As I've stated before, I take Hellboy
crossovers on a case-by-case basis, as some fit easily into CU
continuity, and some don't. This particular anthology of prose
stories contains four stories with crossovers that do fit, in my
opinion. In Brian Keene's "Salamander Blues," Hellboy
encounters a group of mermen who are holding people hostage, and
concludes the National Guard is not coming, and neither is the army
or the FBI or Black Lodge or any of the other alphabet-soup agencies.
Black Lodge is a covert occult organization that exists across
Keene’s multiverse, including several works that have been
incorporated into the Crossover Universe. In Barbara Hambly's
"Repossession," set in the summer of 1962, Hellboy battles
a demon hunter who is seeking notes left behind by Abdul Alhazred,
author of the Necronomicon. In Gary A. Braunbeck's "In Cupboards
and Bookshelves," Hellboy’s latest case brings him to
Cedar Hill, Ohio, a town featured in a series of short stories,
novellas, and novels by Braunbeck. "Feet of Sciron" by Rhys
Hughes is particularly crossover-heavy. Hellboy recruits Foggy Dicks, a porn
star that can generate ectoplasm, for a sex magic ritual in order to
prevent the planet Nekrotzar from colliding with Earth, battling King
Sciron in the process. Nekrotzar was drawn towards Earth by Marvin
Carnacki, the current director of the Carnacki Institute, founded by
his ancestor to rid the natural world of paranormal threats. Hellboy
says most people think the original Carnacki was William Hope
Hodgson’s fictional creation, just as many other authors pretended
their subjects were fictional: Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock
Holmes, Jules Verne with Phileas Fogg, H.G. Wells with Dr. Moreau,
M.P. Shiel with Prince Zaleski, and Maurice Richardson with
Engelbrecht. He also says Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien are at Mount
Snaefell in Iceland. Foggy replies that he remembers Verne wrote a
book about two explorers. Hellboy simply smiles in response. In
Nekrotzar, the monster-hunting demon receives a riverboat ride from
writer Philip José Farmer, who has been resurrected there after his
death. Hellboy reveals to Foggy that billions of years ago Nekrotzar
actually did collide with the Earth, which was merely a cloud of
stardust then. Earth congealed around Nekrotzar, trapping Sciron’s
palace in what would become the younger planet’s crust, forty miles
under what is now Iceland. This Carnacki Insitute is clearly a
separate group from the one seen in Simon R. Green’s Ghost Finders
series. Engelbrecht is from Maurice Richardson’s book The Exploits
of Engelbrecht. The subterranean world Sciron’s palace inhabits is
the one seen in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the
Earth. Philip José Farmer, of course, revealed the existence of the
Wold Newton Family to the world, and wrote several chronicles of
events in the CU. Farmer’s appearance here evokes his Riverworld
novels, albeit as homage rather than a true crossover. This story
must take place after Farmer’s passing in 2009, although it was
published earlier than that.
The Crossover UniverseTM is a companion blog to the books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1-2 by Win Scott Eckert, and the forthcoming Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1-2 by Sean Levin. Material excerpted from Crossovers Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2010-2014 by Win Scott Eckert. All rights reserved. Material excerpted from Crossovers Expanded Volumes 1 & 2 is © copyright 2014-present by Sean Levin. All rights reserved.
Monday, October 19, 2015
Crossover Cover: Hellboy: Oddest Jobs
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Speaking of Hellboy, do you plan to include his crossover with Sabrina the Teenage Witch in the back of the first issue of the Archie/Predator series?
ReplyDeleteI just read it. The movie Sabrina's watching on TV is Dario Argento's Suspiria, which came out in 1977, so either Sabrina was born later in the CU, or she was actually watching a different movie and the dialogue from Suspiria was a fictionalization. I prefer the latter interpretation.
DeleteBTW, Suspiria (which is the first part of a trilogy that also includes Inferno and The Mother of Tears) is in the CU through references in a few other works.
http://www.crossoveruniverse.com/search?q=suspiria
I mentioned it at the Yahoo sites, but the Hellboy novel The Lost Army features an undead sorcerer named Hazred. This Hazred is clearly different from the one who wrote Necronomicon, Hellboy's position as a famous individual plays an important part, and there is a massive military battle in the plot so I consider it an AU.
ReplyDelete