Wednesday, March 13, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 Since the historical character of Rasputin has IMO acquired what I deem a "legendary" status, I consider that both the 2004 HELLBOY and the graphic novel on which it's based to be charisma-crossovers.




The situation is a little different with figures that are clearly derived from religious myth rather than legend, so I don't consider the film's seqjuel GOLDEN ARMY to be a crossover of any kind. However, the 2019 reboot, which mixes at least two figures from disparate mythologies-- Nimue from Arthurian tales, and Baba Yaga from Russian folklore-- does count as a charisma-crossover.



Tuesday, March 12, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

To celebrate the 50th issue of Warren's VAMPIRELLA in 1976, writer Bill DuBay and various artists collaborated on a crossover-- possibly the first for the vampiric vixen-- between Vampirella and two other characters who had their own serials in the magazine. It's a decent story but not anything I feel the need to review in depth

Here's Vampirella's first meeting with Pantha, the girl with the tendency to go feline and feral.




Later Vampirella and her support-characters encounter the magazine's resident witch-heroine, Fleur.



Finally, because at the time Warren was publishing reprints of Will Eisner's SPIRIT, a final playful story involves a couple of Vampi's buddies visiting Wildwood Cemetery, in the mistaken belief that the long dead Denny Colt may have been revived as a mad killer. More a joke than a real crossover is the last page, where what might be "the spirit of THE SPIRIT" makes an appearance.


Monday, March 11, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 BETTY BOOP AND THE LITTLE KING is a curiosity with nothing much to recommend it but whatever story might lie behind the mundane details of how it came to exist.


 



To be sure, at least Betty is central to the action of this 1936 short, in contrast to her being a glorified guest-star in POPEYE THE SAILOR WITH BETTY BOOP in 1933. Ostensibly the animators made a cartoon sex film in which the sailor-man and the Boopadoop girl got it on, which if extant would probably constitute their most interesting crossover.



Monday, February 26, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS




I've now reviewed the three Famous Studios cartoons that led to the ascension of Herman the Mouse to his small degree of stardom. None of these are crossovers, but because they give Herman stature, he's a star when he's teamed up with his most famous adversary. He gets teamed up (in the sense of repeating enemies) with a cat who bears some resemblance to Katnip in 1947's NAUGHTY BUT MICE. Proto-Katnip made two more appearances before being given his official form, and the re-use of his template suggests enough identity for me to label his presence in NAUGHTY a "proto-crossover," since he does take on a starring role alongside Herman for several cartoons thereafter. However, though none of the partnerships of the mouse and the cat following NAUGHTY are any sort of crossovers, because Katnip hadn't established enough solo stature. This stands in contrast to my argument that all Daffy Duck/Porky Pig teamups are crossovers, because both members of the team had stature when they first teamed up.



Herman also made a couple of cameo appearances, notably in the 1946 banned POPEYE short THE ISLAND FLING.


Thursday, February 22, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

The Grant Morrison run on ACTION COMICS, reviewed here, contains various crossovers of heroes and villains with the main hero, but the oddest revival is that of super-obscure Super-villain Ferlin Nyxly.










Monday, February 19, 2024

MONSTER MASHUPS #104

DC's hoary BOB HOPE tried to appeal to monster-loving kids by injecting famous fiends into the stories. Not sure if it started in #95. but this issue also shows a faculty of fiends meeting a goofy teen named "Super-Hip." This dopey character, who could change into any form, was created by writer Arnold Drake, who one year later would become the scripter on DC's first version of PLASTIC MAN. Not sure if the monsters helped, but the HOPE title managed to soldier on until 1968.


 














Monday, February 12, 2024

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 And the award for the worst-drawn "retcon crossover" goes to whatever Quality Comics editor took a plain old teen humor tale from JONESY #5 (1954)...



...and turned it into a WOOZY story in PLASTIC MAN #62 (1956), with what must be comics' most badly done replacement of one cartoon head with another.



I don't know the original for this retcon, but the one-page feature BIG TOP had appeared since the early 1940s in Quality Comics. So it's very likely that there was some earlier original in which some regularly seen character, rather than Woozy, unleashed chaos.