#thomas carnacki

[chronivore]

Jules De Grandin Ghost-Breaker

[thomascarnacki]

Contemplating the Moon.

Apologies to Caspar David Friedrich

[ozkar-krapo]

THOMAS CARNACKI / VULCANUS 68

"Split LP"

(split LP. Alethiometer rcds / Gigante Sound. 2013 / rec. 2008-10/13) [US]

[publicdomaincharacters]

Here is a public domain character,Thomas Carnacki from The Idler

[muatyland]

Thomas Carnacki. Il cacciatore di fantasmi. Tutti i racconti

Molto prima che i detective del soprannaturale protagonisti di programmi televisivi come Medium e Ghost Whisperer arrivassero in onda c’era Thomas Carnacki, l’investigatore dell’occulto frutto dell’immaginazione di William Hope Hodgson. Pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1913, Thomas Carnacki – Il cacciatore di fantasmi contiene nove avventure che vedono protagonista il famoso acchiappafantasmi,…

[opencharacters]

Copyright Smuggling: Doctor Who

I've talked in the past about how The Doctor not having a name or permanent appearance is very easily molded to be put into your own derivative fiction.

Even so, perhaps you want to incorporate more whovian elements into your story. While things like the Daleks are obviously off the table, there are characters and enemies that are public domain in the whoniverse that are ripe for the picking.

I'm linking pages to the public domain versions of these characters. But have listed here where they show up in the Doctor Who expanded universe.

Cernunnos - Leader of the Original Mammoths (proposed identity of "the Enemy" from the War in Heaven) appeared first in the Faction Paradox books The Book of the War.

Doctor Omega - 1906 novel about a scientist who builds a machine that can travel through time and space. He's similar enough to be able to be molded into the role of the Doctor.

Dorian Gray - Character from the Bernice Summerfield audio drama "Shades of Gray" that has similar abilities of eternal youth as the literary character we know. He eventually got his own Big Finish audio drama series The Confessions of Dorian Gray

Ganieda - Said to be Merlin's sister in the short story A Honeycomb of Souls.

Hastur the Unspeakable - Fenric according to the novel All-Consuming Fire

Merlin - From various accounts is suggested to be an incarnation of the doctor, including the aforementioned A Honeycomb of Souls

Nyarlathotep - Suggested to be the doctor in the novel The Death of Art

Sherlock Holmes - According to The Book of the Enemy during the War in Heaven although he was a real person in the whoniverse his life got erased and turned into fiction

Thomas Carnacki - Has met the second doctor as well as Vastra, Jenny Flint, and Strax according to The Screaming Ceiling audio and the Foreign Devils novel

Yog-Sothoth - The Great Intelligence according to the book Millennial Rites

In addition to this there's also the Land of Fiction which is a realm canon to the doctor who series filled with public domain characters

Go forth and write your Doctor Who pastiches, nothing is stopping ya!

[maxwell-grant]

Since it's been going around, how would various pulp heroes take on the Death Note murders, and would they survive the ordeal?

A couple of clarifications:

There is a possibility that Ogon Bat, who is a "God of Justice", is either already some kind of shinigami, or at least able to speak with and interact with Ryuk just fine.

The Golden Amazon and Emilia the Ragdoll could definitely kick Kira's ass and solve the case, but they absolutely should not be aware of the existence of the Death Note, that would just make things worse.

You'd think The Monarch / The Blue Morpho getting his hands on the Death Note would be an equally apocalyptic scenario but I don't think he'd even know what to do with it. He very clearly just wants to get one guy, and became the Blue Morpho so he could kill everyone standing in the way of getting that guy, and he's very clearly been putting off killing that one guy for years now. The Death Note is the solution to a problem he defines his life around trying and failing to solve. He'd be stumped.

Doc Savage, well on one hand of course he would solve the case, he's Doc Savage, if Kira was in a Doc Savage story the whole Shinigami business would have been smoke and mirrors perpetrated by criminals with access to a heart attack inducing machine with a perfectly logical explanation. On the other hand, Doc Savage is one of the only guys in here who is globally famous with his full name and face on the papers, so realistically Kira would nail him very quickly. I'm gonna split the difference by saying Doc would solve the case either way.

Nick Carter does most of the things Doc Savage does except he actually does regularly encounter weird fantastical kitchen sink bullshit on the regular, so I think he'd have a much easier time wrapping his head around the Death Note's particulars.

The Spider would not intuit the mechanics of the Death Note, he probably would not be aware of there even being a thing as a Death Note, but by the end of the story in the last paragraph he would have killed Kira one way or another, very possibly by accident. Same goes for the sword-n-sorcery characters featured there, they would have gotten their kills by the end of it (Spear would probably have the easiest time, he's just a caveman with a giant tyrannosaurus on his side and neither of them have names Light can use to kill them, he's fucked)

Six-Gun Gorilla does have a name that Light could use, but A: He would never find out, B: He would never think a gorilla would be his undoing, and C: There's a decent chance Ryuk would let the gorilla hunt and kill him because it's funny and so would be handing Six-Gun Gorilla the Death Note.

Nyctalope would probably survive Kira's usual method of execution given his heart is artificial, but I don't think he'd be able to crack the case, he's not much of a detective. A lot of these characters were chosen because they have different skillsets that don't make them as suited for uncovering this case regardless of how smart they are.

There is a decent chance that Hugo Danner would figure out Kira by complete accident, and most likely beg Light to find a way to kill him.

Nick and Nora Charles would not solve it but they'd be okay, the case would probably solve itself and they'd laugh it off.

I could also put Blue Morpho, El Sombra, The Whisperer, Black Bat and Hugo Danner in a "Would somehow make the situation worse" category.

Putting the names of the characters below the cut:

Can intuit the mechanics / Can solve the case -The Shadow, Arsene Lupin, Sherlock Holmes, Mexican Fantomas -Heiji Zenigata, Ogon Bat, Thomas Carnacki, Silver John/John the Balladeer, Sar Dubnotal -Nero Wolfe, Tom Strong, Tesla Strong, Nick Carter, Captain Harlock, Golden Amazon -Ducky (Lavender Jack), Rufus Carter, Theresa Ferrier (Lavender Jack), Emilia the Ragdoll, Carmen Sandiego, Rocambole

Can intuit the mechanics / Could not solve the case -The Spirit, The Phantom, Edison Hark (The Good Asian), Lavender Jack -G-8, Green Lama, Peter Cannon, Jules Grandin, Wesley Dodds, Judex -Indiana Jones, Spider-Man Noir, John Blacksad, John Thunstone, Nyctalope, Tintin, Solomon Kane

Cannot the mechanics / Can solve the case -The Spider, The Avenger, Doc Savage, Honoria Crabb -Assane Diop, Conan the Barbarian, Lobster Johnson, Tarzan, Dick Tracy -Flash Gordon, Professor Challenger, Red Sonja, Scrooge McDuck, Imaro -Byomkesh Bakshi, Six-Gun Gorilla, Spear (Primal), Black Terror, The Blue Morpho

Cannot intuit the mechanics / Could not solve the case -Moon Man, Green Hornet & Kato, Lone Ranger, The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh -Phillip Marlowe, Domino Lady, Rocketeer, Miss Fury, Hugo Danner, John Carter -Zorro, Black Bat, El Sombra, Shaft, Sailor Steve Costigan -Darkman, The Whisperer, Nick & Nora Charles, Crimson Clown

[nyktomorphia]

Previously in the Night Land bestiary: Night Hounds, Giants, Silent Ones, 14-Legged Beast, Doorways in the Night, Slug.

Brute-men are one of the many abhuman variants, predictably combining human and [rand_animal] features into a grotesque appearance, and I'm really only separating them until I inevitably run out of things to say about them. The brute-men stand out, however, because the Night Land is not their only appearance in William Hope Hodgson's bibliography. (I know I've made several jokes at the expense of The Night Land's writing style, but the rest of his work is much more readable.)

First, there's Carnacki the Ghost-Finder, Hodgson's occult detective series and an early prototype of the subgenre that includes everything from Twin Peaks to Scooby-Doo. While J. S. Le Fanu's Dr. Martin Hesselius came first (by several decades), Thomas Carnacki is notable for the fact that he doesn't know whether a case is preternatural or mundane until he puzzles it out along with the reader. One of Carnacki's later adventures begins with a client reporting nightmares of squealing pigs, whom Carnacki is concerned to find is acting increasingly porcine himself. Carnacki's sleep experiments turn unexpectedly perilous when they reveal his client's dreams are being pushed ajar by the Hog, a primordial Outer Monstrosity using them to crawl its way back into the world.

Closer to The Night Land is The House on the Borderland, another novel framed as a found document. The narrator is an aged recluse, who lives with his sister in an old haunted house on a cliff, which begins giving him visions... transported across unfathomable depths of space, he finds his house again, jade-green and colossal in a dim red landscape but otherwise identical. Surrounding it is an arena or crater surrounded by a circle of mountains. Among these mountains are the ancient shapes of human and alien gods, immobile and immortal. Beyond the mountains is an endless plain of silence. In the sky above is a sun as black as the night sky, illuminating this place with a corona of dim red flames. And outside the house are pig-faced beast-men, peering inside and probing the locks and hunting him when they become aware of his presence. They are still outside his house when his vision ends.

Remembering that the Night Land is also a vast dark landscape, where the Last Redoubt is surrounded by mountains and the titanic Watchers which creep glacially towards it... among its other features is a place called the House of Silence, an ornate mansion that glows from within. (Its doors are unlocked, and its windows open, and no movement is ever seen inside. No one has ever emerged.) Although the Borderland is at the end of space and the Night Land at the end of time, their parallels are obvious, but their significance uncertain. And the swine-things haunt them both.

[safereturndoubtful]

The Weird Tales of William Hope Hodgson - Book Review

I arrive late to the wonderful world of William Hope Hodgson.

Born in 1877 to a wealthy family, in Essex, his father was a Church of England minister. He ran away from boarding school when he was 13, and after being caught, got his father’s permission to become a cabin boy. His father died soon after, leaving the family without income, surviving on charity until William returned some years later.

He was bullied at sea, by older officers. The sea is a feature of many of his short stories, and in particular, his revenge, albeit a literary one, satisfied by a conglomeration of sea serpents, ghost ships and other unpleasant things emerging from the depths.

He lived with his mother in poverty until after his first novel was published in 1907 when he began to receive something of an income, but he was never affluent.

Apart from the sea being a common background in his writing, Hodgson is also known for his short stories featuring recurring characters: the "detective of the occult" Thomas Carnacki, and the smuggler Captain Gault.

In this British Library collection, the stories are about half of each. There are very few duffers, and this is an excellent way to become familiar with his style.

The most well-known of his Carnacki stories is <i>The Whistling Room</i> which is in many anthologies, and even introduced by Alfred Hitchcock in one. These are more of a classic horror, ghost story model, but have the habit of taking a direction different to the expected one late in the story - hence their categorisation as weird.

For me though, the stories of the sea are when he is at his strongest. Specifically I would select <i>The Derelict</i>. This is a perfect example of weird fiction with elements of a classic ghost ship story, moving into science fiction and cosmic horror. It is genuinely scary, and put me in mind several times of [author:Dan Simmons|2687], to whom he surely was an influence.

His experimentation into the weird was limited by his need to make some money, and hence he returned more often than he would have liked to Carnacki stories, as they at least made some money; in the ilk of Algernon Blackwood, Poe and Conan Doyle. But it was when he had a free rein to do his own thing he was at his best.

He was killed at Ypres in 1918. After his death his work was largely forgotten, and except for a minor resurgence in the 1930s, it was only recently it has received the attention and readership it deserves.

His work is said to have influenced H.P. Lovecraft, though Lovecraft did not read his works until 1934. and also, more recently, China Miéville.

The British Library put out some tremendous stuff. This is in their series <i>Tales of the Weird</i>, which has just published number 36 in the series, The Flaw in the Crystal: And Other Uncanny Stories by May Sinclair, with 37 and 38 due out in the next couple of months.

There’s a 3 for 2 offer on their website at the moment, to give them a well-earned plug..

[guillermo-moreno]

Presentando: El Instituto Thomás Carnacki

Aquí presentando una organización y un grupo de personajes pregenerados que cree para juegos de rol de investigación. En este caso, están hechos para el juego Ratas en las paredes. también son los protagonista de los microrelatos del Kultober EL INSTITUTO CARNACKI Se desconoce la fecha exacta de la muerte de Thomas Carnacki, se estima que fue durante la primera década del siglo XX. Se ha…

[mscorley]

Harvest Moon

Print variants on https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/m_s_corley/

[chronivore]

Carnacki, the Ghost Finder

[electricpentacle]

just here to say that you're the first time I've run into mention of the electric pentacle on this here tungle and that's pretty neat

Thomas Carnacki and his bonkers valvepunk ghost-hunting technologies are very dear to my heart! They are also the reason my blog is called "Experiments with a Medium"...

[anotherscrappile]

@mrseek Happy Birthday once again! I hope I did your Carnacki design justice and I wish you a lovely day.

[veni-vidi-verti]

Carnacki’s Guests

William Hope Hodgson’s Thomas Carnacki stories are told in the guise of an occult detective recounting his recent cases to his dinner guests. Since the narrative focus is on the cases themselves, little is known about these dinner guests. I collected what little is known. The abbreviations I used for the story names are provided at the very bottom of the post.

The guest’s names are Arkright, Dodgson (the narrator), Jessop, and Taylor. Carnacki tends to refer to them with “chaps” or “fellows,” implying that all or most of the group are masculine. Therefore, I use he/him pronouns below, but feel free to draw your own conclusions. Here is what I found from Carnacki’s words and their own:

Arkright:

knowledgeable in the occult; in HJ Carnacki says “You’ve dipped deeper into the science of magic than I have, Arkright.” The specific occult question he asks in WR backs up this point.

calls Carnacki a weirdo (he says “Queer chap, that” in HJ, but I stand by my modernized adaptation)

has four speaking parts (WR, SotEH, HJ, F)

arrives last to dinner in HJ

Dodgson:

owns at least one gun; he remarks in GotM that he “had been buying a new gun.”

talkative and curious; along with having the most speaking parts, he also asks the most questions per speaking part.

describes Miss Hisgins as “extraordinarily pretty” in HotI; take from that what you will.

unfamiliar with the occult; along with frequently asking questions, Carnacki says “I sometimes wonder whether Dodgson there realises just how impossible it is to answer some of his questions” in Hog. He also describes Carnacki’s tales as always being “weird and extraordinary” in TI.

has sixteen speaking parts (twice in GotM, twice HAtL, twice in WR, four times in HotI, SotEH, thrice in Hog, HJ, Find)

either first to arrive to dinner (HotI, TI, HJ) or last to dinner (GotM, WR, Find); he even arrives late in WR

Jessop:

has no speaking parts

arrives second or third to dinner in HJ, perhaps with Taylor

Taylor:

has three speaking parts (WR, HotI, Hog)

arrives second or third to dinner in HJ, perhaps with Jessop

Other notes:

It is implied in WR that all or most drink wine and smoke cigars.

In TI, the group is described as a “strictly limited circle of friends.”

In TI, it says “Not one of us willingly missed” Carnacki’s invitations to dinner, implying that a member has missed in the past, though all are present in the cases for which there are stories.

In TI, Dodgson says that the group always leaves Carnacki’s house “fearful even of our own shadows,” implying that at least Dodgson is often scared by Carnacki’s tales.

Abbreviation Key: “The Gateway of the Monster” = GotM. “The House Among the Laurels” = HAtL. “The Whistling Room” = WR. “The Horse of the Invisible” = HotI. “The Searcher of the End House” = SotEH. “The Thing Invisible” = TI. “The Hog” = Hog. “The Haunted Jarvee” = HJ. “The Find” = Find

[florianrguillon]

Thomas Carnacki created by William Hope Hodgson Till Tracer (Venomous Girl) © Florian R. Guillon

Thorr from Norse Mythology designed by me

Tzuha (Dark Fates) © Florian R. Guillon