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Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World
Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World #1
From the depths of ancient ages, when Atlantis fell, to the Regency, Victorian, and Edwardian eras, and to the burgeoning 20th century, CROSSOVERS is a massive timeline of crossover stories in which characters, situations, or universes are linked together in order to build the Crossover Universe. Lovingly compiled by Wold Newton expert Win Scott Eckert, CROSSOVERS upwards of 1000 crossover stories which outline the secret history of the land of fiction. With an introduction by Kim Newman (ANNO DRACULA), this volume is illustrated with over 200 book and magazine covers, and contains an appendix covering myriad television crossovers.
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
460 pages, Paperback
First published April 30, 2010
3 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
About the author
Win Scott Eckert
62 books88 followersWIN SCOTT ECKERT is a novelist, editor, essayist, and author of short fiction. He is steeped in the works of famed science fiction writer Philip José Farmer, particularly Farmer’s shared universe literary-crossover Wold Newton cycle and the Lord Grandrith/Doc Caliban series. He has a deep interest in studying fictional biographies, creating detailed chronologies of fictional characters and universes, and exploring the metafictional connections between seemingly unrelated works, which resulted in MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER’S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE (MonkeyBrain Books), a 2007 Locus Awards finalist, and the critically acclaimed, encyclopedic CROSSOVERS: A SECRET CHRONOLOGY OF THE WORLD 1 & 2 (Black Coat Press, 2010).
Eckert is also an expert on many of the authors and characters who inspired Farmer—such as Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, Pellucidar, John Carter of Mars, and more), the pulp heroes (Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, etc.), Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, Ian Fleming’s James Bond, and Sax Rohmer’s Denis Nayland Smith, Fu Manchu, and Sumuru—as well as other heroic characters whose adventures Eckert has chronicled, including Zorro, Sexton Blake, the Phantom, Honey West, the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Domino Lady, and the Green Hornet, all of which can be found in the pages of anthologies from Moonstone Books, Meteor House (THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER), Black Coat Press (TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN), and Titan Books (TALES OF THE WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE).
An accomplished essayist, Eckert contributed a new foreword the 2006 edition of Farmer’s well-known fictional biography, TARZAN ALIVE: A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF LORD GREYSTOKE (University of Nebraska/Bison Books), as well as several forewords and afterwords to Titan Books’ reissues of Farmer’s novels. As Executive Editor for Meteor House, he played a key role in reissuing definitive editions of Farmer’s fictional biography DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE (2013), and Farmer’s authorized Burroughs novel, TARZAN AND THE DARK HEART OF TIME (2018).
Eckert is the authorized legacy author of Farmer's Patricia Wildman series (THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE, THE SCARLET JAGUAR). His latest releases are an authorized Avenger book from Moonstone, HUNT THE AVENGER (2019); an authorized novel in the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe, TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR (2020); and, as coauthor with Farmer, the fourth novel in Farmer's Secrets of the Nine series, THE MONSTER ON HOLD (2021), furthering the titanic saga of Doc Caliban's battle against the dark manipulators who hold the secret to eternal life, the Nine. His Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novel KORAK AT THE EARTH'S CORE is forthcoming in April 2024.
Find him online at winscotteckert dot com
Eckert is also an expert on many of the authors and characters who inspired Farmer—such as Edgar Rice Burroughs (Tarzan, Pellucidar, John Carter of Mars, and more), the pulp heroes (Doc Savage, The Shadow, The Avenger, etc.), Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty, Ian Fleming’s James Bond, and Sax Rohmer’s Denis Nayland Smith, Fu Manchu, and Sumuru—as well as other heroic characters whose adventures Eckert has chronicled, including Zorro, Sexton Blake, the Phantom, Honey West, the Scarlet Pimpernel, the Domino Lady, and the Green Hornet, all of which can be found in the pages of anthologies from Moonstone Books, Meteor House (THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER), Black Coat Press (TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN), and Titan Books (TALES OF THE WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE).
An accomplished essayist, Eckert contributed a new foreword the 2006 edition of Farmer’s well-known fictional biography, TARZAN ALIVE: A DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY OF LORD GREYSTOKE (University of Nebraska/Bison Books), as well as several forewords and afterwords to Titan Books’ reissues of Farmer’s novels. As Executive Editor for Meteor House, he played a key role in reissuing definitive editions of Farmer’s fictional biography DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE (2013), and Farmer’s authorized Burroughs novel, TARZAN AND THE DARK HEART OF TIME (2018).
Eckert is the authorized legacy author of Farmer's Patricia Wildman series (THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE, THE SCARLET JAGUAR). His latest releases are an authorized Avenger book from Moonstone, HUNT THE AVENGER (2019); an authorized novel in the new Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe, TARZAN: BATTLE FOR PELLUCIDAR (2020); and, as coauthor with Farmer, the fourth novel in Farmer's Secrets of the Nine series, THE MONSTER ON HOLD (2021), furthering the titanic saga of Doc Caliban's battle against the dark manipulators who hold the secret to eternal life, the Nine. His Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe novel KORAK AT THE EARTH'S CORE is forthcoming in April 2024.
Find him online at winscotteckert dot com
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 17, 2020
An interesting curiosity of a book and much more fun to read than I expected. I think most are aware of crossover books in literature like when Sherlock Holmes goes up against Fu Manchu or when Batman teams up with the Green Hornet. This first volume of a two-volume set catalogs thousands of crossover situations from the dawn of time up through 1939. Volume two will take it from there and cover through the far future.
This was clearly a labor of love for the author and compiler, Win Scott Eckert. The book is arranged like an encyclopedia, chronologically listing all the crossover events along with what books they’re from as well as the authors. This would be a great resource even if that’s all this was. But it doesn’t stop there. Eckert uses all these crossover situations and develops what he calls the “Crossover Universe” (CU). Once a character has been identified as part of the CU, then when they are found to crossover with a third character, that third character is also now part of the CU. And thus the CU has grown to thousands of characters. It’s just plain cool to read about that time when Simon Templar (the Saint) teams up with Captain Nemo, Allan Quartermain, and Clark Savage, Sr. (Father of Doc Savage).
This is not the first time this has been done. In fact, Eckert based the CU on author Philp Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton universe. (For the uninitiated, in real life a meteorite, called the Wold Cottage meteorite, fell near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795 causing genetic mutations in the occupants of two passing coaches due to ionization. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good (or evil) deeds.) The Wold Netwon Family tree includes such larger-than-life fictional characters as Lord Greystoke (Tarzan), Doc Savage, James Bond, Lord Peter Wimsey, Sherlock Holmes, Solomon Kane, Sam Spade, The Scarlet Pimpernel and so forth.
Eckert admits that not everything can be included in the CU for fear of overwhelming the system. Some comic book characters are included but to try to include all of the multiple crossover events from DC and Marvel universes would be impossible. Other characters are also problematical, such as Dr. Who, a character that has no bounds and could theoretically make CU characters of everyone. But an additional fun part of reading this book is to see how Eckert justifies an inclusion or not.
I actually read this book from cover to cover, taking my time, reading just a few pages at a sitting. I imagine most people would choose to just dip into it here and there and sample the delight within or perhaps use it merely as a reference book. The only negative I have is to say that I really wish it had an index so I could look up a character and see all the interactions they have.
Of course, this is a book that must always be expanded, as more books are written and more crossovers are discovered. I’ve listed examples of characters most readers are familiar with but this volume goes deep into hundreds of characters that are much more obscure. There is already an expanded version of both volumes, compiled by Sean Levin but the real answer lies in the on-line searchable database where entries are constantly updated and built upon. But still, to read through this book and see all the crossovers chronologically is a blast. I’ll be diving into volume two right away.
This was clearly a labor of love for the author and compiler, Win Scott Eckert. The book is arranged like an encyclopedia, chronologically listing all the crossover events along with what books they’re from as well as the authors. This would be a great resource even if that’s all this was. But it doesn’t stop there. Eckert uses all these crossover situations and develops what he calls the “Crossover Universe” (CU). Once a character has been identified as part of the CU, then when they are found to crossover with a third character, that third character is also now part of the CU. And thus the CU has grown to thousands of characters. It’s just plain cool to read about that time when Simon Templar (the Saint) teams up with Captain Nemo, Allan Quartermain, and Clark Savage, Sr. (Father of Doc Savage).
This is not the first time this has been done. In fact, Eckert based the CU on author Philp Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton universe. (For the uninitiated, in real life a meteorite, called the Wold Cottage meteorite, fell near Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, on December 13, 1795 causing genetic mutations in the occupants of two passing coaches due to ionization. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good (or evil) deeds.) The Wold Netwon Family tree includes such larger-than-life fictional characters as Lord Greystoke (Tarzan), Doc Savage, James Bond, Lord Peter Wimsey, Sherlock Holmes, Solomon Kane, Sam Spade, The Scarlet Pimpernel and so forth.
Eckert admits that not everything can be included in the CU for fear of overwhelming the system. Some comic book characters are included but to try to include all of the multiple crossover events from DC and Marvel universes would be impossible. Other characters are also problematical, such as Dr. Who, a character that has no bounds and could theoretically make CU characters of everyone. But an additional fun part of reading this book is to see how Eckert justifies an inclusion or not.
I actually read this book from cover to cover, taking my time, reading just a few pages at a sitting. I imagine most people would choose to just dip into it here and there and sample the delight within or perhaps use it merely as a reference book. The only negative I have is to say that I really wish it had an index so I could look up a character and see all the interactions they have.
Of course, this is a book that must always be expanded, as more books are written and more crossovers are discovered. I’ve listed examples of characters most readers are familiar with but this volume goes deep into hundreds of characters that are much more obscure. There is already an expanded version of both volumes, compiled by Sean Levin but the real answer lies in the on-line searchable database where entries are constantly updated and built upon. But still, to read through this book and see all the crossovers chronologically is a blast. I’ll be diving into volume two right away.
August 18, 2011
Great reference and fun read of multitudinous cross-overs among genre books and other media by one of the custodians of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton universe.
Great work and an interesting study I'd highly recommend for anyone who deals with how to manage or shepherd intellectual properties or shared world properties.
Great work and an interesting study I'd highly recommend for anyone who deals with how to manage or shepherd intellectual properties or shared world properties.
July 11, 2017
TL;DR version: An incredible piece of work, a labor of love for the genre and the characters, that is nonetheless massively weakened by missing the one thing that would make it most helpful: an index
This is both an incredible and incredibly frustrating piece of work. The author has clearly put a staggering amount of effort into it; the book is, as it says, a chronology, and it covers essentially all the times fictional characters (largely from pulp, fantasy, sci-fi, some mystery and horror) worlds have met each other. So it lists, from millions of years BC to the present era (1939 in this volume, to current times in the second). The “list” takes the form of chronologically listed synopsis of the works in which they appear; so for November 1926, or example, it woulf list all fictional stories – with a little paragraph about each – that take place in those times. Note, it’s not that they were written then, just take place – so even though this volume goes up to the late 1930s, modern characters like Indiana Jones or Robert Parker’s Spencer are both in there.
So here’s the problem with the lack of index. Say that you read the back cover, and see that the book notes that Sherlock Holmes has had run-ins with Dracula, Dr. Who, and Hercule Poirot, among others. “Sweet!” you say, “I totally want to read the story where Holmes meets Dr. Who!” So you go to the index, to look up Sherlock Holmes, and who he’s met…no list (“Holmes, Sherlock. Meets: Dr. Who pp 233; Conan the Barbarian pp 14” etc.). “Okay,” you think, surely there’s a list of him somewhere – I’ll just go and see every page on which Holmes appears, and look at those until I find the right story (“Holmes, Sherlock: pp 12, 14, 45, 87, 114, 212, 233” etc”). NOPE. That means to try and find a story, or even an individual character, you have to either already know when they appeared (“that story takes place in February 1911!”) or read the entire book until you find it (?!?!). Seriously, the entire premise of the coolness of this book is that you could track down instances where characters meet – except that you can’t.
Again, not to short the incredible work that went into it; and there is definitely enjoyment to be had from looking through the book randomly, or just going cover-to-cover, though man that would take some time. But like many endeavors I’ve run across of works done by incredible superfans, it’s surprisingly missing the one thing that would make it more accessible and useful to "regular" people (I mean that in relative terms - I'm a giant nerd, of course). Or as Chuck Klosterman once wrote, "If you want to totally misunderstand why something is supposedly important, find the biggest fan of that particular thing and ask him for an explanation. He will tell you everything that doesn't matter to anyone who isn't him. He will describe paradoxical details and share deeply personal anecdotes, and it will all be autobiography; he will simply be explaining who he is...The answer will be exhaustive, but not necessarily clear"
3 stars because the book is well written and an incredible piece of genre scholarship; 2 down because it doesn’t seem unreasonable for there to be a index that would allow it to enjoy the premise as described on – among other things – the back cover. Seriously, it would make the book magnitudes more enjoyable and useful.
This is both an incredible and incredibly frustrating piece of work. The author has clearly put a staggering amount of effort into it; the book is, as it says, a chronology, and it covers essentially all the times fictional characters (largely from pulp, fantasy, sci-fi, some mystery and horror) worlds have met each other. So it lists, from millions of years BC to the present era (1939 in this volume, to current times in the second). The “list” takes the form of chronologically listed synopsis of the works in which they appear; so for November 1926, or example, it woulf list all fictional stories – with a little paragraph about each – that take place in those times. Note, it’s not that they were written then, just take place – so even though this volume goes up to the late 1930s, modern characters like Indiana Jones or Robert Parker’s Spencer are both in there.
So here’s the problem with the lack of index. Say that you read the back cover, and see that the book notes that Sherlock Holmes has had run-ins with Dracula, Dr. Who, and Hercule Poirot, among others. “Sweet!” you say, “I totally want to read the story where Holmes meets Dr. Who!” So you go to the index, to look up Sherlock Holmes, and who he’s met…no list (“Holmes, Sherlock. Meets: Dr. Who pp 233; Conan the Barbarian pp 14” etc.). “Okay,” you think, surely there’s a list of him somewhere – I’ll just go and see every page on which Holmes appears, and look at those until I find the right story (“Holmes, Sherlock: pp 12, 14, 45, 87, 114, 212, 233” etc”). NOPE. That means to try and find a story, or even an individual character, you have to either already know when they appeared (“that story takes place in February 1911!”) or read the entire book until you find it (?!?!). Seriously, the entire premise of the coolness of this book is that you could track down instances where characters meet – except that you can’t.
Again, not to short the incredible work that went into it; and there is definitely enjoyment to be had from looking through the book randomly, or just going cover-to-cover, though man that would take some time. But like many endeavors I’ve run across of works done by incredible superfans, it’s surprisingly missing the one thing that would make it more accessible and useful to "regular" people (I mean that in relative terms - I'm a giant nerd, of course). Or as Chuck Klosterman once wrote, "If you want to totally misunderstand why something is supposedly important, find the biggest fan of that particular thing and ask him for an explanation. He will tell you everything that doesn't matter to anyone who isn't him. He will describe paradoxical details and share deeply personal anecdotes, and it will all be autobiography; he will simply be explaining who he is...The answer will be exhaustive, but not necessarily clear"
3 stars because the book is well written and an incredible piece of genre scholarship; 2 down because it doesn’t seem unreasonable for there to be a index that would allow it to enjoy the premise as described on – among other things – the back cover. Seriously, it would make the book magnitudes more enjoyable and useful.
September 7, 2022
A Herculean effort, could be slightly more compelling and/or used an Index.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews