Tarzan/Mandrake Crossover

I will definitely be including this story in the new books. International crossovers are always cool, even ones that violate copyrights like this one probably does. ;)

Crossover Covers: The Scarlet Jaguar

This excellent novella by Win serves as a sequel to his and Farmer's equally great novel The Evil in Pemberley House. Both tomes feature Patricia "Pat" Wildman, the daughter of a certain bronze-skinned pulp hero. As is often the case with Win, there are plenty of crossovers, and therefore I've written it up for Volume 4. Win is the perfect person to carry on Pat's adventures.

Crossover Covers: Batman and the Shadow

Sherlock Holmes in The Case of the Missing Martian

Crossover Covers: Ghost Pirates from the Beyond

In this issue of Marvel Comics' black and white Doc Savage comic magazine (in my opinion, one of the best translations of Doc to comics form), Doc and the Amazing Five investigate the death of a friend of his, a quest that leads them to Casablanca, where they wind up meeting a potential ally at an establishment called the Blue Parrot. In the classic film Casablanca, the Blue Parrot was the bar owned by Signor Ferrari. Therefore, this story will be listed in Volume 3.

Crossover Cover: Tales of the Shadowmen: The Modern Babylon

Crossover of the Week

Early March 1943

THE LEAGUE OF DEAD PATRIOTS

            FBI agent Dan Fowler tries to apprehend gangster William “The Bill” Kennedy, but is forced off the road by the Domino Lady. When Dan complains about vigilantes interfering with the Bureau’s affairs, his fellow agent Larry Kendal opines that with many of America’s able-bodied men at war, they can use all the help they can get. Fowler says that they’re getting it, from Jim Anthony, the Ghost Squad, and Secret Agent X, all of whom operate with government sanction. However, he argues that “clowns” such as the Shadow, Brother Bones and the Domino Lady are interfering loose cannons. After questioning Kennedy’s henchman Joe McGoohan, Fowler heads to the Tule Lake internment camp. There, he meets Norman Takei and his young son George. Fowler eventually discovers that the Domino Lady and McGoohan are allied against Kennedy. When Fowler asks McGoohan why he is involved in this case, “McGoohan” says the answer is right in front of him. Fowler sees an X etched in the mud, and says that he should have known.

            Story by Andrew Salmon in Dan Fowler: G-Man Volume One, Ron Fortier, ed., Cornerstone Book Publishers, 2009. Dan Fowler was created by Major George Fielding-Eliot and appeared in 112 issues of the pulp magazine G-Men Detective. The Domino Lady was created by an unidentified author using the nom de plume Lars Anderson and appeared in five issues of Saucy Romantic Adventures and one issue of Mystery Adventure Magazine. Jim Anthony appeared in the magazine Super Detective; his exploits were chronicled by Victor Rousseau Emanuel, Robert Leslie Bellem, and W.T. Ballard. The Ghost Squad were co-created by Salmon and Ron Fortier, and have starred in one novel to date, which featured a guest appearance by Fowler. Brother Bones is another hero created by Fortier. Secret Agent X starred in his own self-titled pulp magazine; he was created by Paul Chadwick and his exploits were continued by several others, all of whom used the pen name “Brant House.” In this story, the master of disguise is using the alias Joe McGoohan. The Shadow needs no introduction. George Takei would grow up to portray helmsman Hikaru Sulu on the television series Star Trek; for an explanation of how the future events depicted in the Star Trek franchise and the franchise itself can coexist in the CU, see J.R. Rasmussen’s story “Research.”

Crossover Covers: The X-Files/30 Days of Night

Crossover Cover: The Rocketeer Cargo of Doom

In this continuation of Dave Stevens' character, Cliff Secord does battle with a criminal known as the Master (who is referred to at one point as "John Sunli---," before the character speaking is interrupted), who is utilizing dinosaurs from a distant island (whose name starts with the word "Skull") for his nefarious schemes. Stevens is a tough act to follow, but Waid and Samnee did a pretty impressive job with this series.

Crossover Cover: Sails on the Horizon

In this naval tale by Jay Worrall, Charles Edgemont, commander of the Louisa, briefly meets Lieutenant Horatio Hornblower. Their encounter takes place in December 1797, during Hornblower's captivity in Ferrol documented in the last chapter of C.S. Forester's Mr. Midshipman Hornblower. Edgemont reappeared in Any Approaching Enemy (in which he briefly encounters Patrick O'Brian's own naval hero Lucky Jack Aubrey) and A Sea Unto Itself. I haven't read the sequels yet, but I will at least read Any Approaching Enemy so I can include it as well.

Crossover Covers: Tarzan/John Carter: Warlords of Mars

This miniseries is one of a few crossovers in literature and comics between Edgar Rice Burroughs' two most famous creations. Most recently, last Sunday, the Tarzan comic strip identified John Carter as a distant relative of Tarzan's wife Jane, which fits in rather well with Farmer's identification of her mother as the former Jane Carter Lee.

Crossover Covers: The Merkabah Rider series by Edward M. Erdelac

Edward M. Erdelac is the author of an excellent series of four books (three collections and a novel) about the Merkabah Rider, a Jewish mystic gunslinger battling the Great Old Ones in the Old West. Besides the strong ties to the Cthulhu Mythos, a number of other works of fiction are referenced, and therefore I will be including this series in the new volumes. Highly recommended.

Crossover Covers: Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook

Sorry I'm posting this so late in the evening. Computer troubles. The focus of this excellent anthology (which includes Win's story "The Adventure of the Fallen Stone") is encounters between Holmes and at least one historical or preexisting fictional character. I've already written up all of the latter stories.

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1965

THE SNOW SCULPTURES OF XANADU

            Charles Foster Kane Jr. invites Orson Welles to his father’s decaying estate, Xanadu. In 1949, there were reports that an American black marketeer found dead in the Vienna sewers was Kane Sr.’s illegitimate son. Welles meets Dr. John Montague, whose published account of his investigation into the notoriously haunted Hill House in Connecticut Welles has read. In parapsychology texts, Xanadu has replaced Borley Rectory, the Loren Home, the Frieburg Tanz Akademie, the Overlook Hotel, and the Belasco Mansion as the world’s most haunted house.

            Short story by Kim Newman in Interzone #51, David Pringle and Lee Montgomerie, eds., September 1991; reprinted in Best New Horror 3, Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, eds., Carroll & Graf, 1992, and Famous Monsters, Pocket Books, 1995. Charles Foster Kane is from Welles’ film Citizen Kane. The American black marketeer is Harry Lime from Carol Reed’s 1949 film The Third Man. Both Kane and Lime were played by Welles himself. Dr. John Montague and Hill House are from Shirley Jackson’s novel The Haunting of Hill House. Borley Rectory is a real Victorian mansion that has been dubbed the most haunted house in the world. The Loren Home is from William Castle’s film House on Haunted Hill. The Frieburg Tanz Akademie is from Dario Argento’s film Suspiria. The Overlook Hotel is from Stephen King’s book The Shining. The Belasco Mansion is from Richard Matheson’s novel Hell House.

Crossover Covers: Doc Savage Meets the Marvel Heroes

Crossover Covers: Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Cat-Woman

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes vs. Fantômas

Crossover Cover: The Doomsday Book

In this story, Batman and Robin, the Elongated Man, and Slam Bradley travel to England to prevent the assassination of Queen Elizabeth by Edgar Moriarty, who is replicating a plot hatched by his great-granduncle against Queen Victoria that was thwarted by Sherlock Holmes. The elderly but still spry Sherlock Holmes appears at the end of the story to lend a hand. Edgar's cousin Thomas Moriarty and his fiance, Mary Watson (great-granddaughter of the good Doctor) also play a prominent role. Per this story's listing in Vol. 2, this Batman is Bruce Wayne Jr., the son of the original Caped Crusader and the third to hold the mantle. Win doesn't specify who the Robin in this story is, but since Jason Todd was the Robin of this era in the comics and for most of the '80s, perhaps that's true in the CU as well. Win theorized that Edgar and Thomas Moriarty were the grandsons of Dominick Medina from John Buchan's The Three Hostages, whom Rick Lai identified as the Professor's nephew in his essay "The Secret History of Captain Nemo." Win further speculated that Mary Watson is the granddaughter of Dr. Watson and Nylepthah's unnamed son who appears as an infant in Farmer's The Adventure of the Peerless Peer. Also included in this entertaining story is an account of how Holmes thwarted the Professor's scheme a century before, illustrated by E.R. Cruz, who also drew a one-issue Sherlock Holmes comic for DC in 1975.

Crossover Cover: The Rainbow Affair

In this wonderful tie-in novel for the classic spy show The Man from U.N.C.L.E., David McDaniel has Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin meet Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, Father Brown, John Steed and Emma Peel, Fu Manchu and Nayland Smith, the Saint and his nemesis Inspector Teal, John Creasey's Inspector Roger West, and Manning Coles' Tommy Hambledon, most of whom are unnamed, though Holmes appears under the alias of William Escott. There also references to James Bond, Neddy Seagoon from the British radio program The Goon Show, and John Creasey's Richard Rollison (aka the Toff) and Department Z.

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.

Crossover of the Week

I read this one just yesterday. Win included "Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong" in Vol. 1.

Winter 1938

DRAGON’S TONGUE

            A private detective employed by the Continental agency in San Francisco seeks to settle an old score with a Chinese villain called the Lord of Strange Deaths. The detective once believed that a shady Asian in New York named Shiwan Khan was the Lord, but he “ran up against some kook in a cape and a slouch hat and hadn’t come out so well.” The detective visits Police Detective Brad Brannigan, who was given a car by a grateful man whose daughter he helped to save. Back at the Continental office, the detective says hello to Effie as she steps out of the Spade & Archer office down the hall, but she ignores him. The detective is lured into a trap by Fah Lo Suee, the Lord of Strange Deaths’ daughter, who tells him that her father is a member of a group called the Si-Fan. The Lord lists the many aliases his daughter has used, including Madame Ingomar, Queen Mamaloi, Ling Moy, and Lin Tang.

            Story by F. Paul Wilson in the eBook Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong. The Continental detective is Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op. The Lord of Strange Deaths is Sax Rohmer’s master villain Dr. Fu Manchu. Fah Lo Suee and the Si-Fan are also from the Fu Manchu novels. Fah used the name Madame Ingomar in The Daughter of Fu Manchu and The Trail of Fu Manchu, and the alias Queen Mamaloi in The Island of Fu Manchu. Ling Moy is the name of Fu Manchu’s daughter in the 1931 film Daughter of the Dragon, while Lin Tang is Fu’s daughter in the Fu Manchu films produced by Harry Alan Towers in the 1960s. Shiwan Khan is a recurring foe of the Shadow, who is the “kook in a cape and a slouch hat.” The man who gave Brannigan the car is Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks from the classic comic strip Little Orphan Annie; Brannigan helped Oliver rescue the latter’s adopted daughter Annie from Fu Manchu’s clutches in Wilson’s “Sex Slaves of the Dragon Tong,” which takes place a week before this story. The Spade & Archer agency is from Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon; apparently Sam Spade did not bother to change the name of the agency after his partner Miles Archer’s death during the 1928 events of Hammett’s novel. Effie Perrine is Spade’s secretary. The Op, who narrates this story, claims that at the age of two, he was found watering the waterfront immediately after the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906, unable to remember his family or name, and was placed in a series of foster homes, where he was regularly abused. He also claims to have revealed some of these details to Fu Manchu while being subjected to a truth serum. This conflicts with Win Scott Eckert’s speculations about the Op’s background 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” (Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe, Win Scott Eckert, ed., MonkeyBrain Books, 2005.) Eckert argued that the Op was in fact the brother of Fu Manchu’s archenemy Sir Denis Nayland Smith, and that he was born in 1884 or 1885. Perhaps the Op lied to his readers about his background in order to protect himself and his brother from some of his other enemies, and actually told Fu a more accurate version of his life story. Alternatively, Wilson himself could have made the changes for reasons of his own while editing the story.

Crossover Cover: Honey West & T.H.E. Cat: A Girl and Her Cat

Received this in the mail yesterday. Definitely gonna include it in the book, particularly since it's co-written by my illustrious predecessor Win.

Upcoming Crossovers: FaceOff

Of the characters named in the book description here, Harry Bosch, Aloysius Pendergast, Repairman Jack, and Jack Reacher are the ones that I definitely know have other crossovers bringing them in. So at the very least, we can say that Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie, R.L. Stine's Slappy the Ventriloquist Dummy (who I remember from reading the Goosebumps books as a kid), Heather Graham's Michael Quinn, and Joseph Finder's Nick Heller are also in the CU.

Crossover Covers: The Morris and Chastain Investigations

Justin Gustainis is the author of an excellent series of books featuring occult detective Quincey Morris and his frequent partner, white witch Libby Chastain. Quincey is the great-grandson of the Quincey Morris that appears in Bram Stoker's Dracula; Chastain explains the original Quincey's bachelorhood and marriage proposal to Lucy Westenra by stating that his wife died in childbirth a few years before the events of Stoker's novel. Many other people, places, or things from horror and occult fiction appear or are mentioned in the books, as well as ones from other genres, and therefore I am including the books in the new volumes. For instance, Quincey and Libby's ally Hannah Widmark, aka the Widowmaker, was taught how to use a pair of .45s by "a shadowy, enigmatic man named Cranston," who had a weird laugh and told her that "the weed of Satan bears bitter fruit," an obvious reference to the Shadow. It is worth noting that three of the books published so far have had references to Laurell K. Hamilton's vampire hunter Anita Blake. Since Hamilton's books take place in a world where the public is aware of the existence of supernatural beings, the Anita Blake mentioned in Gustainis' books must be Anita's Crossover Universe counterpart, who has doubtless had very different adventures than her counterpart in what we may call the "Blakeverse."

Crossover Covers: Enter the Lion

According to William S. Baring-Gould's Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street, Sherlock's older, much heavier, and even more brilliant brother Mycroft was born on February 12, 1847. Therefore, in honor of Mycroft's 167th birthday, here is the cover to an account of one of his exploits alongside Sherlock (who had yet to meet Dr. Watson), edited by Michael P. Hodel and Sean M. Wright. At one point, fighting ships such as the more recent four-deckers of Nelson and Hornblower are mentioned, providing further evidence that C.S. Forester's naval hero Horatio Hornblower is in the Crossover Universe. (It is worth noting that Philip José Farmer stated in Tarzan Alive that Tarzan's son married Hornblower's great-great-granddaughter.) There is an apparent continuity conflict between this novel and Farmer's work: Farmer identified Professor James Moriarty as the illegitimate son of housemaid Morcar Moriarty in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, whereas this account identifies his father as Jerrold Moriarty, who plays a prominent role in the tale. Win Eckert reconciled the two versions by stating that Jerrold was actually Urania's brother, and a beloved uncle and father-figure to James.