Crossover Cover: Kolchak: Penny Dreadful Double Feature

 

This book consists of two Kolchak stories, both of which have crossovers.

In "Penny Dreadful," Kolchak teams up with private investigator Domino Patrick, the Domino Lady’s daughter, to investigate a killer who is imitating the Manson family murders. Domino Patrick, created by Nancy Holder, would be the older half-sister of Helen Benson, the daughter of the Domino Lady and the avenging pulp hero, from Philip José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert’s The Evil in Pemberley House and Eckert’s The Scarlet Jaguar. References to Charles Manson being transferred to San Quentin Prison and Richard Ramirez’s “Night Stalker” killings place this story in 1985.

In "Time Stalker," Kolchak meets the time-lost superpowered hero Zero, as well as a past incarnation of his old foe, vampire Janos Skorzeny. Tony Vincenzo tells Kolchak, “I want you to go to Albuquerque. A major drug kingpin has been exposed, and the lid has been blown off a meth empire that’s been operating all over the Southwest. This guy is implicated in at least a dozen murders, and there may be an international angle. He’s still at large, but they know who he is, and they’re expecting an arrest soon.” At the end of this adventure, Carl says, “the fugitive drug lord had returned to Albuquerque, where he confronted a gang of white supremacists with whom he had issues. A fierce gun battle had erupted, and everybody on the premises—the neo-Nazis and the meth kingpin—had been killed.” Zero is loosely based on the short-lived pulp hero Captain Zero, although their powers are very different. Captain Zero is in the CU through Farmer’s Greatheart Silver and Lin Carter’s The Earth-Shaker. It seems hard to believe there were two superhuman heroes in the CU in the same era with the word “Zero” in their names who both had girlfriends named Doro Kelly. The meth kingpin in Albuquerque is Walter White from the television series Breaking Bad. That show takes place in the 2000s, by which point Kolchak would be in his eighties, and probably retired from journalism. Therefore, I consider this second story an AU.

These crossovers are two 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: Kolchak: The Night Stalker - 50th Anniversary

 

Are you a fan of the TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker?

Then you'll love this anthology graphic novel, which has stories that tie in with Frankenstein, The X-Files, Richard Matheson's Hell House, Dracula, The Munsters, and Nosferatu!

For more information, be sure to pick up 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!

Crossover of the Week

Spring 2010

DARK WAR 

Appearing or mentioned are: the Hyde formula; Dr. Moreau; Jerboa, a werethylacine; Frankenstein Monsters; Audrey IIs; Granny Red, an immortal monster hunter; the Weird Sisters; the Beast with a Million Eyes; the Killer Shrews; the Monster that Challenged the World; the Crawling Eye; Q the Winged Serpent; the Giant Gila Monster; the original Hound of the Baskervilles; Kongar; Reptilikan; the Sea Hag; Dr. Bombay; Chandu; the Blair Witch; a Gill-Man; Carl; and Arthur Van Helsing. 

The third and final Nekropolis novel by Tim Waggoner, 2011. The Hyde formula is from Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Dr. Moreau is either Dr. Alphonse Moreau from H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau or one of his descendants. Jerboa is from the movie The Howling III: The Marsupials. Frankenstein Monsters are from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Audrey II is from the movie The Little Shop of Horrors. Granny Red claims to be the original Little Red Riding Hood. The Weird Sisters are from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes, the Killer Shrews, the Monster that Challenged the World, the Crawling Eye, Q the Winged Serpent, and the Giant Gila Monster are all from the movies of the same name. The original Hound of the Baskervilles is from Doyle and Watson’s eponymous Sherlock Holmes novel. Kongar and Reptilikan are stand-ins for the titular creatures from the movies King Kong and Reptilicus. The Sea Hag is Popeye’s foe from E. C. Segar’s comic strip Thimble Theatre. Dr. Bombay is from the TV series Bewitched. Chandu is from the radio series Chandu the Magician. The Blair Witch is from the movie The Blair Witch Project. The Gill-Man is from the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels. Carl is Carl Kolchak, who previously appeared in the first Nekropolis novel. Arthur Van Helsing is a member of the famous family of monster hunters. 

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!

Crossover of the Week

June 1981

KUMIHO 

Carl Kolchak encounters the fox-maiden from Korean mythology, which can assume the form of a beautiful woman. Tony Vincenzo sends Kolchak to Chicago to cover the de Grandin Metaphysical Symposium. Tony tells Carl there are going to be some important metaphysical speakers there, including John Thunstone, William Sebastian, and Harry Snowden. The moderator is a tall, blonde man named Rhodes. The Kumiho’s former lover shows Kolchak a book called The Darkness Out of the East. Captain Joseph “Mad Dog” Siska is learning tai chi from Master Li Sung. An old contact of Kolchak’s lends him a dog named Casca. 

Short story by Matthew Baugh in Kolchak the Night Stalker: Passages of the Macabre, Dave Ulanski and Tracey Hill, eds., Moonstone Books, 2016. The de Grandin Metaphysical Symposium is named after Seabury Quinn’s occult investigator Jules de Grandin. John Thunstone is one of Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detectives. Thunstone’s The Darkness Out of the East appears in the Jules de Grandin story “The Green God’s Ring.” William Sebastian is from the TV movie Spectre. Harry Snowden is from the TV movies Fear No Evil and Ritual of Evil. Dr. Michael Rhodes is from the TV series The Sixth Sense. Li Sung is a blind martial arts master played by Mako in The Incredible Hulk episodes “Another Path” and “The Disciple.” Mako also played a Triad leader named Li Sung in the Kung Fu: The Legend Continues episodes “Tournament” and “Veil of Tears.” This Li Sung could see and was a descendant of the emperor’s nephew killed by the first Kwai Chang Caine in the original Kung Fu. The two Li Sungs are probably related. Casca is named after the immortal mercenary from Barry Sadler’s novels. This story takes place during Kolchak’s tenure with the Hollywood Dispatch, in a year where June 4 falls on a Thursday. 1981 is the first year after the original run of Kolchak: The Night Stalker that fits that parameter. 

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! Like its predecessors, this volume is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

Spring 2008

NEKROPOLIS 

Ex-Cleveland policeman Matthew Richter is now a zombie P.I. in Nekropolis, a city founded centuries ago by wizards and monsters within a pocket dimension of eternal night where monsters live openly. Appearing or mentioned are Carl; Erich Zann; a Gill-Man; the Transparent Woman; the Mariner; Dr. Moreau; the Phantom of the Paradise; Victor Baron; a female descendant of Dr. Jekyll who uses a version of her forebear’s formula to change genders; and Marley’s ghost. 

2009 novel by Tim Waggoner. Carl is Carl Kolchak, who now runs a newspaper in Nekropolis. Erich Zann is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Music of Erich Zann.” The Gill-Men are from the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels. The Transparent Woman is a descendant of H. G. Wells’ Invisible Man who botched her ancestor’s formula so that only her skin turned invisible, not her organs and skeleton. The Mariner is from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.” Dr. Moreau is either the doctor from H. G. Wells’ novel or a descendant. The Phantom of the Paradise is from the movie of the same name. Victor Baron is one of the monsters created by the Frankenstein family, now living in the Nekropolis and carrying on his creator’s work. Dr. Jekyll needs no introduction. Jacob Marley’s ghost is from Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Nekropolis is similar to the Nightside, from Simon R. Green’s series of novels, but the relationship between the two has yet to be revealed. 

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!

Crossover Cover: King of the Road

 

Are you a Kolchak: The Night Stalker fan?

Then you'll love this entry in R. S. Belcher's Brotherhood of the Wheel series, which has connections to not only that classic show, but also Belcher's Nightwise books, the Cthulhu Mythos, and The X-Files!

For more information, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Just like the first two volumes, this one is an official and AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's invaluable tomes Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I. & Kolchak: The Night Stalker - Unnaturally Normal

 

Carl Kolchak investigates the alleged robbery of a deli by a werewolf. As it turns out, the lycanthrope is a teenager from an alternate reality where a confluence of events known as “the Big Uneasy” caused supernatural beings to come back into existence. The kid’s mother hires zombie private eye Dan Chambeaux, nicknamed Dan Shamble, to find him. The werewolf came to Kolchak’s universe using magical tools (as in hardware) bought from the vampire Vlad the Fence. Dan Shamble appears in a series of novels by Kevin J. Anderson. Vlad the Fence is Dracula’s counterpart in Dan’s universe. 

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 of the Week

Winter 1990
DWELLING IN THE DARK 
Peyton Westlake, aka Darkman, meets with gangster Frank White disguised as his lawyer Joey Dalesio, who he diverted to another location after his meeting with Arty Clay. The vigilante is trying to find out who Robert Durant’s superior was. White and Durant are both members of the Black Coats, whose leader is Colonel Bozzo-Corona. Westlake spends the next several months traveling the country, clashing with Marsellus Wallace and posing as a fixer for Keyser Söze. He also gets valuable information on Gordon Gekko by posing as various employees of Jackson Steinem & Co., after two unsuccessful attempts to question him, first while impersonating FBI Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast and later as reporter Carl Kolchak. Westlake comes face-to-face with the Colonel and his executioner, the Marchef. The Colonel mentions Westlake’s girlfriend, Julie Hastings, and says the last person who was able to hold his own against the Marchef was the Nyctalope. 
Short story by Matthew Dennion in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 16: Voir Dire, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2019; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 27), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2020. Darkman is from the titular movie and its sequels, as are Robert Durant and Julie Hastings. Frank White, Joey Dalesio, and Arty Clay are from the movie King of New York. The Black Coats, Colonel Bozzo-Corona, and the Marchef are from Paul Féval’s crime novels. Marsellus Wallace is from the film Pulp Fiction. Keyser Söze is from the movie The Usual Suspects. Gordon Gekko and Jackson Steinem & Co. are from the movie Wall Street. Special Agent Aloysius Pendergast is the protagonist of a series of novels by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. Carl Kolchak is from the TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. The Nyctalope is Jean de La Hire’s pulp hero. 

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! As with the first two volumes, this latest one is an AUTHORIZED continuation of Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Phases of the Moon: Full Moon

 

Are you a fan of the books and comics put out by Moonstone Books?

Then you'll love this decades-spanning graphic novel which features various characters published by Moonstone, from the Spider to Sheena!

For more information, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3! Much like the first two volumes, this new tome is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 and will be published by Meteor House!

Crossover Cover: Kolchak: The Phoenix Rising

 

Are you a fan of the classic 1970s TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker?

Then you'll love this comic, in which Carl Kolchak meets the protagonist of the 1982 show The Phoenix!

All the juicy details can be found in my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, which will be published by Meteor House! Much like the first two volumes, this new one is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover Cover: Sex, Lies, and Private Eyes

This anthology from Moonstone includes two crossovers. In C.J. Henderson's "The Mind of the Dead," psychometrist Lai Wan comes to the aid of Carl Kolchak when they turn out to be investigating the same series of crimes. Kolchak also encountered Lai Wan in Spring 1997 during the events of Henderson and Joe Gentile’s novel Partners in Crime. September 15 is a Saturday, placing this story in 1997 as well, after Partners in Crime. “The Mind of the Dead” does not address whether Kolchak and Lai Wan have met before. In John Lutz's "Recreational Vehicle," a St. Louis private eye named Nudger travels to Florida to help his girlfriend’s aunt and uncle, who are being blackmailed, and works with his fellow P.I. Fred Carver to resolve the situation. Lutz’s P.I. Fred Carver is in the CU through a mention of Robert B. Parker’s eye Spenser in his first appearance, Tropical Heat, as well as a brief appearance in Robert J. Randisi’s Miles Jacoby novel Hard Look. This crossover brings in Lutz’s other series P.I. character, Alo Nudger.

Crossover Covers: The Black Centipede

In Creeping Dawn: The Rise of the Black Centipede, the titular vigilante makes his debut in Zenith City, battling the evil Doctor Almanac. The Centipede refers to Professor James Moriarty as one of the many people he encountered during his career as a crimefighter. The future Centipede became friends with Howard Lovecraft as a young man after writing to him about the Necronomicon. Miskatonic University is mentioned as fictional. After a comment by the Centipede-to-be, Howard changes the unwieldy title of a story he’s working on to “The Call of Cthulhu.” A crimefighter in New York who laughs a lot and has his own radio show is referenced twice, obviously the Shadow. William Randolph Hearst refers to a certain Chinaman who should trademark the word “insidious,” a reference to Dr. Fu Manchu. The Centipede’s enemy Bloody Mary Jane Gallows fed Doctor Almanac Henry Jekyll’s serum, turning him into a villain. The sequel is Blood of the Centipede, in which the Black Centipede travels to Hollywood to act as a consultant on a movie adaptation of the pulp magazine very loosely based on his exploits, and winds up battling the returning Jack the Ripper. The Ripper possesses the Necronumericon, another book written by Abdul Alhazred, author of the Necronomicon. The Centipede refers to “that guy that lives in the Empire State Building,” whom Amelia Earhart describes as “Doc Do-Good.” This is a reference to Doc Savage. One of the stars of the Black Centipede movie is Nora Desmand, who is meant to be Norma Desmond from Billy Wilder’s 1950 film Sunset Boulevard. The Centipede works with Lieutenant “Big Jack” Matteo of the L.A.P.D., who is meant to be the father of Lieutenant Jack Matteo from the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode “The Vampire.” Sherlock Holmes is mentioned in a flashback to the Ripper’s murder of Mary Jane Kelly. Amelia refers to “that fellow in New York—the one with the chronic private joke,” who has several agents, a reference to the Shadow. The Centipede’s foe Baron Samedi lists individuals who, like the Centipede, played with forces they didn’t fully comprehend, including Faust, Prometheus, and Victor Frankenstein. The third book in the series is Black Centipede Confidential, in which the Centipede battles Professor James Moriarty, who has assumed the mantle of Lord of Vampires after killing the previous holder of the title, Count Dracula. Among the Centipede’s allies in his conflict with Moriarty are J. Alfred Prufrock (from T.S. Eliot’s poem “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”); Gregor Samsa (from Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis”); Walter Gibson and Lester Dent, who describe their working relationships with the men whose lives they fictionalize (the Shadow and Doc Savage, respectively); the faceless assassin Anonymoushka, actually Vionna Moriarty, the Professor’s daughter, who will later use the name Vionna Valis, as seen in Miller’s book Vionna and the Vampires; and an elderly Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty’s own allies include Herbert West. Jack Matteo and the Jekyll formula are mentioned. The portrayal of Moriarty as a vampire, Holmes’ death, and the revelation that Moriarty is really Holmes’ older brother Sherrinford all conflict with Holmes and Moriarty’s established history in the CU. Combined with the portrayal of Miskatonic University and implicitly Cthulhu as fictional in Creeping Dawn, the Black Centipede’s exploits and other related stories by Miller must take place in an alternate universe.

Crossover of the Week

Late January-March 2009

PLAY WITH FIRE

            Occult detectives Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain and their allies – FBI agents Dale Fenton and Colleen O’Donnell, hitman Mal Peters, and a demon using the mortal alias Ashley –battle a cult that is literally trying to raise Hell on Earth. Quincey says that one of his ancestors was a Marshal in Dodge City. Quincey and Libby help occult P.I. Barry Love clear a hellhound out of his office. O’Donnell refers to a report written by Monica Reyes of the New Orleans Field Office. Fenton and O’Donnell’s boss Susan Whitlavich became head of the Behavioral Science Unit after her own boss, Jack Crawford, suffered a fatal heart attack. Whitlavich tells Fenton and O’Donnell that she’s smoothed things over for them with Bernie Jenks at the Las Vegas Field Office.

            Novella by Justin Gustainis, 2012. Quincey’s ancestor is Marshal Matt Dillon from the radio and television series Gunsmoke. Barry Love is a disguised version of Clive Barker’s occult detective Harry D’Amour. Agent Monica Reyes is from The X-Files. Jack Crawford is from Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels. Crawford died of a heart attack in Hannibal. Las Vegas-based FBI agent Bernie Jenks met Carl Kolchak in the TV movie The Night Stalker. Bernie would be elderly by 2009, so this Bernie Jenks must be a relative of his, likely his grandson. The end of this novella leads directly into the next entry in the series, Midnight at the Oasis. However, as explained in the 2011 entry for that novella, Gustainis must have compressed the actual amount of time between the two stories.

Crossover Cover: Kolchak the Night Stalker: The Lost World

Carl Kolchak has heard about two professors from Duke University who seem to run into the bizarre almost as much as he does. Falling asleep, Kolchak enters the dreamplane. The two professors from Duke University are Drs. Hugh Blakely and William Boles, who appear appear in a series of stories by Henderson and Bruce Gehweiler that are collected in Where Angels Fear. The dreamplane is from Henderson's novels featuring Teddy London, a private eye who regularly encounters the supernatural. This novel takes place in March, two years after Kolchak's first encounter with a vampire in The Night Stalker. Since Win placed The Night Stalker in 1970, I have placed The Lost World in March 1972. As with other Kolchak stories published by Moonstone, I am ignoring contemporary references such as the Internet and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to maintain Kolchak's adventures in their original time frame.

Crossover of the Week

April 9-May 1, 2007

EVIL WAYS

            Quincey Morris and Libby Chastain battle the vile Walter Grobius, who has purloined a copy of Abdul Alhazred’s Book of Shadows from an Iraqi museum. An extremely dangerous occultist named Janos Skorzeny is mentioned. Quincey tells FBI Special Agent Dale Fenton that he knew Will Graham and asks if Jack Crawford is still in charge of the Bureau’s Behavioral Science Unit, only to be told that Crawford died of a heart attack some years back. Quincey asks if Fenton is “from the X-Files.” Fenton replies that the X-Files Unit is a myth in a manner that suggests he is quoting somebody. Quincey subsequently heads to Chicago to meet with Harry, the city’s resident wizard, who has problems with machinery. Fenton’s partner Colleen O’Donnell says that she thought Quincey was just a hustler, “like that ‘Ghost Whisperer’ clown.” Quincey and Libby visit a pub whose owner, Mac, gives them a letter from Harry, explaining that he had to miss their appointment because he was called away on Council business. One of Quincey’s other Chicago contacts is a reporter named Carl, who monitors supernatural occurrences in the city, despite his boss Tony repeatedly trying to dissuade him from doing so. Quincey and Libby visit the Ouroboros Bar and Grill in Cleveland, which is owned by a psychic sensitive named Frank, who has a daughter in college named Jordan. He states that about ten years ago he used to work with a group of people who believed that the new millennium would bring about a major supernatural catastrophe. The group managed to prevent this before falling apart. Quincey and Fenton compare Grobius to Keyser Soze. Quincey and Libby’s ally Hannah Widmark, aka “the Widowmaker,” had as a mentor “a shadowy, enigmatic man named Cranston,” who taught her to fire a pair of .45s, had a weird laugh, and once told her that “the weed of Satan bears bitter fruit.” A college professor mentions that Sharon Purcell, alias Shari Sexpert, is giving a talk on campus.

            Novel by Justin Gustainis, 2009. Abdul Alhazred is most famous as the author of the Necronomicon in the Cthulhu Mythos. While some characters in this novel refer to the Necronomicon as fictitious, Quincey’s friend John Wesley Hester counsels him not to be sure of that. There are two villains named Janos Skorzeny in horror fiction: one is the vampire battled by Carl Kolchak in Jeff Rice’s book The Night Stalker and its TV movie adaptation, while the other is a malevolent lycanthrope in the television series Werewolf. The occultist Janos Skorzeny may be a relative of one or both of his namesakes. Will Graham and Jack Crawford are from Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lecter novels. Graham appears in Red Dragon, while Crawford appears in that novel, The Silence of the Lambs, and Hannibal, the latter of which depicts his fatal heart attack. Given references to Dana Scully and Monica Reyes as real people in the first novel in this series, Black Magic Woman, Agent Fenton is obviously providing Quincey with misinformation when he dismisses the X-Files as fictional. Harry is Harry Dresden from The Dresden Files, a series of urban fantasy novels by Jim Butcher. Harry frequents the pub McAnally’s, and is a member of the White Council, which governs the world’s wizard community. “That ‘Ghost Whisperer’ clown” is a reference to Melinda Gordon from the television series Ghost Whisperer. Carl is clearly meant to be Carl Kolchak, whose boss is Tony Vincenzo, although both Carl and Tony would be a bit long in the tooth by this time. However, the 2005 television series Night Stalker featured much younger versions of Carl and Tony based in Los Angeles. It has been conjectured that the Carl Kolchak seen in that series is the nephew of the elder Carl, in which case maybe the younger Tony is Tony Vincenzo Jr. Perhaps the two relocated from Los Angeles to Chicago sometime in the three years since their last recorded appearance. Frank is Frank Black from the television series Millennium. Keyser Soze is the villain of the film The Usual Suspects. Hannah Widmark’s mentor is the Shadow, of course. Shari Sexpert is a character from Gustainis’ earlier novel The Hades Project.

Crossover Covers: My latest acquistions

Some comics I ordered from Moonstone just arrived. The Honey West and T.H.E. Cat comic is unrelated to Win and Matthew Baugh's novel A Girl and Her Cat, though there are references in the latter to Honey and Cat's first meeting in Vegas, as seen in Robbins and Szilyagi's comic.

Crossover Cover: Honey West and Kolchak: High Heels and Hedonism

Crossover of the Week

Winter 1977

THE LOVECRAFTIAN DAMNATION

            Marvin Richards, host of the television program Challenge of the Unknown, once again summons reporter Carl Kolchak, informing him that Dr. Randel Penes is still alive and still in possession of the Necronomicon. Among the names that cursed tome has been known by are the Kitah al-Azif, the Cultus Maleficarum, the Liber Logaeth, and the Necronomicon Ex Mortis. Assisting them in dealing with this threat are Dr. Kirsten Helms and Madame Sarna La Rainelle. Paddy Moran from Bullfinches told Kolchak about La Rainelle. She worked with John Legrasse more than once, helped Anton Zarnak escape from the Tindolosi, and knew Marc Thorner, Ravenwood, and Jules de Grandin. Dr. Penes has merged with the creature he previously summoned, the Nyogtha.

            A Kolchak: The Night Stalker one-shot by C.J. Henderson and Robert Hack, Moonstone Books, 2010. This story serves as a sequel to Henderson’s Kolchak story “What Every Coin Has,” which featured Dr. Penes’ previous use of the Necronomicon. In addition to the aforementioned tale, Richards also appeared in Henderson’s stories “All That Glitters” and “A Forty Share in Innsmouth” and the graphic novel Kolchak: The Night Stalker – The Lovecraftian Horror. The Cultus Maleficarum is from Fred L. Pelton’s “The Sussex Manuscript.” The Liber Logaeth is a real book of alleged Enochian magic that was read by Queen Elizabeth I’s astrologer John Dee, among others. The Necronomicon Ex Mortis is from Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead films. Leprechaun Paddy Moran and his bar Bullfinches (or rather Bulfinche’s) are from Patrick Thomas’ Murphy’s Lore series of books. John Legrasse is from Lovecraft’s classic story “The Call of Cthulhu,” while Anton Zarnak is an occult investigator in several stories by Lin Carter and other authors. La Rainelle (or La Raniella) aided both men in Henderson’s stories “To Cast Out Fear” and “Locked Room,” and also appeared alongside Legrasse in Henderson’s novel To Battle Beyond. The Tindolosi (or Tindlosi) are from Frank Belknap Long’s Cthulhu Mythos tale “The Hounds of Tindalos.” Mark Thorner is a policeman ally of Zarnak’s. Ravenwood, “the stepson of mystery,” was created by Frederick C. Davis and appeared in a backup feature in Secret Agent X. Occult investigator Dr. Jules de Grandin’s exploits were chronicled by Seabury Quinn. The Nyogtha is from Henry Kuttner’s Cthulhu Mythos story “The Salem Horror.” Two television sets in a video editing room are showing the TV series Mystery Science Theater 3000, which debuted in 1988. This detail must be ignored in order to maintain Kolchak’s adventures in their original time period.

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes & Kolchak: The Night Stalker