Thursday, April 10, 2014

Midnight Cinephile's Tome of Monsters

I love monsters.  I love monsters of all kinds.  From the most giant kaijus and behemoths to the tiniest horrors and everything in between.  It doesn't matter to me if they are extra-terrestrial, supernatural, created in a science lab or some undiscovered cryptid, each and every monster is an endless source of fascination to me and I want to explore them all.

When I was a kid, I was really into dinosaurs (like most red blooded boys).  The thought that these giant creatures once stood in my backyard was enough to set my young mind racing.  I had tons of books and had a good many species of dinosaur memorized.  I could spout off facts about them on the spot.  I begged my parents to take me the the museum to see the fossils over and over again.  Those were my first monsters.  My love of dinosaurs of course segued into kaiju movies and giant bug movies of the 50's.  As I grew older and started to explore the genre, I watched anything and everything that had to do with Monsters, Ghouls, Ghosts, Beasts, Creatures....you name it.  

My monster obsession didn't end with just movies though, oh no.  Being a child of the 80's I was also (and still am) an avid gamer.  I spent many a night glued to my TV screen playing Atari, Nintendo and my beloved Commodore 64.  Monsters I'd never even dreamed of appeared in pixilated format.  Of course as time went on, the computers and consoles became more advanced and so did the monsters in the games.

When I was in high school I really started to get the reading bug.  I read tons of Stephen King and Dean Koontz at the time.  Then I was introduced to the works on Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft.  My life was forever changed at the discovery of ancient cosmic horrors that could not be named and to describe them would be to go mad.  Cthulhu became an obsession for me (well before he was a pop culture icon, mind you.....but I'm glad that he's finally getting the recognition that he deserves!) as well as Dagon, Nyarlothotep and of course the Mi-Goo.

I looked for monsters everywhere I went and the 80's were a good time to be a monster fan.  Everything from stickers to trading cards to toys to games to movies....hell even metal bands would paint monsters on their albums.

Hence, The Tome of Monsters.  My personal guide to monsters from anywhere and everywhere.  Movies, Books, Music, Games, Toys, Posters, Folklore, etc.....anything and everything goes.  The idea is that each entry will show a picture of the monster (if there's one available....God help you if I have to draw the damn thing.....I can't draw worth a damn) as well as all the information I can find about it.  For those obscure monsters that may not have any information available about them, I guess I will have to speculate on....or hopefully be able to reach it's creator for some insight.

Anyways, I hope that you dig this new side project.  Perhaps if there's a good enough response I will consider putting the Tome into print format.  We'll see!  Stay tuned for the first entry comin' at ya SOON!

2 comments:

  1. I love this idea! I'm looking forward to seeing a few entries. Stickers? You wouldn't be thinking of those monster "puffy" stickers where the monsters have regular names like "Sue" or "Bill", would you? I'd love to have a complete set of those. I also have a collection of stickers called Weird Wheels issued by Topps comprised of monsters and their rides.

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  2. Thanks buddy, I'm glad you like the idea! Actually I did have those stickers in mind! Also those old bad ass silver hologram stickers that they used to sell! I had a bunch of those puffy monster stickers back in the day. I'm thinking that I may include some of the Garbage Pail Kids as well....many of them were definitely not human and were fantastic monsters! I'm pretty excited about this!

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