Last night I caught a program produced by National Geographic, an episode in their series Taboo. This particular program looked at various aspects of body modification. One expression comes in the form of a new fad introduced in Japan, the “Bagel Head.” In this procedure individuals have saline injected into their foreheads until swelling develops, and then at the end of this two-hour procedure pressure is placed in the middle of the bubble to produce something that looks like a bagel. The effect lasts about twenty-four hours.
The Huffington Post recently ran an article on this procedure:
For those of us who don’t see the appeal in any sort of forehead needles, you can’t help but wonder: why in the world would you want a bagel on in your head? A Japanese artist named Keroppy who pioneered the “modcon” body art explained to Vice back in 2009 that it’s about innovation: “People who like extreme body modification want to find their own way of doing things, and they’re always looking for new ways to do that. The more progressive the scene gets, the more these people have to experiment and go their own way.”
Indeed, why would one want to go through such a procedure and look so outside the standards of physical normality? One explanation was provided at the end of the program where a scholar opined that the temporary nature of the procedure allows individuals to be different and somewhat groteseque, but without the social stigma attached to those who have permanent physical abnormalities. Horror historian David J. Skal recent called attention to the Bagel Head body modification process on Facebook with a link to the essay above, and the words “Ready for my closeup, Mr. Browning.” This phrase connects the current body modification fad to Browning’s horror film Freaks, and also situates it culturally and historically in our continued love-hate relationship with “freak shows,” the monstrous, and horror. Monsters have always been able to transgress our accepted boundaries, but it seems that with the continued interest in various forms of body modification that try to push the envelope to greater forms of uniqueness and grotesquery, that many are literally attempting to get their personal freak on and embodying a form of the monstrous that continually pushes the boundaries further.
Related post:
“Elf Ears: New Trend in Body Modification”
We are kicking off the Halloween season today with this post, an interview with Lesley Bannatyne, author of a number of great books related to this great holiday. In this interview, Lesley discusses her most recent book, Halloween Nation (Pelican Publishing, 2011). If you want to explore the various ways in which fans are enjoying Halloween, then Lesley’s book is a “must have” addition to your library.
TheoFantastique: Lesley, thank you for making some time during the Halloween season to talk about your book Halloween Nation. It’s a great read, filled with people with passion for the holiday, and covering a lot of topics related to it. You have written several books and articles on Halloween. How did it come to be such a personal area of interest for you, and if you were to be featured in your own book, what section would you find yourself in as you devote yourself to one special aspect of this spooky holiday?
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: I’ve been a Halloween geek since the very first time I put on a cape and a mask and ran out into the dark of suburban Connecticut. It’s physical for me—the light comes at a certain angle in October, the temperature drops, there are colors that only exist at that time—I can sense it more than understand it. If that were my only connection to Halloween, though, I’d be writing fiction. So here’s the story: A publishing house, Facts on File, was looking for writers to put together proposals for holiday books. I pitched a Halloween history book, which, after many years and 30-odd revisions (and this was in the days of typewriters), turned into Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History. It was like falling down a rabbit hole. Halloween’s not just one story, but many: Irish folklore and Scottish history, popular culture, politics, spirituality, commerce, art, music, festival, American history, Victorian manners, publishing, horror, and a huge amount of satire and humor. I consider myself lucky to have fallen into Halloween rather than, say, footwear, bee farming, or Election Day, which was the other holiday I was offered.
If I were to be featured in Halloween Nation, I’d probably be a zombie burlesque dancer. Kidding. I love the paranormal and creative aspects of Halloween, so you might find me in the “terrortainment” (haunted attractions) or ghost chapters.
TheoFantastique: Your book is different from many books on Halloween in that you aren’t look at its diverse cultural background and history of practices, but you are looking at what makes it what it is in the present. Were you surprised by the depth and breadth of the many people and elements that make up this holiday?
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: I did know that the people shaping paper mache into cats with pointed party hats were as passionate about their Halloween as the people pouring buckets of blood over severed ears. I was surprised, though, at how often Halloween created new communities of like-minded folks; people who move their friendships from Facebook to the real world and meet year-round to talk Halloween. And I am always surprised at how people with radically different personal beliefs and politics can still be Halloween friends. It’s a wonderful buffer zone. Creativity and tribe come to the forefront and there’s a web of tolerance spun through the actual night.
TheoFantastique: In your Introduction I was struck by the insights you have when you mention the significance of things like the 1960s gay community street parties, second-wave feminism, the “occult” renaissance, American attitudes toward death, and our post-Vietnam and post-9/11 worldview are to our present celebration of Halloween. Can you expand a bit from the brief mention in the book as to why these elements are important and how they play a part?
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: Although people are interested in the roots and rituals of Halloweens past, the holiday we celebrate now has little in common with those celebrated even 100 years ago. (When’s the last time you burned two nuts on the fireplace grate to predict your future love?) There’s something new going on now, something that has grown from, and is part of, who we are today. Street parties, for instance.
If it weren’t for the impromptu gatherings that came out of some of the largely gay neighborhoods in the late 60s and early 70s, we may not have the outrageously wonderful parades we have today in New York, Los Angeles, Key West, Toms River, NJ, and so on. In Greenwich Village, for example, a small group of people wearing artist Ralph Lee’s masks snaked through the streets each Halloween. The idea captured everyone’s imagination, the parade grew, the media covered it, it grew more, and now we have the truly amazing Village Halloween parade, America’s largest Halloween-night event. You could say the same thing about the Castro District in San Francisco, where an annual Halloween costume party grew into a street celebration so big that it became a tourist destination. The large-scale costume parade had been the province of the small-town Halloween celebrations for decades; now it was a magnet that brought urban adults back to Halloween. It wasn’t just the idea of having a costume party out in the streets, it was also that Halloween was a night when anything could happen, when men could dress as women, women as men, when you could wear a goat’s head, fairy wings, or nothing but body paint, and the world was yours for a night, judgement-free.
Also, there was a new wave of interest in the occult in 1960s America that included an interest in witchcraft (and by witchcraft I’m talking about the contemporary magical, earth-based spirituality practiced by thousands of people, not the Bette Midler Hocus-Pocus type). Halloween was the time of year most media were interested in talking with practicing witches (the witch has been a Halloween icon for hundreds of years), and their interviews helped cast Halloween as a time to honor the dead and ancestors. This appealed to many people looking to explain why we celebrate Halloween, to give it meaning beyond candy and costumes.
As for our current attitudes towards death, we have better ways of hiding death than ever before. (A funeral director once told me that the emphasis on cremation was wrong-headed, in that you never see the person dead, they’re just “out there” somewhere as if it didn’t happen.) The more hidden it is, the more fascinated we become with the dead, death, what could happen after death. Halloween’s the time of year we can explore it, be it, make fun of it, revel in it. People are always referring to Halloween as a black holiday, as in morbid, but I don’t see it that way. I think it’s a time when you can bring a little light and humor into all those dark things that scare us.
The last part of your question—about what does Halloween have to do with a post-Vietnam, post-9/11 world—that’s an interesting one. Halloween is our rogue holiday. Because it doesn’t celebrate a person (Mother’s Day), event (Thanksgiving), ethnicity (St. Patrick’s Day), it’s free to ride along our cultural currents and express who we are and what’s important to us. So, yes, we’ve become a very violent, bloody, sexualized culture, and there’s a lot of fear out there. You’re going to see all of it play out at Halloween; the holiday’s a barometer of our national psyche. The first Village parade after 9/11, for example, was contentious. Many people thought it would make New York a target and they wanted to ban the parade. Others thought it should happen because it always has. It was Mayor Giuliani’s call, and a few days before Halloween he gave the go-ahead. The parade folks had built a baby phoenix puppet, and with the smoke still rising from Ground Zero in the background, the phoenix led the parade up Sixth Avenue. The parade organizers said you could feel New York City start to breathe again. People cheered. I knew at that moment we would get over this. We didn’t keep our kids indoors that Halloween, fearful that something bad might happen to them; we sent them out trick-or-treating dressed as firefighters. At Halloween, you can see who we are and what we value.
TheoFantastique: You spent two years researching this book, and covered a lot of ground in travel. Out of all your experiences what things stand out for you in your research and experiences?
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: I loved walking through Haunted Overload (a New Hampshire haunted attraction) as it was being constructed, and I loved visiting Gore Galore’s shop in Indiana, where you could turn a corner and see twenty pairs of dress oxfords glued to stands, waiting for their zombie bodies. Getting behind the scenes was always my favorite part of any event, even if it meant sitting in the dark, hot, laundry room of a colonial hotel waiting with an EMF meter for a ghost to show (he didn’t). I’d say that shambling through the Monroeville Mall with 2000 zombies was a definite highlight, but so was talking to Devilicia about how she twirled spider-tassels in her burlesque act.
I know that Halloween is contentious; that people rail against it for various reasons, valid (it’s over-commercialized) or not (it’s a Satanic ritual), but in my years of research I can count on two fingers the number of people who weren’t an absolute joy to talk with.
TheoFantastique: What else have you written on Halloween that readers can track down, and what can we look forward to as your next volume on the topic?
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: I have five books: a history (Halloween: An American Holiday, An American History), an anthology of Halloween (not horror) literature from the last 400 years (A Halloween Reader), a How-To (A Halloween How-To: Costumes, Parties, Decorations, and Destinations), a children’s book (Witches Night Before Halloween), and Halloween Nation. They are all available from online bookstores, from your local bookstore, or you can find them on my site at www.iskullhalloween.com.
TheoFantastique: Lesley, thank you again for discussing this topic, and for a great book. I hope you have a wonderful and frightful Halloween!
Lesley Pratt Bannatyne: It’s a pleasure to be a part of this! Thanks for thinking of me.
Call for Papers – Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space: Fantastika and the Classical World
A Science Fiction Foundation Conference
29 June – 1 July 2013
The Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool
The culture of the Classical world continues to shape that of the modern West. Those studying the Fantastika (science fiction, fantasy and horror) know that the genres have some of their strongest roots in the literature of the Graeco-Roman world (Homer’s Odyssey, Lucian’s True History). At the same time, scholars of Classical Reception are increasingly investigating all aspects of popular culture, and have begun looking at science fiction. However, scholars of the one are not often enough in contact with scholars of the other. This conference aims to bridge the divide, and provide a forum in which sf and Classical Reception scholars can meet and exchange ideas.
We invite proposals for papers (20 minutes plus discussion) or themed panels of three or four papers from a wide range of disciplines (including Science Fiction, Classical Reception and Literature), from academics, students, fans, and anyone else interested, on any aspect of the interaction between the Classical world of Greece and Rome (including post-Roman Britain and the Byzantine empire) and science fiction, fantasy and horror. We are looking for papers on Classical elements in modern (post-1800) examples of the Fantastika, and on science fictional or fantastic elements in Classical literature. We are particularly interested in papers addressing literary science fiction or fantasy, where we feel investigations of the interaction with the ancient world are relatively rare. But we also welcome papers on film, television, radio, comics, games, or fan culture.
Please send proposals to conferences@sf-foundation.org, to arrive by 30 September 2012. Paper proposals should be no more than 300 words. Themed panels should also include an introduction to the panel, of no more than 300 words. Please include the name of the author/panel convener, and contact details.
Any inquiries should be sent to the e-mail address above.
Swords, Sorcery, Sandals and Space is organized by the Science Fiction Foundation, with the co-operation of the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool.
Tony Keen
Chair, 2013 Science Fiction Foundation Conference
Conference Website: http://www.sf-foundation.org/conference
Conference Facebook Page
Call for Papers: Mystery Science Theater and the Culture of Riffing and the mash-up in popular culture
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
http://conference2013.swtxpca.org
The Area chair seeks papers/presentations on Mystery Science Theater and the culture of riffing and Mash-up. Due on November 16, 2012.
In the fall of 1988 on a small public access channel, KTMA, in the St. Paul/Minneapolis area of Minnesota, a bizarre show appeared. It featured two hand-made, robot-appearing puppets and a man watching a movie and making comments to the screen. Little did its creator, Joel Hodgson, know that he had created a worldwide popular culture phenomenon known as Mystery Science Theater 3000 (MST3K). The show lasted 10 seasons and spawned a theatrical feature film.
Now riffing movies, television, cartoons, and the rise of the mash-up have become very popular modes of expression. Twenty-three years after its cancellation, Mystery Science Theater is more popular than ever. The former cast members, through Rifftrax and Cinematic Titanic, continue to make audiences laugh and garner new fans. Any aspect of the culture of riffing and Mystery Science Theater will be given consideration.
Some topics that could be discussed and some questions that might be answered include:
* Zombies and riffing (a good topic in light of the popularity of zombie studies)
* iRiffs and the rise of personalized riffing by “amateurs”
* Other fan riffing groups and individuals like Master Pancake Theater, Incognito Cinema Warriors, Josh Way, Laughterpiece Theater, etc.
* Pre-MST3K riffing
* The LA Connection and their role in comedic riffing
* Speaking of Animals
* Fractured Flickers
* Freaks and Geeks MST3K connection
* Fan Culture and MST: The Misties (who are they and why)?
* The original Sci-Fi MST Game
* Gender roles, women and MST
* Frank Zappa and MST
* Superhero movies (why are they so ripe for riffing)
* Monty Python and MST
* Comics and MST3K
* Shakespeare and riffing
* The remix of the movie trailer
* The rise of “forgotten movies” that were used on MST
* The rise of B-movie popularity as a result of being on MST
* Christmas movies and MST
* The pre-MST comedy careers of the cast members
* The KTMA years compared to the Comedy Central Years compared to the ScFi Channel years.
* Movies that deserve the MST treatment but never received it.
* Mental Hygiene films and MST
* The legal battle between Best Brains and Mr. Sinus Theatre (the roots and causes of this).
* What were/are the cultural implications of the original invention exchanges in those early episodes of show?
* What are the differences in the styles of Mike Nelson and Joel Hodgson as hosts for the show?
* The theatrical feature film attempt, MST 3000 The Movie (trials and tribulations of getting director Jim Mallon’s big budget version of MST to the screen)
* Jim Mallon’s genius as producer/director/character
* Modern companies such as Laugh Tracks and MST’s influence on them
* The differences of Tom Servo and Crow (difference in style and tone)
* Actor Joe Don Baker and MST — a perfect marriage
* Spy movies and MST
* Monsters and MST
* Attempts at creating continuity within the “host segments” — what worked and what didn’t (the difference in continuity between Comedy Central episodes and ScFi channel shows).
* Cast characters (e.g., Mad Scientists, Evil Mothers, and weird aliens)
* The hardcore statistical analysis found on websites by dedicated fans (e.g., riffs per show and other weird statistical data — reasons for these weird statistical things)
* MST and the Web — how did the Internet help create such a rabid following?
* Popular music and MST
* Mary Jo Pehl, Bridgett Nelson, and the influence of women writers on MST
* MST fan culture and university culture
* The MST influence on the show Freaks and Geeks
* TV’s Frank and MST and Frank Coniff’s role in America’s Funniest Home Videos
* A look at the influence of music on MST (one could hear a reference to an obscure British band like Hawkwind on the same show as one that might mention a household artist like Brittney Spears or Johnny Cash, for example).
* Bill Corbett as a playwright and performer
* MST and Tape Trading Culture (Keep circulating the tapes some of the MST episodes admonished the fans)
* The lost episodes of MST: The Green Slime, Thunderbirds etc., Where are they? What were they like? Will we ever see them?
* Crow, Tom Servo and the bots in Popular Culture: Non-MST appearances (which continue
to this day)
* MST and the First Amendment to the Constitution: Why did the show always thank the authors of the First Amendment? How did the show use it? Did it push boundaries constitutionally?
* KTMA and MST: Just how could a show like this get on cable access television in the first place? How did it become a movement? Were there glimpses of the greater things to come in those earlier episodes or not?
* Torgo and Ortega: Cult Figures and MST — why so popular with fans?
* The worse a movie is, the funnier and better an episode of MST: Why is that?
* Paul Chaplin, unsung writer on MST The MST writers were, and continue to be, masters of Popular Culture in all its forms (film, music, politics, etc.)
* Movie references and MST — cultural and historical implications
* MST terms and the vernacular (e.g., “Movie Sign”, “Poopie”, “Huzzah”) and their adaptation into everyday language)
* What was Josh Weinstein’s role in those early MST episodes and his post MST career as producer?
Please send a title and 100- to 250-word abstract by November 16, 2012. Submit your title, and 100- to 250-word abstract through our website database, which can be accessed at:
Please make plans to attend our 34th Annual Conference, February 13-16, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Hyatt Regency Albuquerque, 330 Tijeras NW, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102
http://conference2013.swtxpca.org
I am the guest in a podcast interview with Jeff Jackson of ComicAttack.net in his column “Comics Are My Religion.” In the podcast Jeff and I discuss my background and approach to the fantastic, the spiritual significance of science fiction and its fandom, and new books worth picking up that probe the fantastic more deeply. You can click to listen to “Comics Are My Religion Podcast: Horror & Sci-Fi Are My Religion, Too!”
Calls for papers: Comic books and graphic novels
44th Annual Convention
Northeast Modern Language Association (NEMLA)
March 21 to 24, 2013
Boston, Massachusetts
Hosted by Tufts University
“Panels and Pedagogy: Teaching the Graphic Novel”
This panel works towards understanding and adding to emerging pedagogies of the graphic novel and other forms of illustrated works. What do these visual texts change about how we approach the classroom? Possible topics include but are not limited to adaptation and teaching across mediums and disciplines; the graphic novel as literature; approaches to visuality as composition; and the limits of genre and medium. Submit 250- to 500-word proposals by September 30, 2012, to Joel Simundich (joel_simundich@brown.edu) and Derek McGrath (derek.mcgrath@stonybrook.edu).
“The Sequential Monster: Reading Comics as Monstrous”
Comic books, graphic novels and webcomics generally combine words and images to create narratives. Though comics are often considered a form in their own right, it is also possible to see them as an amalgam of disparate forms of communication. If we think of comics that way, perhaps we can see them, fruitfully, as monstrous: beasts that combine the elements of verbal and visual, narrative and static communication forms. This panel will examine a social understanding of the comics form (and the kinds of literacies required to accept it) using Scott McCloud’s and Will Eisner’s comics theories as well as Jeffrey Jerome Cohen’s monster theory. Submit abstracts of of 300 words to lauere@sunysuffolk.edu by September 30.
“Show and Tell: A Roundtable of Comic Book and Graphic Novel Creators”
This event hosts artists from a wide spectrum of roles as related to the creation of comic books and graphic novels. This roundtable welcomes participants from around the world and regardless of genre, medium, or years of experience. Artists in the roundtable should bring visual materials to facilitate discussion with a diverse audience of students, professors, and overall fans of this art form. Submit resumes by September 30, 2012, to Derek McGrath at SUNY Stony Brook (derek.mcgrath@stonybrook.edu).
Call for Papers and Presentations: Graphic Novels, Comics and Popular Culture 2013
Southwest/Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Association
http://www.swtxpca.org
Please make plans to attend our 34th Annual Conference
February 13-16, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
The area chair seeks papers/presentations on Graphic Novels and Comics and Popular Culture due on November 16, 2012.
The SW/TX PCA/ACA area chair invites papers on Comics, Graphic Novels and Popular Culture.
The Graphic Novels and Comics area has teamed up again with the Libraries and Popular Culture area to bring you another interesting roundtable session. This year the discussion will be the concept of the graphic novel and what that means. If you would like to be on the roundtable, please let me know.
Any aspect of Comics and Graphic Novels in Popular Culture will be considered.
Possible panel/discussion topics:
Comics podcasts. With so much comics-related news on websites, another form that has taken off in recent years includes the podcast/radio show. How well do these podcasts relate comic/graphic novels news? We have podcasts on the Golden Age of comics, superhero comics, and most recently The Comics Alternative, which goes beyond superheroes to discuss the independents. What impact do podcasts like this have?
The concept of the super-villain! There is much scholarly literature on the superhero but not nearly as much on the super-villain. Yet a superhero is usually only as good or interesting as their super-villain counterpart. Stan Lee said that coming up interesting super-villains is often difficult. Why? How have super-villains in comics changed over the years? What makes a super-villain like the Joker or Magneto so compelling? We would welcome full panels on super-villains.
There has been a recent rise in superhero movies, with four in the summer of 2011 and three in the summer of 2012. What is the future of the superhero-based movie? Will the superhero movie continue to be popular?
Pedagogical approaches to teaching graphic novel content. This has become an increasingly important part of comic studies, and the area chair seeks those scholars who would like to present on this topic.
Zombies and vampires in comics continue to rise in popularity. Why are these monsters ideally suited for the four-colored page?
Other topics:
* Sequential art and storytelling
* Manga, anime and the movies
* Comic conventions/fan culture
* Particular artists or writers (Bendis, Steranko, Kirby, Everett, Niles, etc.)
* The rise of the graphic novel
* What is a graphic novel?
* History of newspaper comics!
* Gay characters in comics
* Film and superheroes!
* Adapting graphic novels for the screen
* Racism and the X-Men
* Spider-Man as the Everyman
* Cartoon Network: Good or bad for comics?
* Comics and philosophy
* Graphic novels as outlets for social justice (e.g., World War III)
* Comics as political satire (e.g., Tom Tomorrow, Addicted To War)
* Horror comics
* “The Resurrection of Captain America” – Why NO comic character ever stays dead.
* DC, Marvel, and comic corporations
* Comics studies and film studies: How do the two intersect?
* The definition of the superhero
* Indies and their role
* Comics and graphic novels around the world (e.g., Tintin, Asterix)
* The scholarly study of graphic novels/comics in the academy
* Libraries and graphic novels
Please send a title and a 100- to 250-word abstract by November 16, 2012. Please submit your title, and 100- to 250-word abstract through our website database, which can be accessed at: http://conference2013.swtxpca.org
A video tutorial for submissions is available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSITP_57txc.
34th Annual Conference Southwest/Texas Popular/American Culture Association at the Hyatt Regency Hotel & Conference Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
February 13-16, 2013
Submission Deadline: 11/16/12
Priority Registration Deadline 12/31/13
On Saturday, September 8, Star Trek as a franchise turns 46 with the premiere of the original Starship Enterprise. Happy birthday, and thanks for many years of entertainment, and giving fans much to think about in terms of human possibilities.
Prepare for chills and thrills this fall as three timeless horror classics hit movie theaters nationwide. As a part of their classic movie series, NCM Fathom Events is presenting Alfred Hitchcock’s horror masterpiece The Birds and the Boris Karloff hits Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein. Each will be shown for one day only, don’t miss your chance to see these horror masterpieces as they were meant to be seen.
The series will kickoff with The Birds on Wednesday, September 19 at 7:00 p.m. local time. The showing will begin with an introduction by Turner Classic Movie Host Robert Osborne and an exclusive interview with the movie’s star Tippi Hendren. Osborne will continue to share the secrets of the film with more behind the scenes tales from Rod Taylor and Suzanne Pleshette.
Then, just in time for Halloween, the series continues with a double feature of Universal’s horror stand-outs – Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein on Wednesday, October 24 at 7:00 p.m. local time. Viewers will once again be joined by Robert Osborne as he shares exclusive interviews with Sara Karloff, the daughter of the monster himself, Bela Lugosi, Jr., the son of Universal’s classic Dracula and Academy Award winning make-up artist, Rick Baker. These interviews will highlight how these classic films and original horror stars helped shape the course of the genre.
Horror fans should not miss these classic movies as they scare their way into theaters and the hearts of horror film buffs for one night only. Tickets are limited, so hurry now and reserve your spot!
For more information, visit http://www.fathomevents.com.
The book Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America (Penguin Books, 2012) by Linda S. Godfrey is now out, and it makes an interesting contribution to the study of cryptozoology, as well as horror and culture. Following is an excerpt:
The U.S. has been invaded – if many dozens of eyewitnesses are to be believed – by upright, canine creatures that look like traditional werewolves and act as if they own our woods, fields, and highways. Sightings from coast to coast dating back to the 1930s compel us to ask exactly what these beasts are, and what they want.
Researcher, author and newspaper reporter Linda S. Godfrey has been tracking the manwolf since the early 1990. In Real Wolfmen she presents the only large-scale cataloguing and investigation of reports of modern sightings of anomalous, upright canids. First-person accounts from Godfrey’s witnesses – who have encountered these creatures everywhere from outside their car windows to face-to-face on a late night stroll – describe the same human-sized canines: They are able to walk upright and hold food in their paws, interact fearlessly with humans, and suddenly and mysteriously disappear.
Godfrey explores the most compelling cases from the modern history of such sightings, along with the latest reports, and undertakes a thorough exploration of the nature and possible origins of the creature.
Introduction
The Canid Invasion
Do true, shape-shifting werewolves exist in the modern world—or are the woods, fields, and highways of the United States infested with creatures that merely look like the legendary canine monsters? According to scores of sober, credible eyewitnesses, creatures resembling wolfmen do walk among us! Scary old tales of werewolves and other man-animals have lurked amid the folklore of cultures worldwide ever since the campfire was invented. Ancient denizens of the British Isles believed competing clans transformed themselves into wolves in order to attack livestock. Europeans of the Middle Ages kept a sharp eye out for those who showed signs—like hairy palms or unusual moles—of having made pacts with the devil to become werewolves. Many Native American tribes believed certain medicine men could manifest animal forms to go forth and perform malign deeds. The wolflike Navajo skin walker is probably the best-known example of such lore.
But based on today’s largely rationalistic view of the world, many tend to pooh-pooh the possibility that such frightening creatures could truly exist. We like our monsters safely pasted on the silver screen or caged in the confines of a game console. During the last few decades, werewolves have become increasingly commonplace in movies, TV shows, and hyperreal video games. Werewolves playing a starring role in the 1985 flick Silver Bullet, based on Stephen King’s Cycle of the Werewolf, or in the 2007 episode of the TV show Supernatural that featured a murderous lycanthrope, are great fun because they remain under glass, living on only in our imaginations.
It was a shock to the collective psyche in January 1992, then, when headlines slashed through worldwide media heralding werewolf sightings in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. Citizens of the small town, located about half an hour’s drive from Beloit on the Illinois border, claimed to have seen a six-foot-tall, fur-covered creature complete with muzzle, pointy ears, and fangs lurking on a rural two-mile stretch called Bray Road. Such monsters may be everywhere in our entertainment world, but their sudden appearance in densely populated regions of America’s Dairy Land was stunning, even to a public already used to eyewitness reports of UFOs and Bigfoot.
I wrote the original news story “The Beast of Bray Road” for the December 31, 1991, issue of The Week, a paper that covered events in Walworth County. A less adventuresome publication might have ignored the reports entirely. But as a newly hired reporter, I was at once skeptical and intrigued. Elkhorn is a rather conservative little community whose citizens are not usually given to weird proclamations. It bills itself as “The Christmas Card Town” because its picturesque square was once the subject of a series of popular greeting cards, and it functions as the county seat of government. Unknown, hairy creatures were not something anyone could recall in the town’s entire history. The Week’s newsroom staff had a good laugh over the whole idea of werewolves, but since I was curious, the editor finally told me to see what I could learn about it.
I had never even heard the term “cryptozoology”—the study of unknown animals—at the time, but these sightings promised an enticing mystery to be solved. At the very least, I thought people had the right to know if a dangerous animal was in the area. I was not the only person thinking that way.
In my initial investigation I found that people had been calling the county’s animal control officer, Jon Fredrickson, to ask what the strange creature they had seen could possibly be. Some of the reports to Fredrickson involved multiple eyewitnesses, so that my first count of people who officially claimed to have seen a large, mysterious canine totaled at least eight.
My next step was to visit Fredrickson at his office, where he pulled a manila file folder from a drawer. The folder was labeled “Werewolf.” As I have said many times since, when a county official has an active file folder marked “werewolf,” that’s news. Armed with only a notebook, a pen, and a driving need to solve the puzzle, I began the wild hunt.
You can read more at TOR.com.
