Tuesday, May 3, 2016

Crossover Cover: Shonokin Town

The July 1946 issue of Weird Tales contains the story "Shonokin Town" by Manly Wade Wellman. John Thunstone wishes the late Lovecraft, who “knew so much about the legend of Other-People, from before human times, and how their behaviors and speech had trickled a little into the ken of the civilization known to the wakeaday world,” and de Grandin could see and hear the Shonokins. The H. P. Lovecraft reference implies John Thunstone exists in the same universe as Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Jules de Grandin is an occult investigator created by Seabury Quinn.

4 comments:

  1. Thunstone refers to Lovecraft by name? So it's a reference to the CU character Lovecraft, not the real-world author?

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    1. I accidentally pressed "Delete" instead of "Publish" on FreeLiverFree's response to this. Sorry about that. Here's what he wrote: "Well, yes. It's been implied that in the CU Lovecraft discovered secrets about Cthulhu and company. In the second issue of Batman/Hellboy/Starman, Jack Knight discovers that there enemies are trying to raise an Elder God. Jack asks Hellboy if he means like from Lovecraft. Hellboy says Lovecraft "Knew some stuff" implying a link to the Cthulhu Mythos."

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    2. I'm aware of that (the comic crossover series with Lovecraft and Tesla seems to indicate this, too). I was just wondering if the story this blog post is about specifically referenced Lovecraft instead of the Cthulhu Mythos more generally.

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    3. Yes, the reference is specifically to Lovecraft and his knowledge of such things, hence my putting the line in quotes.

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