Crossover of the Week

Late December 2011 

DILLON AND THE PROPHECY OF FIRE 

Dillon brings his friends Wyatt Hyatt and Reynard Hansen and their new acquaintance Professor Ursula Van Houghton of Grand Lakes University to his home in Grand, Pennsylvania, which is filled with pictures by Ben Munceford, a photojournalist who disappeared in the 1960s. A group of villains seek the Vril energy from Dillon, who at one point wears a Gantlet Brothers T-shirt. Wyatt works on his Clip Pad. Dillon’s friend Eli Creed has been asked to consult on a new airplane design by friends at the Miami Aerospace Research & Dynamic Logistics. Germany’s Ministry of State Security has an extensive dossier on Dillon’s encounter with Sun Koh years ago. Another dossier on the subject was once in the hands of the Office of Scientific Intelligence. Dillon and friends are shown a laboratory right up there with any that can be found at Alternative Technologies or Hazzard Laboratories. At MARDL, Eli says goodbye to Clifton Storm, formerly known as Challenger Storm. Dillon met Master Gunnery Sergeant Morrell on a train ride from Harak to Khusra a few years ago. The mastermind behind the Vril plot is Li Shoon, the leader of the Ui Kwoon Ah-How. 

Story by Derrick Ferguson in Dillon Annual Collection 2019, Pro Se Productions, 2019. Grand Lakes University is from the movie Back to School. Dillon first met Ursula Van Houghton in “Dillon and the Night of the Krampus,” which takes place right before this story. Grand, Pennsylvania is from the television series Grand. Ben Munceford is from the movie The Bedford Incident. The Vril is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race. The Gantlet Brothers are the protagonists of a series of novels by Joel Jenkins. The Clip Pad is from Jenkins’ Dire Planet; Jenkins and Ferguson’s The Specialists reveals the Pad was invented by Wyatt Hyatt. The Miami Aerodrome Research & Development Laboratories (to use its name in the 1930s) and their head, Clifton “Challenger” Storm, are seen in novels by Don Gates. Sun Koh is a German pulp hero sometimes dubbed “the Nazi Doc Savage”; Dillon encountered him and the Vril in Ferguson and Josh Reynolds’ The Vril Agenda. The Office of Scientific Intelligence is from the television series The Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. The Henderson Institute of Alternative Technologies is from Ferguson’s serialized novel “A Man Called Mongrel,” appearing in the anthology series Mystery Men (& Women). Hazzard Laboratories is run by Captain Hazzard, a one-shot pulp hero created by “Chester Hawks” (Paul Chadwick). Khusra is from Ferguson’s Fortune McCall stories. The train ride was seen in Dillon and the Last Rail to Khusra. Li Shoon appeared in stories by H. Irving Hancock in Detective Story Magazine. 

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 continuations of Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Arctic Kill

Mack Bolan battles the Society of Thylea, a white supremacist group dating back to World War I. The society believes in the Vril, and their ruling body is known as the Sun-Koh. One of their henchmen is an ex-German Special Forces officer who was nicknamed “Sturmvogel.” Agent Chantecoq of Interpol also appears. The Vril is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race. The Sun-Koh is named after Sun Koh, a German pulp character. This Sturmvogel must have been nicknamed after the German pulp character of the same name. Chantecoq, who first appeared in Reynolds’ Executioner novel Border Offensive, is probably a relative of Arthur Bernède’s character Chantecoq, “the King of Detectives.”

Crossover of the Week

1936

ONCE MORE, THE NYCTALOPE (LE SURHOMME EST-IL FRANÇAIS?)

An Invisible Man named Jacques enters the mansion of his friend Leo Saint-Clair, the Nyctalope, and sees an oil painting of Leo and his late wife Sylvie. Leo introduces Jacques to Briar Rose, also known as Belle and the Phantom Angel, alongside whom Leo fought Belphégor. Jacques’ children have been kidnapped; the mastermind behind the abductions is Professor René Belloq. Below the house are a series of secret rooms that were used by Sylvie’s stepfather Mathias Lumen in his fight against Leonid Zattan, which have been converted by Leo into a laboratory. Leo uses a device that allowed him to overcome Lucifer in the early ‘20s to prevent the kidnappers from tracking Jacques’ aura. The three attend a lecture given by Belloq, whose other guests include archaeologist Artistide Clairembart and Tryphon Tournesol. Also in attendance are journalist Jerôme Fandor and Dutil-Parot, Jacques Roll’s predecessor as President of the Council of Ministers. Belloq announces Doctor Haushofer of the Thule Society will tell the audience the results of his research on the use of Vril as a psychic energy source. Leo’s friend Gno Mitang initiated him into the Japanese fighting disciplines.

Short story by Emmanuel Gorlier appearing as “Le Surhomme est-il français?” in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 14), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2014, and then in English in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Jacques Roll (formerly known as Joe Rollon) and Dutil-Parot are from Jean de La Hire’s book Joe Rollon, the Invisible Man. The Nyctalope is the hero of a series of novels by de La Hire. Sylvie, Mathias Lumen, Leonid Zattan, Lucifer, and Gno Mitang are from the Nyctalope series. The Phantom Angel has appeared in several stories by Randy Lofficier in the Tales of the Shadowmen series, and is meant to be the title character of the French fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty.” Belphégor is the title character of a French film serial; she encountered Leo and Belle earlier in the month in Gorlier’s story “Une Voce Poco Fa.” Professor René Belloq encountered Indiana Jones in the film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Aristide Clairembart is from Henri Vernes’ Bob Morane novels, while Tryphon Tournesol (Cuthbert Calculus in English translations) is from Hergé’s Tintin comics. Jerôme Fandor is one of the greatest foes of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s villain Fantômas, and may in fact be the “Lord of Terror’s” illegitimate son. Doctor Karl Haushofer was a real person whose geopolitical views may have influenced Hitler. The Vril energy is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Coming Race.

Crossover of the Week

Yesterday, I had the immense pleasure of attending a midnight showing of one of my favorite movies, The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As with the previous showings I attended, the audience participation was great, as was sharing the experience with people who love RHPS as much as I do. In honor of this great experience, here's my write-up of the novel that brings the movie into the CU.

2003

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UNCANNY

John Taylor escorts an elf across the Nightside, helps deceased P.I. Larry Oblivion look for his brother Tommy, and refuses to take Walker’s place as agent of the Authorities that rule the Nightside. Appearing or mentioned are: Hydes; a cyborg from some future timeline with eyes glowing golden, mainlining a fierce and nasty future drug called Blood; taduki; Martian red weed; Queen Mab; Oberon and Titania; the Street of the Gods; Puck; the Sonic Assassin; the Time Tower; the Deep School; Salvation Kane; Old Mother Shipton; Indiana Jones; Mr. Stab; Miss Eliza Fritton, who used to run a private girl’s school; the Carnacki Insitute; the Droods; the Vril Power Gang; the Nazi Skull; Jacqueline Hyde; the worms of the Earth; a stuffed water baby; giant albino penguins; an old-fashioned grandfather clock, with a cobwebbed human skeleton propped up inside it; a lizard serum; Julien Advent; Rats’ Alley; Dr. Delirium; Wu Fang; and a Hand of Glory made from a monkey’s paw.

Novel by Simon R. Green. The Hydes are individuals who use the formula that turned Dr. Henry Jekyll into Edward Hyde as a narcotic. Jacqueline Hyde is a descendant of Jekyll’s who takes her ancestor’s serum, which turns her into a male Hyde. The cyborg from a future timeline with eyes glowing golden is one of the Hadenmen from Green’s Deathstalker series, which takes place in one of many possible futures for the CU. The Blood drug is also from the Deathstalker books. The drug Taduki is from H. Rider Haggard’s novels and stories about hunter Allan Quatermain. Martian red weed is from H. G. Wells’ novel The War of the Worlds. Queen Mab is from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, while Oberon, Titania, and Puck are from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The Street of the Gods is from Green’s Hawk and Fisher novellas Winner Takes All and The God Killer. The Sonic Assassin is Michael Moorcock’s secret agent Jerry Cornelius, an incarnation of the Eternal Champion. The Time Tower is from Green’s novel Shadows Fall. Salvation Kane is probably meant to be Robert E. Howard’s heroic puritan Solomon Kane. The Deep School is an extradimensional school for sorcerers seen in Manly Wade Wellman’s John Thunstone stories. Old Mother Shipton, Mr. Stab, and the Droods are from Green’s Secret Histories series. Dr. Delirium goes on to become one of the main villains of the fourth Secret Histories novel, From Hell with Love. The Indiana Jones reference can be interpreted as a reference to either a real person or a fictional character, but since both Indy and John Taylor are firmly established as being in the CU, we can accept this as a legitimate crossover. Miss Eliza Fritton must be the same Miss Fritton who was the headmistress of St. Trinian’s, a private school for girls, in illustrated cartoons by Ronald Searle. The Carnacki Institute is featured in Green’s Ghost Finders series. The Vril Power Gang is a reference to the Vril power from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race. The Nazi Skull is a reference to Captain America’s Nazi archenemy, the Red Skull. The worms of the Earth are from Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story of the same name. The giant albino penguins are from Lovecraft’s novella At the Mountains of Madness. The stuffed water baby is a reference to Charles Kingsley’s children’s book The Water Babies. The old-fashioned grandfather clock with a cobwebbed human skeleton propped up inside it is from the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show, bringing that film and its sequel, Shock Treatment, into the CU. The lizard serum is probably the one used by the Lizard, a foe of the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man. Julien Advent, a recurring character in the Nightside books, is meant to be adventurer Adam Adamant from the British television series Adam Adamant Lives! Rats’ Alley is from T. S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land.” Wu Fang is a pulp villain created by Robert J. Hogan. The Hand of Glory made from a monkey’s paw is a reference to W. W. Jacobs’ story “The Monkey’s Paw.”

Crossover Cover: Casino Infernale

Eddie Drood and Molly Metcalf try to bring down the Shadow Bank, a mysterious conspiracy that bankrolls the evil schemes of villains. Appearing or mentioned are: Kayleigh’s Eye, the London Knights, Dead Boy, the Nightside, John Taylor, and Jacqueline Hyde (from Green's Nightside series); J.C. Chance, the Carnacki Institute, Natasha Chang, and the Crowley Project (from Green's Ghost Finders series); Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat and Shadows Fall (from Green's novel Shadows Fall); Bradford-on-Avon (the fictionalized version of the real town seen in Green's novel Drinking Midnight Wine); the Traveling Doctor, who said that bow ties are cool (the CU version of the Doctor of Doctor Who fame); a triffid (a CU version of the plant seen in John Wyndham's apocalyptic science fiction novel The Day of the Triffids); the Brotherhood of the Vril (a reference to the Vril from Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race); the Little Lord (from Green's Hawk and Fisher novellas); and the Elder Gods (from Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, of course.)

Crossover Cover: The Will to Power

Atomic Robo, created by Nikola Tesla, is the head of Tesladyne, a group dedicated to combating bizarre menaces, as well as conducting scientific research. In his first appearance, set in 1938, he battles Baron Heinrich von Helsingard, preventing him from having the Vril infused into his own body. The Vril is from Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s novel The Coming Race. This and several later crossovers bring Atomic Robo into the CU. The comics portray Robo’s existence as common knowledge, but this must be an exaggeration, as both sentient robots and the kinds of scientific menaces Robo faces on a regular basis are considered mere urban legends in the CU.