Crossover Cover: Campaign of Destruction

 

In this story by Whit Howland, the Phantom Detective works with FBI agent Dan Fowler to battle a wave of attacks in New York City related to the upcoming mayoral election. Fowler meets with a group of officials that includes Commissioner Warren and Captain McGrath. Dan Fowler appeared in the pulp magazine G-Men Detective. Commissioner Jerome Warner (mistakenly called “Warren” here) and Captain McGrath are from the Black Bat stories in Black Book Detective.

This crossover is one 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 Black Bat and the Purple Scar: Faces of Fear

 

The Black Bat teams up with the Purple Scar to investigate dead gangsters seemingly turning up alive thanks to a villain called Mr. Mask. The Bat uses smoke bombs given to him by his friend and fellow crime fighter Captain Hazzard. Lt. McGrath summons Inspector John Burks to the scene of the Bat’s encounter with a group of crooks. Burks says he has heard the Bat gives McGrath as many headaches as he gets from Secret Agent X. Police photographer Dave Dejune meets with Betty Dale of the Herald about the return of one of the gangsters. The Purple Scar, in his secret identity as Dr. Miles Murdoch, is visiting New York City for a medical conference, staying at the Waldorf Anthony. Betty attends a press conference, as does Steve Huston of the Clarion, who says old man Havens had a fit because Betty and the Herald scooped them. Lawyer Paul Westland asks at the conference, “Who elected Agent X, the Black Bat, or the Phantom Detective to hunt down criminals?” The Bat’s gas bombs were made by Professor MacGowen, the head of research at Hazzard Labs. The Black Bat, whose stories were primarily written by Norman A. Daniels, appeared in the pulp magazine Black Book Detective. The Purple Scar’s stories were told by John Endicott in Exciting Detective in the 1940s. Captain Hazzard appeared in a one-shot pulp magazine by “Chester Hawks” (Paul Chadwick). His adventures have been continued in a series of novels by Fortier. Professor Washington “Wash” MacGowen is one of Hazzard’s aides. Secret Agent X appeared in stories by the pseudonymous “Brant House” (originally Chadwick, then other writers) in a titular pulp magazine. Inspector Burks is from that series. Daily Herald reporter Betty Dale is X’s love interest and closest ally. The Waldorf Anthony is the hotel owned by Jim Anthony, whose exploits were written by “John Grange” (a penname used at different times by Victor Rousseau Emanuel, Robert Leslie Bellem, and W. T. Ballard) in the magazine Super-Detective. The Phantom Detective, Steve Huston, the Clarion newspaper, and Frank Havens are from the pulp magazine The Phantom Detective, written by various individuals using the pseudonym “G. Wayman Jones” and then “Robert Wallace.”

This crossover is one 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: Lair of the Bat

 

Are you a fan of the pulp hero the Black Bat?

Then you’ll love this comic, which has crossovers with other pulp heroes, a Golden Age comic book hero, and a New Pulp character!

For more information, make 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 Covers: Final Phase

 

The Black Bat battles the Black Sun Cult alongside the Phantom Detective, I. V. Frost, the Domino Lady, Nighthawk, Ki-Gor and Helene, Captain Hazzard’s aides, and Jim Anthony. The Phantom Detective listens to a radio broadcast by Diane Elliott. Nighthawk is from Fortier’s novel Nighthawk: Burning Skies. This crossover brings him into the CU. Diane Elliott is Operator No. 5’s girlfriend. In an amusing moment that is more of an in-joke than a true crossover, the Domino Lady tells the Phantom Detective that she’s always thought the use of a spotlight signal to summon him was a great idea, and that she’s surprised some other masked mystery man hasn’t stolen it from him, a foreshadowing of Commissioner Gordon’s use of the Batsignal to summon Batman.

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: Gentlemen Prefer Domino Lady

 

Are you a fan of Lars Anderson's pulp heroine the Domino Lady?

Then you'll love this anthology from Moonstone Books of stories teaming her with the likes of the Black Bat, Secret Agent X, the Green Ghost (written by Win Scott Eckert), and more!

For more information, be sure to read my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which shall be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win's books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: The Black Bat Returns

Are you a fan of the pulp hero the Black Bat?

Then you'll love this anthology of new stories featuring the character published by Moonstone Books, which includes tales in which the Bat encounters the Domino Lady, the Green Lama, Doctor Satan, the Golden Amazon, and the Purple Scar!

For more details, see my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Much like the first two volumes published in 2016, this book is an AUTHORIZED companion to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 by my dear friend Win Scott Eckert!
 

Crossover Cover: The Green Lama Unbound

I covered the original version of this novel some time ago. Since then, a revised and expanded version has been published by Moonstone Books. The Green Lama battles Cthulhu. Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep; R’lyeh; the Great Old Ones; the Outer Gods; the Necronomicon; the Deep Ones; Abdul Alhazred; Glyyu-Uho; Vhoorl; flying polyps; the Great Race of Yith; shoggoths; Arkham, Massachusetts; Innsmouth; the Miskatonic River; Miskatonic University; Professor Randolph Carter; and Zkauba are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft. This novel also makes use of characters and places from Cthulhu Mythos tales by August Derleth (the Elder Gods); Brian Lumley (Chthonians and Shudde M’ell); Ramsey Campbell (Baalbo, Yifne, and Tond); Walter C. DeBill, Jr. (Ogntlach); Lin Carter (Xoth); and A. A. Attanasio (Yaksh). Rick Masters and Twin Eagle had their own feature in Spark Publications’ Green Lama comic book series. “That guy who lives in the Empire State Building” is a well-known bronze-skinned pulp hero. Arnold Toht is from the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, while Colonel Ernst Vogel is from the third film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Neville Sinclair is from the film version of Dave Stevens’ comic The Rocketeer. Since the comic book has already been incorporated into the Crossover Universe, the Sinclair mentioned here must be the CU counterpart of the Sinclair from the film, which follows a different continuity than the comic. The phrase “klaatu barada nikto” appears in both the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Foster Fade, “the crime spectacularist,” appeared in three stories by Lester Dent in All Detective Magazine in 1934. Richard Knight appeared in the pulp magazine Flying Aces in stories by Donald E. Keyhoe. The Black Bat was created by Norman Daniels and appeared in Black Book Detective. The Lama’s old detective friend in London is Sherlock Holmes. Elisha Pond is a false identity used by Secret Agent X, who appeared in a titular magazine. The original version of the novel has a few references that were deleted from the revised version, such as a rampaging ape (King Kong), Captain Hazzard (a one-shot pulp hero created by Paul Chadwick), Dan Fowler (an FBI agent appearing in the pulp G-Men Detective), Lance Star (a Canadian pulp hero recently revived by Bobby Nash and other writers), and Jim Anthony (who appeared in the magazine Super Detective).

Crossover Covers: Masks 2

A sequel to Chris Roberson, Alex Ross, and Dennis Calero's series Masks, which takes place in an alternate universe, as I discussed in a previous post. Heroes from three different time periods team up to fight a villain called the Red Death, including two Green Hornets, two Katos, the Black Bat, two Miss Furys, the Shadow, the Black Terror, two Black Sparrows, the Spider, the Green Lama, Lady Satan, and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt. The contemporary Hornet and Kato are the ones from Dynamite's ongoing Green Hornet comic, which is incompatible with NOW Comics' take on the character, further cementing this series as an AU.

This series, along with many other works of fiction, will be included in my forthcoming two-volume tome Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, an authorized companion to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert. The books will debut at FarmerCon/PulpFest on July 21-24, where Win (who also will be providing the foreword for Vol. 1) and I will be signing copies at the booth of Meteor House, the books' publisher, which Win runs along with Michael Croteau and Paul Spiteri. Keith Howell, who provided the covers for both volumes, and William Patrick Maynard, who is contributing the foreword for Vol. 2, will also be on hand to sign copies.

Crossover of the Week

Apologies for the lack of posts since Monday. I was in New York City from Tuesday until a few hours ago. :)

1939
THE UNDEAD KILLER
The Nightmare battles the Dead Man, a zombie sent back in time from the future, who is now acting as an enforcer for gangster Wolf Hopkins. A mugger tells the Nightmare about a conversation he overheard among a group of hoods at the Black Ship. The Nightmare thinks maybe Kent can give him some pointers on phrases to use to intimidate criminals. Later, in his alter ego of Michael Shaw, the hero is approached by Lieutenant Jerome Easton at the pub Moran’s. Easton refers to “gentlemen’s clubs, like that one the Commissioner belongs to, what’s it called? The Baltic Club?” Shaw replies, “Something like that.” Contemplating the best course of action in confronting Hopkins, Shaw thinks, “Richard would charge in with guns a-blazing, taking down his quarry, but only after leveling half the city in doing so. Kent would already know where Hopkins’ headquarters was. He would stealthily infiltrate it and find the clue that would lead him straight to the Dead Man. He’d go there straightaway, always assuming he didn’t have to rescue an agent or two first.” Considering whether he should recruit agents of his own, or an attractive female companion, he thinks, “Who am I kidding? If I had a girl like Nina or Carol, I’d marry her at once, and the Nightmare would be a memory. Sometimes we can be such damn fools.”
Short story by John L. French in Zombies in Time and Space, Ron Hanna, ed., Wild Cat Books, 2010. Kent is the alter ego of a certain shadowy pulp hero; the Black Ship, the Commissioner, and the club to which he belongs are from the same series. Moran’s is owned by Seamus Moran, whose cousin Paddy Moran runs the bar Bulfinche’s in Patrick Thomas’ Murphy’s Lore series. Richard is Richard Wentworth, better known as the Spider. “Nina” may be a typo, and meant to refer to Wentworth’s beloved, Nita Van Sloan. Alternatively, it could be a reference to Nina Ferrera, niece and former assistant of Harold Ward’s pulp villain Doctor Death, and the girlfriend of Death’s foe Jimmy Holm. Carol is Carol Baldwin, girlfriend of Tony Quinn, alias the Black Bat. The central premise of Zombies in Time and Space is in the far future, the Zombie Institute of Time and Space was created, which sends the undead back in time because physically traveling through time is impossible for living beings. Since there are numerous instances of recorded time travel by living beings in the Crossover Universe, the Institute likely exists in the future of an alternate reality, and the Dead Man was sent to the 1930s of the CU rather than his native reality. This raises the possibility the other time periods in which the zombies found themselves were also alternate realities, both to their own universe and to the CU.

Crossover of the Week

June 1945

CHANCE OF A GHOST

George Chance’s (aka the Green Ghost) friend Ned Standish, of the Kingsport Standishes, a summa cum laude graduate of Miskatonic University, has been accused of murder. Although Chance calls Standish “Commissioner,” he is actually an Assistant Police Commissioner for one of New York City’s boroughs, as are Weston, Kirkpatrick, Woods, Foster, Quistrom, Gordon, Warner, Hombert, and others. Chance refers to other vigilantes active at the time he began his career, such as the Black Bat, Captain Midnight, the Phantom Detective, the Domino Lady, and Ki-Gor. Chance’s wartime missions began with liberating Professor Horatio Smith, who was something of a modern-day Scarlet Pimpernel, from a supposedly unescapable German prison camp. Subsequent missions for the OSS included a strange encounter with a hideously wriggling whitish worm at an abandoned chateau in Northern France and one with a revolting frog-mouthed, tentacle-lipped creature that accosted him in the sewers of Paris. Standish went over the file on flapper girl Toby Basinger’s case with D.A. Skinner. A lookalike for Standish murdered Basinger, who killed an ex-girlfriend of Chance’s, nightclub singer Angel de la Ruse. Chance’s aide Joe Harper smokes Red Apple Cigarettes.

Short story by George Chance, edited by Win Scott Eckert in Legends of New Pulp Fiction, Ron Fortier, ed., Airship 27 Productions, 2015. The Green Ghost (aka the Ghost) appeared in the pulp magazine The Ghost, Super-Detective (later retitled The Ghost Detective, and then The Green Ghost Detective). Kingsport, Massachusetts and Miskatonic University are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos tales. Commissioner Weston appears in the tales of a vigilante who can cloud men’s minds. Commissioner Stanley Kirkpatrick is from the Spider stories. Commissioner Woods is from the Green Lama’s pulp exploits. Commissioner Charlie Foster is from the Secret Agent X tales. Commissioner Arthur J. Quistrom is from Leslie Charteris’ novel The Saint in New York. Commissioner Gordon operated as a whispering vigilante in pulp novels by Laurence Donovan. Commissioner Jerome Warner is from the Black Bat stories. Commissioner Hombert and D.A. Skinner are from Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe novels. Captain Midnight is from the radio series of the same name. The Phantom Detective appeared in pulp stories by Robert Wallace. The Domino Lady is a pulp heroine created by Lars Anderson. Ki-Gor is a jungle hero who appeared in pulp tales by John Peter Drummond. Professor Horatio Smith is from the movie Pimpernel Smith. The Scarlet Pimpernel is from Baroness Orczy’s novels, of course. The seemingly unescapable prison camp is Loki from Farmer’s authorized Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki, which is also the source of the whitish worm, which Doc encountered in Baron de Musard’s chateau during World War I. The frog-mouthed, tentacle-lipped creature is Dewer, who encountered occult detective Jules de Grandin in Seabury Quinn’s story “The Bride of Dewer.” Toby Basinger and Angel de la Ruse are from Howard Hopkins’ Green Ghost story “Ghost of a Chance,” although Basinger’s name is Eckert’s invention. Red Apple Cigarettes appear in a number of films, including Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, and Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion, as well as a number of other works by Eckert.

Crossover Cover: Death Rides the Valkyrie

This story originally appeared in the Airship 27 anthology Black Bat Mystery Volume One in 2010, and was released in a revised edition as a standalone e-book by Timepiece Press in 2015. The Black Bat investigates a theft aboard a zeppelin. One of the suspects is reformed ex-con Rowland Clark. The Bat’s assistant Silk Kirby scoffs at rumors of a “crime college” in upstate New York. However, after Clark seemingly commits suicide, the Bat reveals the crime college does exist, and Clark was rehabilitated there. Clark’s murderer proves to be Kobold, a former member of the group of German adventurers known as the Alle-Männer. The Crime College was founded and run by Doc Savage, of course. Ostensibly a group of adventurers from the German pulps, the Alle-Männer (German for “All-Men”) were actually created by Salmon, and also appear in his forthcoming novel All-Men: The Shadow-Line.

Crossover of the Week

1940

THE BLACK BAT AT BAY

Jim Anthony comes out of retirement when he is tasked by the N.Y.P.D. with capturing the Black Bat, who has been framed for murder. Anthony was recommended to Commissioner Warner by FBI agent Dan Fowler, with whom Anthony has worked before. Anthony also tells Warner, “A famous member of my fraternity once said that pertinence is purely a matter of perspective.” The Bat attacks a group of criminals at the wrecked Comet Club, which was once owned by a man named Suydam, who died in 1921 in the same fire that destroyed the club. Gangster Gentleman Jack Schulz has a penthouse in the Shandor Building.

Short story by Josh Reynolds in Black Bat Mystery, Volume 2, Airship 27 Productions, 2012. The Black Bat and Jim Anthony appeared in the pulp magazines Black Book Detective and Super Detective, respectively. FBI agent Dan Fowler’s stories appeared in G-Men Detective. Fowler and Anthony previously met in Erwin K. Roberts’ story “Neighborhood in Peril” and Reynolds’ tale “Proof of Supremacy.” The fellow sleuth quoted by Anthony is either Sherlock Holmes or C. Auguste Dupin. Suydam is a relative of Robert Suydam from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Horror at Red Hook.” The Shandor Building is from the movie Ghostbusters. Anthony must have permanently resumed his adventurous career after this, given his appearances in “The Carolingian Stone” and other stories.

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1942

THE EYES OF SATAN

            The Phantom Detetive attempts to end a gang war in New York. The Phantom’s ally, Inspector Thomas Gregg, is doing his own part to end the conflict, aided by, among others, Timothy Scallot, Cardona, and Captain McGrath. The instigator of the war tells a group of fellow gangsters that they should worry more about the Black Bat or the Masked Avenger than the Phantom.

            Short story by “Robert Wallace” (Tom Johnson) in Double Danger Tales #37, Tom and Ginger Johnson, eds., Fading Shadows Publications, March 2000; reprinted in Triple Detective #3, Altus Press, 2009. Timothy Scallot is from the Secret Agent X stories. Inspector Joe Cardona is from the Shadow novels, while Captain McGrath is from the Black Bat pulps. The Masked Avenger is Johnson’s own original creation.

Crossover of the Week

Summer 1935-1936

DAY OF THE DESTROYERS

            Jimmie Flint, Secret Agent X-11 of the Intelligence Service Command, battles Colonel Lucian Starliss and his Medusa Council, who seek to oust President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and take over the United States. Along the way, he receives aid from the Phantom Detective (Richard Curtis Van Loan), the Black Bat (Tony Quinn), the Green Lama (Jethro Dumont), and the Gray Face (Owen Tull.) Herald-Tribune reporter Luke Jaconetti moonlights for the Amalgamated Press, which employs Jimmie’s girlfriend Kara Eastland. Luke receives a phone call from Betty Dale. After the Council is defeated, Kara says that Dumont is organizing other wealthy men such as himself, including Van Loan and “that odd chap, Wentworth” for a Patriots for Progress group.

            An anthology of linked stories by Gary Phillips, Tommy Hancock, Aaron Shaps, Jeri Westerson, Ron Fortier, Eric Fein, Joe Gentile, Paul Bishop, and Adam Lance Garcia, edited by Gary Phillips, Moonstone Books, 2015. Luke Jaconetti first appeared in Garcia’s story “The Black Rock Conspiracy,” featuring Lester Dent’s pulp hero Foster Fade; he also appeared in Garcia’s novel The Green Lama: Scions. Reporter Betty Dale is the girlfriend of Secret Agent X, who has no known connection to Secret Agent X-11. “That odd chap, Wentworth” is Richard Wentworth, aka the Spider. This crossover brings Secret Agent X-11 (a character created for this anthology) and the Gray Face (another original character, created by Phillips), into the CU.

Crossover Cover: Captain Action: Hearts of the Rising Sun

Captain Action battles Dr. Evil alongside the aged (but still skilled) Black Bat in Japan.

Crossover Cover: Pulp Detectives

Five of the stories in this collection of tales featuring classic pulp characters have crossovers.  In "The Masked Detective's Deadly Trail," the Detective, impersonating a petty criminal, tells the doorman at an underworld dive in Hell’s Kitchen that Blinky McQuade sent him. Later, he tells Detective-Sergeant Gleason to contact Frank Havens, publisher of the Clarion. The Masked Detective, alias Rex Parker, reporter for the New York Daily Comet, was created by Norman Daniels, and appeared in his own self-titled pulp magazine beginning in Fall 1940. Blinky McQuade is the criminal persona the Spider uses to infiltrate the underworld. Frank Havens and the Clarion are from the pulp exploits of the Phantom Detective. In "Satan's Minions," Richard Curtis Van Loan (alias the Phantom Detective) points out Richard Wentworth and his fiancee Nita Van Sloan to his companions at a nightclub. Wentworth is better known as the Spider, of course. In "The Spider's Web," Secret Agent X battles a German agent who is preying on New York City with giant Sind spiders from India. The existence of the spiders became known to the world in 1933, when their discovery was recounted in a book by Robert Wallace. A Sind spider appeared in the Phantom Detective pulp novel The Jewels of Doom. "The Nazi Spider Staffel" is a sequel to the Secret Agent X story. John Masters, the allied pilot known as the Lone Eagle, rescues two French Resistance members from a prison camp with an unlucky number. The camp’s Kommandant is a tall, thin colonel with a monocle, whose underlings include his secretary Helga, who flirts with an American Air Force colonel, and an obese man named Sergeant Schulz. Masters encounters his old enemy R-47 and an elderly scientist called Herr Doktor K, who is experimenting with the Sind spiders’ venom, and believes that Masters is actually his old nemesis, “G-” The Doktor’s enemy has two aides, one of whom is a bull of a man, while the other is a tiny nippy kid. The Lone Eagle appeared in in his own self-titled pulp magazine beginning in September 1933; he was active during both World Wars. The prison camp (Stalag 13), its Kommandant (Colonel Wilhelm Klink), Helga, the American colonel (Robert E. Hogan), and Sergeant Schulz are from the television series Hogan’s Heroes. Herr Doktor K is G-8’s nemesis Herr Doktor Krueger. Krueger must have survived the explosion of his cave headquarters in the graphic novel Airboy/G-8. In that story, Krueger was confined to an iron lung, whereas here he is merely wheelchair bound. Krueger must have made a partial recovery in the two years between the two stories. G-8’s aides are Bull Martin and Nippy Weston. Since Secret Agent X, the Phantom Detective, and G-8 are in the CU, this crossover brings in the Lone Eagle and Colonel Hogan. The fifth and final story with crossovers is "Guns of Vengeance." Tony Quinn (aka the Black Bat) and his girlfriend Carol Baldwin see a light coming from the Clarion Building. He resolves to ask the owner, Frank Havens, about it. Later, Commissioner Warner, Captain McGrath, and Inspector Thomas Gregg meet with Quinn, asking him to investigate the murder of a gangster. Soon afterwards, playboy Richard Curtis Van Loan and his girlfriend Muriel Havens (Frank’s daughter) visit Quinn, stating that they’re looking for a worthy charity to which to donate some money. Quinn recommends they contribute to a fund for the widow of a murdered policeman. Later, Quinn, as the Black Bat, finds the Phantom Detective snooping around his office. The two ultimately part on amicable terms. The encounters between the Black Bat and the Phantom Detective (aka Richard Curtis Van Loan), both in and out of costume, are near-identical to those shown in an earlier story by Johnson, “City of Phantoms” (Triple Detective #4, Altus Press, 2010.) However, the accounts of the Black Bat’s activities before and after their meetings in each tale are completely different. I have chosen to treat “Guns of Vengeance,” the more recent account, as the “correct” one for CU purposes. It is worth noting that “City of Phantoms” has a cameo by FBI Agents Dan Fowler and Larry Kendal from the pulp G-Men Detective. Although the two heroes say that this is the first time they’ve met, this is clear fictionalization, as they crossed paths in 1939 during the events of Erwin K. Roberts’ “The Sons of Thor,” and again in 1941, as seen in the graphic novel Return of the Originals: Battle for L.A.