Conan and Cthulhu

The preparation going on out in the Hill Cantons for a game in the Hyborian Age got me to thinking about a couple of works of nonfiction of that should appeal to the fans of the "Weird Tales Triumvirate" and anyone looking for pulpy inspirations.

Dale E. Rippke used to have a great website devoted to several prominent characters of Sword & Sorcery.  That's gone, alas, but you can still get a hardcopy collection of Rippke's speculations on mysteries of Conan's world in The Hyborian Heresies.  If you've ever pondered just what happened in the Great Cataclysm or wondered who built those green stone cities that Conan occasional happens upon, Rippke's got some guesses.  It also includes his "Dark Storm Chronology" which radically rethinks Conan's career and was utilized as the backbone of the new Dark Horse series.

Several of Howard's stories touched on Lovecraft's mythos.  The third edition of Daniel Harms's The Cthulhu Mythos Encyclopedia not only covers the contributions of the gent from Providence and the man from Cross Plains, but also stuff from Thomas Ligotti, T.E.D. Klein and Stephen King.  Its entries from Abbith to Zylac also includes material from Chaosium and Delta Green.