Robert E. Wronski Jr.'s Blog, page 9
January 28, 2017
The Television Crossover Universe Celebrates "CRAZY" IVAN RONALD SCHABLOTSKI!
I knew of "Crazy" Ivan Ronald Schablotski years before he knew me. Way back in the year 2000, I discovered the world wide web, and as I began uncovering sites related to my interests, his timelines kept showing up. I don't remember if it was his excellent lycanthropy timeline connected to the Wold Newton Universe website or his multiple timelines on Mikel Midnight's Cosmic Compendium that I came across first, but I enjoyed them so much so that I wrote a blog post on my MySpace blog about his timelines.
Years later, as I mentioned in the last post, I joined the Wold Newton Family discussion group, where I met the legendary Ivan Schablotski.
When I created my own forum on Facebook dedicated to crossovers, Ivan was one of the initial members of that group, and when I began the Television Crossover Universe website, Ivan was one of the major contributors of ideas which I began to rely on. I've often referred to James and Ivan as my Spock and McCoy, but I have never let on which is which.
Once the TVCU Crew idea came about, it was a no-brainer that Ivan would be on that team. Unlike other crewsies, Ivan didn't jump right into posting. He did continue to advise me of crossovers and help me formulate theories. After a while, I was able to get him to help me out in updating and fixing some of my posts.
Then on April 1, 2014, Ivan became a star on the TVCU site. He posted his own fictional biography, as part of an April Fool's Day event on the website, which quickly rose to take the #3 spot in our all time most viewed posts. I love reading about the fictional adventures of Ivan in the TVCU, and he continuously updates it as he collects more "evidence" of his exploits.
Ivan has also posted a timeline of his other fictional universe, the Hour-Show Universe.
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He has additionally co-written our Godzilla timeline and is working on a Stephen King post.
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Beyond the website, Ivan has edited both my books and wrote the foreword for the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
Ivan also introduced me and our son to our first Con, and I've met many professional and personal contacts through Ivan.
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Though he wasn't on the first two episodes, Ivan was part of the original cast of the Television Crossover Universe Podcast as well.
When I presented the idea of these bios to the TVCU Crew, I gave them a short interview questionaire, purely optional. But instead, Ivan's biographer, Kevin Heim, whose name appears as author of Ivan's posts, answered instead.
Kevin Heim
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1. Your favorite crossover. - MARVEL AND DC PRESENT: THE UNCANNY X-MEN / NEW TEEN TITANS #1
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2. Your favorite TVCU blog post. - Scooby Doo: The Horror Cartoon
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3. Your favorite post that you wrote, if applicable. - Some People call Me Crazy: Ivan Ronald Schablotski in the TVCU
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4. Your favorite podcast episode. - Erik Burnham (ep #36)
TVCU #36 - Erik Burnham: Tobin's Spirit Guide
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5. Your favorite podcast guest. - Peter Rawlik
TVCU #18 - Peter Rawlik
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6. Your favorite podcast discussion. - Stranger Things
TVCU #38 - Stranger Things
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7. Your favorite interview that you were involved in. - James Lorinz
TVCU #29 - Scare-A-Con Special Event
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8. Your favorite discussion that you were involved in. - Stranger Things
Also, feel free to include any works of yours that you'd like to plug and any links that you'd like included.
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Most recently I contributed a character profile to The Appendix To The Handbook Of The Marvel Universe, for their 10th anniversary project.
IN OUR NEXT POST: Gordon Long!
January 19, 2017
The Television Crossover Universe Celebrates James Bojaciuk!
In the last post I announced that I would be celebrating the TVCU Crew in s a series of Crewsie bios.
James could technically be considered the first of the Crewsies. James Bojaciuk and I began working together way before the TVCU came to the web. We were both members of hte Wold Newton Family Yahoo group, and it was there that we first collaborated on creating a Wold Newton book club within the group.
From there, we decided to collaborate on a proposed website that we hoped to place under the PJFarmer umbrella, but I decided to go off and make a website about television crossovers instead. (You may be familiar with it.)
Along with the website, I created a Facebook forum. James was one of the most active members of that group, and really got what I was trying to do here.
In May 2011, before I was banned from the Wold Newton group, James posted a Wonderland timeline of his own creation in the Wold Newton group. I was so impressed by it that I offered to post it here on this website as a guest post.
It was just a few weeks later that the TVCU Crew was founded, because James' post made me realize that this wasn't something to take on alone. James demonstrated that there were plenty of fine crossoverists, better than myself in my opinion, who could add their own flavor and style to the TVCU.
When I presented the idea of these bios to the TVCU Crew, I have them a short interview questionaire, purely optional. James didn't fill one out and return it to me, but if he should in the future, I'll post that here. But I will continue at this point to discuss some of my favorites of James' posts.
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James was not only our first guest poster, but he was also the first to post after the creation of the TVCU Crew. Taking a cue from my George Washington post, he drafted a Thomas Jefferson post in June 2011.
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A few weeks after that, he tackled Warehouse 13. Some of the information from that Warehouse 13 post has been used for both my currently published books. Additionally, the Warehouse 13 post was the first post that presented a theory tying in a seemingly unrelated novel to the series, and actually came to the attention of the authors, who commented on the post (positively, I should add).
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In October 2011, James continued our presidential series with Abraham Lincoln, which also served as a teaser for his always in progress Bill & Ted and Crisis posts.
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November 2011 brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the TVCU thanks to James, and got us our first mention on Reddit, a popular fan site.
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May 2012 changed the TVCU forever, when James posted a belated April 1 post on MY LITTLE PONY, and the bronies came to the TVCU as that post climbed to our most viewed spot in a few days and has stayed there ever since. Bringing in half of our views with one post was enough for me to offer James half-ownership in the website.
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November 2013 is one of my favorites, and is the one that James has previously stated to be most proud of. This is One Ghost Need Apply, which details the timeline of a Sherlock Holmes tulpa, explaining a lot of stories that contradict other established stories. It is masterfully done by the man who is a huge fan of the great detective.
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March 2014, James caught us up with Gravity Falls, one of the weirdest cartoons for children.
On April 1, 2014, as part of a TVCU crossover event, James informed us of his own death and other crossovers he has personally been involved in.
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In May 2014, James introduced us to Alison Dare, a young adventurer with many crossovers.
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In July 2014, James made a huge mistake and pointed out that crossovers in one of my favorite shows, Arrested Development, most of which I myself had not been aware.
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October 2014, James created a special post to tell us about some crossovers within THOSE WHO LIVE LONG FORGOTTEN, the first book, I believe, from 18thWall Productions, a little company that James co-founded, that same publisher that published my first book, the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
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February 2015, a follow-up of sorts to his first post came about when James introduced us to Narnia.
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May 2015, James began a new TVCU posting trend, introducing fictional cities, starting with Gotham City.
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In April 2016, James came to my rescue, when I tried to tackle the films of Guillermo del Toro, and quickly turned it over to him, the true expert.
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In addition to the blog, in December 2015, we launched the Television Crossover Universe Podcast and James was there with me from the very first episode where we interviewed Simon R. Green. In September 2016, when I walked away from the show, James took the lead, bringing in his chrome microphone of excellence. The show is currently on hiatus, but James will be returning, with a slightly tweaked and renamed TVCU Podcast in the near future.
James and I have had a long working relationship, and I foresee it continuing for a long time into the future in many ventures.
IN OUR NEXT POST: "CRAZY" IVAN RONALD SCHABLOTSKI
James could technically be considered the first of the Crewsies. James Bojaciuk and I began working together way before the TVCU came to the web. We were both members of hte Wold Newton Family Yahoo group, and it was there that we first collaborated on creating a Wold Newton book club within the group.
From there, we decided to collaborate on a proposed website that we hoped to place under the PJFarmer umbrella, but I decided to go off and make a website about television crossovers instead. (You may be familiar with it.)
Along with the website, I created a Facebook forum. James was one of the most active members of that group, and really got what I was trying to do here.
In May 2011, before I was banned from the Wold Newton group, James posted a Wonderland timeline of his own creation in the Wold Newton group. I was so impressed by it that I offered to post it here on this website as a guest post.
It was just a few weeks later that the TVCU Crew was founded, because James' post made me realize that this wasn't something to take on alone. James demonstrated that there were plenty of fine crossoverists, better than myself in my opinion, who could add their own flavor and style to the TVCU.
When I presented the idea of these bios to the TVCU Crew, I have them a short interview questionaire, purely optional. James didn't fill one out and return it to me, but if he should in the future, I'll post that here. But I will continue at this point to discuss some of my favorites of James' posts.
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James was not only our first guest poster, but he was also the first to post after the creation of the TVCU Crew. Taking a cue from my George Washington post, he drafted a Thomas Jefferson post in June 2011.
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A few weeks after that, he tackled Warehouse 13. Some of the information from that Warehouse 13 post has been used for both my currently published books. Additionally, the Warehouse 13 post was the first post that presented a theory tying in a seemingly unrelated novel to the series, and actually came to the attention of the authors, who commented on the post (positively, I should add).
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In October 2011, James continued our presidential series with Abraham Lincoln, which also served as a teaser for his always in progress Bill & Ted and Crisis posts.
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November 2011 brought the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into the TVCU thanks to James, and got us our first mention on Reddit, a popular fan site.
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May 2012 changed the TVCU forever, when James posted a belated April 1 post on MY LITTLE PONY, and the bronies came to the TVCU as that post climbed to our most viewed spot in a few days and has stayed there ever since. Bringing in half of our views with one post was enough for me to offer James half-ownership in the website.
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November 2013 is one of my favorites, and is the one that James has previously stated to be most proud of. This is One Ghost Need Apply, which details the timeline of a Sherlock Holmes tulpa, explaining a lot of stories that contradict other established stories. It is masterfully done by the man who is a huge fan of the great detective.
[image error]
March 2014, James caught us up with Gravity Falls, one of the weirdest cartoons for children.
On April 1, 2014, as part of a TVCU crossover event, James informed us of his own death and other crossovers he has personally been involved in.
[image error]
In May 2014, James introduced us to Alison Dare, a young adventurer with many crossovers.
[image error]
In July 2014, James made a huge mistake and pointed out that crossovers in one of my favorite shows, Arrested Development, most of which I myself had not been aware.
[image error]
October 2014, James created a special post to tell us about some crossovers within THOSE WHO LIVE LONG FORGOTTEN, the first book, I believe, from 18thWall Productions, a little company that James co-founded, that same publisher that published my first book, the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
[image error]
February 2015, a follow-up of sorts to his first post came about when James introduced us to Narnia.
[image error]
May 2015, James began a new TVCU posting trend, introducing fictional cities, starting with Gotham City.
[image error]
In April 2016, James came to my rescue, when I tried to tackle the films of Guillermo del Toro, and quickly turned it over to him, the true expert.
[image error]
In addition to the blog, in December 2015, we launched the Television Crossover Universe Podcast and James was there with me from the very first episode where we interviewed Simon R. Green. In September 2016, when I walked away from the show, James took the lead, bringing in his chrome microphone of excellence. The show is currently on hiatus, but James will be returning, with a slightly tweaked and renamed TVCU Podcast in the near future.
James and I have had a long working relationship, and I foresee it continuing for a long time into the future in many ventures.
IN OUR NEXT POST: "CRAZY" IVAN RONALD SCHABLOTSKI
January 9, 2017
The Television Crossover Universe Celebrates the TVCU Crew!
This website recently hit a million views, just as we are about to celebrate tomorrow our sixth anniversary.
I created the TVCU concept as a kid, when I first discovered the idea of crossovers. It started in a bunch of notebooks, and in 2011 I created this website as a place to share my ideas with a few friends I had met online that had similar interests.
I had no idea where this was going. A million views. Published books. Podcasts.
Some would say that I am the TVCU, but I didn't do this alone.
Along with the website, I run a Facebook forum, where the ideas regarding the TVCU get shared and discussed by a bunch of folks. Many of those ideas posted there are often shared on this website. Early on, I realized it just made good sense to allow some of those who contribute the most to those discussions and really get the concept to become contributors to the site. This was the genesis of the TVCU Crew, originally consisting of James Bojaciuk, Ivan Schablotski and Gordon Long. (Toby O'Brien is considered an honorary Crewsie but since he has his own thing over at Toobworld Central, I've never asked him to write for this site, but I certainly reference his work a lot, as regular readers of this blog know.)
It it was a great decision. All three of these folks have written really popular posts that have brought our numbers up.
Since then, Matt Hickman has also joined our ranks.
The TVCU Crew was originally coined to refer to the website contributors. Later, as so many folks began feeding me crossover info over in our Facebook group, I began to consider all the "crossoverists" in that group to be members of our extended TVCU Crew.
More recently, the name was attributed to the hosts of the Television Crossover Universe Podcast, who originally were all contributors to the website, until Chris Nigro became the first host to not have any previous connection to the website as a contributor, though he had been a member of that extended Crew that participated in the discussion groups and fed me crossover info.
This month, I will be honoring those who I've come to depend upon and whose support has made me successful. This month is devoted to the TVCU Crew, so stay tuned here for bios of the members of the TVCU Crew.
[*Note that I will not be covering the extended Crew, as there's way too many, but if you listen regularly to the podcast, there was an episode where I listed them all off.]
I created the TVCU concept as a kid, when I first discovered the idea of crossovers. It started in a bunch of notebooks, and in 2011 I created this website as a place to share my ideas with a few friends I had met online that had similar interests.
I had no idea where this was going. A million views. Published books. Podcasts.
Some would say that I am the TVCU, but I didn't do this alone.
Along with the website, I run a Facebook forum, where the ideas regarding the TVCU get shared and discussed by a bunch of folks. Many of those ideas posted there are often shared on this website. Early on, I realized it just made good sense to allow some of those who contribute the most to those discussions and really get the concept to become contributors to the site. This was the genesis of the TVCU Crew, originally consisting of James Bojaciuk, Ivan Schablotski and Gordon Long. (Toby O'Brien is considered an honorary Crewsie but since he has his own thing over at Toobworld Central, I've never asked him to write for this site, but I certainly reference his work a lot, as regular readers of this blog know.)
It it was a great decision. All three of these folks have written really popular posts that have brought our numbers up.
Since then, Matt Hickman has also joined our ranks.
The TVCU Crew was originally coined to refer to the website contributors. Later, as so many folks began feeding me crossover info over in our Facebook group, I began to consider all the "crossoverists" in that group to be members of our extended TVCU Crew.
More recently, the name was attributed to the hosts of the Television Crossover Universe Podcast, who originally were all contributors to the website, until Chris Nigro became the first host to not have any previous connection to the website as a contributor, though he had been a member of that extended Crew that participated in the discussion groups and fed me crossover info.
This month, I will be honoring those who I've come to depend upon and whose support has made me successful. This month is devoted to the TVCU Crew, so stay tuned here for bios of the members of the TVCU Crew.
[*Note that I will not be covering the extended Crew, as there's way too many, but if you listen regularly to the podcast, there was an episode where I listed them all off.]
December 27, 2016
The Science of Imagination:the Disney Science Comedies in the TVCU
This Picture has nothing to do with anything I just find it funny
1910--Disney Kingdoms: Figment 1 thru 5-- A Young inventor named Blarion Mercurial later know has the Dreamfinder invents the Integrated Mesmonic Convertor. He ends up in the land of Imagination were he meets The Imaginary Creature known has Figment, This 2014 comic Shows the origins of The DreamFinder and Figment from Epcot's Journey into imagination ride. Mathamgic land from Donald in Mathamgic is mentioned.
1959--Donald in in Mathamgicland--Donald Duck finds himself in Mathamagicland . He handles it with all the Clam we've Come to expect from him.
1959--The Shaggy Dog(1959)---Young Wilby Daniels gets a ring that cruses him into Turning into a Sheep dog an random.This movie is set in the Town of Medfield home to Medfield College.
1961--The Absent Minded Professor--Prof. Ned Brainard invents an anti-gravity substance know has Flubber which businessman Alonzo Hawk wants for himself. This Movie is set at Medfield College a reoccurring setting in Disney science films
1963--Son of Flubber--Prof. Ned Brainard finds himself in even more Trouble when he invents Flubberglass. This Movie is set at Medfield College a reoccurring setting in Disney science films.
1964--The Misadventures of Merlin Jones--Merlin Jones a highly intelligent Midvale College student invents a mind reading device.
1965--The Monkey's Uncle--Merlin Jones Must Save the Midvale College football team by inventing an honest way to cheat and get a large donation given to Midvale by inventing a flying machine a man Made Flying Machine.
1968--The Love Bug--Down on his Luck Race car Driver Jim Douglas luck turns around when he befriends sentient Car Herbie.
Between 1968 and 1971--The Super Bug Series--In theses German rip off Films Herbie becomes a secret agentteeming with James Bonds little Brother Jimmy Bondi
1969--The Computer Wore Tennis shoes-- Medfield College student Dexter Riley becomes a human computer when he is stuck by lighting while Repairing Medfield College's new computer.
October 1st 1971---The Grand Opening of Walt Disney World--Herbie Gives Buddy Hackett a Ride on the Tomorrowland Speedway a Ride
1972--Now You See Him, Now You Don't-- Medfield College student Dexter Riley invents an Invisibility formula which he uses to Save Medfield College shutting down
1974--Herbie Rides again--Alonzo Hawk old foe of Flubber inventor Prof. Ned Brainard tries to build the 130-story Hawk Plaza in San Francisco. But Runs afoul of Herbie the Love Bug.
1975--The Strongest Man In The World--Medfield College student Dexter Riley gains super-strength which he uses to Save Medfield College shutting down yet again.
1976--Return of the Shaggy Dog(1987)--Wilby Daniels now a successful lawyer has proposed to his Girlfriend just has the cruse that turns him into a sheep dog at random resurfaces. (This movie was made in 1987 set 20 years after the orignal which would be 1979. But that doesn't work because Betty and Wilby already married in the Shaggy D.A. so I' m swaping the years)
1977--Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo--Herbie the Love Bug and Jim Douglas take part in Trans-France Race.
1979--The Shaggy D.A.--Wilby Daniels runs for the D.A. of Medfield while once again under a cruse that turns him into a sheepdog at Random
1980--Herbie Goes Bananas--Herbie and Jim Douglas's Nephew Pete Stancheck battle Thieves in Mexico.
March 1982 to April 1982--Herbie The Love Bug TV Show--Jim Douglas and Herbie have retired form racing and work has Driving instructors
October 1982--The Today Show--The Dreamfinder and Figment appear on the Today show
March 3 1983--Journey Into Imagination (theme park ride)--The Dreamfinder and Figment show some guests around the Dreamport.
April 18th 1983--Dinsey Channel Lunch Countdown--The Dreamfinder Helps launch the Disney Channel.December 25th 1984--Disney World Christmas Parade--The Dreamfinder and Figment show off some Christmas wishes.
.1989--Honey, I Shrunk the Kids--Wayne Szalinski invents a Shrink Ray and accidentally Shrinks his kids.
1989 to 1991 --Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show--The continuing adventures of the Szalinski family.
1992--Honey, I Blew Up the Kid--Wayne Szalinski trying to make an enlarging ray accidentally enlrages his 2 year old son Adam who them rampages thru Las Vegas.
1994--Honey, I Shrunk the Audience(Theme park Ride)--Wayne Szalinski is Getting the Imagination Institute's innovator of the year award award when of course this go awry and he Shrinks the Audience.
1997--Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves. Once again Wayne Szalinski's Shrink Ray goes awry and he ends up shriking himself,His Wife,his Brother and sister in law,
1997--Flubber--Professor Philip Brainard of Medfield College finds an even more powerful Version of Flubber.
1997--The Love Bug (1997)--Herbie takes on his Evil counterpart Horace the Hate Bug.
Oct 1st 1999--Journey Into Your Imagination (Theme Park Ride)--Dr. Nigel Channing tests out his Imagination scanner on guests of the Imagination Institute.
June 2nd 2002--Journey Into Imagination With Figment--Dr. Nigel Channing holds an open house at the Imagination Institute only for Figment to ruin it.(the Third Version of this Ride includes shout out to the Honey I Shurnk the Kids films,The Dexter Riley Films,The Merlin Jones Movies, the Shaggy Dog Flims,and Flubber)
2005--Herbie Fully Loaded--Herbie gets a new owner Maggie Peyton and joins the Nascar circuit.
2005- Disney's 50th Homecoming Celebration commercial-- Herbie Gives Micky and Goofy a Ride
August 9th to the 11th 2013--D23 expo--the Dream Finder and figment attend the D23 Expo
2015--Disney Kingdoms: Figment 2 1 thru 5-- picking up where Disney Kingdoms: Figment leaves off The Dreamfinder and Figment finds themselves a 100 years in their future where they met the Dream Finder great-great-great grandniece Capricious Harmony and battle his evil alter ego the DoubtFinder. before departing for parts unknown(thou it likely they Traveled back in time this explains the Dream Finders and Figments other appearances)
2015--Inside Out--The Viewof a Young Girls Emotions has seen form the ponit of View of the emotions. There is a Pictureof Figment in Imagination Land given his Nature has an Imaginary Being I'll count this.
2035--Soldier (1998)--Sgt. Todd 3465 is left for dead n a garbage world when he is declared obsolete.Among Todd 3465's Many awards the he Dexter Riley Award.
November 24, 2016
The First 50, Part II: From Creepy Weirdo to Chrome Microphone of Excellence
Continuing where I left off in my reflections on the first fifty episodes. The links were slowing down the page, so I cut it in half.
TVCU #21 - Hannah Lackoff
As James pointed out, her story made me cry. It made me feel joy, and anger, and sadness, and surprise. This was another of James' guest choices, and another award winner.
TVCU #22 - Sam Gafford
We lost him for a minute in the middle of the interview, and he was still one of our best guests. This was perhaps the culmination of our Carnacki theme, as Sam Gafford is the authority on William Hope Hodgson. He shares with us an amazing piece of history in this episode that could have led to very different lives for two historical figures. And cool accent. Another of James' picks. By this point, James was more actively advocating for more guest picks, something I had been advocating for the co-hosts to do from the beginning, but Ivan and Chris were a little slower on jumping on board with giving me picks.
TVCU #23 - Dave Elliott
Dave Elliott dropped some great "You heard it here first" announcements on this show.
TVCU #24 - Jesse Thomas Cook
This was the first guest who wasn't an author. Jesse Thomas Cook did a fun movie with crossovers called Monster Brawl. I really enjoyed talking with him about his mixing of two of my childhood loves, monsters and wrestlers. We only had him on for a few minutes as he was tightly squeezing us into busy schedule.
TVCU #25 - It's All Connected: Filmmakers and their Worlds
One of my favorite discussions. We talked about films that are connected as sequels but by recurring minor characters, fictional brands and locales. We cover John Hughes, Quentin Tarantino, and Kevin Smith.
TVCU #26 - Batman v. Superman v. Civil War
Our first two parter. So our recording schedule got screwed up, so we had to alter our schedule plans last minute and this led to a few non-guest episodes. We decided to do a two-parter. Part I was a discussion of Batman v. Superman and Civil War. I defend Batman v. Superman, and James tears it a new one.
TVCU #27 - DC v. Marvel
And in part II, we expand to cover DC and Marvel's adaptations in general, focusing mostly on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Arrowverse. I have to say this here, I really think that we have talked about the Arrowverse way too much on this show. There's a lot more crossovers out there to discuss. I think we've exhausted the Arrowverse topic. And yet, we keep going back there again and again.
TVCU #28 - Derrick Ferguson
We were fortunate that Derrick Ferguson was able to record an interview during our scheduling issues. We recorded this hours before Scare-A-Con, and so this was the first interview where I didn't prepare at all, and let James and Chris conduct the interview, and I still maintain that I made the right decision. It was an excellent interview.
TVCU #29 - Scare-A-Con Special Event
Probably not the best interviews. Certainly not the best sound quality. But for a weekend, the TVCU Crew were rock stars. James couldn't come, but Ivan, Chris and I were invited to Scare-A-Con, a horror themed convention in Springfield, MA. We had a table. We had press passes. I spoke on two panels. And we spend a few days harassing some pretty awesome celebrities, some of which even came on our show. The one I really thought would impress people more than it did was the guys from MST3K. But the most memorable one, that made it all worth it, was James Lorinz, who told me that I reminded him of Cid Caesar in my comedy skills, which really made my weekend.
Also, pulling back the curtain a bit, before this episode, the Crew was suffering a little internal discord, and this episode was a pretty good bonding moment. This was the first time that Ivan, Chris and I had all been together at the same time. Despite the illusion we cast in the shows. most episodes, Ivan and I were in the studio, while James and Chris skyped in from other states. Following this episode, we would stop going to the studio. I blew up my truck during this weekend and Ivan's work schedule made it harder for him to get there. But the show went on. We became the only show on the network where no hosts were physically in the studio.
This episode was so much fun that Ivan, Chris and I had planned on doing another show at Rock and Shock. However, those plans fell apart as I'll explain later in this post.
TVCU #30 - John Linwood Grant
This guest has been on our show twice, and I've never gotten to interview him. I was in the hospital when episodes 30 and 31 were recorded, and Ben Kasson stepped in last minute to fill my shoes. Ben would also host the next episode, and has since become a recurring host on the show. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a weekly host now, something I've been suggesting to James for a while. (He makes the decisions now.) I was told that Ben would only be a guest co-host but Ben's really good on the show, and James, M.H. and Ben work really well together.
TVCU #31 - Guy Adams
Another two time guest that I never got to talk to, other than in scheduling.
TVCU #32 - Jim Beard
James mentions this in episode 50. This was the episode where we knew more about the guest than he expected us to. Creepy weirdos, indeed. Also, another "You heard it here first" episode.
TVCU #33 - Godzilla
This is more of a lecture than a discussion. Chris Nigro takes the lead to school us on the history of Godzilla and his shared universes, while Ivan and I heckle mostly. A lot of Godzilla podcast episodes came out around this time, many that aired before ours, but we recorded ours first, and I would argue that Chris is probably one of the most knowledgeable guys I know on kaiju.
TVCU #34 - Micah S. Harris and the Return of Becky Sharp
For those of you who know, I was partly expelled from the Wold Newton community for suggesting that Hannah Montana was in. (I was also expelled for being passionately opinionated and extremely dramatic.) So when I learned that Wold Newton favorite Micah S. Harris, also a friend of our show, was a fan of Liv & Maddie, I had to take the opportunity to get him to talk about Disney Channel shows, just after talking Philip Jose Farmer. Probably one of my favorite moments on the show.
TVCU #35 - Felissa Rose
We met Felissa Rose at Scare-A-Con, but didn't get a chance to interview her there. Chris was a huge fan, and so I made this interview happen. Felissa, both at the con and on the show, was just so excited to talk to us. So much so that she cut out during the show because she was pacing while telling us about her new film. It was such a pleasure having her on the show. Yes, I've been called out that she really had nothing to do with our crossover theme. I don't care. It was worth having her on.
TVCU #36 - Erik Burnham: Tobin's Spirit Guide
Erik said in his first interview that when Tobin's Spirit Guide came out, he'd come back on the show, and I held him to it. Actually, he was very happy to come back on and wished he could have come on sooner, but as I said, we were booking guests a few months ahead. We came across a copy of Tobin's at Scare-A-Con, before it was officially out, and I sent Erik a picture of Ivan and I with the book, with an invite, which again he responded to quickly. This time, Ivan was able to make it onto the show, and I was so happy about that. Since James and I had interviewed Erik the first time, we let Ivan and Chris do most of the talking this time around.
TVCU #37 - David MacDowell Blue
This is the beginning of the era where we started trying to get each co-host to pick a guest for that month, and I do believe this was Chris' first pick. David is a long time friend of the TVCU. I had once done another TVCU podcast, and David was my frequent call-in guest. David also created our first TVCU logo. But what we got on the show was a really delightful and insightful, in-depth discussion on Carmilla.
TVCU #38 - Stranger Things
Some of our co-hosts think this was one of our best. I thought it was a little disappointing, mainly because we spent less time on the crossovers than I would have liked. And Ivan's call kept fading in a and out, which was frustrating because he had a lot of great insights to share that weren't heard. What I did like about this episode particularly was that I finally found a way to get Patsy the Angry Nerd, part of the Grand Guignol family, onto our show. All the other shows in the network have a lot of crossover. I myself had been on Trick or Treat Radio and Unchayned before we even recorded episode 1 of our podcast. So it was great to finally get someone from the network on the show. I had known Patsy through the Trick or Treat Radio community, and finally met him in person at Dynamo Marz' party some time before, where we spoke for hours. At that time, I had invited him on to talk at some future date about a crossover subject of his choice, which was going to be Futurama. But as I said, we book ahead. It ended up being fortunate that we had just chosen at the last minute to do this discussion episode after another guest cancellation, and then seeing Patsy's online comments about Stranger Things crossovers on Facebook, led to fortunate circumstances. Had I not left the show, I had planned to have all of the hosts of the other Grand Guignol shows on, with Dynamo Marz the next on the invite list to help promote the release of the 2nd edition of the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
TVCU #39 - Matthew Dennion & Josh Torrito
Matt returns and brings along his artist. I love Matt. But Chris and I were the main proponents for him coming on the show, so I'm not sure if he'll come back again, but I will continue to follow him and his work for sure. I was not aware of it, but this would be my last regular episode...
After this point, I left the show.
I've explained part of the reason. I've posted on Facebook and James read an announcement in episode 40. There were numerous things that were all piling up on me. I had to take on a part time job and between that and my health issues, I was tired. I didn't have the time to do all the research for every guest. Remember that I started this show thinking it would be mostly discussions. But the show took a life of its own and decided it was going to have authors on every week and I needed to read a lot of books. And I'm a slow reader. And then in an evening when I was feeling really overworked and underappreciated, one thing too many happened, and in a moment of spontaneous anger, I handed the show over to James and walked away.
I immediately regretted it. And many people tried to get me to reclaim the show. But James Bojaciuk has been my right hand man for this and many other projects and he was better suited to host the show that it had become. And I really wanted to see what he would do with it. And he hasn't let me down. Sure, I send him private messages grumbling once in a while about little things, but it's mostly that I'm just grumbling because he's not doing it my way, but he shouldn't be. I gave him the show. He needs to put his stamp on it. It should feel different.
So one thing that I didn't expect was that Ivan and Chris were going to leave. I was very disappointed that this happened. James has replaced them with excellent choices. So I am happy with new Chris (M.H.) and new Ivan (Ben). Sorry, guys, that's who you are in my mind. But clearly you are also you and you bring you to the show. The show is different now with new personalities, but it is also still the same show. Same format, except for a few tweaks. Same great guests. Still too much Arrowverse talk, but that's never going to change.
The first few guests after I left were guests that I had booked, but in the past few episodes. But now my scheduled guests have all gone through, and now I'm no longer involved in the scheduling.
I was also still funding the show for a bit. You may have noticed when James took over, it was still "Super Entertainment Presents", and now it's "18thWall Presents". Along with my part-time job, and measly royalties, my primary income comes from disability, and for a couple months a paperwork snafu caused me to stop getting paid, So I had to turn over the final thing that I was holding onto to continue to be part of the show.
For a while, I was hinting at a potential new podcast, one that would reunite Ivan and I (and for a while, Chris) to just do fandom discussions. We even were in talks with the Grand Guignol Network to have them carry the show. But that above mentioned financial snag ruined that too.
So now, other than being credited at the end of each episode, and owning the names "Television Crossover Universe", "TVCU", and "TVCU Crew", have nothing to do with the show. And I'm so very sad about that.
I really, really miss it. Ironically, my finances now are better than ever, and Ivan and I would love to jump into a discussion podcast, but now we don't have a network, and I lack any skills to independently run a podcast without the technical ability.
Chris, Ivan and I will be returning to the TVCU Podcast for a special reunion episode that will air on December 20. I think it will be very cool to have both Crews together. I love the new Crew. I still listen every week. I'm a fan. But I sure miss it.
I am so grateful to James for carrying on what I started, and applaud him on what he's done in the last fifty, and especially the last ten, and I look forward to listening every Tuesday at work.
However, if someone out there wants to put me behind a mike again, I'm really, really ready. Just don't give me a lot of books to read.
TVCU #21 - Hannah Lackoff
As James pointed out, her story made me cry. It made me feel joy, and anger, and sadness, and surprise. This was another of James' guest choices, and another award winner.
TVCU #22 - Sam Gafford
We lost him for a minute in the middle of the interview, and he was still one of our best guests. This was perhaps the culmination of our Carnacki theme, as Sam Gafford is the authority on William Hope Hodgson. He shares with us an amazing piece of history in this episode that could have led to very different lives for two historical figures. And cool accent. Another of James' picks. By this point, James was more actively advocating for more guest picks, something I had been advocating for the co-hosts to do from the beginning, but Ivan and Chris were a little slower on jumping on board with giving me picks.
TVCU #23 - Dave Elliott
Dave Elliott dropped some great "You heard it here first" announcements on this show.
TVCU #24 - Jesse Thomas Cook
This was the first guest who wasn't an author. Jesse Thomas Cook did a fun movie with crossovers called Monster Brawl. I really enjoyed talking with him about his mixing of two of my childhood loves, monsters and wrestlers. We only had him on for a few minutes as he was tightly squeezing us into busy schedule.
TVCU #25 - It's All Connected: Filmmakers and their Worlds
One of my favorite discussions. We talked about films that are connected as sequels but by recurring minor characters, fictional brands and locales. We cover John Hughes, Quentin Tarantino, and Kevin Smith.
TVCU #26 - Batman v. Superman v. Civil War
Our first two parter. So our recording schedule got screwed up, so we had to alter our schedule plans last minute and this led to a few non-guest episodes. We decided to do a two-parter. Part I was a discussion of Batman v. Superman and Civil War. I defend Batman v. Superman, and James tears it a new one.
TVCU #27 - DC v. Marvel
And in part II, we expand to cover DC and Marvel's adaptations in general, focusing mostly on the Marvel Cinematic Universe and Arrowverse. I have to say this here, I really think that we have talked about the Arrowverse way too much on this show. There's a lot more crossovers out there to discuss. I think we've exhausted the Arrowverse topic. And yet, we keep going back there again and again.
TVCU #28 - Derrick Ferguson
We were fortunate that Derrick Ferguson was able to record an interview during our scheduling issues. We recorded this hours before Scare-A-Con, and so this was the first interview where I didn't prepare at all, and let James and Chris conduct the interview, and I still maintain that I made the right decision. It was an excellent interview.
TVCU #29 - Scare-A-Con Special Event
Probably not the best interviews. Certainly not the best sound quality. But for a weekend, the TVCU Crew were rock stars. James couldn't come, but Ivan, Chris and I were invited to Scare-A-Con, a horror themed convention in Springfield, MA. We had a table. We had press passes. I spoke on two panels. And we spend a few days harassing some pretty awesome celebrities, some of which even came on our show. The one I really thought would impress people more than it did was the guys from MST3K. But the most memorable one, that made it all worth it, was James Lorinz, who told me that I reminded him of Cid Caesar in my comedy skills, which really made my weekend.
Also, pulling back the curtain a bit, before this episode, the Crew was suffering a little internal discord, and this episode was a pretty good bonding moment. This was the first time that Ivan, Chris and I had all been together at the same time. Despite the illusion we cast in the shows. most episodes, Ivan and I were in the studio, while James and Chris skyped in from other states. Following this episode, we would stop going to the studio. I blew up my truck during this weekend and Ivan's work schedule made it harder for him to get there. But the show went on. We became the only show on the network where no hosts were physically in the studio.
This episode was so much fun that Ivan, Chris and I had planned on doing another show at Rock and Shock. However, those plans fell apart as I'll explain later in this post.
TVCU #30 - John Linwood Grant
This guest has been on our show twice, and I've never gotten to interview him. I was in the hospital when episodes 30 and 31 were recorded, and Ben Kasson stepped in last minute to fill my shoes. Ben would also host the next episode, and has since become a recurring host on the show. I'm pretty sure he's going to be a weekly host now, something I've been suggesting to James for a while. (He makes the decisions now.) I was told that Ben would only be a guest co-host but Ben's really good on the show, and James, M.H. and Ben work really well together.
TVCU #31 - Guy Adams
Another two time guest that I never got to talk to, other than in scheduling.
TVCU #32 - Jim Beard
James mentions this in episode 50. This was the episode where we knew more about the guest than he expected us to. Creepy weirdos, indeed. Also, another "You heard it here first" episode.
TVCU #33 - Godzilla
This is more of a lecture than a discussion. Chris Nigro takes the lead to school us on the history of Godzilla and his shared universes, while Ivan and I heckle mostly. A lot of Godzilla podcast episodes came out around this time, many that aired before ours, but we recorded ours first, and I would argue that Chris is probably one of the most knowledgeable guys I know on kaiju.
TVCU #34 - Micah S. Harris and the Return of Becky Sharp
For those of you who know, I was partly expelled from the Wold Newton community for suggesting that Hannah Montana was in. (I was also expelled for being passionately opinionated and extremely dramatic.) So when I learned that Wold Newton favorite Micah S. Harris, also a friend of our show, was a fan of Liv & Maddie, I had to take the opportunity to get him to talk about Disney Channel shows, just after talking Philip Jose Farmer. Probably one of my favorite moments on the show.
TVCU #35 - Felissa Rose
We met Felissa Rose at Scare-A-Con, but didn't get a chance to interview her there. Chris was a huge fan, and so I made this interview happen. Felissa, both at the con and on the show, was just so excited to talk to us. So much so that she cut out during the show because she was pacing while telling us about her new film. It was such a pleasure having her on the show. Yes, I've been called out that she really had nothing to do with our crossover theme. I don't care. It was worth having her on.
TVCU #36 - Erik Burnham: Tobin's Spirit Guide
Erik said in his first interview that when Tobin's Spirit Guide came out, he'd come back on the show, and I held him to it. Actually, he was very happy to come back on and wished he could have come on sooner, but as I said, we were booking guests a few months ahead. We came across a copy of Tobin's at Scare-A-Con, before it was officially out, and I sent Erik a picture of Ivan and I with the book, with an invite, which again he responded to quickly. This time, Ivan was able to make it onto the show, and I was so happy about that. Since James and I had interviewed Erik the first time, we let Ivan and Chris do most of the talking this time around.
TVCU #37 - David MacDowell Blue
This is the beginning of the era where we started trying to get each co-host to pick a guest for that month, and I do believe this was Chris' first pick. David is a long time friend of the TVCU. I had once done another TVCU podcast, and David was my frequent call-in guest. David also created our first TVCU logo. But what we got on the show was a really delightful and insightful, in-depth discussion on Carmilla.
TVCU #38 - Stranger Things
Some of our co-hosts think this was one of our best. I thought it was a little disappointing, mainly because we spent less time on the crossovers than I would have liked. And Ivan's call kept fading in a and out, which was frustrating because he had a lot of great insights to share that weren't heard. What I did like about this episode particularly was that I finally found a way to get Patsy the Angry Nerd, part of the Grand Guignol family, onto our show. All the other shows in the network have a lot of crossover. I myself had been on Trick or Treat Radio and Unchayned before we even recorded episode 1 of our podcast. So it was great to finally get someone from the network on the show. I had known Patsy through the Trick or Treat Radio community, and finally met him in person at Dynamo Marz' party some time before, where we spoke for hours. At that time, I had invited him on to talk at some future date about a crossover subject of his choice, which was going to be Futurama. But as I said, we book ahead. It ended up being fortunate that we had just chosen at the last minute to do this discussion episode after another guest cancellation, and then seeing Patsy's online comments about Stranger Things crossovers on Facebook, led to fortunate circumstances. Had I not left the show, I had planned to have all of the hosts of the other Grand Guignol shows on, with Dynamo Marz the next on the invite list to help promote the release of the 2nd edition of the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
TVCU #39 - Matthew Dennion & Josh Torrito
Matt returns and brings along his artist. I love Matt. But Chris and I were the main proponents for him coming on the show, so I'm not sure if he'll come back again, but I will continue to follow him and his work for sure. I was not aware of it, but this would be my last regular episode...
After this point, I left the show.
I've explained part of the reason. I've posted on Facebook and James read an announcement in episode 40. There were numerous things that were all piling up on me. I had to take on a part time job and between that and my health issues, I was tired. I didn't have the time to do all the research for every guest. Remember that I started this show thinking it would be mostly discussions. But the show took a life of its own and decided it was going to have authors on every week and I needed to read a lot of books. And I'm a slow reader. And then in an evening when I was feeling really overworked and underappreciated, one thing too many happened, and in a moment of spontaneous anger, I handed the show over to James and walked away.
I immediately regretted it. And many people tried to get me to reclaim the show. But James Bojaciuk has been my right hand man for this and many other projects and he was better suited to host the show that it had become. And I really wanted to see what he would do with it. And he hasn't let me down. Sure, I send him private messages grumbling once in a while about little things, but it's mostly that I'm just grumbling because he's not doing it my way, but he shouldn't be. I gave him the show. He needs to put his stamp on it. It should feel different.
So one thing that I didn't expect was that Ivan and Chris were going to leave. I was very disappointed that this happened. James has replaced them with excellent choices. So I am happy with new Chris (M.H.) and new Ivan (Ben). Sorry, guys, that's who you are in my mind. But clearly you are also you and you bring you to the show. The show is different now with new personalities, but it is also still the same show. Same format, except for a few tweaks. Same great guests. Still too much Arrowverse talk, but that's never going to change.
The first few guests after I left were guests that I had booked, but in the past few episodes. But now my scheduled guests have all gone through, and now I'm no longer involved in the scheduling.
I was also still funding the show for a bit. You may have noticed when James took over, it was still "Super Entertainment Presents", and now it's "18thWall Presents". Along with my part-time job, and measly royalties, my primary income comes from disability, and for a couple months a paperwork snafu caused me to stop getting paid, So I had to turn over the final thing that I was holding onto to continue to be part of the show.
For a while, I was hinting at a potential new podcast, one that would reunite Ivan and I (and for a while, Chris) to just do fandom discussions. We even were in talks with the Grand Guignol Network to have them carry the show. But that above mentioned financial snag ruined that too.
So now, other than being credited at the end of each episode, and owning the names "Television Crossover Universe", "TVCU", and "TVCU Crew", have nothing to do with the show. And I'm so very sad about that.
I really, really miss it. Ironically, my finances now are better than ever, and Ivan and I would love to jump into a discussion podcast, but now we don't have a network, and I lack any skills to independently run a podcast without the technical ability.
Chris, Ivan and I will be returning to the TVCU Podcast for a special reunion episode that will air on December 20. I think it will be very cool to have both Crews together. I love the new Crew. I still listen every week. I'm a fan. But I sure miss it.
I am so grateful to James for carrying on what I started, and applaud him on what he's done in the last fifty, and especially the last ten, and I look forward to listening every Tuesday at work.
However, if someone out there wants to put me behind a mike again, I'm really, really ready. Just don't give me a lot of books to read.
Super Entertainment Presents: 50 Episodes... The Rest of the Story
First, stop reading, go over to the right hand column, and listen to episode 50 of the podcast. You can even hit play and read and listen at the same time if you have that skill.
James, M.H. and Ben did a tribute to the first fifty episodes of the show. It was a great tribute, but it was missing something. Me!!!
The show was a bit biased to the perspectives of the three current hosts, two of which weren't so much there for the first forty episodes, so I feel I must add this complimentary companion post to supplement the episode.
So. 1978, driving cross country with my parents, Laff-A-Lympics comic. You know all that stuff. You know about the notebooks. You know about the Wold Newton Group. You know I met Ivan, James and Gordon there. You know about the book club and Hannah Montana.
And you know that I wrote a book. It was the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia. And that's where this story begins.
My uncle Joe was helping to promote the book. He had a friend. He told that friend about my book. That friend became obsessed with my book. And he happened to be Dynamo Marz, co-host of Trick or Treat Radio.
I got to be interviewed on that show, my first celebrity moment. I was so frickin' nervous. In order to be less nervous, I started listening to the show to know what I was getting into. I really love their show. And so I became a regular part of their community of fans. They do live shows on Wednesday nights and that became part of my regular schedule. And they have a live chat during their shows, and I became friends with their fandom community. Thanks to Trick or Treat Radio's Monster Zero (and a little bit to David Chappelle), I even got a special introduction every time I showed up.
Not long after that, their show was expanding into a network of podcasts, the Grand Guignol Network. And so there I was, listening to their show on a Wednesday night, while doing some writing on another project, when I hear Dynamo Marz say that it would be great if I had a show on the network, and Johnny Wolfenstein, the network producer agreeing. I immediately messaged Johnny. "Were you serious?"
And that's how the show began.
Immediately after it was confirmed that they weren't making a joke, I reached out to the "TVCU Crew". Up to this point, the TVCU Crew were the contributors to the website. That name now applies to both website contributors and podcast hosts. Others who join in on our Facebook discussions are part of the extended TVCU Crew.
I knew I wanted this show to be an extension of the website and books. What I wanted the show to be was a lot of discussions like we have in the Facebook group, with occasional interviews with guests who have somehow contributed to the larger shared universe, writers and filmmakers, on the rare occasions when someone might agree to be on our new show.
And I knew from the beginning I needed to have James and Ivan with me. They have been my Spock and McCoy for the entire life of the website, and they both know the TVCU concept well, while being fans of different aspects.
They both said yes right away, and so it was now time to start planning out the shows. My initial plan was to send out many guest requests, expecting them to be ignored. "Aim high. Expect low." was my motto.
So the show was meant to be mostly discussions because I expected that nobody would want to be on our show. After all, we are nobodies.
If you follow the show, you'll know that a whole lot more guests said yes than I would have ever expected, and that changed the direction of the show.
So that brings us to...
TVCU #1 - Simon R. Green
Our very first episode, and best-selling author Simon R. Green said yes. Are you kidding me? Talk about pressure. Ivan couldn't make it to our first night of recording. (We record two shows every other week, which we then release on a weekly schedule, despite the illusion of a live show).
I was so scared, but somehow, we pulled it off. As James mentions in episode 50, we were way over prepared with questions. But Simon was such an amazing guest. He was humble and charming and insightful, and loved to talk, and we loved to listen. I still argue this was James and my best interview. We just went back and forth with the questions in such a natural manner, changing up our questions based on the answers Simon gave us. I've loved all our interviews, but that one has always been my favorite.
TVCU #2 - Erik Burnham
Erik was actually the first guest to say yes. I sent him a message on Thanksgiving 2015, and he responded within an hour.
I was sad that Ivan, our own Ghostbuster, had to miss the first Ghostbuster themed episode, but fortunately we were able to get Erik back on, as he promised, so that Ivan could ask his questions.
This was also the first episode where the interview didn't fill the full time, and we ended with an improvised crossover discussion. I really liked doing those, but over time, most interviews went the full length of the show, which is why it was great when we occasionally didn't have a guest, because it gave us an hour to do a crossover discussion.
TVCU #3 - Chris Nigro
And then the puns. I joke that after our first two impressive guests, I was just going to have my friends on the show from that point on, now that we had people hooked. Chris indeed was a friend, as well as a published author who writes crossovers. I didn't know at the time that Chris would become popular, so much so that I would invite him to come on as a regular co-host not long after. This was also Ivan's first episode, even though he was invited as a founding co-host.
TVCU #4 - James Bojaciuk
James doesn't like this one. I do. It was my idea that each co-host should get their spotlight, since we are all published authors. (Actually, I wasn't going to give myself a spotlight, because I felt every show was my spotlight, but Ivan eventually talked me into it.) We got to learn James' secret origin here, and this was Chris' first guest co-hosting duties, since James was guest.
TVCU #5 - M.J. Starling
Our first playwright. This was a short one. He is a great writer, but he only did one crossover. It was a Carnacki crossover. I didn't realize until James pointed it out to me a few months later, but we were developing a Carnacki theme based on my scheduling. Green wrote a series that was a legacy to Carnacki. James wrote an essay connecting Carnacki to Zarnack, which we discussed. And now M.J. Starling. And several more Carnacki authors would be scheduled before this was brought to my attention. Almost half our guests had some Carnacki connection.
TVCU #6 - Micah S. Harris
What can I say? This was the fist time we ran out of time and still needed to ask more questions. This is the first guest that we booked his second appearance immediately after wrapping up the first interview. And he's been on three times as guest and a couple times as a guest co-host. I love Micah. We share several unique fandoms. He's a great writer and loves crossovers, and he's just pleasant to chat with. This is the first episode also where I recognize another scheduling pattern that wasn't intentional. Most of our guests have cool accents.
TVCU #7 - William Meikle
This was our first really bad interview. William Meikle is a great author, another Carnacki guy, and he was a great guest. We were terrible. We had technical issues that made us start late. A snowstorm kept Ivan away. And we kept mispronouncing the guest's name. It's Me-Kill, by the way.
TVCU #8 - Janet. L. Hetherington
This was my best interview, and I adore this guest. James was there, but I did all the talking with Janet. She's a Superman expert, a geek girl, writes comics, and she gets how to do proper crossovers between television shows. This was my favorite interview primarily conducted just by me. I hope that someday if I ever have another show, that I can have her back on with her husband and partner, Ron Sutton.
TVCU #9 - Kevin T. Heim
This was a very cool experiment, and I'm not going to tell you why. You'll either get it or you won't. Chris came back as co-host for this and the next episode, in what was basically his audition.
TVCU #10 - Matthew Dennion
Chris returned as co-host, and completely coincidentally, I had no idea that Chris was such a huge fan of this guest before I set this up. Chris and Matt are now friends who have hung out in person, and I love that I helped with making that happen. This episode led to Chris' getting asked to become a regular weekly co-host, and we've been fortunate to have Matt return on the show again.
TVCU #11 - Nicole Petit
Up to this point, our first episode with Green was the top rated show. Nicole Petit, a very new author working with 18thWall, and a special friend of James, blew that away and has remained the top rated show at least until I stepped down from the show. (I don't see the stats anymore.) I should point out that up to this point, I had been choosing all the guests for the show, and the guest were all authors who had written something in the past decade that was referenced in my Horror Crossover Encyclopedia. We got this show on the network based on the merits of the HCE, and so I felt an obligation to tie in the book to the show until we got established. This was the first guest chosen by James. And she was so delightful and fun. And again with the accents She was also part of a pattern in which we seemed to have had on our show or plugged almost every author who would later that year win a New Pulp Ark Award. Turns out we can pick the winners. Nicole would come back as guest and guest co-host.
TVCU #12 - Robert E. Wronski, Jr., or the one where the host is the guest
One of my least favorites, but it was part of a deal I had to make with Ivan to get him to do a previous episode with Kevin T. Heim. Chris spent a lot of time asking me questions that had nothing to do with anything I've ever worked on, and wouldn't stop pressing me for answers to those questions for many minutes, and that was awkward. Chris was still honing his interview skills at that time and over time he really became quite skilled and so because he has conducted so many great interviews since, I feel safe to mention this early bad interview without too much scorn. This was also the only episode where Ivan introduced the episode.
TVCU #13 - Micah S. Harris Part II
Remember how I said I didn't epect any guests to say yes? Well, at this point, we were booking guests months ahead of time due to our popularity, and so it took us seven weeks to get Micah back on. This was our first and only time we did a movie review. Ivan gave us a review of Dark Water, as part of a network wide cross promotional event.
TVCU #14 - M.H. Norris
And then she came in, and took over the Crew...
Another special friend of James whom James chose for the show, and another delight. And she won an award right after the show. She also invited herself to come back to guest co-host. She really did become the first member of the TVCU Crew to invite herself into the Crew, and I'm so glad to have her. If you still listen to the show, and I hope you are, you know that M.H. (Don't call her M.) is now the regular co-host of the show and she's such a pleasure to listen to on every show she's been on, starting with this one. (She's not the first podcast Crew member to not have worked on the website though. That would be Chris.)
TVCU #15 - Of Monsters and Heroes
Our first full hour of discussion. We started talking about Universal Horror, ended up talking about super-hero movies (as we tend to do), and somehow moved that back into Universal Horror. I really loved this episode, and it was one of our higher rated shows, letting me know that we should do it more often. This is what we started the show to do after all. This also happens to be the first episode where a guest cancelled on us at the last minute, and pretty much every discussion episode we did was a last minute replacement of a guest who cancelled.
TVCU #16 - Jerre Winsborrow
He sounds like Ray Romano, but he draws a series of crossover comics based in horror. And he gave me a free comic, which I passed on to Chris, because Chris by this point had truly mastered his interviewing skills and saved a show with amazingly insightful questions on the process of writing and art on a night when my interviewing skills were a flop.
TVCU #17 - Murray Ewing
Another of James' choices. Though his crossover work was small, this was such a great interview. Murray Ewing has done it all, and his writing is superb.
TVCU #18 - Peter Rawlik
Ivan chose his first guest, and then couldn't make it. Damn you, real world job!!! Peter is a wonderful guest, and has become, like Micah, a wonderful friend of the show. He has come on again, and from what I've heard, may be coming on more regularly to talk classic detectives in recurring discussion episodes.
TVCU #19 - Tim Lebbon
James said this one didn't stand out for him, but as he pointed out, it remains a fan favorite. Tim Lebbon wrote a book that became a movie with Nicolas Cage, and has written in the worlds of Alien/Predator, Star Wars, X-Files, and more.
TVCU #20 - Phil Hornshaw & Nick Hurwitch
This was M.H.'s first guest co-hosting duties. Probably our most people packed episode with five co-hosts and two guests. Besides a book (now two) and website, this pair also had a great podcast that had been not recorded for sometime, but shortly after this episode, they returned to doing their podcast Coincidence?
That's it for part I. I'm splitting this into two parts because the links slow down the page.
Thanks to Joe Wronski, Dynamo Marz, Johnny Wolfenstein, Ivan Schablotski, James Bojaciuk, Chris Nigro, and all those who listen.
Remember, everything happens somewhere.
James, M.H. and Ben did a tribute to the first fifty episodes of the show. It was a great tribute, but it was missing something. Me!!!
The show was a bit biased to the perspectives of the three current hosts, two of which weren't so much there for the first forty episodes, so I feel I must add this complimentary companion post to supplement the episode.
So. 1978, driving cross country with my parents, Laff-A-Lympics comic. You know all that stuff. You know about the notebooks. You know about the Wold Newton Group. You know I met Ivan, James and Gordon there. You know about the book club and Hannah Montana.
And you know that I wrote a book. It was the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia. And that's where this story begins.
My uncle Joe was helping to promote the book. He had a friend. He told that friend about my book. That friend became obsessed with my book. And he happened to be Dynamo Marz, co-host of Trick or Treat Radio.
I got to be interviewed on that show, my first celebrity moment. I was so frickin' nervous. In order to be less nervous, I started listening to the show to know what I was getting into. I really love their show. And so I became a regular part of their community of fans. They do live shows on Wednesday nights and that became part of my regular schedule. And they have a live chat during their shows, and I became friends with their fandom community. Thanks to Trick or Treat Radio's Monster Zero (and a little bit to David Chappelle), I even got a special introduction every time I showed up.
Not long after that, their show was expanding into a network of podcasts, the Grand Guignol Network. And so there I was, listening to their show on a Wednesday night, while doing some writing on another project, when I hear Dynamo Marz say that it would be great if I had a show on the network, and Johnny Wolfenstein, the network producer agreeing. I immediately messaged Johnny. "Were you serious?"
And that's how the show began.
Immediately after it was confirmed that they weren't making a joke, I reached out to the "TVCU Crew". Up to this point, the TVCU Crew were the contributors to the website. That name now applies to both website contributors and podcast hosts. Others who join in on our Facebook discussions are part of the extended TVCU Crew.
I knew I wanted this show to be an extension of the website and books. What I wanted the show to be was a lot of discussions like we have in the Facebook group, with occasional interviews with guests who have somehow contributed to the larger shared universe, writers and filmmakers, on the rare occasions when someone might agree to be on our new show.
And I knew from the beginning I needed to have James and Ivan with me. They have been my Spock and McCoy for the entire life of the website, and they both know the TVCU concept well, while being fans of different aspects.
They both said yes right away, and so it was now time to start planning out the shows. My initial plan was to send out many guest requests, expecting them to be ignored. "Aim high. Expect low." was my motto.
So the show was meant to be mostly discussions because I expected that nobody would want to be on our show. After all, we are nobodies.
If you follow the show, you'll know that a whole lot more guests said yes than I would have ever expected, and that changed the direction of the show.
So that brings us to...
TVCU #1 - Simon R. Green
Our very first episode, and best-selling author Simon R. Green said yes. Are you kidding me? Talk about pressure. Ivan couldn't make it to our first night of recording. (We record two shows every other week, which we then release on a weekly schedule, despite the illusion of a live show).
I was so scared, but somehow, we pulled it off. As James mentions in episode 50, we were way over prepared with questions. But Simon was such an amazing guest. He was humble and charming and insightful, and loved to talk, and we loved to listen. I still argue this was James and my best interview. We just went back and forth with the questions in such a natural manner, changing up our questions based on the answers Simon gave us. I've loved all our interviews, but that one has always been my favorite.
TVCU #2 - Erik Burnham
Erik was actually the first guest to say yes. I sent him a message on Thanksgiving 2015, and he responded within an hour.
I was sad that Ivan, our own Ghostbuster, had to miss the first Ghostbuster themed episode, but fortunately we were able to get Erik back on, as he promised, so that Ivan could ask his questions.
This was also the first episode where the interview didn't fill the full time, and we ended with an improvised crossover discussion. I really liked doing those, but over time, most interviews went the full length of the show, which is why it was great when we occasionally didn't have a guest, because it gave us an hour to do a crossover discussion.
TVCU #3 - Chris Nigro
And then the puns. I joke that after our first two impressive guests, I was just going to have my friends on the show from that point on, now that we had people hooked. Chris indeed was a friend, as well as a published author who writes crossovers. I didn't know at the time that Chris would become popular, so much so that I would invite him to come on as a regular co-host not long after. This was also Ivan's first episode, even though he was invited as a founding co-host.
TVCU #4 - James Bojaciuk
James doesn't like this one. I do. It was my idea that each co-host should get their spotlight, since we are all published authors. (Actually, I wasn't going to give myself a spotlight, because I felt every show was my spotlight, but Ivan eventually talked me into it.) We got to learn James' secret origin here, and this was Chris' first guest co-hosting duties, since James was guest.
TVCU #5 - M.J. Starling
Our first playwright. This was a short one. He is a great writer, but he only did one crossover. It was a Carnacki crossover. I didn't realize until James pointed it out to me a few months later, but we were developing a Carnacki theme based on my scheduling. Green wrote a series that was a legacy to Carnacki. James wrote an essay connecting Carnacki to Zarnack, which we discussed. And now M.J. Starling. And several more Carnacki authors would be scheduled before this was brought to my attention. Almost half our guests had some Carnacki connection.
TVCU #6 - Micah S. Harris
What can I say? This was the fist time we ran out of time and still needed to ask more questions. This is the first guest that we booked his second appearance immediately after wrapping up the first interview. And he's been on three times as guest and a couple times as a guest co-host. I love Micah. We share several unique fandoms. He's a great writer and loves crossovers, and he's just pleasant to chat with. This is the first episode also where I recognize another scheduling pattern that wasn't intentional. Most of our guests have cool accents.
TVCU #7 - William Meikle
This was our first really bad interview. William Meikle is a great author, another Carnacki guy, and he was a great guest. We were terrible. We had technical issues that made us start late. A snowstorm kept Ivan away. And we kept mispronouncing the guest's name. It's Me-Kill, by the way.
TVCU #8 - Janet. L. Hetherington
This was my best interview, and I adore this guest. James was there, but I did all the talking with Janet. She's a Superman expert, a geek girl, writes comics, and she gets how to do proper crossovers between television shows. This was my favorite interview primarily conducted just by me. I hope that someday if I ever have another show, that I can have her back on with her husband and partner, Ron Sutton.
TVCU #9 - Kevin T. Heim
This was a very cool experiment, and I'm not going to tell you why. You'll either get it or you won't. Chris came back as co-host for this and the next episode, in what was basically his audition.
TVCU #10 - Matthew Dennion
Chris returned as co-host, and completely coincidentally, I had no idea that Chris was such a huge fan of this guest before I set this up. Chris and Matt are now friends who have hung out in person, and I love that I helped with making that happen. This episode led to Chris' getting asked to become a regular weekly co-host, and we've been fortunate to have Matt return on the show again.
TVCU #11 - Nicole Petit
Up to this point, our first episode with Green was the top rated show. Nicole Petit, a very new author working with 18thWall, and a special friend of James, blew that away and has remained the top rated show at least until I stepped down from the show. (I don't see the stats anymore.) I should point out that up to this point, I had been choosing all the guests for the show, and the guest were all authors who had written something in the past decade that was referenced in my Horror Crossover Encyclopedia. We got this show on the network based on the merits of the HCE, and so I felt an obligation to tie in the book to the show until we got established. This was the first guest chosen by James. And she was so delightful and fun. And again with the accents She was also part of a pattern in which we seemed to have had on our show or plugged almost every author who would later that year win a New Pulp Ark Award. Turns out we can pick the winners. Nicole would come back as guest and guest co-host.
TVCU #12 - Robert E. Wronski, Jr., or the one where the host is the guest
One of my least favorites, but it was part of a deal I had to make with Ivan to get him to do a previous episode with Kevin T. Heim. Chris spent a lot of time asking me questions that had nothing to do with anything I've ever worked on, and wouldn't stop pressing me for answers to those questions for many minutes, and that was awkward. Chris was still honing his interview skills at that time and over time he really became quite skilled and so because he has conducted so many great interviews since, I feel safe to mention this early bad interview without too much scorn. This was also the only episode where Ivan introduced the episode.
TVCU #13 - Micah S. Harris Part II
Remember how I said I didn't epect any guests to say yes? Well, at this point, we were booking guests months ahead of time due to our popularity, and so it took us seven weeks to get Micah back on. This was our first and only time we did a movie review. Ivan gave us a review of Dark Water, as part of a network wide cross promotional event.
TVCU #14 - M.H. Norris
And then she came in, and took over the Crew...
Another special friend of James whom James chose for the show, and another delight. And she won an award right after the show. She also invited herself to come back to guest co-host. She really did become the first member of the TVCU Crew to invite herself into the Crew, and I'm so glad to have her. If you still listen to the show, and I hope you are, you know that M.H. (Don't call her M.) is now the regular co-host of the show and she's such a pleasure to listen to on every show she's been on, starting with this one. (She's not the first podcast Crew member to not have worked on the website though. That would be Chris.)
TVCU #15 - Of Monsters and Heroes
Our first full hour of discussion. We started talking about Universal Horror, ended up talking about super-hero movies (as we tend to do), and somehow moved that back into Universal Horror. I really loved this episode, and it was one of our higher rated shows, letting me know that we should do it more often. This is what we started the show to do after all. This also happens to be the first episode where a guest cancelled on us at the last minute, and pretty much every discussion episode we did was a last minute replacement of a guest who cancelled.
TVCU #16 - Jerre Winsborrow
He sounds like Ray Romano, but he draws a series of crossover comics based in horror. And he gave me a free comic, which I passed on to Chris, because Chris by this point had truly mastered his interviewing skills and saved a show with amazingly insightful questions on the process of writing and art on a night when my interviewing skills were a flop.
TVCU #17 - Murray Ewing
Another of James' choices. Though his crossover work was small, this was such a great interview. Murray Ewing has done it all, and his writing is superb.
TVCU #18 - Peter Rawlik
Ivan chose his first guest, and then couldn't make it. Damn you, real world job!!! Peter is a wonderful guest, and has become, like Micah, a wonderful friend of the show. He has come on again, and from what I've heard, may be coming on more regularly to talk classic detectives in recurring discussion episodes.
TVCU #19 - Tim Lebbon
James said this one didn't stand out for him, but as he pointed out, it remains a fan favorite. Tim Lebbon wrote a book that became a movie with Nicolas Cage, and has written in the worlds of Alien/Predator, Star Wars, X-Files, and more.
TVCU #20 - Phil Hornshaw & Nick Hurwitch
This was M.H.'s first guest co-hosting duties. Probably our most people packed episode with five co-hosts and two guests. Besides a book (now two) and website, this pair also had a great podcast that had been not recorded for sometime, but shortly after this episode, they returned to doing their podcast Coincidence?
That's it for part I. I'm splitting this into two parts because the links slow down the page.
Thanks to Joe Wronski, Dynamo Marz, Johnny Wolfenstein, Ivan Schablotski, James Bojaciuk, Chris Nigro, and all those who listen.
Remember, everything happens somewhere.
November 23, 2016
Damn it's Good to be a Gangster: The Kingpin in the TVCU
The underworld will now be run like a Business.. and the Chairman of the Board will be ..The Kingpin! -- Wilson Fisk
September 1988 to September 1989--Police Academy: The Animated Series-- In Many Episodes Officer Carey Mahoney Battle the Kingpin and His Council of Crime
May 1989--The Trail of the Incredible Hulk---Wilson Fisk the Kingpin of Crime Battles Daredevil and the Incredible Hulk. He also appears to have grown a beard and his Hair out.
To Quote Robert on this one "Spring 1995--BATMAN/DAREDEVIL: KING OF NEW YORK(2000)--The two vigilantes team again, this time against the Kingpin, the Scarecrow, and the Catwoman. The Kingpin here is like his Marvel counterpart. The Scarecrow is not the original, but an obsessed "fan." And the Catwoman here is a former secretary who after a near death experience, loses it and turns to crime."
July 1995--Crime Wave video Game (1990)--The Kingpin and the Forces of M.O.B. Kidnap the President's daughter. However their plot goes awry thanks to crime fighter Lucas McCabe. the Kingpin Seemingly Dies here but I believe he fakes his death and starts operating more underground to rebuild his Empire.
1996--Marvel VS DC/DC VS Marvel Trading Card Set--Wilson Fisk and Lex Luthor go to war.
Early 1997--Marvel Vs WildStorm Trading card set-- Wilson Fisk and Lord Emp leader of the WildC.A.T.S. go to war.
Late 1997--Batman & Spider-Man: New Age Dawning--Batman and Spider-Man Team up to Take on The Kingpin and Immortal Eco Terrorist Ra's al Ghul
2011--Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds--Following an attack on Earth by the being known has Galactus that was Stopped by a large team up of Heroes and Villains. Interpol agent Chun -Li Arrests the Kingpin for his many crimes.
November 21, 2016
The Scottish Play: The TVCU Gets Classy with Shakespeare
"Macbeth
The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see."—Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV
The TVCU most typically covers subjects regarding television and film series. Occasionally, we have covered radio series. Recently I expanded our range to cover the stage play A Streetcar Named Desire under the basis that it is still a story written for actors to perform. And under that basis, I'm going really old school with this one. Get ready to relive high school English, the TVCU way, as today we explore the crossovers around William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Probably around the 11th Century--LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK--The same events from Macbeth, told from Lady Macbeth's perspective.
Probably around the 11th Century--SHERLOCK HOLMES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE--"The Adventure of the Global Traveler"--In this story, it appears that Moriarty is H.G. Wells' Time Traveler. This doesn't fit with the majority of TVCU canon, but perhaps Moriarty simply stole the time machine. In this story, Moriarty, coming from the late 19th century, travels back in time to uncover the mystery of the third murder from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
1587--A WITCH'S TANGLED HARE--William Shakespeare observes as an ancestor of Bugs matches wits with the immortal Witch Hazel in Macbeth's Castle.
1588--WIZARDOLOGY: THE BOOK OF THE SECRETS OF MERLIN--For any apprentice determined to learn the arcane arts of wizardry, could there be a better teacher than . . . Merlin himself? Originally discovered in 1588, this remarkable text by history's most respected wizard is revealed to the world for the very first time. Lavishly illustrated by four delicate artists, WIZARDOLOGY's intricate design even conceals a series of hidden symbols that spell out a secret message when their code is deciphered — if the reader is clever enough to find them. Matt Hickman adds: In the Vampireology book form the Ology Series there is one part that mentions a young female vampire who managed to over come her blood lust and became known as the Slayer when she started killing her own kind including Cesare Borgia. Also the The Oceanology books are about adventures with Captain Nemo and finally the Wizardology book is written by Merlin and the familiars in the book belonged to Three Witches from Macbeth.
September 1973--GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS--"Brush Up Your Shakespeare"--The PARTRIDGE FAMILY's concert is cancelled when the Globe Theatre is haunted by the ghost of Macbeth! Yes, a crossover between MACBETH, GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS, and THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY!!! And I found this on the Wold Newton Crossover Universe website moderated by the very strict crossoverologist Sean Lee Levin.
1994--GARGOYLES--"Enter MacBeth"--Macbeth is apparently immortal, a sometime ally and sometime adversary of the Gargoyles, living in New York as a college professor, and extremely wealthy. But didn't his ghost haunt the Globe Theatre 20 years earlier? Probably, that ghost was a tulpa, similar to the Sherlock Holmes tulpa seen in James Bojaciuk's excellent TVCU post, ONE GHOST NEED APPLY.
TELEVISION CROSSOVER MULTIVERSE--There have been numerous adaptations, alternate tellings and parodies of Macbeth, not all of which I'm going to list. Below are some more significant alternate versions that are part of the TVCM.
TVCU-20-a shared reality that centers more on serious fiction, such as pulp and Victorian literature. Primarily guarded by a single family whose ancestors were mutated by a meteorite. DEADPOOL: KILLUSTRATED # 1 - 4 (MARVEL COMICS)--Crosses: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley); Dracula (Bram Stoker); Legend of Sleepy Hollow; The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Raven; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Sherlock Holmes; Jungle Book; Tarzan; Ka-Zar; LIttle Mermaid; Sub-Mariner; The Time Machine; Beowulf; The Leatherstocking Tales; Mulan; Three Musketeers; Don Quixote; Moby Dick; Pinocchio; Tom Sawyer; Little Women; A Christmas Carol; Gulliver’s Travels; Treasure Island; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; Macbeth; The Metamorphosis. In an alternate reality, Deadpool realizes he is fictional, and decides to destroy everyone in every reality until he reaches his “creators” in the real world. This story involves characters from all of the above listed crosses. However, they all exist in alternate universes in various time periods. Likely none of these exist in the main Television Crossover Universe timeline, but are all probably part of the larger Television Crossover Multiverse.
TVCU-33 (aka Earth-Prime--The "real world", where the events of the Rehearsal, a 1911 comedy about the behind the scenes of the original performance of Macbeth, take place.
The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
Let not light see my black and deep desires.
The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see."—Macbeth, Act I, Scene IV
The TVCU most typically covers subjects regarding television and film series. Occasionally, we have covered radio series. Recently I expanded our range to cover the stage play A Streetcar Named Desire under the basis that it is still a story written for actors to perform. And under that basis, I'm going really old school with this one. Get ready to relive high school English, the TVCU way, as today we explore the crossovers around William Shakespeare's Macbeth.
Probably around the 11th Century--LADY MACBETH OF THE MTSENSK--The same events from Macbeth, told from Lady Macbeth's perspective.
Probably around the 11th Century--SHERLOCK HOLMES THROUGH TIME AND SPACE--"The Adventure of the Global Traveler"--In this story, it appears that Moriarty is H.G. Wells' Time Traveler. This doesn't fit with the majority of TVCU canon, but perhaps Moriarty simply stole the time machine. In this story, Moriarty, coming from the late 19th century, travels back in time to uncover the mystery of the third murder from Shakespeare's Macbeth.
1587--A WITCH'S TANGLED HARE--William Shakespeare observes as an ancestor of Bugs matches wits with the immortal Witch Hazel in Macbeth's Castle.
1588--WIZARDOLOGY: THE BOOK OF THE SECRETS OF MERLIN--For any apprentice determined to learn the arcane arts of wizardry, could there be a better teacher than . . . Merlin himself? Originally discovered in 1588, this remarkable text by history's most respected wizard is revealed to the world for the very first time. Lavishly illustrated by four delicate artists, WIZARDOLOGY's intricate design even conceals a series of hidden symbols that spell out a secret message when their code is deciphered — if the reader is clever enough to find them. Matt Hickman adds: In the Vampireology book form the Ology Series there is one part that mentions a young female vampire who managed to over come her blood lust and became known as the Slayer when she started killing her own kind including Cesare Borgia. Also the The Oceanology books are about adventures with Captain Nemo and finally the Wizardology book is written by Merlin and the familiars in the book belonged to Three Witches from Macbeth.
September 1973--GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS--"Brush Up Your Shakespeare"--The PARTRIDGE FAMILY's concert is cancelled when the Globe Theatre is haunted by the ghost of Macbeth! Yes, a crossover between MACBETH, GOOBER AND THE GHOST CHASERS, and THE PARTRIDGE FAMILY!!! And I found this on the Wold Newton Crossover Universe website moderated by the very strict crossoverologist Sean Lee Levin.
1994--GARGOYLES--"Enter MacBeth"--Macbeth is apparently immortal, a sometime ally and sometime adversary of the Gargoyles, living in New York as a college professor, and extremely wealthy. But didn't his ghost haunt the Globe Theatre 20 years earlier? Probably, that ghost was a tulpa, similar to the Sherlock Holmes tulpa seen in James Bojaciuk's excellent TVCU post, ONE GHOST NEED APPLY.
TELEVISION CROSSOVER MULTIVERSE--There have been numerous adaptations, alternate tellings and parodies of Macbeth, not all of which I'm going to list. Below are some more significant alternate versions that are part of the TVCM.
TVCU-20-a shared reality that centers more on serious fiction, such as pulp and Victorian literature. Primarily guarded by a single family whose ancestors were mutated by a meteorite. DEADPOOL: KILLUSTRATED # 1 - 4 (MARVEL COMICS)--Crosses: Frankenstein (Mary Shelley); Dracula (Bram Stoker); Legend of Sleepy Hollow; The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Raven; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Sherlock Holmes; Jungle Book; Tarzan; Ka-Zar; LIttle Mermaid; Sub-Mariner; The Time Machine; Beowulf; The Leatherstocking Tales; Mulan; Three Musketeers; Don Quixote; Moby Dick; Pinocchio; Tom Sawyer; Little Women; A Christmas Carol; Gulliver’s Travels; Treasure Island; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas; Macbeth; The Metamorphosis. In an alternate reality, Deadpool realizes he is fictional, and decides to destroy everyone in every reality until he reaches his “creators” in the real world. This story involves characters from all of the above listed crosses. However, they all exist in alternate universes in various time periods. Likely none of these exist in the main Television Crossover Universe timeline, but are all probably part of the larger Television Crossover Multiverse.
TVCU-33 (aka Earth-Prime--The "real world", where the events of the Rehearsal, a 1911 comedy about the behind the scenes of the original performance of Macbeth, take place.
November 14, 2016
Les Vampires
L'autre jour, j'ai posté une chronologie Judex. Une autre série française de cette même époque qui a donné naissance à de nombreux croisements est le sujet du post d'aujourd'hui, Les Vampires. J'ai découvert beaucoup de ces croisements, dont beaucoup découlent de Contes de Black Coat du Shadowmen, tout en écrivant mon Horror Crossover Encyclopedia.
Thanks again to Win Scott Eckert, Jess Nevins, and Jean-Marc Lofficier, for bringing Les Vampires into my world.
1808 to 1810--TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 9: LA VIE EN NOIR--"Gods of the Underworld"--Rick Lai presents a crossover heavy story. Crossovers include: BLACK COATS, PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, TARZAN, JAMES BOND, DOCTOR LEME, THE HUMAN COMEDY, JUDEX (of course), ARSENE LUPIN, SCARLET PIMPERNEL, THE MOHICANS OF PARIS, LES VAMPIRES (the subject of my next blog post), AVEROIGNLE, LE BOSSU, FU MANCHU, UNCLE BERNAC, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS.
October 1885--PROFESSOR MORIARTY: THE HOUND OF THE D'URBERVILLES--"The Hound of the d'Urbervilles"--Moriarty and Moran are hired to bust a spectral hound. Crossovers include: TESS OF THE D'URBERVILLES, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, THE WORKS OF THOMAS HARDY, TWO ON A TOWER, THE MAYOR OF CASTORBRIDGE, THE WOODLANDERS, SHERLOCK HOLMES, DESPERATE DAN, NICK CARTER, DR. NIKOLA, FU MANCHU, LES VAMPIRES, THE LOST WORLD, THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE.
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ANNO DRACULA (SERIES BY KIM NEWMAN)Release Date: 1992 - 2013 (so far) [Setting is 1888 -1991 (so far)]Series: Anno DraculaHorror Crosses: Dracula (novel); Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Invisible Man (novel); The Island of Doctor Moreau; The Vampyre; Varney the Vampire; The Soft Whisper of the Dead; They Thirst; Hotel Transylvania; The Black Castle; The Vampire Tapestry; Stephen King Universe; Carmilla; Good Lady Ducayne; The Tomb of Sarah; Ken’s Mystery; The Mysterious Stranger (story); The True Story of a Vampire; Carnacki Ghost Finder; Black Sabbath; The Picture of Dorian Gray; Interview with a Vampire (Anne Rice Vampire Lestat series); The Werewolves of London (Brian Stableford); Count Yorga; The Fearless Vampire Killers; Brides of Dracula; Vampire Circus; Dracula (Universal); Dark Shadows; El Vampiro; Black Sunday; Martin (George A. Romero film); Kolchak the Night Stalker; Blacula; Nosferatu; Kiss of the Vampire; Mr. Vampire; Blood of the Vampire; Daughters of Darkness; Dracula (Hammer); Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Averoigne; Grave of the Vampire/Seed of Terror; Hellraiser; Alraune; The Black Cat (film); Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural; The Vampire Thrills; Faustine; Near Dark; Forever Knight; Fright Night; The House of Dracula (novel by R. Chetwynd-Hayes); Anak Pontianak; Necroscope; Revelations in Black; The Dragon Waiting; The Bloody Pit of Horror/The Crimson Executioner; The Playgirls and the Vampire; The Niece of the Vampire/Fangs of the Vampire; The Phantom of the Opera; Incense for the Damned/Bloodsuckers; Addams Family (television); Frankenstein (Universal); The Monkey’s Paw; Three Mothers trilogy; Toby Dammit; The Exorcist; Cave of the Living Dead; The Golem (1920 film); The Old Dark House; Cat People; Black Magic (film); Spirits of the Dead; Les Vampires; The Awful Doctor Orloff; A Bucket of Blood; Those Who Hunt By Night/Immortal Blood/Traveling with the Dead; The Hunger; Fevre Dream; Empire of Fear; Dr. Blood’s Coffin; The Vampire’s Ghost; The Horrible Sexy Vampire; Mark of the Vampire; Vampire (1979); Vampyr - Der Traum des Allan Gray; El Hombre Lobo; Curse of the Undead; Circus of Horrors; The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus; Twice Bitten/Vampire Hookers; The Lost Boys; Deathmaster; Velvet Vampire; I, Vampire; Nancy Baker’s Vampire Stories; Sunglasses After Dark; Vamps (Vertigo Comics); Blade; Scooby-Doo; Hellboy; Nocturna; Rosemary’s Baby; American Psycho; Lost Souls; Elvira; Rosemary’s Baby; The Films of Tarantino and Rodriguez; Light at the End; Andy Warhol’s Dracula/Blood for Dracula; Geek Maggot Bingo; Daughter of Darkness; Nightmare in Blood; Madhouse; Vampire Junction/Vanitas; Buffy the Vampire Slayer; Shadowman; Werewolf of London; Little Shop of Horrors; Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Howling; Gremlins; Suckers: Bleeding London Dry; Desire the Vampire/I Desire; The Creature Commandos; The Vampire (1957); The Vampire (Sydney Horler)Non-Horror Crosses: Too numerous to list. The Story: In 1888, during the events of Bram Stoker’s novel, events diverge and Dracula marries Queen Victoria, causing a major alteration in the socio-political world for the next 125 years and beyond.
Notes: This is a divergent timeline, but not a parallel universe. In my theory, a parallel universe is created at the dawn of time at the same time as the main universe and other parallel universes. They may evolve similarly, but they are separate. Meanwhile, each universe has a main timeline, and at each moment, there are an infinite number of divergent timelines created off of the main timeline. When thinking of divergent timelines, try picturing a fork in the road. Both paths lead in different directions, but they both start at the same point, and once were the same road. The Anno Dracula timeline has shown to be an alternate timeline of the main Horror Universe in several other entries in this reference guide. Because it’s a divergent timeline, the above horror crosses, though depicted in an alternate manner, should still count for inclusions in the Horror Universe. Some of the above crossed series are already in, and the others are brought in via this crossover series despite being an alternate timeline series. For the record, the complete Anno Dracula series (thus far) consists of Anno Dracula, the Bloody Red Baron: Anno Dracula 1918, Judgement of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 (aka Dracula Cha Cha Cha), Coppola’s Dracula (from the Mammoth Book of Dracula), Castle in the Desert: Anno Dracula 1977, Andy Warhol’s Dracula: Anno Dracula 1978 - 1979 (from the Mammoth Book of Vampires), Who Dares Wins: Anno Dracula 1980, The Other Side of Midnight (from Vampire Sextette), You are the Wind Beneath My Wings: Anno Dracula 1984) and Johnny Alucard.
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Fall 1888--GASLIGHT ARCANUM: UNCANNY TALES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES--"The Adventure of the Maledictions"--Moriarty and Moran are hired to protect someone from the mi-go. Crossovers include: SHERLOCK HOLMES, THE GREEN EYE OF THE LITTLE YELLOW GOD, LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS, THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU LTD, FU MANCHU, THE MOONSTONE, A NIGHT AT AN INN, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, DOCTOR STRANGE, X-MEN, PINK PANTHER, LUKUNDOO, PREY, POLLOCK AND THE PORROH MAN, GAS LIGHT, A.J. RAFFLES, THE CASE OF THE MIRROR OF PORTUGAL, FROM HELL IT CAME, NIGEL MOLESWORTH, SWEENEY TODD, MALTESE FALCON, CASPER GUTMAN, THE JEWELS OF THE MADONNA, THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS, SIMON CARNE, LES VAMPIRES, DARBY O'GILL AND THE LITTLE PEOPLE, TINTIN, SEVEN STARS, MALVOISIN'S MIRROR, THE MONKEY'S PAW, TREASURE ISLAND, THE DOOR, HORROR FROM THE TOMB, CRIBB, HOWARDS END, HAGAR OF THE PAWN-SHOP, THE GREEN MAMBA, THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM.
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Early January 1891--PROFESSOR MORIARTY: THE HOUND OF THE D'URBERVILLES--"The Greek Invertebrate"--A story by Kim Newman that makes canon the three Moriarty brothers theory. Crossovers include: SHERLOCK HOLMES, SUPERNATURAL (not the Winchesters, but a 1970s British TV series), TALES FROM THE MAUSOLEUM CLUB, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, THE GHOST TRAIN, BILLY BUNTER, THE LOST WORLD, LES VAMPIRES, AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS, TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, DR. MABUSE, PLANTAGENET PALLISER, WAR OF THE WORLDS, FU MANCHU, SANDERS OF THE RIVER, LIEUTENANT BONES, CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER, CURSITOR DOOM, MYSTERIOUS MISTER SABIN, FLAXMAN LOW, THE JEWELS OF THE MADONNA, LADY SNOWBLOOD, THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS, DR. SYN, AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE,
Early January to May 4, 1891--PROFESSOR MORIARTY: THE HOUND OF THE D'URBERVILLES--"The Problem of the Final Adventure"--Colonel Moran recounts Moriarty's story leading up to Reichenbach Falls. Crossovers include: SHERLOCK HOLMES, LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, DRACULA, ANNO DRACULA, CRIBB, A.J. RAFFLES, A PRINCE OF SWINDLERS, THE RAINS OF RANCHIPUR, FU MANCHU, THE GHOST TRAIN, LES VAMPIRES, TINTIN, CARNACKI THE GHOST FINDER, THAT'S YOUR FUNERAL, TONO-BUNGAY, A ROOM WITH A VIEW, DOCTOR NIKOLA, THE SORCERESS OF THE STRAND, THE JEWEL OF SEVEN STARS, DOCTOR MABUSE, ALRAUNE, ARSENE LUPIN, NICK CARTER, THE PRISONER OF ZENDA, DR. SYN, CHRONICLES OF BARSETSHIRE, THE FORSYTE SAGA, AN AFRICAN MILLIONAIRE, RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, JAGO, SEVEN STARS, DIOGENES CLUB, JAMES BOND, RICHARD JEPERSON.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 5: THE VAMPIRES OF PARIS “ALL PREDATORS GREAT AND SMALL” (SHORT STORY BY RICK LAI)Release Date: 2009 (Setting is October 31,1892 - April 30, 1895)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Dracula (Bram Stoker); The Vampires (novel by Louis Feuillade); The Bloody Vampires (film series); Captain Kronos, Vampire Hunter (film); Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Dracula (Peter Tremayne); The Vampire Countess (novel by Paul Feval); The Family of a Vourdalak (short story by Alexis Tolstoy); Black Sabbath (film); Carnacki the Ghost Finder; MONSTAAHNon-Horror Crosses: Too numerous to list. The Story: Dracula finds a mate, who then goes about finding three brides of her own.Notes: Rick Lai does an excellent job of explaining why different vampire stories seem to have different rules regarding the abilities and weaknesses of vampires. He also shows how those who worship Dracula are part of the Cult of the Undead, which has its roots in the Lovecraft mythos. His inner circle is called “the Stepsons of the Dragon.” This title backs up my theory as to the origins of Dracula and its name, especially that each member of the inner circle uses the name of Dracula. Lai conflates the Dracula originally created by Stoker with the Dracula of the Tales of the Shadowmen books, which I accept. He also conflates him with Peter Tremayne’s Dracula. However, I can’t accept that since that Dracula was Egyptian. I still can accept a connection via the cult ties. Though the story brings in MONSTAAH, the creation of Chuck Loridans, which is actually a fictional group founded on a website, I only accept the fictional stories regarding MONSTAAH and its members to be in the Horror Universe, but not their essays and timelines, unless they work their way into a story.
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December 1896--SISTERS OF THE SHADOWS: THE CAGLIOSTRO CURSE--"Cut the Branch"--Another major crossover, including: THE BLACK COATS, THE MYSTERIES OF LONDON, ARSENE LUPIN, THE POWER-HOUSE, DR. NIKOLA, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE SEVEN KINGS, NORMAN HEAD, THE SORCERESS OF THE STRAND, UNCLE JEREMY'S HOUSEHOLD, A.J. RAFFLES, SHERLOCK HOLMES, LA RESIDENCIA, TOTO CHUPIN, PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, DOC SAVAGE, LUPIN III, THE ISLAND OF DOCTOR MOREAU, THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY, THE MAN CALLED NOON, TODAY IT'S ME... TOMORROW YOU!, THE FIGHTING FISTS OF SHANGHAI JOE, BLACK KILLER, ROULETABILLE, ARIZONA COLT, A STRANGER IN TOWN, THE THREE HOSTAGES, MATHIAS SANDORF, DJANGO, THE BIG GUNDOWN, CEMETARY WITHOUT CROSSES, FACE TO FACE, RINGO AND HIS GOLDEN PISTOL, A TASTE FOR KILLING, YANKEE, DAY OF ANGER, LES VAMPIRES, WOMAN OF KALI, ROYAL FLASH, SANDOKAN, TARZAN, DRACULA.
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1899--NIGHT OF THE NYCTALOPE--"First Steps"--Leo Saint-Clair begins debunking mediums. Crossovers include: NYCTALOPE, LES VAMPIRES, INDIANA JONES, LOVEDAY BROOKE, LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS, SAR DUBNOTAL, BAAL, and PHANTOM OF THE OPERA.
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TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 1: THE MODERN BABYLON “THE LAST VENDETTA” (SHORT STORY BY JEAN-MARC AND RANDY LOFFICIER)Release Date: 2005 (setting is 1900)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Chamber of Horrors; Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Dark Intruder; La Residencia; Les VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: See NotesThe Story: An auction of rare and valuable weapons is held, with many notable figures of fiction from the era in attendance.Notes: Chamber of Horrors, Dark Intruder, and La Residencia are all horror films brought into the Horror Universe with this story. Les Vampires likewise is a silent film serial brought in by this story. There are also numerous crossovers not horror related. Far too numerous for me to care to catalogue.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME III: DANSE MACABRE “A DANCE OF NIGHT AND DEATH” (SHORT STORY BY TRAVIS HILTZ)Release Date: 2007 (Setting is 1909, just prior to the events of Les Vampires)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Les VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Fantomas; Arsene LupinThe Story: Fantomas takes on Irma Vep, new member of the Vampires gang.Notes: Les Vampires is a film serial already brought into the Horror Universe in TOTSM Volume 1.
1911--TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 11: FORCE MAJEURE--"The Legacy of Arsene Lupin"--Lupin regales a story about a coveted sword. Crossovers include: ARSENE LUPIN, BULLDOG DRUMMOND, WARPED IN THE MAKING: CRIMES OF LOVE AND HATE, TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, FANTOMAS, PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, PICAROON, THE MYSTERIES OF PARIS, BLACK COATS, ROCAMBOLE, A.J. RAFFLES, FU MANCHU, DOC SAVAGE, ROULETTEBILLE, LECOQ, SMILER BUNN, THE SAINT, THE GRAY SEAL, LES VAMPIRES, JAMES BOND, and HAMILTON CLEEK.
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THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU (NOVEL BY WILLIAM PATRICK MAYNARD)Release Date: 2009 (Setting is 1913)Series: Fu ManchuHorror Crosses: The VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Yellow Claw; FantomasThe Story: Once more, the insidious Devil Doctor Fu Manchu returns, and is challenged by Dr. Petrie and M. Gaston Max.Notes: The Vampires, or rather Les Vampires, is a film serial.
December 1913--THE TERROR OF FU MANCHU--Fantomas is said to have also been on the Titanic when it sank. Other crossovers include: THE YELLOW CLAW and LES VAMPIRES.
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1915--LES VAMPIRES--An intrepid reporter and his loyal friend battle a bizarre secret society of criminals known as The Vampires.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME III: DANSE MACABRE “TWO HUNTERS” (SHORT STORY BY ROBERT L. ROBINSON, JR.)Release Date: 2007 (Setting is 1915)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: The VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Tarzan; Opar; JudexThe Story: One of Tarzan’s foes plots to kidnap Jane and their child, prompting Tarzan and Judex to work together.Notes: Tarzan’s Horror Universe canon is his original stories by Edgar Rice Burroughs and crossover stories mentioned in this book. Opar is also a creation of Burroughs and the same rules apply. Judex is from a film serial, as are the Vampires.
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TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 4: LORDS OF TERROR “NIGHT’S CHILDREN” (SHORT STORY BY STEVEN A. ROMAN)Release Date: 2008 (Setting is 1915)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: The Vampires; NosferatuThe Story: Irma Vep runs afoul of Count Orlock while trying to steal a painting in Paris for her master, the Great Vampire.Notes: Irma Vep is from the Vampires gang, from the serial Les Vampires. Count Orlock is the featured vampire of Nosferatu.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 1: THE MODERN BABYLON “PENUMBRA” (SHORT STORY BY JEAN-MARC AND RANDY LOFFICIER)Release Date: 2005 (Setting is 1916, during the events of Les Vampires)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: The VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Batman; Fantomas; Judex; Rouletabille; Nyctalope; the Shadow; Doctor Mystere; The Merry WidowThe Story: Dr. Thomas and Martha Wayne are on honeymoon in Paris where they become targets of the infamous Vampires gang, and are aided by the vigilante hero Judex.Notes: The Vampires are from the serial film Les Vampires. Batman’s inclusion here through his parents, based on the date of the setting, implies that this is the golden age version of Batman, and only his golden age tales, and other crossovers in this book, should be considered Horror Universe canon. Clearly there is a place for the Dark Knight Detective in this world, especially with some of his darker adventures. Fantomas is a pulp vigilante of the era, as is Rouletabille, the Nyctalope, the Shadow, and Doctor Mystere. Judex is a vigilante from the film serial of the same name. Interestingly, this story implies that the Shadow may be the true father of Batman. Though that wouldn’t fly as canon in the DC Comics Universe, it certainly may be true in the Horror Universe. The alias used by the Shadow of Col. Kentov is the same one used in Philip Jose Farmer’s Adventure of the Peerless Peer, thus I have an inclination to include that tale in Horror Universe canon as well despite its lack of horror crossovers. The Merry Widow is a film that is placed in canon due to references in this story.
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TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT “LOST AND FOUND” (SHORT STORY BY JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER)Release Date: 2006 (Setting is 1916)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: The VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Judex; Maltese FalconThe Story: Judex tips off the Vampires gang to an incoming shipment of a certain infamous Falcon statue.Notes: Thus bringing in the novel of the Maltese Falcon into the Horror Universe.
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TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 3: DANSE MACABRE “THE AFFAIR OF THE BASSIN LES HIVERS” (SHORT STORY BY MICHAEL MOORCOCK)Release Date: 2007 (Setting is Unknown; See Notes)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Les VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Michael Moorcock’s Multiverse; Sexton Blake; Maigret; Gobseck; VautrinThe Story: A tale of Michael Moorcock’s multiverse, featuring alternate universe counterparts of Horror Universe characters.Notes: This story by Moorcock takes the familiar characters used in Tales of the Shadowmen and creates alternate reality doppelgangers. Moorcock’s multiverse is actually a subset of the Horror Multiverse, as revealed in the Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 6. And sadly, I don’t own this volume (# 3), and apparently, nobody I know does either. I spent an exhaustive three days searching the net for a time setting for this story, but to no avail. I can only assume based on the characters used that it takes place in the early 20th century, but I can’t confirm that.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT “A JEST, TO PASS THE TIME” (STORY BY JESS NEVINS)Release Date: 2006 (Setting is 1921)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Phantom of the Opera (novel); Carmilla; Belphegor; the Centenarian; the VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Too numerous to list (see Notes)The Story: A mysterious person sends the world’s greatest thieves out to get the fabled Moonstone.Notes: This story by Jess Nevins is packed full of subtle and overt crossovers. You could simply buy the book and read it yourself, but unless you are familiar with film and literature of the era, chances are you won’t catch them all yourself. As for the horror crosses, Phantom of the Opera is well established in the Horror Universe. Carmilla is one of the earliest known vampire novels. Belphegor, later known in film versions as the Phantom of the Louvre, is a 1927 novel of the occult. The Centenarian is another novel about a vampire. And Les Vampires is a film serial.
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 5: THE VAMPIRES OF PARIS “PERILS OVER PARIS” (SHORT STORY BY LOVERN KINDZIERSKI)Release Date: 2009 (Setting is 1922)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: Fascinax; The VampiresThe Story: The occult investigator Fascinax encounters vampire thief Irma Vep.Notes: Fascinax is an occult investigator from French pulps. Secretly, he is Dr. George Leicester. Irma Vep is the main character from the serial film Les Vampires, whose fate at the end of that film must have been misleading, as is often the case with our favorite “monsters”.
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Mid-February to October 1931--JIM ANTHONY: SUPER DETECTIVE VOLUME TWO--"The Hunters"--Jim investigates when his friend is attacked by a monster. Crossovers include: JIM ANTHONY, FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON, LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS, WEREWOLF OF LONDON, JEEVES AND WOOSTER, THE MOST DANGEROUS GAME, TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN, LES VAMPIRES, FANTOMAS, IRONCASTLE, THE LOST WORLD, KI-GOR, AN INHABITANT OF CARCOSA, THE KING IN YELLOW, THE SPIRIT, ALLARDRAVITCH, KING KONG, DOC SAVAGE, JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, BECKY SHARP, TARZAN, LORD OF THE RINGS,
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN VOLUME 2: GENTLEMEN OF THE NIGHT “EX CALCE LIBERATUS” (SHORT STORY BY MATTHEW BAUGH)Release Date: 2006 (Setting is 1931)Series: Tales of the ShadowmenHorror Crosses: The VampiresNon-Horror Crosses: Arsene Lupin; Akechi Kogoro; Fantomas; Fu Manchu; La Reine Margot; Three Musketeers; Le Bossu; The Sword Woman; Jirel of Joiry; The Grey Maiden; Scaramouche; Prince Valiant; Amber; Lupin III; Zatoichi; Yu’an He See Laughs; Doc ArdanThe Story: When famous swords go missing, famed thief Arsene Lupin is a suspect, so famed Japanese detective Kogoro Akechi must team with French police. Notes: Les Vampires is the Paris set film serial whose characters appear frequently in Shadowmen tales. The rest of the crossovers are mostly series featuring sword wielding heroes. Sir Lancelot of Arthurian legend and historical figure Cyrano de Bergerac are also mentioned, but legends and historical figures do not count as crossovers.
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1939--THE DEATH'S HEAD CLOUD--Jim Anthony takes on a madman who has created a deadly fog. Crossovers include: FAR BELOW, LOVECRAFT'S CTHULHU MYTHOS, ARSENE LUPIN, LES VAMPIRES, MICHAEL MOORCOCK'S MULTIVERSE, DR. DEATH, DR. SATAN, FU MANCHU, FANTOMAS, GREEN HORNET, DILLON, DOC SAVAGE, SPIDER-MAN, CITIZEN KANE, THE PHANTOM, THE BLACK BAT, THE KINGSCOTE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS, ST. TRINIAN'S, A LITTLE PRINCESS, SUSPIRIA, THE SPIDER, THE DOMINO LADY, THE SHADOW, NERO WOLFE, THE LOST WORLD, THE GREEN LLAMA, RAVENWOOD, and TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA.
ALTERNATE REALITIES:
TVCU-33 (AKA EARTH-PRIME): A Chinese movie actress, in France to star in a remake of "Les Vampires", finds petty intrigues and clashing egos on the set, as seen in the 1996 film, IRMA VEP.
Whatever happened to the second edition of the Horror Crossover Encyclopedia?
I’ve announced it. And the publishers announced it. It was supposed to come out in late September, or early October, or mid October.The release isn’t up to me, but as far as I know, it’s still happening.The second edition will feature a matte cover by a new graphic designer, a new retrospective introduction from me, a new foreword from Trick or Treat Radio’s Dynamo Marz, and selected revised entries.18thWall is known in its short span for putting out great stories from amazing authors who win awards. It’s impressive how much quality such a young publisher puts out. However, as a young company, they aren’t so good with making and meeting deadlines.But the wait is usually worth it. So I ask, please be patient. And also, please stop asking me when it will be out. I don’t know. But you know I market the poop out of my work, so trust me that when I know, you all will know.If you are really impatient, I suggest contacting the publisher directly and ask for more details on its release.
