Crossover TV Episode: Zenana

 

Are you a fan of the classic Universal monster movies?

Then you'll love this episode of Endeavour, which has a nod to The Wolf Man, as well as Charles Dickens' Bleak House!

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 Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover TV Episode: Dark Shadows

 

In episode 944 of Dark Shadows, Jeb Hawkes, leader of the Leviathans, hears a werewolf howling, and recites a poem: “Even a man that’s pure of heart and says his prayers by night, may become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms, and the moon is full and bright.” The poem is a variation on the one first heard in the movie The Wolf Man. This version first appeared in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Megan Todd quotes the poem once again in Episode 961.

This crossover is one of hundreds covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Like the first two, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Big Trouble in Merrie Olde England

 

Jack Burton and friends recently had a battle aboard a submarine with Petty Officer Talbot, a werewolf. An MI-5 agent named Pellinor shows Margo Litzenberger and Eddie Lee portraits of his illustrious predecessors, one of whom is a man so unhappy his lips are curved almost into a snarl, and who wears a black jacket with white piping and a large badge of a penny-farthing bicycle. Felix “Wart” Kingfisher says the Wing Kong blackmailed the British authorities to leave them alone and go after their rivals, such as the Si-Fan and the Red Dragon Tong. Petty Officer Talbot must be a relative of Larry Talbot from the movie The Wolf Man and its sequels. It has been well-established that lycanthropy runs in the Talbot family. The agent in the black jacket is Number 6 from the classic TV series The Prisoner. The Si-Fan is Dr. Fu Manchu’s criminal organization in Sax Rohmer’s novels. The Red Dragon Tong is from the Hammer film The Terror of the Tongs. 

This novel is one of hundreds of crossovers covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! Like its predecessors, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Movie Poster: Blood

 

In 1884, Dr. Lawrence Orlovsky and his wife Regina move from Budapest to a house in America. Regina needs blood to survive, so Lawrence and their servants inject her with extracts from a blood-drinking plant he’s growing. Lawrence has inherited the curse of lycanthropy from his father, Lawrence Talbot, while Regina is a vampire like her own father, Count Dracula. Later, Dr. Frankenstein buys the Orlovsky house. Given the 1884 date, this Lawrence Talbot can’t be the same one seen in The Wolf Man and other works, but since we know Larry isn’t the only werewolf in the family, he must be a relative. Regina might be the daughter of one of Dracula’s soul-clones rather than the true Lord of the Vampires. Dr. Frankenstein is another member of the lineage of monster makers.

This crossover is one of 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 Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert! And for those interested, here's a link to my review of the film!

Crossover TV Series: Penny Dreadful

 

Are you a fan of classic monsters such as Dracula and Frankenstein's monster?

Then you may enjoy the TV series Penny Dreadful, featuring versions of those and other iconic characters in Victorian London!

For more details, see the appendix on alternate universes in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3! Much like the first two volumes, this book is an official and fully AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and will be published by Meteor House!

Crossover Movie Poster: House of the Wolf Man

Dr. Bela Reinhardt invites a group of connected but unsuspecting individuals to his castle, and monster mayhem ensues. Reinhardt is revealed to actually be Bela Frankenstein, son of Peter Frankenstein and a gypsy girl revealed to be the sister of Bela Blasko. A wolfshead cane appears (“a morbid keepsake”) and an old gypsy verse is quoted: “Even a man who’s pure in heart…” Among Reinhardt’s books is Alhazred’s Alchemy of Transmutation. Later, a Frankenstein Monster is released, and Dracula and his Brides show up. Reinhardt’s lab contains a fossilized Gill-Man hand, as well as one of Dr. Pretorius’ homunculi. Peter Frankenstein is from the film Son of Frankenstein. Mark Brown conflated Peter with Dr. Frederick Frankenstein from the film Young Frankenstein in his essay “The House of Frankenstein” (found on the website An Expansion of Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe.) Bela Blasko is the werewolf that bites Larry Talbot in the film The Wolf Man, which is also the source of the wolfshead cane and the old gypsy verse. Alchemy of Transformation’s author is Abdul Alhazred, best known as the author of the Necronomicon in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The fossilized Gill-Man hand is from the film Creature from the Black Lagoon, while Dr. Pretorius’ homunculi are from The Bride of Frankenstein.

Crossover of the Week

May 1, 2011-September 11, 2012

MIDNIGHT AT THE OASIS

            Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain battle a Middle Eastern terrorist cell that has acquired control of an afreet. A Navy SEAL and combat magician volunteered to spend six months in the U.K. under the tutelage of an ex-SAS sergeant major, who was said to be the greatest combat magician living. Quincey and Libby’s ally, FBI agent Colleen O’Donnell, mentions a blood spatter analyst named Morgan who worked on a case in Chicago. Quincey and Libby discuss the time they traveled to London for “that Castor thing.” Quincey meets with another colleague, Barry Love, who refers to rumors of an afreet driving a cab in New York for a while. Quincey and Barry set up a meeting at Strangefellows Bar and Grill; Quincey says that there’s another bar of that name in the U.K., and Barry knows a man in the same line of work as them named John who hangs out at the English bar. When Quincey arrives at Strangefellows, Barry is talking to a werewolf named Larry Talbot. Barry tells Quincey about a vampire he once encountered named Jerry, who was fond of apples and was killed by a high school kid after going to California. As Quincey and Barry part ways, Barry says that he is planning to deal with a guy called Pinhead. The terrorists use a spell called the Tarnhelm Effect to mask their breaking into a zoo, and discuss potential threats to their plot, including a magician in Chicago named Dresden and a woman named Blake in St. Louis.

            Novella by Justin Gustainis, 2013. The ex-SAS Sergeant Major and combat magician is William Gravel from Warren Ellis’ comic books Strange Kiss and Gravel. Morgan is Dexter Morgan, a blood spatter analyst and secret serial killer of other murderers, from the television series Dexter. However, Dexter works for the Miami Metro Police Department’s Homicide division, and has never been based in Chicago. Most likely, Dexter was on loan to the Chicago Police Department for this case, and O’Donnell merely assumed he worked for the CPD full time. “That Castor thing” is a reference to Felix Castor, an occult detective created by Mike Carey. The Castor books take place in a world where the public knows supernatural beings exist, so the Castor mentioned by Quincey and Libby must be the Crossover Universe counterpart of the character seen in Carey’s novels. Barry Love is a disguised version of Clive Barker’s occult investigator Harry D’Amour. Pinhead is from Barker’s story “The Hellbound Heart,” as well as the Hellraiser film series. The afreet that drove a cab in New York City appears in Neil Gaiman’s novel American Gods. The British Strangefellows is featured in Simon R. Green’s Nightside books; the main character of that series is private eye John Taylor. Larry Talbot is from the classic horror film The Wolf Man and its sequels. Jerry is Jerry Dandridge from the movie Fright Night.The Tarnhelm Effect is from Randall Garrett’s Lord Darcy books, which take place in an alternate universe where Richard the Lionheart did not die in the year 1199 and magic has supplanted science. Obviously, the Tarnhelm Effect exists in both Lord Darcy’s universe and the CU. Dresden is Harry Dresden, the protagonist of Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files series of novels, while Blake is Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire hunter Anita Blake. Like the Felix Castor novels, the Anita Blake novels take place in an alternate universe where the general public is aware of the existence of the supernatural. Therefore, the Anita Blake mentioned in Gustainis’ Morris and Chastain Supernatural Investigations novels must be the CU counterpart of Hamilton’s character. Although this novella supposedly takes place shortly after the last entry in the series, Play with Fire, Gustainis must have compressed the timeline of events. Play with Fire begins shortly after the novel preceding it, Sympathy for the Devil, which ends the day after Inauguration Day. The last Inauguration Day before the publication of Sympathy for the Devil was January 20, 2009. The inspiration for the terrorists’ actions in Midnight at the Oasis is the death of Osama bin Laden, which occurred on May 2, 2011.

Crossover Covers: Spike vs. Dracula

This miniseries explains the bad blood (no pun intended) between Spike and Dracula alluded to in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Buffy vs. Dracula." The first issue, set in 1898, has Spike killing a girl at the Slaughtered Lamb pub (from the movie An American Werewolf in London) in order to turn the customers against Dracula. In the final issue, set in 2003, Spike boasts that Dracula may have fought Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, King Arthur, and Zorro, but in Spike he's met his match. Dracula has encountered Frankenstein and the Wolf Man in several movies, books, stories, and comics. He met King Arthur and Zorro separately in two comic miniseries.