Bonus Crossover of the Week (RIP Rick Lai)

Autumn 1866

THE TOMB OF THE VEILED PROPHET 

Anis-ed-Dowleh, the Shah of Persia’s favorite wife, shows Haji Abdu, the Daroga of the Secret Police, the corpse of a handmaiden allegedly murdered by Erik, the court illusionist. Erik mentioned to the Shah’s spouse he had been trained to kill with the Punjabi lasso by the deposed Maharani of Pankot. Haji Abdu and Erik discuss the rebel leader Mokanna, whose cult was led by Abd Dhulma after his death. Erik shows the Daroga a map he acquired in the mountain citadel Yolgan, which has the words, “The Lord of the Empty Abode,” “The Lord of Illusion,” and “The Lord of the Fourth Axis” written on it. Mokanna appears to the duo, saying they have resurrected him by summoning the Three Avatars of Yog-Sothoth. Mokanna names the sorcerers of Lemuria and Attluma, including Thulsa Doom, Kathulos, Rotath, Mardanax, and Descales, each of whom performed the Black Litany to infuse their souls with the Torch Fire of Nug. Erik’s nom de guerre is derived from Erlik of the Dark Star, whom Mokanna describes as a minor entity eclipsed by the cosmic splendor of the Lord of the Fourth Axis and his twin spawn, Nug and Yeb. Mokanna evokes the Moon of Yian, saying Nug demands a Red Offering in exchange for bestowing his Torch Fire upon Erik. 

Short story by Rick Lai in Tales of the Shadowmen Volume 12: Carte Blanche, Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier, eds., Black Coat Press, 2015; reprinted in French in Les Compagnons de l’Ombre (Tome 20), Jean-Marc Lofficier, ed., Rivière Blanche, 2017. Haji Abdu is from Sir Richard Francis Burton’s poem “The Kasîdah of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî.” He is also mentioned in Philip José Farmer’s authorized Doc Savage novel Escape from Loki. Lai conflates Haji Abdu with the Persian from Gaston Leroux’s The Phantom of the Opera. Erik is the title character of that book. Pankot is from the movie Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Mokanna is from “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” the first of four poems in Thomas Moore’s collection Lalla-Rookh, as well as Sax Rohmer’s The Mask of Fu Manchu. Abd Dhulma is from G. G. Pendarves’ “Abd Dhulma, Lord of Fire.” Yolgan is from Robert E. Howard’s El Borak stories. The Lord of the Empty Abode is the title of Yog in Robert E. Howard’s Conan story “Shadows in Zamboula.” “The Lord of Illusion” and “The Lord of the Fourth Axis” are stories by E. Hoffmann Price. Here, the three Lords are all avatars of Yog-Sothoth, one of the Great Old Ones of H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos. Attluma and Descales are from the works of David C. Smith. Thulsa Doom is from Howard’s Kull tale “The Cat and the Skull.” Kathulos is from Howard’s “Skull-Face” and “Taverel Manor,” the latter completed posthumously by Richard A. Lupoff. Rotath is from the Kull story “The Curse of the Golden Skull.” Mardanax is from Lin Carter’s Thongor novels. Nug and Yeb are from various Lovecraft collaborations: “Out of the Aeons” (co-written by Hazel Heald), “The Mound” (coauthored by Zealia Bishop), and “The Last Test” (co-penned by Adolph de Castro). The Black Litany of Nug and Yeb is from Joseph S. Pulver’s poem of the same name. Erlik of the Dark Star is from Robert W. Chambers’ The Dark Star. The Moon of Yian is from Chambers’ “The Maker of Moons.” The Red Offering is from Lin Carter’s Cthulhu Mythos story of the same name. 

As I wrote on Facebook yesterday, RIP my friend Rick Lai, an amazing human and writer. In the 1980s, he wrote articles expanding on the Wold Newton concepts of Philip Jose Farmer and continued it after the Wold Newton websites began appearing with Win Scott Eckert’s in 1997. He broke into fiction writing beginning with the story “The Last Vendetta” in the first TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN anthology, and consistently turned out quality work. I am honored to have had my first published story in close proximity to his contribution in the last TALES. I was constantly in awe of the depth of his knowledge and retention of pop cultural details, and I genuinely believe he was a genius. We also shared a love of Spaghetti Westerns, which he drew from often in his fiction. I’m in shock right now, and I am deeply saddened that I will never see him again. FarmerCon this year will be bittersweet without him.

Crossover Cover: The Bride of the Hound

 

In this story by Joshua M. Reynolds, Charles St. Cyprian, Nadja Highmill, and Philip Wendy-Smythe attend a party at Myrdstone Manor. Carnacki’s death at Ypres is mentioned. Nadja has said barely two words to their host, Delilah Myrdstone, since Gussie’s Christmas party last year. Delilah’s fiancé Mueller tells St. Cyprian certain translations of the Bible reference “the ghouls that burrow.” Wendy-Smythe mentions the primitive buildings found at Exham Priory a few years ago and says von Juntz was right about ghouls. “The Myrdstone Witch-Cult” is mentioned in Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak story “Curse of the Black Pharaoh.” Carnacki is from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki, the Ghost-Finder. Carnacki’s death was likely staged, given his post-World War I appearances in the CU. Gussie is Gussie Fink-Nottle from P. G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves books. The Biblical references to “the ghouls that burrow” are fictional and derived from Robert Barbour Johnson’s “Far Below.” Exham Priory is from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls.” Friedrich von Juntz, the author of Unaussprechlichen Kulten, is from Robert E. Howard’s Mythos fiction.

This crossover is one of over a thousand covered in 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: Tales from the Hanging Monkey Volume 2

 

In Crossovers Expanded Volume 1, I covered all four stories in the anthology Tales from the Hanging Monkey Volume 1, published by Airship 27 Productions. Two of the stories in the second volume have crossovers.

In Don Gates' "The Star of the Sea," a mysterious woman named Moira LeCain tells Corky O’Brian, the owner of the Hanging Monkey bar on the island of Motugra, about the sea creatures known as the Abyss Dwellers: “It is theorized that they have ties with the Deep Ones that are spoken about in the Ponape Scriptures, or with a particular kind of amphibian creature that are known to reside in certain black lagoons of the Amazon.” The Deep Ones are from H. P. Lovecraft’s “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” The Ponape Scripture is from Lin Carter’s stories set in the milieu of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The kind of amphibian creature known to reside in certain black lagoons of the Amazon is a reference to the Gill-Man from the movie Creature from the Black Lagoon and its sequels.

In Lee Houston, Jr. and Nancy A. Hansen's "The Merciless Mermaid," Corky and friends battle a beautiful redheaded villain named Sirene and her crew of treasure seekers. Ultimately, Sirene and her men escape with a chest containing their quarry. One of the sailors, Sirene’s father, asks, “Ya have any idea how your client knew about it, let alone why he’s willing to pay so much for a small statue of a black enameled bird?” The statue is the Maltese Falcon, from Dashiell Hammett’s novel of the same name. There is a reference to the mess brewing in Europe, placing this story during World War II. 

These two crossovers are among hundreds I've written up for my latest 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 Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert!

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.