Crossover Cover: Dracula's Ghost

 

Detective Jennifer Grail and occult investigator Carter Decamp once again do battle with Dracula. Jen borrows Kharrn’s sword from Decamp. Mircalla Karnstein, aka Carla Lim and Carmilla, seeks to resurrect Dracula. Decamp consults the Ruthvenian, and plans to check Pursuivant’s Vampiricon. Decamp arranges for Jen to meet with a contact of Wade Griffin, who is in a relationship with Decamp’s apprentice Charon. Decamp reminds Jen of what Victor told them about Dracula’s first resurrection. Jennifer Grail, Carter Decamp, and Kharrn are recurring characters in Rutledge’s work. Dracula should need no explanation. Mircalla “Carmilla” Karnstein is from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla.” The Ruthvenian is a tome of vampire lore from the connected works of Donald F. Glut. Judge Pursuivant is one of Manly Wade Wellman’s occult detectives. The Vampiricon is mentioned in the Pursuivant stories. Wade Griffin and Charon are from James A. Moore and Rutledge’s Griffin and Price series, in which Decamp is a supporting character. Dracula’s Revenge had Jen and Decamp fighting Dracula alongside the Frankenstein Monster, who had adopted his creator’s first name, Victor.

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: Willow He Walk

 

Are you a Manly Wade Wellman fan?

Then you'll love his story in this program, "Willow He Walk," featuring his character Lee Cobbett, which has references to two of his other occult investigators, Judge Pursuivant and Silver John!

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! Incidentally, Win also masterfully completed the unfinished fourth novel in Philip Jose Farmer's Secrets of the Nine saga, The Monster on Hold, an excerpt from which also appeared in this program!

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: Chastel

Are you a fan of Manly Wade Wellman's Judge Pursuivant?

Then you'll love the crossover in this anthology where he works with another of Wellman's occult detectives, Lee Cobbett!

For all the details, check out Crossovers Expanded Vols. 1 and 2, my AUTHORIZED companions to Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Vols. 1 and 2 by Win Scott Eckert!

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 Cover: The School of Darkness

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

Crossover Cover: Property of a Lady Faire

Eddie Drood seeks out the Lady Faire, an omnisexual being created by Baron Frankenstein later in his life. This Baron is a member of the family seen in Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein and its many continuations. Also appearing or mentioned are: Harry Fabulous, the Nightside, the Painted Ghoul, the London Knights, Kayleigh's Eye, Strangefellows, Dead Boy, Sinister Albion, John Taylor, the Griffin, Hadleigh Oblivion, Rossignol, Ms. Fate, and Larry Oblivion (all from the Nightside series); Dagon, Cthulhu, and the Plateau of Leng (all from H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos); MI13 (the CU version of the branch of British intelligence seen in the Marvel Universe); the Doormouse’s shop (from the Nightside books, though the group of hippies-turned-mice the Doormouse belongs to first appeared in Green's novel Drinking Midnight Wine); Shadows Fall (from Green's novel of the same name); Carcosa (from Ambrose Bierce's short Story "An Inhabitant of Carcosa"); Lud’s Gate (from Green's Ghost Finders novel Spirits from Beyond); old Carnacki (from William Hope Hodgson's Carnacki the Ghost Finder); stuffed baby Morlock (from H.G. Wells' The Time Machine); the Deep School (from Manly Wade Wellman's John Thunstone stories); Jimmy Thunder, God for Hire (from Drinking Midnight Wine); the Bride of Frankenstein (from the titular Universal horror film); and “something from the Black Lagoon" (a reference to another Universal horror film, Creature from the Black Lagoon, and its sequels.)

Crossover Cover: Dark Hollow

Mid-list writer Adam Senft finds himself battling a malignant satyr, Hylinus, after it is summoned in the area of LeHorn’s Hollow and begins hypnotizing and raping the women of rural Pennsylvania. Senft once dated Becky Schrum. There is a reference to a group of deer hunters that died in a mysterious fire near the Hollow. Detective Hector Ramirez appears, and mentions his involvement in a strange bank robbery case two years earlier. Nelson LeHorn’s copy of the Daemonolateria plays a major role in the story, and LeHorn’s diary, written in 1985, states: “I’ve heard tell of a fellow down south, a Korean War vet. Folks call him Silver John. Walks the Appalachians with a silver-stringed guitar and works some really strong powwow. Hear tell he’s got a real nice singing voice, too. But I don’t think he’s ever made it this far north. Sticks below the Mason-Dixon. And there was an old Amish fella, but he passed on five years ago.” The diary also tells the fate of another occultist, Saul O’Connor, who was found dead covered in a strange fungus. Nodens and the rest of the Thirteen are mentioned. Becky Schrum is a minor character from Keene’s novel Ghoul. The fate of the deer hunters is revealed in Keene’s story “Red Wood,” which also marks the first appearance of LeHorn’s Hollow, a major setting in Keene’s work, including Ghost Walk, “Bunnies in August,” and “The Ghosts of Monsters.” Hector Ramirez and the strange bank robbery are from Keene’s novel Terminal. The Daemonolateria is a fictional book of magic that appears throughout Keene’s works. Nelson LeHorn, the original summoner of Hylinus, also appears in Keene’s short story “Stone Tears.” Although Keene’s Lovecraft references often seem at odds with other sources, and are thus only a tenuous link to the CU, the reference to Manly Wade Wellman’s wandering occult hero Silver John ties the main Keene-verse more solidly into the CU. The “old Amish fella” is Amos Stoltzfus, the father of Keene’s ex-Amish magus Levi Stoltzfus, who appears in Ghost Walk, A Gathering of Crows, “The Witching Tree,” and “Last of the Albatwitches.” The weird fungus is a creation of Behemoth of the Thirteen, and can be seen at work in an alternate universe in Keene’s Earthworm Gods trilogy. Nodens is neither the original Celtic deity nor the Elder God of the Cthulhu Mythos, but rather the greatest among the Thirteen, the main villains of Keene’s Labyrinth mythos.

Crossover Cover: The Voice of the Mountain

A sorcerer’s assistant named Alka used to be a librarian at Miskatonic University in Arkham, Massachusetts. This reference connects Wellman's Silver John stories to the Cthulhu Mythos.