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AN EXPANSION OF THE WOLD NEWTON CONCEPT OF A SHARED UNIVERSE

  So, here's yet another Wold Newton site. What makes this one different from the others, you're probably wondering? The most important thing about this site, I would opine, is that it will continue to be actively updated. In that spirit, it will follow in the grand tradition of classic, pioneering Wold Newton sites which first made the cyberspace presence of the Wold Newton concept one to be reckoned with. Before I link to those sites and risk my new readers clicking those links and not making it back here for days, let me first give the skinny on what this new addition to the many online Wold Newton websites is all about.

 For starters, let's quickly recap the basic gist of the Wold Newton concept, which is the idea of a shared universe between many disparate characters who have appeared across the spectrum of both old and new pulp literature; comic books; movies; vintage radio shows; TV shows; and recently, relevant complex storylines that began appearing in video games once they got past the old 2-bit stage of development. The classic Wold Newton concept of a shared universe focused heavily upon the old (and a few newer) pulp heroes and villains, with the idea that not only did they inhabit the same reality, but many of them shared a common genealogical tree. The branches of that tree are linked to an event involving members of those families having their respective horse carriages coming simultaneously into the vicinity of a mysterious meteorite landing. This meeting between several families and a falling rock from the stars occurred within the town of Wold Newton, Yorkshire, England, circa 1795.  These families had their genetic structure altered by the strange radiations emanating from that large celestial rock, with the result being that their offspring--and the offspring of their progeny--were born with enhanced genetic attributes.

 While most of these enhanced individuals, who have come to be called the Wold Newton Family [WNF], had no true superhuman/posthuman/metahuman attributes, many prominent members of their number nevertheless developed their intellectual, physical, and mental skills to a level that was near or at the peak of human potential--thus falling into the category that has been called superior humans. Moreover, they possessed an innate genetic inclination to strive towards developing these abilities so as to ultimately become some of the world's greatest crimefighters/adventurers (e.g., the Shadow; the Spider; Doc Savage; the Domino Lady; the Green Hornet; the Black Bat), detectives (e.g., Sherlock Holmes; Solar Pons; Charlie Chan), jungle adventurers (e.g., Tarzan; Mowgli), aviator heroes (e.g., G-8; Captain Midnight), Western gun-slingers (e.g., the Lone Ranger), explorers (e.g., Prof. George Challenger), mystic heroes (e.g., Captain Satan; the Green Lama), scientists (e.g., the Time Traveler; Prof. Hawley Griffin; Dr. Moreau; Dr. Henry Jekyll; Dr. Herbert West), and criminal masterminds (e.g., Fu Manchu). This ever-expanding shared reality was thus coined the Wold Newton Universe [WNU] by creative mythographer extraordinaire Win Scott Eckert.

 Since thrown into the mix via various crossover ref's are other extraordinary inhabitants of the WNU, which includes pulp heroes/adventurers of various sub-genres who existed before that fateful meteorite struck the ground in Wold Newton, such as Conan and other barbarian heroes of the ancient Hyborean Age, like Red Sonja; cosmic entities of dark alien nature like the Lovecraftian Old Ones (a.k.a., the "Cthulhu Mythos"); characters culled from throughout world mythology, such as Beowulf and King Arthur Pendragon; characters throughout classic literature like Ivanhoe and Captain Ahab; a plethora of monster or generally horror-oriented characters like Dracula and Dr. Victor Frankenstein; and other heroes existing alongside the pulp heroes and villains of the WNF who are counterparts of famous comic book heroes existing in alternate universes--but whose origins and levels of power have been altered and "wolded down" to fit into the laws of the WNU, such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Iron Man, and Spider-Man.

 Just as my other site, the 2.0 version of MONSTAAH (linked below), is designed to expand upon parascholar and artist Chuck Loridans' original ideas for the concept while striving to maintain the spirit and purpose he worked so hard to put into the site during his years of nurturing it--specifically, information on the horror-oriented aspects of the "consensus" WNU--this site will endeavor to do the same for the general Wold Newton concept. It will adhere more or less strictly to the rules of the WNU established by Win Scott Eckert and then further fleshed out by Dennis E. Power and his frequent collaborator, Dr. Pete Coogan. Their conception of the WNU is designed to work in harmony with the spirit and vision of true pioneer sci-fi author, the late, great Philip Jose' Farmer (PJF), whose extensive oeuvre of work established the field of what Win coined creative mythography.

 PJF's true Wold Newton work began with the seminal para-biographies Tarzan Alive: The Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. He then continued the concept in earnest with novels like The Adventure of the Peerless Peer; The Other Log of Phileas Fogg; Time's Last Gift; and A Barnstormer in Oz (my personal fav!). These longtime fans of PJF's output first established the rules governing the idea of a shared universe encompassing many pulp fiction vigilantes, villains, detectives, aviators, magicians, and monsters.

 These rules, which I will again note that I will more or less stick to reverently, include the following: 

 1) The WNU is primarily a pulp hero and villain universe, and as such super-heroes as we know them in the comic book medium, movies, and online multi-player video games will be kept to a relative minimum in number, with more of an emphasis placed on those sans any superhuman powers who would work well in a pulp/noir milieu (e.g., Batman and Robin; Captain America; the Golden Age Black Canary; the Spirit; the Golden Age Sandman; the Golden Age Angel; the Guardian and the Newsboy Legion; the Silver Age Blue Beetle; the Question; etc.);

 2) Those super-heroes from comic books or other mediums with superhuman/posthuman/metahuman powers who have counterparts in the WNU will, as a rule, possess a level of power that necessarily caps at that possessed by the Golden Age version of Superman (i.e., the original Siegal and Shuster conception of the Man of Steel) and Hugo Danner (the pulp hero protagonist of Phillip Wylie's 1930 novel Gladiator), and that such heroes tended to have a much shorter and less dramatic history in the WNU than the comic book versions would suggest;

 3) While the WNU has "relaxed" laws of physics and magick compared to the universe we know (often referred to by members of my online discussion groups as the "Real" Universe, i.e., the RU; others prefer designations such as Earth-Real, Earth-Prime, or Earth-Q), its laws do not generally allow the vast range and extreme levels of power that we routinely see with super-heroes and super-villains in comic book (i.e., super-hero) realities like the Marvel Universe [MU] and the DC Universe [DCU];

 4) Though the general public of the WNU will obviously be aware of the existence of the somewhat elusive and shadowy pulp heroes, and the relatively small number of super-heroes, the latter will generally be more enigmatic than the showboating public heroes and villains of the MU & DCU tend to be. Further, the general layout of politics, culture, economics, important historical events, and important public figures in the WNU will be very similar to their counterparts in the world we know (i.e., the RU). Further, the general populace will be mostly unaware of the real existence of monsters, posthuman mutants, cosmic beings of power like the Cthulhu Mythos, extraterrestrial/extradimensonal/extratemporal aliens living amongst them, and special government ops designed to handle all of this (e.g., the Ordnance; the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense [BPRD]; the Initiative; the Shop; their various adjunct branches, etc.);

 5) Monster-hunting orgs like Monster Hunter International; MONSTAAH; the Ghostbusters; and the Shadow Company obviously do publicly advertise in various journals dedicated to reporting paranormal events (both print and on the Internet), and via video adverts in the WNU versions of video-sharing websites, but only a small niche section of the general public truly believes they hunt real monsters;

 6) Much importance is placed upon using recorded crossovers to determine the "woldability" (i.e., whether or not a version of that character or concept inhabits the WNU), as crossovers are obviously a major aspect of a shared universe, though certainly not the only significant component;

 7) It should lastly be noted that the WNU is connected to a myriad array of alternate universes [AUs]  and alternate future [AF] time tracks, which either branch off from, or have had significant crossover connections with, the mainstream (i.e., "consensus") WNU. Prominent examples of the former include the Edgar Rice Burroughs Universe [ERBU]; the Lin Carter Universe [LCU]; Doctor Who Universe [DWU]; the Anno-Dracula Universe [ADU] conceived in a series of novels by Kim Newman; and the various Zombie Apocalypse Universes, including the Romeroverse and the Brownverse.

 Prominent AF time tracks believed to branch off from the present (and past) of the WNU include the Star Trek Timelines--both the Classic Star Trek Timeline and the Reboot Star Trek Timeline--which further into the future is posited to harbor the WNU version of the Legion of Super-Heroes as described by Dennis Power, and possibly a version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (which is why the classic version of that timeline is sometimes referred to as the Star Trek/Legion Timeline or Future); the "Low-Tech Future Timeline" (the very different AF that includes the Alien film franchise; the Galaxy of Terror film; the Forbidden World film; the Horror Planet (a.k.a., The Inseminoid) film; the Riddick films; the Firefly TV series and its follow-up film Serenity and comic book continuation; the Jason X film and [possibly] prose novel continuations; and the Fray comic book series by Joss Whedon as an expansion to the Buffyverse); and the Hunter Timeline (the alternate future dystopian, post-nuclear war time track that plays a prominent part of the Warren Comics shared universe, i.e., the Warrenverse, covered extensively on one of my earlier websites--this is the native timeline of Warren characters Derrick Schreck; Demian Hunter; Karas Hunter; Darklon the Mystic; and the Exterminator cyborg Corben Steele).

 All of the above, for the most part, will remain integral components to what I refer to here as the Wold Newton Beyond [WNB] concept, or more broadly as the Wold Newton Beyond Universe [WNBU]. I will tend to stick to those general rules in just about everything I include in this expansionist concept, and I do, of course, expect all of my prospective contributors to endeavor to do the same. But as you can see, the pulp hero and villain aspect of the WNU is something that Win Scott Eckert, Jean-Marc Lofficier, Jess Nevins, and many other creative mythographers working in the field have duly covered. The MONSTAAH site--conceived by creative mythographer Chuck Loridans and continued by yours truly--does that for the monster-oriented aspects of the WNU. The expansionist aspect of the WNB concept will be unique in covering what I believe to be an oft-overlooked aspect of the Newtonverse.

 Also, I will be allowing for a few other WNU versions of super-heroes who had a strength and general power level approaching (though as a rule not exceeding) that of the Golden Age Superman--this will include the levels of strength/power possessed by the WNU counterparts of Thor, Hercules, Captain Marvel (i.e., the Shazam dude), the Hulk, and Wonder Man. Of course, the number of such superlatively strong heroes in the WNU will be kept to a very low number via a few obvious and respectful conflations (such as the "Shazam" version of Captain Marvel with Marvel Man/Miracle Man and the Sub-Mariner with Aquaman). I believe that many previously accepted WNU sources give ample precedence for this allowance, such as the level of strength and power displayed by Buffyverse villains like Adam, Glory, Caleb, the Beast, and Illyria (though she later lost some of her power and became a hero). This is especially the case with deities embodied in human form. There will be a few anomalous exceptions (i.e., dynamic limit anomalies), such as the nuclear-powered super-hero Dr. Solar, whose WNU counterpart is much like the version seen in Gold Key Comics and later resurrections via other companies (e.g., Valiant); and the Pie from Warren Comics, though the latter alien hero had a history on Earth that was quite brief and secluded.


 And of course, we have the matter of truly cosmic entities of tremendous power, like the Old Ones (i.e., "Cthulhu Mythos") of Lovecraftian lore, and sentient conceptual entities who literally personify a universal concept like the First Evil of the Buffyverse and Death; though such beings generally stay at a distance from general humanity in the WNU, and their efforts to initiate an apocalypse on contemporary Earth have been thwarted mostly behind the scenes. Such entities were always an integral part of the "consensus" WNU.


 The second major purpose of this site will be providing articles, timelines, case files, etc., that encompass characters and concepts from a far broader range of genres and mediums with an attempt to fit them into the schema of the WNU. This includes the wider genres of sitcoms (e.g., I Love Lucy; The Dick Van Dyke Show; All in the Family; Three's Company; Cheers; Friends), crime dramas (e.g., Dragnet; Adam-12; The Mod Squad; The Rookies; The Streets of San Francisco; Columbo; Ironside; Baretta; Police Woman; Hill Street Blues; Cagney and Lacey; The Shield), law dramas (e.g., Perry Mason; L.A. Law; The Practice), medical dramas (e.g., Marcus Welby, M.D.; Emergency; Trapper John, M.D.; Scrubs), family dramas (e.g., Family; A Party of Five), period dramas (e.g., Little House On the Prairie; Father Murphy; The Waltons), soap operas (e.g., All My Children; Days of Our Lives; Dallas; Melrose Place), dramadies (e.g., Eight Is Enough; The Love Boat), radical dramatic TV (e.g., Aeon Flux; Breaking Bad; Dexter; Homeland), anthology shows (e.g., Playhouse 90), children's shows (e.g., Sesame Street; Pee Wee's Playhouse), youth-oriented shows (Zoey 101; iCarly; Lizzie McGuire; Hannah Montana), theatrical plays (e.g., Bye Bye Birdie; Cat on a Hot Tin Roof), popular skits/variety shows (e.g., Joe the Bartender; Super Dave Osborn), commercial adverts (e.g., Ronald McDonald; Snoopy Sniffer; the Michelin Man; Mr. Clean), video games (e.g., Donkey Kong; Crazy Climber), radio shows, RPGs [role-playing games], trading card collections (e.g., Mars Attacks!), cultural icons (e.g., Santa Claus; Uncle Sam; Rosie the Riveter; Mr. Yuck); toy-based characters/concepts (e.g., Captain Action; the Rubik's Cube), songs (e.g., "Bad" Leroy Brown; the Purple People Eater), the WNU counterparts of prominent individuals from the RU (e.g., Evel Knieval; Harry Houdini; Howard Hughes; Abraham Lincoln), and certain animated series (particularly attempts to connect live action characters with their animated counterparts wherever possible--e.g., The Brady Bunch with The Brady Kids; Happy Days with The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang; the Mystery Incorporated crew with the many animated versions of Scooby Doo--and vice versa).

 In other words, this site is heavily built on the major conceit that there is no reason why a disparate number of characters that encompass numerous different genres, tones, and typical situations--and from across a very broad range of cultural media--cannot co-exist alongside the masked pulp heroes, "wolded down" super-heroes, detectives, explorers, jungle adventurers, space heroes, monsters, monster hunters, and private investigators who form the traditional elements of the WNU schema. The differing tones and situational experiences of these inter-genre characters would  mean that their lives didn't often intertwine, but there would be notable occasions when they would cross paths. This contention is made clear by several genre-mixing crossovers that have appeared in various sources over the years. Also, connections (sometimes of a fairly subtle nature) can be drawn between characters and series from different genres, or within the same basic genre, based on conjectures that make a good degree of logical sense.


 Again, crossovers will play an important part of the conceptual work we do here, though they will not be required without exception to make a connection. Then again, such connections should not be complete flights of fancy that make little to no logical sense no matter how much research or argumentative rhetoric a hypothetical contributor may put into it.


 Regarding my arguments for the logical inclusion of such non-pulp and non-noir elements into the WNU--specifically, sitcom characters, in this case--check out this article of mine in the site's Articles section.

 

Now for another thing I would like to make an important note of. One of the points of debate in the WNU over the past few years has been whether or not dai kaiju (i.e., the Japanese word for giant monsters of exceptionally great size and power like Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan; often simply referred to as "kaiju") could exist in any capacity in the WNU. Initially, Win Scott Eckert accepted their existence, as there was a notable crossover reference with Miskatonic University (a staple of Lovecraftian lore) in the series of Godzilla novels written by Marc Cerasini for Random House in the late 1990s. Because of that ref, the major events in those books were accepted as part of WNU canon for a number of years. Hence, I even wrote up a timeline called "Godzilla in the Wold Newton Universe" for my website The Godzilla Saga.  Since then, however, Win has reconsidered this inclusion, as the events of Cerasini's novels would have had too much of a major effect on world events near the turn of the Millennium, and practically constituted a kaiju apocalypse. This realization incited Win to declare a moratorium on all kaiju in the WNU, and thus no kaiju refs were included in his magnificent 2-volume published timeline called Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World (in which he gave the WNU the more general reader-friendly name of the Crossover Universe [CrU]). Hence, the events of Cerasini's Godzilla novels were relegated to an AU diverging from the "consensus" WNU. In response to this, I re-christened my timeline the Cerasini Tohoverse.

 










 However, I still felt bad to completely lose all aspects of the kaiju in the WNU. Nevertheless, I was in basic agreement with Win that the events of the Cerasini novels had to be excised from canon.  This is because I understood his concern that the widespread existence and frequent appearances of kaiju could truly alter the political, economic, and even geographical landscape of the WNU so as to make it a markedly different world than many of us have accepted as the "consensus" WNU. The landscape of such a world would instead more resemble the status quo of the various Tohoverses, as is discussed at length on The Godzilla Saga (linked above). Hoping to build a conciliatory compromise (as I often do) between creative mythographers who prefer kaiju "out" and those who hope to find a logical but wold-friendly reason to allow them to remain "in," I composed this essay on the MONSTAAH site.

  One important note to make here is the distinction between bona fide dai kaiju and the type of giant monster that may best be identified as megafauna. Strictly speaking, megafauna are gigantic creatures--often but not always dangerously hostile to humans--that are still not nearly as large and powerful as kaiju. Most standard megafauna we have seen in various accounts can exist in the WNU without violating "consensus" rules. Perhaps the best example of megafauna is the original version of King Kong, from the eponymous 1933 RKO film. Reports of the king of all the kongoid apes' size seem to have varied across the accounts, but the largest was no greater than roughly 50 feet (not counting the Showa Tohoverse version, who was 45 meters, definitely in the realm of kaiju). My personal estimate for genuine kaiju would have to be any organism or synthetic being that exceeds 70 feet in height or length. Below that, as dangerously strong as such creatures are, they nevertheless lack the sheer size and power of genuine kaiju. Hence, standard megafauna--or "false kaiju," as fellow writer Den Valdron has called them--do not possess the capacity to level an entire big city.


 Even the mega-dinosaurs sharing Skull Island with King Kong fall "merely" into the megafauna category (a Tohoverse exception being Gorosaurus, who achieved kaiju-level size and strength, along with the King Kong of the Showa Tohoverse--other familiar Toho kaiju like Godzilla, Rodan, Anguirus, Baragon, and Varan are actually mega-dinosaur mutations, who achieved their vast size and power as a result of exposure to massive amounts of atomic radiation). 


 Other examples of megafauna seen in various WNU sources have included giant cephalopods (including krakens), like the giant squid/kraken who menaced the first Captain Nemo in the classic novel 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, the giant mutant octopus from the film It Came from Beneath the Sea, and the giant squid from the novel Beast (and its movie adaptation); standard sea serpents (not counting a few select examples who have achieved true kaiju size and strength, like Manda of the various Tohoverses);  the Loch Ness Monster; various dragons, including those from the films The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Dragonslayer, or the one appearing in the epic poem Beowulf (a few dragons have achieved true kaiju size and power, such as Jormungand the Midgard Serpent from Norse mythology; Typheous from Greek mythology; Tiamat from Babylonian mythology; Bagan from Chinese mythology; Orochi from Japanese mythology; and King Ghidorah of certain Tohoverses); various giant snakes; giant hairy hominids like those appearing in the films The Mighty Peking Man and Yeti: Giant of the 20th Century; giant pseudo-insects/arachnids, like those appearing in films like The Deadly Mantis, Earth vs. the Spider (1958 version), and Monster of Green Hell; giant "slurpasaur" reptiles--as coined by Den Valdron, and appearing in films like Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959 version), The Lost World (1960 version), King Dinosaur, and Amazon Women on the Moon;* artificially created pseudo-dinosaurs, like those who appeared in sources like the Jurassic Park film franchise (and novels) and the Carnasaur film franchise; and giant humanoids like the Cyclopses of Greek mythology, and humans artificially grown to giant size by various means as seen in the classic novel The Food of the Gods and films like The Amazing Colossal Man & its sequel War of the Colossal Beast, Attack of the 50-foot Woman, and The Cyclops. As a final notable example, Gorgo from the eponymous film, novelization, and comic book series by Charlton was a specimen of megafauna, but his far larger and more powerful mother Ogra is clearly a genuine kaiju.

 One important point I would like to make about the main conceit of this site:  Not all creative mythographers will want to recognize or acknowledge such an expansionist concept. I respect that viewpoint, and as such, how one chooses to interpret the material and main caveats of this site is completely up to them. Some may enjoy or warm up to this broadened creative mythographical conception, and thus prefer to see it as simply an aspect of the "consensus" WNU (or of their "personal" WNU) that is not often discussed or focused upon in many of the Wold Newton message groups, blogs, or sites. Others may feel it "pollutes the waters," so to speak, and will therefore prefer to interpret most or all of the material on this site--or certain aspects thereof (e.g., just the sitcoms)--as part of an AU branching off from but distinctly separate from the "consensus" WNU as formulated by Win, Dennis, and others. If such is the case--which is perfectly fine--then one can simply refer to the material of this site as being part of a reality called the Wold Newton Beyond Universe. The rest of the WNBU outside of what is focused upon here will consist of pretty much everything all creative mythographers generally accept as part of the "consensus" WNU.


 I certainly cannot end the front page without some much deserved shout-outs to those whose work and/or support provided a huge amount of inspiration to me, and who I am creatively, and on many levels, personally indebted to (in no particular order):  Win Scott Eckert, Chuck Loridans, Dennis E. Power, Dr. Pete Coogan, Henry Covert, Kevin Heim, Jay Lindsey, Gordon Long, Kim Newman, Jess Nevins, Alan Moore, Roy Thomas, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, Barry Ward, James Bojaciuk, Robert Wronski, Toby O'Brien, Mark Brown, Chris Banzai, Andrew Brook, David Blue, David Brzeski, Brian Rebmann, Khalil Saadiq, Joss Whedon, Melissa Rosenberg, Stan Lee, Neil Gaiman, Peter Sanderson, Jim Steranko, J.K. Rowling, Stephenie Meyers, Stephen King, Eric C. Brown, Dennis O'Neil, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, Bill Mantlo, Bill DuBay, Steve Skeates, Bud Lewis, Louise Simonson, Neal Adams, Jim Shooter, Steve Ditko, Don Glut, Grant Morrison, James Warren, T. Casey Brennan, Gail Simone, Matthew Baugh, Brad Mengal, James Garrison, Den Valdron, Vennie Anderson, and the old Ammex crew... as well as others who are too numerous to mention (I certainly didn't intend to overlook anyone here!). 


 Special posthumous decorations go to such important people as Philip Jose Farmer, Robert E. Howard, H.P. Lovecraft, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley Jr., Archie Goodwin, Mark Gruenwald, Jerry Siegal, Joe Shuster, William Moulton Marston, Jack Kirby, Julius Schwartz, Mort Weisinger, Carmine Infantino, Steve Gerber, Michael Crichton, Dwayne McDuffie, and Ishiro Honda.


 On a more personal note, posthumous dedications go to my maternal grandfather Thomas J. Nigro, my aunt Concetta "Connie" Denisco, and my good friends Dennis MacMillan Jr., Robert Garrison, and Ralph Richliano; may all of them R.I.P. and receive my eternal gratitude for all they added to my life, either via the creative outlet of their work or personal involvement in my life (or both).

 

Regarding some of the awesome work that has come before any of mine, and which my own work in creative mythography would not exist without, those would be Win Scott Eckert's An Expansion of Philip Jose' Farmer's Wold Newton Universe and Dennis E. Power's The Wold Newton Universe: A Secret History. Those sites contain a vast amount of work, not only from the webmasters but also many other writers in the field of creative mythography who contributed articles and timelines to the site content. They served as an immense inspiration to me a decade ago when I first discovered them, and the great people I met and associated with from the online message groups connected to them were indispensable to my growth as a writer, and to my eventual success in becoming a published author.

Another fantastic site that was one of the main trio of Wold Newton websites that gave me all of this inspiration and personal growth as a writer was Chuck Loridans' MONSTAAH, and I am honored and pleased to note that Chuck  passed the torch to me at my request sometime after he retired as its webmaster. MONSTAAH is therefore my baby now, and I am indebted to Chuck for his generosity and blessing; under my watch, the new 2.0 version of MONSTAAH can be considered a "brother" site to the one you're now looking at.

 Another major source of inspiration to me has been Robert Wronski Jr.'s fantastic site Television Crossover Universe, which, while not a Wold Newton site and concerning an entirely different reality, the TV Crossover Universe [TVCU], nevertheless provides a plethora of incredible ideas and conceptual tropes that I will be adapting as a major aspect of this site's central caveats. I am quite indebted to Rob for all the hard work he put into his blog's extremely detailed timelines, as well as the similar work from his various contributors (some of whom are fellow creative mythographers), like James Bojaciuk, Kevin Heim, and Gordon Long. But more on the influential aspects of Rob's site below. 

 In lieu of the above, much credit must be given to Toby O'Brien's Toobworld blog for another huge amount of influence and inspiration in regards to the concept of fitting many disparate sources into a single shared universe, despite also not being a Wold Newton site (hey, a website doesn't have to be a Wold Newton site to be cool and insightful as all hell!). But again, more on that below.

 *Fans of megafauna may be interested in checking out Den Valdron's article on the slurpasaurs.

 As important as Win's and Dennis' sites remain to the growth and thriving popularity of the Wold Newton concept, they are sadly no longer updated with any sort of regularity. Hence, article and timeline submissions are normally not accepted for either any more. That left an unfortunate vacuum for the new, emerging generation of fledgling creative mythographers and parascholars who may want to make their presence and work in this vocation known. Attempting to fill that void along with the current version of MONSTAAH is the site you're now looking at. Such newcomers to the World of Wold now once again have a place to submit their articles, timelines, and short stories.

 Also, there are some longtime creative mythographers out there--including yours truly, and many of whom are published authors--who want to provide some free ideas and work to their readers. The articles, timelines, and short stories provided by me and fellow veteran writers will be fully in canon with published stories that are intended to be part of the Newtonverse's shared sandbox. This site will enable us to provide our readers with periodic but steady doses of free material.


 This regularly updated site will serve as a creative outlet for both of the above sets of individuals.


 Just make sure to be polite in your responses to me (rude behavior does not endear you to the people it's directed at, in case you needed to be reminded); accept the editing for grammar and formatting I will do on your submission (all writers need editors); and never, ever submit a first or second draft, as I want the material on this site to be as close to professional as possible. Follow all of the above submission and etiquette guidelines, and I reckon we'll get along handsomely. The articles, timelines, short stories/case files, artwork, and other stuff which contributors get posted must clearly be composed by real writers (and artists, as the case may be) who look like they put some effort into the submitted material. Obvious first drafts or "skeletal" samples of artwork will not be accepted for online publication. Copyright infringement will not be tolerated, and such material will be excised upon its illicit nature being discovered.


 Also, please save your work and submit it in a familiar type of format, like Microsoft Word - no text documents, and no exceptions to that stipulation! PDF documents are problematic at this time for technical reasons, so please stick to Word documents until further notice. Length is never an issue. All work submitted here will remain the intellectual property of the author, artist, or photographer who submits it.


And finally, the following important disclaimer:  The characters appearing in most of the pics on this site are not owned by me, and this site is not sanctioned or authorized by any of those various copyright holders. Moreover, all material on this site is provided entirely for free to my fellow fans, so no profit is made from this site in any fashion. The characters appearing in the pics I use are designed as sample representations of the content, and strictly within the legal bounds of "fair use." All of the characters appearing in the short stories/case files on this site are fiction, and all resemblances to real people is either coincidental or with purely satirical intent.



Medium Legend:  Movies, TV shows, theatrical plays, music albums, and video game titles will be italicized.

Individual episodes of TV shows and the titles of songs and music videos will be in standard text between quotation marks. 

All books--be they prose or comic books medium, treeware or digital in format--RPGs, and trading card collections will be underlined. I got this idea from my friend and colleague David Blue, as I used to put such titles in all upper cap letters. Individual chapter titles in prose books and story titles in comic books will be in standard text between quotation marks.

Novella and novelette titles will be in italics, but the titles of short stories and flash fiction will be in standard text surrounded by quotation marks.


Legend of Commonly Used Acronyms and Abbreviations:

POV= Point Of View

RPG= Role-Playing Games

TPB= Trade Paperback

MPORPG= Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Games

BFF= Best Friend Forever

 All text written on this front page and various text throughout this site is copyright Nigro, Christofer, June 13, 2013. All written text, artwork, or photography provided by contributors are copyright those respective contributors at the time they provide them, into perpetuity. All rights reserved. All lefts, too.

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