Crossover of the Week

May 25–September 23, 1882

MERKABAH RIDER: ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEIRD WEST

The Merkabah Rider and his allies set forth to at long last prevent the Hour of Incursion, in which the Great Old Ones will be unleashed upon the world. Appearing or mentioned are: the Dreamlands; the Liber Damnatus Damnationum; Delirium Tremens; the Scroll of Thoth; Misquamacus; Azathoth; Faustus Montague; an African witch-doctor; a Christian adventurer; the Drucker and Dobbs Mining Company; Professor Spates; Miskatonic University; Arkham; Warren Rice; the Tsath-yo language; New Valusia; Yoth; Yig; Tsathoggua; the Elder Sign; Nyarlathotep (aka the Abhorred Dread); Ossadagowah; Stallions’ Gate; the Book of Zylac; the Cold Ones; Shub-Niggurath; the Star Stones of Mnar; Pnakotus; the flying polyps; the Aklo language; Picaro Jake Gonnoff; the Hyperboreans; the Black Lotus; a barefoot man, possibly a Chinaman, playing a bamboo flute; Dunn & Duffy; the Flying Graysons; Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show; Noah Whateley; Yog-Sothoth; Dunwich; the shoggoth; Zorro; Gallo del Cielo; Slim Reezer; Jesse McLaughlin; Oscar Diggs; Richard Wilkins III; Lin McAdams; High Spade; Freddie Sykes; Dog Kelly; John Russell; an “electricista y aventurero”; Danny Caine; a masked gunman; the Pnakotic Manuscripts; the Seven Books of Hsan; the History of G’harne; the Naacal language; and the Elder Script.

Novel by Edward M. Erdelac, Damnation Books, 2013. The Great Old Ones, the Dreamlands, Azathoth, Miskatonic University, Arkham, Warren Rice, Yig, the Elder Sign, Shub-Niggurath, Pnakotus, the Great Race of Yith, the flying polyps, Yog-Sothoth, Dunwich, the shoggoth, the Pnakotic Manuscripts, and the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan are from the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Nyarlathotep is also from Lovecraft’s Mythos; Erdelac conflates him with Sauron (aka the Abhorred Dread) from J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy trilogy The Lord of the Rings. The Tsath-yo and Naacal languages are from Lovecraft and E. Hoffmann Price’s “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” Yoth is from Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop’s “The Mound.” The Aklo language originally appeared in Arthur Machen’s “The White People,” and was also used by Lovecraft in his stories “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark.” Noah Whateley is meant to be Old Whateley from “The Dunwich Horror”; his first name was given as Noah in the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. The Liber Damnatus Damnationum is from Richard L. Tierney’s Mythos novel The House of the Toad. The Scroll of Thoth is from Tierney’s tales of Simon of Gitta. The town of Delirium Tremens appears in several works by Erdelac, including the film Meaner Than Hell. Picaro Jake Gonnoff is also from Meaner Than Hell. Misquamacus, Ossadagowah, and the Star Stones of Mnar are from August Derleth’s short novel The Lurker at the Threshold; here, Misquamacus is conflated with the Blue Wizard Rómestámo from The Lord of the Rings. Faustus Montague is meant to be Rómestámo’s fellow Blue Wizard Morinehtar. The Christian adventurer is Robert E. Howard’s Solomon Kane, while the African witch-doctor is Kane’s ally N’Longa. New Valusia is named after the kingdom of Valusia from Howard’s King Kull stories. The Black Lotus is from Howard’s stories of the barbarian Conan and police detective Steve Harrison. The Drucker and Dobbs Mining Company alludes to gold prospector Fred C. Dobbs from B. Traven’s novel The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and its film adaptation; since both versions of the story take place in the 1920s, the Dobbs who co-owns the mining company must be a relative of Fred’s. Professor Spates is based on a reference to “Spates’ catalog” in the movie Ghostbusters. Tsathoggua, Zylac, the Cold Ones, the Hyperboreans, and the Elder Script appear in fiction by Clark Ashton Smith. Stallions’ Gate, New Mexico is from the television series Quantum Leap. The Book of Zylac (aka The Wisdom and Sacred Magic of Zylac the Mage) appears in Cthulhu Mythos fiction by Joseph S. Pulver. The barefoot Chinaman is Kwai Chang Caine from the television series Kung Fu; Danny Caine is his older half-brother. The Dunn & Duffy Combined Circus is from the film Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The Flying Graysons are a family of acrobats that died out in the 1940s when young Dick Grayson’s parents were murdered, resulting in his adoption by Batman and becoming the first Robin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show is from Ray Bradbury’s novel Something Wicked This Way Comes. It is worth noting Green Town, Illinois, the setting of Something Wicked This Way Comes, is also the town in which Bradbury’s books Dandelion Wine, Farewell Summer, and Summer Morning, Summer Night take place. Gallo del Cielo is from Tom Russell’s song of the same name, as is Zorro. Both are roosters, and therefore this Zorro is no relation to any of the many heroes that have used that name. Slim Reezer and Jesse McLaughlin are from the movie House II: The Second Story. “Electricista y aventurero” is Spanish for “electrician and adventurer,” which is how the character Bill Towner describes himself in House II. Oscar Diggs is better known as the Wizard of Oz. The immortal Richard Wilkins III is the Mayor of Sunnydale, California on the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Lin McAdams and High Spade are from the film Winchester ’73. Freddie Sykes is from the film The Wild Bunch. Dog Kelly is from Sam Raimi’s Western The Quick and the Dead. John Russell is from the film Hombre. The masked gunman is the Lone Ranger. The History of G’Harne (aka the G’harne Fragments) appears in Cthulhu Mythos fiction by Brian Lumley.