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.
Then you'll love this Caballistics, Inc. story, which among other crossovers has a reference to The Quatermass Xperiment!
For more information, be sure to purchase a copy of my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3 when Meteor House publishes it! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!
Winter 2005
BETTER THE DEVIL
The members of Caballistics, Inc. must find who is targeting the organization for extermination. Appearing or mentioned are: the Templars Resurgent; the Starry Wisdom; Delta Green; the Cult of the Black Sun; Hobb’s End; the British Rocket Group; the Wild Hunt; The Carnacki-Silence spectrum generator; the Lamp of Alhazred; Exham Priory; Drax Industries; Flaxton Hall; Cavorite; Wenley Moor; Norrell; Stable Mews; Steed; the Ministry; Frank Marker; Arthur Daley; “Randall and...a partner’s name that had been scrubbed out long ago”; and the Brigadier.
Novel by Mike Wild, 2000 AD, 2007. The Templars Resurgent are a reference to the Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici from Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. The Starry Wisdom Church is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” Exham Priory is from Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” Delta Green is from the titular supplement for the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. The Cult of the Black Sun is a CU version of the group seen in Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell’s superhero comic Zenith. Hobb’s End and the Wild Hunt are from the movie Quatermass and the Pit. Professor Bernard Quatermass is the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group. The Carnacki-Silence spectrum generator is named after the title characters of William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder and Algernon Blackwood’s John Silence. The Lamp of Alhazred is from August Derleth’s titular Cthulhu Mythos story. Drax Industries is from the film version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Moonraker. Flaxton Hall is from the television series The Flaxton Boys. Cavorite is from H. G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon. Wenley Moor is from the Doctor Who serial “Doctor Who and the Silurians.” The Brigadier is the Doctor’s ally, Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. Norrell is Gilbert Norrell from Susanna Clarke’s alternate history fantasy novel Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Wild describes Norrell as having “a kind of otherworldliness,” implying he comes from an alternate universe. In the television series The Avengers, Ministry agent John Steed lived at 3 Stable Mews. Frank Marker is from the TV series Public Eye. Arthur Daley is from the show Minder. “Randall and...a partner’s name that had been scrubbed out long ago” refers to the show Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).
This crossover writeup 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!
Autumn 2004
HELL ON EARTH
Caballistics, Inc. battles the living dead and a fallen angel in the North Yorkshire village of Boswell. Appearing or mentioned are: the Templars Resurgent; the Starry Wisdom; Delta Green; the Cult of the Black Sun; Arkham University; the Quist Foundation; Doomwatch; the Carnacki-Silence Spectrum; Motley Hall; Yuggoth; the Lamp of Alhazred; the Merrin Ritual; the Karras Ritual; Hobb’s End; Florizel Street; Totters’ Lane; the Brigadier; “a similar facility that stored such material in the U.S.”; Ringstone Round; jaunting bracelets; the eighth Dagger of Megiddo; a chameleon circuit; an owl named Ozymandius; Department 7; Omega; a water tower undergoing a sweep for medieval magic residue; Exham Priory; Watchers; “certain subterranean mouths”; Nephren-Ka; Kadath in the Cold Waste; Irem; Kiran; Sarnath; Ib; Hali; Raccoon City; Umbrella; Mr. Phelps; the Jones/Brody archives at Barnett College in New York; Nyarlahotep; the Yeti incident; Drax Industries; the British Rocket Group; Saknusem’s Swallow; Leidenbrock’s Ledge; Wenley Moor; Sir Rufus Folkes; Templar; Harold Pelham; “something Straker Estates”; and the Mayflower Project.
Novel by Mike Wild, 2000 AD, 2006. The Templars Resurgent are the Templi Resurgentes Equites Synarchici from Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum. The Starry Wisdom Church and Nephren-Ka are from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.” Arkham University must be in Lovecraft’s recurring setting of Arkham, Massachusetts. Yuggoth is another name for Pluto in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Exham Priory is from Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” Kadath in the Cold Waste, Sarnath, and Ib are mentioned in several Lovecraft stories. Irem is from Lovecraft’s “The Nameless City.” Kiran is from Lovecraft’s “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.” “Nyarlahotep” is a misspelling of Lovecraft’s god Nyarlathotep. Delta Green is from the eponymous supplement for the role-playing game Call of Cthulhu. The Cult of the Black Sun is a CU version of the group seen in Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's superhero comic book Zenith. The Quist Foundation and Doomwatch are from the TV series Doomwatch. The Carnacki-Silence Spectrum is named after Thomas Carnacki and John Silence, occult investigators created by William Hope Hodgson and Algernon Blackwood, respectively. Motley Hall is from the TV series The Ghosts of Motley Hall. The Lamp of Alhazred is from August Derleth’s titular Cthulhu Mythos story. The Merrin Ritual and the Karras Ritual are named after the late Fathers Lankester Merrin and Damien Karras from William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. Hobb’s End is from the movie Quatermass and the Pit. Ringstone Round is from the television serial Quatermass. Professor Bernard Quatermass heads the British Rocket Group. Florizel Street was the original title for the long running British soap opera Coronation Street. Totters’ Lane and chameleon circuits are from Doctor Who. The Brigadier is Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart from that series. The Yeti incident is a reference to the serial “The Web of Fear.” Wenley Moor is from the serial “Doctor Who and the Silurians.” The “similar facility that stored such material in the U.S.” is the warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant was stored in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Indiana Jones’ friend Dr. Marcus Brody appears in both that film and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The latter is the source of Barnett College. Jaunting bracelets are from the television series The Tomorrow People. The eighth Dagger of Megiddo is a nod to the Seven Daggers of Megiddo from the movie The Omen. Ozymandius (or Ozymandias) is from the TV series Ace of Wands. Department 7 and Omega are from the show The Omega Factor. The water tower is Castle Saburac from the TV series Catweazle. The Watchers and “certain subterranean mouths” (Hellmouths) are from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Hali is from Robert W. Chambers’ The King in Yellow. Raccoon City and the Umbrella Corporation are from the Resident Evil video game series. Mr. Phelps, who is given a “mission, should [he] choose to accept it,” is apparently related to the late Jim Phelps from the TV series and movie Mission: Impossible. Drax Industries is from the film version of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel Moonraker. Saknusem’s Swallow and Leidenbrock’s Ledge refer to Arne Saknussemm and Otto Lidenbrock from Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth. Rufus Folkes (or ffolkes) is from the movie North Seas Hijack. Simon Templar is Leslie Charteris’ adventurer the Saint. Harold Pelham is from the movie The Man Who Haunted Himself. Ffolkes and Pelham were both played by Roger Moore, who also played Simon Templar on the 1960s The Saint TV series. “Something Straker Estates” refers to Richard Throckett Straker, vampire Kurt Barlow’s minion in Stephen King’s 'Salem’s Lot. The Mayflower Project is from the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
This crossover writeup is one of hundreds covered 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!
July 20, 1963
THE COLOR OUT IN SPACE
American astronaut Magnolia Jones comes to Arkham, Northumberland in 1963 at the request of Human Protection League (HPL) agent and Women’s Royal Air Force member Mabel Peabody for a space mission to rescue Yuri Gagarin, who is being menaced by a member of the Colour Out of Space’s race. Also appearing or mentioned are: Tarooma; Dr. Maxwell Edison Gardner; Dirk McQuickly; the British Experimental Rocket Group; the Q-I, 1953; the M-76, 1956; the Q-II, 1958; Flasheart; Prof Q; Lonsdale College, Oxford; “tekeli-li!”; the magnetic anomalies in Tycho and Olduvai Gorge; Doktor Merkwürdigliebe; Zellaby; the Midwich changelings incident; an “Inventor”; Fendelman Industries; a ship from Mars that crashed to Earth under modern London five million years ago; Haven, Maine; Ivor Dare; Harriman Nelson; the “Saliva Tree Incursion” at Cottersall, Norfolk, England, in 1896; Gizhinsk; the SSRN Seaview; Captain Crane; and Peabody’s niece Jocelyn.
Short story by Stephen Baxter in The Lovecraft Squad: Waiting, Pegasus Books, 2017. Magnolia Jones is an ancestor of the character of the same name (aka Melody Angel) from the television series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons, which takes place in a potential future for the CU. Tarooma and the Q-I are references to the British science fiction television serial The Quatermass Experiment. Dr. Bernard Quatermass is the head of the British Experimental Rocket Group. The Q-II and the ship from Mars that crashed to Earth under modern London five million years ago refer to Quatermass and the Pit. Dr. Maxwell Edison Gardner is Maxwell Edison from the Beatles’ song “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” revealed here to be a descendant of Nahum Gardner from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Colour Out of Space.” Dirk McQuickly is the Paul McCartney stand-in in the Beatles parody the Rutles, first seen in the television series Rutland Weekend Television. The M-76 is from No Man Friday by Rex Gordon. Lord Flasheart is from the Blackadder Goes Forth episode “Private Plane.” Lonsdale College, Oxford is from the television series Inspector Morse, based on Colin Dexter’s novels. “Tekeli-li!” is a phrase from Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, later used by Lovecraft in “At the Mountains of Madness.” The magnetic anomalies in Tycho and the Olduvai Gorge are from Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which must be an AU, although elements of it (or counterparts thereof) have been referenced in several CU works. Doktor Merkwürdigliebe is the original name of the title character of the movie Dr. Strangelove, which ends with all of humanity being wiped out in a nuclear conflagration. However, Emmanuel Gorlier’s “A Present for Hitler” establishes that Merkwürdigliebe has a CU counterpart. Gordon Zellaby, Midwich, the Inventor, and Gizhinsk are from John Wyndham’s The Midwich Cuckoos. Fendelman Industries is from the Doctor Who serial “Image of the Fendahl.” Haven, Maine is from Stephen King’s The Tommyknockers. Ivor Dare and Professor Jocelyn Mabel Peabody are from the British science fiction comic book Dan Dare, Pilot of the Future, which takes place in the then-future of the 1990s, in a world where travel to and from other worlds is common. These versions of Ivor and Jocelyn must be CU counterparts to the ones from the comic. Admiral Harriman Nelson, the SSRN Seaview, and Captain Lee Crane are from the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, which was set in the then-future of the 1970s. These must be the CU versions of the characters and ship from the show. The Saliva Tree Incursion is from Brian Aldiss’ The Saliva Tree.
This crossover writeup is one of hundreds included in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to 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!
