Black Goat of the Wood with a Thousand Young is Lovecraft’s Great Old One Shub-Niggurath. 

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 of the Week

February 1944

THE CURSE OF KUKULKAN 

In Mexico, the Avenger battles his old foe Sun Koh, who is impersonating the Mayan god Kukulkan, and the Sons of the Feathered Serpent, who are trying to get their hands on the Aztec gold that finances Benson’s crimefighting activities. Cole Wilson drives an open-topped Hirondel Roadster. Cole’s fiancée Heather is headed to Hollywood to talk to producers about starring in a remake of a Rhonda Terry jungle movie. General Leslie Groves, impressed by Benson’s imposture of Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, says “I don’t think even Basil Karlo or Lon Chaney, Sr. could have fooled my men.” Benson names others capable of remarkable disguises, such as a Japanese criminal called Kaijin Niju Menso. Smitty asks if he should contact “the usual archaeology types”: Smith, Jones, and Littlejohn. In Central Asia, Benson once met an elderly Norwegian explorer named Sigerson, who had a brilliant deductive mind. The archaeologists connect Rosabel Newton with a retired criminologist in New Jersey named de Grandin, who says the Sons of the Feathered Serpent are strongest in Southern Mexico, Guatemala, Hidalgo, and Nicaragua, and that they were united in the nineteenth century by a revolutionary named Don Ignatio. There was a string of feathered serpent killings in London in the '20s, and a “Quetzal” spy ring in the States a few years ago. Rosabel also contacted a friend of Professor Smith’s, Sir Lionel Barton, as well as Professor Rolfe at the University of Arizona, who told her about a series of Yaqui uprisings in the 1820s instigated by an individual called Don del Oro. Don Manuel Garcia, brother of Juan, tells Benson that Satan, Iblis, Mara, Erlik Khan, Ravana, Loki, Angra Mainyu, Tezcatlipoca, and many more are all reflections of the first evil figure, Kathulos of Atlantis, also known as Baal Seepa, the Lord of the Dark Face. He also claims that Mithras, Jesus, Horus, and Buddha are all pale shadows of Assurah, the Phoenix. Besides Uxmal and the cache used by Benson and discovered by Nellie Gray’s father, the Seven Cities of Gold include Cibola in Arizona, near the Lake of Fire, Omoxotl in Guatemala, el Valle de los que desaparecieron in Hidalgo, and Tucumai in Brazil. The Plumed Serpent cult was revived in 1923 by a wealthy landowner named Don Ramón and his compatriot General Viedma. Sun Koh’s aide Dr. Peters, the inventor of the katascope, refers to vril rods. Garcia says Sun Koh knows all the hidden places built by the Atlanteans, including Uxmal, Opar, Thule, and the realms of Prester John. Hal Mervin is another of Sun Koh’s aides. Inspector Madero works with Justice, Inc. on this case. 

Story by Matthew Baugh in The Avenger: Double Feature 2, Moonstone Books, 2020. Sun Koh appeared in the German pulp magazine Sun Koh – Die Erbe von Atlantis, written by Paul Alfred Müller. Don Manuel Garcia, his brother Juan, Dr. Peters, his katascope, and Hal Mervin are from the Sun Koh novels. The Sons of the Feathered Serpent are from the first Doc Savage novel, The Man of Bronze. Littlejohn is one of Doc’s aides. The country of Hidalgo and el Valle de los que desaparecieron (a Spanish translation of its English name) are also from the Doc Savage novels. The Hirondel is the car driven by Leslie Charteris’ character Simon Templar, the Saint. Ms. Terry is from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Lion Man. Heather’s offered role is also referenced in Win Scott Eckert’s novel Hunt the Avenger. Opar is from the Tarzan novels. Actor Basil Karlo is better known as Batman’s foe Clayface. “Kaijin Niju Menso” is Japanese for “The Fiend with Twenty Faces,” the alias used by the archenemy of Edogawa Rampo’s detective Kogoro Akechi. Professor Horatio Smith is from the movie Pimpernel Smith. Jones is Indiana Jones. Sigerson is an alias used by Sherlock Holmes during the Great Hiatus, as revealed in Doyle and Watson’s “The Adventure of the Empty House.” Jules de Grandin is Seabury Quinn’s occult detective. Don Ignatio is from H. Rider Haggard’s novel Heart of the World. The feathered serpent killings in London in the 1920s are a reference to Edgar Wallace’s novel The Feathered Serpent. The Quetzal spy ring is from the Shadow novel Quetzal. Omoxotl is the home of the Xinca Indians who served the shadowy vigilante. Sir Lionel Barton is from Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Professor Rolfe is meant to be the adopted son of Dr. James Rolfe and Paviva from the movie The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold. Cibola is the eponymous city in that film. Don del Oro is the villain of the movie serial Zorro’s Fighting Legion. Kathulos is from Robert E. Howard’s “Skull Face.” Baal Seepa is from Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Maracot Deep. Assurah, the Phoenix is from Henry Kuttner’s Elak of Atlantis story “Beyond the Phoenix.” Tucumai is from Fritz Leiber’s novelization of the movie Tarzan and the Valley of Gold, which has been declared canon by Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Don Ramón and General Viedma are from D. H. Lawrence’s novel The Plumed Serpent. The vril is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race. Inspector Madero is José Manuel Madero, the protagonist of “Geoffrey Homes’” (Daniel Mainwaring) mystery novels The Case of the Mexican Knife (aka The Street of the Crying Woman) and The Hill of the Terrified Monk (aka Dead as a Dummy). 

This 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! Like the first two, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: John Thunstone's Inheritance

Sabine Loel suggests John Thunstone bring his friend Jules de Grandin along to investigate the supernatural phenomena at Bertram Dower House, but de Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge are busy with cases of their own.

Crossover Cover: The Dead Man's Hand

John Thunstone places a phone call from Pennsylvania Station, telling the person on the other end he’s sorry he and Dr. Trowbridge can’t come. Thunstone is talking to Seabury Quinn’s occult detective Dr. Jules de Grandin.

Crossover Cover: Shonokin Town

The July 1946 issue of Weird Tales contains the story "Shonokin Town" by Manly Wade Wellman. John Thunstone wishes the late Lovecraft, who “knew so much about the legend of Other-People, from before human times, and how their behaviors and speech had trickled a little into the ken of the civilization known to the wakeaday world,” and de Grandin could see and hear the Shonokins. The H. P. Lovecraft reference implies John Thunstone exists in the same universe as Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Jules de Grandin is an occult investigator created by Seabury Quinn.

Crossover of the Week

1911

THE WHITE LADY OF POURVILLE (LA DAME BLANCHE DE POURVILLE)

Detective Sexton Blake and his apprentice Harry Dickson travel to Pourville to investigate the appearance of what seems to be the legendary White Lady, whose gaze drives men mad. Dickson befriends Adèle Blanc-Sec. Dickson and Adèle travel to Tiffauges to research the history of Gilles de Rays, and are told about de Rays and Joan of Arc by Doctor Jules de Grandin of the Faculty of Forensic Medicine of Paris. A false de Rays proves to be the archcriminal Fantômas, who is told to surrender by a policeman named Juve. Fantômas’ plan involved a Subatlantic locomotive, designed by the great French inventor, Arsène Golbert, and sabotaged by William Boltyn, the leader of the so-called “billionaires’ conspiracy.” The alleged White Lady is actually the mentally ill Paulette Arnaud, whose sister Thérèse works for the French Secret Service. Most of the cases of madness suffered by those who encountered Paulette were actually caused by an Indian poison called Rajaijah.

Short story by Michel Stéphan appearing as “La Dame Blanche de Pourville” in in Les Compagnons de L’Ombre (Tome 10), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012, and then in English in Harry Dickson vs. the Spider, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Harry Dickson, “the American Sherlock Holmes,” was the subject of German, Dutch, Belgian, and French pulp magazines, the latter written by Jean Ray. Sexton Blake is one of the most famous British penny dreadful detectives. G.L. Gick’s story “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange” revealed Dickson served as an apprentice to Blake in his youth, before he struck out on his own as a detective. Adèle Blanc-Sec will later become a private investigator herself, as seen in Jacques Tardi’s comic book The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Doctor Jules de Grandin is Seabury Quinn’s occult detective, who appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Fantômas and Juve are from the novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. Arsène Golbert and William Boltyn are from Gustave Le Rouge and Gustave Guitton’s pulp serial The Dominion of the World, which has been translated and adapted in four volumes by Brian Stableford. Thérèse Arnaud is from Pierre Yrondy’s The Adventures of Thérèse Arnaud of the French Secret Service, which has been translated by Nina Cooper for Black Coat Press. Rajaijah is from Hergé’s Tintin comic The Blue Lotus.

Crossover of the Week

October 31, 1921

THE GOTTERDAMMERUNG GAVOTTE

Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass team up with a group of occult detectives to prevent the Great Old Ones from being unleashed upon the world. Appearing or mentioned are: Semi Dual; No. 472 Cheyne Walk; Harley Warren; John Silence; Ravenwood; Sar Dubnotal; de Grandin; Thunstone; Pursuivant; Ms. Crerar; Kirowan; Zarnak; Thomas Carnacki; the Nameless One; a Tibetan lama with an unhealthy fascination for the color green; the Third Ritual of Hloh; Tserpchikopf; the Great Detective; the Hog; the Shambler; the Walker; the Lurker; the Yimghaz Sign; fire vampires; the dust of Ibn Gazi; Naacal; Thorne; openers and closers; the Drones Club; and Captain Drummond.

Story by Josh Reynolds in The Lovecraft eZine #18, Mike Davis, ed., October 2012. Semi Dual is an occult detective created for the pulps by J. U. Giesy. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Carnacki lives at No. 472 Cheyne Walk. The Hog is from the Carnacki story of the same name. Harley Warren appears in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and is mentioned in “The Silver Key” and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” The Naacal language is also from “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” John Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection of the same name. Ravenwood was the hero of a series of stories by Frederick C. Davis in the pulp magazine Secret Agent X; the Nameless One is Ravenwood’s Tibetan mystic mentor. The Sar Dubnotal was the subject of a French pulp series by an anonymous author who may have been Norbert Sevestre. Tserpchikopf is one of the mystic’s foes. Jules de Grandin is an occult detective created by Seabury Quinn. John Thunstone is the hero of a series of stories by Manly Wade Wellman, as is Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. Rowley Thorne is Thunstone’s archenemy. Ms. Crerar is Sheila Crerar, an occult detective appearing in stories by Ella Scrymsour. John Kirowan is a recurring character in the works of Robert E. Howard. Anton Zarnak is an occult investigator created by Lin Carter; his adventures have been continued by a number of other authors. The Tibetan lama is Kendell Crossen’s pulp hero the Green Lama. The Ritual of Hloh and the Yimghaz Sign are from “The Case of the Bronze Door,” one of Margery Lawrence’s stories about psychic detective Miles Pennoyer. The Great Detective is Sherlock Holmes, of course. The Shambler is a reference to Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars.” The Walker is Ithaqua (aka the Wind-Walker), from August Derleth’s story of the same name. The Lurker is Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep; the Lurker appellation is an allusion to Derleth’s The Lurker at the Threshold. Fire vampires are from Donald Wandrei’s story “The Fire Vampires.” The Dust of Ibn Gazi is from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The openers and closers are from Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October; although the events of that novel have been placed in an alternate universe, there is nothing to prevent the Crossover Universe from having openers and closers of its own. The Drones Club is a recurring London gentlemen’s club in the interconnected works of P. G. Wodehouse. Captain Drummond is H. C. McNeile’s hero Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond.

Crossover of the Week

1933

THE SIGN OF THE SALAMANDER

            The introduction to this reprint of Curtiss Stryker’s first story featuring occult detective John Chance is written by Kent Allard, the well-known author of Drive-Thru Fiction and The Futility of Awareness. Among the occult matters studied by Chance are the secrets of Carsultyal and Carcosa. Chance, seeking help against his archenemy Dr. Gerhard Modred (aka Dread), sends a message to another well-known occult investigator, de Grandin, but he cannot be reached. Dread plans to raid the lost mines of the Ancients in the Appalachian Mountains.

            Short story by Karl Edward Wagner in the collection Why Not You and I, 1987. Curtiss Stryker also appears as a major character in Wagner’s “Blue Lady Come Back,” also included in Why Not You and I. Stryker is based on author Manly Wade Wellman. Kent Allard is neither the Shadow nor H. Kenneth “Kent” Allard from Wagner’s Cthulhu Mythos story “Sticks”; however, he does make a brief appearance in “At First Just Ghostly,” a Kane story found in the collection Exorcisms and Ecstasies. Allard’s Drive-Thru Fiction is also quoted in Wagner’s story “Plan 10 from Inner Space,” also found in Exorcisms and Ecstasies. Carsultyal is from the Kane story “Undertow,” while Carcosa is from Ambrose Bierce’s “An Inhabitant of Carcosa” and Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow. Chambers’ version of Carcosa was heavily utilized in Wagner’s “The River of Night’s Dreaming,” found in In a Lonely Place. De Grandin is Seabury Quinn’s occult detective Dr. Jules de Grandin; the reference to him in Wagner’s tale is a nod to Manly Wade Wellman’s references to de Grandin in his own stories. The lost mines of the Ancients are from Wellman’s John the Balladeer story “Shiver in the Pines.” We can infer that Curtiss Stryker was actually the biographer of John Chance, who was a real person in the Crossover Universe. Regarding the dating of this story, Chance’s adventure was supposedly originally published in the January 1934 issue of the non-existent pulp Black Circle Mystery, while references to the National Recovery Administration place the story’s events in 1933.

Crossover of the Week

1925

THE DREADFUL CONSPIRACY (L’ABOMINABLE CONSPIRATION)

            Inspector Ménardier interrogates murder suspect and medical student Francis Ardan, aka Clark Savage, Jr. Ardan instructs the Inspector to contact his lawyer, Mr. Theodore Marley Brooks of New York, and refers to the income generated by the Hidalgo Trading Company. One of the victims transferred billion of francs into Ardan’s account at the Depository Bank of Zurich before he died. Judex disguises himself as Vallières, secretary to a banker who took part in a swindle in China with the murdered men. Brooks, nicknamed “Ham,” and Andrew Blodgett “Monk” Mayfair walk through Paris. The duo came to France after Colonel John “Renny” Renwick received a letter revealing that Ardan had been arrested. Renny passed the news on to Thomas J. “Long Tom” Roberts and William Harper “Johnny” Littlejohn. Ham is acquainted with Mr. Ferval, the head of the Police Judiciare. Ham and Monk meet with the man presiding over the autopsy of one of the victims, Doctor Jules de Grandin. Ham produces a letter from Judge Coméliau authorizing Ardan to sit in on de Grandin’s analysis of an object found in the skull of the man the de Grandin examined. Ham tells the surving conspirator that two years ago a colleague of Ardan’s, Dr. Lyndon Parker, encountered a Chinese tong called the Si-Fan. One of those who were adversely affected by the conspiracy was Ming Tsai Tsai Tsu, head of the secret society known as the Shin Tan. De Grandin tells Ardan that a man known as Anton Zarnak spent twenty years in Tibet studying the occult with those he called the “Masters of A’alshirie.” Chantecoq, the “king of detectives,” previously identified one of the Shin Tan’s few French agents, Leclerc, whose family had been in the group’s service for several generations according to a report written in the last century by Chevalier Dupin. Monk, Ham, and Ménardier search the Paris catacombs, accompanied by a squad of policemen dispatched by Commissaire Valentin of the notorious Brigades du Tigre. The men sent by Valentin include Inspectors Pujol and Terrasson. One of Ming’s subordinates is his sister, Ivana Orloff, who is related to the Counts Boehm of Germany. Ming used a “Mega Wave” to enslave his victims; an English physician named Doctor Septimus wrote a book on the device.

            Short story by Vincent Jounieaux appearing as “L’Abominable Conspiration” in Les Compagnons de L’Ombre (Tome 10), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012, and then in English in The Shadow of Judex, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2013; reprinted in L’Ombre de Judex, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2013. Inspector Ménardier, Ferval, and Chantecoq are from Arthur Bernède’s novel Belphégor and its simultaneous adaptation as a film serial. Francis Ardan is from Guy d’Armen’s novel Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s adaptation and translation of d’Armen’s novel implied that Ardan was an really a young Clark “Doc” Savage, Jr. Brooks, Mayfair, Renwick, Roberts, and Littlejohn will become Doc’s aides in his future battles against the forces of evil. Although Jounieaux indicates that Ardan/Savage and company are based out of the Empire State Building, that structure had yet to be built in 1925. Doc uses the name of the Hidalgo Trading Company as a front for the warehouse where he stores his vehicles. Judex is from the serial of the same name directed by Louis Feuillade. Doctor Jules de Grandin appeared in several pulp tales by Seabury Quinn. Judge Ernest Coméliau is from the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon. Dr. Lyndon Parker is the best friend and biographer of August Derleth’s sleuth Solar Pons. Pons and Parker’s 1923 encounter with the Si-Fan (from Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels) was recounted in “The Adventure of the Six Silver Spiders”; Pons and Parker would have many more encounters with the secret society in the years to come. Ming Tai Tsou, aka Monsieur Ming and the Yellow Shadow, is the leader of the Shin Tan in Henri Vernes’ Bob Morane novels. Ming is aided in the Morane books by his niece Tania Orloff, Ivana’s daughter. Anton Zarnak is an occult detective created by Lin Carter, whose further exploits have been chronicled by several other writers. The Masters of A’alshirie are from Zarnak stories by C.J. Henderson. Leclerc’s ancestor Honoré Leclerc appeared as an agent of the Shin Tan in Dennis E. Power’s story “No Good Deed…” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2009.) The Chevalier C. Auguste Dupin appeared in a trio of stories by Edgar Allan Poe. The Brigades du Tigre was the subject of a titular television series from 1974-1983, which featured Valentin, Pujol, and Terrasson as its leads. The Counts Boehm are from Paul Féval’s novel John Devil. The Mega Wave and Doctor Septimus are from The Yellow “M,” a story in Edgar P. Jacobs’ comic book series Blake and Mortimer.