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.”

Crossover Covers: The Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries

Win included the first five books in Carrie Bebris' Mr. and Mrs. Darcy Mysteries, which feature Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice alongside characters from Austen's other novels, in the AU section of the original Crossovers volumes, as the chronology of Bebris' series does not fit with CU continuity, where the events of Pride and Prejudice must take place before 1795 due to Darcy and Elizabeth being married (and Elizabeth pregnant) when they were exposed to the radiation of the Wold Newton meteor. Two more books have appeared since then, and I will be including them in the AU section of the new volumes. The Deception at Lyme (Or, The Peril of Persuasion) features characters from Persuasion, while The Suspicion at Sanditon (Or, The Disappearance of Lady Denham) has the Darcys meeting characters from Austen's unfinished novel Sanditon.

The Librarian(s) in the CU

In the 2004 TV movie The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, genius Flynn Carsen is kicked out of college, and receives a job offer from the Metropolitan Public Library. He soon discovers that he has been appointed to act as "the librarian," the guardian of historical and often magical items found in a hidden section of the library. When the evil Serpent Brotherhood steals one of three pieces of the Spear of Destiny, which when combined can be used to control the world, Flynn must go on a quest to prevent them from acquiring the other two pieces. He finds the last spear piece in Shangri-La. After defeating the Brotherhood, Flynn learns that the Death Scorpion Cult has stolen H.G. Wells’ Time Machine. The connections to Shangri-La (from James Hilton’s Lost Horizon) and the Time Machine (from H.G. Wells’ novel of the same name) bring Flynn Carsen into the CU. Various accounts set in the CU have portrayed different parties as possessing the Spear of Destiny. It has yet to be determined which, if any, of these stories features the true Spear.

In the 2006 TV movie The Librarian: Return to King Solomon's Mines, Flynn and archaeologist Emily Davenport strive to prevent a thief from plundering the treasures of King Solomon’s Mines. While traveling to the mines, they pass the Breasts of Sheba and Three Witches Mountain. Both landmarks are from H. Rider Haggard's first Allan Quatermain novel, King Solomon's Mines. Solomon’s treasure must have been returned to the African mines from the Pacific island where it was kept for a time, as seen in the Tales of the Gold Monkey episode "Legends Are Forever."

In the 2008 movie The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice, Flynn battles the vampire Vlad Dracula, who has rejuvenated himself by drinking from the Judas Chalice. Supposedly, Dracula was left crippled and stripped of most of his power after drinking from the corpse of a cholera victim hundreds of years ago. This “Dracula” is most likely a “soul-clone” of the true Count.

In 2014, the TV series The Librarians debuted, featuring a new team of Librarians hand-picked by Flynn. The group's greatest foe is the Serpent Brotherhood, led by an immortal named Dulaque. Last night's episode, "The Librarians and the Apple of Discord," continued the pattern of crossovers in the franchise. The World Crime League is named as one of the factions that sent a representative to a conclave of supernatural beings. The League is from the film The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Jenkins, the group's caretaker, refers to the amendment to the Wold Newton bylaws at a prior conclave. The conclave involving the Wold Newton bylaws may have been part of a larger conclave that happened in Wold Newton, Yorkshire on December 13, 1795, as originally revealed by Philip José Farmer in Tarzan Alive, and elaborated on by Win in “The Wild Huntsman.” The O2STK is also mentioned. The O2STK (Organization Too Secret to Know) is from Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine’s comic book The Middleman.

Crossover of the Week

Today's post is dedicated to my dear friend and predecessor Win Scott Eckert, who blazed the trail I now follow. Happy birthday, Win! 

February 28-April 1815

VIOLET’S LAMENT

            Dr. Siger Holmes enters the library at Blakeney Manor, home of Sir Percy Blakeney, where he reads the Ruthvenian. The book was written over a hundred years ago by Armand Tesla a researcher on vampires and the occult, and primarily focuses on the Ruthven family, which according to Tesla has a long history of vampirism. Holmes wonders if the present Lord Ruthven has himself joined the ranks of the undead. He thinks of Sir Percy’s deceased first wife, Marguerite’s own return from the grave as a vampire. He is joined by Sir Percy and Marguerite’s daughter Violet, who was named after Holmes’ wife. Holmes and Sir Percy are close as brothers, and Holmes’ wife and Sir Percy’s second wife Alice are sisters. Holmes and Violet discuss the gathering at Would Newton in December of 1795 held by Violet’s parents, where a fiery stone fell from the sky. Holmes wishes to track down Countess Nadine Carody, who was responsible for Marguerite’s death and subsequent undeath, and Violet insists on accompanying him. Twenty years ago, Sir Percy and Holmes suspected that Countess Carody and Colonel Bozzo-Corona were in league. A month prior to the Would Newton conclave, Holmes saw the Colonel’s man, Lecoq, at the Countess’ Parisian townhouse. Agreements with the Colonel and the Brothers of Mercy were made at the Conclave. In the Etsch Valley two months later, Holmes and Violet are saved by a female vampire called Ziska from another nosferatu called the Giaour. Four men approach the duo: Leo Lecoq (son of the Colonel’s henchman), Durand, Thénardier, and Mondego. Lupin’s half-brother Bonaparte is mentioned. The Colonel and the Countess are holed up in the Castle of Monteleone. Three murders happened during the conclave, all signaled by the sound of a bell tolling nine times. The Colonel’s contingent at that time included the elder Lecoq, Kramm, Carody, and Gerolstein. A vampire called Count Aubri attacks Holmes, Violet, and Lecoq and his men. Thénardier and Mondego perish in the assault. Reaching the Castle at last, the survivors come face to face with the Countess, Ziska, and another vampire, Count Yorga. The Colonel offers Violet a place in his organization. He has long been planning to expand his operations into Spanish California, and he wishes Violet to pose as Durand’s daughter as part of this expansion.

            Short story by Win Scott Eckert in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 9: La Vie en Noir, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2012; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 13), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2014. Sir Percy Blakeney, his first wife Marguerite, and Blakeney Manor are from the Scarlet Pimpernel novels by Baroness Orczy. Dr. Siger Holmes and his wife, the former Violet Clarke (the great-grandparents of Sherlock Holmes); Alice, Sir Percy’s second wife (the former Alice Clarke Raffles, Violet Holmes’ sister); the elder Lecoq (Albert Lecoq, grandfather of Emile Gaboriau’s sleuth Monsieur Lecoq); and Lupin (Louis Lupin, great-great-grandfather of Arsène Lupin) are from Philip José Farmer’s seminal biography Tarzan Alive. Sir Percy and Marguerite’s daughter, Violet Yvonne Blakeney, is from John Blakeney’s biography The Life and Exploits of the Scarlet Pimpernel (aka A Gay Adventurer.) The Ruthvenian is a book of vampiric lore featured in many interconnected books, comics, and films by Donald F. Glut. It is named after the Ruthven family, the most famous member of whom is the Lord Ruthven featured in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre.” Armand Tesla is the occult scholar and vampire played by Bela Lugosi in the film The Return of the Vampire. The trip to Would Newton (or Wold Newton, as it is better known), along with the murders occurring prior to same, were depicted in Eckert’s story “The Wild Huntsman” (The Worlds of Philip José Farmer 3, Portraits of a Trickster, Michael Croteau, ed., Meteor House, 2012.) The Countess Nadine Carody is from Jesús Franco’s horror film Vampyros Lesbos. Colonel Bozzo-Corona, Leo Lecoq (aka Lecoq de la Perière, Monsieur Lecoq’s father), and the Castle of Monteleone are from the Black Coats novels by Paul Féval. Ziska is from Alexandre Dumas père’s play The Vampire. Mondego is a relative of Fernand Mondego from Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo. The Giaour is from the poem of the same name by Lord Byron. Durand is the future alleged father of Violet Yvonne and her sister Hélène. M. Durand and Violet’s activities in Spanish California are detailed in Eckert’s story “Zorro’s Rival” (More Tales of Zorro, Richard Dean Starr, ed., Moonstone Books, 2011.) Hélène Durand is the mother of Andrea de Felipone (aka Sir Williams) and his half-brother Armand de Kergaz in Ponson du Terrail’s Rocambole novels. Jean-Marc Lofficier identified Hélène as Violet’s sister in his article “The Tangled Web: Genealogies of the Members of the French Wold Newton Families – Rocambole and Fantômas” (found on The French Wold Newton Universe website.) Thénardier is a relative of Madame Thénardier and her son from Victor Hugo’s classic novel Les Misérables. Kramm is the ancestor of Dr. Cornelius Kramm from Gustave le Rouge’s Le Mystérieux Dr. Cornélius. Gerolstein is the father of Rodolphe de Gerolstein from Eugène Sue’s Les Mystères de Paris. Count Aubri is from Peter Josef von Lindpaintner and Cäsar Max Hegel’s opera Der Vampyr. Count Yorga is from the films Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga. Given his reappearance in the 1970s, Yorga must have been resurrected sometime after his death at Dr. Holmes’ hands in this story.

The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow

In the first issue of Howard Chaykin's miniseries The Shadow: Midnight in Moscow, published by Dynamite and set in the early '50s, the Shadow attends a dinner party with several other adventurers. Though not named, the host is Nero Wolfe, and the other guests are Tarzan, Doc Savage, and Bulldog Drummond. Farmer identified all of those present as members of the Wold Newton Family. But the really cool part of this scene? The picture hanging on the wall in the background is a photograph of the real monument to the Wold Newton meteor. I for one love this, and will definitely take note of it when I write this series up for the books.

Crossover Covers: The Rocketeer

In Dave Stevens' excellent comic The Rocketeer, the inventor of the rocket pack used by Cliff Secord is clearly Doc Savage, though he is never referred to by name and his face is always obscured. Monk and Ham also appear. In the sequel, Cliff's New York Adventure, Cliff works with a man named Jonas, who is clearly meant to be the Shadow, though he never dons his familiar outfit. One possible non-pulp crossover in this story that isn't often mentioned is that a cab driver named Moe (implicitly Moe "Shrevvy" Shrevnitz, one of the Shadow's agents) drives a taxi with the word "Sunshine" on one of its doors. The New York-based Sunshine Cab Company was featured in the 1978-1982 sitcom Taxi. This isn't the only reference bringing Taxi into the CU, but it's still pretty cool. The Rocketeer is one of Win's favorite comics, and the one that got him thinking of a larger Crossover Universe that had the members of the Wold Newton Family coexisting with other heroes. Dave Stevens died far too young, and he is missed by myself and many other fans of great writing and gorgeous art. He is also to be commended for everything he did for Bettie Page, upon whom Cliff's girlfriend was based and named after. (In the film adaptation of the comic, the inventor of the rocket pack was changed from Doc Savage to Howard Hughes, and Cliff's girlfriend was changed to an actress named Jenny Blake, among other changes.) IDW Publishing has done an admirable job of publishing new adventures of the Rocketeer, several of which have crossovers of their own.

Crossover Cover: Airboy/G-8

This graphic novel from Moonstone Books, set in December 1940, has Robert J. Hogan's pulp aviator G-8 (a Wold Newton Family member according to Farmer) teaming up with Hillman Comics' costumed aviator Airboy (who also has already been established as existing in the CU) to battle a new batch of mutant bats created by G-8's archenemy, Herr Doktor Krueger. It's worth noting that the writer of this comic, Chuck Dixon, wrote a story for the anthology The Captain Midnight Chronicles that has Airboy teaming up with Captain Midnight near the end of World War II. This encounter is treated as their first meeting, which might conflict with Jim Harmon's theory (referenced by Win in Volume 1) that Captain Midnight and G-8 were the same person. On the other hand, perhaps Dixon was providing misinformation for reasons of his own. Also worth noting is that Krueger is in very poor health in Airboy/G-8, confined to an iron lung. However, he must have made a partial recovery within two years of the story, as he is merely wheelchair-bound when he appears as "Herr Doktor K" in Tom Johnson's story "The Nazi Spider Staffel," set in August 1942.

Crossover of the Week

March 6, 1910-August 27, 1911

PROFESSOR PEASLEE PLAYS PARIS

            In 1910, a group of men led by Count Ferenczy and Professor Peaslee uncover a meteor in the Tunguska region of Siberia. Peaslee claims that because of Ferenczy’s failure in 1795, they must struggle with men with remarkable skills, and says that this meteor must not create another Holmes or Nemo. The following year, Peaslee requests the criminal Flambeau’s aid in deceiving the criminal organization known as the Habits Noirs. Inspector Romaine visits the Louvre, from which the Mona Lisa has been stolen, and reflects that Chief Aristide Valentin has committed suicide. The best and brightest of the police, including Broquet, Guichard, and Maigret, are attempting to deal with the massive crime-wave in Paris. Romaine meets with a man in an iron mask and his female aide, Joséphine. Peaslee asks a young girl named Nardi, recommended to him by Flambeau, to steal a stone. Peaslee compares that stone, the Tear of Azathoth, to the Heart of the Ocean, the Pink Panther, and the Maltese Falcon. Baron Cesare Stromboli, an agent of the Black Coats, tries unsuccessfully to purchase the Mona Lisa from the man who stole it. The current leader of the Habits Noirs, the Iron King, is furious when he learns of the thief’s refusal. Exploring Paris’s sewers, Nardi is caught by a group of men, one of whom remarks “Rats are getting bigger it seems. Regular Sumatra down here.” The Colonel, previously believed dead, reclaims the mantle of leader from the Iron King.

            Short story by Pete Rawlik in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 9: La Vie en Noir, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2012; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 12), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2013. Count Ferenczy is from H.P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, while Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee is from Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Out of Time.” The Tunguska meteor strike was a real event that occurred in 1908, and has been linked to many curious events in the CU. The 1795 reference is to the Wold Newton meteor strike. According to Philip José Farmer, Sherlock Holmes is a member of the Wold Newton Family. In The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, Farmer claimed that Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo was actually Holmes’ foe Professor James Moriarty. Later research has established that Moriarty was indeed one of at least three men who used the name Nemo, though he was not the same person as Prince Dakkar, who used that alias in Verne’s novels. The Nemo referred to by Peaslee is likely Moriarty, who was identified as a member of the Wold Newton Family in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Flambeau and Aristide Valentin are from G.K. Chesterton’s stories about crime-solving priest Father Brown. Les Habits Noirs, aka the Black Coats, are featured in novels by Paul Féval, as is their leader, Colonel Bozzo-Corona. Inspector Romaine is from the film Charlie Chan in City in Darkness, while Nardi is from Charlie Chan in Paris. Rawlik’s story reveals that Nardi is Flambeau’s niece. Paulin Broquet is the policeman nemesis of the gypsy crime lord Zigomar in pulp novels by Léon Sazie. Commissaire Jules Maigret is featured in mystery novels by Georges Simenon. Chief Xavier Guichard was a real person who also appeared in the Maigret books. The Iron King is from Les Martin’s novel Young Indiana Jones and the Gypsy Revenge; he is a descendant of the title character of Alexandre Dumas’ The Man in the Iron Mask. Joséphine Balsamo is Arsène Lupin’s greatest foe. Azathoth, “the blind idiot god,” is one of the Great Old Ones of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Heart of the Ocean diamond is from the film Titanic. The Pink Panther gem is featured in the film of the same name. The statue known as the Maltese Falcon is from the novel of the same name by Dashiell Hammett. Baron Cesare Stromboli is a gentleman thief appearing in stories by Jose Moselli. In the Sherlock Holmes story “The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire,” Holmes mentions “the giant rat of Sumatra, a story for which the world is not yet prepared.” The tale of the giant rat is perhaps the most pastiched of the many unchronicled Holmes cases alluded to in the Canon.

Crossover Cover: Ten Years Beyond Baker Street

In this excellent authorized novel by Cay Van Ash, a close friend of Sax Rohmer's, Dr. Petrie enlists the aid of the retired Sherlock Holmes to rescue Nayland Smith from Fu Manchu's clutches. Holmes, Nayland Smith, and Fu Manchu were all identified as Wold Newton Family members by Farmer. In fact, Farmer proposed that Smith's mother was Sigrina Holmes, Sherlock's sister. Win postulated in his 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" that the reason Petrie (who narrates the novel) omitted any mention of Smith's relationship to Holmes from his account is because Holmes helped bring Smith's paternal grandfather, Culverton Smith, to justice for the murder of his nephew, Victor Savage (as recounted by Watson in "The Adventure of the Dying Detective," edited by Conan Doyle.) Van Ash captures Rohmer's (and Petrie's) voice extremely well, and is very faithful to both the Holmes and Fu Manchu canons.

A Brief History of the Crossover Universe

In 1997, Win Scott Eckert created the website An Expansion of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, based on the Science Fiction Grand Master's series of books, stories, and essays about the Wold Newton Family, a family tree consisting of heroes and villains from literary and pulp fiction such as Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes, the Shadow, Professor Challenger, Fu Manchu, C. Auguste Dupin, and numerous others. Inspired by Dave Stevens' comic The Rocketeer, in which the title character met disguised versions of Doc Savage and the Shadow, Win put what he called "The Crossover Chronology" on his site, a timeline of stories in which characters utilized by Farmer in his Wold Newton works appeared alongside other fictional characters, using those crossovers to create an expanded Wold Newton Universe (WNU) in which other characters existed alongside the Wold Newton Family members, who may or may not be members of the Family themselves. Stories in which those characters not included by Farmer met still other characters were included as well, in a form of six degrees of separation. Win continued to post updates to the chronology for several years. In addition to the timeline, Win also had a page briefly outlining chains of television shows that were in the WNU via crossovers, a page dealing with crossover stories that, for various reasons, usually involving major continuity conflicts, had to take place in alternate realities or dimensions to the WNU , and a list of the crossover characters in Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series of alternate history novels. Several Wold Newton fans provided Win with crossover info that was incorporated into the chronology. Eventually, Eckert began to have his own fiction published, which often had crossover references, including ties to Farmer's mythos.

In 2010, Win turned the Crossover Chronology into a massive two-volume tome Crossovers: A Secret Chronology  of the World, published by Black Coat  Press. The entries that had previously appeared on Win's site were revised to refer to the Crossover Universe (CU) rather than the WNU, since the Universe had grown many degrees beyond Farmer's family tree. Besides Farmer's writing, Eckert used another template from which to build on the CU: biographies of fictional characters that treated their subjects as real people. Examples of these include Farmer's own Tarzan Alive (which introduced the concept of the Wold Newton Family) and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, William S. Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, and John Pearson's James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007. In addition to the revisions of the listings on Win's site, Win included new material that he and others had discovered. One of those who contributed crossover information included in the books was Sean Levin, a fan of Farmer and the Wold Newton Family since 2002 and a good friend of Win's (and also the author of this post.) Sean was listed in the identical acknowledgments in both volumes. The TV crossovers, alternate universes, and Anno Dracula pages were revised and expanded as Appendices to the two volumes.

After the publication of Win's books, he announced that he was officially retired from documenting crossovers. However, in 2012, the stage was set for his successor. Sean Levin posted a list of the crossover references in Adam Lance Garcia's novel The Green Lama Unbound on one of the groups devoted to the Wold Newton Universe on Yahoo. Win replied by saying that it was an interesting writeup, and asking Sean if there were more Crossovers-style writeups in his future. Sean in turn answered that he was thinking about it, and soon after posted writeups (more in the style of Win's chronology this time) of the stories in Kim Newman's collection Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d'Urbervilles. As Sean continued to post more writeups for crossovers not included in Win's books, Win and others offered him much-valued praise and feedback. Eventually, Win paid Sean a major compliment by inviting him to write Crossovers Vol. 3. Sean was thrilled and honored, and took Win up on the offer, incorporating his writeups so far into a word document, and continuing to add new entries and revise his existing ones.

In summer of that year, Sean attended FarmerCon, the annual celebration of Phil Farmer's life and work. There, Sean had an informal conference with Win, Michael Croteau, and Paul Spiteri. The three are the masterminds behind the publishing company Meteor House, whose primary output is new fiction set in Farmer's various universes.  It was decided that Meteor House would publish the new volume, and many plans were discussed. Sean sent a Word .doc of the manuscript so far to Win when he returned to his home in Chicago, and was deeply flattered when Win said he was greatly impressed. At the 2013 FarmerCon, Sean discussed the book further with Win and Mike over dinner, and it was ultimately decided that Sean would in fact write Volumes 3 and 4 simultaneously.

In December of 2013, Win was interviewed by Anthony R. Cardno on his blog, Rambling On. Anthony asked Win how often, if at all, he planned on updating Crossovers. Win explained his own retirement from those duties, and made the formal announcement that Sean was writing Volumes 3 and 4. Both Win and Sean shared the link on Facebook and Yahoo, and were met with an outpouring of enthusiasm. Sean encouraged any of his acquaintances on either site who knew of any crossovers not listed in Win's book, either due to lack of access, time, or coming out after the publication of the first two, to provide him with the relevant info, and got some valuable responses.

This blog is intended to be a companion to all four volumes of Crossovers. I will post excerpts and teasers from Volumes 3 and 4, cover art for crossovers included in all four volumes, and other goodies. Win will occasionally post, but I will be the primary author. Following in Win's footsteps is an honor, and I am very lucky to have him as such a dear friend.  I hope that this blog will heighten people's interest in Win's amazing work, as well as my own more recent efforts. Expect many more posts to come!