Agent of S.A.M @agent-of-sam - Tumblr Blog

Enemy of the Deep - art by Carl Lundgren (1977)

The inner flap of the dust jacker of Monster Hunting Today (1983) asks, “Are you interested in monsters?” Why yes, yes, I am. Unfortunately, this Daniel Cohen book covers pretty much the same ground as Aylesworth’s and similar cryptid-focused books. It’s also far breezier than most of Cohen’s books, with really big type. I read it in about two hours? Topics include dinosaur survivals, lake monsters that aren’t Nessie, Nessie, giant octopi and Yeti/Sasquatch.

The last chapter is titled “Bigfoot: Good News/Bad News” and honestly, the bad news was pretty bad. First, the Mt. Saint Helens eruption destroyed the area known as Ape Canyon, ground zero for Bigfoot folklore. This is the place were miners in the ’20s shot at a supposed Bigfoot, who brought back friends and laid siege to their cabin that night. The story is recounted in pretty much every Bigfoot book up to that point (and memorably dramatized on In Search Of…) and the eruption meant that if there were Bigfoots in the area, they were probably gone now. Worry not, though, because the following year, Rant Mullens came forward claiming that not only was the Ape Canyon story a hoax, but also that he’d carved multiple pairs of big wooden feet that hoaxers had been using for decades to seed the countryside with tracks. After that, Cohen recounts sightings by Paul Freeman that resulting in footprint casts that some folks thought were really good and others thought were clearly a hoax. The chapter ends with John Beckjord’s crackpot theory that Bigfoot can’t be found because he’s from another dimension. Sorry, there was supposed to be good news in this chapter?

Anyway, the real star of the show is the gorgeous dust jacket. Cohen’s books have some impressive cover art, but this one takes the prize. I’m a scaredy-cat when it comes to dark water and things that might live in it, so this serpent is genuinely terrifying to me, even without the red eye and the infernal glow. I really love the graphic element of the water line and the font choice as well, but quality of the rendering and the color choices are really what do it for me. Amazing. Peak ’83 monster art.

70sscifiart

Incredible cover art! This belongs in every graphic designer's inspiration folder

joshua-wright

Slack Wyrm Book 7: One Morning Ferragus Foolishly Got Up is out NOW! It's got lots of pages and humorous content. Go buy it - it's great!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HCCPL9JM

Slack Wyrm #1583

Steve R Dodd

if anyone ever asks why return of the jedi is my favourite star wars film i’ll just send them this gif

doctorbutler

bluebandedagate-reblogs

luimnigh

I think the funnier conclusion is that Luke did mean to physically kick the guy, missed, and then used the force to cover his fuckup.

roguetelemetry

Wigglewood Tales: The Bandit

#Wigglewood Tales

escuerzoresucitado

joshthewizardking

Creator of the WiggleWood Tales series of animations

#WiggleWood Tales #youtube

joshua-wright

Slack Wyrm #1582

#Turtleman #youtube #Youtube

spacenoirdetective

Story titles from pulp detective magazines from 1937 - 1945

Magazine list includes: Spicy Detective Stories, Super Detective Stories, Spicy Adventure Stories, Speed Detective Stories, Private Detective Stories, Spicy Mystery Stories, and Romantic Western.

I LOVE VINTAGE FONTS! I think they're so fun and beautiful and elegant. I will be cropping out more of these. It's my new project.

consulships

i do think theres something sad about how largely only the literature that's considered especially good or important is intentionally preserved. i want to read stuff that ancient people thought sucked enormous balls

literaryreference

Time to take this post entirely too seriously:

I often wonder if this is why you so commonly see the sentiment that we are in an era of uniquely bad literature, or at least that the fact that most books don't have artistic aspirations and are not aiming to be anything other than mindless entertainment is new. In fact what's new is the idea that everything is worth preserving (and also the internet making it easier to preserve it). The dumb artistically unambitious trash books of the past have survived only sporadically, because people thought of them as literally disposable.

When I was in college I had a professor who was an expert on detective fiction. He had a longstanding beef with the idea that "Murders in the Rue Morgue" was the first detective story. He thought that it seemed way too polished to be inventing a new genre, and also that the whole orangutan business had the vibe of someone subverting preexisting audience expectations and maybe engaging in a bit of stealth parody. With the help of some student volunteers, he went trawling through old magazines and newspapers and found hundreds of detective stories from the early 1800s that just hadn't garnered enough individual attention to be remembered. This was because most of them sucked balls. He created an online archive of them, so you too can read these mostly terrible stories.