Cryptid Club

I really enjoyed Sarah Andersen's Fangs; a modern day werewolf/vampire romance with a Sex and the City vibe added to the mix. So I was really excited when I found this book just recently at my local library. 

Like Fangs, Cryptid Club is a collection of hilarious vignettes done as a newspaper comic strip. Unlike Fangs, this book doesn't have a linear plot to it. Though a couple of vignettes, like a budding relationship between two characters, do reoccur showing how things are progressing. 

Most of the cryptid characters are based on long-established legends such as the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. You've got some more modern monsters too like Mothman. I'll grant that characters such as Slender Man and Alarm Man, which were created by artists, have taken on a bit of mythical status. But I take umbrage at ghosts being considered cryptids. Things that go bump in the night? Surely. But they should be in a totally different category other than cryptid. I don't care how funny their exploits were.

And no, I didn't confuse ghosts with the creatures on the cover. Those glowing-in-the-dark things that look like strolling molars are NOT ghosts! They're a fairly new cryptid called a Fresno Nightcrawler. They're kinda strange in the book. But from what I can tell, they're kinda creepy in real too! 

Cryptid Club was very fun. I probably should have waited until Halloween to read this. There are several Halloween themed laughs inside! But considering that this book was from 2022 and this was the first time I ever saw it on the shelves after countless visits to my local library over the years. I didn't want to risk getting to October and having someone beat me to the punch. 

It's also a super fast read. So give yourself a good half hour during a dark and stormy night. It'll make you into a believer. Even if spirits are misclassified as cryptids...

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.cryp

Bigfoot and Nessie: The Art of Getting Noticed (Family Comic Friday)

A delightful little boom that joins together two of the world's most well known cryptids. Although, this book should be called Bigfoot, Jr. and Nessie. That's because the title Bigfoot of this story is the son of the famed Sasquatch of blurry videos and off-center photograph fame. 

Bigfoot Jr lives in the shadows of his famous dad and his well documented family. One day when trying to make sense of his place in the world, Junior comes across a new friend. Wearing sunglasses and a scarf, Nessie is very secretive of her personal life. But she delights in the company of Junior because they both struggle with finding their way in life as part of a famous family. Though Junior doesn't know that his new friend is in fact Scotland's Loch Ness Monster!

This was a delightful tale, that begins a series of boost starring Bigfoot Jr and Nessie. Written by Chelsea M. Campbell with artwork by Laura Knetzger, The Art of Getting Noticed was a fun read. Obviously Campbell and Knetzger subscribe to the Clark Kent School of Disguise as nobody recognizes Nessie until her scarf and shades are accidentally removed in public. I also liked how Knetzger peppered in famous photos of Bigfoot inside Junior's house. Of course, they'd have a picture from the famed Patterson-Gimlin film supposedly of Bigfoot in their living room! It was subtle touches like that that made this such a brilliant read 

Recommended for readers ages 6-9, I did think that some of this 2023 book was a little too wordy for a younger reader. But someone aged 8-11 should really enjoy this opening volume that explores the hidden world of characters of folklore and legend! Aside from a couple of moments where Nessie feels that Junior is not being a good friend and she gets angry, the majority of this book is light-hearted and provokes a discussion about fitting in and being yourself.

Book #2, The Haunting of Loch Ness Castle is also currently available for sale.

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 9 out of 10 stars.

The Big Book of the Unexplained

Of the several editions of Big Books that I am reading during social distancing, The Big Book of the Unexplained was the one I was looking forward to the most. And it was the most disappointing. 

Written by the creator of Deathlok, Doug Moench, I was really excited to read this collection of accounts of the strange and unknown. I love UFOs, Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and all that paranormal stuff that has us stymied. I'm the type of person that feels that there's got to big a hint of truth to these accounts. They may not be what we think they are or happened how we might recall the events occurred. But I am sure a lot of it was real events.

The host of this book is Charles Fort, a research of the paranormal and macabre around the turn of the 20th century. Had I not read within the past year or so a book about the Fortean Times, I probably wouldn't have any idea who he was. But I did and I appreciated his appearances throughout the book. Well, at first.

However, Moench keeps having Charles Fort talking about this cosmic trickster. And he keeps getting all whimsical and philosophical about this being. Maybe he's talking about God or gods. But that's beside the point. Moench devotes a lot of his time to this powerful being instead of focusing on what I was hoping for- lots and lots of accounts of the unexplained. 

While I appreciate the use of a narrator or host, they haven't seemed to really work in the Big Books. The 70s book had a host and it was the weakest part of that entire volume. I feel the same about Fort here. But unlike in the 70s book where the host was only at the beginning of each chapter, Charles Fort is at the beginning and ending of each section. Rod Sterling or even Jack Palance, he is not!

When it focuses on the unusual, it's good. But it goes off on tangents a lot!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.