Crossover of the Week

Summer 1940

WALKING ON FOREIGN GROUND, LIKE A SHADOW 

Judex travels to New York at the request of Kent Allard, the Shadow, whose parents were friends with Judex’s mother, Julia Orsini. A gangster named Tony Rico has learned the Shadow possesses the twin jewels of the Russian Czar. Rico received information on the Shadow from his old foe Benedict Stark. The Shadow asks Judex to impersonate him, with Mary Gillespie, the owner of the Gillespie Circus and the daughter of Colonel Gillespie, posing as Margo Lane. Rico is chauffeured by a man named Otero. Learning about Stanford Marshall, aka the Black Tiger, Rico killed him and stole his invisibility belt, invented by a pair of scientists named Stanford and Van Dorn. Rico also targeted Professor Adam Strang, who read Reggie Ogden novels, and was involved in a caper with a criminal engineer called Sparks who created a machine to kill people by radio control, based on television technology invented by a Dr. Houghland. Judex meets with Mary Gillespie at Rusterman’s. Mary has an ex-husband named Jim. “Rainbow” Benny Loomis likes to hang out at Rusterman’s. Loomis tells Judex and Mary that Rico thinks he’s the new Enrico Bandello, and his birth name is Chris Jorgenson. A wounded Mary says her uncle Leonard will treat her. The Shadow saw Judex with his wife Jacqueline, and felt his loneliness deepen. 

Short story by Atom Mudman Bezecny in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 17: Noblesse Oblige, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2020; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 29), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2022. Judex and his wife, the former Jacqueline Aubry, are from Louis Feuillade’s film serial Judex. Arthur Bernède’s novelization of the serial identified Judex’s mother, the Comtesse de Tremeuse, as the former Julia Orsini. The shadowy pulp hero and his companion need no introduction. The vigilante battled Stark, the so-called “Prince of Evil,” in four novels by Theodore Tinsley. Tony Rico is from the 1933 film The Shadow Laughs. Bezecny identifies Rico with Chris Jorgenson from Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man; in the film adaptation, Jorgenson was played by Cesar Romero, the same actor who played Tony Rico. Mary Gillespie, her father the Colonel, her ex-husband Jim Quinn, and the Gillespie Circus are from the 1937 film The Shadow. Otero and Enrico Bandello are from the movie Little Caesar. The Black Tiger is from the 1940 serial The Shadow. Stanley Stanfield and Professor Carl Van Dorn are from the serial The Vanishing Shadow. Professor Adam Anton Strang and Sparks are from the serial The Whispering Shadow. Reggie Ogden is from the 1933 movie The Shadow. Dr. James Houghland is from the movie Murder by Television. Rusterman’s is from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. “Rainbow” Benny Loomis is from the movie Shadow of the Thin Man. Except for the 1940 serial, none of the films with “Shadow” in the title involve Walter Gibson’s pulp hero. Dr. Leonard Gillespie is from Max Brand’s Dr. Kildare stories. Although this case is dated to 1928, the shadowy hero began his crimefighting career in 1929, and his four battles with Stark took place in 1939, and so I would place it in the early 1940s instead. 

This crossover writeup is one of over a thousand appearing in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from 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: God's Games

 

Are you a Nero Wolfe fan?

Then you'll love Tommy Hancock's story in this anthology, which has a Wolfe connection, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to check out 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

Autumn 1926 

WRATH OF N’KAI 

Countess Alessandra Zorzi, a professional thief-for-hire, comes to Arkham, Massachusetts to steal a mummy found in Oklahoma. Two years ago, Alessandra stole a gargoyle from the cathedral of Vyones. A month after that, she pilfered a copper ring crafted in the shape of a serpent from a house in Mayfair. Philippa “Pepper” Kelly, who works as a cab driver in male disguise, has as her head dispatcher a short, fat man named De Palma. At the unveiling of the mummy at the Miskatonic Museum, Alessandra runs into her old acquaintance Tad Visser, a New Yorker, who says the crowd includes bigwigs from Miskatonic, Harvard, Yale, and even representatives from his alma mater, Empire State. Alessandra knows of others in her profession who are violent or lacking in restraint, such as “that charlatan, Lampini.” Her teachers included an elderly Englishman with an inordinate fondness for cricket, a melancholy albino who smoked opium-soaked cigarettes, and the incomparable Mr. Nuth. Alessandra tells Pepper, “As a gentleman of my acquaintance once said, one cannot make bricks without clay.” Alessandra and Visser discuss Arkady Cottonwood’s book The Oldest Rite, a single copy of which Alessandra has stolen five times for three different clients. She also once procured a book on horology for a fat man in New York with a fondness for orchids. 

An Arkham Horror novel by Josh Reynolds, Aconyte, 2020. Vyones is from Clark Ashton Smith’s Averoigne stories. The gargoyle is a reference to Smith’s “The Maker of Gargoyles.” The copper ring is the Serpent Ring of Set from Robert E. Howard’s Conan story “The Phoenix on the Sword.” De Palma is likely the father or grandfather of Louie De Palma, head dispatcher for the Sunshine Cab Company in New York, from the TV series Taxi. Empire State University will later be attended by Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man. Lampini is Bruno J. Lampini, who appears in his own series of stories by Reynolds. Lampini is named after Professor Bruno Lampini from the movie House of Frankenstein. The elderly Englishman is E. W. Hornung’s amateur cracksman A. J. Raffles. The melancholy albino is Sexton Blake’s archenemy Zenith the Albino. Nuth is from Lord Dunsany’s story “How Nuth Would Have Practiced His Art Upon the Gnoles.” The gentleman of Alessandra’s acquaintance is Sherlock Holmes, who said “Data! Data! Data! I can’t make bricks without clay” in Doyle and Watson’s “The Adventure of the Copper Beeches.” Arkady Cottonwood is from Reynolds’ story “Corn Wolf.” Cottonwood’s book The Oldest Rite is mentioned in several of Reynolds’ works. The fat orchid enthusiast is Nero Wolfe, although Alessandra’s acquisition of the book for him must have happened before he officially hung up his shingle as a private eye in 1930. Professor Tyler Freeborn mentions his expedition to the Great Sandy Desert with Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee and Professor Ferdinand Ashley from “The Shadow Out of Time” as a past event. This reference must be disregarded, as that expedition took place in 1935, nine years after the events of this novel. 

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: Burglars Can't Be Choosers

 

Burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr breaks into an apartment with a Rabson lock. Said lock is from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels and would be mentioned in several subsequent Bernie Rhodenbarr books.

This crossover is one of hundreds that can be found in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! As with the first two volumes, this book is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Kill Fee

N.Y.P.D. Lieutenant James Murtaugh attempts to apprehend a contract killer named Pluto, who picks his targets first and seeks money from people who stand to profit by their deaths only after the hit. Murtaugh went on to appear in Paul’s Marian Larch novels. Win included Paul's novel The Fourth Wall in Volume 2 due to references to Archie Goodwin and Dr. Vollmer from the Nero Wolfe series, and noted that some of the characters from that novel went on to appear in the Larch series.

Crossover Cover: An Evil Guest

A novel set in an alternate future with Cthulhu Mythos overtones. Appearing or mentioned are Vincent Palma and Tabbi Merce (from Wolfe’s story “Memorare”), a mountain whose wife washes clothes (from Cory Doctorow’s story “Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town”), Rusterman’s restaurant (from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels), a man named Cranston who could turn invisible (the Shadow), and Hanga the Shark God (from Wolfe’s story “The Tree is My Hat.”)

Crossover of the Week

July 1962

OPERATION STARFISH

            James Bellmore is a Marine attached to the Joint Advisory Committee on Korea (JACK) as the assistant to the organization’s number two man, Colonel Doctor Wingate Peaslee, also known as the Terrible Old Man. The name of the agency is a front for their battles against eldritch horrors. Bellmore and Peaslee travel aboard the USS Miskatonic to Johnston Island. Bellmore had a fight with a midshipman who decided to sample a bottle from his case of Remmers Imperial Stout. Bellmore’s friends in London, Steed and Drake, suggested that he develop a hobby. Having taken up cooking, Bellmore sends some of the foodstuffs to his friends, though mostly to Brenner, a Swiss chef he briefly studied under in New York. Bellmore meets Adam Royston of British Experimental Research Group, Unit 3. The Miskatonic uses a Tillinghast Resonator to lure the monsters on the island to be killed, including the Hounds of Tindalos.

            Short story by Peter Rawlik in Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, Tim Marquitz and Nickolas Sharps, eds., Ragnarok Publications, 2014. Wingate Peaslee is from H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Out of Time.” His nickname of “the Terrible Old Man” is a nod to Lovecraft’s story of the same name. The USS Miskatonic is named after the Miskatonic Valley, the setting of many of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos tales. Remmers is Rex Stout’s detective Nero Wolfe’s favorite beer. Wolfe’s Swiss chef is Fritz Brenner. Steed is British spy John Steed from the television series The Avengers and The New Avengers, while Drake is John Drake from the television series Danger Man (aka Secret Agent.) Adam Royston is from the movie X the Unknown. The Tillinghast Resonator is from Lovecraft’s story “From Beyond.” The Hounds of Tindalos are from Frank Belknap Long’s titular tale.

Crossover Cover: The Footprints on the Ceiling

New York magician and amateur sleuth Merlini is told by Inspector Gavigan, “…All the amateur dicks in town are gunning for your job. When the papers hit the streets, all hell broke loose at headquarters. Philo Vance has been crowding his friend, the D.A. He wants to kick this case around. Says it's right up his bloomin' alley, don't you know. Ellery Queen's campaigning to get his old man assigned to it so he can get a look see, and Malloy says that awhile ago he saw Archie Goodwin circling the island in a speedboat, looking the situation over. Nero Wolfe's seen that mention of the eight million bucks.” Merlini is already in the CU, and the references to Vance, Queen, and Wolfe and Goodwin reinforce his inclusion.