The Imp of the Perverse has dictated that I make this week Crossover week. This won’t take away from HPL’s 120th Birthday, but it isn’t exactly a sub-theme, either.

I’ve done absolutely no research on when the first fictional cross overs occurred, but from my own collection, I do know that it happened occasionally in American dime novels. Nick Carter, probably the most famous of dime novel heroes, appeared in at least two issues of Old Broadbrim Weekly, #48 (Aug. 29, 1903) and #49 (Sept. 5, 1903). As these stories were often written with a loose continuity stretched across four stories in order to collect them together into a larger paperback, it’s likely that stories on either side of these two issues might also contain Carter.

Then, as now, it was probably a sales gimmick as Old Broadbrim Weekly appears to have changed its title to Young Broadbrim Weekly over the course of the next month. Old Broadbrim, aka the Quaker detective, was Josiah Broadbrim, a detective that worked out of New York; he met young Harry Wilson while on a case in Montana. The two got along so well that Harry–accompanied by his mother!– moved East and became the older detective’s partner. It’s hard not to think that this was a response to the popular detective team of Old King Brady and Young King Brady (no relation) over at rival Frank Tousey, Publisher.)

Old King Brady had a long history before the advent of Secret Service, which teamed him with his young assistant, Harry Brady, and later, Alice Montgomery. I’ll save the details for a future feature on Brady, but for years his solo stories appeared in Tousey’s New York Detective Library. Even after the stories of the James Boys took over that title, Brady would often be called in to assist Carl Greene, the detective dedicated to capturing the notorious outlaws. There were well over a dozen stories featuring Brady against the James Boys, one of which is shown below, NYDL no. 720, Sept,11, 1896.

(As always, you can click on the pictures for larger versions.)

I’ve said this before but the time has come to say it again: the reviews and opinions on this blog are my reviews and opinions; they are not meant as Received Text, or the Final Word, or the Right Way. I do make mistakes, I do have biases. I am not seeking acolytes, and in fact enjoy passionate yet polite disagreement.  I am not here to make anyone eat their broccoli if they don’t want to.  (I’m not a big broccoli fan myself, but truly hope I don’t find broccoli websites putting me down for it.) We’re just a group of friends who gather together around these topics, not a political party.

Last week’s review of Shadowmen ruffled some feathers on another website with my comment about the Wold Newton universe. Though I stand by my opinion , and my memory was pretty much correct,   I made a “misinterpretation” largely due to a little hyperbole and the fact that, not being interested in the idea, I was unaware that others had continued and expanded the concept over the years.  I was incorrect in my summary of the WN concept. My bad.

Despite the snarky comments on the other website (“Big concept, small mind” was my favorite), I went back to the original books Farmer wrote and read the Wikipedia article on the Wold Newton universe. I amended the offending paragraph to reflect  the modern extensions of the idea , though my comments to the other blog about my intention to do so (probably a tad snarky in themselves) weren’t posted. But just to show that I really do mean what I say, that everyone can and should decide for themselves, let me provide those  of you who may be interested in the Wold Newton world with the Wold Newton Wikipedia link as well as  Win Scott Eckert’s Wold Newton webpage. Eckert coined the name ‘Wold Newton Universe’ and has written numerous books and articles about it.

But I do wish all people could disagree as politely as reader John, who was the only one courteous and forthright enough to comment to me directly. That I can respect.

As is usual, some positive came out of the negative: in my research, I did find a really great site, Cool French Comics. While it adheres to the WN idea, what makes the site great is that it provides, at least in some cases, more information on the characters in Shadowmen, plus characters who weren’t included in the book, and, best of all, lots more illustrations. Like I said, I’m a glutton. I snagged a few off the site to whet your appetite, but you really need to go check it out for yourself.

Ooops! Had the page loaded but with the wrong date! My apologies to those who read it early in the morning.

Next Friday is HPL’s 120th birthday, for those of you who keep track of such things.

Of course most of you have already heard this news, but for those lost in space/time, James Cameron. the 800 pound gorilla of movie-makers, is producing Guillermo Del Toro’s dream project, At the Mountains of Madness, but you know who. So this on-again, off-again project is on again AND sounds like it will actually get made.

Have a good week.

Shadowmen: Heroes and Villains of French Pulp Fiction by Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, Black Coat Press, 2003

Fantômas? Of course you’ve heard of him. Same with Arséne Lupin. You may never have actually read any of their stories, but their fame long ago spread beyond the confines of their native France. If you’ve read my occult detective review series you’ll be familiar with Sâr Dubnotal.

But what about Belphegor? Fascinax? Dr. Ardan and Dr. Omega and Dr. Cornelius? The Nyctalope? The Black Coats?

Ah, I thought you might be intrigued…

I love the history of pulp fiction and its characters almost more than I love the actual stories. Books like Fiction Factory (the history of Street & Smith) and Pulpwood Editor (Harold Hersey’s autobiography) recreate a mysterious, wonderful world as ephemeral as the mountains of forgotten fiction they published, and Robert Sampson’s magnificent five volume Yesterday’s Faces (a survey of pulp fiction characters from the turn of the 20th century to the end of the pulp era), despite Sampson’s verbosity, provides delightful insights into the backgrounds of both characters and their creators as well as their impact on popular culture.

Shadowmen, while a bit awkward in its construction, belongs on the shelf of any self-respecting lover of pulp fiction, especially since it is the only book I know of that focuses on the French equivalents (and in some cases, antecedents) of early day super-heroes and master detectives. The entries are a bit inconsistent in the level of detail, as some of the obscure characters had even more obscure creators, but I get the feeling that Jean-Marc and his lovely wife Randy (I know she’s lovely because she didn’t send me a nasty email when I earlier identified her as Jean-Marc’s brother) have poured every ounce of research data they could find into these pages.

The book is broken down by character, and each of the 20 sections gives details on the character, the publication history, and all film and television adaptations. There aren’t enough illustrations for my tastes, but then I am admittedly a glutton in this department so I wouldn’t take that complaint too seriously.

An opening essay details the evolution of these heroes and villains out of the 18th century Gothic novels, through Jules Verne’s Nemo and Robur to the birth of the ‘modern’ super-hero archetype, and opened my eyes to just how old some of our pulp cliches actually are…and how many of them apparently originated in France. Whether English authors borrowed these ideas or merely seized the obvious out of the air, the facts that Rocambole had his group of variously talented assistants 60 years before Doc Savage, that Judex skulked around in black cape and slouch hat more than a decade before the Shadow got the idea, or that Colonel Bozzo-Corona headed up an international criminal organization (the Black Coats) while Moriarty was likely a young math student are the kind of information  I live for.

And the Lofficiers don’t limit themselves merely to printed fiction. Les Vampires, Judex and Belphegor, though serialized in print, originated as films.

Much of this fiction is so rare that it would be well nigh impossible to assemble a library of any size, but that’s where the Lofficier’s play their trump card. As the editors and publishers behind Black Coat Press, they have made many of these works available in English for the first time. In addition to reprints, they have also published further volumes of Shadowmen featuring all new tales of these forgotten yet fascinating characters. They are trade paperbacks, and they are a little pricey since they are print on demand, but you are never going to see these stories issued in mass-market bookstores. For me, they are well worth the money. I just can’t buy them all at one time.

If I have a real complaint about this book it’s the space dedicated to tying all the characters together into the Wold Newton Universe, a notion originally created by Philip José Farmer. Farmer developed the concept to show that most of the major characters of imaginative literature had real life counterparts who were all descended through the Wold Newton bloodline.  Some of the members, according to Farmer, are Sherlock Holmes; Tarzan; Doc Savage; Lord Peter Wimsey; Solomon Kane; Captain Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel;Professor Moriarty; Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveller (main character of The Time Machine by H. G. Wells); Allan Quatermain; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond;  Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage’s cousin Patricia Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; Travis McGee; Monsieur Lecoq; and Arsène Lupin.

Since that time, others have extended the idea to include other characters who aren’t related but whose paths crossed in the course of their adventures. I’ve always found this sort of thing tiresome and dull.  My inner fan-boy prefers my characters live in their own worlds and gets no thrill from tedious stringing together of data to show  Doc Savage  being Tarzan’s umpteenth cousin or proving James Bond met Dracula. I don’t universally hate cross-overs, but prior to the first two League of Extraordinary Gentlemen forays, the last one I truly enjoyed was the first JSA-JLA team-up in the early 1960s.

None of these old stories  — at least none that I’ve read thus far– are great literature, nor do they pretend to be. But they are keys to imagination, some rustier than others, but all serviceable to unlock that magic door where Nick Carter and Peter the Brazen and Operator 5 and the others still fight against the greatest criminal minds of their times. Their French relations have been kept in the shadows too long, and it’s good that the light has finally come on.

I usually have my posts written at least a week in advance, but doggone it, no such luck this week. I have my notes and all  and I know these posts aren’t for the ages, but I feel at least I am compelled to make them readable.

But I’ll get it posted for tomorrow, Thursday. New page on Friday (though I may go back and change a few things on it:-))

I’ve told you before that I’m a boarder-line hoarder, although I like to think of myself as a person who is just interested in a lot of things. One of those things is old encyclopedias, from the 19th centruy to the 1950s. Lots of cool photos, odd perspectives, forgotten “important” people — what’s not to like?

Well, they are cumbersome as all get out and take up an immense amount of space. So, to make room for more important NEW stuff, I’m weeding out the lesser lights and one of those is the 1949 edition of the Grolier Encyclopedia. But for reference’s sake, I’m going through and scanning anything I think I might use in the future.

All of which brings me to the Vocalite man, pictured below. There’s no further information on him in the book. I haven’t done the Google or wiki thing yet, but thought you would enjoy the pic.

Interestingly enough, without my promoting voting for LIM  through the month of July, we stayed almost exactly here we’ve been, at #53. However, this month we fell of to #73, but I’ll leave it to you all.

That said, today’s vote incentive is a Whately family portrait. Hope you like it.

And don’t forget, you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook.

Have a good weekend.

Since HPL movies are on my mind these days, I searched around some more on YouTube and found a few that I think are worth passing on.

The first is a trailer for a game called Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth, but oh mama! is it the bomb. These people really did their homework. The mood and lighting are just what I want in a Lovecraftian world.

The second is an animated version of “Dagon”. The animation isn’t that great, but the effort is admirable and the film-maker has made several other animated Lovecraft films that bear checking out.

And last, an unusual live action version of “The Outsider.”

You’ll no doubt have noticed that there’s been a dearth of Lovecraftian-themed material in my posts of late. That’s not for want of trying. Either I am just not traveling in the right circles or not much is going on in that vein right now.

I’ve never read many of the Lovecraftian pastiches by authors like Brian Lumley or even Derleth, and I’m loathe to get into them right now simply because I don’t want any influence slipping in uninvited. But there are lots of Lovecraft movies out there and though all the ones I’ve ever seen are pretty bad, for you I am going to start watching and reviewing them. You may now be moved by my sacrifice.

I’ll start with what they have on Netflix, and if you have any favorites that I can rip to shreds review, let me know.

Aug.20 will be HPL’s 120th birthday. I am trying to think of something special, but haven’t as yet. I will, though.

After totally blanking on a new vote incentive for the last two weeks, there’s a new one up today. It’s a quick study for a painting I’d like to do from The Outsider. All that free time I have, y’know.