NULL-CROSSOVERS #21

 I devoted one post here to an installment of the silly time-travel series from JUMBO COMICS, "Stuart Taylor," in which Taylor and company went back in time to encounter the characters of Washington Irving's purely fictional story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." But hey, maybe in Taylor's universe. Sleepy Hollow was real.

    In the case of the Taylor story from JUMBO #53, however, here we have a null-crossover, despite the writer's use of the legendary folkloric name of Bluebeard. At least the Sleepy Hollow story got most of the details of the original tale right. Here it looks like the writer and/or artist decided to whack out a story of Taylor's group traveling back to ancient Persia and fighting against a potentate who wants to get jiggy with Taylor's gal-pal. I don't have a problem with the creators depicting the French Bluebeard as Persian, because the Wiki article on Bluebeard mentions that sometimes European artists drew the character as vaguely Turkish, in keeping with a craze for Orientalism. But the Taylor tale makes no attempt to emulate any trope of the dominant Bluebeard story, so I tend to think the makers just hacked out a standard tale and stuck the Bluebeard name on it. In the same Wiki-article Victorian writer Andrew Lang pointed out that there was no good reason in the story to imagine Bluebeard as a Muslim, for Muslims of the time, unlike Christians, were allowed more than a single wife at a time. Indeed, the Taylor tale imagines "Bluebeard" trying to add the modern female to his harem. So this is a case where the use of a famous name by itself carries no true crossover-vibe.         

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 The cover to KRAZY KOMICS #2 is a null-crossover between Tessie the Typist and her boyfriend (who are in the comic) and Li'l Vinegar (who is not).

But Basil Wolverton contributes a real crossover between a goofy pilot-character, Flap FlipFlop, who'd been launched the previous year, and his much more popular hero Powerhouse Pepper. For good measure Wolverton tosses in another null-crossover, having Pilot Flap comment on reading a "Tessie the Typist" comic book.  

Also in WILLIE #16, we get a totally unheralded crossover between the alliterative Jeanie Johnson and Millie the Model in "A Modeling Mood."

NULL-CROSSOVERS #20

 I haven't seen the Cecil B DeMille western epic THE PLAINSMAN (1936) in something like forty years, and it was not readily available on streaming. But there was a mediocre TV remake in 1966, and I wasted a little time sussing that out.

The entirely fictional story brings together western legends, Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane and Buffalo Bill Cody, respectively played by Don Murray, Abby Dalton and Guy Stockwell. However, in contrast to at least two of my "western legend crossovers" explored here and here, both versions of PLAINSMAN are null-crossovers, because in real history Wild Bill was associated in various ways with both Calamity and Buffalo Bill. Since they have that real-life connection, even the most absurd fictional story about the three of them does not count as a crossover.

Incidentally, the '66 PLAINSMAN is awful in every way, except that at the end Leslie Nielsen shows up playing the non-legendary (in my book) historical figure of General George Custer. 

NULL-CROSSOVERS #19

  Most of the null-crossovers I've examined here have been covers or one-page interactions of characters that are not genuine narratives, like this one. SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #44 is a crossover between various horror-hosts, consisting of two pages at the comic's beginning and a full-page joke at the end. Despite the greater length I would still judge this to be a non-narrative vignette of the type I discussed here. 

 As usual in these types of vignettes, the hosts not only don't interact with the characters, there's also no real narrative in their three pages here. This is in marked contrast to the EC story "Horror Beneath the Streets," examined here, in which the hosts both interact with their "victims" and dominate the story as focal icons.

As a curiosity, the letters-page issue of HOUSE also sports a "crossover" of a very different sort, as future comics superstar Todd MacFarlane weighs in with his opinion on a recent issue.

The same lettercol includes a separate letter in which a fan asks about the disposition of several DC characters that have nothing whatever to do with any of the horror-titles. I rather doubt the fan directed this inquiry to SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE; probably someone just wanted to run the letter some place and SECRETS had a hole to fill. This exchange is amusing for a comment, attributed to DC editor Len Wein, in which the reader asks about the TEEN TITANS character "Bumblebee" and is told that the character "never existed."  

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 

I finally had the time to reread H.P. Lovecraft's THE WHISPERER IN DARKNESS, and though the majority of HPL stories probably register only as "null-crossovers," since the icons referenced don't appear "on stage," WHISPERER actually qualifies as a full icon-crossover, for reasons set down here.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #18

 No, Willie's inability to decide between Tessie and Millie was not a comment upon his sexuality.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #17

I almost never bother with crossovers between fictional characters and "celebrities playing themselves," all of which I deem null-crossovers. But here's a peculiar forgotten null-crossover from BOY COMMANDOS #22 (1947). I was reading all of the stories in which the Commandos encountered the florid fiend Crazy-Quilt, but in #22 the heroes also met cornpone singer Judy Canova. In fact, "Real Judy" forms a passion for girl-hating teenager Brooklyn. She also helps him bust a crime, though this doesn't make Brooklyn any more receptive to female attentions.

I wonder if DC got permission to use Canova's image. Possibly they were floating the idea of a Canova comic? The first and only comic book devoted to the persona of the hillbilly songstress came out in 1950 from Fox Features and only lasted three issues.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #16

 

In my review of the 1923 novel THE MOON MAID I commented:

I don't know about the other two parts, but MOON MAID is part of a loose continuity with the Mars books. It's through Earth's radio contact with Mars that future-Earth perfects space travel with the use of Martian "rays," and Storytelling Julian even mentions John Carter, though it's not clear just what he knows about the Martian hero.

The book stands as a "null-crossover" in my system because John Carter and his Martian domain are referenced but none of the icons therefrom are present in the story. ERB does name the hero's spaceship "The Barsoom," which was the author's canny way of evoking the Mars books within a technically unrelated story.

ADDENDUM: Barsoom-Mars is also "in-universe" with the sequel novels as well, but the name is only mentioned in passing within the first sequel and not at all in the second.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #15

In my review of the Italian fantasy-film THE GIANTS OF THESSALY, I stated that despite its attempt to adapt one of the first crossovers in Greek epic, the crew under Jason either don't include the really famous characters of the epic's crew, or they have a couple of ordinary guys with similar names, mainly a crewman named Orpheus.

...while the ARGONAUTICA is an early example of a "crossover story." the non-legendary nature of Jason's crew nullifies that aspect of the original story. If the only action taken by Orpheus, the one "big name" in Jason's crew, is that of moaning over his lost Eurydice, I see no reason to equate this character with the master singer who sang his way in and out of Hell.

In contrast, the 1963 JASON does satisfy my criteria, as does the 2000 telefilm adaptation, since both use the legendary icons in such a way as to evoke the earlier myth-figures.

CROSSOVER MADNESS

 As I noted in my review of Heinlein's novel METHUSELAH'S CHILDREN, it stands as a crossover not for being part of the so called "Future History" of the author, but because Heinlein included another character, "Slipstick" Libby, as a support-character to main star Lazarus Long. Libby had been the star of just one short story, "Misfit."

This brings up an interesting point about crossover functions. It appears that Libby only appeared as an on-stage character in the novel and the short story; in the first as a subordinate icon and in the second as a superordinate icon. Since there's no question of one mode dominating the other numerically, which one determines Libby's overall status?

Going by the argument I made in QUICK CROSSOVER CORRECTION, Libby possessed stature by virtue of being the star of "Misfit," and this confers him on a level of Qualitative Escalation that "outranks" his subordinate status in CHILDREN. But I don't necessarily think that would be the case if, say, Libby had appeared in many stories in a subordinate role to Long or to other superordinate characters. In DOMINANT PRIMES AND SUBS I've noted that the Joker's appearance as a superordinate icon in a handful of stories does not overrule his dominant subordinate status. 

The novel also includes a null-crossover, in that Long mentions having conversed with Hugo Pinero, the star of "Life-Line," the author's first published short story.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #14

 THE ROBBERIES OF THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO  registers as a null-crossover for its implication that it takes place in the same universe as two sixties vampire flicks. I'm not sure if Mil Mascaras' two wrestling playmates constitute a crossover. Each of them made at least one other film but I'd have to see them to be evaluate the nature of their iconic status in those other films.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #13

 This illustration and a few others like it appeared in DC's Dollar Comic THE UNEXPECTED, which sported inventory stories from HOUSE OF SECRETS and DOORWAY TO NIGHTMARE. Since HOUSE's Abel was a non-diegetic storyteller while DOORWAY's Madame Xanadu was the diegetic star of her stories, all of these "crossovers" are of the null variety. Excellent art by Ditko.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #12

 Cheesecake null-crossover.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #11

 Another of those "only on the cover" crossovers between these now forgotten luminaries (left to right) WILLIE, GEORGIE, MITZI, and slightly better known PATSY WALKER.

JUMBO COMICS did a couple of these before SHEENA essentially took over the title. Going right to left, the people behind Santa are a comical schmo named Uncle Otto (by Will Eisner under a pseudonym), the oddly named cowboy hero "Wilton of the West," Bob Kane's "Peter Pupp," and three kids, I think from separate strips (but I'm not interested enough to check).

NULL-CROSSOVERS #10

 Purely because I've introduced the notion of "proto-crossovers" here and elsewhere, I'm going to specify that repeat appearances of Subordinate heroes, heroes who have never been Primes in any iteration, don't build up any "crossover mojo" no matter how many times they appear in the same feature in which they originally appeared. This is true for both the first Batwoman and the first Bat-Girl, who qualify as a type of "null-crossover" whenever they appear in any BATMAN story.

However, if such a Sub appears in another feature wherein he or she did not originate, that is a charisma-crossover. This extends even to features that may include the hero of the parent-feature in a different configuration, usually a team-up. The cover of WORLD'S FINEST #104 includes two such charisma-crossovers because the feature is the combination of both Batman and Superman (and usually Robin as well). Batwoman isn't part of Superman's cosmos, any more Luthor is part of Batman's cosmos, so this presents two crossovers for the price of one.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #9

In CRACK COMICS #25, Butch, the tomboy sidekick of The Clock. complains that she'd get better treatment working for The Spirit, and both characters act as if the other hero existed in their world. This was diegetically true, since Quality Comics re-published Will Eisner's "Spirit" pages. George Brenner's "Clock" pre-dated  Eisner's "Spirit" by four years, and the latter hero might've been inspired by the earlier one, though in the 1940s Brenner (if it was him rather than a ghost) looks like he's intentionally biting Eisner's style.

In any case, a reference to another character does not a crossover make.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #8

 I've reviewed  SCOOBY DOO: RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND here. In addition to its primary purpose, to "retcon" the events of the 1998 movie SCOOBY DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND, it also throws in a prologue where the intrepid teens capture a whole family of malcontents who dress up like phony monsters. Three of these look like familiar Scooby Gang antagonists-- the Creeper, the Snow Ghost, and the Spooky Space Kook. However, since there's not even a faint tie to the original crooks, there's no crossover here.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #7

 Two more null-crossovers in which an established villain appeared with a newbie, but the newbie failed to become a recurring figure from then on.

First, from 1950, The Catwoman and one-shot gang-boss Mister X"

Fifteen years later, we get the mashup of established villain The Green Goblin and one-shot-who-gets-shot-dead The Crime Master.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #6

 Like the previous entry CARRY ON SCREAMING, the 1953 Dennis Wheatley novel TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER, reviewed here, stands as a "reference only" crossover, in that it's stated that the events of a different Wheatley novel, starring different characters, took place in the same universe of the characters of DAUGHTER. But since there's no interaction of icons within the two literary worlds, it's a null-crossover.

NULL-CROSSOVERS #5

 

CARRY ON SCREAMING is a null-crossover for the same reason as JESSE JAMES MEETS FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER. As my review articulates, the movie follows the capricious exploits of a mad scientist and his sexy sister as they embark on experiments Frankensteinian. The scientist is not even an offspring of any version of Frankenstein, but he says that he studied under the master of monsters. In addition, he also studied under Doctor Jekyll, so he has a supply of the Hyde-juice around and uses it to transform a nosy constable. This strategy backfires when "Sergeant Hyde" beats up the monsters of the scientist and ends his rampage. So the recognizable figures of previous narratives never "cross over," they're merely spoken of-- and mere references do not a crossover make.