Crossover Cover: Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds

 

On Amtor (Venus), Carson Napier encounters his old friend Jason Gridley and Victory Harben, who have found themselves being repeatedly transported through space. He also finds the body of a four-armed green man. Jason Gridley is a recurring character across Edgar Rice Burroughs’ various series. Victory Harben is the daughter of Nadok of the Voraki tribe of Pellucidar and Gretchen Von Harben from Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins. The green man is a Thark from Burroughs' Mars novels.

Also included is a bonus story by Christopher Paul Carey, "Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun," in which Jason and Victory find themselves transported across space and time. Victory’s father is Nadok of the Voraki tribe of Pellucidar, while her mother is Gretchen Von Harben, sister of Erich Von Harben. When Victory was eleven, she encountered a Mahar queen and decided to go to the outer world to broaden her knowledge. Initially, Victory lived in America with Captain Heinrich Hines of the O-220 and his wife Anna. Gridley previously contacted Victory via the Gridley Wave apparatus at the Greystokes’ Chamston-Hedding estate. The scientists of Barsoom were unable to provide an explanation for the Gridley Wave. Erich Von Harben is from Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Victory’s encounter with the Mahar queen Tu-al-sa (originally from the novel Pellucidar) is depicted in Win Scott Eckert’s Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar, which takes place in 1943. Heinrich Hines and the O-220 are from Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. In that book, Hines is the O-220's navigator, but in Russ Manning’s Sunday Tarzan comic strip stories involving Pellucidar, he is the captain. Battle for Pellucidar explains how this happened. The Greystokes are Tarzan and family. The Chamston-Hedding estate is from Jungle Tales of Tarzan.

These crossovers are two of over a thousand included 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: The Greatest Adventure

 

A mega-crossover in which many of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ characters—Jason Gridley; Tarzan, Jane, Korak, Meriem, and La; Ulysses Paxton, John Carter, and Dejah Thoris; Billy Byrne (The Mucker); Bridge and the Oskaloosa Kid (The Oakdale Affair); Barney Custer (The Mad King); Victoria Custer (The Eternal Lover); Jim Stone (“The Resurrection of Jimber-Jaw”); Townsend Harper and Virginia Maxon (The Monster Men); Julian the Second (the Moon trilogy); Johnny LaFitte (Pirate Blood); the Rider (The Rider); Shannon Burke (The Girl from Hollywood); and Carson Napier—travel around the world in an airship to prevent a group of villains from getting their hands on a gem called the Eye of Judgment to create a death ray. Pellucidar and Poloda (Beyond the Farthest Star) are also seen. Bowen Tyler and Lys La Rue from Burroughs’ Caspak books are still stranded there in this story. In Burroughs’ original trilogy, the duo was shipwrecked on the island in 1916, and rescued a year later. Tarzan did not meet Jason Gridley, who pulls his old acquaintance into this exploit, until the 1927–1928 events of Tarzan at the Earth’s Core, while Carson Napier first visited Venus in 1928. These and other chronological difficulties place this story outside the continuity of Burroughs’ original novels, making it an AU. 

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: John Carter of Mars: Gods of the Forgotten

 

John Carter and his daughter Tara are pulled into an adventure that involves a threat dating back to Barsoom’s ancient past. Carter learns of his relative Edgar Rice Burroughs’ death through the Gridley Wave. He later encounters Betty Callwell, aka Loto, and then the Wave’s inventor, Jason Gridley, who has been transported across space since his goddaughter Victory Harben was pulled into a purplish light in Pellucidar. Gridley’s most recent jaunt brought him to Venus, where he met an Earthman named Carson Napier. Jason Gridley, the inventor of the Gridley Wave, connects Edgar Rice Burroughs’ various series. Loto first met Carson Napier in Burroughs’ Escape on Venus, and again in Christopher Paul Carey and Cyrus Mesarcia’s comic book miniseries Carson of Venus: The Flames Beyond, which ended with her being transported to another world. Victory Harben is the daughter of Gretchen von Harben from Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins, and the niece of Erich von Harben from Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Jason Gridley and Victory Harben’s journeys across time and space form the basis for the Swords of Eternity Super-Arc running through the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novels. Gridley encountered Carson Napier in Matt Betts’ Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds. Pellucidar is from Burroughs’ series of novels beginning with At the Earth’s Core.

Appearing as a backup is a "Quantum Interlude" entitled "Where Angels Fear..." In Pellucidar, Janson Gridley, the son of Jason and Jana, the Red Flower of Zoram, receives a message via Gridley Wave from Victory Harben, whose signal Abner Perry traces from the direction of globular cluster NGC 7006. Perry has been speaking over the wireless with young Moritz about his ideas of energy-matter transmission. The mention of NGC 7006 suggests Victory is transmitting from somewhere near Poloda, the planet featured in Burroughs’ Beyond the Farthest Star. Stanley Moritz is from John Eric Holmes’ Mahars of Pellucidar.

These crossovers are only two 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 Covers: Pellucidar: Across Savage Seas

 

In 1930, Gretchen von Harben accompanies Jason Gridley and Captain Jason Connover on an expedition to Pellucidar aboard the airship Favonia. Gretchen’s brother Erich and Lord Greystoke are mentioned. An outcast group of Oparians once tried to appoint Gretchen their priestess of the Flaming God. The Favonia departed from Tyler Shipyards and Aeronautics in Santa Monica. Gretchen meets Omlot the Sagoth, who speaks a variation of Mangani, and Nadok the Voraki. Gretchen once contemplated killing a renegade Oparian named Gulm. In 1950, Gretchen relates this story to her and Nadok’s daughter Victory, who the Mahar Tu-al-sa showed an ancient tablet when she was younger. Gretchen von Harben and Gulm are from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Tarzan Twins with Jad-Bal-Ja, the Golden Lion. Jason Gridley is a recurring character across Burroughs’ various series. The Favonia’s namesake and Erich von Harben are from Tarzan and the Lost Empire. Opar and the mangani are from the Tarzan books. Tyler Shipyards and Aeronautics is a reference to the company owned by Bowen Tyler’s family in Burroughs’ Caspak trilogy. Victory Harben is an original character appearing in the Swords of Eternity super-arc running through several of the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novels. Victory met Tu-al-sa, who first appeared in Burroughs’ novel Pellucidar, in Win Scott Eckert’s novel Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar. 

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers: 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: Jane Porter and the City of Fire

 

Are you an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan?

Then you'll love this graphic novel featuring Tarzan's better half, which also has tie-ins to the Pellucidar series and the Caspak trilogy, as well as a reference to the awesome Victory Harben!

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 of the Week

Late January 1944

THE GLASS LADY 

The Avenger and the Domino Lady meet for the first time as they team up against Benson’s old foes Dr. Ulrich Blau-Montag, aka the Iron Skull, and Werner Konrad. The Domino Lady, as Ellen Patrick, attends a masked ball at the Schildiner mansion, wearing the Spang diamonds. One of the guests, a Marine with white-blonde hair, admires Ellen’s figure. Other guests include the Charleses, who have taken a break from detective work and come to Los Angeles from San Francisco for the party; Dix Steele; an up-and-coming actress named Betty, accompanied by a handsome brown-haired stunt-pilot who works at Chaplin Airfield; Norma; and Veronica Balza. A thief brings down the chandelier, which is compared to the Phantom’s grand chandelier at the Paris Opera House. Ellen calls Cole Wilson’s fiancée Heather Brail at the Chance Theater in New York. Sims, a reporter for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, writes an article about the latest dustup between Cynthia Furnois, socialite daughter of film director Abelard Furnois, and bleach blonde actress Mavis Arden. During Benson’s convalescence following an explosion, the members of Justice, Inc. get a second opinion from Clark. Heather has been offered a starring role in a remake of a Rhonda Terry jungle movie. 

Part I of Hunt the Avenger by Win Scott Eckert, Moonstone Books, 2019. The Domino Lady appeared in stories by Lars Anderson in the “spicy” pulps. The Avenger first battled the Iron Skull in Ron Goulart’s novel The Iron Skull. The villain escaped to battle Benson again in Goulart’s story “The Return of the Iron Skull,” escaping Benson’s clutches once more in the conclusion. Werner Konrad, a Nazi spy, battled Benson in Goulart’s novel The Glass Man; like the Iron Skull, he was still at large at the end of the book. The Spang diamonds are a reference to Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever. The Marine is Richard S. Prather’s future private eye Shell Scott. Nick and Nora Charles are from Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man. Dixon “Dix” Steele is from Dorothy B. Hughes’ novel In a Lonely Place. Betty and her boyfriend are Betty Page and Cliff Secord from Dave Stevens’ comic book The Rocketeer and subsequent comics and prose stories from IDW Publishing. Norma Desmond is from the movie Sunset Boulevard. Balza and Ms. Terry are from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Lion Man. The Furnoises are from Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. The Phantom is Erik from Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. The Chance Theater is owned by George Chance, also known as the Green Ghost. Fred Sims is a friend and contact of G. G. Fickling’s female private eye Honey West. Mavis Arden is from the movie Go West, Young Man. Clark is the bronze man. 

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

Crossover Cover: Tarzan: Battle for Pellucidar

 

Are you a fan of the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs?

Then you'll love this novel by the creator of the Crossover Universe, Win Scott Eckert! An official Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novel published by ERB, Inc., it pits Tarzan against Nazis in Pellucidar. Many other Burroughs works are referenced, as well as a few other authorized pastiches that have been integrated into the ERB Universe and some original stories of Burroughs' characters in other media, such as comic strips and animation.

All the details can be found in my book Crossovers Expanded Vol. 3, coming from Meteor House ASAP!

Edgar Rice Burroughs - the new "Sunday" comic strips

Cross-posted from www.winscotteckert.com

Many of my readers may know that on the Official Edgar Rice Burroughs site, there are

ongoing comic strips of various ERB series and characters, done in the style of a weekly color Sunday strip. Some strips feature new stories, and some are adaptations of ERB novels. The strips are available by monthly or annual subscription at the site.

The Pellucidar strip tells a new tale of the ongoing adventures of David Innes and family, and some of the Sunday installments featured a crossover with Tarzan. Perhaps this is not such a big deal, given that ERB himself crossed-over the two series in the novel Tarzan at the Earth's Core, and the two series also crossed over many times in authorized comic books and prior Sunday strips (these crossovers are documented in my Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World, Volume 1 and Volume  2, Black Coat Press, 2010).

The first storyline in the New Adventures of Tarzan strip, by veteran comics scribe Roy Thomas, features La and the beast-men of Opar, as well as Jane, and D'Arnot. No date is given, but the second storyline picks up straight from the first, and it is noted as the "late 1940s." Now, many Wold Newton fans know that Tarzan visited Opar in 1946 and found it deserted;* there was no sign of La, or anyone else, as noted in Philip José Farmer's Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke.** But based on the new Sunday strips, it appears that La somehow returned a few years after 1946. I am sure that a creatively mythographical explanation will arise for all this.

Of note, the second New Adventures of Tarzan storyline features crossovers with ERB's The Monster Men (a granddaughter of Professor Maxon) and H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau! (The latter is in the public domain, so no issues there.)

This is not the first time that a Tarzan comic featured a crossover with The Monster Men. As I noted in Crossovers 2:

TARZAN AND THE MONSTER MEN
Tarzan encounters the nephew of Professor Maxon, the creator of the original Monster Men, and battles a new generation of the monstrous creatures.
Story by Don Glut, Danny Bulanadi, and Dave Stevens, edited by Russ Manning, in Tarzan Weekly #2 and 3, June 18 and 25, 1977. The story brings the events of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel The Monster Men into the Crossover Universe.


*Perhaps this mystery will be explained in an authorized Tarzan story someday! 

**I am of course fully aware that Mr. Farmer, in Tarzan Alive, identified Tarzan at the Earth's Core as a "fictional" adventure of Lord Greystoke. And yet, in his timeline of the Ape Man's life, he noted the date when it would have occurred, had the events been true. Other than Tarzan, Pellucidar is my favorite ERB series and I am loathe to dismiss it from my own interpretation of the Wold Newton Universe or the larger Crossover Universe. Perhaps Mr. Farmer's love of all things ERB compelled him to note the date for Tarzan at the Earth's Core, despite the fact that it may have contradicted the realistic biographical premise of Tarzan Alive.

Crossover Cover: Underland

Vampire Victor Renquist travels to “the Hollow Earth,” actually a series of underground caverns that can be reached from various points on Earth. Renquist spent time in England during World War II monitoring an occult warfare unit working out of Ravenkeep Priory under the command of the Duke de Richleau. Marcus De Reske’s attempts to raise Cthulhu are mentioned. Pelucidar is another of the Hollow Earth’s names. A member of a serpentlike race called the Dhrakuh tells Renquist, “the English eccentric, Professor Challenger, had made it into one of the subsidiary caves, but never discovered a major underground city, unlike the Norwegian, Nielsen, and two years later, the Prussian, Erich von Stalhein, who had come with a well-equipped expedition funded by the Krupp family.” The Duke de Richleau is from novels by Dennis Wheatley. Cthulhu is, of course, one of the Great Old Ones in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Marcus De Reske was prevented by Renquist and his nosferatu coven from releasing Cthulhu in the second novel in the series, Darklost. The name “Pelucidar” is a variant on that of the world at the Earth’s core from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The land seen in Underland is clearly not Burroughs’ world, but both this novel and Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop’s story “Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole” indicate there are many inner worlds. Professor Challenger appears in The Lost World and other works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Nielsen is not a pre-existing character, but Erich von Stalhein is the archenemy of W. E. Johns’ heroic aviator Biggles.

Crossover Cover: Savage Dawn

The Outlanders series, written by various authors under the pseudonym “James Axler,” is set in a future incompatible with the one seen in the Star Trek franchise. This particular novel is by Douglas P. Wojtowicz. Kondo says of a subterranean empire filled with dinosaurs, “It’s amazing that no one has ever stumbled upon it.” Remus replies, “Some have. But the tales were so astounding that those who lived in the world above relegated them to flights of fancy, instead of the true exploits of men such as George Edward Challenger or David Innes.” Besides this reference, Wojtowicz's Wings of Death establishes that one of the series' main characters, Kane, is the reincarnation of Solomon Kane.

Crossover Covers: The Worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs

This anthology of new stories featuring Edgar Rice Burroughs' characters has three stories with crossovers. One is "Tarzan and the Land That Time Forgot" by Joe R. Lansdale. Traveling back to civilization in the O-220 zeppelin after another visit to Pellucidar, Tarzan and the ship’s crew find themselves shipwrecked on the island of Caprona. Tarzan first traveled to Pellucidar in the O-220 in Burroughs’ Tarzan at the Earth’s Core. The destruction of the O-220 in Lansdale’s story must be an exaggeration, as Tarzan used it to travel to Pellucidar again in both 1960 and 1986, as seen in the Sunday Tarzan comic strip stories "Dead Moon of Pellucidar" (aka "The Jewel of Pellucidar") and "Back to Pellucidar," respectively. Tarzan will make at least two more trips to Caprona (aka Caspak) in the future, as seen in the comic book Tarzan in the Land That Time Forgot and the Sunday Tarzan strip story "Return to the Land That Time Forgot." In F. Paul Wilson's "The Dead World," David Innes refers to the Minunians, the Ant Men of Africa. Innes discovers Pellucidar was created by an alien race called the Fashioners. The Minunians are from Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Ant Men. The description of the Fashioners makes it clear they are meant to be the Great Race of Yith from H. P. Lovecraft’s "The Shadow Out of Time," thus connecting Burroughs’ Pellucidar series to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Peter David's "Moon Maid over Manhattan" is a sequel to Burroughs’ The Moon Maid. Barsoom and John Carter are mentioned. This story takes place in the Edgar Rice Burroughs Alternate Universe, or ERB-AU for short.

Crossover Cover: Professor Challenger: New Worlds, Lost Places

This anthology of new stories featuring Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Challenger includes several crossovers. In Lawrence C. Connolly's "King of the Moon," Bedford, Challenger, Ann Cavor and a pair of father-and-son inventors rescue Ann’s uncle from the Selenites. Bedford, Dr. Cavor, and the Selenites are from H.G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon, which is described as having taken place ten years ago. Bedford implies here that he is the one who put Challenger in contact with Arthur Conan Doyle. Challenger must have introduced Doyle in turn to Edward Malone. Doyle became Malone’s literary agent and editor, publishing the reporter’s accounts of his adventures with Challenger under his own byline. In Josh Reynolds' "Time's Black Gulf," Professor Summerlee, Lord John Roxton, Malone, and Thomas Carnacki battle Indrid Cold and other members of his race, who are part of a conspiracy to infiltrate the human race at every stage of its evolution along with an alien race that has swapped Challenger’s consciousness with that of one of their own people. Challenger has copies of Cultes des Goules and Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Carnacki refers to the Sigsand Manuscripts, the Book of Eibon, the Pnakotic texts, the Florentine monk Corsi, and Khephnes. The Tind’Losi, the Hounds of the Angles, appear. Dr. John Silence and Jessie Challenger ultimately save the day. Thomas Carnacki and the Sigsand Manuscripts are from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Indrid Cold is a supposedly real person connected to the Mothman sightings of 1966-1967. Here, he is also a member of the race of creatures seen in H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Festival." This version of Cold also appears in Reynolds’ stories "The Pnakotic Puzzle" and "The Yoth Protocols." "The Pnakotic Puzzle” indicates that this story happened “some years before the war.” The consciousness-swapping alien race is the Great Race of Yith from Lovecraft’s "The Shadow Out of Time."Bartolomeo Corsi and Khephnes are also from "The Shadow Out of Time." The Cultes des Goules is a Cthulhu Mythos tome created by Robert Bloch. Unaussprechlichen Kulten is a Mythos tome created by Robert E. Howard. The Book of Eibon is from Clark Ashton Smith’s contributions to the Mythos. The Pnakotic texts are a reference to Lovecraft’s Pnakotic Manuscripts. The Tind’Losi are from Frank Belknap Long’s story "The Hounds of Tindalos." Dr. John Silence is an occult detective featured in stories by Algernon Blackwood. In John Takis' "The Crystal Minders," Challenger suggests that a scientist has "invented a machine capable of traveling through time, like that loon in Surrey, have you?" “That loon in Surrey” is the Time Traveler from H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine. This story is primarily narrated by Professor Summerlee, though a framing sequence narrated by Edward Malone involves Summerlee coming to the reporter to tell him of the adventure. Malone refers to the events of “The Disintegration Machine” in passing as a past event. This creates a chronological conflict, as Rick Lai’s essay “The Anomaly of Professor Challenger’s Daughter” (Rick Lai’s Secret Histories: Daring Adventurers, Altus Press, 2008) places both “The Disintegration Machine” and The Land of Mists in 1926. According to The Land of Mists, Summerlee died “last year,” i.e., in 1925. Therefore, the reference to “The Disintegration Machine” must be obfuscation on Malone’s part, similar to Dr. Watson providing false dates in his accounts of Sherlock Holmes’ cases. In Andrew J. Wilson's "Out of the Depths," set in 1937, Challenger and Malone encounter Nazis in Maple White Land. Hobbs Lane is from the British television science fiction serial Quatermass and the Pit, although there it is located in Knightsbridge, rather than Kensington. Doctor Moreau is from H.G. Wells’ novel The Island of Doctor Moreau. The Lidenbrock Sea is from Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Medusa Von Juntz is related to Friedrich Von Juntz from Robert E. Howard’s “The Black Stone.” Doctor Moreau is revealed to have been Jack the Ripper, placing this story outside CU continuity. In Guy Adams and James Goss' "Professor Challenger and the Crimson Wonder," Challenger and his wife have a run-in with aliens who are planning to overrun the world with a remarkable plant. Mycroft Holmes is Sherlock Holmes’ brother. Lidenbrock is Otto Lidenbrock from Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Cavor is from Wells’ The First Men in the Moon, as previously stated. Abner Perry is from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Pellucidar novels. William Dyer is from H.P. Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.” Herbert is meant to be the Time Traveler from Wells’ novel. Herakleophorbia IV, Bensington, and Miss Cossar’s brother are from Wells’ novel The Food of the Gods. Ryland and the Great Four are from Agatha Christie’s novel The Big Four. The meteorite that landed in Woking in 1898 is from Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds. This story is too overtly satirical to fit easily into CU continuity. Also, Poirot moved to England in 1916, so the portrayal of him as an agent of Mycroft Holmes in 1914 is chronologically incorrect.