Happy New Monster!

National Geographic has the dirt on the newly unearthed Austroraptor... a huge, five meter long bipedal dinosaur with a slender, pterodactyl-like skull, a find that has upturned the 'canon' on the evolution of raptors. Fernando Novas, the lead researcher behind the discovery says the new raptor represents the "the largest dromaesaurid discovered in the Southern Hemisphere." Fast and vicious like a velociraptor, but way bigger and scarier! Grroaaarrrrr!!!!

D-Mon!

I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to direct Monsterama visitors to the beautiful artwork on display over at Derek Thompson's blog, but I aim to correct that before the year is out! Congrats to him on the wonder that is WALL-E, but I know you're all more interested in his eye-poppingly great monster sketches. Interview with the man here. Gotta love a guy who works in comic books and animation simultaneously, right?

Happy 2009

Some updated *official* news on the Secret Saturdays toy line coming from Mattel next year. And speaking of Mattel, this might just be the coolest Barbie ever! Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors of all time... just watched Spellbound again last night, in fact, thrilling all over the Salvidore Dali dream sequence. I think I'll watch Rebecca tonight. My kind of Christmas movies!

Merry Cryptids!

Good Will

Nice interview here with my man Will Friedle (voice of Doyle Blackwell on the Secret Saturdays), primarily about his work on the Brave And The Bold's Blue Beetle, but still pretty awesome. Get ready to swoon, ladies.

Farewell to Forry

The great Forrest J. Ackerman, who spearheaded the original generation of 'monster kids' and single-handedly created Monster Fandom, has passed on to the great Ackermansion in the sky. His often campy, humorous approach to horror was a great influence on myself and many others. The world feels less wonderfully creepy without him.

Ooo! Kreepy!

Say 'hi!' to Mister Guts, Tequila Sparks, and Laffy Blue Bottom... just three of the bazillion cute creeps up for ever lovin' grabs at the Kreepy Doll Factory. Started in Cleveland, Ohio back in 2000, the KDF is composed of a trio of wicked artists: Dan Baxter, Thu Tran, and Jeff Vincent. They make weird, cuddly stuff, and the site is chock full of kooky sketches, loopy comics, and lots and lots of one-of-a-kind plush psychos. Monsterama approves!

Cryptipedia

There's been some discussion on other message boards about the number of cryptids that could or will make an appearance in the Secret Saturdays cartoon. The highest number speculated suggests we could have a couple hundred 'real' cryptids to choose from. I want to assure you that the number is much higher! As a truly geeked-out student of cryptozoology, I was able to cull together a list of 500 mysterious creatures, along with descriptions, habitat, and a note on whether they were modern sightings or folkloric legends. This became the original Cryptipedia database, and has been used by writers of the series, comic book scripters, and game designers ever since. The game will have something like 40 exclusive cryptids alone, plus many more from the show. And my list keeps growing... every year that goes by reveals new unidentified mystery creatures popping up around the globe. Add to that my growing library of books on folklore, legends, monsters, demons, and the like (which can include reports of 'real' sightings of missing creatures), and you get the idea. We have more than enough cryptids to choose from, and plenty for you to discover through our Secret Saturdays universe.

Inside Job

Jim Valeri works for Cartoon Network in Burbank doing in-house design and stuff. Cool job, cool guy. If you click on the above link and scroll down, you'll get a peek at some rare Secret Saturdays related artwork.