Crossover of the Week

Spring 2010

DARK WAR 

Appearing or mentioned are: the Hyde formula; Dr. Moreau; Jerboa, a werethylacine; Frankenstein Monsters; Audrey IIs; Granny Red, an immortal monster hunter; the Weird Sisters; the Beast with a Million Eyes; the Killer Shrews; the Monster that Challenged the World; the Crawling Eye; Q the Winged Serpent; the Giant Gila Monster; the original Hound of the Baskervilles; Kongar; Reptilikan; the Sea Hag; Dr. Bombay; Chandu; the Blair Witch; a Gill-Man; Carl; and Arthur Van Helsing. 

The third and final Nekropolis novel by Tim Waggoner, 2011. The Hyde formula is from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Moreau is either Dr. Alphonse Moreau from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau or one of his descendants. Jerboa is from the movie The Howling III: The Marsupials. Frankenstein Monsters are from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Audrey II is from the movie The Little Shop of Horrors. Granny Red claims to be the original Little Red Riding Hood. The Weird Sisters are from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes, the Killer Shrews, the Monster that Challenged the World, the Crawling Eye, Q the Winged Serpent, and the Giant Gila Monster are all from the movies of the same name. The original Hound of the Baskervilles is from Doyle and Watson’s eponymous Sherlock Holmes novel. Kongar and Reptilikan are stand-ins for the titular creatures from the movies King Kong and Reptilicus. The Sea Hag is Popeye’s foe from E. C. Segar’s comic strip Thimble Theatre. Dr. Bombay is from the TV series Bewitched. Chandu is from the radio series Chandu the Magician. The Blair Witch is from the movie The Blair Witch Project. The Gill-Man is from the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels. Carl is Carl Kolchak, who previously appeared in the first Nekropolis novel. Arthur Van Helsing is a member of the famous family of monster hunters. 

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

July 1939

THE BREATH OF DESTRUCTION

District Attorney Harry Fields bursts into flames at the Cobalt Club. One of the other members of the Club, a hawk-faced millionaire recently returned from the Orient, attempts unsuccessfully to douse the fire. At New York’s docks, Smitty questions Pappy, a grizzled old sailor who once served on the Sea Girl.

Short story by Frank Schildiner in The Avenger: The Justice, Inc. Files, Joe Gentile and Howard Hopkins, eds., Moonstone Books, 2011. The Cobalt Club is from the exploits of the vigilante who operates in the shadows. The hawk-faced millionaire is probably the shadowy pulp hero disguised as a certain wealthy man from New Jersey. Pappy is Poopdeck Pappy, father of Popeye the Sailor Man in E. C. Segar’s comic strip Thimble Theatre. The comic book story “The Revenge of Shiwan Khan” portrayed Popeye as an agent of the shadowy vigilante; doubtless his exploits were greatly exaggerated by Segar. The Sea Girl is the ship on which Robert E. Howard’s Sailor Steve Costigan serves. In the pulp novel Tuned for Murder, it is mentioned the Avenger had led armies in Java; this story elaborates on that reference.

Crossover of the Week

2012

THE RESURRECTION OF ABNER KADAVER

A woman claiming to work for the Emilio Lizardo Crematorium appears at the State Prison to collect Abner Kadaver’s body. Dick Tracy and his wife Tess take some time off to go fishing. A boat with the name “Swee’pea” on it is seen. Tess is offered a cup of coffee by a woman named Olive, who says Dick is out fishing with Olive’s own husband at the dock. We see Dick with a man with a large forearm that has a tattoo of an anchor on it, who is holding a can of spinach. Olive and Tess discuss what first attracted them to their respective husbands, namely their chins. As they return home, the Tracys’ son Joe refers to both Olive’s husband and Dick being ex-Navy. Dick smokes a corn cob pipe and says, “I yam what I yam!” Dick’s granddaughter Honeymoon tells him she is going to a Hong Kong Cavaliers concert on Sunday night, and she hopes to get an autograph from Perfect Tommy.

Dick Tracy strip by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, October 22, 2013–January 4, 2014. The crematorium, mentioned in the October 22 strip, is named after Dr. Emilio Lizardo from the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. The couple who are also vacationing is Popeye and Oliver Oyl from E. C. Segar’s classic comic strip Thimble Theatre. Swee’pea is the name of Popeye’s adopted son. The boat appears in the October 27, 2013 strip, and Popeye and Olive first show up on October 28. The leader of the Hong Kong Cavaliers, who were mentioned in the strip on November 7, 2013, is Buckaroo Banzai himself. Perfect Tommy is the Cavaliers’ rhythm guitarist, and also designed the suspension system on Buckaroo’s Jet Car.

Crossover Movie Poster: The Dragon Lives Again

After his death, Bruce Lee finds himself in the underworld, where he teams up with Popeye, Caine (from Kung Fu), and the One-Armed Swordsman (the protagonist of a Hong Kong film series) to battle “the Exorcist,” “the Godfather,” James Bond, Emmanuelle (the main character of a series of erotic films), Clint Eastwood (dressed as the Man with No Name), Zatoichi, and Dracula (who leads an army of zombies that look suspiciously like guys in skeleton costumes.) This film was part of the “Bruceploitation” subgenre that had actors playing Bruce Lee after his death in unauthorized martial arts films. The film explains the difference in Lee’s appearance (and, one presumes, the other characters’) via a character stating that human beings’ features change when they die and enter the underworld. In the CU, James Bond was still alive in 1977, when this movie was made. Therefore, it obviously takes place in an AU.