Crossover Cover: The Undercliffe Sentences

 

In Peter Cannon's story in this anthology, horror author Carl Dreadstone is the guest of honor at a fantasy convention in Brichester, England. Sauron is mentioned among Cthulhu Mythos deities such as Daoloth. Dreadstone recalls seeing Spinal Tap play in 1967. Carl Dreadstone was a “house name” under which several authors, including Ramsey Campbell, published adaptations of the classic Universal monster movies. Here, Dreadstone is a real person. Brichester is the setting of many of Campbell’s Cthulhu Mythos stories. Daoloth is also from Campbell’s Mythos fiction. Sauron is from J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. This story provides further proof that the legendary rock group Spinal Tap is in the CU.

This crossover 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! Much like its predecessors, this latest 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

April 17, 1922

THE COVENTRY STREET TERROR 

Charles St. Cyprian and his assistant Ebe Gallowglass are called in by Special Branch to investigate a series of apparent vampire attacks. Inspector Boothroyd thinks it might be poison, “like that business in Brichester last year.” Vampires are, save for that brief, unpleasant incident during Victoria’s reign so inventively described in Stoker’s book, mostly extinct in England. St. Cyprian says maybe Thibaut de Castries was right when he said, in Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities, that cities were the new dark forest of man’s fear. St. Cyprian considered placing a call to the Westenra Fund but decided against it. Edwin Drood helped the fund’s founding members kill a frisky Wallachian. The head of the fund is Lord Godalming. St. Cyprian tells Gallowglass, “Trout isn’t the most imaginative sort, but he and Cuff know the score. They were involved in that Myrdstone business, a few years back.” They are helped against the vampire by Baron Palman Vordenburg, who mentions a certain theater in the Boulevard du Temple where the undead congregate at times. He identifies the vampire as Lothar Karnstein, who was the lover of Countess Dolingen of Graz. St. Cyprian tells Trout and Cuff that Lothar is not exactly Raffles, running about in disguise. 

Short story by Josh Reynolds in Casefiles of the Royal Occultist Volume Two: Hochmuller’s Hound, 18thWall Productions, 2020. Brichester is a town in the Severn Valley in Ramsey Campbell’s Cthulhu Mythos stories. The brief, unpleasant incident during Victoria’s reign is a reference to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The Westenra Fund is named after the late Lucy Westenra, who was turned into a vampire by Dracula and subsequently staked by Van Helsing and company, including her fiancé, Arthur Holmwood, Lord Godalming. Countess Dolingen of Graz is from Stoker’s “Dracula’s Guest.” Thibaut de Castries and his book Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities are from Fritz Leiber’s novel Our Lady of Darkness. Edwin Drood is from Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Inspector Trout is from the movies The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again. Cuff may be a descendant of Sergeant Cuff from Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone. “The Myrdstone witch-cult” is mentioned in Lin Carter’s Anton Zarnak story “Curse of the Black Pharaoh.” Baron Palman Vordenburg is a descendant of Baron Vordenburg from J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s “Carmilla.” The Karnsteins are Carmilla’s family. The theater in the Boulevard du Temple is the Théâtre des Vampires from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles. A. J. Raffles needs no introduction now. 

For many more crossover writeups like this, check out my book Crossovers Expanded: A Secret Chronology of the World Volume 3, to be published by Meteor House! Much like the first two volumes, this book is an AUTHORIZED companion to Win Scott Eckert's Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World Volumes 1 and 2!

Crossover of the Week

I didn't post anything yesterday because it was my birthday, so here's today's post. :)

December 2010

NIGHT GAUNTLET

Dr. Emil Hesychius’s former office at the University of Texas is covered with souvenir postcards from many places, including: Derry, Maine; Arkham, Massachusetts; Glory, West Virginia; Sesqua Valley, Washington; Brichester, England; Binger, Oklahoma; Mirocaw, Idaho; Crouch End, England; Telfer, Australia; and Nan Madol, Federated States of Micronesia. Hesychius went on a shooting spree from the top of the University’s clock tower, claiming he was shooting “nightgaunts.” John Giloh and Dr. Susan Derby go on a date to see Red Dreams, a Korean horror film directed by Harry Chang. Susan, a member of the Derby-Pickman clan, shows John the Sign of Koth.

Round-robin story by Walter C. Debill, Jr.; Richard Gavin; Robert M. Price; W. H. Pugmire; Jeffrey Thomas; and Don Webb, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March–April 2011. Derry, Maine is featured in many of Stephen King’s works. Arkham, Massachusetts is the site of many of H. P. Lovecraft’s tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Glory, West Virginia is a recurring setting in the works of author Davis Grubb. Sesqua Valley, Washington appears in Cthulhu Mythos tales by W. H. Pugmire. Brichester, England is part of the Severn Valley in Mythos fiction by Ramsey Campbell. Binger, Oklahoma is a real place that appears in Lovecraft and Zealia Bishop’s story “The Mound.” Mirocaw, Idaho is from Thomas Ligotti’s Mythos story “The Last Feast of Harlequin.” Crouch End, England is a real place that served as the setting for Stephen King’s Mythos story “Crouch End.” Telfer is a real place located in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert, the latter of which was referenced in Lovecraft’s story “The Shadow Out of Time.” Nan Madol, Federated States of Micronesia is a real place that was the setting for A. Merritt’s The Moon Pool. The nightgaunts and the Sign of Koth are from Lovecraft’s Dream Cycle stories. Rick Lai writes, “Red Dreams is from the prologue to Ramsey Campbell’s ‘The Franklyn Paragraphs.’ This prologue is generally printed on a page preceding the story, and sometimes has the title ‘Errol Undercliffe: A Tribute.’ Undercliffe is a fictional horror writer whose short story was the basis for Red Dreams.” Dr. Susan Derby is probably related to the namesake of the Nathaniel Derby Pickman Foundation from Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of Madness.”

Crossover of the Week

January 1920

THE WHITECHAPEL DEMON

            The title of Royal Occultist, once held by Thomas Carnacki, has been passed to Charles St. Cyprian, who battles a demonic being that has assumed the persona of Jack the Ripper alongside his assistant, Ebe Gallowglass. St. Cyprian quotes, “That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons, even death may die.” St. Cyprian accuses Robert Gladstone of using a mummy to murder Colonel Warburton and Bertie Moore. One of the members of the Whitechapel Club that summons the demon uses the name Mr. Eddowes, and tells Mr. Kelly, Mr. Nichols, and Mr. Chapman to align themselves to three cardinal points, according to Prinn’s translation of the Incantation of Raaaee. Carnacki allowed a fellow named Dodgson to write about him for The Idler. Carnacki once acted as an apprentice to Edwin Drood. St. Cyprian has inherited Carnacki’s residence at No. 427 Cheyne Walk. Prince Rupert of the Rhine, a previous Royal Occultist, gathered a library that included books by Dee, Strange, and Subtle, as well as lost Pnakotic texts, but that collection was ultimately burned by Oliver Cromwell’s men. Morris, an employee of the Ministry of Esoteric Observation, asks St. Cyprian to look into the murders of several people in Whitechapel; St. Cyprian agrees in exchange for a look at Gough-Thomas’ 1867 translation of the Livre d’Eibon. St. Cyprian asks his apprentice, Ebe Gallowglass, if a spiritualist residing in the house where the murders occurred owned a copy of The Revelations of Glaaki or Harzan’s monograph on lupine waveform entities. St. Cyprian traces the Voorish Sign in the air. St. Cyprian asks if Morris is familiar with the Sigsand Manuscript and Morris replies by asking if the deaths were the result of a Saiitii manifestation. St. Cyprian mentions an affair regarding a man named Bains that Carnacki was involved in before the War. A member of the Whitechapel Club called Stack says that St. Cyprian was associated with Carnacki before the war, along with Arkwright and Dodgson, and mentions that St. Cyprian is a member of the Drones. Morris visits St. Cyprian and Gallowglass, accompanied by men named Mr. Haddo and Mr. Booth. Gallowglass suggests taking Aife Andraste, the medium who conjured up the faux Ripper, to St. Cyprian’s Rosicrucian pal’s place, up the road, or to “that old fraud Klaw, in the East End.” St. Cyprian tells Gallowglass to go to the cabinet in his office and get some oil of Hyssop, a vial of the powder of Ibn Ghazi, and Carnacki’s electric pentacle. Edwin Drood allegedly once faced a tulpa that served as a doppelganger to its creator; this encounter was supposedly distorted into a morality play and given a gloss of science by Robert Louis Stevenson. Attempting to remove traces of the Ripper demon from Andraste’s body, Gallowglass makes the lines of the second sign of the Saaamaaa Ritual within a circle of water, and St. Cyprian traces sacred shapes from the Third and Fourth Rituals of Hloh in the air. Among the books in St. Cyprian’s library are du Nord’s Liber Ivonie in the original French, Artephous’ Key of Wisdom, a concise collected edition of the Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan, Armstrong’s English translation of The Book of Minor Grotesques, the pamphlet edition of The Zanthu Tablets, a partial Negus translation of The Book of Iod, The Garden of Forking Paths by Ts’ui Pen, and The Oldest Rite by Arkady Cottonwood. St. Cyprian refers to an acquaintance named Warren, and later mentions “those boxing lessons I got from Captain Drummond that night in Marseille.” St. Cyprian does not look forward to going up against the Sisterhood of the Rats or the Si-Fan.

            Novel by Josh Reynolds, Emby Press, 2013. Thomas Carnacki, the Incantation of Raaaee, Dodgson, No. 427 Cheyne Walk, Harzan, the Sigsand Manuscript, Saiitii manifestations, Bains, Arkwright, the electric pentacle, and the Saaamaaa Ritual are from William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost-Finder. The quote “That is not dead which can eternal lie and with strange eons, even death may die” is from the Necronomicon, as cited in H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Call of Cthulhu.” The Pnakotic texts are a reference to the Pnakotic Manuscripts that appear in Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos. The Voorish Sign and the powder of Ibn Ghazi are from Lovecraft’s “The Dunwich Horror.” The Seven Cryptical Books of Hsan are mentioned in Lovecraft’s tales “The Other Gods” and “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath.” Warren is from Lovecraft’s story “The Statement of Randolph Carter.” “Colonel Warburton’s madness” is the subject of an unchronicled Sherlock Holmes case mentioned in “The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb.” Prinn is Ludwig Prinn, the author of De Vermis Mysteriis, from Robert Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars.” Edwin Drood must be a relative of the title character of Charles Dickens’ unfinished novel The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Strange is an ancestor of the Marvel Comics magician Doctor Strange. Subtle is from Ben Jonson’s play The Alchemist. The Livre d’Eibon is Gaspard du Nord’s translation of the Liber Ivonie (Book of Eibon) into 13^th century French; the tome appears in various works by Clark Ashton Smith. The Revelations of Glaaki are from Ramsey Campbell’s contributions to the Cthulhu Mythos. The Drones Club is a recurring organization in the works of P.G. Wodehouse. Mr. Haddo must be a relative of Oliver Haddo from W. Somerset Maugham’s novel The Magician. St. Cyprian’s Rosicrucian friend is the French pulp character the Sâr Dubnotal, while “that old fraud Klaw” is Moris Klaw from Sax Rohmer’s collection The Dream Detective. The Si-Fan is the criminal organization run by Rohmer’s most famous creation, Dr. Fu Manchu. The story of Drood’s encounter with the tulpa inspiring Stevenson must be false, since there are numerous stories bringing Dr. Henry Jekyll and his alter ego, Mr. Edward Hyde, into the CU. The Rituals of Hloh are from the Miles Pennoyer stories by Margery Lawrence. The Book of Minor Grotesques is mentioned in other stories by Reynolds. The Zanthu Tablets appear in Cthulhu Mythos stories by Lin Carter, while The Book of Iod and Johann Negus were added to the Mythos by Henry Kuttner. The Garden of Forking Paths is from Jorge Luis Borges’ short story of the same name. Arkady Cottonwood is from Reynolds’ story “Corn Wolf.” Cottonwood’s book The Oldest Rite appears in Reynolds’ short stories set in Jackapo County, South Carolina, as do quotes attributed to him. Captain Hugh “Bulldog” Drummond is the hero of novels written by H.C. McNeile under the pen name “Sapper.”