Crossover Cover: Strange Incursions

 

This chapbook contains two stories by Jason Scott Aiken.

"The Blood of Raizor" is set in 11,550 BCE. In Northeast Africa, the lion Raizor and his sons, Tyton and Rohrdeth, battle a leopard-like alien. Raizor is killed, but his sons are changed by devouring the flesh of their foe. Tyton finds himself invulnerable, possessing more powerful claws, and unaging. In Nemea, he is slain by Heracles. Rohrdeth and his descendants possess a golden hide and enhanced intelligence and senses. The alien is of the same race as Coeurl from A. E. van Vogt’s “Black Destroyer.” According to Philip José Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, Heracles was really John Gribardsun, an immortal time traveler from the future. One of Rohrdeth’s descendants will have a connection to Gribardsun.

In "Galazi in the Enchanted City," Galazi the Wolf investigates the murders of three members of his tribe of “ghost-wolves,” not far from the village of the People of the Axe, led by his friend Umslopogaas. Galazi sees a baobab tree that bears the images of the so-called demons of Lake Tanganyika: Loubari, Mgoussa, and Mousammouria. Galazi is captured and taken to a temple whose roof bears a grey stone sphere with a winged marble woman atop it. He is brought before Queen Touloumia of Mkinyaga. Long ago, the capital of Touloumia’s nation, Akribanza, was just one of a hundred cities in the vast empire of Kôr. A cavern wall bears the image of a man with a knife and a bow. The witch Nomma receives visions from the waters of a crystal basin. Among these visions are a muscular bronze-skinned youth breaking a leopard’s back, a bronze-skinned swordsman and a bearded giant battling soldiers, another bronze-skinned young man and a one-eyed dwarf, a white man wielding a cat-headed staff, a giant looking much like the earlier one battling what appears to be an older version of Umslopogaas, and a black warrior wielding the same type of sword as the bronzed swordsman fighting alongside a grey-haired white man and a robed bronze-skinned man battling beastly creatures near a giant crystalline stalk. Galazi the Wolf is from H. Rider Haggard’s Nada the Lily. Umslopogaas appears in not only that book, but the Allan Quatermain series as well. Loubari, Mgoussa, Mousammouria, and Queen Touloumia are from Eugène Hennebert’s The Enchanted City. The statue of the winged woman is a symbol of Truth seen in Haggard’s She and Philip José Farmer and Christopher Paul Carey’s The Song of Kwasin. Kôr is the city ruled by Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. The man with the knife and bow is Sahhindar from Farmer’s Khokarsa series. Sahhindar is also the immortal time traveler John Gribardsun from Farmer’s Time’s Last Gift, but he is best known as the lord of the apes. The crystal basin is from Haggard’s She and Allan. The bronze-skinned youth is King Minruth from the Ancient Opar books in his younger years. The bronze-skinned swordsman and the bearded giant are Hadon of Opar and his cousin Kwasin from the Ancient Opar series. The other bronze-skinned young man is Hadon’s son Kohr, while the one-eyed dwarf is Paga, whom Farmer meant to be Pag from Haggard’s Allan and the Ice-Gods. The white man with the cat-headed staff is Robert E. Howard’s Puritan adventurer Solomon Kane. The battle between Umslopogaas and the bearded giant Rezu (whose description is identical to Kwasin’s, whose fate is left open-ended at the end of The Song of Kwasin) is depicted in She and Allan. The black warrior, N’desi, is from Carey and Win Scott Eckert’s “Iron and Bronze.” The grey-haired man is Hareton Ironcastle from J.-H. Rosny Aîné’s Hareton Ironcastle’s Amazing Adventure, adapted and translated by Farmer as Ironcastle. The bronze man is Doc Ardan from Guy d’Armen’s Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers, who Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s translation identified with a certain bronze-skinned doctor and crimefighter. The beastly creatures are the Wandarobo from John Peter Drummond’s Ki-Gor pulp stories, who Carey and Eckert implied to be exiles from Opar, originally from the Tarzan novels. The crystalline stalk is an extension of the mineral-vegetable-king from Ironcastle, and related to the Crystal Tree of Time from Farmer’s Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time.

These crossovers are two of over a thousand covered 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 Late Show

 

L.A.P.D. detective Renée Ballard investigates deaths at a nightclub called the Dancers. Her former partner, Ken Chastain, was the son of a cop killed in the line of duty. After killing a criminal, Renée goes to Carmen Hinojos in the Behavioral Science Unit. The killer’s ex-wife, Beatrice Beaupre, has used the name “Shaquilla Shackles.” The Dancers club is from Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novel The Long Goodbye. Ken Chastain’s father is John Chastain from Connelly’s Harry Bosch series. Carmen Hinojos is from the Bosch novels The Last Coyote and 9 Dragons. Shaquilla Shackles is mentioned in Connelly’s Mickey Haller novel The Lincoln Lawyer.

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 of the Week

Summer 1967

YORKSHIRE STONES AND AMERICAN BARONS 

A Colonel and Sergeant summon Johnny Rich and May. The Colonel says the third Baron Tennington is in danger, but Johnny corrects him, saying that he has been dead for centuries, that one of his ancestors was familiar with the 11th Baron in 1795, and that the Colonel is talking about Stephen Tennington, the third Baron Darrowby. Johnny’s father mentored him in occult matters. May, who is of Manchu and English descent and has a contentious relationship with her grandfather and mother, dons a shooter’s vest with over a dozen small pockets, a smaller version of one worn by one of Johnny’s relatives, an adventurer of some note in the past. Their enemy, Jill Pole, is a Pict who worships the Moon-Woman. Johnny carries a sword cane whose silver blade, supposedly one of several forged by St. Dunstan, bears the inscription, “Sic pereant omnes inimici tui,” or “Thus perish all your enemies.” Johnny and May encounter another of the Moon-Woman's subjects, Thun Bronze Spear, son of Ka-Nu, son of Ka-Nu, who mentions King Bran and Gonar the Ancient. Johnny knows a French Japanese criminal who frequently uses grappling hooks in his thefts. 

Short story by Frank Schildiner in Johnny Rich, Pro Se Productions, 2018. The Colonel and Sergeant are Colonel Ross and Harry Palmer from Len Deighton’s spy novels. George Edward Rutherford, the 11th Baron Tennington, is from Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan Alive. The 11th Baron, who was present at the Wold Newton meteor strike in 1795, has several famous descendants, including Lord Greystoke and Professor Challenger. Darrowby, Yorkshire is from James Herriot’s It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet. Johnny Rich’s father is Dennis Wheatley’s occult adventurer the Duke de Richleau. May’s grandfather is Fu Manchu, and her mother is the Devil Doctor’s daughter Fah Lo Suee. Johnny’s relative is a certain golden-eyed pulp superman. The Moon-Woman is from Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story “Worms of the Earth.” Ka-Nu is from Howard’s Kull stories. Gonar is from the Bran Mak Morn stories. Two of St. Dunstan’s other silver blades are carried by Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detectives Judge Pursuivant and John Thunstone. The French Japanese criminal is Monkey Punch’s manga character Lupin III, the grandson of Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. 

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: The Monster on Hold

 

Are you a fan of the late great science fiction Grandmaster Philip Jose Farmer?

Then you'll love this novel, a posthumous collaboration between Farmer and Win Scott Eckert, and the fourth book in the Secrets of the Nine series, which takes place in both the Nine Universe and the Crossover Universe!

For more details, see my book Crossovers Expanded:  A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be released by Meteor House! All three books are AUTHORIZED companions to Win's invaluable pieces of research Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

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 of the Week

June 1967

HONEY WEST & T. H. E. CAT: A GIRL AND HER CAT

P.I. Honey West is visited by Dr. Isabella Fang, who smokes Red Apple Cigarettes. Dr. Fang hires Honey to recover an alleged rubella vaccine she developed, as well as a pocket watch, which have both been stolen by Dr. Karl Stipier. Accepting the case, Honey asks another Los Angeles-based detective named Scott to handle her other cases in the meantime, and travels to San Francisco. Honey’s old flame Johnny Doom, now a CIA agent, comes to her aid alongside two men she dubs Gray Suit and Blondie. Honey and Johnny book a room at the St. Francis hotel, although Gray Suit recommended the Hotel Carlton. Johnny reveals to Honey the “vaccine” is actually a biological weapon of a class the government has codenamed “Satan Bugs,” and Gray Suit and Blondie are members of a worldwide organization that is in regular conflict with a criminal organization and “secret nation” that has tried to form an alliance with an Eastern secret society known as the Si-Fan. Johnny calls another government agent, Derek, for information about Stipier and Fang. Derek says there are fearful whispers about Fang at The Dragon of the Black Pool in Chinatown. Honey tells Johnny she thinks she recognized Derek’s voice from a couple recent cases. Honey and Johnny are abducted by Dr. Fang’s grandfather, Dr. Shan Ming Fu, the leader of the Si-Fan. One of Shan Ming Fu’s minions is a sumo wrestler. At the elder doctor’s recommendation, Honey enlists the help of Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, former circus aerialist and cat burglar turned owner of the Casa del Gato nightclub and bodyguard, to retrieve the biological agent. Honey came to Cat’s aid in Las Vegas a year ago. Besides Cat, Honey also meets his friend Pepe Cordoza and Captain McAllister of the SFPD. Stipier bought the mansion Silverstone West, which was built in the 1940s by an eccentric multi-millionaire named Tipton, from an employee of the latter’s named Michael Anthony. A man with a bowler hat and an odd rifle attacks Honey and Cat as they flee Stipier’s mansion with the Satan Bug and the watch. Honey’s great-grandfather, James, was a major during the Civil War, and later was involved in government work. Cat did some bodyguard work for a scientist named Dr. Quest last year; Quest’s wife was killed and his son was in danger. An agent for Intelligence One now guards the Quests. Honey was instructed in judo by a man named Macreedy, while Cat was taught how to tie knots by a young escape artist named Tony Blake. Honey arranges for a friend named Ben, who works at County General Hospital, to make a capsule that can pass for the real Satan Bug in order to deceive Shan Ming Fu. Blondie remarks Mr. Baldwin, the head of his organization’s primary enemy’s San Francisco offices, will be disappointed by Shan Ming Fu’s continued refusal to form an alliance with them.

Novel by Honey West, edited by Win Scott Eckert and Matthew Baugh, Moonstone Books, 2014. Honey West is a private investigator featured in novels by “G. G. Fickling” (Gloria and Forest Fickling). In the novel Bombshell, set in 1964, Honey and bounty hunter Johnny Doom are offered employment in the CIA. Honey evidently turned down the offer, as she had several adventures as a P.I. between Bombshell and A Girl and Her Cat, which were depicted in Fickling’s novels, the 1965-1966 Honey West TV series, and several stories and comics published by Moonstone. In the novel Honey on Her Tail, which takes place three years after this book, Honey finally becomes a CIA agent. Dr. Isabella Fang is the daughter of the villainous Dr. Fang, who had his own radio series in the 1930s. Isabella encountered the Green Hornet and Kato in 1964 during the events of Eckert’s story “Fang and Sting” (The Green Hornet Chronicles, Joe Gentile and Win Scott Eckert, eds., Moonstone Books, 2010). In 1974, Isabella and her grandfather would once again encounter the Hornet in Eckert’s “Progress” (The Green Hornet: Still at Large, Joe Gentile, Win Scott Eckert, and Matthew Baugh, eds., Moonstone Books, 2012). Dr. Shan Ming Fu is better known by the nom de guerre Dr. Fu Manchu; Dennis E. Power revealed the Devil Doctor’s birth name in his article “The Devil Doctor: The Early History of Fu Manchu” (found on the website The Wold Newton Universe: A Secret History). The Si-Fan is the secret society run by Fu Manchu in the novels by Sax Rohmer. Red Apple Cigarettes have appeared in a number of films, including Pulp Fiction, From Dusk Till Dawn, and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, as well as several other stories by Eckert. The watch is a working (albeit inferior) replica of one of the distorters used by the warring Capellean and Eridanean races in Philip José Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. Dr. Karl Stipier is meant to be Baron von Hessel from Farmer’s Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki; von Hessel also appears under a variety of aliases in other stories by Eckert. The other detective in Los Angeles is Richard S. Prather’s Shell Scott. Gray Suit and Blondie are Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin from the television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. U.N.C.L.E.’s greatest foe is the criminal organization THRUSH, which attempted to form an alliance with the Si-Fan in David McDaniel’s novel The Rainbow Affair. The man in the bowler hat is an unnamed THRUSH agent seen in The Rainbow Affair. Ward Baldwin is in charge of THRUSH’s San Francisco offices in McDaniel’s novels. The Hotel Carlton is the home of Paladin in the television Western Have Gun–Will Travel. The term “Satan Bug” is derived from Alistair MacLean’s novel The Satan Bug. Derek is spy Derek Flint from the movies Our Man Flint and In Like Flint. Honey encountered Flint during the events of the Moonstone comic Honey West, Captain Action, and Flint: Danger-a-Go-Go. The Dragon of the Black Pool restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown is from the movie Big Trouble in Little China. The sumo wrestler, Tak, will later battle Fu Manchu’s rebellious son Shang-Chi, as seen in the comic book Special Marvel Edition. Thomas Hewitt Edward Cat, Pepe Cordoza, and Captain McAllister are from the 1966–1967 television series T. H. E. Cat. Honey’s 1966 encounter with Cat was recounted in the two-issue Moonstone comic Honey West and T. H. E. Cat: Death in the Desert. John Beresford Tipton and Michael Anthony are from the television series The Millionaire. Tipton’s estate in that series was called Silverstone; Silverstone West is Eckert and Baugh’s invention. Honey’s great-grandfather is Secret Service agent James West from the classic television series The Wild Wild West. Dr. Benton Quest, his son Jonny, and Intelligence One are from the animated TV series Jonny Quest. Cat’s replacement as the Quests’ bodyguard is Roger “Race” Bannon. Honey’s judo teacher is John J. Macreedy from the film Bad Day at Black Rock. Tony Blake is the title character of the television series The Magician. Ben Casey, a doctor at County General Hospital, is from the television series that bears his name. The Ben Casey episode “For This Relief, Much Thanks” began a two-part story that ended with “Solo for B-Flat Clarinet,” the first episode of Breaking Point, bringing in that medical drama as well.

Crossover of the Week

HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY!!!

April 1917

THE ADVENTURE OF THE FALLEN STONE

Dr. Watson’s pregnant wife, Nylepthah, is staying with her cousin, Sir George Curtis. In 1919, Holmes would visit his old friend with a large financial payment from the English Lord of the Apes, the result of their adventure in Africa in 1916. Holmes’ gardener, Black Mike Croteau, has been murdered. After examining the body, Holmes and Watson are met at the former’s cottage by Harry Dickson, who has apprenticed with both Barker (Holmes’ Surrey rival) and Blake. He takes them to the Diogenes Club, where Holmes accuses his brother Mycroft of knowing there was a possibility he and Watson would be blown off course during the previous year’s African expedition he sent them upon. Holmes suggests Mycroft knew all along the ape lord was actually impersonating his deceased cousin, “William Clayton, the 7th Duke of Grey—.” Holmes points out Mycroft identified their flier, Leftenant John Drummond, as the great-nephew of Holmes’ old acquaintance, the 6th Duke. However, if Mycroft had been unaware of the imposture, he would have identified the Leftenant as the 6^th Duke’s grandson. Mycroft reveals William Clayton was a government agent reporting directly to him, and William’s alleged shipwreck in Africa was actually part of his investigation. When he died, the Duke’s cousin, the ape lord, who had survived a prior shipwreck as an infant, assumed his identity, wishing to avoid the publicity attendant to the discovery of an English lord who had been reared and suckled by apes. The mission involved tracking down the German spy Von Bork and his bacillus. Holmes deduces Mycroft hoped he and Watson would encounter the ape lord and asks why. Holmes speculates it has to do with the many unlikely coincidences the ape man comes up against. Mycroft says their scientists call it “the human magnetic moment.” Holmes’ adversary, Dr. Shan Ming Fu, informed Holmes of the lotus vitae almost ten years ago. Holmes’ encounter with the ape man brought him into contact with the jungle man’s “human magnetic” influence, causing him to discover the lotus in the hidden valley of Zu-Vendis, though he asked Watson to omit that discovery from his written account. The lotus has been stolen from Holmes’ garden. Mycroft says if Holmes’ bees can be induced to sample the lotus’ nectar, a particular honey may result, which would be the key ingredient in a unique concoction. Holmes mentions the “Hellbirds” incident, in which Von Bork escaped, though Mycroft asked Watson to distort his account of these events so Von Bork fell to his death from the Eiffel Tower. Von Bork is being trailed by Sexton Blake. The mastermind of the theft is a man who has been known by many names, including Wolf Larsen, Karl Woldheim, and Carl Woldhaus; currently, he goes by the name of Baron Ulf Von Waldman. He is the Commandant of a seemingly inescapable German prison camp for those who have escaped from other camps and been recaptured. The Baron also conducts experiments on humans. There are rumors Von Waldman is the son of Professor Moriarty. Holmes, Watson, Dickson and Isis Vanderhoek travel to Blakeney House. Isis’ father was Mr. Klaw, “the dreaming detective.” Mycroft tells Sherlock that the Diogenes Club has recently become more focused on investigating outré and unexplainable matters that affect the Empire. The butler at Blakeney House gives Dickson a coded message from Blake, in which he says he has wired Peter Blakeney in Richmond (with whom he has common relatives dating back to the mid 17th century), and Blakeney House is at their disposal, with Blakeney Jr. off at war. Blake soon arrives with a captive Von Bork in tow. Holmes recalls the tale of Openshaw. Blake tells his comrades about several places of interest in the East Riding of Yorkshire, including the village of Wold Newton, where a meteor fell near Major Edward Topham’s property, the Wold Cottage, in 1795. Holmes decides they must visit the Wold Cottage and the monument Topham had placed at the site of the meteor’s fall. Holmes unmasks “Blake” as Von Waldman. Holmes and his allies free the true Blake, and discover some fragments of stone. Holmes concludes the Germans believe exposing the lotus vitae to the meteor fragments will result in the prolongation of human life. Isis mentions Holmes’ own cultivation of the plant. Von Waldman escapes from his bonds, taking the plant with him; however, Holmes still has seeds to grow more. When Watson asks Holmes if he thinks Von Waldman is really the son of Professor Moriarty, Holmes replies that Mycroft’s files on the Baron indicate that he was born in 1888, that he was investigating Moriarty quite thoroughly at that time, and that there was no indication of a child born to the Professor in that period. Dickson suggests Von Waldman may have been someone else, much older, who once had access to a similar elixir, but whose supply may have run out, leading him to attempt to find a means of duplicating it.

Short story by Dr. Watson, edited by Win Scott Eckert in Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook, Howard Hopkins, ed., Moonstone Books, 2012. This story serves as a sequel to Watson’s account The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, as edited by Philip José Farmer. Watson’s wife Nylepthah and child are from that novel; Nylepthah is the daughter of Sir Henry Curtis from the Allan Quatermain stories (although Farmer says she is Curtis’ granddaughter, Eckert’s essay “Who’s Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone?: A Look at the Genealogies of Wold Newton Family Super-Villains and Their Nemeses” [Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain Books, 2005] argues she is in fact his daughter). Nylepthah’s cousin, Sir George Curtis, is from Farmer’s translation and adaptation of J.-H. Rosny aîné’s Ironcastle; Farmer specifically identifies Sir George as Sir Henry’s nephew. The ape lord is Lord Greystoke, of course. Harry Dickson is “the American Sherlock Holmes” who appeared in French pulp stories by Jean Ray and others. Holmes’ rival Cecil Barker first appeared in the story “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”; Dickson acted as his apprentice in Eckert’s story “No Ghosts Need Apply” (The Phantom Chronicles, Vol. 2, Joe Gentile and Mike Bullock, eds., Moonstone Books, 2010). Sexton Blake is one of the longest-running British penny dreadful detectives; Dickson acted as his apprentice in Greg Gick’s story “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange” (originally published in two parts in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 1: The Modern Babylon, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2005, and Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 2: Gentlemen of the Night, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2006; reprinted in Harry Dickson and the Werewolf of Rutherford Grange, Black Coat Press, 2011). William Clayton, the 7th Duke of Greystoke, appears in Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels Tarzan of the Apes and The Return of Tarzan; in his essay “A Case of Identity,” H. W. Starr identified the 6th Duke of Holdernesse and his son Lord Saltire from the Holmes story “The Adventure of the Priory School” as the 6th and 7th Duke of Greystoke, respectively, a theory adapted by Farmer for his biography Tarzan Alive. Leftenant Drummond is the jungle lord’s adopted son John Drummond-Clayton. Farmer identified the human magnetic moment in Tarzan Alive. Dr. Shan Ming Fu is Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu; Dennis E. Power revealed the Devil Doctor’s birth name in his essay “The Devil Doctor: The Early History of Fu Manchu,” found on the Wold Newton Universe: A Secret History website. The lotus vitae is the plant from which Fu Manchu’s life-prolonging Elixir vitae is derived; Fu Manchu told Holmes about the elixir in George Alec Effinger’s story “The Adventure of the Celestial Snows.” The honey is the Royal Jelly that, according to William S. Baring-Gould in his biography Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, has extended Holmes’ natural lifespan. The Hellbirds incident refers to Austin Mitchelson and Nicholas Utechin’s Holmes pastiche Hellbirds. Wolf Larsen is from Jack London’s novel The Sea Wolf; in his essay “The Green Eyes Have It—Or Are They Blue? or Another Case of Identity Recased” (Myths for the Modern Age), Christopher Paul Carey argued Larsen and Baron von Hessel (from Farmer’s authorized Doc Wildman novel Escape from Loki) were really aliases of XauXaz from Farmer’s trilogy of novels about the evil secret society known as the Nine. In his essay “Asian Detectives in the Wold Newton Universe” (Myths for the Modern Age), Dennis E. Power instead offered the alternative theory Larsen was the son of Professor Moriarty. Isis and her father Moris Klaw are from Sax Rohmer’s book The Dream Detective. The Diogenes Club’s latter-day focus on outré matters is the subject of many stories by Kim Newman. Blakeney House is one of the holdings of the Blakeney family, whose most famous member is Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel. Blakeney House previously appeared in Eckert’s stories “Is He in Hell?” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 6: Grand Guignol, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010; reprinted and revised in The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1: Protean Dimensions, Michael Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2010) and “Nadine’s Invitation” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 7: Femmes Fatales, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2010). Peter Blakeney Jr. is Sir Percy’s descendant from The Pimpernel and Rosemary. In his series of articles “The Wold Wold West” (found at the Wold Newton Universe: A Secret History website), Dennis E. Power argued Sexton Blake was distantly related to the Blakeney family, a theory Eckert adopted for his essay “The Blakeney Family Tree” (The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 1). Openshaw is from the Holmes story “The Five Orange Pips.”

Crossover Cover: Hellboy: Oddest Jobs

As I've stated before, I take Hellboy crossovers on a case-by-case basis, as some fit easily into CU continuity, and some don't. This particular anthology of prose stories contains four stories with crossovers that do fit, in my opinion. In Brian Keene's "Salamander Blues," Hellboy encounters a group of mermen who are holding people hostage, and concludes the National Guard is not coming, and neither is the army or the FBI or Black Lodge or any of the other alphabet-soup agencies. Black Lodge is a covert occult organization that exists across Keene’s multiverse, including several works that have been incorporated into the Crossover Universe. In Barbara Hambly's "Repossession," set in the summer of 1962, Hellboy battles a demon hunter who is seeking notes left behind by Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon. In Gary A. Braunbeck's "In Cupboards and Bookshelves," Hellboy’s latest case brings him to Cedar Hill, Ohio, a town featured in a series of short stories, novellas, and novels by Braunbeck. "Feet of Sciron" by Rhys Hughes is particularly crossover-heavy. Hellboy recruits Foggy Dicks, a porn star that can generate ectoplasm, for a sex magic ritual in order to prevent the planet Nekrotzar from colliding with Earth, battling King Sciron in the process. Nekrotzar was drawn towards Earth by Marvin Carnacki, the current director of the Carnacki Institute, founded by his ancestor to rid the natural world of paranormal threats. Hellboy says most people think the original Carnacki was William Hope Hodgson’s fictional creation, just as many other authors pretended their subjects were fictional: Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne with Phileas Fogg, H.G. Wells with Dr. Moreau, M.P. Shiel with Prince Zaleski, and Maurice Richardson with Engelbrecht. He also says Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien are at Mount Snaefell in Iceland. Foggy replies that he remembers Verne wrote a book about two explorers. Hellboy simply smiles in response. In Nekrotzar, the monster-hunting demon receives a riverboat ride from writer Philip José Farmer, who has been resurrected there after his death. Hellboy reveals to Foggy that billions of years ago Nekrotzar actually did collide with the Earth, which was merely a cloud of stardust then. Earth congealed around Nekrotzar, trapping Sciron’s palace in what would become the younger planet’s crust, forty miles under what is now Iceland. This Carnacki Insitute is clearly a separate group from the one seen in Simon R. Green’s Ghost Finders series. Engelbrecht is from Maurice Richardson’s book The Exploits of Engelbrecht. The subterranean world Sciron’s palace inhabits is the one seen in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Philip José Farmer, of course, revealed the existence of the Wold Newton Family to the world, and wrote several chronicles of events in the CU. Farmer’s appearance here evokes his Riverworld novels, albeit as homage rather than a true crossover. This story must take place after Farmer’s passing in 2009, although it was published earlier than that.

Crossover Cover: Captain Midnight Chronicles

This anthology of new stories of the classic radio hero contains three stories with crossovers. In "Captain Midnight at Ultima Thule" by my illustrious predecessor Win Scott Eckert, who included it in the original Crossovers volumes, the Captain battles the German pulp hero Sun Koh. The story subtly ties Sun Koh to Farmer's Ancient Opar series, among other crossovers. Two other stories with crossovers will be in the new volumes. In Trina Robbins' "Death Master of the Secret Island," Captain Midnight and Chuck Ramsey travel to a remote island to rescue a Swedish nuclear physicist who has been kidnapped by Midnight’s archnemesis Ivan Shark and his daughter Fury. The Captain speculates the lost race that built the statues on the island may have been early representatives of the cult of Cthulhu. The other story is "Captain Midnight Meets Airboy," which is fairly self-descriptive.

Crossover of the Week

1945

HAPPY DEATH MEN

            The Avenger (aka Richard Henry Benson), visiting the Midas Club under the guise of Juan Dyer, overhears a group of men talking about a series of gruesome murders. According to Burke at the Classic, the victims were all chosen at random. One man says that he would expect this if “that nutcase with the fangs and the fright wig” were still around, but he hasn’t been seen in a couple months. “Dyer” and his companion, Ellen Patrick, join the conversation. The men who were already discussing the killings are Drew, an attorney; Dithers, the construction magnate; and Mann, a financial advisor. Dithers says that the killers have horrible death’s head grins, like the victims of poisoning murders in Gotham a few years ago. They are joined by Dr. Karl Walden and his companion, Lilya Zarov. Drew has instructed his daughter to stay indoors until the killings have stopped. When Zarov leaves, “Dyer” attempts to find her; upon returning, he finds that Ellen and Walden have disappeared, and that none of the others at the table remember them being there in the first place. Stepping into a back alley, the Avenger is attacked by one of the grinning murderers. In a flashback, Benson and his aide Nellie Gray battle one of the so-called “Happy Death Men.” As the monster attempts to crush him to death, Benson uses a technique taught to him by the yoga master Dekka Lan Shan and refined with instruction from another New York crime fighter to slow his heart rate in order to briefly deceive the creature into thinking he is dead. The creature is killed by Ellen Patrick, now in her other identity as the Domino Lady. Benson says that the dead creature’s skin tissue matches a strange polymorphic material similar to the residue at the scene of Justice, Inc.’s battle with a woman known as “The Countess,” who seemingly died at the end of that affair. Benson states that rich men have been disappearing, members of various clubs: the Explorers Club, the Cobalt, the Sphinx, the local branch of the Baltimore Gun Club, and the Discoverers League. Back in the present, Benson regains consciousness, finding himself, the Domino Lady, and three of his aides as captives in the living room of a penthouse apartment. Benson realizes that Lilya Zarov and the Countess are one and the same person, though her appearance has changed. Benson tells Walden that unlike the Nazis, the United States has successfully created a supersoldier. Smitty asks if Walden is part of the Unholy Nine gang; Walden replies that that group stole his organization’s good name, or at least half of it. One of Benson’s aides, Fergus “Mac” MacMurdie, refers to rumors of immortality elixirs such as Royal Jelly and the “Elixir of Life.” Benson suspects that Dr. Walden is far older than he looks, and Mac wonders if he once had a supply of a longevity elixir that ran out. Smitty remarks that the Countess was reportedly disfigured around the time of the Russian Revolution, and that it seems like she spent a long time looking like “a female Phantom of the Opera” despite her current difference in appearance. Benson suggests that Walden is the “Baron” who assisted the Countess in her misdeeds last year, and that she has changeable flesh like him. At the conclusion of the affair, Benson sends the last of the Death Men to a secure rehabilitation clinic in upstate New York that is run by a bronze-skinned doctor friend of his. Benson suggests to his comrades that Walden may have escaped from them using technology similar to that used by a foe of this doctor, which in turn was based upon a “disintegrator” invented by Theodore Nemor. Nellie asks if perhaps Walden believes, as did a man called Rode Boeman whom they encountered a few years ago, that there is more to Benson’s condition than mere muscular paralysis.

            Short story by Win Scott Eckert in The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files, Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, eds., Moonstone Books, 2011. The Midas Club is from the Doc Savage novel The Man Who Shook the Earth. Clyde Burke, a reporter for The New York Classic, is an agent of the Shadow, as is Rutledge Mann. The Shadow is the crime-fighter who helped Benson in refining his heart-stopping technique. The “nutcase with the fangs and the fright wig” is the Spider. Attorney Carson Drew is the father of young amateur sleuth Nancy Drew. J.C. Dithers is Dagwood Bumstead’s boss in Chic Young’s comic strip Blondie. The Domino Lady, created by Lars Anderson, is one of the most famous pulp heroines. The poisoning murders in Gotham are a reference to Batman’s archenemy the Joker. Dr. Karl Walden is meant to be Baron von Hessel from Philip José Farmer’s Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki. Many questions about the Baron/Walden are answered in Eckert’s story “The Wild Huntsman” (The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3: Portrait of a Trickster, Meteor House, 2012.) The Countess Lilya Zarov is meant to be Lili Bugov, the Countess Idivzhopu, and is also from Escape from Loki. In Farmer’s novel, it is mentioned that the Countess’ family held manhunts; Lili’s use of the name Zarov in this story is meant to imply that she is related to General Zaroff from Richard Connell’s short story “The Most Dangerous Game.” The Countess’ previous encounter with Justice, Inc. was chronicled in Eckert’s story “Death and the Countess” (The Avenger Chronicles, Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, eds., Moonstone Books, 2008.) Dekka Lan Shan is also from Escape from Loki, and is the grandfather of the Dekka Lan Shan who appears in “The Sapphire Death,” a Peter the Brazen story by “Loring Brent” (George F. Worts.) The Explorers Club and the Sphinx Club were both real clubs. The Cobalt Club is from the Shadow novels. The Baltimore Gun Club appears in Jules Verne’s novels From the Earth to the Moon, Around the Moon, and The Purchase of the North Pole. The Discoverers League is from the novel Hunt at World’s End by Gabriel Kaufman. The supersoldier created by the United States government is, of course, Captain America. The Unholy Nine appear in Max McCoy’s story “Feast of Fire,” found in the limited hardcover edition of The Avenger Chronicles. The Royal Jelly serum was created by Sherlock Holmes, and has provided him and his family and friends with extended lifespans; its existence was revealed by William S. Baring-Gould in his biography Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street. The Elixir of Life was created by Dr. Fu Manchu. The Phantom of the Opera is from Gaston Leroux’s novel of the same name. The clinic in upstate New York is Doc Savage’s Crime College. Doc’s encounter with a villain using similar teleportation technology to Dr. Walden’s was chronicled in The Vanisher, while Theodore Nemor’s disintegrator appears in Edward Malone and Arthur Conan Doyle’s Professor Challenger story “The Disintegration Machine.” Eckert first proposed that the device from The Vanisher was based on Nemor’s creation in his story “The Vanishing Devil” (Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 1: The Modern Babylon, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2005.) Rode Boeman is meant to be Red Orc from Philip José Farmer’s The World of Tiers novels; Benson encountered him during the events of Christopher Paul Carey’s story “Devil’s Dark Harvest” (also found in The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files.)

Crossover of the Week

August 17, 1939

BRONZE LADY DOWN

            Doctor Omega and his companion Madeline travel to the year 1939 in the Cosmos to attend the premiere of the film version of The Wizard of Oz. However, a temporal alteration causes the people around them to become poverty-stricken and hostile. They are saved by a man in black wearing a fedora and scarf and wielding submachine guns, who says that “the weed of exploitation bears bitter fruit.” Omega says that he felt the timeline realign as they traveled back from Oz, but someone else has altered it again. Omega blends in with a mob led by Dick Benson, a short, thickly-built man with pale, expressionless features, who is attacked by a man wearing a fringed black cape and a mask with bat ears, who says that “commies are a superstitious and cowardly lot.” Madeline learns that many human beings and livestock were killed by the von Hessel plague during the Great War. With agriculture destroyed, industry boomed, and the lower classes were adversely affected by the stock market crash. Violence erupted, and criminals with scientific weaponry arose. Omega says that the change to the timestream involves the Ardans and Bogg. At the Library of Congress, Omega has little luck finding reference to the names Wildman, Savage, or Ardan. Finally, he finds a story in a 1922 edition of the New York Daily Bugle about the marriage of Francis Ardan to Catherine Maxwell, daughter of Senator Maxwell. Omega believes that he must ensure that someone dies, and Madeline and he travel to the Caribbean circa June 12, 1902. In November 2 of that year, they witness a woman being saved from an aquatic monster by a blond man. A disheartened Doctor Omega then travels to 1936 to prevent the man who saved the woman from traveling to 1902. The Cosmos materializes on the 86^th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. There, he accosts Phineas Bogg, and reveals that Bogg’s actions lengthened and intensified the Great Depression. Suddenly, a talking dog named Ralph and a woman named Josie appear. When Omega says that Josie is a member of an organization that polices time, Madeline asks if she knows Manse. Josie responds that she does, but Manse is in the Time Patrol, whereas she is a member of the Time Police. She also states that the temporal anomaly Bogg caused drew her and Ralph there. Omega reveals that Bogg was trying to save Doc Ardan’s mother. Finally, they settle upon a solution: removing Ardan’s mother from her proper time period and placing her in another, while merely allowing the world to believe her dead. When they retrieve Arronaxe Ardan, she asks whether they are Capellean or Eridanean. After Omega incapacitates Ardan, they deposit her in the 29^th Century with false identification papers. As Omega and Madeline depart once again for 1939, Bogg asks if Madeline is Jeffrey’s daughter. Josie responds in the affirmative, referring to Madeline as “Mama.” Madeline asks Omega what the new alias he chose for Arronaxe was, and he replies that it was Clarissa MacDougal.

            Short story by Dennis E. Power in Doctor Omega and the Shadowmen, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2011; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de L’Ombre (Tome 10), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012. This story serves as a sequel to Power’s earlier story “The Deadly Desert Gnome” (Glimmerglass: The Creative Writer’s Annual, Volume 1, John Allen Small, ed., 2009) Doctor Omega is from the novel of the same name by Arnould Galopin; Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s adaptation and translation of Galopin’s novel implied that Omega was the CU counterpart of the time and dimension-traveling Doctor, of Doctor Who fame. Madeline is from the children’s books by Ludwig Bemelmans. The man in black with the fedora and scarf is the Shadow. Dick Benson is better known as Paul Ernst’s pulp hero the Avenger. The bat-eared man in the cape and mask is the Batman. Von Hessel is Baron von Hessel from Philip José Farmer’s Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki. Phineas Bogg and his companion Jeffrey Jones are from the television series Voyagers! Francis “Doc” Ardan Jr. is from Guy d’Armen’s novel Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers. The Lofficiers’ adaptation and translation of d’Armen’s novel implied that Ardan was a young Doc Savage. Philip José Farmer revealed that Savage’s real name was James Clarke Wildman Jr., and that his mother was the former Arronaxe Larsen, in his biographies Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. The Capelleans and the Eridaneans are the warring alien races seen in Farmer’s novel The Other Log of Phileas Fogg. Doc’s headquarters is on the 86^th floor of the Empire State Building. The Daily Bugle is the New York newspaper Peter Parker (aka Spider-Man) works for as a photographer. Catherine Maxwell is the wife of Bingham Harvard, alias the Night Wind, from the novels by Frederic van Rennselaer Dey and others. Josie Bauer is the adopted daughter of Philip José Farmer and an agent of the Time Police in Spider Robinson’s Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon books. Ralph Von Wau Wau’s career as a detective alongside such capable allies as Dr. Johann H. Weisstein and Cordwainer Bird was chronicled by Jonathan Swift Somers III. Manse Everard is an agent of the Time Patrol in books by Poul Anderson. Clarissa MacDougal is from E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensmen novels.