Crossover Cover: The Hunting of Philip Ackroyd

 

Are you an Algernon Blackwood fan?

Then you'll love Josh Reynolds' Royal Occultist story in this anthology, which has a nod to one of Blackwood's Dr. John Silence stories, among other crossovers!

For more information, be sure to purchase 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 of the Week

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!

Crossover of the Week

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!

Crossover Cover: The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal

This collection features occult detective Simon Feximal and his biographer and lover, Robert Caldwell. In "The Caldwell Ghost," Feximal says the Third Line of the Saaamaaa Ritual, on which he and his fellow ghost-hunter Carnacki had done such perilous research. The Saaamaa Ritual and Carnacki are from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. In "Remember, Remember," Mr. Lownie, editor of the Chronicle, tells Caldwell that Feximal is at Hartley House "with Miss Kay and Dr. Berry. Carnacki’s in Ireland chasing some haunting, else he’d be there too, I hear." According to Robert, "that list encompassed the best-known ghost-hunters in England, with the exception of the reclusive Dr. Silence." Dr. Silence is the title character of Algernon Blackwood's collection John Silence. In "Devils on Horseback," Feximal is a member of the Diogenes Club, to which he had been nominated by one of his more peculiar acquaintances, a Government man whose intellectual capacity is matched only by his corpulence. Both Simon and Caldwell are members of a club called the Remnant, whose members include Dr. Silence, Thomas Carnacki, and Dr. Nikola. The Diogenes Club and the corpulent Government man (Mycroft Holmes) are from the Sherlock Holmes stories. Nikola is a supervillain created by Guy Boothby. In "The Writing on the Wall," Feximal and Caldwell encounter the occultist Karswell. Dr. Silence appears, and the Saaamaaa Ritual and John Watson are mentioned. Karswell is from M. R. James’ story “Casting the Runes.” Dr. John Watson is Sherlock Holmes’ best friend and biographer.

Crossover of the Week

October 31, 1921

THE GOTTERDAMMERUNG GAVOTTE

Charles St. Cyprian and Ebe Gallowglass team up with a group of occult detectives to prevent the Great Old Ones from being unleashed upon the world. Appearing or mentioned are: Semi Dual; No. 472 Cheyne Walk; Harley Warren; John Silence; Ravenwood; Sar Dubnotal; de Grandin; Thunstone; Pursuivant; Ms. Crerar; Kirowan; Zarnak; Thomas Carnacki; the Nameless One; a Tibetan lama with an unhealthy fascination for the color green; the Third Ritual of Hloh; Tserpchikopf; the Great Detective; the Hog; the Shambler; the Walker; the Lurker; the Yimghaz Sign; fire vampires; the dust of Ibn Gazi; Naacal; Thorne; openers and closers; the Drones Club; and Captain Drummond.

Story by Josh Reynolds in The Lovecraft eZine #18, Mike Davis, ed., October 2012. Semi Dual is an occult detective created for the pulps by J. U. Giesy. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. Carnacki lives at No. 472 Cheyne Walk. The Hog is from the Carnacki story of the same name. Harley Warren appears in H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Statement of Randolph Carter,” and is mentioned in “The Silver Key” and “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” The Naacal language is also from “Through the Gates of the Silver Key.” John Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection of the same name. Ravenwood was the hero of a series of stories by Frederick C. Davis in the pulp magazine Secret Agent X; the Nameless One is Ravenwood’s Tibetan mystic mentor. The Sar Dubnotal was the subject of a French pulp series by an anonymous author who may have been Norbert Sevestre. Tserpchikopf is one of the mystic’s foes. Jules de Grandin is an occult detective created by Seabury Quinn. John Thunstone is the hero of a series of stories by Manly Wade Wellman, as is Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant. Rowley Thorne is Thunstone’s archenemy. Ms. Crerar is Sheila Crerar, an occult detective appearing in stories by Ella Scrymsour. John Kirowan is a recurring character in the works of Robert E. Howard. Anton Zarnak is an occult investigator created by Lin Carter; his adventures have been continued by a number of other authors. The Tibetan lama is Kendell Crossen’s pulp hero the Green Lama. The Ritual of Hloh and the Yimghaz Sign are from “The Case of the Bronze Door,” one of Margery Lawrence’s stories about psychic detective Miles Pennoyer. The Great Detective is Sherlock Holmes, of course. The Shambler is a reference to Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars.” The Walker is Ithaqua (aka the Wind-Walker), from August Derleth’s story of the same name. The Lurker is Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep; the Lurker appellation is an allusion to Derleth’s The Lurker at the Threshold. Fire vampires are from Donald Wandrei’s story “The Fire Vampires.” The Dust of Ibn Gazi is from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The openers and closers are from Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October; although the events of that novel have been placed in an alternate universe, there is nothing to prevent the Crossover Universe from having openers and closers of its own. The Drones Club is a recurring London gentlemen’s club in the interconnected works of P. G. Wodehouse. Captain Drummond is H. C. McNeile’s hero Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond.

Crossover Cover: Remnant

In this e-novella, ghost hunter Simon Feximal and his biographer and lover Robert Caldwell join forces with visiting American scholar and sorcerer Percival Endicott Whyborne and his own partner, ex-Pinkerton Griffin Flaherty, to investigate an occult menace in England. Feximal reads a news story about Whyborne’s visit that says that he discovered the tomb of the pharaoh Nephren-ka. Whyborne looks at a drawing of an Egyptian tablet in his notebook and recognizes Apep, the serpent of chaos, who is sometimes associated with Nyarlathotep. Whyborne and Flaherty initially speculate that Caldwell may be a member of a cult called the Eyes of Nodens. Feximal and Caldwell later take Whyborne and Flaherty to a private club called the Remnant, run by the Hesselian Society of Occult Investigation. It is said that one may meet the ghost-finder Thomas Carnacki at the Remnant on his usual storytelling Thursdays (which are best avoided), and that Dr. Silence always takes one of the small bedrooms on his infrequent trips to town. Feximal snaps at Whyborne that the Saaamaaa Ritual is not sorcerous. This story is a team-up between the occult detectives of  K.J. Charles’ The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal series and Jordan L. Hawk’s Whyborne & Griffin series. Nephren-ka is from H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos tale “The Haunter of the Dark.” In Lovecraft’s Mythos fiction, Nyarlathotep is one of the malevolent Great Old Ones, while Nodens is a benevolent Elder God. The Hesselian Society of Occult Investigation is named after Dr. Martin Hesselius from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s short story collection In a Glass Darkly, considered by many to be one of the first occult detectives in fiction. Thomas Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s collection Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, while Dr. Silence is from Algernon Blackwood’s collection John Silence. The Saaamaaa Ritual is from the Carnacki stories “The Gateway of the Monster,” “The House Among the Laurels,” and “The Whistling Room.”

Crossover Cover: Sherlock Holmes: The Breath of God

Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Watson, and Thomas Carnacki against Aleister Crowley, Julian Karswell, and Dr. John Silence. Carnacki is the archetypal occult detective, created by William Hope Hodgson. Karswell is from M.R. James’ story “Casting the Runes,” though his first name of Julian comes from Jacques Tourneur’s film version of the story, Night of the Demon. Dr. Silence is another occult investigator appearing in six stories by Algernon Blackwood. There are also references to Dr. Hesselius (from “Green Tea” and other stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu), Lawrence Van Helsing (from Hammer Studios’ Dracula films), Charles Kent (from the Hammer film Dracula: Prince of Darkness), and Mocata Grange (from Adams’ Big Finish audio play Iris Rides Out, featuring Carnacki and Iris Wildthyme, a character created by Paul Magrs for his Phoenix Court novels, who was revealed to be a Time Lady in his tie-in fiction for Doctor Who; the name Mocata Grange is an allusion to the occultist Mocata from Dennis Wheatley’s novel The Devil Rides Out.) This novel takes place December 27, 1899-New Year’s Day, 1900. However, Dr. Silence’s portrayal as a villain (albeit misguided rather than truly malevolent) and his death do not fit with Blackwood’s tales. Additionally, Kim Newman’s serial novella “Seven Stars” establishes that in the CU, Dr. Silence was still alive and active in 1942. Therefore, I have placed this novel in an AU.

Crossover Covers: Number Seven, Queer Street

In the introduction to this collection, Jerome Latimer, sidekick to psychic detective Miles Pennoyer, writes, “There are not many people who are fortunate enough to know these selfless and splendid people, the psychic doctors—and there are still fewer books that record the wonders they can do and are still doing. Algernon Blackwood’s book John Silence was one of the first, and Dion Fortune’s book The Secret of Dr. Taverner is another…” Latimer’s comments treat Drs. Silence and Taverner as coexistent with Pennoyer. Pennoyer also appears in the collection Master of Shadows and the short story “The Case of the Double Husband,” included in August Derleth’s anthology Dark Things. Also, the Rituals of Hloh, which come from the Pennoyer stories, are mentioned in several of Josh Reynolds' Royal Occultist stories.

Crossover Cover: The Jade Suit of Death

The Jade Suit of Death is Josh Reynolds' second full-length novel featuring his series character Charles St. Cyprian, England's Royal Occultist handling supernatural threats to Queen and Country, and his assistant, Ebe Gallowglass. As with most of the other Royal Occultist stories, there are plenty of crossovers in this one. Once again, St. Cyprian's predecessor Thomas Carnacki (from William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder) is mentioned several times. Lady Molly Robertson-Kirk, the title character of Baroness Orczy's Lady Molly of Scotland Yard, has a supporting role. New Pulp author Jim Beard's occult detective Sgt. Janus is alluded to. A character is described as part of the "Kensington Circle" of occultists, which also included John Silence (from Algernon Blackwood's collection of the same name), the Sar Dubnotal (a French pulp character created by an anonymous author), and Flaxman Low (from E. and H. Heron's Ghosts; Being the Experiences of Flaxman Low.) St. Cyprian has a figurine of a falcon in his Cheyne Walk home (the Maltese Falcon, of course.) There are others that will be covered in my writeup for the novel in the book. Josh Reynolds is a wonderful writer, and I highly recommend his work.