31 Days of Monsters - Day 2: Alphyn

The Alphyn is a rare heraldic creature from European legend. Spectacular in appearance, Alphyns combine the traits of dragons, wolves, goats, eagles and serpents into a fearsome form that has to be seen to be believed. Of course, they also combine the viciousness of those same creatures and should be avoided at all costs.

31 Days of Monsters - Day 1: Kappa

Kappa are dangerously mischeivous Japanese yokai who live in ponds and rivers. They have an indentation on the top of their heads that must be kept filled with water when they venture onto dry land. An easy way to defeat a Kappa is to bow to them before they can attack you. The Kappa will respond by bowing back, which will drain the cavity, leaving them incapacitated.

31 Days of Monsters - Day 6: Hiisi (plural: hiidet)

Hiidet are Finnish nature spirits. They roam areas never visited by humans and attack humans who attempt to "civilize" those areas. The only escape from a hiisi is to flee to a human cultivated or developed location. Hiidet find these area abhorrent and poisonous.

31 Days of Monsters: The Grootslang

When the gods created Grootslangs, they were new at their jobs. They gave them enormous size, strength, cunning, and a ravenous appetite for all other life. Quickly realizing their mistake, they divided the Grootslangs in two, resulting in the creation of elephants and snakes. Only one Grootslang is left in its original state, and it prowls the dark places of Africa to this day.

31 Days of Monsters: Echidna, Mother of Monsters

Echidna, daughter of Tartarus (The Darkness) and Gaia (The Earth) is called the Mother of Monsters by the Greeks. With her brother Typhon, she bore an almost endless line of mythology's greatest terrors: Cerberus the three-headed guardian of Hades; Orthrus, his two-headed brother; The Lernaean Hydra; Medusa and her sister Gorgons; Ladon, the dragon protector of the golden apples; The Colchian Dragon, guardian of the Golden Fleece; The Caucasian Eagle, tormentor of Prometheus; The Chimera, The Crommyonian Sow; The Nemean Lion; The Sphynx; Scylla and Charybdis and more. She is described as incredibly beautiful, with the upper half of a woman, and, below the waist, the body of an enormous serpent. She is eternal, and undying, and although her brother was imprisoned within Mt. Etna after the siblings attacked Zeus, Echidna and her children were allowed their freedom as a challenge to all future adventurers.

That wraps up this year's 31 Days of Monsters. I hope you enjoyed the selection this year. Please feel free to drop me a line at any time to tell me what you think. Happy Halloween.

31 Days of Monsters: Anton Chigurh

When I sat down to watch the Coen Brothers' "No Country For Old Men", I expected to see an exciting crime tale like "Fargo" or "Blood Simple". I did not expect to be scared almost to death by one of the most chilling characters in film since Hannibal Lecter. The hit-man, Anton Chigurh, played by Javier Bardem is a cold, calculating killer that operates by his own set of morals. He is the ruin of anyone who crosses his path. It doesn't matter if you're a criminal like himself, or innocent bystanders, all are potential victims of Anton Chigurh. I know it doesn't have the reputation as being one, but "No Country For Old Men" is a horror film by my book, and Chigurh is a true, modern monster.

31 Days of Monsters: The Banshee

Like the Black Dog, the Banshee (From the Irish: bean (woman) + sidhe (the fairy folk)) is a portent of death. To hear the Banshee wail means someone has been marked for death. Often the Banshee could be glimpsed on riverbanks washing blood from the clothes of those who would soon die an untimely death.

31 Days of Monsters: Pipes

Ghostwatch was a British Halloween TV special broadcast in 1992 that terrified many viewers who believed the fictional program was a real investigation of a haunted house. The show made use of recognized TV personalities, and told the story of a single mother of two daughters who's council estate home was being haunted by a ghost known as Pipes (The mother blaming strange noises on the house's water pipes). As the story continues, a history of ghastly goings-on in the neighborhood comes to light, of which the figure of Pipes is the latest chapter. The terror takes on national scope as the "live" broadcast acts to magnify the hauntings across the country resulting in a climax that lead to a decade-long ban on rebroadcasts of the show. Good wholesome fun. It's worth watching if you can track down a copy.

31 Days of Monsters: Sea serpents

For as long as humans have attempted to travel over and make a living from the planet's oceans, they have told tales of monstrous serpents that hunt beneath the waves. Whether the stories were fantasies spun by sailors too long at sea, or misunderstood natural occurrences, the fear of something lurking beneath the waves has a permanent place in the nightmares of mankind.

31 Days of Monsters: Pukwudgie

The Pukwudgie are small goblins from East Coast Native American legend. They are normally not hostile to humans, but when pushed can kill with a touch. They are extremely fast, seeming to appear and disappear instantaneously. They are expert marksmen with a spear and clever masters of disguise. It's not known whether they are just good at appearing as other creatures, or are natural shapeshifters, but they most often turn into porcupines or full sized humans.

31 Days of Monsters: Goatman

 

The Goatman is the kind of monster that haunts Lover's Lanes in a variety of locations across the country. Most stories describe him as being a cross between a goat and a human with goat-like legs and a goat's head. In most accounts he terrorizes people and on occasion attacks unfortunate people with a blood-stained axe.

Stories diverge as to his origin. Some say he used to be a scientist who was turned into a goat by one of his experiments. Others say he was a circus freak who escaped to seek revenge on the gawkers who used to taunt him in the sideshow. Still others say he is a farmer who sold his soul to the devil.

31 Days of Monsters: Ghouls

Ghouls are pathetic human monsters with a cannibalistic taste for human carrion. A ghoul will usually haunt cemeteries to find the freshest graves available for its nocturnal dining habits, but isn't above killing to bring home the bacon.

31 Days of Monsters: The Bunyip

The Bunyip is an legendary Australian creature said to inhabit swamps, ponds and billabongs. The variety of descriptions of the Bunyip have lead many to believe that the monster is entirely fictional. But that doesn't explain all the missing people does it?

31 Days of Monsters: The Manchurian Ape-man

In "Horror Express," a frozen, fossil ape-man is being transported to Europe on the Trans-Siberian railway. The creature thaws, and the hapless passengers learn that the creature is possessed by an otherworldly intelligence that feeds on people's memories, and is capable of jumping from body to body in order to stay alive. 

31 Days of Monsters: Basilisk

The basilisk was said to be the king of serpents because of a crown-like crest on its head. Basilisks are born when a chicken hatches an egg from a snake. One look from a basilisk is said to be able to kill an average man, and if stabbed, their blood can flow up swords to poison their slayers. They are aggressive to all living things, and when they cannot find animals to attack, they preoccupy themselves withering plants with their breath. Weasels and mongooses are said to be the only animal that is immune to their stare, but one of the easiest and surest ways to kill a basilisk is with a rooster. If a basilisk hears a rooster crow, it will drop dead instantly, no muss, no fuss.

31 Days of Monsters: Demonic clown

This drawing came out of a quick posture sketch I was working on of a person walking in a stereotypical cartoon stalking pose. The stick figure turned into a clown's body and then the details started turning from clothes and costume into weird deformities. I plan to try and take this idea far beyond what I did here, but this is a pretty good sketch for 31 Days of Monsters.

31 Days of Monsters: The Honey Island Swamp Monster

Similar to Bigfoot, the Honey Island Swamp Monster is described as a large hairy hominid that roams the Honey Island Swamp in Louisiana. People know the Swamp Monster is close even if they can't see it, because it puts out a horrid rotten egg smell. It's normally standoffish to humans, but will attack if threatened.