Monstrous Monday

A startling image of a wendigo by South Wales artist Simon Wyatt, who carried out a lot of 'monstrous' work for me in Paranormal Magazine. This bold opening spread was used to kick off an article by Richard Freeman in the May 2010 edition.

Monstrous Monday

Continuing a series of monsters from the now defunct Paranormal Magazine: a hideous entity said to have appeared in a remote country cottage and emanating pure evil. The illustration is by Shaun Histed-Todd and appeared in PM 54, accompanying an article by Richard Freeman.

Monstrous Monday

In the hope that Blogger doesn't crash again, here at last is a blog entry. And what a corker it is. Two digital images produced for the next Paranormal Magazine by a guy called Shaun Histed-Todd who I met at the Weird Weekend in Devon. He's a lovely bloke, like a punk version of Bernard Bresslaw. He's come up with five superb illustrations for an article by his cryptozoologist friend Richard Freeman on evil creatures and the 'nameless dread'. (Incidentally, after subbing that article I then moved onto one about a nice seafood restaurant, such is the weirdness of working on InOut magazine at the same time!). The vicar vs sea serpent image is particularly stunning (of course, these are only low-res versions), and I am going to ask for it to be used full-size in the magazine.

Weird Wednesday

Three fuzzy snaps from the Centre for Fortean Zoology's Weird Weekend held last weekend in the community centre of the North Devon village of Woolfardisworthy (Woolsery for short). Under the logo we have Jon Downes, the director of the organisation - surely just the geezer to hunt man-beasts worldwide - and below him zoological director Richard Freeman with his even furrier friend Orang Pendek. Weird stuff to be sure.

Pretty cool, though. Got to meet fortean supremo Andy Roberts who, incredibly, turns out to have moved about five miles away from me a few years ago; re-met Mike Dash, the former Fortean Times publisher who once offered me a job as a sub-editor on that esteemed journal; the Danish cryptozoologist Lars Thomas; and lots of other interesting chaps. Thanks to Lars' research, they are now convinced that a leopard or two prowls in the woods around the village. The 'Tasmanian tiger' skin he examined turned out to belong to a small African antelope, though. Can't win 'em all. I have high hopes that Mike and Andy will both be writing for Paranormal Magazine in the near future.

Read more about the CFZ at www.cfz.org.uk

Saturday Matinee

I liked the look of this film but had never heard of it before. With good reason, accoriding to the reviewer on IMDB. It's crap. Written by 50s sci-fi/monster movie superemo Curt Siodmak, it is also directed by him and it would seem he did a rotten job. Although it's filmed on location in Brazil, the effects are rubbish and the actors more wooden than the rainforest.

I'm intrigued, though, that it it appears to be based on a genuine crytozoological mystery. Richard Freeman wrote about weird beasts of Brazil in Paranormal Magazine issue 43 and mentions the Mapinguari, which the local people describe as being a huge furry critter with long curving claws, an armoured hide and a loud roar. Its footprints appear to point backwards, they say. Oddly enough it's this latter detail that makes it more convincing as real rather than imaginary, because fossil footprints of the giant sloth (mylodon) do look as if they're facing the wrong way, and Mapinguari does sound very like a mylodon, an animal that was prevalent in South America thousands of years ago. The giant sloth also had knobs of bone under its skin, which would serve as a kind of chain armour.

Does a species of the animal still survive in the depths of the Amazon Rainforest? Who knows. But at any rate, 'Curucu' sounds very like the Mapinguari and one can only assume that somehow Siodmak had heard of it. The film was made in 1956 and isn't available on video/DVD.