The Weird Company is a follow-up to Re-Animators, and is part of Pete Rawlik’s wider fictional cosmos in which the author constructs something of a Lovecraftian parallel to Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold-Newton universe: by way of filling-in various historical and conceptual gaps in Lovecraft’s tales, Rawlik suggests that they constitute a deeply-interconnected narrative whole (a kind of Lovecraftian metanovel), whilst at the same time, intersecting with various other pulp, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror universes.
In this instance, Rawlik masterfully brings together various well-known characters from Lovecraftian lore to form - a la Alan Moore’s The Extraordinary League of Gentlemen - ‘the Weird Company’, whose exploits are indeed shown to constitute a hidden history of the 20th Century. Central to The Weird Company are the events and discoveries documented in At the Mountains of Madness which are themselves also demonstrated to be foundational to many of the key events underpinning the modern world.
In any case, Rawlik’s prose and grasp of Lovecaftian themes and timelines are used to great effect to create a convincing and novel development of Lovecraft’s fictive universe. Come and play in the sandbox - once here, you won’t want to leave. Ever.
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