Crossover of the Week

1918

DEAD MEN’S BONES

Charles St. Cyprian, Sergeant Bass of the American 81st Infantry Division, and Thomas Carnacki are camped outside the fortress of Ylourgne in the province of Averoigne. St. Cyprian had to leave the company of a young woman he met at the cabaret in Vyones in order to go on this mission. Carnacki says he believes there is an oil painting of Ylourgne, or rather the Chateau de Faussesflammes, in the Louvre. The adventures of Carnacki, England’s present Royal Occultist, appeared in the pages of The Idler, just as those of the Great Detective had appeared in The Strand. Corpses throughout Averoigne are coming back as zombies, in places such as Vyones, Les Hiboux, and Ximes. The Isoile is mentioned. Professor Max Ewer tells the trio Ylourgne was the site of one of the greatest acts of alchemical diabolism in this age or any other, according to the writings of one Gaspard du Nord: a dwarf named Nathaire made a giant monster out of dead men’s bones, which rampaged through Vyones. Carnacki refers to the 266 Squadron RFC.

Short story by Josh Reynolds in Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters, Tim Marquitz and Nickolas Sharps, eds., Ragnarok Publications, 2014. Charles St. Cyprian is the protagonist of Reynolds’ Royal Occultist stories, which take place after he has assumed the role previously played by Carnacki. Sergeant Bass is John Bass, an occult detective from Jackapo, South Carolina featured in several of Reynolds’ stories. Thomas Carnacki appeared in stories by William Hope Hodgson published in The Idler, which were later collected as Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Ylourgne, Averoigne, Vyones, the Chateau de Faussesflammes, Les Hiboux, Ximes, the Isoile River, Gaspard du Nord, and Nathaire are from the works of Clark Ashton Smith. This marks the second attempt by a madman to create their own version of Nathaire’s Colossus during the Great War; the first was in 1916, as seen in Matthew Baugh’s “What Rough Beast.” The Great Detective is Sherlock Holmes. The 266 Squadron RFC, from W. E. Johns’ Biggles books, is not to be confused with the real 266 Squadron RAF.

 

Crossover Cover: Underland

Vampire Victor Renquist travels to “the Hollow Earth,” actually a series of underground caverns that can be reached from various points on Earth. Renquist spent time in England during World War II monitoring an occult warfare unit working out of Ravenkeep Priory under the command of the Duke de Richleau. Marcus De Reske’s attempts to raise Cthulhu are mentioned. Pelucidar is another of the Hollow Earth’s names. A member of a serpentlike race called the Dhrakuh tells Renquist, “the English eccentric, Professor Challenger, had made it into one of the subsidiary caves, but never discovered a major underground city, unlike the Norwegian, Nielsen, and two years later, the Prussian, Erich von Stalhein, who had come with a well-equipped expedition funded by the Krupp family.” The Duke de Richleau is from novels by Dennis Wheatley. Cthulhu is, of course, one of the Great Old Ones in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft. Marcus De Reske was prevented by Renquist and his nosferatu coven from releasing Cthulhu in the second novel in the series, Darklost. The name “Pelucidar” is a variant on that of the world at the Earth’s core from the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. The land seen in Underland is clearly not Burroughs’ world, but both this novel and Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop’s story “Black as the Pit, from Pole to Pole” indicate there are many inner worlds. Professor Challenger appears in The Lost World and other works by Arthur Conan Doyle. Nielsen is not a pre-existing character, but Erich von Stalhein is the archenemy of W. E. Johns’ heroic aviator Biggles.

Crossover of the Week

July 1944-January 1945

TO DUST AND ASHES IN ITS HEAT CONSUMING

            Five airplanes, including one piloted by Group Captain Victor Carroon, trail UFOs that have appeared above London. One saucer is followed by a plane flown by Flight Lieutenant Tug Carrington. In Mission Control, Captain Boothroyd and Air Commodore Lord George Beltham give orders to the pilots. Professor Bernard Quatermass dismisses Beltham’s claim that one of his fellow investigators is an enemy agent. Harry Dickson breaks up the argument. Dickson’s protégé is a sergeant seconded from the Marine Police, Stanley Bulman, who mentions his nephew George.

            Short story by Nigel Malcolm in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 9: La Vie en Noir, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2012; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 13), Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Rivière Blanche, 2014. Professor Bernard Quatermass is the protagonist of several British television serials and films, including The Quatermass Experiment, which also features Victor Carroon. Tug Carrington is an ally of aviator James “Biggles” Bigglesworth in novels by W.E. Johns. Captain Boothroyd is the future Major Boothroyd, service armorer for the British Secret Service in the James Bond novels. Lord George Beltham is a later holder of the title once belonging to Lord Edward Beltham in Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre’s Fantômas novels. Harry Dickson, “the American Sherlock Holmes,” appears in pulp stories by Jean Ray and others. Stanley Bulman is the uncle of Detective Sergeant George Bulman, who appears in the TV series The XYY Man, Strangers, and Bulman.