Crossover of the Week

Spring 1966

THE REVELATION OF THE YETI 

In Africa, Doctor Omega asks Barton Werper if he’s ever been to Vulcan. Werper says their guide is Robert John Kilgore, aka Ki-Gor, and that his biographical subject is the most famous Jungle Lord, but there were earlier ones in India, such as Mowgli. The Doctor mistakenly refers to Ki-Gor as “John-Gor.” Ki-Gor describes Werper’s father, Lt. Werper of the Belgian Army, as almost as poor of an abuser of the native peoples of Africa as that ivory trader in the Congo. Accompanying them on their search for the Yeti is Nora the Ape-Woman. The Doctor recalls meeting two other animal-human hybrids, Paula Dupree and Felifax. Ki-Gor once found a lost Egyptian civilization called Memphre which some say is, like Opar or Kor, one of the lost colonies of Karkosa. Ki-Gor says some claim that vile cults lurk at their destination of a kind unseen since the days of Solomon Kane. Werper remembers some of the names of the beings presumably worshipped by these cults, such as Cthulhu, Azathoth, and Dagon, members of the Great Old Ones. Doctor Omega tells his traveling companions about the Tcho-Tcho. Nora heard about the Jermyn family in the Congo. Through a dimensional shift, they find themselves on the Plateau of Leng. Nora identifies some runes as written in Aklo. According to the Doctor the Yeti are called the Mi-Go on Pluto, where they serve Yog-Sothoth. Omega speculates that a door he sees is a spatial portal, an artifact of the Ancients. A quartet of sorcerers consists of Doctor Karswell; Madame Palmyre, who worships an entity called Baal; Cristaldi, a Mexican warlock who once fought Dracula; and the Master, who worships a god called Manos. The Doctor is puzzled on hearing the Master’s name. 

Short story by Atom Mudman Bezecny in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 22), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2018. Doctor Omega is from Arnould Galopin’s titular novel; Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier’s adaptation and translation identified him with the Doctor from the television series Doctor Who. Vulcan is from the Doctor Who serial “The Power of the Daleks.” The Doctor’s archenemy is his fellow Time Lord the Master. “Barton Werper” was the nom de plume used by Peter and Peg Scott for a series of unauthorized Tarzan novels in the 1960s. Robert Kilgour (spelled “Kilgore” here), aka Ki-Gor, appeared in tales by John Murray Reynolds and various authors using the pen name “John Peter Drummond” in the pulp Jungle Stories. Memphre is from the Ki-Gor tales. Mowgli is from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. Jongor is the hero of a series of novels by Robert Moore Williams. Lt. Werper is from Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar. The ivory trader in the Congo is Kurtz from Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Nora the Ape-Woman is the title character of Félicien Champsaur’s novel. Paula Dupree is from the movies Captive Wild Woman, Jungle Woman, and The Jungle Captive. Felifax is from Paul Féval, fils’ Felifax, the Tiger-Man. Kor is from H. Rider Haggard’s She novels. “Karkosa” is a reference to the kingdom of Khokarsa from Philip José Farmer’s novels of Ancient Opar. Farmer meant Khokarsa to be the same location described in Ambrose Bierce’s “An Inhabitant of Carcosa.” Solomon Kane is Robert E. Howard’s Puritan adventurer. The Great Old Ones, including Cthulhu, Azathoth, Dagon, and Yog-Sothoth, and the Plateau of Leng are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The Tcho-Tcho are from August Derleth’s contributions to the Mythos. The Jermyns are from Lovecraft’s “Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family.” The Aklo language is from Arthur Machen’s “The White People”; Lovecraft later used it in “The Dunwich Horror” and “The Haunter of the Dark.” The Mi-Go are from Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness.” Craig Hinton’s Millennial Rites identified the Great Intelligence from the Doctor Who serial “The Abominable Snowmen” with Yog-Sothoth. The Ancients are from the movie Stargate and its television spin-offs. Karswell is from M. R. James’ “Casting the Runes.” Madame Palmyre and Baal are from Renée Dunan’s Baal. Cristaldi is from the movie Santo and Blue Demon vs. Dracula and the Wolf Man. The Master (not the Doctor’s foe) and Manos are from the movie Manos: The Hands of Fate.  

This crossover write-up is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!