Crossover Cover: Merry John Mock

Hey, like William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki stories?

Then you'll love this story by Josh Reynolds featuring Carnacki's former apprentice and successor as Royal Occultist, Charles St. Cyprian, that also has crossover ties to the Jeeves and Wooster series, among others!

All the details can be found in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, debuting at the Meteor House booth at PulpFest/FarmerCon in Columbus, OH on July 21-24!

Crossover of the Week

1766

THE DARKNESS IN THE WOODS

Doctor Joseph Balsamo travels to New Orleans, where he is asked by Louisiana’s acting governor to investigate a rash of murders of local Indians. Some of the natives say the killings are the work of the Jibbenainosay, which translates as “Spirit That Walks.” Balsamo questions a little girl named Atala who survived one of the killer’s attacks. Atala was named after a woman with whom her ancestor was deeply in love. Two potential suspects are a pirate captain named Clegg and a Quaker called Wandering Nathan. Clegg’s ship is called the Imogene. Clegg, whose true name is Christopher Syn, claims to have killed Black Satan. The killer turns out to be Wandering Nathan, whose last name is Slaughter. The watch commander on duty when Balsamo and Clegg captured Slaughter was named Childress. Balsamo and Clegg discover a makeshift man made of twigs, branches, and a human skull, dressed in a pale, yellow cloak. They realize there was a second killer.

Short story by Nathan Cabaniss in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 11: Force Majeure, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2014. Joseph Balsamo, Count Cagliostro, is an historical figure who also appeared in novels by Alexandre Dumas, and was identified as the founder of a villainous branch of the Wold Newton Family in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. Nathan Slaughter (aka the Jibbenainosay) is from Robert Montgomery Bird’s novel Nick of the Woods. Atala is a descendant of the Natchez Chactas, whose love for the earlier Atala was chronicled in François-René de Chateaubriand’s novel named for the latter. The Reverend Doctor Christopher Syn (aka Captain Clegg), the Imogene, and Black Satan appear in novels by Russell Thorndike. Childress, implicitly the second killer, is the ancestor of serial killer Errol Childress from the television series True Detective, who was connected to the Yellow King of Carcosa from Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow.

Crossover Covers: Lords of Mars

The jungle lord and and his wife are transported to Mars, where Lord Greystoke is manipulated by one of the planet’s many sentient races into battling the planet’s warlord. Events from the comic book series Lord of the Jungle and Warlord of Mars, which only loosely follow the events of Burroughs’ books, are mentioned. Also, the jungle lord is uncharacteristically naïve here, accepting a Martian ruler’s claim the warlord is evil with little evidence, apparently because he feels he fits in more on Mars than on Earth. Therefore, I consider this series an AU.

Crossover Cover: The Adventure of the Noble Husband

Are you a fan of P. G. Wodehouse's fiction?

Then you must read Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2 to learn all the details about a reference to one of Wodehouse's characters in Peter Cannon's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Noble Husband!"

Crossovers Expanded is an AUTHORIZED companion to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, and will be coming out from Meteor House next month!

Crossovers Expanded Proofs

Meteor House's Facebook page just posted this pic with the following text: "Eight (yes eight!) proofs in from the printer over the last few days. These books will all be debuting at FarmerCon!

http://www.pjfarmer.com/upcome.htm"

I could not be happier. Thanks to Michael Croteau, Paul Spiteri, and last but never least the incomparable Win Scott Eckert for giving my first published books a home!

Crossover Cover: The Unnatural Inquirer

Hey, like spy fiction such as the James Bond novels, The Avengers, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Get Smart?

Then you'll love this entry in Simon R. Green's Nightside series, in which characters from all those series have an unnamed cameo at Strangefellow's Bar and Grill, though their gadgetry makes their identities clear. And that's far from the only crossover in this book!

For all the details on the crossovers in this, the other Nightside novels, and most of Green's other works, read my books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2, available from Meteor House in late July!

Crossover Cover: The Dead Man's Hand

John Thunstone places a phone call from Pennsylvania Station, telling the person on the other end he’s sorry he and Dr. Trowbridge can’t come. Thunstone is talking to Seabury Quinn’s occult detective Dr. Jules de Grandin.

Crossover Cover: Recalled

This anthology includes two stories with crossovers. Once is Nancy A. Collins' Return to Hell House, also available as a separate e-book, which I covered in a previous post. The other is "Recalled" by F. Paul Wilson. A man using the name Theodore Gordon attempts to turn the residents of a suburban neighborhood against each other, but winds up being thwarted and exposed by Repairman Jack. This story is a sequel to Richard Matheson’s “The Distributor,” Theodore Gordon’s first appearance. Since Repairman Jack's adventures take place in the CU, so does Matheson's story.

Crossover of the Week

1938

LEGENDS ARE FOREVER

Jake Cutter’s fellow former Flying Tiger, Gandy Dancer, recruits him to fly medical supplies to the Watusi tribe and locate the treasure of King Solomon’s Mines. Initially, Jake tells Gandy whatever he’s searching for, whether it is the Shinto Emerald, the Maltese Falcon, Tut’s treasure, or the Fountain of Youth, he can count him out. When Bon Chance Louie refers to his past experiences at Fort Zinderneuf, Gandy wonders if Louie may know the location of the Blue Water Sapphire. Gandy says Haggard omitted from his novel the fact that after Tremain’s visit, the Watusi relocated Solomon’s treasure to a Pacific island.

Episode of the television series Tales of the Gold Monkey broadcast October 20, 1982. “Tremain” is a pseudonym for Allan Quatermain, the protagonist of King Solomon’s Mines and several other books by H. Rider Haggard. The references to the Watusi are likely another fictionalization, as the tribe Quatermain and company encountered in Haggard’s novel was called the Kukuanas. The Kukuanas were substituted with the Watusi in the 1950 film version of King Solomon’s Mines, which probably inspired their use in this story. The Maltese Falcon needs no explanation at this point. Fort Zinderneuf and the Blue Water Sapphire are from P. C. Wren’s novel Beau Geste. Bon Chance Louie referred to his service at Zinderneuf in the episode immediately preceding this one, “Black Pearl,” though there he mistakenly gave the fort’s name as “Zinderman.”

Crossover Cover: The Green Lama Unbound

I covered the original version of this novel some time ago. Since then, a revised and expanded version has been published by Moonstone Books. The Green Lama battles Cthulhu. Cthulhu; Nyarlathotep; R’lyeh; the Great Old Ones; the Outer Gods; the Necronomicon; the Deep Ones; Abdul Alhazred; Glyyu-Uho; Vhoorl; flying polyps; the Great Race of Yith; shoggoths; Arkham, Massachusetts; Innsmouth; the Miskatonic River; Miskatonic University; Professor Randolph Carter; and Zkauba are from the works of H. P. Lovecraft. This novel also makes use of characters and places from Cthulhu Mythos tales by August Derleth (the Elder Gods); Brian Lumley (Chthonians and Shudde M’ell); Ramsey Campbell (Baalbo, Yifne, and Tond); Walter C. DeBill, Jr. (Ogntlach); Lin Carter (Xoth); and A. A. Attanasio (Yaksh). Rick Masters and Twin Eagle had their own feature in Spark Publications’ Green Lama comic book series. “That guy who lives in the Empire State Building” is a well-known bronze-skinned pulp hero. Arnold Toht is from the first Indiana Jones film, Raiders of the Lost Ark, while Colonel Ernst Vogel is from the third film in the series, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Neville Sinclair is from the film version of Dave Stevens’ comic The Rocketeer. Since the comic book has already been incorporated into the Crossover Universe, the Sinclair mentioned here must be the CU counterpart of the Sinclair from the film, which follows a different continuity than the comic. The phrase “klaatu barada nikto” appears in both the science fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still and Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Foster Fade, “the crime spectacularist,” appeared in three stories by Lester Dent in All Detective Magazine in 1934. Richard Knight appeared in the pulp magazine Flying Aces in stories by Donald E. Keyhoe. The Black Bat was created by Norman Daniels and appeared in Black Book Detective. The Lama’s old detective friend in London is Sherlock Holmes. Elisha Pond is a false identity used by Secret Agent X, who appeared in a titular magazine. The original version of the novel has a few references that were deleted from the revised version, such as a rampaging ape (King Kong), Captain Hazzard (a one-shot pulp hero created by Paul Chadwick), Dan Fowler (an FBI agent appearing in the pulp G-Men Detective), Lance Star (a Canadian pulp hero recently revived by Bobby Nash and other writers), and Jim Anthony (who appeared in the magazine Super Detective).

Crossover TV Episode: The Firefly

Hey, are you a fan of the cult favorite television series Twin Peaks?

Then you'll love the reference to one of its characters in this episode of Fringe!

All the details can be found in my books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2. AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, they will be released by Meteor House in July!

Crossover Cover: A Joyous Adventure

Martin Saint-Denys, a former member of the League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, becomes involved in a scheme to restore the royal house of Bourbon to the throne of France. The Pimpernel is mentioned several times in this standalone novel by Baroness Orczy, bringing it into the CU.

This crossover is only one of thousands that receive write-ups in my books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, which are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's superb books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2. Both volumes will debut at the Meteor House booth at PulpFest/FarmerCon in Columbus, OH on July 21-24. Win (who provided the foreword for Vol. 1) and I will be on hand to sign copies, as will William Patrick Maynard (who provided the foreword to Vol. 2, and is the author of the excellent continuations of the Fu Manchu series published by Black Coat Press) and Keith Howell (who provided the cover art for both volumes, as well as Win's Pat Wildman novella The Scarlet Jaguar, Meteor House's edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, and a host of other cool books)!

Crossover Cover: La Brigade Chimerique

Hey, are you a fan of French pulp heroes?

Then you'll love La Brigade Chimerique! Set in an alternate 1930s where most technology is powered by radium, and superhumans were created during World War I, this comic features the likes of Harry Dickson, the Nyctalope, and Fantômas interacting with other fictional characters from various medias and countries.

You can find all the information in the addendum on alternate universe crossovers, farces, and parodies in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, coming out from Meteor House in July!

 

Crossover Cover: The Albino's Treasure

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson attempt to prevent two rival criminal masterminds, Zenith the Albino and the Chinese Lord of Strange Deaths, from getting their respective hands on a mysterious but precious item called “England’s Treasure.” Donald Petrie is the Secretary of the National Portrait Gallery. Zenith the Albino is one of Sexton Blake’s greatest foes. Although Zenith first battled Blake in a 1913 story, this novel demonstrates that he was already active well before then. “The Lord of Strange Deaths” is one of Fu Manchu’s appellations. Donald Petrie may be a relative of Dr. Petrie from the Fu Manchu novels.

For write-ups of this and many, many, many more crossovers, check out Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, coming out from Meteor House in July!

Crossover Cover: The Mutiny of the Mavericks

Hey, like Rudyard Kipling's Kim?

Then you'll love this story featuring the same fictional Irish regiment to which Kimball O'Hara's father belonged!

All the details can be found in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, Yrs. Truly's AUTHORIZED companions to the insanely talented Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2, coming out next month from Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: Harry Dickson vs. the Spider

This story, originally published as "La Bande de l’Araignée" in Harry Dickson #86, is translated and adapted by Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier in the anthology Harry Dickson vs. the Spider, with crossover references added. Baker Street detective Harry Dickson battles Georgette Cuvelier and her Spider Society. Georgette tells Dickson the Society’s plans wouldn’t even be limited to Earth if they had the means to leave it, like Mr. Barbicane did. Georgette tells Dickson and his young assistant Tom Wills to evade two Italian mercenaries belonging to the Black Coats. Dickson first met a money lender friend of his when he cleared the man of murder during his time as an apprentice to Sexton Blake. The Society’s headquarters is located inside an opium den; the entrance to their lair can be accessed by manipulating statuettes of the Three Madmen of Toko-Djawa, which are described in Challenger’s book on the religions of Sumatra. Impey Barbicane is the president of the Baltimore Gun Club in Jules Verne’s novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon. The Black Coats are a criminal organization appearing in novels by Paul Féval. Sexton Blake is the most famous British penny dreadful detective; G. L. Gick revealed a young Dickson served as Blake’s apprentice in his novella “The Werewolf of Rutherford Grange.” Professor George Edward Challenger is the protagonist of The Lost World and other tales by Arthur Conan Doyle. Georgette reappeared in "The Phantom Executioners," which revealed that she was the daughter of Professor Flax, who was a recurring foe of Dickson, but first appeared in Louis Forest’s Someone is Stealing Children in Paris.

The Quest for Annie

Hey, like Dick Tracy?

Then you'll love this crossover between the square-jawed detective and Little Orphan Annie!

All the details can be found in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert, coming out next month from Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: Milord Sir Smiht, the English Wizard

Dr. Eszterhazy is a special agent of the government of Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania who undertakes various missions for the government involving mysteries and supernatural encounters. Oberzeeleutnant-commander Adler has written a monograph on the deep-sea fishes. Scythia-Pannonia-Transbalkania’s neighboring countries include Ruritania and Graustark. A young student in Prague who thought he had turned into a giant cockroach is mentioned. In Doyle and Watson’s “A Scandal in Bohemia,” Irene Adler’s biography is sandwiched between that of a Hebrew rabbi and that of a staff-commander who had written a monograph upon the deep-sea fishes in Sherlock Holmes’ index. Ruritania is from Anthony Hope’s The Prisoner of Zenda and Rupert of Hentzau, while Graustark is from the series by George Barr McCutcheon. The young student in Prague who thought he had turned into a giant cockroach is Gregor Samsa from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis.” However, Gregor was a traveling salesman rather than a student, and he actually did turn into a cockroach. According to Davidson, Gregor’s case was investigated by the local government of Prague. The government must have distorted the true details of the case in order to avoid the public learning the grisly details of Gregor’s transformation, making Kafka’s account the more accurate one. This crossover brings Doctor Esztherhazy and Gregor Samsa into the CU.

Crossover Cover: Children of the Beast

Hey, like the Hellraiser film series?

Then you'll love the reference to it in this story of Marvel Comics' Werewolf by Night!

Find out all the details in Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED expansions of Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2, due out from Meteor House in 2016!