Crossover Cover: The Deep: Here Be Dragons

The Nekton family travels the world in their advanced submarine the Aronnax. The submarine is named for Professor Pierre Aronnax from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The sequel is The Deep Vol. 2: The Vanishing Island.

Crossover Cover: The Last Detective

Elvis Cole runs into Harry Bosch. It is mentioned Bosch lives in the same area as Cole. Carol Starkey appears. Harry Bosch is not identified by name, but is described in such a way as to leave little doubt it is him. Elvis would also make a cameo in the Harry Bosch novel Lost Light. Bosch is also mentioned in the novel Cons, Scams & Grifts by Joe Gores, one of the Dan Kearny and Associates novels. Carol Starkey is from Crais’ novel Demolition Angel. With this novel, she becomes a recurring character in the series.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Crossovers Casebook

This anthology consists of stories featuring Holmes meeting other historical and fictional characters. One story, "Sherlock Holmes in the Lost World" by Martin Powell, originally appeared in the anthology Gaslight Grimoire, and was included in Volume 1 by Win. It's worth noting that this story references Farmer's theory that Lord John Roxton was the Spider's father. I covered Win's contribution, "The Adventure of the Fallen Stone," in a previous post. Here are the other stories that have Holmes meeting other characters from fiction. In Matthew Baugh's "The Adventure of the Ethical Assassin," Holmes is hired by the King of Bohemia once again, this time to protect him from an assassin. After preventing one such attempt, Holmes discovers the would-be assassin is a member of the Assassination Bureau, Ltd., led by Ivan Dragomilov. The assassin’s weapon is a device invented by the Russian hunter Zaroff. The Bureau and Dragomilov (originally Dragomiloff) are from Jack London’s novel The Assassination Bureau, Ltd., completed posthumously by Robert L. Fish. Zaroff is from Richard Connell’s short story "The Most Dangerous Game." In Christopher Sequeira's "The Scion of Fear," Holmes and Dr. Watson work with Inspector Athelney Jones and Jonathan Small to investigate a pair of attacks apparently committed by an Andaman Islands native like Small’s late confederate Tonga. Watson reveals to Mycroft Holmes the box which once held the Agra treasure has a hidden panel which opens to reveal three yellow diamonds. Mycroft says they are part of a series of four “moonstones” that adorned temple idols in India. He adds the fourth diamond was recovered years ago after much drama. Inspector Jones, Jonathan Small, and Tonga are from the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four. The diamonds are from Wilkie Collins’ novel The Moonstone. In Barbara Hambly's "The Adventure of the Sinister Chinaman," Watson, recovering from an illness, accompanies Holmes to San Francisco, where they become embroiled in an investigation of a Chinese-American magician who has been accused of kidnapping a young girl who was helping him perform a trick. They are aided by another stage magician, Professor Oscar Zoroaster Diggs, who is also a balloonist. Diggs claims to have spent the last forty years in a magical realm, and built a City of Emeralds and done battle with the Wicked Witch of the East and her minions. After the resolution of the case, Watson learns Professor Diggs looked exactly the same when he returned as when he disappeared forty years ago, and concludes the Professor that he and Holmes met was an impostor. He notes the alleged Professor disappeared a year later on another ballooning expedition. Professor O. Z. Diggs is better known as the Wizard of Oz. Of course, the Diggs who disappeared in the 1860s and the one who encountered Holmes and Watson are one and the same. In Matthew Mayo's "The Folly of Flight," Arsène Lupin recruits Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to help him apprehend the murderer of a French aeronaut who has invented a remarkable airship. In Don Roff's "The House on Moreau Street," Holmes is abducted by Augustus Moreau, nephew of the notorious Dr. Moreau, whose beast-men have committed a series of murders in the course of robberies to finance Augustus’ experiments. Edward Prendick brought the elder Moreau’s predations to the public’s attention. Dr. John Thorndyke and Christopher Jervis, investigating the crimes independently from Holmes, wind up working with Dr. Watson to save Holmes. Thorndyke has Nathaniel Polton examine hair samples found at one of the crime scenes. Dr. Moreau and Edward Prendick are from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau. Thorndyke, Jervis, and Polton appear in a series of books by R. Austin Freeman. In Joe Gentile's "The Secret of Grant's Tomb," Holmes and Watson, visiting Inspector Lestrade, are drawn into Professor Van Dusen and his sidekick Hutchinson Hatch’s investigation of the murder of a friend and fellow reporter of Hatch’s. The quartet, along with Lestrade and Inspector Conway, apprehend the culprit, master thief Bradlee Cunnyngham Leighton. Professor Augustus S. F. X. Van Dusen and Hutchinson Hatch are featured in the Thinking Machine stories by Jacques Futrelle. Cunnyngham and Conway appear in the Thinking Machine story "Problem of the Missing Necklace." In Martin Gately's "The Petrifying Well," Holmes accepts T. E. “Ned” Lawrence’s request to investigate the bizarre death of a friend’s brother. The planned Maracot expedition to the deep Atlantic is mentioned several times. The Maracot expedition is a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Maracot Deep, which takes place in 1926. Gately’s story "Rouletabille and the New World Order" explains why the expedition seen in this story (set two years after "The Adventure of the Lion's Mane," which Baring-Gould place in 1909) failed. Christopher Sequeira's other story, "The Adventure of the Lost Specialist," must be an AU. Holmes and Watson do battle with Professor Moriarty, who identifies himself as the stationmaster, and reveals both the Moriarty who Holmes dueled with at Reichenbach and Colonel Moriarty were actually his alternate reality counterparts. Moriarty than unleashes alternate versions of Holmes and Watson on the duo; one pair are meant to be Batman’s foes the Joker and the Penguin, while another pair are Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster. Watson mentions Holmes’ actions in the affair of the depraved Herbert West and the grave-robberies in Essex County, Massachusetts, and also refers to Victor Savage’s uncle, the famous American doctor and adventurer. Given the story takes place in 1903, this most likely refers to the father of a certain bronze-skinned adventurer.

Crossover Covers: Razor/Morbid Angel: Soul Search

Crossover Covers: Swords of Sorrow

A crossover event from Dynamite Entertainment featuring various heroines and anti-heroines. The Kato seen in this series is Mulan Kato from Dynamite’s Green Hornet comic, which ignores the continuity of NOW Comics’ version of the Green Hornet. Masquerade is the version of the Golden Age comics heroine Miss Masque seen in the comic Project Superpowers, which features a vast number of Golden Agers being freed from their decades-long imprisonment in Pandora's Urn. Lady Zorro first appeared in Dynamite’s Zorro ongoing series, which portrays Zorro as half-Native American, a conflict with numerous other accounts of his background. Therefore, this series has to take place in an AU.

Crossover of the Week

September 4, 1935

THE TIME TRAVELERS’ EX-WIFE

In Kingsport, the former Alice Peaslee is wished a happy sixtieth birthday by her son Wingate, who has just returned from an expedition in Australia with his father. Alice is brought cake and lemonade by her grandson John, the son of her daughter Hannah and Samuel Beckett. Looking in a photo album, she sees a picture of herself in London on June 5, 1931, alongside author Olaf Stapledon and the latter’s young protégé, the poet Paul Tregardis. Another picture, taken on September 2, 1924, shows the members of Hannah’s wedding party. Among them is Hannah’s husband’s supervisor at Brooklyn’s Museum of Fine Arts, Dr. Halpin Chalmers, a graduate of Miskatonic University, with whom Alice reminisces about the faculty and Arkham. Chalmers is friends with a private detective named Charles. Alice marries Chalmers, and on weekends and holidays they travel to Partridgeville where he was raised. In 1910, Alice divorces her husband, Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee, having experienced strange visions of the past and future when she touched him. In 1912, her son Robert finds the notebooks in which she described her visions. Robert takes large portions of the text and reorganizes them into narratives, which Alice rewrites and has published in Whispers magazine. The periodical forwards her a letter of praise from a man named Randolph Carter. Alice spent six years with a distant relative named Alice the Elder, wandering time and space, having breakfast in Hyperborea, dancing in Irem, and reading books in Celeano.

Short story by Pete and Mandy Rawlik in The Lovecraft eZine #29, Mike Davis, ed., February 2014. Kingsport, Miskatonic University, Arkham, and Randolph Carter appear in a number of H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories. Alice Peaslee; her husband, Professor Nathaniel Wingate Peaslee; and their children, Wingate, Hannah and Robert, are from Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Out of Time.” Irem is from Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City.” The magazine Whispers appears in Lovecraft’s “The Unnamable”; it is believed by many Lovecraft scholars the Carter that narrates that story is Randolph Carter. John Beckett is the father of time traveler Sam Beckett on the television series Quantum Leap. Paul Tregardis is from Clark Ashton Smith’s story “Ubbo-Sathla.” Hyperborea appears in “Ubbo-Sathla” and many other works by Smith. Dr. Halpin Chalmers and Partridgeville are from Frank Belknap Long’s story “The Hounds of Tindalos.” Chalmers’ private detective friend is Nick Charles from Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man. Celeano (or Celaeno) is mentioned in several Mythos stories by August Derleth.

Crossover Cover: Infestation 2: 30 Days of Night

A group of vampires battle the Old Ones in the Arctic. Miskatonic University is mentioned. The vampires are from the comic book 30 Days of Night. This story is part of a multiversal crossover that features the Old Ones waking up and attacking different worlds, so therefore it doesn’t bring in any of the other continuities featured, though the DangerGirl cameo in the final issue probably takes place in the CU.

Crossover Cover: Two Mites Make It Wrong

Batman and Robin and Mystery, Inc.’s attempts to apprehend the Spook and False Face are disrupted when the Fifth Dimensional imps Bat-Mite and Scooby-Mite, Batman and Scooby-Doo’s self-proclaimed biggest fans, appear. Scooby-Mite uses his magical powers to make Mystery, Inc. more “contemporary,” including providing them with “high-tech ghost-chasing gear!” After the Dynamic Duo and Scooby and the Gang convince the two pests to leave, another imp named Larry appears, proclaiming himself Robin’s biggest fan. Mystery Inc.’s high-tech “ghost-chaser” uniforms are clearly based on the Ghostbusters’ uniforms, placing this story in the ’80s. Per CU, continuity, this story features the third Batman and Robin team. Scooby-Mite also turns the gang into ponies briefly. Rather than treating this as a crossover connection to My Little Pony, it is preferable to interpret this as Scooby-Mite being familiar with the original toy line, which ran from 1981-1993. Larry is the CU counterpart of the character of the same name from the cartoon Teen Titans.

Crossover Cover: Outlaws

A meeting about bank robberies being committed by a group of young radicals is held in the offices of Ward Keane, District Attorney of Plymouth County. The criminals are later put on trial for murder, with Special Assistant Attorney General Terry Gleason acting as prosecutor. The landlord of the Broad Street Grille is quoted in the Boston Commoner. Keane and Gleason were first mentioned in Higgins’ novel Impostors, which also features Roger Kidd from Higgins' Jerry Kennedy series. The first book in that series, Kennedy for the Defense, has a reference to Robert B. Parker's P.I. Spenser. The Boston Commoner newspaper appears in a number of Higgins’ books, including the aforementioned Impostors; the Jerry Kennedy series; Wonderful Years, Wonderful Years; Victories, a sequel to the novel Trust; and Bomber’s Law.

Crossover Cover: Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist

This ten issue miniseries is a reimagining of Flash Gordon’s first trip to Mongo. In this particular issue, the Phantom and Mandrake have a cameo. This story is irreconcilable with Alex Raymond's original tale, and therefore must be placed in an AU.

Crossover Covers: Conan/Red Sonja and Red Sonja/Conan

Crossover Movie Poster: Ricochet

Newscaster Gail Wallens does a report on discredited Assistant District Attorney Nick Styles. Gail first appeared in the movie Die Hard, which is already in the CU via the appearance of Sgt. Al Powell in an episode of Chuck. Mary Ellen Trainor played Gail in both films, which were also cowritten by Steven E. de Souza and co-produced by Joel Silver.

Crossover of the Week

Today marks my 700th post on this blog. Thanks to everyone who follows this site. In honor, of this occasion, I am doing something a little different for the Crossover of the Week. Instead of sharing a write-up from the main timeline, I am going to provide an excerpt from one of the addendums, "The Anno Dracula Universe and Character Guide."

Anno Dracula 1968: Aquarius (in Anno Dracula: Dracula Cha Cha Cha, Titan Books, 2012)

• Kate Reed
• Kôr (kingdom ruled by Ayesha, aka She Who Must Be Obeyed, in novels by H. Rider Haggard)
• Jerusalem’s Lot (’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King)
• Gamma Bomb (source of Dr. Bruce Banner’s transformation into the Hulk in stories published by Marvel Comics)
• Bali Ha’i (Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener, adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein as the musical South Pacific)
• Frank Mills is the title character of a song in the stage musical and film Hair
• Algernon Ford (The Reverend Alexander Algernon Ford; Gavin Reed, The Body Beneath)
• Horatio Stubbs is featured in a trilogy of novels by Brian Aldiss
• Seaton Begg is Michael Moorcock’s alternate reality counterpart to Sexton Blake
• Compact magazine is from the British soap opera Compact
• Bikini Girl magazine is from the film The Night Caller
• Wow Magazine is from the film Cover Girl Killer
• Fred Regent (Richard Jeperson’s policeman sidekick in Newman’s Diogenes Club stories)
• Jim Graham (Empire of the Sun by J. G. Ballard; Graham is a fictionalized version of Ballard himself)
• B Division and Pickering are from R. Chetwynd-Hayes’ book The Monster Club
• Herrick (William Herrick; Jason Watkins, Being Human)
• The Diogenes Club
• Detective Superintendent Bellaver, Detective Sergeant Griffin, and Keith Kenneth (Alfred Marks, Julian Holloway, and Michael Gothard, Scream and Scream Again)
• Premier Torgu (Ion Torgu; Fangland by John Marks)
• Lord Ruthven
• Lorrimer Van Helsing (Peter Cushing, Dracula A.D. 1972 and The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
• Abraham Van Helsing
• Morgan Delt (David Warner, Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment)
• Nezumi first appeared in "Anno Dracula 1923: Vampire Romance"
• Arthur Bryant and John May are members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit in novels by Christopher Fowler
• Mycroft Holmes
• Richard Jeperson
• Donna Rogers (Anna Massey) and the Midnight Mess restaurant are from the film The Vault of Horror
• Geoff Brent (Geoffrey Brent; Ian Hendry, Police Surgeon)
• The Crimson Executioner (Mickey Hargitay, Bloody Pit of Horror)
• Carol Thatcher (Janet Lynn, Cool It Carol!)
• Geneviève Dieudonné
• Waldo Zhernikov (Herbert Lom, The Frightened City)
• Hogarth, aka Big Bloodsucker Hog (Peter Egan, Big Breadwinner Hog)
• The Living Dead motorcycle gang is from the film Psychomania
• Inspector Hornleigh (protagonist of a 1930s radio show)
• George Dixon (Jack Warner, The Blue Lamp and Dixon of Dock Green)
• Jack Regan (John Thaw, The Sweeney)
• Timothy Lea (Robin Askwith, Confessions of a Window Cleaner, Confessions of a Pop Performer, Confessions of a Driving Instructor, and Confessions of a Summer Camp Councillor; Askwith also played Joe Sickles in Cool It Carol!)
• Peter Steiger (Ralph Arliss, Blood Relations)
• University of Watermouth (The History Man by Malcolm Bradbury)
• St. Bartolph’s and Laura Bellows (Caroline Munro) are from Dracula A.D. 1972
• Walter Goodrich and Doctor Holstrom (Peter Cushing and Edward Woodward, Incense for the Damned)
• Caleb Croft and James Eastman (Michael Pataki and William Smith, Grave of the Vampire)
• Professor Bowles-Ottery (Leo McKern, A Jolly Bad Fellow)
• E. B. Fern is a science fiction author played by Harold Kasket in "Amazing Stories," an episode of the British television anthology Red Letter Day
• Tom Choley was played by Paul Angelis in a six-part adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel A Dog’s Ransom on the anthology series Armchair Thriller
• The Winchester is from the movie Shaun of the Dead
• Neville Hetherington (Robert Crewdson, Her Private Hell)
• Sybil Waite (Patricia Haines, Virgin Witch)
• Sixth Form Girls in Chains, Zarana and Lady Celia (Lady Celia Asquith-Leaves) are from Newman’s story "Soho Golem"
• The Science of Sex is from the movie Deep End
• Bathtime with Brenda is from the movie Terror
• Thomas Nolan is David Hemmings’ character from the film Blow-Up (Newman provided him with his surname, which is the same as that of Hemmings’ character in The Charge of the Light Brigade; Hemmings named one of his sons Nolan in honor of that role)
• Lucy Westenra
• Sir John Rowan (Peter Cushing, Corruption)
• Baron Meinster (David Peel, The Brides of Dracula)
• Clive Landseer (Alexis Kanner, Goodbye Gemini; the "white-blonde male and female twins who 'came together'" are Julian and Jacki Dewar, played by Martin Potter and Judy Geeson)
• Syrie Van Epp (Elizabeth Shepherd, The Corridor People)
• The Fevre Dream is from George R. R. Martin’s vampire novel of the same name
• Sebastian Newcastle (Don Sebastian de Villanueva, from vampire novels by Les Daniels)
• Herbert von Krolock and Professor Abronsius (Iain Quarrier and Jack MacGowran, Dance of the Vampires aka The Fearless Vampire Killers)
• Mrs. Michaela Cazaret and Tom Lynn (Ava Gardner and Ian McShane, The Ballad of Tam Lin)
• Paul Durward (Shane Briant, Captain Kronos–Vampire Hunter)
• Canon Copely-Syle (To the Devil a Daughter by Dennis Wheatley)
• Emir Abdulla Akaba was played by Henry Soskin in the "Death a la Carte" episode of The Avengers
• Plainview Oil is a reference to the film There Will Be Blood
• Berkeley-Willoughby (Archibald Berkeley-Willoughby, The Adventures of PC 49 radio series)
• Jack Andrus (Kirk Douglas, Two Weeks in Another Town)
• Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff, Targets; his role of Clayface is meant to evoke Basil Karlo, the first of several Batman foes to use the name Clayface, who modeled his masked persona after the character he played in the horror film The Terror, which is also the name of Byron Orlok’s last film)
• Countess Addhema (The Vampire Countess by Paul Féval)
• Toby Dammit (Terence Stamp, Spirits of the Dead)
• The Daughter of the Dragon (Fah Lo Suee, daughter of Fu Manchu; her alias of Lin Tang is the name given to Fu’s daughter in the Harry Alan Towers-produced films in the late ‘60s, in which she was portrayed by Tsai Chin, while her role as Thomas Nolan’s personal assistant is a reference to Chin’s appearance as Thomas’ unnamed receptionist in Blow-Up)
• The Lord of Strange Deaths (Fu Manchu)
• Barbara von Weidenborn (Evelyne Kraft, Lady Dracula; her pseudonym Barbarushka is a reference to 1960s fashion model Veruschka, who appeared as a fictionalized version of herself in Blow-Up)
• Edwina (Edwina Lionheart; Diana Rigg, Theatre of Blood)
• Marcus Monserrat and Mrs. Monserrat (Boris Karloff and Catherine Lacey, The Sorcerers)
• Hugh Conway and Shangri-La (Lost Horizon by James Hilton)
• Shambhala is from Tibetan and Indian Buddhist mythology
• K’un-L’un is the adopted home of the Marvel Comics hero Iron Fist
• Kent Allard
• "The secret of killing via shouting" is a reference to the film The Shout
• Catherine Cornelius is the sister of Michael Moorcock’s adventurer and secret agent Jerry Cornelius
• Moira Kent ("The Dancing Life of Moira Kent," strip in the British comic Bunty)
• Fontaine Khaled (The Stud and The Bitch by Jackie Collins)
• Sir Billy Langly was played by Kevin Brennan in "The Human Time Bomb," an episode of the television series Doomwatch
• The Steel Claw is a British comics character
• Vanessa is Richard Jeperson’s lovely companion
• Charles Beauregard
• Danny Dravot
• Whitney is Whitney Gauge from Newman’s "Moon Moon Moon"
• Maureen is Maureen Mountmain from Newman’s "Seven Stars"
• Louise-Ésperance is Madame Louise Ésperance "Mama-Lou" d’Ailly-Guin from Newman’s "The Serial Murders," which is also the source of Corri (Professor Barbara Corri) and The Northern Barstows
• Quelou is Mademoiselle Quelou from Newman’s Doctor Who novel Time and Relative
• CI5 is from the British television series The Professionals
• WOOC(P) (The Ipcress File by Len Deighton)
• The Circus is from the George Smiley novels by John le Carré
• Universal Exports is the front for the British Secret Service in the James Bond novels
• The Section is from the TV series Callan; David Callan’s boss is known as Colonel Hunter
• Sandbaggers are a reference to the British spy TV series The Sandbaggers
• Scalphunters are a reference to le Carré’s Smiley novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Edwin Winthrop
• Mildew Manor is from Kim Newman’s story of the same name
• James Manfred, O.B.E. (James Cossins, Raw Meat aka Deathline)
• The Department of Administrative Affairs is from the British sitcom Yes Minister
• Nicholas Dyer (Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd)
• Professor Elwyn Clayton (George Zucco, Dead Men Walk)
• Faber College is from the film National Lampoon’s Animal House
• Santonix (Rudolf Santonix; Endless Night by Agatha Christie)
• Harry Paget Flashman
• Horatio Hornblower
• George Edward Challenger
• Sir Francis Varney
• Prince Mamuwalde (William Marshall, Blacula and Scream Blacula Scream)
• Dru is Drusilla (Juliet Landau) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Ricky Strange (Steve Patterson) and Groover’s are from the film Au Pair Girls
• Mina Harker
• Kostaki ("The Pale Lady" by Alexandre Dumas)
• Styles, the Haymarket Strangler (Edward Styles; Michael Atkinson, Grip of the Strangler)
• Constable Thackeray is from the Inspector Cribb novels by Peter Lovesey
• Eric DeBoys was played by Patrick Mower in The Avengers episode "A Sense of History"
• Cathy Castel and Pony Tricot are meant to be the vampires played by Catherine and Marie-Pierre Castel in several films directed by Jean Rollin; "Pony Tricot" is one of Marie-Pierre’s stage names.
• Howard W. Campbell Jr. (Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut)
• Miss Brabazon (Sheila Keith, House of Mortal Sin)
• Scrawdyke (Malcolm Scrawdyke; John Hurt, Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs)
• Withnail (Richard E. Grant, Withnail & I)
• Moïse King is a combination of Moise from the film The Party’s Over and King from the film These Are the Damned; both roles were played by Oliver Reed
• Simon Armstrong (The Feast of the Wolf by Thomas Blackburn)
• Anna Franklyn (Jacqueline Pearce, The Reptile; Pearce also played Marianne Gray in "A Sense of History")
• Fran (Marianne Morris, Vampyres)
• Roquentin (Antoine Roquentin; Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre)
• Elizabeth Bathory
• Hesselius (Dr. Martin Hesselius, In A Glass Darkly by J. Sheridan LeFanu)
• "The vanishing police box" is the Doctor’s TARDIS from Doctor Who
• The Mother of Tears is from Dario Argento’s film trilogy consisting of Suspiria, Inferno, and Mother of Tears
• Carmilla
• Edward Langdon, MP (Lennard Pearce, Face of Darkness)
• Dr. John Hardy (Marius Goring, The Expert)
• Lionel St. Dubois (Lorenzo "L. S. D." St. Dubois; Dick Shawn, The Producers)
• Horace Rumpole (Leo McKern, Rumpole of the Bailey)
• Joe Hawkins is the protagonist of the Skinhead novels by "Richard Allen," a pen name for James Moffat
• Adam Cochran (Dracula and the Virgins of the Undead by "Etienne Aubin," also a Moffat pseudonym)
• Reginald Bird (Ronald "Budgie" Bird; Adam Faith, Budgie)
• Peter Craven (Malcolm McFee, Please Sir! and The Fenn Street Gang)
• Fullalove of the Gazette (James Fullalove; Paul Whitsun-Jones, The Quatermass Experiment; Brian Worth, Quatermass and the Pit)
• Stenning of the Express (Peter Stenning; Edward Judd, The Day the Earth Caught Fire)
• DCI Charlie Barlow (Stratford Johns) and New Town are from the TV series Z Cars and its many spin-offs
• Sergeant Lynch (James Ellis, Z Cars)
• Jasper Lakin was played by John Laurie in The Avengers episode "Brief for Murder"
• Perryman (Det. Sgt. Perryman; Michael McStay, No Hiding Place)
• North (Det. Sgt. Bill North; Roger Rowland, Special Branch)
• The Bowmans, from the titular episode of the British sitcom Hancock, is a parody of the radio soap opera The Archers
• Sister George is from the play and film The Killing of Sister George
• Jessica Van Helsing (Stephanie Beacham, Dracula A.D. 1972; Joanna Lumley, The Satanic Rites of Dracula)
• Marcus Obadiah (The Dead Travel Fast by Richard Tate)
• Kingstead Cemetery is from Dracula
• The India-Rubber Men are from Edgar Wallace’s novel of the same name
• Graf von Orlok (Max Schreck, Nosferatu)
• John Blaylock (David Bowie, The Hunger)
• Orlon Kronsteen (They Thirst and "Makeup" by Robert McCammon)
• Mavis Weld (The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler)
• Biff Bailey (Roy Castle, Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors)
• Marcel DeLange (Martin Kosleck, House of Horrors [no relation to the above])
• The Gorilla of Soho is from the 1968 German film of the same name
• Renfield
• St. Swithin’s and Michael Upton (Barry Evans) are from the television series Doctor in the House and Doctor at Large

Crossover Cover: The Case of the Gilded Fly

Gervase Fen has an epiphany about the murder he is investigating, and hopes Gideon Fell never becomes privy to his lunacy. The reference to John Dickson Carr’s sleuth Dr. Gideon Fell reinforces Fen’s inclusion in the CU.