While I would prefer that readers discover on their
own the deeply interconnected nature of my seemingly unrelated tales, I’ve come
to realize that this is not the wisest marketing strategy in terms of enticing new
readers to take a chance on my stories, so I’ve created an outline illustrating
how my tales are linked, both to each other and to the works of Philip José Farmer
(I’ve noted the latter to avoid confusion).
It should go without saying that
all are connected in varying degrees to Farmer’s Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, but
there you go, I’ve said it anyway.
I’ve tried to keep this relatively spoiler free,
but in identifying the connective tissue, there’s no avoiding mild spoilers. The
vast majority of readers are not picking up on the links anyway, so really, what
do I have to lose by disclosing some high-level spoilers?
Each and every crossover is not listed. That’s what
my Crossovers, Volumes 1 & 2, and Sean Lee Levin’s Crossovers Expanded, Volumes 1 & 2, are for.
Following are recurring antagonists and the aliases
used in various stories (if a character is unlicensed, aliases or descriptive
hints are used):
· XauXaz / Wolf Larsen / Baron Ulf von Waldman / Baron von
Hessel / Doctor Karl Walden / Doctor Karl
Stipier
·
Doctor Natas / Doctor Shan Ming Fu (Doctor Fu
Manchu)
·
Lili Bugov, the Countess Idivzhopu / “The Countess”
/ Lilya Zarov
·
Madame Inga (Fah Lo Suee)
·
Dame Sinestre (Sumuru)
_________________________________
2070–12,000 BCE–2140
Time’s Last Gift (Farmer)
Protagonist:
John Gribardsun
Other:
time travel
Approximately 10,000 BCE
1795
“Is
He in Hell?”
Protagonist:
The Scarlet Pimpernel (Sir Percy Blakeney)
Antagonist:
Leonox
Other:
Eridaneans; the Heart of Ahriman
“Nadine’s
Invitation”
Protagonists:
the first generation of the Wold Newton Family
Antagonist:
Countess Nadine Carody
“The
Wild Huntsman”
Protagonist:
John Gribardsun
Antagonist:
XauXaz
Other:
the first generation of the Wold Newton Family; the Eridaneans and Capelleans; distorters;
time travel; the Secrets of the Nine series
1798
“Marguerite’s
Tears”
Protagonists:
Doctor Siger Holmes and the first generation of the Wold Newton Family
Antagonist:
Countess Nadine Carody
1815
“Violet’s
Lament”
Protagonists:
Doctor Siger Holmes and Violet Blakeney
Antagonist:
Countess Nadine Carody
1820
“Zorro’s
Rival”
Protagonist:
Zorro (Don Diego de la Vega)
Antagonist:
El Halcón
(Violette Durand aka Violet Blakeney)
1872
The Other Log of Phileas Fogg (Farmer)
Protagonist:
Phileas Fogg
Antagonist:
Captain Nemo/Professor Moriarty
Other:
the Eridaneans and Capelleans; distorters
“Being
an Account of the Delay in Green River, Wyoming of Phileas Fogg, World
Traveler”
Protagonists:
Phileas Fogg and the Lone Ranger
Antagonist:
Doctor Shan Ming Fu
1893
The Sea Wolf (Jack London)
Antagonist: Wolf Larsen
1895
“The
Problem of the Sore Bridge—Among Others” (Farmer)
Protagonists:
A. J. Raffles and Harry “Bunny” Manders
Antagonist:
alien shapeshifter (“a worm unknown to science”)
1899
“No
Ghosts Need Apply”
Protagonists:
The Phantom; Barker and Nash
Antagonist:
Colonel Sebastian Moran
Other:
John Gribardsun
1916
The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (Farmer)
Protagonists:
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson
Antagonist:
Von Bork
1917
“The
Adventure of the Fallen Stone”
Protagonists:
Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John Watson
Antagonists:
Von Bork and Baron Ulf von Waldman
1918
Escape from Loki: Doc Savage’s First
Adventure (Farmer)
Protagonist:
Clark Savage (James Clarke Wildman)
Antagonists:
Baron von Hessel and Lili Bugov, the Countess Idivzhopu
Other:
“a worm unknown to science”
Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time
(Farmer)
Protagonist:
Tarzan
Antagonists:
Jelke Helmson and James D. Stonecraft
Other:
The Crystal Tree; time travel
1920–1921
Ironcastle (J.-H. Rosny and Farmer)
Protagonist:
Hareton Ironcastle
1929
“Iron
and Bronze” (with Christopher Paul Carey)
Protagonists:
Doc Ardan (Doctor James Clarke Wildman) and Hareton Ironcastle
Antagonists:
Harry Killer and Antinea
1937
“Captain Midnight at Ultima Thule”
Protagonist: Captain Midnight
Antagonists: Sun Koh and Madame Inga
1939
Tarzan and the Castaways (Edgar Rice Burroughs)
Antagonist?: Captain Larsen
1941
“Shadows
Over Kunlun”
Protagonist:
Lance Star
Antagonist: Doctor Natas
Other: Madame Inga
1944
“The
Glass Lady”
Protagonists:
Richard Benson (The Avenger) and the Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick)
Antagonists:
Werner Conrad, the Iron Skull, and the Iron Skull’s daughter, Lenni Blau-Montag
“Death
and the Countess”
Protagonist:
Richard Benson (The Avenger)
Antagonist:
The Countess
1945
“Happy
Death Men”
Protagonist:
The Avenger (Richard Benson) and the Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick)
Antagonists:
Doctor Karl Walden and the Countess (aka Lilya Zarov)
“According
to Plan of a One-Eyed Trickster”
Protagonist:
The Avenger (Richard Benson) and the Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick)
Antagonists:
Doctor Karl Walden and the Countess (aka Lilya Zarov)
Other:
alien shapeshifter/human hybrid (see “Sore Bridge”)
1946
“Toil
and Trouble”
Protagonist:
The Avenger (Richard Benson) and the Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick)
Antagonists:
The Iron Skull, Lenni Blau-Montag, and Doctor Karl Walden
“The
Eye of Oran”
Protagonists:
Doc Ardan (Doctor James Clarke Wildman), “Shrinking” Violet Holmes, and Adélaïde
Lupin
Antagonist:
Doctor Natas
“Les
Levres Rouges”
Protagonist:
Doc Ardan (Doctor James Clarke Wildman) and Adélaïde Lupin
Antagonist:
Madame Elisabeth (Countess Erzsébet Báthory)
1948
“Dame
Sinestre”
Protagonists:
The Green Ghost (George Chance) and the Domino Lady (Ellen Patrick)
Antagonists:
Leonox and Dame Sinestre
Other:
the Heart of Ahriman
1949
“The
Vanishing Devil”
Protagonist:
Doc Ardan (Doctor James Clarke Wildman)
Antagonist:
Doctor Natas
1964
“Fang
and Sting”
Protagonists:
The Green Hornet and Kato
Antagonists:
Doctor Shan Ming Fu and his granddaughter, Doctor Isabella Fang
1965
“The
Atomos Affair”
Protagonists:
Alexander Waverly, Napoleon Solo, and Illya Kuryakin (hinted, not named)
Antagonist:
Mme. Atomos
1967
A Girl and Her Cat (with Matthew Baugh)
Protagonists:
Honey West and T.H.E. Cat
Antagonists:
Shan Ming Fu, Isabella Fang, and Doctor Karl Stipier
Other:
Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin (hinted, not named); distorters
1973
“Progress”
Protagonists:
The Green Hornet and Kato
Antagonists:
Shan Ming Fu and Isabella Fang
1973
The Evil in Pemberley House (Farmer and
Eckert)
Protagonist:
Patricia Wildman
Antagonists: The
Dowager Duchess of Greystoke, Doctor Augustus Moran, other family members
Other: Doctor James
Clarke Wildman and Adélaïde Lupin Wildman; Violet Holmes; Helen Benson; Jelke
Helmson
1974
The Scarlet Jaguar
Protagonists: Pat
Wildman, Parker, and Helen Benson
Antagonist: The
Scarlet Jaguar
Other: Doc Wildman
and Adélaïde Wildman; Violet Holmes; Doctor von Hessel
My partners and I at Meteor House were so thrilled when Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. announced at the ERB panel at San Diego Comic-Con on July 19, 2019 that certain previously published authorized Burroughs novels by other writers—specifically Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time and Fritz Leiber’s Tarzan and the Valley of Gold—are considered official canonical novels in terms of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe™ (ERBU), that we immediately asked ERB, Inc. if we could add the ERBU logo to our next printings of Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time.
