Crossover of the Week

September-October 2012

A HELL WITHIN 

Sheriff Carl Price and mercenary turned private eye Wade Griffin combat a series of killings committed by a demon summoned by a madman. Griffin asks their ally, occult expert Carter Decamp, if Kharrn’s weapons can stop a demon, and if this has anything to do with the Moon-Eyes or the Old Ones. Carl and Griffin are aided by psychometrist Cindy Kane, whose father is also a medium. Decamp gives Griffin a demon-detecting compass once belonging to Thomas Carnacki. Decamp and his apprentice Charon, Griffin’s girlfriend, have brunch at a waffle house recommended to Decamp by an associate, Deacon Chalk. Browsing Decamp’s library, Cindy recognizes a lot of volumes that her father and Decamp’s mutual friend Adam has in his own collection, including Kirowan’s Myths of the Little People. Decamp possesses a silver-edged sword that once belonged to another occult investigator. Carl is attacked by Hellhounds, which are described as “the Black Dogs, Old Shuck, and the great beasts of the Baskervilles.” 

Novel by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge, 2018. Kharrn is an immortal barbarian featured in several of Rutledge’s works. The Great Old Ones are from the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft. Carl and Griffin encountered one of the Great Old Ones, Shub-Niggurath, in their first appearance, Blind Shadows. Cindy Kane’s father is Elliot Kane, a medium and friend of Dr. Adam Spektor in Donald F. Glut’s comic book The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. “Occult bounty hunter” Deacon Chalk is the protagonist of a series of novels by James R. Tuck. Kirowan is Robert E. Howard’s occult detective John Kirowan, who encountered the Little People in “The Children of the Night.” Blind Shadows implied Decamp’s sword was the same one once wielded by Manly Wade Wellman’s character Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. The great beasts of the Baskervilles are a reference to Doyle and Watson’s Sherlock Holmes novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. 

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

Crossover of the Week

I covered James A. Moore and Charles Rutledge's book Blind Shadows in a previous post. Today, I give you my write-up of its sequel.

Late August 2012

CONGREGATIONS OF THE DEAD

            Sheriff Carl Price and Wade Griffin battle the Reverend Lazarus Cotton and his congregation of vampires. Price and Griffin’s ally Andy Hunter refers to an old colleague of his named Crowley. Another ally, Carter Decamp, reminds Griffin that he said that the Great Old Ones only have limited power on Earth because our reality is naturally resistant to supernatural forces. Griffin’s girlfriend Charon recognizes copies of Unspeakable Cults and the Ruthvenian in Decamp’s personal library of occult texts. Decamp says that he only knows of two other surviving copies of the Ruthvenian, a book of lore and spells dealing with vampires, both of which are in the possession of a colleague of his. Charon remarks that she thought the Ruthvenian was a myth like Alhazred’s Necronomicon, but Decamp indicates that the Necronomicon may not be mythical. Charon notes that Pursuivant’s Vampiricon suggests garlic as a means of repelling vampires.

            Novel by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge, Arcane Wisdom Press, 2013. Jonathan Crowley is a recurring character in Moore’s fiction. The Great Old Ones are at the center of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos; Price and Griffin battled one of the Old Ones, Shub Niggurath, in their first appearance, Blind Shadows. The Necronomicon, penned by Abdul Alhazred, also plays a prominent role in the Mythos. Friedrich von Juntz’s Unspeakable Cults (or Unaussprechlichen Kulten in the original German) is a Cthulhu Mythos tome created by Robert E. Howard. The Ruthvenian is a recurring book in the interconnected fiction of Donald F. Glut. Decamp’s colleague who owns the other two surviving copies of the book is Dr. Adam Spektor, from Glut’s comic book series The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor. The Vampiricon was authored by Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detective Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant, and is mentioned in the Pursuivant stories.

 

Crossover Cover: Dracula's Vampire Legion

Crossover Cover: The Night Lakota Died

In this issue, Dr. Adam Spektor encounters Dr. Solar, who had his own series from Gold Key in the 1960s. It is revealed that Solar now works for government intelligence, reporting to a man named Nick. A text piece in The Occult Files of Dr. Spektor #23 identifies the agency Dr. Solar works for as "the law-enforcement division for international espionage, supreme headquarters." The implication is that Solar works for S.H.I.E.L.D., answering to Nick Fury.

Crossover Cover: The Dungeon of Frankenstein

Crossover Covers: Blind Shadows

In this novel by James A. Moore and Charles R. Rutledge, set in Wellman, Georgia, Sheriff Carl Price and his friend, private investigator Wade Griffin, join forces to avenge the death of a mutual friend, and ultimately find that the murder had supernatural connections. Price and Griffin’s ally Carter Decamp owns a silver-edged blade etched with Latin words, which once belonged to an old family friend, a judge from North Carolina. This is a reference to Manly Wade Wellman's occult detective Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. The town of Wellman was named after the author, while Carter Decamp's name is a tribute to writers Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp. Another comrade of Price and Griffin, Andy Hunter, calls an occult expert named Jonathan Crowley seeking help in identifying the charms on a necklace. Crowley appears in other novels by James A. Moore. Decamp was given a first edition of Malleus Maleficarum as a gift by his friend Adam, who is meant to be Dr. Adam Spektor from Donald F. Glut's comic book The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor. Decamp also owns the bound manuscript for an unpublished book on demons written by a doctor named Trowbridge. This is a reference to Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, the sidekick of Seabury Quinn's occult investigator Dr. Jules de Grandin. It is revealed that the death of Griffin and Price’s friend was orchestrated by the Blackbourne family, who are attempting to bring Shub Niggurath, one of the Great Old Ones of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, into this universe. Price and Griffin returned in Moore and Rutledge's Congregations of the Dead, which I may cover at some point.

Crossover Cover: Dr. Spektor and Mr. Hyde