Crossover Cover: The Return of the Hound

 

In this story by Josh Reynolds, Charles St. Cyprian reads in a newspaper about the robbery of Thurlingham Hall last month, whose perpetrator St. Cyprian’s assistant Ebe Gallowglass describes as “that albino with the funny name.” When she suggests they apprehend him themselves, St. Cyprian replies that they'll leave that sort of thing to Blake and Lee and the rest of that lot. Sgt. Robert Ogden and his squad had been seconded to Carnacki during the War. The Si-Fan lurks in every opium den in Limehouse not owned by the Sisterhood of the Rats. St. Cyprian describes his old foe Dr. Gottlieb Hochmuller as “a vivisectionist and member in bad standing of the Kaiser’s pet sorcerous cabal, along with the likes of Erwin Torre or charlatans like Professor ten Brinken.” The albino with the funny name is Zenith the Albino, the archenemy of private detective Sexton Blake. In the story “The Strange Case of the Thurlingham Hall Robbery,” Zenith went up against Blake’s friend and fellow detective Nelson Lee. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. The Si-Fan is from Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu novels. Professor Jakob ten Brinken is from Hanns Heinz Ewers’ Alraune.

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!

Happy Holidays! 

Crossover Covers: The Fatal Formula

 

Are you a Sexton Blake fan?

Then you'll love the seven-part serial by Rex Hardinge in these issues teaming Blake with another British story paper character, Edward Holmes' masked Old West lawman the Phantom Sheriff!

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 Cover: A Three Pie Problem

 

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Then you'll love Brad Mengel's story in this anthology, "A Three Pie Problem," which has references to British story paper detectives Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee, as well as Klimo from Guy Boothby's A Prince of Swindlers!

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 Comic: The Secret of Monte Cristo

 

In this story in the British comic Knockout in 1949, an ex-crook brings Sexton Blake a parcel, and unknown parties kill the man and try to burgle the package from Blake’s safe. After an expert identifies the maker of the clockwork toy inside the box as the Count of Monte Cristo, Blake and Tinker foil another attempted theft, then go to Monte Cristo Island, where they meet the Count’s grandson, Edward Dantès, and his daughter Denise. Edward reveals the toy supposedly holds the secret to his grandfather’s treasure. The villain trying to get his own hands on the treasure turns out to be Edward’s half-brother Fernand. Edmond Dantès, the Count of Monte Cristo, is from Alexandre Dumas’ eponymous novel, which takes place in 1815-1838. Since Edward Dantès looks to be in at least his fifties and Blake and Tinker take a plane to Monte Cristo Island, this story likely takes place in the 1910s or 1920s. Presumably, Fernard Dantès was not named after his grandfather’s bitter rival Fernand Mondego. 

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

October 1937

CASE WITH NO CONCLUSION 

Sergeant Beef is hired by Peter Ferrers to clear the name of his brother Stewart, who is in custody for the murder of the family doctor. Beef mentions his fellow detectives, Lord Simon Plimsoll, Nigel Strangeways, Anthony Gethryn, Albert Campion, and Dr. Gideon Fell, as well as his cousin Sergeant Matthew Beef, John Meredith’s assistant. Peter says Inspector Meredith, Inspector French, and Amer Picon were all too busy to take the case. Crime reporter Angus Braithwaite had been peeved by the certainty of success of various private investigators of whom he’s read, from Holmes and Blake to Thorndike and Mason. Plimsoll, Picon, and Monsignor Smith are quoted in Braithwaite’s paper, The Daily Dose, about Beef’s failure to solve the case and prevent Stewart’s hanging. 

1939 novel by Lionel Townsend, edited by Leo Bruce. Lord Simon Plimsoll, a disguised version of Dorothy L. Sayers’ detective Lord Peter Wimsey, met Beef in Bruce’s Case for Three Detectives. Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot also appeared in that novel under the pseudonym “Amer Picon,” and G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown as “Monsignor Smith.” Wimsey, Poirot, Father Brown, Philip MacDonald’s detective Anthony Gethryn, Margery Allingham’s Albert Campion, John Dickson Carr’s Dr. Gideon Fell, Freeman Wills Crofts’ Inspector French, Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, Sexton Blake, R. Austin Freeman’s Dr. Thorndyke (to use the correct spelling), and Erle Stanley Gardner’s Perry Mason (who is actually an attorney, not a private investigator, though he did often make use of P.I. Paul Drake’s services in his cases) have all been included in the CU. This novel brings in Nicholas Blake’s detective Nigel Strangeways and Francis Gerard’s Sir John Meredith and Sergeant Matthew Beef. One of the characters mentions going to see the Shirley Temple movie Little Miss Broadway, which came out on July 29, 1938. However, the next novel in the series, Case with 4 Clowns, takes place from April 25-May 4, 1938, and mentions the events of this book as having occurred six months ago at the beginning. Therefore, I am placing it in October 1937.

This crossover writeup is one of the hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to 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

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: Crook Cargo

 

Are you a Sexton Blake fan?

Then you'll love this novel, the first of several team-ups between Baker Street's second most famous detective and John Hunter's character Captain Dack!

For more information, be sure to pick up a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when it's published! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and are published by Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: The Albino's Treasure

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attempt to prevent two rival criminal masterminds, Zenith the Albino and the Chinese Lord of Strange Deaths, from getting their respective hands on a mysterious but precious item called “England’s Treasure.” Donald Petrie is the Secretary of the National Portrait Gallery. Zenith the Albino is one of Sexton Blake’s greatest foes. Although Zenith first battled Blake in a 1913 story, this novel demonstrates that he was already active well before then. “The Lord of Strange Deaths” is one of Fu Manchu’s appellations. Donald Petrie may be a relative of Dr. Petrie from the Fu Manchu novels.

For write-ups of this and many, many, many more crossovers, check out Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, coming out from Meteor House in July!

Crossover Cover: Harry Dickson vs. the Spider

This story, originally published as "La Bande de l’Araignée" in Harry Dickson #86, is translated and adapted by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier in the anthology Harry Dickson vs. the Spider, with crossover references added. Baker Street detective Harry Dickson battles Georgette Cuvelier and her Spider Society. Georgette tells Dickson the Society’s plans wouldn’t even be limited to Earth if they had the means to leave it, like Mr. Barbicane did. Georgette tells Dickson and his young assistant Tom Wills to evade two Italian mercenaries belonging to the Black Coats. Dickson first met a money lender friend of his when he cleared the man of murder during his time as an apprentice to Sexton Blake. The Society’s headquarters is located inside an opium den; the entrance to their lair can be accessed by manipulating statuettes of the Three Madmen of Toko-Djawa, which are described in Challenger’s book on the religions of Sumatra. Impey Barbicane is the president of the Baltimore Gun Club in Jules Verne’s novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon. The Black Coats are a criminal organization appearing in novels by Paul Féval. Sexton Blake is the most famous British penny dreadful detective; G. L. Gick revealed a young Dickson served as Blake’s apprentice in his novella “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange.” Professor George Edward Challenger is the protagonist of The Lost World and other tales by Arthur Conan Doyle. Georgette reappeared in "The Phantom Executioners," which revealed that she was the daughter of Professor Flax, who was a recurring foe of Dickson, but first appeared in Louis Forest’s Someone is Stealing Children in Paris.

Crossover Cover: The Great Budget Conspiracy

Sexton Blake and Mr. Mist (Ian Craig, a disfigured scientist who uses an invention called the Invicta Ray to become invisible) fight Rudolph Kent, a vicious blackmailer who also runs a drug-smuggling ring in Limehouse. Assisting Blake and Mist is Inspector Red Berry. This story is the third part of the “Mr. Mist” storyline starring Blake. “Berry” is clearly Inspector Red Kerry from Sax Rohmer’s Dope, Tales of Chinatown, and Yellow Shadows. The first two chapters, appearing in #1277 and #1278, were titled “The Man Who Walked by Night” and “The Phantom of Scotland Yard” respectively. The fourth and final chapter, “The Mystery of the Missing Mace,” appeared in #1281, and had several references to “Berry.”

Crossover of the Week

1911

THE WHITE LADY OF POURVILLE (LA DAME BLANCHE DE POURVILLE)

Detective Sexton Blake and his apprentice Harry Dickson travel to Pourville to investigate the appearance of what seems to be the legendary White Lady, whose gaze drives men mad. Dickson befriends Adèle Blanc-Sec. Dickson and Adèle travel to Tiffauges to research the history of Gilles de Rays, and are told about de Rays and Joan of Arc by Doctor Jules de Grandin of the Faculty of Forensic Medicine of Paris. A false de Rays proves to be the archcriminal Fantômas, who is told to surrender by a policeman named Juve. Fantômas’ plan involved a Subatlantic locomotive, designed by the great French inventor, Arsène Golbert, and sabotaged by William Boltyn, the leader of the so-called “billionaires’ conspiracy.” The alleged White Lady is actually the mentally ill Paulette Arnaud, whose sister Thérèse works for the French Secret Service. Most of the cases of madness suffered by those who encountered Paulette were actually caused by an Indian poison called Rajaijah.

Short story by Michel Stéphan appearing as “La Dame Blanche de Pourville” in in Les Compagnons de L’Ombre (Tome 10), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012, and then in English in Harry Dickson vs. the Spider, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Harry Dickson, “the American Sherlock Holmes,” was the subject of German, Dutch, Belgian, and French pulp magazines, the latter written by Jean Ray. Sexton Blake is one of the most famous British penny dreadful detectives. G.L. Gick’s story “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange” revealed Dickson served as an apprentice to Blake in his youth, before he struck out on his own as a detective. Adèle Blanc-Sec will later become a private investigator herself, as seen in Jacques Tardi’s comic book The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec. Doctor Jules de Grandin is Seabury Quinn’s occult detective, who appeared in the magazine Weird Tales. Fantômas and Juve are from the novels by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre. Arsène Golbert and William Boltyn are from Gustave Le Rouge and Gustave Guitton’s pulp serial The Dominion of the World, which has been translated and adapted in four volumes by Brian Stableford. Thérèse Arnaud is from Pierre Yrondy’s The Adventures of Thérèse Arnaud of the French Secret Service, which has been translated by Nina Cooper for Black Coat Press. Rajaijah is from Hergé’s Tintin comic The Blue Lotus.

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.”

Upcoming Crossover: The Albino's Treasure

This upcoming pastiche by Stuart Douglas pits Holmes and Watson against villains called the Albino and the Lord of Strange Deaths. The Lord of Strange Deaths is one of Fu Manchu's appellations. The Albino is almost certainly Sexton Blake's foe Zenith the Albino. Douglas has also apparently written a story for an anthology of Zenith stories that portrays him as having taken Fu Manchu's elixir vitae. Douglas also contributed a story to the anthology Encounters of Sherlock Holmes where a character compares Holmes favorably to Hewitt and "that foreign chap Dupin."

Crossover of the Week

February 1920

THE STRIX SOCIETY

            Two policemen are standing on the stoop of No. 427 Cheyne Walk as Charles St. Cyprian, Britain’s Royal Occultist, speaks to Lord Curzon, the country’s Foreign Minister. St. Cyprian thinks that Curzon’s future son-in-law Oswald Mosley is, “in the words of the honourable Freddie Threepwood, an absolutely perfect perisher.” St. Cyprian asks Curzon why he does not hire a detective to investigate Mosley’s involvement with the hedonistic Strix society, saying “You can find them in practically every A.B.C. teashop and Piccadilly flat. I have that fellow Blake’s number, if you’d like.” The two discuss an affair in Persia during the War, one of St. Cyprian’s last cases as Carnacki’s assistant. Going up against the Sisterhood of the Rats or the Si-Fan when, by and large, they adequately police themselves, is not something St.Cyprian looks forward to. St. Cyprian remembers how he tried to lose himself in parties and drink after the war, snatching policemen’s helmets with the Wooster crowd and swimming in the Trafalgar fountains with the Runcible set. St. Cyprian traces the sacred shape of the Voorish Sign in the air with a finger and lets his inner eye flicker open. He recalls his encounter in Seven Dials with the mummy of a pharaoh awakened by the Esoteric Order of Thoth-Ra. St. Cyprian uses the powder of Ibn Ghazi to view the members of the Strix Society, who have taken the forms of vampire-spirits. One of St. Cyprian’s predecessors’ journals has a few Greek flowers that turn people into such wraiths pressed between its pages, “plucked from the lonely mountain grave of Sir Francis Varney himself.”

            Short story by Josh Reynolds in Occult Detectives, Ron Fortier, ed., Airship 27 Productions, 2014. No. 427 Cheyne Walk and Thomas Carnacki are from William Hope Hodgson’s short story collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Freddie Threepwood is from P.G. Wodehouse’s Blandings novels, while the Wooster crowd is a reference to Bertie Wooster from Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster books. The A.B.C. teashop reference is an allusion to the titular detective from Baroness Orczy’s The Old Man in the Corner. The Piccadilly flat reference is to Dorothy L. Sayers’ sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey. Blake is Sexton Blake, the most famous of all British penny dreadful detectives. The Si-Fan is the criminal organization run by Sax Rohmer’s Dr. Fu Manchu. The Runcible set is a reference to Agatha Runcible from Evelyn Waugh’s novel Vile Bodies. The Voorish Sign and the powder of Ibn Ghazi are from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror.” The pharaoh awakened by the Esoteric Order of Thoth-Ra was Nephren-Ka from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark,” whom St. Cyprian battled in “The Unwrapping Party.” Sir Francis Varney is from James Malcolm Rymer’s serialized horror story Varney the Vampire. The year is specifically given as 1920, and Curzon refers to St. Cyprian’s handling of “that disturbance at the Voyagers Club last week.” In Reynolds’ novel The Jade Suit of Death, set in March of the same year, the Voyagers Club affair is said to have taken place “last month.” Therefore, “The Strix Society” takes place in February of 1920.

Crossover Cover: Harry Dickson vs. the Spider

This anthology from Black Coat Press contains two of the original Harry Dickson stories, six stories that previously appeared in volumes of Tales of the Shadowmen, and ten stories that are either new or appear for the first time in English. Looking at the credits in the back of the book, at least nine of the new stories have crossovers, and therefore I will write them up. I've already read and written entries for the first two new stories. Among the characters appearing in the new tales are Sexton Blake, Indiana Jones, Abraham Van Helsing and Mina Harker, the Wizard of Oz, and Tarzan.

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1892

DR. WATSON’S AMERICAN ADVENTURE

            Dr. John Watson and his wife Mary travel to America to visit Mary’s recently discovered relatives. The New York Comet prints a misleading story about Watson’s visit. Watson and Mary meet Theodore “T.R.” Roosevelt and his friend Robert Van Loan. The Blackhawk Insurance Company is mentioned. Discussing the exaggerations found in dime novels, Watson says, “The fictional accounts of the very real Sexton Blake suffer from similar ‘enhancement.’” Buffalo Bill Cody refers to the New York Clarion and its new owner, Franklin Havens. T.R. tells Watson that they must pass through the Bar 20 ranch to get to Mary’s cousin’s ranch. Watson and T.R. drive off some highwaymen with the help of the gunslinger Deadwood Dick. Soon after, they meet Mr. Stanley, editor of the South Dakota Clarion, who once used the name Deadwood Dick himself, with the original’s permission. Watson recalls the supposedly deceased Sherlock Holmes’ lecture to Professor Higgins’ Linguistics class. Watson later meets Commander Renwick of the Royal Navy and Lieutenant Hurricane of the Royal Marines.

            Novel by Erwin K. Roberts, Airship 27, 2012. The New York Comet newspaper will later employ Rex Parker, aka the Masked Detective, a pulp hero created by Norman Daniels. Robert Van Loan is the father of Richard Curtis Van Loan, aka the title character of the pulp magazine The Phantom Detective. Franklin Havens’ son Frank will later become the owner of the New York Clarion himself, and his daughter Muriel will become Richard Curtis Van Loan’s girlfriend. The Blackhawk Insurance Company is from the television series The Man from Blackhawk. Sexton Blake is one of the most famous British story paper detectives. The Bar 20 Ranch is from Clarence E. Mulford’s Hopalong Cassidy novels. Deadwood Dick appeared in dime novel stories by Edward L. Wheeler. Mr. Dick Stanley is from the 1940 serial Deadwood Dick. Professor Henry Higgins is from George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, the basis for the musical My Fair Lady. Commander Renwick is probably a relative of John “Renny” Renwick, one of Doc Savage’s aides. Lieutenant Hurricane is an ancestor of Captain Hercules Hurricane, a superhumanly strong Royal Marine active during World War II, who appeared in the British comic Valiant from 1972 to 1976.

Crossover Cover: Raffles vs. Sexton Blake