Crossover Cover: Bleeding Through

 

Are you a fan of Brian Keene, J. F. Gonzalez, and Mark Williams' Clickers series?

Then you'll love Charles R. Rutledge's story in this anthology, in which Rutledge's recurring character Kharrn visits the Clickers Universe!

For more information, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, coming this summer from Meteor House! All three volumes are AUTHORIZED companions to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Through Mirrors Darkly

 

The barbarian-king Rogan and the ex-Amish magus Levi Stoltzfus have very similar adventures separated by millennia. Rogan says Kharrn would have helped him, but he was arrested. Rogan was cocreated by Keene and Steven L. Shrewsbury. Levi Stoltzfus is a recurring character of Keene’s. The immortal barbarian Kharrn is from Charles R. Rutledge’s fiction. 

This crossover 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!

Crossover Cover: King of the Bastards

Hey, are you a fan of horror author Brian Keene?

Then you'll love this novel by Keene and Steven Shrewsbury that ties into Keene's Labyrinth mythos!

All the details can be found in my books Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, AUTHORIZED expansions of Win Scott Eckert's books Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2, debuting at the Meteor House booth at PulpFest/Farmercon in Columbus, OH on July 21-24!

Crossover Cover: Ghoul

Young Timmy Graco and his friends find themselves battling a carnivorous ghoul in rural Pennsylvania. The boys are also troubled by the Sawyers’ dog Catcher. The LeHorn family is among the mourners at Timmy’s grandfather’s funeral. The Ghoul knows of the Thirteen, including Behemoth and the Great Wurms, as well as the Siqqusim. It is also familiar with the “ancient race of subterranean swine-things.” The Daemonolateria is mentioned. In Keene’s novel Terminal, Tommy O’Brien also mentions having been attacked by Catcher during his youth. The LeHorn family is from Keene’s novel Dark Hollow; this appearance takes place less than a year before the tragic events that befell them in the flashback portions of that novel. The Thirteen are the main villains of Keene’s mythos, thirteen ancient creatures who survived the destruction of the previous reality by God and now seek the destruction of the current reality, traveling from universe to universe bringing death and destruction; Behemoth and the Great Wurms can be seen in Keene’s Earthworm Gods novels, and the Siqqusim are the main villains of his The Rising series. The subterranean swine-things are from William Hope Hodgson’s novel The House on the Borderland. The Daemonolateria is a fictional book of magic that appears in a number of Keene’s works, including “Caught in a Mosh,” Dark Hollow, and Ghost Walk.

Crossover Cover: Tequila's Sunrise

In 1520, fourteen-year-old Aztec boy named Chalco is given access to the Labyrinth so he can kill Hernán Cortés before he arrives in the New World, and prevent the fall of the Aztec Empire. The Daemonolateria is quoted: “To open doors, one must first know how to find them.” The Thirteen are mentioned, including Behemoth, Leviathan, Api, and Ob, Lord of the Siqqusim. Huitzilopochtli, the Aztec god of war, mentions several different names for the being known as Quetzalcoatl, including “Jesus of Nazareth, Adonis, Mohammad, Buddha, Divimoss, Kurt Cobain, Prosper Johnson, Benj—.” While traveling the Labyrinth, Chalco sees into different worlds and time periods, witnessing a flooded world from which giant tentacles attack him, several people sealed inside a strange metal room, a group of pig-faced humanoids, a world where “the dead get up and hunt the living,” a planet overcome with living darkness, a tribe of goat-men who dance around a fire and rut with terrified human women, people on an island fleeing from savage monsters, and a coastline overrun with crab-lobster-scorpion monsters. After reaching his destination, Chalco is attacked by Meeble, the planned assassination of Cortés fails, and history continues as recorded. The Labyrinth is a recurring location in Keene’s works, an other-dimensional realm that connects all the various realities and parallel universes; this story provides the most extensive glimpse into the Labyrinth. All the worlds connected by the Labyrinth are threatened by a group of beings known as the Thirteen, pre-Universal monsters that travel from reality to reality destroying Earths. These beings are Ob, Ab, Api, Leviathan, Behemoth, Kandara, Meeble, Purturabo, Nodens, Shtar, Kat, Apu, and one more unknown to readers at this time. Ob, Ab, and Api are from Keene’s novels The Rising, City of the Dead, and Clickers vs. Zombies, as well as several short stories; these all take place in an alternate reality to the CU, with the exception of Keene’s “The Resurrection and the Life.” Leviathan and Behemoth appear in Keene’s novels Earthworm Gods, Deluge: Earthworm Gods II, Earthworm Gods: Selected Scenes from the End of the World, and Clickers III: Dagon Rising, all also alternate realities. Although Leviathan is conflated by Keene with Cthulhu and Dagon, in the reality of the CU, they are separate beings. Kandara appears in Keene’s story “Babylon Falling”; its name is a reference to the Kandarian demons from the Evil Dead movies. Meeble appears in this story, and its minions are the villains of Keene’s novel A Gathering of Crows. Purturabo appears in Keene’s story “Caught in a Mosh.” Nodens is the villain of Keene’s novels Ghost Walk (which takes place in the CU) and Darkness at the Edge of Town (which doesn’t). Shtar appears in Keene’s story “The Cage.” The Daemonolateria is a fictional book of magic that appears in a number of Keene’s works, including “Caught in a Mosh,” Dark Hollow, and Ghost Walk; it is not to be confused with a real-world book called the Daemonolatreia. Prosper Johnson is a minor character mentioned in several Keene stories, most importantly in “Slouching in Bethlehem.” “Benj-” is Benjy from Keene’s novel Terminal, which is also the source of the people in the strange metal room (a bank vault). The pig-faced humanoids are a shout-out to William Hope Hodgson’s novel The House on the Borderland. The world of the living dead could be any of Keene’s various zombie universes: the worlds seen in his The Rising series, his novels Dead Sea and Entombed, or his comic The Last Zombie. The planet overcome with living darkness is from Keene’s novel Darkness at the Edge of Town. The goat-men are a reference to the satyr from Keene’s novel Dark Hollow. The island monsters are from Keene’s novel Castaways, and the crab-lobster-scorpion creatures are from Keene and J. F. Gonzalez’ Clickers trilogy (though the first book was written by Gonzalez and Mark Williams) and Clickers vs. Zombies, all different levels of the Labyrinth to the CU.

Crossover Cover: Not Gratum Anus Rodentum

This anthology of X-Files prose stories from IDW Publishing includes “Not Gratum Anus Rodentum” by Brian Keene. Walter Skinner investigates a were-rat. At one point, Skinner and a group of homeless kids discuss the Herod slayings, which were depicted in Keene’s story “Slouching in Bethlehem,” which connects to other works by Keene.

Crossover Cover: Kill Whitey

Larry Gibson, an employee of Globe Package Service, finds himself in trouble with the Russian mob, in particular one Zakhar “Whitey” Putin, a descendant of Rasputin with superhuman abilities. The Sons of the Constitution are mentioned. Whitey’s organization was at one time in competition with the Marano crime family; it’s mentioned Marano’s top guy, Tony Genova, disappeared some time before. Larry used to work with a guy named Sherm, who was killed in a botched bank robbery. Bathroom graffiti at the Odessa includes the name Kaine, as well as the phrase “Jesus saves, but Ob rulez.” The Kwan and Black Lodge are mentioned. Whitey’s group disposes of bodies in LeHorn’s Hollow. Whitey refers to himself as “Homo superior.” When police dredge Lake Pinchot for Whitey’s body, they instead find the body of a young girl murdered when her car broke down on an Interstate exit ramp. Globe Package Service is a branch of the Globe Corporation, which appears throughout Keene’s works. The Sons of the Constitution are a right-wing terrorist organization that has appeared most prominently in Keene’s novel Castaways. Tony Genova, an enforcer for the Marano crime family, appears across Keene’s multiverse, most notably in the Clickers series; the version here is the CU version, distinct from the Clickers-verse Tony. Sherm and the botched robbery are from Keene’s novel Terminal. Kaine is a name that turns up across Keene’s multiverse, in tales such as “Full of It,” “Two-Headed Alien Love Child,” and Clickers vs. Zombies. Ob is one of the Thirteen, and is the main villain of Keene’s The Rising series. The Kwan are an occult group from the works of horror author Geoff Cooper, and play a prominent role in Keene and Cooper’s novel Shades. LeHorn’s Hollow is a major setting in Keene’s works, such as “Red Wood,” Dark Hollow, and Ghost Walk. “Homo superior” is a term first used to describe superhumans in Olaf Stapledon’s novel Odd John, and later in other works such as Marvel Comics’ X-Men titles (as a scientific designation for mutants) and the television series Babylon 5; at least two Marvel Comics mutants, Piotr “Colossus” Rasputin and Illyana “Magik” Rasputina, are also descendants of Rasputin; although the X-Men’s stories do not fit into CU continuity, the CU obviously has a mutant descendant of the Mad Monk among its inhabitants as well. The murdered girl is implied to be a victim of The Exit, a serial killer from Keene’s stories “I Am an Exit” and “This is Not an Exit,” who murders people at highway exits.

Crossover Cover: The Rise and Fall of Babylon

This book consists of two connected stories by John Urbancik and Brian Keene. In Urbancik's "Babylon Rising," a man is drawn back in time to the days of ancient Babylon as part of a spell to bring an evil wizard to the present so he can summon Kandara, one of the Thirteen in Keene’s Labyrinth mythos. The name Kandara is clearly a reference to the Kandarian demons of the Evil Dead films. Keene's story is "Babylon Falling." In Iraq, U.S. soldier Don Bloom and his infantry unit are kidnapped by remnants of Saddam Hussein’s Fedayeen, and tortured by an ancient wizard as part of a ritual to summon Kandara. The Daemonolateria, a fictional book of magic that recurs in Keene’s works, appears.

Crossover Cover: Castaways

A group of reality show contestants on a tropical island are stalked and attacked by a tribe of degenerate, ape-like cryptids. One of the characters, Troy, is from Brackard’s Point, New York, and mentions his brother Sherm, who died in a botched bank robbery in Pennsylvania. Unbeknownst to most, one of the contestants is a member of the Sons of the Constitution and plans to kill most of the crew and contestants. The Globe Corporation is mentioned to have an oil platform somewhere near the island. The cryptids’ cave contains a statue of a creature with a human body but the head of a squid. The walls are decorated with drawings of a labyrinth with a great, black, red-eyed mass in the center, creatures with human bodies but the heads of swine, and a towering creature like a cross between a gorilla and a cat. Brackard’s Point, New York is the setting of much of horror author Geoff Cooper’s work. Sherm and the bank robbery are from Keene’s novel Terminal. The Sons of the Constitution are a right-wing terrorist militia group that recurs throughout Keene’s work, such as in the story “Full of It.” The Globe Corporation is another recurring element of Keene’s fictional multiverse (Dead Sea, “Scratch,” etc.) The squid monster is Keene’s Leviathan, one of the Thirteen, as seen in the alternate realities of the Earthworm Gods books and Clickers III: Dagon Rising. The Labyrinth is an extradimensional realm that connects all of Keene’s various works, seen best in the short story “Tequila’s Sunrise” and A Gathering of Crows. The black mass in the center of it is Nodens, greatest among the Thirteen, from Ghost Walk and Darkness at the Edge of Town. The swine-things are from William Hope Hodgson’s novel The House on the Borderland. The gorilla-cat creature is Meeble, another of the Thirteen, who plays a major role in “Tequila’s Sunrise” and A Gathering of Crows.

Crossover Covers: Last of the Albatwitches

Levi Stoltzfus battles a murderous cryptid released into Pennsylvania by the Globe Corporation after being captured on an island. The serial killer known as the Exit is mentioned. There are references to Leviathan, the Siqqusim, and a race of prehistoric, aquatic reptiles known as the Dark Ones. Levi thinks about his friend Dez, a chaos mage. The Goat-Man of LeHorn’s Hollow is mentioned. The Cryptid Hunter TV series has been in the area filming a special on the legendary giant water snake Old Scratch. Levi places a call to Maria Nasr. There is a rumor that the heads of the Globe Corporation worship a being called Kat. Levi is familiar with the infamous Crazy Bear Valley sighting.The cryptid is one of the “tribe” from Keene’s novel Castaways. The Globe Corporation is a recurring, if mostly background, element of Keene’s fiction. The Exit is from Keene’s short stories “I Am an Exit” and “This is Not an Exit.” Leviathan is one of the Thirteen, and appears across Keene’s multiverse, especially in the worlds of the Earthworm Gods series and Clickers III: Dagon Rising. The Siqqusim serve Ob, another of the Thirteen, and are seen primarily in the worlds of Keene’s The Rising series and Clickers vs. Zombies. The Dark Ones mentioned here must be the CU versions of the Dark Ones that appear in the Clickers series by Keene and J. F. Gonzalez. Dez is the CU version of the character that appears in Keene’s alternate universe novel Darkness at the Edge of Town. The Goat-Man is from Keene’s Dark Hollow. Old Scratch is from Keene’s story “Scratch.” Maria Nasr appears in Keene’s novel Ghost Walk and the story “The Witching Tree.” Kat is another of the Thirteen, who has thus far not appeared directly in any of Keene’s work. The Crazy Bear Valley sighting is from Keene’s story “An Occurrence in Crazy Bear Valley.”

Crossover Cover: Urban Gothic

A group of suburban youths returning from a Monsters of Hip Hop concert (headlined by Prosper Johnson) become stranded in an abandoned house in the Philadelphia ghetto and hunted by subterranean mutants. The kids were present at a Ghost Walk in LeHorn’s Hollow the previous Halloween, but it was closed down after several people were killed inside, before the kids could get in. Leo once lived with the Graco family for two weeks; the father, Timothy, wrote comic books. One of the mutants wears a shirt with the slogan I GOT CRABS IN PHILLIPSPORT, MAINE, and another wears a ball cap with the Globe Package Service logo. One of the mutants, Scug, swears to Ob. Prosper Johnson is a minor, but important, character in Keene’s mythos, figuring most prominently (so far) in his story “Slouching in Bethlehem.” The events behind the massacre at the Ghost Walk are told in Keene’s novel Ghost Walk. Timothy Graco is the main character of Keene’s novel Ghoul. Phillipsport, Maine, first appeared in Mark Williams and J. F. Gonzalez’s novel Clickers; that series (the latter books being cowritten between Gonzalez and Keene) takes place in an alternate universe, but there must be a version of Phillipsport in the CU. Globe Package Service appears in several Keene works, including “Scratch” and Kill Whitey, and is a branch of the Globe Corporation. Ob is one of the Thirteen, and is the main villain of Keene’s The Rising series.

Crossover Cover: Ghost Walk

Levi Stoltzfus, the ex-Amish magus, battles Nodens of the Thirteen near LeHorn’s Hollow, with help from Maria Nasr and Adam Senft, in a battle that culminates on Halloween night. There are numerous references to the Goat-Man and the forest fire of 2006. Nodens has been known as “Shub-Niggurath,” but this is not its true name; its temples can be found on “the twin moons of distant Yhe and the fungal gardens of Yaksh.” There are references to Nelson LeHorn and Saul O’Connor, and LeHorn’s copy of the Daemonolateria is featured. There is a reference to a group of hunters who died in a mysterious fire near LeHorn’s Hollow. Tony Genova and Vincent Napoli are mentioned. Levi mentions various occult groups, like Black Lodge, the Kwan, and the Starry Wisdom sect. Maria Nasr places a call to retired Detective Hector Ramirez. Adam Senft was incarcerated alongside Karen Moore. A minor character, Cecil Smeltzer, thinks about his late brother Clark and his nephew Barry. Levi mentions Nyarlathotep in a spell, and also refers to the Lost Level. Nodens is not the Celtic deity, nor the Lovecraftian entity, but is instead the greatest of the Thirteen, pre-Universal beings that travel the multiverse destroying entire realities. They are the primary villains of Keene’s Labyrinth saga. The Goat-Man, the fire of 2006, Nelson LeHorn, Saul O’Connor, and Adam Senft are from Keene’s novel Dark Hollow, to which this novel is a semi-sequel. While Nodens is not Shub-Niggurath, it may have disguised itself as that entity at times. Yhe and Yaksh are Cthulhu Mythos locales. The Daemonolateria appears throughout Keene’s works, including Dark Hollow and “Caught in a Mosh.” The deceased hunters are from Keene’s short story “Red Wood.” Tony Genova and Vincent Napoli are mobsters who reappear throughout Keene’s multiverse. The versions mentioned here are native to the CU, but other versions can be seen in Keene’s novels Clickers II, Clickers III, and Clickers vs. Zombies (cowritten with J. F. Gonzalez), and in the short story “The Siqqusim Who Stole Christmas.” Black Lodge is a secret occult organization that also appears throughout Keene’s multiverse, including the short story “The Black Wave,” and in other universes, such as those of Earthworm Gods II: Deluge and Clickers vs. Zombies. The Kwan are from the works of horror author Geoff Cooper; they play a major role in Keene and Cooper’s novel Shades. The Starry Wisdom sect is from H. P. Lovecraft’s story “The Haunter of the Dark.” Detective Ramirez appears in Keene’s novels Terminal and Dark Hollow. Karen Moore and Clark and Barry Smeltzer are from Keene’s novel Ghoul. Nyarlathotep is the crawling chaos of the Cthulhu Mythos. The Lost Level is from Keene’s novel of the same name. A short follow-up story, “The Ghosts of Monsters,” can be found in Keene’s collections Unhappy Endings and Blood on the Page, and takes place about a year later. Keene’s novel Darkness at the Edge of Town takes place in one of his many parallel universes, and shows what happened in a world where Levi died years earlier and was not around to stop Nodens. A follow-up story, “The House of Ushers,” sees Adam Senft traveling to the version of Hell created by horror author Edward Lee in his novel City Infernal and its sequels.

Crossover Cover: The Lost Level

An occultist named Aaron Pace discovers how to navigate the Labyrinth between worlds, and begins exploring other dimensions before ending up stranded in the Lost Level, a reality that can be journeyed to, but never returned from, and where things are constantly arriving from parallel realities. Pace mentions it was the Simon Necronomicon that introduced him to occultism as a child, but he didn’t realize it was a fake, and it was many years before he laid eyes on the real Necronomicon. Nyarlathotep is mentioned in Pace’s spell for opening doorways into the Labyrinth. In one of the alternate universes he visits, Tony Genova is President. When he meets a group of serpent men, the Annunaki, in the Lost Level, Pace compares them to tales of the Dark Ones, a race of lizard men he’d heard about in his studies. Mushroom men living in a swamp are referenced. Pace is familiar with the Void. He also knows about Globe Package Services and the Globe Corporation, and a robot employed by a future version of the company appears. Pace meets a cowboy, Deke, from another dimension, where a zombie plague wiped out civilization in the Old West. Deke mentions he was born in his world’s version of Brinkley Springs, WV. Pace has knowledge of the Thirteen, and names Ob, Ab and Api in particular. Pace and his allies battle a giant Clicker. Pace is familiar with Black Lodge. The Labyrinth is a core part of Keene’s connected fiction. The Lost Level is mentioned in Keene’s novel Ghost Walk. The Necronomicon and Nyarlathotep are from H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Tony Genova is from the Clickers novels by Keene and J. F. Gonzalez, where he is a mobster (as is his CU counterpart, who has appeared in other stories by Keene), and is also president in the world of Clickers vs. Zombies. The Dark Ones are also from the Clickers novels, though the species also exists in the CU, as Levi Stoltzfus mentions them in “Last of the Albatwitches.” The mushroom men in the swamp may or may not be those infected with the fungus from Keene’s Earthworm Gods novels. The Void is where Ob and the Siqqusim were confined until they were released in the alternate dimension of Keene’s The Rising. Globe Package Services and the Globe Corporation exist across Keene’s multiverse. Deke’s homeworld is the world of Keene’s short story “Lost Canyon of the Damned.” The zombie virus, Hamelin’s Revenge, is the same one that destroyed civilization in the 2000s in the world of Keene’s Dead Sea and Entombed. The CU version of Brinkley Springs, WV was seen in Keene’s novel A Gathering of Crows. The Thirteen are the main villains of the Labyrinth cycle. The Clickers are the crab-lobster-scorpion beasts that are the primary villains of the Clickers novels. Black Lodge is a government agency that recurs throughout Keene’s fiction.

Crossover Covers: A Gathering of Crows

In Brinkley Springs, West Virginia, Levi Stoltzfus, the ex-Amish magus, battles agents of Meeble of the Thirteen. Former soldier Donny Osborne served with the likes of Tyler Henry, from York, Pennsylvania, and Don Bloom, who went AWOL and was rumored to have joined Black Lodge. Levi is familiar with Cthulhu cultists, and has an e-reader that contains scanned pages from the Necronomicon. A supernatural entity called “Mrs. Chickbaum” is mentioned. Nyarlathotep is named. Levi is familiar with the siqqusim. “That crazy Earl Harper wingnut” and Teddy Garnett are mentioned. Levi walks through the Labyrinth with a group of survivors, one of whom observes in the various realities zombies, “something dark in the middle of it all,” goat-men, a giant monster with a squid for a head, and crab-lobster-scorpion monsters, as well as being passed by a different version of Teddy Garnett, “a real pretty black girl,” “some young guy dressed up like a mobster,” and an old farmer Levi believes to have been Nelson LeHorn. Levi defeats Meeble’s agents by using the Labyrinth to send them to Yuggoth, domain of Behemoth of the Thirteen; while there, he glimpses the shining trapezoid. The Thirteen are the main villains of Brian Keene’s Labyrinth Mythos, pre-Universal beings that travel from reality to reality destroying Earths. The Labyrinth is an otherdimensional realm that connects all of Keene’s various realities. Tyler Henry was a minor character in Keene’s novel Ghost Walk. Don Bloom was the protagonist of Keene’s short story “Babylon Falling.” Black Lodge is a super-secret occult organization that appears throughout Keene’s works, and across his multiverse. While there is no overt connection in this story, Keene’s notes on his short story “Halves” claim the leprechaun “Mr. Chickbaum” from that story is connected to this “Mrs. Chickbaum.” The siqqusim are the main villains of Keene’s Rising series and the novel Clickers vs. Zombies, all of which take place in an AU. The Earl Harper and Teddy Garnett mentioned here are this world’s versions of those characters, which originally appeared in Keene’s book Earthworm Gods; the version of Teddy seen in the Labyrinth is probably from that world. The zombies could be from any of Keene’s zombie realities. The “something dark” is Nodens of the Thirteen, from Keene’s novels Ghost Walk and Darkness at the Edge of Town. The goat-men are a reference to Keene’s novel Dark Hollow. The squid-monster is Keene’s Leviathan, of the Thirteen. The crab-lobster-scorpion monsters are Clickers, from the worlds of Keene and J. F. Gonzalez’ trilogy of novels and Clickers vs. Zombies. The black girl is Frankie, from The Rising and City of the Dead, and the mobster is Tony Genova, from various Keene works; there’s no way to know yet which of Keene’s worlds they hail from. Nelson LeHorn is from Keene’s novel Dark Hollow, which does take place in the CU. Across all levels of the Labyrinth, Frankie, Teddy Garnett, Tony Genova, and Nelson LeHorn are of the Seven, a group of people with the power to destroy the Thirteen. According to Keene, the Exit, the serial killer from his stories “This is Not an Exit” and “I Am an Exit,” is also one of the Seven, and was originally supposed to appear in this tale, until Keene felt he was stealing the show. Cthulhu cultists, Nyarlathotep, Yuggoth, and the Necronomicon are all from the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. The shining trapezoid is almost certainly connected to the shining trapezohedron from Lovecraft’s “The Haunter of the Dark.”

Crossover Cover: Hellboy: Oddest Jobs

As I've stated before, I take Hellboy crossovers on a case-by-case basis, as some fit easily into CU continuity, and some don't. This particular anthology of prose stories contains four stories with crossovers that do fit, in my opinion. In Brian Keene's "Salamander Blues," Hellboy encounters a group of mermen who are holding people hostage, and concludes the National Guard is not coming, and neither is the army or the FBI or Black Lodge or any of the other alphabet-soup agencies. Black Lodge is a covert occult organization that exists across Keene’s multiverse, including several works that have been incorporated into the Crossover Universe. In Barbara Hambly's "Repossession," set in the summer of 1962, Hellboy battles a demon hunter who is seeking notes left behind by Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon. In Gary A. Braunbeck's "In Cupboards and Bookshelves," Hellboy’s latest case brings him to Cedar Hill, Ohio, a town featured in a series of short stories, novellas, and novels by Braunbeck. "Feet of Sciron" by Rhys Hughes is particularly crossover-heavy. Hellboy recruits Foggy Dicks, a porn star that can generate ectoplasm, for a sex magic ritual in order to prevent the planet Nekrotzar from colliding with Earth, battling King Sciron in the process. Nekrotzar was drawn towards Earth by Marvin Carnacki, the current director of the Carnacki Institute, founded by his ancestor to rid the natural world of paranormal threats. Hellboy says most people think the original Carnacki was William Hope Hodgson’s fictional creation, just as many other authors pretended their subjects were fictional: Arthur Conan Doyle with Sherlock Holmes, Jules Verne with Phileas Fogg, H.G. Wells with Dr. Moreau, M.P. Shiel with Prince Zaleski, and Maurice Richardson with Engelbrecht. He also says Liz Sherman and Abe Sapien are at Mount Snaefell in Iceland. Foggy replies that he remembers Verne wrote a book about two explorers. Hellboy simply smiles in response. In Nekrotzar, the monster-hunting demon receives a riverboat ride from writer Philip José Farmer, who has been resurrected there after his death. Hellboy reveals to Foggy that billions of years ago Nekrotzar actually did collide with the Earth, which was merely a cloud of stardust then. Earth congealed around Nekrotzar, trapping Sciron’s palace in what would become the younger planet’s crust, forty miles under what is now Iceland. This Carnacki Insitute is clearly a separate group from the one seen in Simon R. Green’s Ghost Finders series. Engelbrecht is from Maurice Richardson’s book The Exploits of Engelbrecht. The subterranean world Sciron’s palace inhabits is the one seen in Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Philip José Farmer, of course, revealed the existence of the Wold Newton Family to the world, and wrote several chronicles of events in the CU. Farmer’s appearance here evokes his Riverworld novels, albeit as homage rather than a true crossover. This story must take place after Farmer’s passing in 2009, although it was published earlier than that.

Crossover Cover: Dark Hollow

Mid-list writer Adam Senft finds himself battling a malignant satyr, Hylinus, after it is summoned in the area of LeHorn’s Hollow and begins hypnotizing and raping the women of rural Pennsylvania. Senft once dated Becky Schrum. There is a reference to a group of deer hunters that died in a mysterious fire near the Hollow. Detective Hector Ramirez appears, and mentions his involvement in a strange bank robbery case two years earlier. Nelson LeHorn’s copy of the Daemonolateria plays a major role in the story, and LeHorn’s diary, written in 1985, states: “I’ve heard tell of a fellow down south, a Korean War vet. Folks call him Silver John. Walks the Appalachians with a silver-stringed guitar and works some really strong powwow. Hear tell he’s got a real nice singing voice, too. But I don’t think he’s ever made it this far north. Sticks below the Mason-Dixon. And there was an old Amish fella, but he passed on five years ago.” The diary also tells the fate of another occultist, Saul O’Connor, who was found dead covered in a strange fungus. Nodens and the rest of the Thirteen are mentioned. Becky Schrum is a minor character from Keene’s novel Ghoul. The fate of the deer hunters is revealed in Keene’s story “Red Wood,” which also marks the first appearance of LeHorn’s Hollow, a major setting in Keene’s work, including Ghost Walk, “Bunnies in August,” and “The Ghosts of Monsters.” Hector Ramirez and the strange bank robbery are from Keene’s novel Terminal. The Daemonolateria is a fictional book of magic that appears throughout Keene’s works. Nelson LeHorn, the original summoner of Hylinus, also appears in Keene’s short story “Stone Tears.” Although Keene’s Lovecraft references often seem at odds with other sources, and are thus only a tenuous link to the CU, the reference to Manly Wade Wellman’s wandering occult hero Silver John ties the main Keene-verse more solidly into the CU. The “old Amish fella” is Amos Stoltzfus, the father of Keene’s ex-Amish magus Levi Stoltzfus, who appears in Ghost Walk, A Gathering of Crows, “The Witching Tree,” and “Last of the Albatwitches.” The weird fungus is a creation of Behemoth of the Thirteen, and can be seen at work in an alternate universe in Keene’s Earthworm Gods trilogy. Nodens is neither the original Celtic deity nor the Elder God of the Cthulhu Mythos, but rather the greatest among the Thirteen, the main villains of Keene’s Labyrinth mythos.