Werewolves

A Brief History of Censorship

Alternately, this one could be titled “When was the first porno made?” The answer to that question would be, sometime immediately following the creation of the movie camera. Before film, people were taking “dirty” photographs. Cavemen painted “dirty” art on cave walls, as far as that goes. But we aren’t concerning ourselves with pornography, here,…

Revisiting the “Classics”: MANIAC (1934)

Had this film not been made a couple of decades before Ed Wood started directing, writing, and producing, one might easily believe that MANIAC is one of his early efforts. It’s that bad, and that “good.” But then there is an undercurrent of meanness in MANIAC that Ed would never have promoted, scenes of animal…

The Cereal Monsters Are Back!

The kindred spirits over at the collinsporthistoricalsociety join with me this week in celebrating the yearly return to supermarket shelves of our beloved Frankenberry, Boo Berry, Count Chocula, Fruit Brute, and Yummy Mummy breakfast cereals. (Not that I ever ate them exclusively at breakfast. And not that you have to, either. You can enjoy them…

THERIOPHOBIA: FEAR THE BEAST Part Fifteen

Leland spent a couple hours running the necessary errands. He stocked up on groceries, lots of canned food, beer. All the things he’d need. He wanted to make it so he had to leave the house as little as possible. It would be the worst form of bad manners to go off and leave a…

I have been to the Black Lagoon!

Last week, I got to take a little vacation. I found myself in lovely Florida, having a lovely time. One of the activities I put near the top of my list of things to do was to visit Edward Ball Wakulla Springs State Park. (The park bears Ball’s name because he sold the land to…

The Stump-Jumper

When I learned of the existence of a monster known as the “Stump-Jumper,” how could I NOT go off in search of it? When passing through the area (the Florida panhandle) last week, I knew I had to make a detour to the Stump-Jumper’s stomping grounds. This latter comprises the teeny tiny hamlet known as…

The Mermaid Mummy of Iceland!

Elsewhere this week I wrote about the troubles currently being experienced by Wolf and Ali Mertz, the owners of WOLF’S MUSEUM OF MYSTERY in Saint Augustine, Florida. Despite the strain of financial uncertainties foisted upon them, though, they haven’t let it slow them down, as they continue to bring to the nation’s oldest city and…

Two-Toed Tom

Okay, Tom isn’t a werewolf. He’s a monster of a different sort. But I’m going to make an exception this time because Two-Toed Tom, the giant demon alligator of north Florida, happens to share the same home territory as another regional monster, the Two Egg Stump-Jumper, which I also wrote about this week. (Check the…

RE-visiting the Grave of the Georgia Werewolf

Refresh your memories of my recent visit to the gravesite of Emily Burt, the “Werewolf of Georgia,” before continuing. I mean, you don’t HAVE to, but this article here will make a lot more sense to you if you do. Unless you have a really good memory and can recall all the specifics and details….

Save the Museum of Mystery!

Technically it isn’t the museum–Wolf’s Museum of Mystery, that is–that is in need of saving. Hopefully the Museum will weather this and continue on. Rather it is the current location of the Museum that needs saving. Saving from “modernization.” Saving from “renovation.” The Victorian-era house where Wolf’s is located, and has been for the past…

Stubbe or Stump?

It is probably the most famous, or infamous, of all the accounts of REAL werewolves, that of Stumpf Peter, aka Peter Stump, aka Peter Stumpp, aka Stubbe Peter. The problem is, the case occurred back before there was anything resembling uniformity of spelling. The OTHER problem is, neither “Stubbe” nor “Stump” nor “Stumpf” is a…

THERIOPHOBIA: FEAR THE BEAST Part Fourteen

The clank of steel against steel, the sound of the cell door sliding closed, woke Lucas Vale from his stupor. He stood for an instant, disoriented, his eyes taking in the confines of the tiny cell: drab gray walls of painted over cinderblock, interlocking bars of ugly blue metal, a narrow bunk bolted to the…

THERIOPHOBIA: FEAR THE BEAST Part Thirteen

The Ironwood City Jail had been erected adjacent to the town library, with very little visible difference between the two, constructed as they were at the same time and by the same architect, the same builders. Both structures now occupied the short list of Ironwood’s historic sites, though both had been renovated more than once….

Based on a True Story!

A couple of true stories, actually, with a little creative license thrown in. “Cletus Cobb, Jr. versus the Alabama Booger”, a short audio drama written by yours truly, was featured recently in the podcast Rocket City Radio Hour by Theater Huntsville, hosted by playwright Benjamin Shapiro. (No relation to the conservative windbag of the same…

Wolves Are Not Pets

Listen to the voice of experience, here. Twenty years ago, when I was still a wet-behind-the-ears, longhaired weirdo (as opposed to the dry-behind-the-ears, bald weirdo I am now), I had a “pet” wolf. A “hybrid,” actually, 7/8s wolf and 1/8 Siberian Husky. I lived alone, had no children or other pets, and did not interact…

Pushing Back Timelines

Our story, our collective story as human beings, is so impossibly old that our minds can’t comprehend it, and that timeline keeps getting pushed further and further back into the dim past. Recent evidence proves people were in the Americas—in Texas, to be more specific— and fashioning stone tools over 20,000 years ago—which is double…

Satanic Temple Divided Against Itself

The Satanic Temple out of Salem, Massachusetts, is doing some good work these days. They’re taking a stand for separation of Church and State and defending individual liberties. But they are an organization made up of human beings and, as one of their tenets reminds us, human beings are fallible creatures. We shouldn’t expect them…

Jane Goodall on Bigfoot

Scientists are human, too, susceptible to all the same foibles and character weaknesses as any other person. There is a tendency among scientists, who ought to be the most open-minded of individuals, to dismiss out of hand anything that does not conform to their established belief systems, sans investigation or even a second thought. Does…

The History of the Devil Sign

Recently I had a conversation with a friend about the infamous Alabama “Devil Sign.” He found it embarrassing to the state of Alabama, or, more specifically, those people living in the State who have some degree of common sense. (We don’t ALL support the orange dictator, date our cousins, and have bad teeth, you know.)…

Give ‘em Hell, Baphomet!

When I was growing up, the spawn of simple farm folks high atop Sand Mountain, Alabama (slightly above and to the left of the buckle of the Bible Belt, where the appendix would be, if the appendix were located to the left of the navel), a hotbed of Christian fundamentalism with more than its fair…

The Legend of the Tailypo

Have you ever heard the story of Tailypo? This is an Appalachian folktale, and a good one. Once upon a time, there was an old man who lived alone in a small cabin way back in the woods (because no self-respecting cabin-builder would think of constructing one anywhere else), his only companions three hulking, nasty…

The Furry Globster

I don’t typically cover aquatic monsters on this site. For one thing, well, there’s that “aquatic” thing. For a site that caters to werewolf fans, I figure I ought to keep things terrestrial. Terra dry-a. Also, 99% of the time, those “globsters” that wash up on beaches looking all monstrous-like turn out to be nothing…

STRANGER THINGS Season Three Inspired by Chevy Chase

They told us to look to the movies that came out in 1985 for clues to the plot of the upcoming third season of STRANGER THINGS. As they had also stated that the season would have a John Carpenter vibe to it, I quickly deduced that, as THE GOONIES came out in the summer of…

THERIOPHOBIA: FEAR THE BEAST Part Twelve

Hank set a small electric fan onto the coffee table, plugged it into the closest wall outlet and turned it on. Lucas sat down on the sofa, pulling off his shoes. Hank went around to all the windows and closed the blinds, drew the curtains. “That’s not a psychiatrist’s couch,” Hank said. “But it’s pretty…

THERIOPHOBIA: FEAR THE BEAST Part Eleven

The path of least resistance. The way always chosen by a smart man. And Leland Cooper considered himself to be smarter than most. He saw no need in doing things the hard way when he could help it. If he could just pull this off, he’d save himself a great deal of time and effort….