A tour of popular mystery monsters

By | July 28, 2024

Today I bring you a mishmash of monster mentions. A quick book review, a link to info on the latest Bigfoot hoax and dogman programming, and an upcoming must-have volume for pop cryptid fans.

I recently read J.W. Ocker’s The United States of Cryptids: A Tour of American Myths and Monsters. It was better than I thought it would be for an unexpected reason – it focused on one social aspect of cryptids: how they are fun for the community. People love monsters and “cryptids” which, in this case, are any weird creature that has a collection of anecdotal accounts. It no longer matters if the animals are real or even plausible. It only matters if people can tell great stories about them. I’m all for that.

The book is arranged by geographical area with short segments on the most interesting bits of lore about each creature. Ocker made a valiant attempt to include diversity into the featured creatures. That means we are treated to the tales of fun legends like Sinkhole Sam, Giant Sky Clam, Wampahoofus, Snarly Yow, Snallygaster, and more. As noted, there are a hundred different Bigfoot variants (including the Woodbooger and Albatwitch), often named for their local area. Ocker has made the survey of the myriad Bigfoot-types fun and interesting.

The focus is on the community aspects, noting the people who are trying to popularize the creature by promoting the tales, marketing the images, and organizing community festivals that serve as a common theme to act as a sense of identity for these often small communities.

Ocker gets the concept of pop cryptids: “Cryptid fans love monsters, and pop culture cryptozoology is basically Pokémon: we want to collect all the monster stories, and we want the widest variety of them in our collection as possible. Most of us who heart cryptids are fine with that imprecision and aren’t overly invested in the -ology part of cryptozoology. Unlike cryptozoologists, we aren’t trying to scientifically prove the existence of cryptids—we just love the idea of them; we love the stories.”

This is what I’m talking about! The -ology is less important. The sociology of cryptids is where it’s at.

This is a fun book to pick up or check out at your library. (It’s on my Libby app.)

Reading this book prompted me to update my list of Cryptid Town Festivals on the Modern Cryptozoology site.

If you are visiting the MCz site – check out two new posts from last week:

Bigfoot Baby Hoax – The baby bIgfoot photo of July 2024 was circulating on Facebook from last month. The image is a hoax created by using a real fiberglass model from an art exhibit.

The Dogman Triangle – A new documentary film by Small Town Monsters examines claims of a dogman creature in Texas. The creature has more paranormal features than zoological plausibility. The “triangle” angle falls flat, as does the concept of an upright human-dog creature. But, it’s a massively popular cryptid these days, fueled by YouTube and podcast content.

Note: Four featured creatures in Ocker’s book are human+canid types. It’s a BIG thing nationwide.

Finally, heads up! This is coming in 2025 and I’m super excited about it. Folklore and Zoology

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