I first met the creators of WONDER magazine, Lint Hatcher and Rod Bennett, at Cornerstone Festival and its Imaginarium venue many years ago. I developed a friendship with Lint as we share a love for all things Geek culture with a connection to the sacred. For the last few years this has included my meager contributions to WONDER MAGAZINE in the form of toy and memorabilia reviews. The current issue is out, number 19 for 2026, and I not only have reviews included, but an interview as well. It’s with Dr. Jeffrey Thompson, a Dan Curtis expert who recently won a Ronda Award, where we discuss one of my favorite Curtis productions, The Norliss Tapes. I encourage every monster kid, especially those with an intuition that monster stuff includes a window into transcendence, to pick up the latest copy of WONDER at Amazon and look at their extensive catalog of back issue treasures as well.
This week I made some cool discoveries in Substack with new authors addressing topics I’ve followed for years. The first has application to the recent success of the Artemis II mission. I watched the rocket blast off into space and kept tabs with its mission over the days that followed, and like millions of other Americans I watched with a slight bit of nervousness as they re-entered Earth’s atmosphere, hoping the heat shield would do its job. The mission brought back memories of the Apollo missions of the late 1960s and 1970s that I watched as a kid. The Artemis mission has reinvigorated the American space program with the plans for a fresh landing on the moon and the establishment of a permanent base, and continued hopes for sending astronauts to Mars. But I must admit that while I find the space program fascinating, and undoubtedly a shining example of America’s technological abilities, I think the hopes for a Mars mission, and perhaps future interstellar travel, are really current expressions of the new frontiers myth rather than real scientific possibilities. I was reminded of this in a Substack piece by Jason Pargin titled “Interstellar Space Travel Will Never, Ever Happen.” In the piece he lists several scientific reasons why this is the case, and I find it compelling. Because of these realities, our space program provides a mythic hope that dovetails the new frontiers myth as expressed in science fiction tails.
This leads me to my second great find on Substack, a series on aliens in science fiction by Graham Lau. This is a multipart series on Mythologies of Alien Life, where looks at the historical development of alien concepts, including how this has been shaped in science fiction. I’ve discussed science fiction as myth previously on this blog, and I am pleased to see Lau take up the topic. You can read Part 4 of his series here where looks at science fiction from the 1900s and how the concept of aliens evolved from this context. I’d encourage reading the other parts of the series as well.
Finally, Lau’s Substack introduced me to a new concept and author, Jason D. Batt’s work on Xenomythology, defined as “The interdisciplinary study of how mythological structures, archetypes, and religious systems might form among non-human intelligences. Xenomythology synthesizes depth psychology, comparative mythology, astrobiology, and evolutionary biology to explore the conditions under which myth-making arises—and challenges the assumption that human mythological patterns are universal.” Although I’ve studied UFOs/UAPs and the theological implications of possible alien life, surprisingly this was my first encounter with Xenomythology. Lau explores this on his wonderful Substack at The Stellar Furnace (including some other great posts on science fiction like Frankenstein). You can read one of his posts on Xenomythology here, and for a deeper dive check out his website Xenomythology.
In the past one of the areas of study and commentary on this blog has looked at identity and popular culture narratives in the form of vampires and Otherkin. I hadn’t come across this recently until I started reflecting on philosopher Charles Taylor’s influential work related to secular modernity. In his book A Secular Age he notes that secularism involves an emphasis on subjective, constructed identities. Many times in modernity our identities are largely evolving subjective constructs with little connection to broader community considerations. Pop culture plays a significant part in the process of identity construction, particularly in the case of those who believe they have an “Other-Than-Human” identity. I recently came across a couple of journal papers on this, one by Clive Baldwin and Lauren Reply from QSR, and the other by Devin Proctor in Engaging Science, Technology, and Society. Proctor’s paper focuses on Otherkin, while Baldwin and Ripley’s looks at Otherkin, Therianthropes, and Vampires. The latter article defines these groups as follows: “Otherkin are those who identify, in whole or in part, as other-than-human.” This includes “dragonskin, angelkin, elvenkin, unicornkin, and so on.” Therians are those “who identify, in whole or in part, as other-than-human, but as Earth animals such as wolves, dogs, cats, cheetahs, and so on.” Vampire identity is understood as those who need human blood or energy for sustenance.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Baldwin and Ripley study on these groups and the importance of narrative in identity construction comes by way of this paragraph:
“Otherkin and Therians do not consciously create the identity, rather it is something present at birth, eventually realized as they ‘awaken’ to their true identities. In this way, some participants compare it to transgender identity, where one feels and identifies with the gender opposite to that which they were designated at birth.”
Various “other-than-human” groups make for a fascinating study in subjective narrative construction often resourced by aspects of popular culture such as fantasy or horror narratives. To read the Baldwin and Ripley study click here. For Proctor visit this link.
Those familiar with the discipline of monster studies are aware of the seminal work of Jeffrey Cohen and his influential book Monster Theory: Reading Culture. This book is now thirty years old! Cohen recently made an announcement on Facebook that he has edited a forthcoming volume titled Monster Theory at Thirty published by the University of Minnesota Press. The volume is due out early next Spring. In his Facebook post Cohen included an image from the table of contents with the titles from the volume’s twenty-seven contributors. As someone involved in the academic study of monsters for some twenty years, it is great to see this thesis have continued life and fresh explorations by young and older scholars alike.
Someone in my social media feed announced their contribution to this new volume. It looks great. Routledge Handbook of Dark Events: Celebrations, Heritage, and Customs of Death and the Macabre. From the Routledge website:
This handbook explores and critically evaluates key debates and controversies in the emerging field of Dark Events. It brings together leading specialists from a range of disciplinary backgrounds and geographical regions to provide state-of-the-art theoretical reflection and empirical research on celebrations, heritage and customs of death (events) and the macabre.
Divided into ten parts, the book explores traditions of dark festivals and events; the display of the dead; commemoration and authenticity within the context of dark events; dark events from the past; dark events in popular culture; controversial dark events; grief and memory; managing dark event experiences; decolonisation and equality for the dead; and dark event futures. This significant volume offers the reader a comprehensive synthesis of this emerging field, conveying the latest thinking and research. The text is international in focus, encouraging dialogue across disciplinary boundaries and areas of study, providing an invaluable resource for all those with an interest in Dark Events.
This is essential reading for students, researchers and academics of Dark Events, as well as those of related studies such as tourism, cultural studies, leisure, geography, sociology, death studies and museums.
I am a huge fan of the work of Laika Studios in Oregon. They are the premier torch bearers for the legacy of stop-motion animation. They have continued to push the boundaries of technology in animation as it is wedded to artistry and storytelling. For these reasons, I was excited to receive their new book LAIKA: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory. It comes in the regular and deluxe editions. From their website:
LAIKA: The Magic Behind a Stop-Motion Dream Factory provides an exclusive look behind the curtain at the creative and innovative world of LAIKA Studios. Authored by Ozzy Inguanzo and with a forward by Mark Salisbury, this studio book features never-before-seen artwork, stunning new puppet photography, and interviews with the artists who bring LAIKA films to life, one frame at a time.
I am honored to announce that The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Monsters (Oxford University Press, 2025), is a Horror Writers Association finalist for a Stoker Award in the category of Superior Achievement in the Category of Long Non-Fiction. I had the privilege of co-editing this volume with Brandon R. Grafius, and working with a great collection of scholars specializing in biblical studies and religious studies. We will see how the volume fares when the winners are announced in June!
I’ve posted previously about the decline of Star Trek as a franchise, perhaps more accurately described as a self-caused implosion. In the video included with this clip I was reminded of the great work done by fans in creating their own material, from a series to plans for a film. This material was so good, respecting the canon and incorporating great storytelling that often involved those creative talents who put together various Star Trek series in the past, that Paramount sued these creators and severely limited their ability to produce content. While the studio might argue this was to product copyrighted material, I would argue it was because the fan material rivaled the quality of what the studio was able to produce. Given the tremendous fan response to fan materials in contrast to Paramount productions for several series, I think this is a fair understanding of the situation. So my question to Paramount executives is, after losing millions of dollars on materials that your faithful fan base doesn’t like, why not embrace the creativity of the fan base and invite them into production of canon-faithful material they would embrace and pay to see?
Explores the architecture of haunted houses, uncanny domestic spaces, and how the horror genre subverts and corrupts the sanctity of home.
Horror begins at home.
From family homes in Amityville to Gothic mansions in Los Angeles and the Unabomber’s cabin, houses often capture and contain the horror that has happened within them.
Sick Houses crosses the threshold of these eerie spaces to explore how different types of architecture become vessels for terror and how these spaces, meant to shelter us, instead become the source of our deepest fears. Using film, television, and literature to explain why we are drawn to haunted and haunting places, Sick Houses is a must read for anyone who has ever looked at a house and sensed there might be something unsettling going on inside.
