An Expression of Love for All Things Monsters, Cryptids, Mythology, and Folklore.
A Monthly Subscription Service Via Patreon
Inspired by Books and Media from my childhood and adolescence that shaped my interests and my art. Think:
- Weird N Wild Creatures Mail Subscription Box
- The Ology Books — Wizardology, Dragonology etc.
- Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, and Teen Wolf
- Special topic Magazines that come out during Halloween
- Mythology books and encyclopedias
- General interest in witchcraft, magic, history, mythology, and folklore
SGMC is a place and an opportunity for me to explore these monsters, beings, and beliefs much more deeply, as well as share that information with others.
I love to research, read, consume, and learn. I love even more to share what I’ve learned with other people. (Plus it’s pretty cool to make art depicting these unique creatures).
How will the Strange Ghosts Monster Club Work?
The Monsters will be launched in 4 Seasons every year. Each Season will be 3 months long, with a new Monster featured each month, with the understanding that the term “Monster” is fairly loose — the Monster Club will dive into a variety of mythological and folkloric beings including, but not limited to, monsters, deities, spirits, and other otherworldly critters. The Monsters we explore will fit together under the umbrella of that Season’s theme.
Each Season will provided unique digital and physical content. The physical content will include one large reward and one small reward that will be mailed to subscribers in those tiers each month.
Each Season will be illustrated cohesively so that they all fit together, but also stand out on their own, providing you with unique pieces to collect and enjoy.
Who is Strange Ghosts Monster Club for?
This Club is for the people (you!) who love to read, research, and learn like I do, especially those that have a special penchant for supernatural creatures. If you like folklore, mythology, podcasts, or appreciating and collecting cool art, this Club is for you!
So come on in and sit for a spell, while we delve into the realm of the not-so-make-believe.
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The Strange Ghosts Monster Club inaugural season will officially launch April 1st. For those following three months we will explore the world of Dreams. In the meantime, I will be sharing updates, blog posts, sneak peaks, and BTS content in preparation or our first season.
Kurt relaxed in the rafters of the barn, avoiding the chaos that was happening in the rest of the stone. He wanted to fix what he had done, but he didn’t trust himself not to be pulled back into the fray. He didn’t trust himself not to do the wrong thing and help the wrong side. Again. Instead, he sat and did nothing.
Very few knew Kurt was here and he didn’t mind that. Sif knew and she would visit him occasionally. Gwen had crashed through the roof, so she knew and she had most likely told Jean. That thought caused him to almost run and find a new place. He hadn’t wanted to face Jean again. She hadn’t been angry with him after she’d helped free him from Selene’s influence. She might have forgiven him for what he did, but Kurt hadn’t.
Kurt also hadn’t forgiven himself for what he’d done to Stephen Strange. He wanted to find the wizard again and apologize to him. He hoped Stephen knew that he hadn’t done those things of his own freewill, but such an excuse seemed hollow when he’d been warned so much about avoiding Selene in the first place.
Kurt heard someone enter the barn and he shifted to see who it was, his stomach dropping at the possibilities.
In 'interesting games played lately' -- several of us have played The Spirit Library when we wanted a good game for an evening when we didn't have time or energy for anything more taxing; it's a game about describing and cataloging strange spirits around town. Intended as single-player, but works just as well to pass around the cards and describing and cataloging responsibilities.
A record of spirits cataloged:
Date: Fifth of Forever Entered by: Rhys
Location: Found beside an old Well
Type of Spirit: Nature spirit
Description: Figure of spores and wires. Inkwell sealed with wax. Described as ‘conversant with decay’ – stymied by beeswax and glass.
Classification: Mild
Date: Day before Yesterday Entered by: Benji
Location: Small River
Type of Spirit: Nature spirit
Description: Appears like a group of minnows, but is actually a trick of the light. Trip passersby, wash things away, have a little legend in town. Opportunistically caught in a water bottle by some curious local kids. Recommend the construction of a lazy river for this spirit.
Classification: Mild
Date: Early evening Entered by: Bean
Location: Found in the shower, wrapped in the shower curtain
Type of Spirit: Nature spirit, able to communicate
Description: In a large plastic pail, wants to talk to the archivists. A little greyish, dirt-covered gnome, looking for a place to lie low… would like tea and scones, and DON’T say anything to Angela. Named Own Pembuckle.
Classification: Unpredictable
Date: The 9th Moon Entered by: Rhys
Location: Found left behind in shopfront
Type of Spirit: Human spirit
Description: Contained in fishtank, filled with swirling fog. Optometrist’s spirit? Controls/fogs the senses. Spirit left behind in fish tank when both they and fish died?
Classification: Benevolent
Date: Moonshadow Entered by: Benji
Location: Town Historical Society Museum, prowling historical textiles
Type of Spirit: Human and frightening (less so with research)
Description: A tailor from the town’s early history – ordinary and reliable in life. Malevolent but unable to communicate, unmakes clothes it doesn’t like. Captured in the ever-grandma sewing/cookie tin, constantly changing embroidery on the fabric stretched across the tin. Banshee-like wailing from outside, window rattling – trying to communicate but can’t.
Classification: Mild, Unpredictable
Date: First day of fall Entered by: Bean
Location: Light bulbs
Type of Spirit: Human
Description: A large lamp that turns on and off and different colors, can hear a child laughing. Answers to the name Rico. A sense of delight! Casts a light that occasionally looks like a human face, hard to see. Not a ghost – a psychic kid affecting the lights while napping continents away…
Classification: Benevolent
Date: Morning after Snowfall Entered by: Rhys
Location: Old farm; between house and barn
Type of Spirit: Human spirit – a woman
Description: Old cough-syrup bottle – do not touch with bare hands! Visits in dreams at night, dreams of making poison.
Classification: Hazardous
Date: After a summerstorm Entered by: Benji
Location: A show house, abandoned as long as anyone remembers
Type of Spirit: Nature
Description: Lightning in a bottle, brought in joyfully/fearfully and so bright it’s hard to look at. When freed, it crawls like a swarm of ants/slime mold and decomposes what it touches. The house where it was found was a shell, emptied completely by the spirit. Feels like a storm rolling in, pressure in your head, and the dread of a big storm on the horizon.
Classification: Hazardous
Date: Last Tuesday Entered by: Rhys
Location: Outside the library windows
Type of Spirit: Animal spirit - corvid
Description: Held in a perfume atomizer. Will call out for unauthorized ‘Break Times!’ Steals shiny, unattended items.
Classification: Mild
Date: October afternoon Entered by: Benji
Location: Grandmother’s house
Type of Spirit: Brownie – mythical spirit
Description: Family new to town, taking over a grandmother’s house. The new owners don’t understand the milk offerings have to be protected from the cat. Tree branches fall on their roof in increasing size (even ones that don’t grow here). Spirit caught in a cat carrier, readily transferred to a closed terrarium with cool moss and stones. It helps about the library, but breaks things when it’s not happy.
Classification: Unpredictable
Date: The 7th Entered by: Bean
Location: A peddler selling ‘definitely not cursed items’
Type of Spirit: A mirror that gives cursed answers to questions
Description: A large ornate mirror, an indistinct face is seen inside. A group of spirits trapped in a mirror that is said to answer questions. The spirits are every that had been killed by the mirror and they give the worst possible answers to questions, often that promote violence. Some spirits seem to be crueler than others, and the only way to free them is to commit a large enough atrocity.
Classification: Perilous
Date: Murch throd. Entered by: Rhys
Location: In a formerly prize-winning garden
Type of Spirit: ‘The Withering’ – a gooey decayed body
Description: Sealed into a clay amphora with special wax and glaze. The spirit was crawling on a path through the town, and stopped in this garden because of the resistance it found there. The spirit’s touch can be recognized in local folklore.
Classification: Unpredictable
Date: Duskening Entered by: Benji
Location: Alone on a road, crossing a bridge at night
Type of Spirit: Mythological omen of deam
Description: Currently it appears as disembodied car headlights coming at you. It is captured between two mirrors to reflect into itself. Evokes feelings of remorseful resignation, doesn’t revel in its death-omen status. Captured by someone who recently lost someone, who didn’t want to lose someone else. It’s hard to catalogue, because no one knows if its ominous power is still present. No catalogers lose anyone, but they’re afraid. Heavily debated classification
Classification: Unpredictable
Date: Wednesday (maybe?) Entered by: Bean
Location: Library, daydreams
Type of Spirit: A baku, can find people with interesting dreams and grant them fortune
Description: Only seen in dreams and isn’t remembered (except by those with uninteresting dreams). Inside a glass paperweight by one of the spirit librarians who wanted to see less-harmful spirits. Gives off a feeling of drowsy contentment.
Classification: Benevolent
Date: Mob miercoles Entered by: Rhys
Location:
Type of Spirit: Felt mouse with button eyes, first of its line
Description: From loving creator to loving owner, this mouse now brings life to other craft creatures – intended or not. The mouse expresses aggressive annoyance when a crafter discarded an almost-finished project
Classification: Mild
Date: Spendsday Entered by: Benji
Location: Under a bridge
Type of Spirit: Confused troll, made of cool stones
Description: Brought in in the back of a pickup truck cause they were running out of money – the troll pays people to cross its bridge. At the library they are stationed outside dangerous rooms – they like the work as long as they can chat with people. They had recently moved bridges from an isolated one, but they weren’t too attached. Called Chrysoberyl, after the stone. (Day librarians call them Chrys, night Bery)
Classification: Benevolent
Date: n/a Entered by: Bean
Location: The community center, often during local classes and seminars
Type of Spirit: The ghost of a beloved former mayor
Description: Appears as the painting that was done of them in life, continues to give life to the community as they want to see it flourish. Not captured, but catalogued due to concerns about how retouching their painting would affect them. Were included as a write-in during an election after their reappearance
Classification: Benevolent
Date: Half-day feast Entered by: Rhys
Location: A traveling circus, before it bit someone
Type of Spirit: Animal spirit with a mix of features – long hopping feat, simian hands, sharp teeth, mean nails, malevolent nature.
Description: Brings ridiculous luck with its monkey’s paw and rabbit’s feet. Bad wishes that turn out, by a twist of fate, to be wonderful. It lives in the garden and eats arugula, and gets called ‘Bunky.’
Classification: Mild
Date: The first second third Entered by: Benji
Location: Small quiet lake
Type of Spirit: A water spirit, a large catfish who becomes stone.
Description: Deceives fishermen, driving them to hubris. It can capsize boats and harm people. It was sought by a group to catch, reeling it in safely. It makes people feel a triumphant kind of excitement – “we’re going to get the big one!” The fish-spirit version of video game lootboxes. It feels similarly about its own power. It was first labeled as benevolent, put in the pond out back, and escapes awfully.
Classification: Hazardous
Date: Last night Entered by: Bean
Location: At the home of a dark magician
Type of Spirit: An intensely poisonous scorpion from a poison jar, can convince you that it’s not actually poisonous
Description: Found with a second scorpion in the jar that has the antidote to the first’s venom. Have normal scorpion level intelligence. The two don’t like to be separated. Found in the home of someone who was a dark magician, reported missing; killed by the scorpion. Unclear if they wanted the poison or the antidote.
