Crossover of the Week

May 26, 1846

THE LAMENT OF THE DUKE AND THE KING 

The so-called Duke of Bridgewater and King of France hop a train, and in the process meet Doctor Omega and his companion Miki. The Doctor gives the conductor a Hynerian sixteen harzmo gold piece. They are joined by the Doctor's other companion, the Steel General. The King says he is the long-lost Dauphin of France, and that he used to be visited by a woman named Madame LaFarge. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge allegedly tried to rescue the King’s mother. An artist named La Salle was sent by the Baron de Batz to rescue the Dauphin and replace him with a lookalike. When he nearly drowned, a man named Moreau rescued him. The General claims he incited Moreau’s animal people to revolt, but the Doctor clarifies that the King means Andre-Louis Moreau, who he and Miki saw costar with Marguerite St. Just in a play called Don Juan Triumphant in 1791. De Batz was working with the Scarlet Pimpernel, who the Duke claims was the Prince-Regent’s butler, Mr. Edmund Blackadder. The Pimpernel turned the Dauphin over to a smuggler dressed as a scarecrow, who handed him off in turn to an American named Bumppo. The Doctor refers to Miki’s colossal, radioactive, reptilian friend, and says General Santa Anna has the services of an evil scientist named Dr. Campos, who has uncovered a mind control device left on Earth centuries ago by an alien named Kukulcan. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 20), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2017. The Duke of Bridgewater and the King of France are from Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Doctor Omega is the title character of Arnould Galopin’s novel. Miki Saegusa is from the Godzilla movies. Although the massive level of destruction seen in the films does not fit into the CU, other crossovers indicate a version of Godzilla exists in the CU whose exploits are much less Earth-shattering. The Hynerian Empire is from the television series Farscape. The Steel General is from Roger Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness. Madame LaFarge (or rather DeFarge) is from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The Chevalier de Maison-Rouge is from Alexandre Dumas’ eponymous novel. Florence de La Salle is from Rafael Sabatini’s The Lost King. The Baron de Batz is a historical figure who appears in both that book and Sabatini’s Scaramouche, whose title character is really Andre-Louis Moreau. The other Moreau and his animal people are from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. Marguerite St. Just is the wife of Sir Percy Blakeney, aka Baroness Orczy’s hero the Scarlet Pimpernel. The play Don Juan Triumphant is the basis for the opera of the same name penned by the title character of Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Edmund Blackadder is from the television series Blackadder the Third. The smuggler dressed as a scarecrow is Russell Thorndike’s Dr. Syn, aka Captain Clegg and the Scarecrow of Romney Marsh. Natty Bumppo is from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales. Dr. Campos is from the movie Santo Contra Hombres Infernales. Kukulcan is from the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth” and the Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle episode “Tarzan and the Space God.” 

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 TV Episode: Quartet

 

In this episode of Endeavour, Endeavour Morse investigates the murder of a contestant at an international event for the game show It’s a Knockout! The French team is from St.-Josse-des-Bois, a small town in the Pas-de-Calais. The victim was a postal clerk in Werfen, Bavaria. Chief Superintendent Bright says, “Good god! It’s a machete-wielding West Indian with a distinctive facial scar we’re trying to find. In Oxford! It’s not the Scarlet Pimpernel.” Morse passes an ad for Grimsby Pilchards. It’s a Knockout! was a real show. St.-Josse-des-Bois is the setting of the four-episode series Monsignor Renard, co-written by Endeavour creator Russell Lewis and starring John Thaw, who played the older Endeavour Morse on Inspector Morse. Werfen is a real town in Salzburg, Austria, but the movie Where Eagles Dare placed it in Bavaria, Germany. We can assume there are two towns in different countries named Werfen. The Scarlet Pimpernel is from Baroness Orczy’s novels. Grimsby Pilchards are from “The Bowmans,” an episode of the television series Hancock. Morse passed ads for the Pilchards in two previous episodes.

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: The Uncrowned King

 

In the winter of 1794, a tall Englishman brings the young Dauphin, Louis XVII, to the Priory Church of Gmünd. In 1860, Louis’s widow conspires to place their son on the throne of France. When he is captured and imprisoned by Napoleon III’s secret police, his maternal half-brother must assume his identity. The tall Englishman is the Scarlet Pimpernel, whose rescue of the Dauphin was seen in Orczy’s Eldorado.

For lots more cool crossovers like this, check out 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 Bronze Eagle

The Comte de Cambray and his family were rescued from the guillotine by the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. The references to the Scarlet Pimpernel bring this standalone novel by Baroness Orczy, which begins with Napoleon’s return from exile and ends on the date of the Battle of Waterloo, into the CU.

Crossover Cover: A Joyous Adventure

Martin Saint-Denys, a former member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, becomes involved in a scheme to restore the royal house of Bourbon to the throne of France. The Pimpernel is mentioned several times in this standalone novel by Baroness Orczy, bringing it into the CU.

This crossover is only one of thousands that receive write-ups in my books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, which are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's superb books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2. Both volumes will debut at the Meteor House booth at PulpFest/FarmerCon in Columbus, OH on July 21-24. Win (who provided the foreword for Vol. 1) and I will be on hand to sign copies, as will William Patrick Maynard (who provided the foreword to Vol. 2, and is the author of the excellent continuations of the Fu Manchu series published by Black Coat Press) and Keith Howell (who provided the cover art for both volumes, as well as Win's Pat Wildman novella The Scarlet Jaguar, Meteor House's edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, and a host of other cool books)!

Crossover Covers: Inferior Five

This series features a team of incompetent second generation superheroes. Parodies of various CU characters appear, including Reed Victor, the Yellowjacket, and his chauffeur Plato (Britt Reid, the Green Hornet, and Kato); Caesar Single and Kwitcha Belliakin of C.O.U.S.I.N.F.R.E.D. (Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin of U.N.C.L.E.); John Claypool, Lord Gravestone, aka Darwin of the Apes (the jungle lord); Sir Chauncey Berkeley, the Crimson Chrysanthemum (Sir Percy Blakeney, the Scarlet Pimpernel); and Allergy Queen (Ellery Queen). Parodies of several Marvel heroes also appear. While Dennis E. Power did a Wold Newton article regarding this series, for CU purposes, I consider it an AU.

Crossover Cover: The Vampire Almanac (Volume 1)

This anthology of vampire stories published by Black Coat Press consists of several reprinted tales and seven new stories. Frank J. Morlock's "Entretien with a Vampire," Rick Lai's "All Predators Great and Small," Frank J. Morlock's "The Adventure of the Beneficent Vampire," and Win Scott Eckert's "Les Lèvres Rouges" were included by Win in the first two volumes of Crossovers. I had already read Rick's "Vampire Renaissance," Michel Stéphan's "The Three Lives of Maddalena," Matthew Baugh's "Quest of the Vourdalaki," Brian Gallagher's "City of the Nosferatu," Frank Schildiner's "The Blood of Frankenstein," Christofer Nigro's "The Ultimate Prize" and "Requiem for a Regime," and David McDonald's "The Girl from Odessa" and "The Lesser of Two Evils" when they were originally published and written them up. Of the seven stories new to this collection, five have crossovers. In Matthew Dennion's "Hope for Forgiveness," the Scarlet Pimpernel attempts to provide safe passage out of France to a woman named Lenore (who, unbeknownst to him, is a vampire), but is prevented from doing so by Captain Kronos. The Scarlet Pimpernel is from Baroness Orczy’s novels. Lenore is the title character of a ballad by Gottfried August Bürger, first published in 1774. Captain Kronos is from the Hammer film Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter.  In Martin Gately's "The Moon Hag," a metaphysician named Professor Quercus encounters Elsa Karnstein and her daughter Carmilla aboard a ship, and ultimately becomes their servant. Elsa and Karmilla initially claim to be Madame and Malicarla Strenkin of the House of Dolingen. Carmilla is the title character of the classic vampire story by J. Sheridan Le Fanu. Carmilla’s mother Elsa and Professor Quercus also appear in Le Fanu’s story, though neither are referred to by name. The House of Dolingen is a reference to the vampire Countess Dolingen of Gratz from Bram Stoker’s story “Dracula’s Guest,” generally believed to be the deleted original first chapter of Dracula. In Matthew Dennion's "Predators and Prey," the Earthman Gullivar Jones reluctantly teams up with the vampires of Mars to rescue Princess Heru from the equally bloodthirsty Erloor. Gullivar Jones and Princess Heru are from Edwin L. Arnold’s novel Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation. This story takes place a few days after the end of Arnold’s novel. The vampires of Mars and the Erloor are from Gustave Le Rouge’s novel The Vampires of Mars, which has been translated by Brian Stableford for Black Coat Press. In Artikel Unbekannt's "Blood and Fire," a libertine falls prey to two female vampires, one of whom is named Carody. The womanizer’s foe Dr. Orlof was also bitten by the two women. The Countess Nadine Carody is from Jesús Franco’s film Vampyros Lesbos, while Dr. Orlof (also spelled Orloff) is from Franco’s film The Awful Dr. Orloff and its sequels. In Nathan Cabaniss' "Schrodinger's Blood," Edward Delmont comes to the Sâr Dubnotal seeking help. The occult detective reveals that he is being slowly drained of blood via superposition by Alinska, a vampire in the 19^th century who has a grudge against his family. Alinska is from Etienne-Léon de Lamothe-Langon’s novel The Virgin Vampire. Edward Delmont is descended from Edouard Delmont, Alinska’s fiancé who spurned her for another woman. The Sâr Dubnotal appeared in a 1909-1910 French pulp series by an anonymous author. He has apparently aged little, if at all, since the early 20^th century, as this story takes place in the present day.