Crossover Cover: The Manifestations of Sherlock Holmes

 

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Then you'll love this anthology, which includes a story in which Holmes meets Professor Challenger, as well as alternate universe stories involving the Cthulhu Mythos and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde!

For more information, be sure to purchase 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 Devil's Dust

 

Sherlock Holmes’ latest case brings he and Dr. Watson into contact with Allan Quatermain and Umslopogaas, who are trying to discover the true circumstances of the death of Quatermain’s son Harry. Quatermain talks about his encounter with Ayesha, She Who Must Be Obeyed. Holmes and Quatermain have never met before, and Holmes denies being related to Quatermain’s friend Lady Ragnall, nee Luna Holmes. Both these details differ from Thomas Kent Miller’s various Holmes/Quatermain crossover pastiches, which have been included in the CU. Also, Lovegrove’s version of Quatermain brags about his abilities, the opposite of the humble and self-effacing character H. Rider Haggard portrayed. Consequently, I consider this novel an AU.

This novel is one of over a thousand crossovers 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 Covers: Adler

 

In 1902, nurse Jane Eyre returns from the Boer War and takes up rooms at Briony Lodge with Irene Adler. Soon, they must stop Ayesha, She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed, from destroying London. Along with various characters from the Holmes stories, also appearing are Estella Havisham (from Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations), Carmilla, Arthur Raffles, King Rudolf V of Ruritania, Queen Flavia, Rupert of Hentzau, Dr. Seward, the Demeter, Phileas Fogg, and Dr. Jekyll. Various anachronisms and reinterpretations of characters make this an AU. 

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: Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju

 

Today is my birthday, so to celebrate, I’m doing something special, by posting an excerpt from Appendix 1 of the new book, “The Anno Dracula Universe and Character Guide.” Enjoy!

Anno Dracula 1999: Daikaiju (Titan Books, 2019)

• Richard Jeperson is from Newman’s The Man from the Diogenes Club

• Christina Light (Roderick Hudson and The Princess Casamassima by Henry James)

• Cham-Cham and Mima are from the movie Perfect Blue

• Sprünt is from the TV series Knowing Me, Knowing You with Alan Partridge

• Yōkai (monsters from Japanese legend)

• Hyakume (yōkai)

• Triffids (The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham)

• Voltan (Jack Palance, Hawk the Slayer)

• The Chatsubo Bar (Neuromancer by William Gibson)

• Dr. Jogoro Komoda (Tatsumi Hijikata, Horrors of Malformed Men)

• Merkwerdichliebe (Dr. Merkwürdigliebe, aka Dr. Strangelove; Peter Sellers, Dr Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)

• Kate Reed

• Geneviève Dieudonné

• The Macedonia (The Sea-Wolf by Jack London)

• Sunway Systems is from the movie Cypher 

• Syrie Van Epp (Elizabeth Shepherd, The Corridor People)

• Wings Over the World is from the movie Things to Come

• Groover’s is from the movie Au Pair Girls 

• Millarca is the title character of J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla”

• The Daikaiju Building is in the shape of Gojira, aka Godzilla 

• The Monk (vampire and early foe of Batman)

• Taguchi (Kenji Mizuhashi, Pulse)

• Ishikawa (Shutaro Ishikawa; Ken Ogata, My Soul Is Slashed)

• Karl the Chiropterid is meant to be Karl Fei-Ong from the anime Blood+

• John Blaylock (David Bowie, The Hunger)

• Mycroft Holmes

• Caleb Croft (Michael Pataki, Grave of the Vampire)

• Lord Ruthven (“The Vampyre” by John Polidori)

• Drearcliff Grange is from Newman's Drearcliff Grange School series

• Yuki-Onna (yōkai; also played by Keiko Kishi in the movie Kwaidan)

• Detective Yoshitaka Azuma is a combination of Detective Azuma from Violent Cop with Detective Yoshitaka Nishi from Hana-Bi, both played by Takeshi Kitano

• Jiiji the Pimp (Shinya Tsukamoto, Ichi the Killer)

• Captain Takeda (Shun Sugata, Confessions of a Dog)

• Tenjo Kudari (yōkai)

• Officer Kamikura (Ichigo Kamikura; Osamu Mukai, S: The Last Policeman)

• The Sakis are from the Sukeban Deka film series

• Urufu Inugami (Akira Inugami; Wolf Guy by Kazumasa Hirai and Hisashi Sakaguchi)

• Big Thinks is from Newman’s Diogenes Club story “Tomorrow Town”

• WOTAN is from the Doctor Who serial “The War Machines”

• The General is from The Prisoner episode of the same name

• REMAK is from The Avengers episode “Killer”

• Gargantuabots are from Newman’s story “Gargantuabots vs. the Nice Mice”

• Erzulie Bronze is the daughter of Nefertiti Bronze from Newman’s contributions to The Lovecraft Squad mosaic novel series

• The Trenchcoat Twosome (the Trenchcoat Twins, played by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen in The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley video series)

• The Bowmans is from the titular Hancock episode

• Six-tentacled octopus by the Golden Gate Bridge (It Came from Beneath the Sea)

• Giant ape above the Bullring (King Kong)

• Flimsy-winged reptile tethered in the Tivoli Gardens (Reptilicus)

• The vampire killed by electricity in the Arctic Circle in 1951 is a reference to the movie The Thing from Another World 

• Lefty is the titular appendage from The Outer Limits episode “Demon with a Glass Hand,” written by Harlan Ellison

• The Starship Protector, Dr. Lazarus, and Galaxy Quest are from the movie Galaxy Quest

• The Eyeheads are from Naoki Urasawa’s manga 20th Century Boys 

• Unwin-Fujikawa Chemicals is derived from Unwin Chemicals in Newman’s novel Bad Dreams 

• Mr. Horowitz, aka Mr. Horror and Iron Mouth (Jaws; Richard Kiel, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker; the character was based on Sol “Horror” Horowitz from Ian Fleming's original novel The Spy Who Loved Me)

• Dr. Kiyokazu Akiba (Kōichi Satō, Infection)

• General Gokemidoro is from the movie Goke, Body Snatcher from Hell

• The Uchoten Hotel is from the movie of the same name, as are Tokiko (Keiko Toda) and Zenbu (Toshiyuki Nishida)

• Colonel Golgotha is the title character of Takao Saito's manga Golgo 13

• Derek (Peter Jackson, Bad Taste)

• O-Ren Blake, aka Cottonmouth, is a conflation of O-Ren “Cottonmouth” Ishii from Kill Bill: Vol. 1 with Sadie Blake from Rise: Blood Hunter; Lucy Liu played both characters

• Killer (Light “Kira” Yagami; Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata)

• Furīman (Crying Freeman by Kazuo Koike and Ryoichi Ikegami)

• Panty-Mask (Ryôhei Suzuki, Hentai Kamen and Hentai Kamen: The Abnormal Crisis)

• Mikaeris, aka the Butler (Sebastian Michaelis; Black Butler by Yana Toboso)

• Kurokawa, aka Caterpillar (“The Caterpillar” by Edogawa Rampo)

• Mizuno, aka Astro-Man (Yoshio Tsuchiya, The Human Vapor)

• Hanjuro, the Black Ninja (David Chung, Ninja III: The Domination)

• Simon Molinar (Jason Carter, Demon Under Glass)

• Brilliant-Smith (Dick Tracy by Chester Gould)

• Dr. Septimus Pretorius (Ernest Thesiger, Bride of Frankenstein)

• Henry Jekyll (Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson)

• Senator John Blutarski (John Belushi, National Lampoon’s Animal House)

• Don Sebastian de Villanueva (vampire in novels by Les Daniels)

• Xochitl (Rosa Arenas, The Aztec Mummy, The Curse of the Aztec Mummy, and The Aztec Mummy Against the Humanoid Robot)

• Mitsuru Fujiwara (Ghost Talker’s Daydream by Saki Okuse and Sankichi Meguro)

• The Opera Ghost Agency is from Newman’s Angels of Music

• The Unnameables are from Newman’s stories “The Big Fish” and “Moon Moon Moon”

• Germany’s Lohmann Branch is named after Inspector Karl Lohmann, played by Otto Wernicke in M and The Testament of Dr. Mabuse 

• Russia’s Night Watch (World of Watches series by Sergei Lukyanenko)

• Kogorō Akechi, the Boy Detectives Club, the Fiend with Twenty Faces, and the Black Lizard from Edogawa Rampo’s mystery novels

• Giant vampire turtle (Gamera)

• Kaname Kuran (Vampire Knight by Matsuri Hino)

• Subaru Sumiyagi (Subaru Sumeragi; Tokyo Babylon by Clamp)

• Kyoichi Kagenuma (Ryuhei Matsuda, Nightmare Detective and Nightmare Detective 2)

• Professor Brian O’Blivion (Jack Creley, Videodrome)

• Higo Yanagi (yōkai)

• Albert “Smiler” Watson is a conflation of the title character of the Sergeant Cork episode “The Case of Albert Watson, V.C.” with Smiler Washington from the TV movie Chips with Everything, both played by Ronald Lacey

• Kuchisake (yōkai)

• Rider Kuuga (Joe Odagiri, Kamen Rider Kuuga)

• Suzan Arashi is based on Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Girl, of the Marvel superteam the Fantastic Four

• Commander Hamish Bond (James Bond)

• Cousin Helen (Helen “Hallie” Takahama, aka Jolt, member of the Marvel superhero team the Thunderbolts)

• Tsunako Shiki (Sunako Kirishiki; Shiki by Fuyumi Ono)

• Cthulhu, Dagon, and Azathoth are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Mythos

• Lady Asaji Washizu (Isuzu Yamada) and Spider Forest are from the movie Throne of Blood

• Fray Sebastian and Kichijiro (Silence by Shūsaku Endō)

• O-Same (yōkai)

• Higanjima Island (Higanjima by Kōji Matsumoto)

• Heike Ziss is from Newman’s Drearcliff Grange School books

• Charlotte (Jennifer Ulrich, We Are the Night)

• Callie (Callie Webb; Parker Posey, For Your Consideration)

• Jennifer Jolie (Parker Posey, Scream 3)

• The movie The Hobbs End Horror is based on Sutter Cane’s novel of the same name in the movie In the Mouth of Madness

• Derek Leech (recurring evil media mogul in Newman’s work)

• The Broken Doll and Carleton Knowles are from The Haunting of Drearcliff Grange School

• Olof Carlsen (The Space Vampires by Colin Wilson)

• Louise Teazle is from Newman’s novel An English Ghost Story

• Anthony Peak is an alias for the title character of the manga Lupin the Third by Monkey Punch

• Andrew A. Thomason is based on Thomas A. Anderson, aka Neo, Keanu Reeves’ character in the movie The Matrix and its sequels

• The Niide Clinic is named after Dr. Kyojō Niide, Toshiro Mifune’s character in Red Beard

• Tetch (Jervis Tetch, aka the Mad Hatter, one of Batman’s foes)

• Middle-aged, sad-faced American actor and younger woman with pink-tinged hair (Bob Harris and Charlotte; Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation)

• Takashi Kamata, aka DK (Brian Tee, The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift)

• Kageyama (Akira Kageyama; Hayato Ichihara, Yakuza Apocalypse)

• Sergeant Kankichi (Ryotsu Kankichi; Kochikame by Osamu Akimoto)

• Officer Ota (Isao Ota; Patlabor by Masami Yuki)

• Officer Brenten and the puma girls (Charles Brenten, AnnaPuma, and UniPuma; Dominion by Masamune Shirow)

• Officer Nakajima (Ken Nakajima; You’re Under Arrest by Kōsuke Fujishima)

• Lady Oyotsu (yōkai)

• Charles Strickland (The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham)

• Asato Yamamura is a combination of Ai Asato from Kochikame with Sadako Yamamura from the Ring novel series by Koji Suzuki

• Sophie Fukami is from the anime Kado: The Right Answer 

• Dessert is from the movie Suicide Club 

• The Bronx Warriors are from the movie 1990: The Bronx Warriors

• The Baseball Furies are from the movie The Warriors

• de Boscherville (Erik the Opera Ghost; The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux)

• Anck-es-en-Amon (Zita Johann, The Mummy)

• Petrox Oil is from the 1976 remake of King Kong 

• The North Sea Jennifer disaster refers to the movie North Sea Hijack

• Sonja Blaue (Sonja Blue, monster-hunting vampire in novels by Nancy A. Collins)

• Oily Maniac Hair Tonic is named after the movie Oily Maniac 

• The Moth (Mothra, Japanese movie monster)

• The Pterror (Rodan, another cinematic monster)

• The Tri-Kappa (King Ghidorah, still another Japanese cinema monster)

• The Ferat automobile company is from the Czech film Ferat Vampire 

• Rex Mifune is better known as Racer X from the anime Speed Racer 

• Furano, the Frankenstein Girl (Keiko Furano; Eri Otoguro, Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl)

• Varanit Gorasu, the Indescribable Man, evokes the films Varan the Unbelievable and Gorath

• Aki Nijūhachi-gō is the title character of Katsuhiro Otomo’s manga Akira 

• Bokonism (Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut)

• Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday)

• Herbert von Krolock (Iain Quarrier, Dance of the Vampires)

• Lester Shortlion (Lestat de Lioncourt; The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice)

• Angel de la Guardia (Ron Perlman, Cronos)

• Georgia Rae Drumgo, a conflation of Georgia Rae Mahoney from the television series Homicide: Life on the Street and Evelda Drumgo from the movie Hannibal, both played by Hazellle Goodman 

• Abura Sumashi (yōkai)

• Kasa-obake (yōkai)

• Perkin Murdleigh is based on Muttley from the cartoon Wacky Races 

• Mr. Omochi (Fear and Trembling by Amélie Nothomb)

• Chesse Beru (Chesse Belle; Seraph of the End by Takaya Kagami and Yamato Yamamoto)

• Tsukamoto is meant to be the unnamed metal fetishist played by Shinya Tsukamoto in his film Tetsuo: The Iron Man

• The predator vampire that permanently shapeshifted into a lift in Amsterdam in the 1980s is a reference to the Dutch film De Lift

• Count Oblensky (Waldemar Wohlfahrt, The Horrible Sexy Vampire)

• Kah Pai Mei is a conflation of Kah from the movie The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires with Pai Mei from Chinese legend and film

• Sesshō Seki (yōkai)

• General Ichimonji (Hidetora Ichimonji; Tatsuya Nakadai, Ran)

• Mowgli of Seoni (The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling)

• The Blue Water Pendant is from the anime Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water; the Nemo Collection refers to Captain Nemo, who besides being from Jules Verne’s novels also appears in that series

• Munch’s Lady of the Shroud is named after Bram Stoker’s novel

• The Mausoleum is from Newman’s “Sorcerer Conjurer Wizard Witch”

• Wingman Paul Metcalf is better known as Captain Scarlet from the TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons; the Seraphs are based on the Angels from that series

• Wing Navigator Hayata (Shin Hayata; Susumu Kurobe, Ultraman)

• Dr. Devilers (Alain Delon, Shock Treatment [1973 film])

• Drusilla Zark (Juliet Landau, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel; the surname is derived from Juliet’s father Martin Landau’s villain in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. episode “The Bat Cave Affair”) 

• The Silver Sentinel is based on Klaatu’s flying saucer in the movie The Day the Earth Stood Still 

• The EvangeLions are named after the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion

• Wing Captain Gardner (Grant Gardner, aka Captain America; Dick Purcell, Captain America [1943 serial])

• The Loren Mansion is from the movie House on Haunted Hill 

• Kostaki (“The Pale-Faced Lady” by Alexandre Dumas)

• The Daughter of the Dragon (Fah Lo Suee, Dr. Fu Manchu’s daughter)

• The Ska-tastics are from the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode “Dance of the Undead”

• Skerra Island is from Newman’s Diogenes Club story “Swellhead”

• An attractive archaeologist (Lara Croft, Tomb Raider)

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 of the Week

Autumn 1898

GUIGNOL 

Erik's current Angels of Music (Kate Reed, Lady Yuki, and Clara Watson) are hired to bring an end to the Théâtre des Horreurs, whose gruesome plays may not be staged. Appearing or mentioned are: Henry Wilcox; the Diogenes Club; Jacques Hulot; La Vie Francaise; the Persian; Morpho; Berma; Phroso; Bertrand Caillet; Eugene Mortain; Charles Pradier; General Assolant; Père de Kern; Georges du Roy; Dr. Orloff; Gustav von Aschenbach; Madame Mandelip; Place Frollo; Max Valentin, aka Maximilian the Great; Janus Stark; Malita; the Marquis d’Amblezy-Sérac; Aristide Forestier; Les Vampires; the Suicide Club; Frédéric Larsan; Inspecteur Juve; Dr. Johannes; the Grand Vampire; Sultan the Gorilla; Rollo the Knife-Thrower; and “a strange figure...wearing the headdress and golden death-mask of a pharaoh.” 

Story by Kim Newman in Angels of Music, Titan Books, 2016. Erik and the Persian are from Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Kate Reed, a “deleted” character from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, also appears in Newman’s Diogenes Club series, and has a counterpart in the Anno Dracula Universe. The Club is from Doyle and Watson’s “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.” Lady Yuki is Yuki Kashima, the title character of Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura’s manga Lady Snowblood. Clara and Eugene Mortain are from Octave Mirbeau’s novel Torture Garden. The surname Watson is derived from Pierre Chaine and André de Lorde's Grand Guignol play based on the book. Père de Kern is from Mirbeau’s Sébastien Roch. The Marquis d’Amblezy-Sérac is from Mirbeau’s Un Gentilhomme. Henry Wilcox is from E. M. Forster’s novel Howards End. Jacques Hulot is an ancestor of Monsieur Hulot, a character created and played by French comedian Jacques Tati. La Vie Francaise and Georges du Roy are from Guy de Maupassant’s novel Bel-Ami. Morpho and Dr. Orloff are from the movie The Awful Dr. Orloff. Berma is from Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time. Phroso is an ancestor of Phroso the clown from Tod Browning’s film Freaks. Madame Mandelip and Malita are from Browning’s movie The Devil-Doll. Bertrand Caillet is from Guy Endore’s The Werewolf of Paris. Charles Pradier is from Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s Fantômas novel Le Magistrat Cambrioleur. Inspecteur Juve is Fantômas’ archenemy. General Assolant is from Humphrey Cobb’s novel Paths of Glory. Gustav von Aschenbach is from Thomas Mann’s Death in Venice. Place Frollo is named after Monseigneur Claude Frollo from Victor Hugo’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Valentin is from the movie Le Jour Sè Leve; his first name and stage name are derived from his equivalent in the American remake, The Long Night. Janus Stark is a Victorian escape artist and crimefighter who appeared in the British comics Smash and Valiant. Aristide Forestier is from Cole Porter’s musical Can-Can. Les Vampires are from Louis Feuillade’s titular serial. The Grand Vampire is the title of the gang’s leader. The Suicide Club is from Robert Louis Stevenson’s short story of the same name. Frédéric Larsan is the alias used by Rouletabille’s father, the criminal Ballmeyer, in Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Dr. Johannes is from J.-K. Huysmans’ Là-Bas. Sultan the Gorilla is from the movie Phantom of the Rue Morgue. Rollo the Knife-Thrower is from the movie Mad Love. The “strange figure...wearing the headdress and golden death-mask of a pharaoh” is a reference to the title character of the serial Belphégor. However, Simone Desroches, the villain's alter ego, was born in 1902, so there must have been an earlier wearer of the mask. 

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: The Moonstone's Curse

 

Are you a Sherlock Holmes fan?

Then you may enjoy this pastiche, which also serves as a sequel to Wilkie Collins' novel The Moonstone!

For more information, check out the appendix on alternate universes in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when it is 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 Covers: Anno Dracula

 

Are you a fan of Kim Newman's alternate history vampire series Anno Dracula?

Then you'll love these additions to that series, which will be covered in an appendix entitled "The Anno Dracula Universe and Character Guide" in my forthcoming book Crossovers Expanded Vol. 3, to be published by Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: The Instrument of Death

 

In 1896, Sherlock Holmes goes up against the mesmerist Dr. Gustav Caligari, who has turned an innocent man into a murderous somnambulist. At the end of this case, Watson reports that Caligari, having fled the hangman, eventually settled in Germany, where he created another somnambulistic killer named Cesare before being captured and placed in an insane asylum. Dr. Caligari and Cesare are from Robert Wiene’s 1920 German silent film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

This novel is only one of hundreds of works that will be covered in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Vol. 3, the third AUTHORIZED companion volume to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2. As with the first two volumes, Vol. 3 will be published by the fine folks at Meteor House!

Crossover of the Week

Early January 1891

THE GREEK INVERTEBRATE

Professor Moriarty and Colonel Moran are asked by the Professor’s brother, Colonel James Moriarty, to ignore a summons from the third Moriarty brother, stationmaster James. The Professor and Moran defy his orders, and become involved with espionage and a new machine with which to wage war. Appearing or mentioned are: Sir Augustus Moran; the Club of the Damned; the Mausoleum Club; a chandelier falling on the audience of the Paris Opera during the jewel song from Faust; Fal Vale Junction; Greyfriars; the kuripuri; the Grand Vampire; Les Vampires; a German rival of Moriarty’s who sometimes assumes the guise of “a shock-haired, stooped alienist with mesmeric eyes”; Irma Vep; Palliser; Nevil Airey Stent; Fred Porlock; the Lord of Strange Deaths; R. G. Sanders; Eduardo Lucas; Thomas Carnacki; Cursitor Doone; Monsieur Sabin; Ilse von Hoffmansthal, aka Madame Gabrielle Valladon; Flaxman Low; Hugo Oberstein; Sophy Kratides; Malilella of the Stiletto; Irene Adler; Lady Yuki Kashima; Mad Margaret Trelawny; Dr. Syn; Partington; Paul Finglemore, alias Colonel Clay; and Ram Singh.

Short story by Colonel Sebastian Moran, edited by Kim Newman in Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles, Titan Books, 2011. Professor Moriarty, Colonel Moran, and Irene Adler are from Doyle and Watson’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Colonel Moriarty is mentioned in “The Final Problem.” Stationmaster Moriarty and Fred Porlock are from The Valley of Fear. Sir Augustus Moran, the Colonel’s father, is mentioned in “The Adventure of the Empty House.” Eduardo Lucas is from the Holmes story “The Adventure of the Second Stain”; since Lucas died in that story, which Baring-Gould has dated to October 1886, the Lucas in Newman’s story must be a cousin of Doyle’s character who is also involved in espionage. Hugo Oberstein is mentioned in both “The Adventure of the Second Stain” and “The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans,” which is also the source of Partington. Sophy Kratides is from the Holmes tale “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter.” The Club of the Damned is from the 1970s British television series Supernatural. The Mausoleum Club is from the 1980s BBC radio comedy series Tales from the Mausoleum Club. The chandelier falling on the audience of the Paris Opera during the jewel song from Faust is a reference to The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux. Fal Vale Junction is from Arnold Ridley’s play The Ghost Train. Greyfriars is the school attended by Billy Bunter in stories written by Charles Hamilton under the pen name Frank Richards. The kuripuri (originally spelled curupuri) is from Doyle’s novel The Lost World. Les Vampires are from Louis Feuillade’s film serial of the same name, as are their leader, the Grand Vampire, and Irma Vep. This Grand Vampire’s predecessor, who appeared in “The Adventure of the Six Maledictions,” must be the one murdered by Erik, the Phantom of the Opera, in 1889, as mentioned in Josh Reynolds’ Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows. Rick Lai’s “All Predators Great and Small” has Irma as a child in 1895; perhaps the alias “Irma Vep” is used by whoever serves as Les Vampires’ primary female operative at any given time. This is likely the same Irma seen in Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows. Moriarty’s German rival is Dr. Mabuse, the master criminal who appeared in fiction by Norbert Jacques and three films directed by Fritz Lang. Palliser is Plantagenet Palliser, the protagonist of a series of novels by Anthony Trollope. The Palliser novels are connected to the Chronicles of Barsetshire series, as well as several non-series novels by Trollope. Stent is from H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. The Lord of Strange Deaths is Fu Manchu. R. G. Sanders is Edgar Wallace’s Sanders of the River. Sanders and another of Wallace’s characters, Lieutenant Bones, appear in each other’s series. Thomas Carnacki, “the Ghost-Finder,” was created by William Hope Hodgson. Cursitor Doone’s name is meant to evoke the British comic book character Cursitor Doom. Monsieur Sabin is from E. Phillips Oppenheim’s novels Mysterious Mister Sabin and The Yellow Crayon. Ilse Von Hoffmansthal (originally spelled without the second “h”), aka Gabrielle Valladon, is from Billy Wilder’s film The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. Flaxman Low is from the collection Ghosts; Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low, by “E. and H. Heron” (Hesketh V. Prichard and Kate O’Brien Ryall Prichard). Malilella (usually spelled without the second “l”) is from Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s opera The Jewels of the Madonna. Lady Yuki Kashima is better known as the title character of Kazuo Koike and Kazuo Kamimura’s manga Lady Snowblood. Margaret Trelawny is from Bram Stoker’s The Jewel of Seven Stars. Dr. Syn is from novels by Russell Thorndike. Paul Finglemore, aka Colonel Clay, is from Grant Allen’s An African Millionaire. Ram Singh is from the film Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon. Several details given about the Moriarty family in this story contradict their established CU history: the Colonel is younger than the Professor, the father of all three brothers was named James, and the Professor implicitly killed his own parents. Moriarty must have had an ulterior motive for lying to Moran.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: Gods of War

In Late September 1913, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson battle a murderous cult seeking to engineer a World War. Holmes describes the time he met Dupin, who failed to impress him. One of the cultists is descended from Sir Nigel Loring, but the reference is to the historical knight of that name, not Doyle’s heavily fictionalized version. The foreword, allegedly written by Watson in 1923, claims Holmes is now deceased, and it is stated within the main text Mycroft died seven years ago (that is, in 1906). Watson also describes Mary Morstan as his first wife, whereas in the CU she was his second wife. All these factors place this book in an AU.

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 Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God

Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Thomas Carnacki against Aleister Crowley, Julian Karswell, and Dr. John Silence. Carnacki is the archetypal occult detective, created by William Hope Hodgson. Karswell is from M.R. James’ story “Casting the Runes,” though his first name of Julian comes from Jacques Tourneur’s film version of the story, Night of the Demon. Dr. Silence is another occult investigator appearing in six stories by Algernon Blackwood. There are also references to Dr. Hesselius (from “Green Tea” and other stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu), Lawrence Van Helsing (from Hammer Studios’ Dracula films), Charles Kent (from the Hammer film Dracula: Prince of Darkness), and Mocata Grange (from Adams’ Big Finish audio play Iris Rides Out, featuring Carnacki and Iris Wildthyme, a character created by Paul Magrs for his Phoenix Court novels, who was revealed to be a Time Lady in his tie-in fiction for Doctor Who; the name Mocata Grange is an allusion to the occultist Mocata from Dennis Wheatley’s novel The Devil Rides Out.) This novel takes place December 27, 1899-New Year’s Day, 1900. However, Dr. Silence’s portrayal as a villain (albeit misguided rather than truly malevolent) and his death do not fit with Blackwood’s tales. Additionally, Kim Newman’s serial novella “Seven Stars” establishes that in the CU, Dr. Silence was still alive and active in 1942. Therefore, I have placed this novel in an AU.