MAKER OF UNIVERSES By JEFF RENAUD

Philip José Farmer has left a sizable imprint in the world of science fiction. The acclaimed genre writer launched his groundbreaking career with the Hugo Award-winning (Most Promising New Writer) THE LOVERS in 1953.

Throughout the ’60s and ’70s, the long-time resident of Peoria, Illinois charted RIVERWORLD—where everyone who ever lived and died on Earth is resurrected along a 10-million-mile river on a distant planet (as memorably delineated in Farmer’s Hugo-winning TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO). He also introduced readers to the World of Tiers—where time travelers from Earth try to outsmart the Lords, inheritors of advanced technology who govern a multitude of artificially constructed pocket universes.

In his various Wold Newton Family novels, Farmer would have his devout readers believe—with only somewhat tongue in cheek—that on the momentous day more than two centuries ago when a meteorite crashed in Wold Newton, the radiation caused a genetic mutation in those on hand. That mutation blessed the descendants (including such legendary fictional heroes as Tarzan, Doc Savage and Sherlock Holmes) with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good or—as the case may be for villains like Fu Manchu—evil deeds.
For Farmer neophytes, think Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with an overdose of Red Kryptonite.

Today, the advent of the Internet has spawned a whole new army of Farmerphiles, who now, in a near religious state of glorification and pontification, continue to expand, develop and deconstruct the links and theories born from Farmer’s fictional biographies TARZAN ALIVE: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke and DOC SAVAGE: His Apocalyptic Life.

Farmer reveals, “I’m very pleased that the concept remains so popular, but I’m not too surprised. I think the Wold Newton Universe continues to live because it is an idea that has spread through other people and made them as enthusiastic as I was about the whole idea. People continue to think of other characters who should be in the universe, and so it grows.”

“I selected the Tarzan and Doc Savage legends as a basis for Wold Newton because when I was a child, they were my two favorite characters. I believe Tarzan and Doc Savage are such lasting icons because they are larger than life, and everyone likes to dream of being a superhero. In a literary sense, they cannot be compared to the writing in Hamlet, but I think that as far as interest goes, they are comparable.”

At the forefront of those extending the branches of the Wold Newton family tree is author Win Scott Eckert. In 1997, Eckert posted the first site on the Internet devoted to the WNU, and continues to build upon his findings. Eckert served as the editor and a contributor to MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe (MonkeyBrain Books, 2005), and he contributed the afterword to the 2006 re-release of TARZAN ALIVE.

“Win is doing a fantastic job of keeping the Wold Newton Society alive and growing, as evidenced by his book" says Farmer.

To date, Eckert has traced nearly 1,300 characters back to the Man of Bronze and the Lord of the Jungle.

“I started out with maybe 25 or 30 crossovers. I’ve now cataloged about 1,300 and counting—though the degree of relation to the Wold Newton Family varies,” he observes.
“Currently, though, only about 400 of them are actually on the WNU website. I listed the crossovers in chronological order and called it the Crossover Chronology.” Eckert firmly believes that readers enjoy journeys into the WNU because it presents opportunities for terrific yarns that writers like Edgar Rice Burroughs and Lester Dent could never have foreseen or explored—like the 1980s’ DC comic where Doc Savage’s sidekicks Monk Mayfair and Ham Brooks walk past a fence that has “Buckaroo Banzai” spray-painted on it.

“People like to envision their favorite characters interacting together, perhaps in ways that the original authors never would have imagined,” explains Eckert.
Case in point is Alan Moore’s THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, the acclaimed graphic novels which chronicle the exploits of a team of Victorian crimefighters that includes WNU regulars Mycroft Holmes, Allan Quartermain, Dr. Jekyll and Mina Harker along with Farmer foils Captain Nemo, Professor Moriarty, the Invisible Man and an unnamed Fu Manchu.

Farmer himself literally dropped the Eighth Wonder of the World into the WNU with his acclaimed 1973 short story “AFTER KING KONG FELL,” which involved Doc Savage and The Shadow with Kong’s plunge from the Empire State Building.
And IN THE OTHER LOG OF PHILEAS FOGG, Farmer pitted two alien races against one another. Fogg is a dedicated Eridanean agent, while Captain Nemo is the Capellean master of Fix, the Scotland Yard detective who attempts to arrest Fogg for the robbery he allegedly committed before departing on his trip around the world in 80 days.

When speaking of Farmer, Eckert never fails to heap praise on the creator of the universe he enjoys so much.
“Phil has been called one of the greatest science fiction writers ever,” Eckert extols. “In terms of the Creative Mythography Game, I find this to be true because of his limitless imagination. He took what was an unusual subgenre—the fictional biography—and brought it to a whole new level by linking his subject with many other characters from classic and pulp literature. Other writers had done fictional biographies before this, but no one else had ever thought to create a whole universe of interlinked, previously unrelated, fictional characters in the same continuity.”

Beyond the Internet, a legion of Farmer über-fans has gone back to the future to devote a quarterly fanzine to the author: FARMERPHILE: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer.

“It’s the brainchild of Michael Croteau, Phil’s webmaster,( PJFARMER.Com) who wanted the magazine to hark back to the days of the fanzines of old,” says Christopher Paul Carey, Farmerphile’s editor.
“We have an interesting fusion of tributes by professionals and fans alike. We’ve solicited articles and interviews from people like Joe Haldeman, Chris Roberson and Doc Savage author [and STARLOG Contributing Editor] Will Murray—all of them brimming with excitement to talk about Phil and his worlds.

For more about Philip José Farmer and the Wold Netwon Universe see STARLOG #353, STILL ON SALE and Newsstands and Bookstores.

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