MONSTROUS MYTHOLOGIES NOW AVAILABLE!

 I'm extremely excited to announce that my book of mythological monsters through Lethe Press is now available! CLICK HERE to head over to their website and I'll have copies in the coming weeks!

I'm so excited to people to be able to get their hands on this. It's been a long weird road with multiple covid related delays and to be honest I'd been keeping a little quiet about it because I still wasn't 100% sure it would actually happen. You can imagine my delight when I got my first proof a few months ago and my actual approved copy right before Halloween! Expect me to not shut up about it for the next few years!

Hope you all enjoy it!
GET YOUR COPY OF MONSTROUS MYTHOLOGIES HERE!

News...

 I know it's been a while since I've posted, but I'll have a bunch of cool announcements within the next couple months. In the meantime though I can share this really cool bit of news that I've been keeping under wraps. 

I teamed up with HH Toy Company for their Mythos: Weird Fiction Minifigures line! We chose two of my designs turn into toys (both sculpted by Ryan Bukalew). 

These are two recent monsters from authors that I've recently fallen in love with. The first creep is one of the Long White Creatures from Amos Tutuola's fever dream of a novel The Palm Wine Drinkard.  If you've spent any time on this blog or my IG you know I'm obsessed with Charles Saunders. This semando or mud monster is inspired by his story Jeroboam Henley's Debt that appeared in the collection The Book Of Cthulhu. 

I'm really excited with the way these came out and I hope you guys like them. I also drew the headers and portraits of Tutuola & Saunders for them which I'll be posting later in the week. AND I wrote a little summary of why these authors are so important to me and why I think you should give them a try!

Head over to HH Toy Company this coming Friday to get your set!

DISPLACER BEAST

DISPLACER BEAST

"This vaguely puma-like creature is bluish black, its tentacles are dead black, the horney edges of the tentacles are brownish yellow, and its eyes glow a hellish green."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual I

BABAU

BABAU

"This species of demon is tall and appears much as a skeleton in form-fitting black leather. Its extremities are larger than normal, however. Its feet, hands, and head are the size of a hill giant's. The taloned fingers are deadly and a horn-like growth projects from the back of the skull, curving forward and downward."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

TIRAPHEG

TIRAPHEG

"This tripedal hermaphrodite is 7' tall, naked and hairless. Its shape is human-like, but there are significant deviations from human form. The creature has three heads of which the outer two are featureless. The middle head has three large, deeply-inset eyes, two to the front, (above the nose as a human) and one to the rear; it has ear-like organs on each side, but no mouth."

 "From the body of the creature spring three arms; the two at the shoulders are jointed in such a way that they can attack to the rear with equal facility as to the front of the body - these are prehensile limbs with a 6" long spike at the end of each. The third arm, emerging centrally from the chest, is like a human arm except that the hand has three strong fingers. Of the creature's three legs, the outer two are stumps and the central one has three unusually long and strong toes."

"The tirapheg's mouth is located in its belly below the central arm;"

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

GAMBADO

GAMBADO

These extraordinary-looking creatures are man-sized, with a powerful human torso and two arms ending in very sharp claws. Supported on the thin (but very strong) neck is the creature's head which is a skull - usually of an animal but sometimes of primitive man. The lower part of the creature's body consists of a cylinder of muscle and skin which can be compressed spring-style and released, below which are three long and thin single-toed feet. Its manner of locomotion -since it lacks legs as such - is a series of springs;""

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

OWLBEAR

 

OWLBEAR

"Owlbears have brownish-black to yellow brown fur and feathers. The 1,300 to 1,500 pound males will be the darker colored. The beaks of these creatures are yellow to ivory. The eyes are red-rimmed and exceedingly terrible to behold."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual I

MONODRONE

 

MONODRONE

"Thousands of spherical monodrones, armed with spears, fouchards, and crossbows, are impressive when marshaled against the foe, as is their unswerving, singleminded performance. They exist for their work and what limited conversations they can carry on usually concern their functions."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

ACHAIEREI

ACHAIEREI

"Though the foul motives which caused these loathsome birds to be first summoned from the infernal regions are now lost from memory, remnants of the original achaierai flock still stalk the earth, haunting shadowy places and underground passages. In form they consist of a huge spherical head-body, with a powerful beak and feathery crest, atop four long legs ending in strong claws."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

FLUMPH

FLUMPH

"These strange creatures are saucer shaped and pure white in colour. The mouth is at the centre of the upper surface; on either side of the mouth is a 4" long eyestalk. The underside carries a mass of small spikes and numerous small tentacles. The flumph 'flies' by sucking air into its mouth and expelling it through its underside. Normally it floats about 4" above the ground but can fly up to 10', particularly for attack purposes."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

GALEB DUHR

GALEB DUHR

"The galeb duhr is a curious boulder-like creature with appendages that act as hands and feet. These intelligent beings are very large and slow moving. They live in rocky or mountainous areas where they can feel the 'earth power' and control the rocks around them."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

NECROPHIDIUS

NECROPHIDIUS

"This creature appears be the skeleton of a giant snake with a fanged human skull as a head."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

CRABMAN

CRABMAN

"Amphibious creatures usually found in sea-shore caves, crabmen are humanoid in appearance but with a hard, reddish-brown exoskeleton. Instead of hands they have two pincers which they use in combat."
Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

CARBUNCLE

CARBUNCLE

"This small creature is similar to an armadillo with an 'armoured' upper surface of small interlocking 'plates' of tough leathery skin. It feeds exclusively on leaves and small insects and is rarely found outside areas (such as woodland and marshland) where there is a copious supply of such food. Its upper surface armouring is attractively patterned in shades of brown while its underbody is light grey flecked with small green patches. Set in its head, immediately above its eyes, is a large ruby."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

HOOK HORROR

HOOK HORROR

"Large, powerful bipeds, hook horrors have vulture-like heads and a hard plated exoskeleton which is mottled grey in color."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

GORBEL

GORBEL

"A curious creature, the gorbel appears as a red globe of thin rubbery material about 3' in diameter with a tiny mouth, six tiny eyes on short retractable stalks equally spaced around the upper hemisphere and two clawed legs which it uses to move at remarkable speed."

"Gorbels are mischievous, fickle and irritable creatures."
Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

GIBBERING MOUTHER

GIBBERING MOUTHER

"The gibbering mouther is an amoeboid-like form of life, composed of all mouths and eyes."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

BEHOLDER

BEHOLDER

"The beholder (eye tyrant, sphere of many eyes) is most frequently found underground, although it infrequently will lair in desolate wildernesses. The globular body of this monster is supported by levitation and it floats slowly about as it wills. Atop the sphere are 10 eyestalks, while in the central area re a great eleventh eye and a large mouth filled with pointed teeth."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual I

OTYUGH

OTYUGH

"The otyugh has a sensory organ stalk and two tentacle arms which protrude from its hideous body. The eyes are always thrust above the offal the creature lairs under, and this prevents surprise. Its tentacles have sharp ridges and are used to deliver smashing blows to prey."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual I

MYCONID

MYCONID

"The myconids, or fungus men, resemble walking toadstools in humanoid form."

Gary Gygaxy, Monster Manual II

GRELL

GRELL

"The appearance of this dreadful creature is fearsome indeed - a body like a giant exposed brain approximately 5' in diameter and with a frontal beak, below which trail ten 6' long tentacles. The beast 'flies' by a levitation process, small inflections of the tentacles controlling horizontal movement."

Don Turnbull ed., Fiend Folio

FROGHEMOTH

 

FROGHEMOTH

"Huge and weird, froghemoths are found only where there are large swamps or relatively shallow bodies of fresh water containing large life forms that serve as prey."

"Movement in water is fairly rapid, the webbed rear feet kicking tothrust the monster forward. In marsh or swamp, a froghemoth moves by lying on its belly and sliding along, propelled by rear legsand tentacles."

Gary Gygax, Monster Manual II

VEILCHENMEISTER DEMON

VEILCHENMEISTER DEMON
"To ward off the approaching, horned devil, he supports his patriarchal cross on a Bible and makes a sign of blessing with his right hand."
Würth Collection

*This demon is inspired by the painting St. Anthony Retable (1500-1515) by Zürcher Veilchenmeister

DE VOS DEMON

DE VOS DEMON

"In the background we can see several episodes from the lives of St. Antony the Hermit and St. Paul, such as their miraculous feeding by the raven, their conversation with an architect concerning the building of a monastery (which is also visible in the centre of a forest), the burial of St. Paul, and the kidnapping of St. Antony by demons."

WGA

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Temptation Of St. Anthony (1594) by Maarten De Vos

BOSCH DEMON

BOSCH DEMON

"On the inner faces of its panels, the triptych shows three stages in the hagiography of St. Anthony, tempted and seduced by demons until he finds the path to salvation through the life of a hermit."

Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Temptations of St. Anthony (1500) by Hieronymus Bosch

BRUEGHEL DEMON

BRUEGHEL DEMON

"He is totally absorbed in his reading and meditations, under a crude wooden cabin, and he sees himself surrounded by a great number of evil monsters where we can see the most horrendous symbiosis of mammals, birds, reptiles and fish, with threatening attitudes or making horrific sounds and howls. All these evil satanic figures are symbols of the Deadly Sins and thus, represent sloth, gluttony, wrath, greed, pride, envy and especially, lust."

Museo Nacional De Escultura

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Temptation of Saint Anthony (1625) by Jan Brueghel the Elder; a similar demon also appears in the painting The Underworld by an unknown member of Brueghel's circle.

VAN OOSTSANEN DEMON

VAN OOSTSANEN DEMON

"Fearing the outcome of a battle, Saul, kin of the Israelites, consulted the fortune-telling witch of Endor. The prophecy came true: Saul lost the battle, but shortly before he was to be killed, he threw himself on his sword. His suicide is a warning against witchcraft. In the foreground is a Witches' Sabbath: the fortune-teller sits within a chalk circle, surrounded by other witches, satrys, and imaginary figures."

The Rijks Museum

*This demon is inspired by the painting Saul And The Witch Of Endor (1472-77) by Jacob Conelisz van Oostsanen

BOUTS DEMON

BOUTS DEMON

"For instance, in the lower right-hand corner, a reptilian creature grasps a sinner by the head."

Aleks Pluskowski, The Monstrous Middle Ages

In Dieric Bouts the Elder‘s Fall of the Damned (ca. 1470) (Figure 7), a motley crew of reptilian devils attack naked souls in a landscape so rocky it practically has teeth. Indeed, many of the damned are shown partially submerged into the earth; this is the endgame of their fall, which began when they were dropped here by flying devils (and were thus forced to repeat the devils‘ own prior fall from Heaven).

Marisa Mandaback, Holy Shit: Bosch’s Bluebird And The Junction Of The Scatological And The Eschatological In Late Medieval Art 

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Fall Of The Damned Into Hell (1450) by Dieric Bouts

MANDIJN DEMON

MANDIJN DEMON

"St. Anthony Abbot prays inside a hollow tree. He is attacked by monstrous creatures. They try to persuade him to lead a dissolute life. Through his staunch faith Anthony resisted temptation."

The Frans Hals Museum

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Temptation Of St. Anthony (1525-35) by Jan Mandijn

PACHER DEMON

PACHER DEMON

"In Michael Pacher’s 15th-century painting “The Devil Presenting St Augustine with the Book of Vices” we see a figure intended to disgust: unusually, he is green, but has cloven hooves, horns, red eyes, fangs and reptilian wings. For some reason, he also has a face on his bottom."

Ralph Jones, The Face We Give The Devil Is A Mirror Of Our Times

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Devil Presenting St. Augustine with the Book of Vices(1483) by Michael Pacher

BUONARROTI DEMON

BUONARROTI DEMON

"In addition, following a trip to the fish market, Michelangelo heightened the naturalism of Schongauer’s demons by painting silvery scales onto the spiny, fishlike monster in the upper left.

Kimball Art Museum

*This demon is inspired by the painting The Torment Of St. Anthony (1487) by Michelangelo Buonarroti which itself was inspired by the print Saint Anthony Tormented By Demons (1470-75) by Martin Schongauer

BELMONTE DEMON

BELMONTE DEMON 

"Instead of showing an individual body of the devil, we have a figure that is made up of all these different composite creatures and demons and they're biting each other and forming this anthropomorphized demon. We see bird heads are twisting here and there, we see bird talons, we see what look like god heads, we see reptilian creatures biting the arms of a body. We see all these different faces across this figure. And then what I can only describe as the hair which looks like some Dr. Seuss figure."

Dr. Lauren Kilroy-Ewbank & Dr. Steven Zucker, St. Michael Defeats The Devil In Renaissance Spain

*This demon is inspired by the painting St. Michael Defeating the Devil (1450-1500) by The Master Of Belmonte

MORSS PISCIS

MORSS PISCIS

"In 1635 the Spanish Jesuit Juan Eusebio Nieremberg published Historia Naturae Maxime Perigrinae, a collection of descriptions of exotic beasts, most from the Americas, and containing a woodcut of an animal he called morrs piscis, which had a head resembling that of a dog, with protruding tongue, a mane, forelegs with long hair and large claws, and a fish's tail."

Michael Allaby, Oceans: A Scientific History Of Oceans And Marine Life

SEA-HORSE

SEA-HORSE

"Many of the sea monster that appear on medieval maps are hybrids such as the sea don, the sea lion, and the sea pig, and the source of many of these creatures was the ancient and medieval theory that every land creature had its equivalent in the sea. Some Roman mosaics reflect this theory, showing hybrid creatures such as sea rams, sea lions, sea horses, and so on."

Chet Van Duzer, Monsters On Medieval And Renaissance Maps

AQUATIC BULL

AQUATIC BULL

"A single-horned aquatic bull from the twelfth-century painted ceiling in the Church Of St. Martin in Zillis, Switzerland."

Chet Van Duzer, Sea Monsters On Medieval And Renaissance Maps

AQUATIC ELEPHANT

AQUATIC ELEPHANT

"An aquatic elephant, probably intended for a walrus, from the twelfth-century painted ceiling in the church of St Martin in Zillis, Switzerland."

Chet Van Duzer, Sea Monsters On Medieval and Renaissance Maps

KRAKEN

KRAKEN

"There is a fish not yet mentioned which it is scarcely advisable to speak about on account of its size, which to most men will seem incredible. There are, moreover, but very few who can tell anything definite about it, inasmuch as it is rarely seen by men; for it almost never approaches the shore or appears where fishermen can see it, and I doubt that this sort of fish is very plentiful in the sea. In our language it is usually called the 'kraken'."

King's Mirror

TARUSI

TARUSI

"Their heads, bodies, and arms were of normal proportions, but their legs were far longer than Dossouye was tall."

"Their faces were their least human aspect: eyes like circular pits of demon-fire; gaping mouths filled with square, grinding teeth; scores of tusk-like projections sprouting from their heads in place of hair.

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye

DEATH'S MESSENGER

DEATH'S MESSENGER

"In size and shape, it resembled an elephant with tusks like curved ivory spears. But Imaro had never known and elephant to have a hide scarlet as fresh-spilled blood; or grasping, hook-like fingers at the ends of its columnar limbs; or ears ribbed like giant fans; or two pairs of gauzy, insect-like wings sprouting from its back, wings that scarcely disturbed the damp swamp air as they supported the massive bulk of Death's Messenger...."

Charles R. Saunders, Death's Friend

SEMANDO

SEMANDO

"The semando was a grotesque, misshapen thing formed of mephitic grave-mud that oozed with each sickening step it took. But it was not the lurching travesty of a body that bulged Henley's eyes and clove his tongue to the roof of his mouth. It was the face."

"Crudely molded and distorted as its features were, Henley had seen them before—in the portrait that had hung over the mantlepiece downstairs. It was the face of his grandfather, Jeroboam Henley...."

"Blunt, malformed fingers reached clawlike for Henley's throat as the semando drew nearer."

Charles R. Saunders, Jeroboam Henley's Debt

NJINN

NJINN

"Their bodies were like those of stick-insects, magnified to the size of horses. But there was more to them than their sheer mass — much more. For the creatures had twice the number of limbs as those of an ordinary insect. From the ends of those limbs, hand-like paws resembling those of a baboon opened and closed. The fingers of each paw bore talons longer and more lethal-looking than a lion's claws. And the tails of the monstrosities ended in stings like those of scorpions."

"And their heads...the faces those heads bore were more human-like than those of the Sand-kin. Yet there was no comfort in that resemblance, for the demons' faces were twisted into grimaces of hatred so intense as to be incomprehensible to a mortal."

"'Njinn,' Ukenge said in a low whisper."

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye II

SAND-KIN

SAND-KIN

"The creatures that emerged from the cloud were human in size and general configuration - but that was where the semblance ended. Leaner and longer-armed than humans, the intruders were the color of tarnished gold. Their bodies were swathed in swirling, blood-red garments, and there was a hint of scaliness to the exposed skin of their arms and legs. Their skulls were narrow and flattened and slit-pupilled eyes glared above vestigial noses and wide, snarling mouth, from which serpent-like fangs protruded."

"Large, curved swords and spears with hooked tips were clutched tightly in the intruders' long-fingered hands."

"'Sand-kin,' Ukenge replied in a low tone that implied that the intruders were as dangerous as they appeared to be."

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye II

MOKÊLE-MBÊMBE II

 

MOKÊLE-MBÊMBE II

"In size, the mokele-mbembe rivaled an elephant, though their proportions were dissimilar. The mokele-mbembe's shape resembled that of a lizard, but its smooth, slate-gray hide lacked the scales of a reptile. Though its color was similar to that of a hippopotamus, those river-beasts, for all their bulk and formidable teeth, were to mokele-mbembe what a sheep is to a lion."

"The mokele-mbembe's elongated body was supple as a serpent's, and its long tail lashed the surface of the lake. Its legs jutted from its sides like those of a crocodile, but they were longer, capable of raising the creature's body high above the water. Its neck was also long, and was surmounted by a relatively small head that was nonetheless armed with a fearsome array of teeth."

"At the end of mokele-mbembe's nose, a long, slender horn grew like that of a rhinoceros."

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye

PERSON OF THE PLACE OF STONE

PERSON OF THE PLACE OF STONE

"The builders of the Place of Stones were short, squat, manlike in shape...and thoroughly nightmarish. Narrow, elongated eyes glittered balefully in the green light suffusing the ruin. Bestial fangs fille dthei gaping mouths. Colorless hair sprouted in thin patches across scabrous, unclothed skin. Cat-like claws curved from the fingers of hands otherwise human in form. These were the people of the Place of Stones, whose very name had long since been forgotten."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro

GUNKWU

GUNKWU

"The soldiers, encased in steel and bearing long lances, rode gunkwu: beasts that were relics of the time before human feet trod Nyumbani. Although the gunkwu bore a superficial resemblance to the rhinoceros, they were larger and bulkier, rivaling the mass of a small elephant. From their foreheads, pairs of thick, conical, parallel horns projected to a point beyond the beasts' nostrils."

Charles R. Saunders, Imaro IV

IMANDWA

IMANDWA

"The wide-spanning horns shrank back into the sides of a head that was reshaping itself: snout collapsing into a smaller nose; forehead rising, hair receding until it covered only a head that became round rather than flat. And the hoofs of the apparition metamorphosed into hands and feet. When the shape-shifting was complete, a naked giant of a man stood before Dossouye."

"Once before, she had known a bovine that could be come human..."

Charles R. Saunders, Kpendu

NANDI

NANDI

"From behind the thick tree trunk a gigantic, shaggy bulk emerged. Imaro's dark eyes went wide in disbelief."

"What swayed before Imaro was no legend. The beast's snarling canine face was framed by flopping, houndlike ears. Its bulky, bearlike form was larger than a lion's, and its mighty paws were armed with long, lethal talons that were fitting counterparts to its dripping fangs."

Charles R. Saunders, Mai-Kulala

MWANGA

MWANGA

"She crouched like a skulking beast at the edge of the clearing, distorted body outlined by a ghostly nimbus of moonlight. Demon-fires smouldered in her crimson eyes. Her lips pulled back in a snarl that revealed sharp, carnivorous teeth. Shaggy beast-hair blurred the lines of her lean, powerful frame. Despite  the hideous misshaping of feature and form, Imaro knew that the feral thing that was even now beginning to creep forward was Mai-Kulala...."

"She transformed into a mwanga, a were-thing that drinks the blood of humans."

Charles R. Saunders, Mai-Kulala

ZAGIWE

ZAGIWE

"The animals upon which the Dancers were mounted were even more singular than Gbo. Although they resembled horses the likeness was superficial. These beasts were slightly larger than equines, but built along leaner lines. Cat-like, tufted tails whipped back and forth as the animals' taloned paws scratched at the ground. Their heads, narrower than those of horses, surmounted long, mane-less necks. From each of the animals' foreheads, a single, short horn protruded."

"Dark-brown spots like those of a leopard speckled their light-brown hides."

Charles R. Saunders, Dossouye II