League Post: Cryptozoology!

SO it's that time once again kids (In fact, I am almost too LATE!!!) for The League of Extraordinary Bloggers!!! What's the topic this week you ask? Easy! It's:



Awesome right? So I sat and thought for a bit. I own a bunch of books that detail various different local creatures that folks claim are real, like The Jersey Devil, Chupacabra, The Moth Man, etc. But I didn't really just feel like focusing on my "favorite" cryptid... so I decided I'd focus on one of my all-time favorite book series that revolves around cryptids: Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist series.

I know I've mentioned it in passing here or there on the blog before, but I don't think I've ever devoted an entire post to Yancey or his books. And now that there's news that the series has been optioned by Warner Brothers to become a movie or possibly series of movies, well I figure I better get on it. 

Artist unknown. Got this image from the Monstrumologist Wiki.

The first book in the series The Monstrumologist, focuses on the relationship between Dr. Pellinore Warthrop and his young ward Will Henry. The relationship is a dysfunctional one, and mostly features the good Dr. Warthrop hunting monsters and putting Will, who is about 12 when the series begins, in mortal danger at every turn. The first book features creatures known as anthropophagi, which are straight up monsters, through and through, characterized by their lack of a head, and face in the center of their chests. I should point out that the gore level in these books is HIGH. The characters are developed and feel real, and the emotional impact of the monster attacks (as well as some of the circumstances revealed as to how the monsters got on, or rather under, US soil) are tragic and horrifying in equal measure. 

http://matthewstarbuck.com/

The second book The Curse of the Wendigo, focuses on... well the Wendigo. We're not talking about some lumbering bigfoot monster, but an evil, infected human who hungers for human flesh. There is even more of an emotional punch to this story as questions of love, morality, responsibility, and humanity itself are explored in the shadow of the Wendigo. The "monster" is definitely played more as a dark side of human nature rather than a beast to be hunted and defeated. 

Art by Frank Cho

The third book in the series sets Dr. Warthrop and his charge on a quest to find a beast that creates nests from human flesh. The nests cause an infection in anyone who handles them that drives them to behave much like aggressive zombies. So this is sort of Yancey's zombie book in the series. The twist at the end isn't EXACTLY a twist... but as with the other two books in the series, the book is more about the humans in the story even more than the monsters. This book explores the nature of compulsion, and asks the question of what truly makes a monster a monster?

The last book in the series is The Final Descent and I haven't finished reading it yet. So... I don't have much to say about it. Er... more on that later.

And to keep this slightly true to m Goodwill hunting theme... some other related books that I'll be reading at some point after I've finished Yancey's series are The Cryptid Hunters series by Roland Smith:

There are currently 4 books in the series, and I've found the first two at Goodwill. 

The series follows a set of Twins who travel with their Uncle, hunting cryptids. I guess the Chupacabra makes an appearance in the 3rd volume. So I'll be sure to track that one down as well. 

Let's see what the rest of the League is tracking down in the wilds, getting blurry photos of:

- Adam Nori who happens to be a paranormal enthusiast, definitely had some thoughts to share on the topic. 

- G.I. Jigsaw shares a selection of cryptid toys you can hunt down for yourself. 

- The Nerd Nook reminisces about an 80's family-favorite cryptid... 

- Revenge of the Toybox goes looking in some Dungeons and around some Dragons for a fantasy cryptid.

- Our fearless leader Brian over at Cool & Collected takes us on a magical mystery tour of his favorite pop-culture bigfoots (feet?)

- Primordial Badger's Media Hoard understands that sometimes if you can't find the cryptids... you have to make them yourself. 

- That Yellow Duck gives us a pretty awesome Who's Who of Cryptozoology. Some of these I wasn't aware of yet, and now I have some internet trawling to do! 

- Super Powered Fiction gives us a little taste of cryptids we may see in print in the near future... 

And that's all I've got for tonight kids! I'll be back soon with some Geeky Goodwill Goodies! So until then, Happy Hunting! 

Halloween Countdown Day 4: My Birthday!

So today was my birthday! I love having an October birthday. I love Fall, and I love that it's the beginning of Halloween seasonl when I celebrate the day of my most holy birth. 

I woke up to pancakes!!! And not just any pancakes: 

A Jack 'o Lantern! A birthday cake! 

A heart! A Halloween cat 

(you can't tell because he's made of pancake, but he's a witch's BLACK cat)! 

Jack Skellington!

I'm not a big fan of birthday cake. I'll eat it, but it's not my favorite. So my wife always makes me a peach and strawberry pie instead! This year, on my pie dead Cthulu lay dreaming!

These are the birthday cards made for me by my kids. The two on the left were made for me by my two little boys (with some help from Mom) the one on the right was made by m 13 year old daughter. Who rocks.

Custom wrapping paper! The three bottom packages were all decorated by my kids. The top pile were all wrapped in some awesome paper my wife's been sitting on for a while. So what did I get?

Rick Yancey books! I talked a bit about why EVERYONE should be reading Rick Yancey's books a little after last year's Christmas. That all still holds true. I now officially own all of the YA books that Yancey has written. They're usually pretty graphic and ghastly... so I have that to look forward to. I probably won't get to any of these until after Halloween, but that's okay.

Some great Halloween-themed gifts! Here we have a novel called Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge, and the AWESOME stop-motion animated film, Paranorman in a Blu-ray DVD combo pack. 

And finally, a couple of DVDs. The excellent faux-80's film Take Me Home Tonight which I can't recommend enough to people who love 80's films... and whuuuaah? Cops and Robbersons? Leonard 6? What Planet are you From? Why did I get this abysmal four pack of movies? Wait... four pack? I only listed THREE movies just now!!! What's the FOURTH one?

Oh. 

Oh yeah. 

I love the movie Vibes. LOVE IT. Can't wait to watch it again and again actually. Not even kidding a little bit... (and actually, I don't hate Leonard 6 as much as most people seem to... it's bizarre but enjoyable for me).

My wife also took me out for dinner at a place called Maine-ly Meat for dinner and I ate my bod weight (which is considerable) in chicke, pork barbecue, baby-back ribs, and hot sausage. With beans, cole-slaw, potato salad, and cornbread on the side. Then we took a handful of boxes home, full of leftovers. Yum. 

So that was my birthday! Happy birthday to me! 

I'll be back soon with more Googly-eyed Goodwill Goodies! Until then Happy Haunting!

Be sure to check out all of the great blogs participating in this year's Halloween Countdown! You can do so by clicking this link, or clicking on the Cryptkeeper 2013 banner on the sidebar to the right! Also, check out the "Blog-O-Ween" Halloween Blog collective, again by following this link, or through the badge on the sidebar! Thanks!

My Final Word on Christmas: The Christmas Haul

Okay guys, so this is going to be a long one. It's the final Christmas Haul wrap-up, and I've got some ground to cover. I want to high-light the cream of the crop of the gifts I received this year. 

First up I'll start with some of the gifts I got from my wife. This new belt for one. It is kickin' and it juuuust fits me, and clamping shut around my girth instead of buckling like a traditional belt. It's made of seat-belt material and it is incredible. The 6 Marvel greats are all in attendance, including Thor, Wolverine, Iron  Man, Cap America, Hulk and Spider-Man. 

Next up is this beautiful "Crows of 2013" calendar. I am a big blackbird fan, and my wife surprised me with this collection of gorgeous shots of crows throughout the 12 months of the year. 

  

No Christmas is complete without the arbitrary DVDs found at Black Friday. These were all movies I told my wife she ought to pick up if she found them on the cheapie-cheap while she was out that infamous morning. 

This one was all her idea. Now I'm torn: Do I buy season 2 on DVD to have the whole collection? Or do I just skip it and wait for season 3 to come out? What would you do? 

This set of Toy Story Hotwheels cars will make a nice addition to my wall of pop-culture cars. I really like the ones where the packaging features the large, blown-up pictures of the characters. I need to see if I can find a Buzz Lightyear somewhere. 

Next up are the gifts I was given by my wife's cousin and her husband. They are the closest family we have on my wife's side, and we always do a Christmas-after-Christmas with them. This skeleton couple cuddling is and awesome addition to the cave. They also gave me a bobbling "dashboard zombie" too but I couldn't seem to find it in time to get a good photo. Odds are its in a box somewhere waiting for me to set it loose on an unsuspecting Geek Cave. 

Back in 2010 io9.com chose Cherie Priest's steampunk zombie thriller "Boneshaker" as their Book Club choice for June. This Christmas, 2012, I finally held a copy of this book in my hands. I'm reading it now, and it's been great so far. Full of zombies and zeppelins, the story is so character driven it never feels like the author is going: "Hey look! Steampunk! Gears and stuff!" or "Hey look! Zombie book! Grr! Argh!" It's been a genuinely good read. What's funny is how it almost reads like a post-apocalypse story in the Civil War era.  Can't wait to see how it ends. 

Another gift from my wife is a Blu ray player I still haven't taken out of the box. I'm slowly succumbing to the pressure to convert... and admittedly she only bought it for me because I dropped a few hints here and there that I wanted one... and it will play my DVDs so I don't know what my problem is. I'm just dragging my feet. But the only Blu ray movie I received for Christmas was... kind of ironically I feel... V/H/S. It is a great movie, and I actually look forward to it being my first Blu-ray experience. 

Of course one of the best gifts I received this Christmas was this 23 disc collection containing all ten seasons of the classic TMNT cartoon series, plus a butt-load of special features, obviously including THE KICK-ASS VAN THEY COME IN!!! I don't really need to over-talk this one, do I? Probably not. Moving on. 

From my Aunt, I received a passel of cool gifts as well. This Jack Skellington statue completes my Halloween Shelf in a way I have always wanted it to:

See? Perfect. 

If you have not read Rick Yancey's Monstrumologist series... stop what you are doing, and go out and buy the first three books, and lock yourself in your home until they are all read. This is the third one in the series, "The Isle of Blood". What's incredible about these books is how one moment you can be marveling over the gore and questioning the nature of monsters vs. the nature of humanity... and the next you are swept up in the human emotions and relationships that build the true foundation of this series. It details the cases investigated by a Jack-the-Ripper era (this is semi-significant) Massachusetts scientist who hunts monsters, and his young... ward? apprentice? assistant? live-in slave? surrogate son? It's one of the most important questions of the books. 

A few DVDs from my Aunt as well. After I saw Jaime over at ShezCrafti feature a DVD collection of Roseanne Halloween specials this past Halloween season, I decided I had to have one. But I now notice that mine has 8 episodes, where hers had 7 (not that I'm counting). I'm not sure how to reconcile this. Apparently mine has the episode "Satan, Darling". So mine is obviously better than hers. I got Child's Play because I didn't own it yet, and I wanted it... so now I have it. 

Heinberg's Young Avengers were at one time, one of my favorite new Marvel books. his return to his creation was a bit of a disappointment, though I did enjoy it for the most part. This was mostly Heinberg being tasked with undoing the Scarlet Witch's villainous House of M debacle. But there were some fun moments, and a character I liked who lost his powers during the decimation finally got them back. I just wish a couple of my other favorites had slipped under the wire at the same time. Overall I don't hate this book, but I'm glad I received it as a gift and didn't spend my own money on it. 

This amazingly cute little guy was swimming around in my Christmas stocking. He's real tuff. 

My daughter shopped her school penny sale for my gifts, and she did all right by me. First up is this Christmas Story night-light. For... a penny. Isn't it great? Look at the craftsmanship! 

She also gave me this incredible rubber monster. It is honestly another of my absolute favorite gifts this year. He's glorious. He's magnificent. LOOK AT HIM. 

Here he is with the other gift my daughter got me... an almost complete set of Scooby Gang action figures. I'm going to track down a Shaggy to round them out. They are obviously feeling the menace roiling off of the rubber beastie to their right (our left). 

And finally... the BEST gift I received this Christmas, is the new iPod 4 I got from my wife. I can now snap surreptitious photos at Goodwill when there are items I want to share without actually bringing them home. I. Can't. Wait. This iPod is my new eye-stealing life sucker too. There on the screen you may notice my new favorite game, "Knights of Pen and Paper" which has taken over most of my free time. 

Phew. That's it. It's over. That's what I got for Christmas. What do you think? I think I was spoiled out of my mind... and I think I am a very lucky man to have family and friends that care enough to get me such great loot and put it under the tree. 

Anyway... Christmas is now done. No more Christmas on this blog until next Christmas. Which is a while off yet. In the meantime, I'll be back soon with more Goodwill Goodies. Until then, Happy Hunting!