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

Summer 1967

YORKSHIRE STONES AND AMERICAN BARONS 

A Colonel and Sergeant summon Johnny Rich and May. The Colonel says the third Baron Tennington is in danger, but Johnny corrects him, saying that he has been dead for centuries, that one of his ancestors was familiar with the 11th Baron in 1795, and that the Colonel is talking about Stephen Tennington, the third Baron Darrowby. Johnny’s father mentored him in occult matters. May, who is of Manchu and English descent and has a contentious relationship with her grandfather and mother, dons a shooter’s vest with over a dozen small pockets, a smaller version of one worn by one of Johnny’s relatives, an adventurer of some note in the past. Their enemy, Jill Pole, is a Pict who worships the Moon-Woman. Johnny carries a sword cane whose silver blade, supposedly one of several forged by St. Dunstan, bears the inscription, “Sic pereant omnes inimici tui,” or “Thus perish all your enemies.” Johnny and May encounter another of the Moon-Woman's subjects, Thun Bronze Spear, son of Ka-Nu, son of Ka-Nu, who mentions King Bran and Gonar the Ancient. Johnny knows a French Japanese criminal who frequently uses grappling hooks in his thefts. 

Short story by Frank Schildiner in Johnny Rich, Pro Se Productions, 2018. The Colonel and Sergeant are Colonel Ross and Harry Palmer from Len Deighton’s spy novels. George Edward Rutherford, the 11th Baron Tennington, is from Philip José Farmer’s Tarzan Alive. The 11th Baron, who was present at the Wold Newton meteor strike in 1795, has several famous descendants, including Lord Greystoke and Professor Challenger. Darrowby, Yorkshire is from James Herriot’s It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet. Johnny Rich’s father is Dennis Wheatley’s occult adventurer the Duke de Richleau. May’s grandfather is Fu Manchu, and her mother is the Devil Doctor’s daughter Fah Lo Suee. Johnny’s relative is a certain golden-eyed pulp superman. The Moon-Woman is from Robert E. Howard’s Bran Mak Morn story “Worms of the Earth.” Ka-Nu is from Howard’s Kull stories. Gonar is from the Bran Mak Morn stories. Two of St. Dunstan’s other silver blades are carried by Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detectives Judge Pursuivant and John Thunstone. The French Japanese criminal is Monkey Punch’s manga character Lupin III, the grandson of Maurice Leblanc’s gentleman thief Arsène Lupin. 

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: John Thunstone's Inheritance

Sabine Loel suggests John Thunstone bring his friend Jules de Grandin along to investigate the supernatural phenomena at Bertram Dower House, but de Grandin and Dr. Trowbridge are busy with cases of their own.

Crossover Cover: The Dead Man's Hand

John Thunstone places a phone call from Pennsylvania Station, telling the person on the other end he’s sorry he and Dr. Trowbridge can’t come. Thunstone is talking to Seabury Quinn’s occult detective Dr. Jules de Grandin.

Crossover Cover: Hoofs

In this story by Manly Wade Wellman, John Thunstone tells Countess Monteseco he has to catch a plane to investigate a case with Judge Pursuivant.

Crossover Cover: Shonokin Town

The July 1946 issue of Weird Tales contains the story "Shonokin Town" by Manly Wade Wellman. John Thunstone wishes the late Lovecraft, who “knew so much about the legend of Other-People, from before human times, and how their behaviors and speech had trickled a little into the ken of the civilization known to the wakeaday world,” and de Grandin could see and hear the Shonokins. The H. P. Lovecraft reference implies John Thunstone exists in the same universe as Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. Jules de Grandin is an occult investigator created by Seabury Quinn.

Crossover Cover: Casting the Stone

In John Pocsik's contribution to this 1964 Arkham House anthology, an occultist’s library includes The Book of Eibon, Cultes des Goules, Judge Pursuivant’s Vampiricon, and John Thunstone’s Myth Patterns of the Shonokins. The Book of Eibon and Cultes des Goules are tomes associated with the Cthulhu Mythos, and were created by Clark Ashton Smith and Robert Bloch respectively. Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant is the protagonist of a series of stories by Manly Wade Wellman; The Vampiricon is mentioned in the Pursuivant stories. John Thunstone is another Wellman hero, who sometimes battled the man-like creatures known as the Shonokins; however, the book Myth Patterns of the Shonokins is Pocsik’s invention.

Crossover Cover: The Letters of Cold Fire

John Thunstone’s foe Rowley Thorne is unsuccessful in acquiring a copy of the Necronomicon, and instead acquires a book belonging to a student of the Deep School, an extradimensional school that provides students with instruction in sorcery. The reference to the Necronomicon provides further proof John Thunstone’s exploits take place in the CU.

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: The School of Darkness

John Thunstone and a number of allies (including Judge Pursuivant) battle Rowley Thorne at a symposium on American folklore.