Crossover Cover: Tangled June

Dave Garrett, a disbarred lawyer turned private investigator in Philadelphia, contacts a fellow P.I. named Saxon to do some background work on a case. Les Roberts’ actor and private eye Saxon is in the CU through Robert Randisi’s Miles Jacoby novel Stand-Up. This crossover brings in Neil Albert's eye Dave Garrett.

Crossover TV Series: The Middleman

Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Les McClaine's comic The Middleman features the title character and his sidekick Wendy Watson battling threats to the world for the Organization Too Secret to Know (O2TSK). There have been several Middlemen throughout history. In the story "The League of Professional Jealousy," Dr. Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker set out to destroy Dracula, only to find they have been beaten to the punch. Soon after, Phileas Fogg returns to the Reform Club after finishing his eighty-day trek around the world, only to find out his time has been beaten by the same person who stole Van Helsing’s thunder: the Middleman. Van Helsing enlists Nikolai Tesla to help him and Fogg get their revenge, which involves Van Helsing spreading rumors of a demonic hound in the moors of Devonshire. However, Tesla actually helps the Middleman outwit Van Helsing and Fogg. Learning there are now reports of a seemingly real "Hound of the Baskervilles" in Devonshire, the Middleman later sends a letter to Holmes and Watson telling them he has already solved the mystery, and he is off to the high seas, where a maniac has been ramming cargo ships with a submarine. This story is a parody, and Van Helsing and Fogg are both out of character. Additionally, the year is given as 1897, whereas in the CU Dracula took place in 1887, Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872, The Hound of the Baskervilles in 1888, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1866–1868. Therefore, I place the comics in an AU. However, the comic does have a TV adaptation with crossover references of its own, which fits much better into the CU. The O2TSK is also mentioned in The Librarians episode "The Librarians and the Apple of Discord."

In "The Sino-Mexican Revelation," the Middleman and Wendy visit Schlermie Beckerman Memorial Square and Alfred Necessiter Memorial Hospital. Beckerman and Necessiter are from the movie The Man with Two Brains. In "The Manicoid Teleportation Conundrum," the Middleman has a rendezvous with Wendy at Lyon Estates. Wendy discovers a bomb is hidden at Twin Pines Mall. Ida, the Middleman’s android assistant, says a headless murder victim lived at Eastwood Ravine Drive. Lyon Estates and Twin Pines Mall are from the film Back to the Future. Eastwood Ravine Drive is named after the Eastwood Ravine from Back to the Future Part III. In "The Ectoplasmic Panhellenic Investigation," Eleanor Draper’s honors include the Egon Spengler Memorial Award and the Ivo Shandor Medal. Both individuals are from the movie Ghostbusters. In "The Clotharian Contamination Protocol," a NASA employee is named Lethbridge-Stewart. A "Zygon-Rated" containment box appears. The Nakatomi Protocol expands the vents in Middleman HQ to human size, allowing the Middleman to crawl through them in case of an emergency. A Clotharian bomb has writing on it in Aurebesh. Lethbridge-Stewart is probably related to the CU counterpart of Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart from Doctor Who. The Zygons are an alien race also seen in Doctor Who. The Nakatomi Protocol appears to have been inspired by John McClane crawling through the vents of the Nakatomi Plaza building, as seen in the movie Die Hard. The Aurebesh language is from the Star Wars film series. In "The Palindrome Reversal Palindrome," the Middleman and Wendy investigate the theft of a Beryllium Sphere and an Oscillation Overthruster. A collection of stolen doll eyes is made of polydichloric euthimal. The Middleman has a phased polaron cannon in his weapons archive. Beryllium spheres are from the movie Galaxy Quest, while the Oscillation Overthruster is from the movie The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. Polydichloric euthimal appears in the movies Outland, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Relic, based on Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s novel Relic. Outland must take place in an alternate future. The future seen in the Terminator movies is also an alternate timeline to the established future of the CU. The novel Relic has already been established as taking place in the CU, so the events of the movie must occur in an alternate reality as well. Phased polarons are from Star Trek.

Crossover Cover: Django/Zorro

Django Freeman teams up with the aging Don Diego de la Vega to battle the self-styled “Archduke of Arizona.” This story takes place after the events of Tarantino’s film Django Unchained, which occurred in 1858–1859. However, the film The Mask of Zorro (which is referenced in Jess Nevins' "A Root That Beareth Gall and Worms" and John Allen Small's "A Fate Cast in Silver") has Don Diego definitively dying in 1842. Therefore, I consider this particular story an AU.

Crossover Covers: Black Pulp

This anthology contains two stories with crossovers. In Gary Phillips' "Decimator Smith and the Fangs of the Fire Serpent," boxer Achilles "Decimator" Smith turns vigilante after the death of his sister. He meets inventor Abe Kaufman, who tells him, "When I was back east, I did some work for a few vigilantes you might say. I belonged to a kind of a loose association of scientists who helped out the best way we could." Abe’s brother Rocco adds, "You heard of that bloodthirsty joker with the weird laugh and the slouch hat in New York? Abe designed a few gadgets for him through his operatives." This is a reference to Walter Gibson's most famous character, of course. Decimator also appears in his boxing days in Phillips' story "Demon Slaves of the Red Claw," a crossover between the Spider and Operator #5. The other story relevant to this blog is Derrick Ferguson's "Dillon and the Alchemist's Morning Coffee." The Alchemist’s Morning Coffee is a method of encoding digital information in human DNA devised by Dr. Alejandro Candu of the Henderson Institute of Alternative Technologies. The nation of Khusra is mentioned. Dillon’s friend Wyatt Hyatt has been hacking into government agencies’ computers since he was a kid, including hacking into CTU’s computer core when he was thirteen. Dillon mentions another friend, Elisa Hill. This story takes place during the eight-month gap between Chapters 1 and 2 of Dillon and the Pirates of Xonira. The head of the Henderson Institute of Alternative Technologies is Dr. Sylvester Henderson, whose brother Mongrel is the protagonist of a series of stories by Ferguson in Airship 27 Productions’ anthology series Mystery Men (& Women). Ferguson’s 1930s adventurer Fortune McCall is a Prince of Khusra’s Royal Family. The CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) is from the television series 24, which features fictional U.S. Presidents and massive terrorist attacks, including a nuclear device being detonated in Los Angeles. Presumably, as with the Spider novels, the true details of Jack Bauer’s adventures have been exaggerated and distorted for dramatic effect. Elisa Hill is the main character of Percival Constantine’s Myth Hunter series.

Crossover of the Week

July 1996

EXPLOSIVE JUSTICE

Former police officer Bowen Chadwick (secretly the superpowered vigilante known as the Blaster) watches a news story on National News Net, a part of Havens International Media, delivered by Curtis Van Loan. In a flashback to the circumstances under which Chadwick gained his powers, Sergeant Sampson Jones tells Special Agent Simmons, “I do not care if the ghost of J. Edgar Hoover comes up to me with a request signed by the ghosts of Eliot Ness, Wyatt Earp, and Sherlock Holmes; I will not relinquish control of this environmental travesty.” Van Loan later introduces Chadwick to another vigilante, the Voice, who needs his help against a right wing militia. The Voice says, “If it weren’t for the women and children in the compound, I’d be sorely tempted to use my honorary Uncle Dick’s scorched earth methods. Go Mack Bolan on ’em.” After the militia is defeated, a helicopter picks up the Voice and Chadwick; the crew of the aircraft refers to the pilot as String.

Short story by Erwin K. Roberts in Casebook of the Voice, Modern Knights Press, 2014. Havens International Media is an outgrowth of the Daily Clarion newspaper owned by Frank Havens, an ally of the Phantom Detective (aka Richard Curtis Van Loan). The Detective’s girlfriend in the pulp stories was Muriel Havens, Frank’s daughter; Curtis “Curt” Van Loan is their son. Sergeant Jones is almost certainly mistaken about Sherlock Holmes being deceased, and was probably fooled by Holmes faking his death in 1957. The Voice’s honorary Uncle Dick is Richard “Dick” Wentworth, better known as the Spider. Mack Bolan, the Executioner, is the protagonist of a series of novels by Don Pendleton and others. It has been suggested Bolan is Wentworth’s son. The helicopter pilot is Stringfellow “String” Hawke from the television series Airwolf.

Crossover Covers: Gaslight

These three anthologies contain stories of Sherlock Holmes encountering the supernatural or other remarkable cases. The first anthology, Gaslight Grimoire, included many crossovers, most of which Win included in the original volumes. The only one not included, which will be in the new volumes, is "Red Sunset" by Bob Madison. A private investigator asks an elderly, decrepit British consulting detective to assist him in a case involving a missing man, who upon being discovered by the American detective attacked him, forcing the detective to fire three bullets into him, which had no effect. The British sleuth deduces the younger detective works for either the Chandler or Continental agencies. The person responsible for the man’s strange condition is a Romanian Count, who mentions the Dutch doctor. The elderly British detective is Holmes. The Continental Detective Agency is from Dashiell Hammett’s Continental Op stories, and the American detective is the Op himself. The Romanian Count is Dracula, while his Dutch foe is Doctor Abraham Van Helsing. This story takes place during World War II, and the P.I. claims Holmes was smuggled out of London when the Blitz began, his continued existence being considered vital to British morale. This conflicts with the events of Anthony Boucher’s story "The Adventure of the Illustrious Impostor" and Manly Wade Wellman’s "But Our Hero Was Not Dead," both of which portray Holmes as still residing in London in 1941. References to Marshal Antonescu’s overthrow in Rumania would seem to place this story in 1944. However, Holmes says he is over a hundred-years-old. Since Holmes was born in 1854, he would be only 90 in 1944. The feebleness and brittle bones displayed by Holmes in this story are inconsistent with references in several pastiches set in the CU to his discovery of a Royal Jelly elixir that arrests the aging process. Given all these factors, this story cannot take place in the CU.

The second anthology is Gaslight Grotesque. In William Patrick Maynard's "The Tragic Case of the Child Prodigy," Holmes and Dr. Watson attempt to rescue young violin virtuoso Arthur Tremayne’s mother from the influence of occultist William Frawley. Back in Baker Street, Holmes tells Watson he will fetch Billy the page and see if young Mr. Pons is interested in learning the proper way to play the violin. Watson is married to Mary Morstan, which places this story before the Great Hiatus. August Derleth’s sleuth Solar Pons studied the art of detection under Holmes, who must have taught the ten-year-old Pons how to play the violin as well. In Neil Jackson's "Celeste," Holmes and Watson investigate the salvaged ship Mary Celeste alongside Dr. Joseph Jephson, whose father Habakuk was one of those who disappeared from the ship in 1872. Jephson says a diary allegedly written by his father is a hoax. The diary is a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle’s story "J. Habakuk Jephson’s Statement." Both Doyle’s and Jackson’s stories offer different solutions to the mystery of the historical Mary Celeste than Philip José Farmer’s The Other Log of Phileas Fogg, and therefore neither can take place in the CU. Doyle’s story also takes many liberties with the known true facts of the case. In Stephen Volk's "Hounded," Dr. Watson attends a séance where the Hound of the Baskervilles is conjured up. The late Sherlock Holmes forced Watson to write a mostly fabricated account of their encounter with Hound, including the false claim the beast was not in fact supernatural in origin. The spiritualist’s house contains a painting of a unicorn by Harvey Deacon and books by, among others, occultist Paul Le Duc; both individuals are from Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story "Playing with Fire." Professor George Challenger is mentioned as a believer in spiritualism. A reference to Rudolph Valentino places this story sometime between the 1914 events of "His Last Bow" (1914 also being the year Valentino began acting) and the star’s death in 1926. This story must be an AU.

The third anthology is Gaslight Arcanum. I covered Kim Newman's "The Adventure of the Six Maledictions" in a previous post. The other crossover stories are all AUs. In "The Comfort of the Seine" by the aforementioned Stephen Volk, Holmes recounts his time in Paris, where he learned the art of detection from the supposedly deceased Edgar Allan Poe, then living under the name Dupin. Among the cases they investigated were the affair of the so-called "phantom" of the Paris Opera and the case of the horla and its tragically afflicted seer. These are references to Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera and Guy de Maupassant’s "The Horla." Dupin is portrayed as a completely fictional character created by Poe. In Lawrence Connolly's "The Executioner," Frankenstein’s Monster revives Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty after their fatal battle at Reichenbach Falls. In Kevin Cockle's "Sherlock Holmes and the Great Game," Holmes, discussing his fictionalized exploits with Watson, refers to "Challenger’s nonsense." This story portrays Holmes as having been granted insights by a mystic Zulu dagger given to Watson in Afghanistan rather than being a natural deductive genius.

Crossover Cover: Heart-Shaped Box

Things take a paranormal turn for the worse when aging rocker Judas Coyne purchases a ghost online; other items among his collection of the strange and macabre include books by Aleister Crowley and Charles Dexter Ward. Ward is the main character of H. P. Lovecraft’s The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, linking Joe Hill’s interconnected works to the Cthulhu Mythos, and thus the CU.

Crossover Covers: King

A sequel to the comic Kings Watch, which takes place in an AU, as I discussed in a previous post.

Crossover Cover: The Charlemagne Pursuit

Edwin Davis, a deputy national security advisor to the president, asks Stephanie Nelle, Cotton Malone’s former boss, for help, telling her Scot Harvath already turned down the request. Secret Service agent Scot Harvath appears in a series of novels by Brad Thor. Malone was previously mentioned in the Harvath novel The First Commandment. The death of Malone’s father, which occurred in 1971, is said to have been thirty-eight years ago. However, a year of 2009 would place the events of this novel after its year of publication, 2008. Additionally, the dates given fit 2007 rather than 2009. Therefore, I am regarding the references to thirty-eight years having passed as an error, and placing it in 2007, thirty-six years after the death of Malone’s father.

Crossover Cover: Black Swan Green

Jason Taylor’s classmates include Neal Brose and Clive Pike, while Mr. Nixon is his headmaster. Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck tutors Jason in poetry. The Vicar of Saint Gabriel’s’ wife is Gwendolin Bendincks. Neal Brose appears as an adult in Mitchell’s novel Ghostwritten. Clive Pike and Mr. Nixon are from the short story “Acknowledgments,” which features the now-grown Pike trying to get a book published by Timothy Cavendish, another character from Ghostwritten. Mitchell’s story “Muggins Here” is a sequel to “Acknowledgments.” Madame Eva van Outryve de Crommelynck and Gwendolin Bendincks are from Cloud Atlas, which was brought into the CU by Joe Hill's novel NOS4A2.

Crossover Cover: Ghost Walk

Levi Stoltzfus, the ex-Amish magus, battles Nodens of the Thirteen near LeHorn’s Hollow, with help from Maria Nasr and Adam Senft, in a battle that culminates on Halloween night. There are numerous references to the Goat-Man and the forest fire of 2006. Nodens has been known as “Shub-Niggurath,” but this is not its true name; its temples can be found on “the twin moons of distant Yhe and the fungal gardens of Yaksh.” There are references to Nelson LeHorn and Saul O’Connor, and LeHorn’s copy of the Daemonolateria is featured. There is a reference to a group of hunters who died in a mysterious fire near LeHorn’s Hollow. Tony Genova and Vincent Napoli are mentioned. Levi mentions various occult groups, like Black Lodge, the Kwan, and the Starry Wisdom sect. Maria Nasr places a call to retired Detective Hector Ramirez. Adam Senft was incarcerated alongside Karen Moore. A minor character, Cecil Smeltzer, thinks about his late brother Clark and his nephew Barry. Levi mentions Nyarlathotep in a spell, and also refers to the Lost Level. Nodens is not the Celtic deity, nor the Lovecraftian entity, but is instead the greatest of the Thirteen, pre-Universal beings that travel the multiverse destroying entire realities. They are the primary villains of Keene’s Labyrinth saga. The Goat-Man, the fire of 2006, Nelson LeHorn, Saul O’Connor, and Adam Senft are from Keene’s novel Dark Hollow, to which this novel is a semi-sequel. While Nodens is not Shub-Niggurath, it may have disguised itself as that entity at times. Yhe and Yaksh are Cthulhu Mythos locales. The Daemonolateria appears throughout Keene’s works, including Dark Hollow and “Caught in a Mosh.” The deceased hunters are from Keene’s short story “Red Wood.” Tony Genova and Vincent Napoli are mobsters who reappear throughout Keene’s multiverse. The versions mentioned here are native to the CU, but other versions can be seen in Keene’s novels Clickers II, Clickers III, and Clickers vs. Zombies (cowritten with J. F. Gonzalez), and in the short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas.” Black Lodge is a secret occult organization that also appears throughout Keene’s multiverse, including the short story “The Black Wave,” and in other universes, such as those of Earthworm Gods II: Deluge and Clickers vs. Zombies. The Kwan are from the works of horror author Geoff Cooper; they play a major role in Keene and Cooper’s novel Shades. The Starry Wisdom sect is from H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Haunter of the Dark.” Detective Ramirez appears in Keene’s novels Terminal and Dark Hollow. Karen Moore and Clark and Barry Smeltzer are from Keene’s novel Ghoul. Nyarlathotep is the crawling chaos of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Lost Level is from Keene’s novel of the same name. A short follow-up story, “The Ghosts of Monsters,” can be found in Keene’s collections Unhappy Endings and Blood on the Page, and takes place about a year later. Keene’s novel Darkness at the Edge of Town takes place in one of his many parallel universes, and shows what happened in a world where Levi died years earlier and was not around to stop Nodens. A follow-up story, “The House of Ushers,” sees Adam Senft traveling to the version of Hell created by horror author Edward Lee in his novel City Infernal and its sequels.

Crossover of the Week

April 1987

A FISTFUL OF JUDEXES

Reporter Mattie Storin interviews Michel Kerjean, leader of the Judex Society, a security business dedicated to battling crime and corruption on the Channel Island of Jersey. The Society is named after a masked crime-fighter in Paris, before the War. Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac of the Bureau de Etrangers intervenes when a group of Judexes at Diamante Lil’s café become rowdy. An older detective named Teddy Verano helps him deal with the Judexes. On returning to the Bureau, Jim is greeted by his secretary, Peggy, who tells him Chief Inspector Barney Crozier wants to see him. Jim asks his former father-in-law Charlie Hungerford what the Law and Order committee plans to do about the Judex Society. The real Judex tells Jim Kerjean created the Society to discredit the vigilante, who he blames for the death of his grandfather, a criminal named Morales. Kerjean is backed by BlackSpear Holdings. Jim mentions his relationship with Susan.

Short story by Nigel Malcolm in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Mattie Storin is from Michael Dobbs’ novel House of Cards, which features the appointment of a fictional Prime Minister of Great Britain, Francis Urquhart. Therefore, the Mattie Storin in Malcolm’s story must be the CU counterpart of the character seen in Dobbs’ book, which takes place in an AU. Michel Kerjean is the grandson of Robert Morales (née Kerjean) and his lover Diana Monti, who died in battle with the title character of Louis Feuillade’s 1916 film serial Judex. Detective Sergeant Jim Bergerac, Diamante Lil, Peggy Masters, Chief Inspector Barney Crozier, Charlie Hungerford, and Susan Young are from the British police drama Bergerac. Teddy Verano is a private eye featured in books by Maurice Limat. BlackSpear Holdings is the name by which Paul Féval’s criminal society the Black Coats is known in the 20th and 21st century, as seen in fiction by Jean-Marc Lofficier.

Crossover Cover: Devil Take the Hindmost

In the city of Denbrook, former journalist Damon St. Cloud seeks to avenge his family’s murder. Along the way, he encounters Matthew Corrigan, Detective Christos, Frederick “the Whale” Whalen, Charybdis and Scylla, and Toulon. Kenneth Ottman and Laloosh are also mentioned. The city of Denbrook, created by Mike McGee, was the setting of nine serialized stories by various authors on the website Frontier Publishing. The first section of the book, “Club Red,” originally appeared on the website in 2004. Matthew Corrigan and Detective Christos are from Michael Franzoni’s Denbrook story “Missing Persons.” Frederick “the Whale” Whalen is from Derrick Ferguson’s novel Dillon and the Voice of Odin. Since Dillon is in the CU, so are the various inhabitants of Denbrook. Charybdis and Scylla, Toulon, and Laloosh are from Ferguson’s as-yet-unpublished Denbrook novel Diamondback: It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time. Kenneth Ottman is from Tom Lynch’s Denbrook story “Pentagram Whispers.”

Crossover Covers: Teen Titans - Ghost

The Mystery, Inc. gang meet the version of the DC comics superteam the Teen Titans seen in the cartoon Teen Titans Go!, initially investigating a seeming haunting at Titans Tower, then helping the Titans get rid of Raven’s uncle Myron the Mildly Irritating. Per Win's rules about generally not including superhero teams in the CU, I'm treating this story as an AU.

Crossover Cover: The Shadow Calling Nick Carter

In one of the stories in this issue, Nick Carter teams up with the Shadow and Margo Lane to battle a criminal mastermind called Vox.

Crossover Cover: Summer Knight

Queen Mab inherits the debt Harry Dresden previously owed to the Winter Fae. Harry twice views Queen Titania with his Wizard’s Sight. Queen Mab and Queen Titania are from William Shakespeare’s plays Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, respectively, and become recurring characters in the Dresden Files series with this novel.

Crossover Cover: The House of Wax

Teenage amateur sleuth Kindaichi Hajime, grandson of detective Kindaichi Kosuke, works alongside another teen detective, Edward Columbo, the nephew of a noted Los Angeles homicide detective. Kindaichi Kosuke appeared in a series of novels by Seishi Yokozimo. Edward Columbo is meant to be the nephew of Lt. Columbo from the television series Columbo; since the Lieutenant is in the CU, so are the Kindaichis.

Day of the Hunter

In a 2002 storyline in the Tarzan comic strip written by Alex Simmons, the jungle lord encountered Simmons' character Arron Day, aka BlackJack, an African-American mercenary active in the 1930s and '40s, via time travel. The official BlackJack website provides links to the individual chapters on the GoComics site.

Crossover of the Week

March 1920

THE JADE SUIT OF DEATH

Charles St. Cyprian and his assistant Ebe Gallowglass battle the Order of the Cosmic Ram, which has unleashed the demon Baphomet and the ancient Chinese sage and werewolf Zhang Su. St. Cyprian uses a “devil-box” formerly used by Carnacki to subdue the Hairy Hands of Dartmoor. Soho’s dockworkers are a mixture of races, including Chinese, Lascar, English and Tcho-Tcho. St. Cyprian and Gallowglass dwell at No. 427, Cheyne Walk. Carnacki, St. Cyprian’s predecessor as Royal Occultist, was once the apprentice to Edwin Drood, his own predecessor. Picking up a letter, Gallowglass asks St. Cyprian, “What’s a Janus House and why doesn’t it have a postmark?” St. Cyprian replies, “The Sergeant has other means of posting letters than Royal Mail.” St. Cyprian and Gallowglass answer a summons from William Melion, who was once a member of the Kensington Clique, a group of occultists that also included John Silence, Saxon Amadeus Dorr, Sar Dubnotal, and Flaxman Low. In Limehouse, St. Cyprian and Gallowglass meet with Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk, formerly of Scotland Yard. St. Cyprian tells Robertson-Kirk he was sorry to hear about Hubert, and she mentions Inspector Meisures. Amelia Glossop is a member of the Order. Melion thinks of previous Royal Occultists, such as Drood and his shimmering crystal egg, and Beamish and his hunt for the worms in the earth. Philip Wendy-Smythe claims to know the hidden mysteries of Lemuria and ancient Khem, the Aklo, and how to make the Voorish Sign. St. Cyprian asks if he knows the Hloh Gestures. Wendy-Smythe, who falsely believes one of his personal curios is the idol of Chaugnar Faugn, invokes the myriad and malevolent moons of Munnapor and the roving rings of Raggadorr when he and St. Cyprian are attacked by an animated statue. Wendy-Smythe tells his servant to retrieve the cursed scepter of Ibn-Schacabao, but the butler gives notice, saying he’ll be in residence at the Junior Ganymede Club. St. Cyprian’s unidentified enemy is a magus in the truest sense of the word, on a level with Oliver Haddo or one of that lot. St. Cyprian uses the powder of Ibn Ghazi to expose an invisible menace. St. Cyprian tells Gallowglass to get the arbutus, which is on the third shelf, left of the statue with the head of an ibis; Gallowglass mistakes a falcon figurine for the ibis. Saxon Amadeus Dorr smokes cigarettes made from the poppies of Leng. The sorcerers of Averoigne are mentioned, as is the Westenra Fund. Melion’s servant Ghale brews his tea from the blossoms of the mariphasa, a flower known to grow only in the higher altitudes of Tibet. Sadie Fleece refers to the Starry Wisdom. St. Cyprian uses the sign of Koth, which guards the Black Tower and seals the vaults of Pnath, to bind Zhang Su. Saxon Dorr tells Melion about a Polish nobleman who shares his affliction of lycanthropy, and has lived for centuries.

Novel by Josh Reynolds, Emby Press, 2014. Thomas Carnacki and No. 427, Cheyne Walk are from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. The Tcho-Tcho people are from August Derleth’s contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos created by H. P. Lovecraft. Edwin Drood is the title character of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. The Sergeant is Sergeant Roman Janus, the “Spirit-Breaker,” an occult detective created by Jim Beard. John Silence is the protagonist of an eponymous collection by Algernon Blackwood. The Sâr Dubnotal appeared in a French pulp series by an anonymous author. Flaxman Low is from Ghosts; Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low by “E. and H. Heron” (Hesketh V. Prichard and Kate O’Brien Ryall Prichard). Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk, Hubert de Mazareen, and Inspector Meisures are from Baroness Orczy’s collection Lady Molly of Scotland Yard. Amelia Glossop is presumably a member of the Glossop family from P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books. The Junior Ganymede Club is a club for gentlemen’s gentlemen of which Jeeves is a member. The shimmering crystal egg is from H. G. Wells’ “The Crystal Egg.” Worms in the Earth are from Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story “Worms of the Earth.” Khem and the Starry Wisdom are from H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Haunter of the Dark.” The Aklo language is from Arthur Machen’s “The White People,” and was also used by Lovecraft in “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark.” The Voorish Sign and the powder of Ibn Ghazi are also from “The Dunwich Horror.” The Plateau of Leng is featured in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos stories. The Sign of Koth and the Vale of Pnath are from Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle. The Hloh Gestures are from Margery Lawrence’s stories about occult detective Miles Pennoyer. Chaugnar Faugn is from Frank Belknap Long’s novel The Horror from the Hills. Munnapor (or Munnopor) and Raggadorr are mystic entities from the stories of Marvel Comics’ Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange. Ibn-Schacabao is from Lovecraft’s story “The Festival.” Oliver Haddo is from W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Magician. The falcon figurine is the titular statue from Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon. Averoigne is a province of France that is the site of many supernatural events in Clark Ashton Smith’s works. The Westenra fund is named after Lucy Westenra from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Mariphasa is from the 1935 horror film Werewolf of London. The Polish nobleman is Waldemar Daninsky, a werewolf played by Paul Naschy in a long-running series of Spanish horror films.

Crossover Cover: Vionna and the Vampires

Private eyes Vionna Valis and Mary Kelly (a victim of Jack the Ripper who was resurrected by the vigilante known as the Black Centipede) join forces with the ghost of Sherlock Holmes to battle the Lord of the Vampires, Professor James Moriarty. Moriarty formerly served the previous Lord, Count Dracula, before betraying and killing him. One of Moriarty’s vampire henchmen is a Chinese man who claims to have once been played by Boris Karloff, implicitly Fu Manchu. Holmes and Moriarty’s fates in this story are irreconcilable with their established history in the CU. Combined with the revelation that Moriarty is really Holmes’ oldest brother Sherrinford, this book, as well as the Black Centipede novels by Miller, must take place in an AU.

Crossover Cover: Suspect

L.A. cop Scott James joins the Metro K-9 Unit and is paired with a former bomb-sniffing dog named Maggie, who like himself suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. Together, they investigate the death of Scott’s partner. John Chen appears. Chen also appears in Crais’ Elvis Cole novels, as well as the Joe Pike series and the non-series novel Demolition Angel. Scott and Maggie later teamed up with Cole and Pike in The Promise.

Crossover Cover: Interdimensional Women's Prison Breakout

Bomb Queen and two other supervillainesses break out of the otherdimensional prison known as the White Ward and enter Cassie Hack’s world to cause havoc. Cassie teams up with Samhain to bring them to justice. Hoodoo Hex is seen among the inmates of the Ward. This story is a sequel to the one-shot Bomb Queen vs. Hack/Slash, which had Cassie and Vlad traveling to Bomb Queen's alternate universe to battle her. Hoodoo Hex is from Tim Seeley’s web comic Colt Noble and the Megalords.

Crossover Cover: Monster Hunter Alpha

Earl Harbinger, head of Monster Hunter International and a century-old werewolf, battles agents of the Old Ones and a new breed of lycanthrope in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. The Deep Ones are discussed, and it is mentioned every nation with a Navy has programs to eradicate them. These references further solidify the presence of Monster Hunter International in the CU.

Crossover Cover: The Hot Rock

John Dortmunder attempts to break fellow professional thief (and occasional actor) Alan Greenwood out of prison. Greenwood plans to change his name to Alan Grofield after the escape. A professional thief named Alan Grofield appears in Westlake’s Parker novels, written under the pen name “Richard Stark,” and is also the protagonist of four other novels written under the Stark pseudonym. Can the two Alan Grofields be the same person? Another Dortmunder novel, Nobody’s Perfect, claims Greenwood became a successful television actor under his original name. This seems exceedingly unlikely, since Greenwood would be wanted by the police for his prison escape. Since both the Parker and Dortmunder series have links to the CU, it is more likely the reference in Nobody’s Perfect is a distortion, and the two Grofields are indeed one and the same.