Crossover of the Week

Winter 1952

THE ANOMALY OF THE EMPTY MAN

            Lamb is consulted by his friend Inspector Abrahams regarding the mysterious disappearance of James Stambaugh, who left only his clothes behind. Lamb then meets with Dr. Horace Verner, who is between seventy and a hundred, and tells him about the mystery. Verner tells Lamb that the record he is about to play for him is of the greatest dramatic soprano of the century, and lists some others, including Lena Geyer. Verner says that in this recording lies the solution to Stambaugh’s disappearance, and begins telling him a tale of an incident in the autumn of 1901. Verner was a great fan of the soprano, Carina, whose lovers seemed to all commit suicide. Verner’s cousin, also a great admirer of Carina, investigated her unexplained death. After her passing, men began disappearing in a manner similar to Stambaugh’s vanishing, including the Bishop of Cloisterham. Both Verner (who worked as an occult detective) and his cousin were hired by the family of one of the victims to investigate. Verner’s cousin called him “a man of singular accomplishments,” and Verner remarks that his cousin, as his (Verner’s) great-uncle Etienne used to remark of General Masséna, was famous for the accuracy of his information. Verner’s cousin mentions his Boswell.

            Short story by Martin Lamb, edited by Anthony Boucher in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April 1952, and reprinted in The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes, Sebastian Wolfe, ed., 1989. Martin Lamb also appears in Boucher’s novel The Case of the Seven of Calvary, as well as the short story “The Way I Heard It.” In “The Adventure of the Norwood Builder,” Dr. Watson says that “a young doctor, named Verner,” a distant relative of Sherlock Holmes, bought his former Kensington practice. Carina is from the Holmes story “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman.” Of Lena Geyer is a 1936 novel by Marcia Davenport. The Cathedral town of Cloisterham is the setting of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Verner’s great-uncle is Doyle’s Brigadier Etienne Gerard, who made the remark about Masséna in “How the Brigadier Slew the Fox” (aka “The Crime of the Brigadier.”)

Crossover Covers: Blind Shadows

In this novel by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge, set in Wellman, Georgia, Sheriff Carl Price and his friend, private investigator Wade Griffin, join forces to avenge the death of a mutual friend, and ultimately find that the murder had supernatural connections. Price and Griffin’s ally Carter Decamp owns a silver-edged blade etched with Latin words, which once belonged to an old family friend, a judge from North Carolina. This is a reference to Manly Wade Wellman's occult detective Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. The town of Wellman was named after the author, while Carter Decamp's name is a tribute to writers Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp. Another comrade of Price and Griffin, Andy Hunter, calls an occult expert named Jonathan Crowley seeking help in identifying the charms on a necklace. Crowley appears in other novels by James A. Moore. Decamp was given a first edition of Malleus Maleficarum as a gift by his friend Adam, who is meant to be Dr. Adam Spektor from Donald F. Glut's comic book The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor. Decamp also owns the bound manuscript for an unpublished book on demons written by a doctor named Trowbridge. This is a reference to Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, the sidekick of Seabury Quinn's occult investigator Dr. Jules de Grandin. It is revealed that the death of Griffin and Price’s friend was orchestrated by the Blackbourne family, who are attempting to bring Shub Niggurath, one of the Great Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, into this universe. Price and Griffin returned in Moore and Rutledge's Congregations of the Dead, which I may cover at some point.

Crossover Cover: Toad Island

In this issue of Now Comics' series based on The Real Ghostbusters cartoon, the Ghostbusters investigate disappearances at the Toad Island theme park, and discover that Nogad (Dagon spelled backwards) has been abducting the customers in order to mate them with his ancestral people, the Deep Ones. The Deep Ones, of course, are from Lovecraft's "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."

Crossover Cover: The Darkness/Wolverine

Jim Anthony, Super-Detective Volume Two: The Hunters

I am currently reading this novel featuring Jim Anthony (a hero from the "spicy" pulp Super Detective who was created as an imitation of Doc Savage, but has many qualities setting him apart from the Man of Bronze), which has him battling villains alongside Count Zaroff from Richard Connell's famous story "The Most Dangerous Game." The novel is split into two halves, each by a different author. Josh Reynolds' story is "Death in Yellow," which has Anthony and Zaroff fighting members of the Tcho-Tcho race of the Cthulhu Mythos, as well as tie-ins to Robert W. Chambers' The King in Yellow. Among other crossovers, Anthony first meets Zaroff at the New York branch of Jules Verne's Baltimore Gun Club, and Jim and a friend discuss a trip to Maple White Land with Ki-Gor (whose first published appearance in 1938 must have actually taken place years earlier, since The Hunters takes place in 1931.) Micah Harris' "On the Periphery of Legend" has Anthony and Zaroff hunting game on an island far west of Sumatra that is still inhabited by dinosaurs. While there, they encounter a film crew and a giant ape, who is later brought back to civilization. Again, there are crossovers besides the obvious connection  to King Kong, such as the appearance of a former member of the Czar's inner circle who is using the name Allardravitch, who has a prominent nose and a ring, obviously a disguised version of a major pulp character.

Tales of the Shadowmen Volumes 1-6

I already did a post with the covers of Tales of the Shadowmen Volumes 7-10, which will be covered in Crossovers Volumes 3 and 4, so here are the covers of the volumes Win covered in the first two Crossovers volumes.

Crossover Covers: Tarzan vs. the Monsters

These six issues consisted of three stories pitting Tarzan against classic horror villains, and took place between chapters of Tarzan of the Apes. "Le Monstre" pitted Lord Greystoke against the Phantom of the Opera, "The Modern Prometheus" of course featured Frankenstein's monster, and "Tooth and Nail" pitted the jungle lord against Mr. Hyde. Appropriately, Philip José Farmer provided the introduction for the trade paperback collecting the issues.

Crossover of the Week

Spring 1937

DAWN OF THE PURPLE HOODS

            Adventurer Jim Anthony is part of a charity auction where the prizes are dates with celebrities. Another of the eligible bachelors is the young publisher of the Sentinel newspaper chain. Jim and his date, Marinda Stubbing, are attacked by a group of men in purple hoods, during which event Marinda is wounded. Jim goes to his ally Frank Havens, publisher of the Clarion, asking him to put out feelers for information regarding the gang. One of Havens’ sources is the mysterious sleuth known as the Phantom. One of Jim’s other informants is the owner of a cigar store. Jim evades a group of journalists that includes Rex Parker of the New York Comet. Inspector Gregg arrives at Jim’s home and headquarters, the Waldorf-Anthony Hotel, in the aftermath of another attack by the Purple Hoods. Marinda is treated by Nurse Ames. When the Purple Hoods capture Jim and Marinda, a group of current and former naval officers set out to rescue them. One member of this rescue mission is Arkansas native Ruben Clampett, who mentions his nephew Jedidiah. Another officer tells Jim that Commander Winslow sends his compliments.

            Short story by Erwin K. Roberts in Jim Anthony: Super Detective Volume One, Ron Fortier, ed., Cornerstone Book Publishers, 2009. Jim Anthony’s adventures in the “spicy” pulp Super Detective were chronicled by Victor Rousseau Emanuel, Robert Leslie Bellem and W.T. Ballard. The publisher of the Sentinel newspaper is Britt Reid, the alter ego of the Green Hornet. The auction must have drawn Reid from his native Detroit to Anthony’s stomping grounds of New York City. Frank Havens and Inspector Gregg are from the Phantom Detective pulp novels, written by various authors using the pseudonyms “G. Wayman Jones” and “Robert Wallace.” The cigar store owner is Danny Blaney, formerly the Green Ghost, a creation of Johnston McCulley’s who appeared in Thrilling Detective. Rex Parker will later become the Masked Detective, the title character of a pulp magazine written by Norman A. Daniels under the pen name “C.K.M. Scanlon” that was published beginning in Fall 1940, and ending in Spring 1943 due to wartime paper shortages. Cherry Ames, Student Nurse, appeared in a series of mystery novels written by Helen Wells and Julie Campbell Tatham. Ruben Clampett’s nephew is Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies, thus bringing that show into the CU. Don Winslow of the Navy appeared in the comic strip of the same name by Lt. Cmdr. Frank V. Martinek, as well as radio and film serials and a comic book published by Fawcett.

Crossover Cover: Honey West and Kolchak: High Heels and Hedonism

Crossover Covers: Shadows Over Baker Street

Crossover Covers: Daredevil and Shi

Crossover Covers: The Frankenstein/Dracula War

Crossover Cover: Hellboy: Unnatural Selection

This Hellboy novel has references to the monster-fighting demon's involvement in the events of three horror movies. One is "something to do with pods" in 1978, a reference to the first remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. The remake is very different in its particulars from the original, though a few character names are at least partially retained: Miles Bennell becomes Matthew Bennell, Becky Driscoll is Elizabeth Driscoll, and Jack Bellicec is a main character in both. Presumably the makers of the second film gave the actual people involved the names of characters from the previous one in order to create the illusion that it was a re-imagining of the original story rather than a sequel. (It's also worth noting that Kevin McCarthy has a cameo in the remake where he appears to be playing Miles Bennell, trying to convince people of the invasion as he was at the end of the original.) Another incident was "a shark thing" in 1975, a reference to the film version of Jaws. A third episode was more recent, and involved giant insects that mimic human beings in New York, a reference to the movie Mimic, which was very loosely based on Donald A. Wollheim's 1950 short story of the same name. According to Christopher Farnsworth's The President's Vampire, the title character, vampire secret agent Nathaniel Cade, helped resolve the original Body Snatchers crisis. In the following book, Red, White and Blood, it is implied that Cade was involved in the events of Mimic. Perhaps he worked with Hellboy to help defeat the Judas Breed insects, though Guillermo del Toro evidently omitted their involvement in the incident from his retelling. It's also worth noting that Farnsworth's website formerly boasted a timeline for Cade's universe, which included an entry for the birth of Hellboy, who was not referred to by name.

Upcoming (Possible) Crossover: Steed and Mrs. Peel

The comic company Boom! is putting out a new Steed and Mrs. Peel comic. (For obvious reasons, they can't use the title The Avengers.) The plot description indicates that this will be a tribute to, and/or unofficial  crossover with, The Prisoner. I certainly hope it is, so I can include it in the books. :)

Crossover of the Week

November 1945

WHO MADE ME SUCH A WOMAN?

            Kanoto Yoshimuta, who has lost her family in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, accepts a ride from a man with gold-capped teeth and a Prussian hairstyle. The man tells Kanoto that he knows how she has been trying to bribe fishing boats to take her to an obscure little island to collect specimens of its fungi, and that he has already warned General MacArthur not to be eating mushrooms anytime soon. Sakima, Haruchi, Doctor Natas, and Serizawa are also mentioned.

            Short story by G.L. Gick in Harry Dickson and the Werewolf of Rutherford Grange, Black Coat Press, 2011; reprinted in The Monsters of Madame Atomos by André Caroff, adapted and translated by Brian Stableford, Black Coat Press, 2012, and in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 9), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2012. Kanoto Yoshimuta is better known as André Caroff’s villain Madame Atomos. This story ends with her choosing her nom de guerre. The man with gold-capped teeth and a Prussian hairstyle is John P. Marquand’s Japanese spy Mister Moto. The obscure island is from the movie Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People); those who ingest the mushrooms on the island are transformed into humanoid mushrooms themselves. Mura Sakima is a Japanese agent from the film serial The Masked Marvel, while Oyama Haruchi is a spy from the serial G-Men vs. the Black Dragon. Doctor Natas is from Guy d’Armen’s novel Doc Ardan: City of Gold and Lepers. Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s adaptation and translation of d’Armen’s book implies that Natas is actually Sax Rohmer’s Doctor Fu Manchu. Dr. Daisuke Serizawa is from the Japanese monster movie Gojira, which was released in the United States as Godzilla. Although the mass destruction seen in the Gojira/Godzilla films is incompatible with Crossover Universe continuity, Serizawa does have a CU counterpart, as seen in Michel Stéphan’s story “The Red Silk Scarf.”

Crossover Covers: Army of Darkness vs. Re-Animator

Crossover Cover: The Pulptress

This anthology features the Pulptress, the daughter of two of the greatest (unidentified) pulp heroes of all time, who after being orphaned as an infant was trained as a crimefighter by her parents' colleagues. Several of the stories are crossovers with other New Pulp heroes, most of whom are in the CU through other crossovers. Derrick Ferguson's "Black Mask, Big City" features a guest appearance by Derrick's hero Dillon, who is revealed to be one of the Pulptress' former teachers. In Ron Fortier's "Butcher's Festival," the Pulptress joins forces with Ron's undead vigilante Brother Bones. Erwin K. Roberts' "Voice to a New Generation" has the Pulptress working with Roberts' hero the Voice, also a second generation pulp hero, and Dillon is mentioned. "The Bone Queen" by Andrea Judy has the Pulptress battling the titular supernatural villain, whose origin Judy later revealed in the novel The Bone Queen. Derrick also has a Dillon novel in the works that has appearances by the Pulptress and his character Fortune McCall. As that link shows, Derrick also has a crossover in the works between Dillon and Elisa Hill of Percival Constantine's Myth Hunter series. The Li Shoon mentioned in the plot synopsis for that book is a Yellow Peril villain created by H. Irving Hancock, who appeared in the pulp Detective Story Magazine.

BTW, this is my 100th post on this blog!

Crossover Covers: Conan and Elric