HAPPY WOLD NEWTON DAY!

We’ve got an annual rerun today…..

Today is Wold Newton Day!

From the Introduction to Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Family by Win Scott Eckert:

The Wold Newton Family is a group of heroic and villainous literary figures that science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer postulated belonged to the same genetic family. Some of these characters are adventurers, some are detectives, some explorers and scientists, some espionage agents, and some are evil geniuses.
According to Mr. Farmer, the Wold Newton family originated when a radioactive meteor landed in Wold Newton, England, in the year 1795. The radiation caused a genetic mutation in those present, which endowed many of their descendants with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good, or, as the case may be, evil deeds.

 Popular characters that Philip Jose Farmer concluded were members of the Wold Newton mutant family include: Solomon Kane; Captain Blood; The Scarlet Pimpernel; Harry Flashman; Sherlock Holmes and his nemesis Professor Moriarty (aka Captain Nemo); Phileas Fogg; The Time Traveler; Allan Quatermain; Tarzan and his son Korak; A.J. Raffles; Professor Challenger; Richard Hannay; Bulldog Drummond; the evil Fu Manchu and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith; G-8; The Shadow; Sam Spade; Doc Savage, his cousin Pat Savage, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair; The Spider; Nero Wolfe; Mr. Moto; The Avenger; Philip Marlowe; James Bond; Lew Archer; and Travis McGee.

As the Curator for the Toobworld Dynamic, I am a great admirer of the work done by Mr. Farmer and Mr. Eckert and Sean Lee Levin and others in detailing the lineage of these great pulp characters.  The Wold Newton Universe was an early influence on the Toobworld Dynamic.

But although there are similarities between the two shared universes, the TwD is NOT the WNU.  The main reason being that the Wold Newton meteorite is not a fixed point in the history of Earth Prime-Time.  At least, not yet.  (I have hopes one day it will be dramatized for TV.)

In the meantime, Toobworld does share many members from the original core of the Wold Newton Family listed above.  They would include:

• Sherlock Holmes
• Lord Greystoke aka Tarzan
• Nero Wolfe
• Fu Manchu
• Sir Denis Nayland Smith
• Bulldog Drummond
• Allan Quatermain
• Phileas Fogg
• Professor James Moriarty*
• Professor George Challenger
• Richard Hannay
• Philip Marlowe
• James Bond
• Travis McGee
• Lew Archer
• Harry Flashman
• Captain Nemo*

And there are others, some perhaps within the extended family, others from the Wold Newton Universe in general, who also have counterparts in the TV Universe:

• Arsene Lupin
• Lord Peter Wimsey
• Monsieur Lecoq
• Hercule Poirot
• Charlie Chan
• Dracula
• The Frankenstein Family
• Ivanhoe
• Robin Hood
• Zorro
• The Lone Ranger
• The Saint
• Father Brown
• Carnacki
• Dr. Thorndyke
• Dr. Jeckyll
• Horatio Hornblower
• Miss Marple

And plenty more who sprang from the "Glass Furnace" first.

So I'd just like to take this moment to salute my comrades across the dimensional vortex with their continuing adventures on this anniversary.

Here's to that chunk of space debris that made it all possible!

BCnU!

* O’Bservation:
Mr. Farmer’s assertion that for the WNU, Captain Nemo and Professor Moriarty are one and the same is the best indicator that Toobworld is not the Wold Newton Universe.  For Toobworld, Nemo and the Napoleon of Crime are two different men.