Monsters of Texas

http://www.amazon.com/Monsters-Texas-Ken-Gerhard/dp/1905723571/ctoc

Monsters of Texas [Paperback]

Ken Gerhard (Author), Nick Redfern (Author)

 

Texas - or the Lone Star State, as it is affectionately and widely known - is the second largest U.S. state in both area and population, and contains both colorful and majestic landscapes that range from desert to plains, and forest to wild canyons. But that is not all: all across Texas there lurks a wide array of monsters, mysterious beasts and diabolical creatures that science tells us do not exist - but that a significant percentage of the good folk of Texas certainly know otherwise.

• 
  
• Paperback: 162 pages
• Publisher: cfz (May 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905723571
• ISBN-13: 978-1905723577
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)

 

 July 10, 2010          

www.coasttocoastam.com

Texas Monsters:

In the first half of the show, ufologist and cryptozoologistNick Redfern talked about his new book Monsters of Texasand shared tales of bizarre creatures reported in the Lone Star State. 
 
One cryptid that he discussed was the Texas Chupacabras, which Redfern noted has a number of distinct characteristics that set it apart from the entity in Puerto Rico that shares the name. For instance, the Texas Chupacabras has been reported as hairless, with shorter front legs that give it a hopping gait, and its top jaw hangs over its bottom jaw significantly. While some skeptics point to the lack of hair as a sign that the Texas Chupacabras is merely a dog with mange, Redfern dismissed this idea since, unlike dogs who have the affliction, the animal shows no sign of discomfort with being hairless. Although tests on recovered bodies of the creature show that the DNA is canid, the sheer number of bizarre recurring attributes suggest that the Texas Chupacabras is some kind of extreme mutation. "The big question is why this is happening and how," Redfern mused. 

"A lot of people don't realize that Houston had a precursor to the Mothman," Redfern said, as he shared the story of "The Batman" from the early 1950's. This "flying humanoid creature" created a frenzy in the city when it was seen "leaping around the rooftops of Houston late at night." Detailing another "man beast," he recounted the story of the Goat-Man of Lake Worth, an entity reported in the late 1960's that resembled the satyr of ancient mythology. According to Redfern, "local police actually took it very, very seriously" and even had a file on the Goat-Man sightings. Talking about werewolf reports in Texas, Redfern described the creatures as "man-like in appearance, with hair covered bodies, but with a face like a German Shepard." He observed that many werewolf witnesses report the feeling that the creature "was actually able to create fear" and that it would then "feed on that high state of emotion."  Other creatures covered by Redfern included Bigfoot, Thunderbirds, and "Phantom Black Dogs."

cryptozoology

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BOOK PATROL: Attack of the Beast People, aka The Social-Animals' Parade

http://www.bookpatrol.net/2010/04/attack-of-beast-people-aka-social.html

BOOK PATROL

A HAVEN FOR BOOK CULTURE

MONDAY, APRIL 05, 2010

Attack of the Beast People, aka The Social-Animals' Parade

 

In 1829, the beasts within humanity were exposed and let loose upon an unsuspecting Paris. The onslaught was merciless; no one was spared, not even the clergy. It was a slasher-movie in print - don’t turn that page; somebody is getting ripped to shreds. The book was a killer. The horror was greeted with laughter, though the Church and State experienced sharp pains not associated with split-sides or knee-slaps.

Garçon, I’ll have the Metamorphosis du Jour, please, well-seasoned with satire.

Les Metamorphoses du Jour by J.J. Grandville (1803-1847), one of the most celebrated caricaturists of his era, is amongst the rarest of all color-plate books: Rare in its first edition, scarcer still with its suppressed plates, and exceedingly so in the original wrappers.

“The French artist Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard went by the name Grandville, which was the stage name his grandparents used. In the early nineteenth-century, Grandville created several hand-colored lithographic books to satirize the bourgeois middle class of Parisian society in the Romantic period. His best, and today the rarest, is Les metamorphoses du jour published in 1829.

 “The characters of the book have a human body and an animal face, exposing people for the beasts they really are. The preface comments that the artist was thereby able to encompass ‘both the living picture of social manners and the satire of institutions and prejudices. Truth can circulate with impunity under the very eyes of the men it attacks.’

 “The first edition was a huge success and quickly went out-of-print. A new edition was prepared in 1854, this time using wood-engraved reproductions of Grandville’s original lithographs. It is unfortunate that most people only know the series through these poor copies.” (Princeton University, Graphics).

"This famous album, which established Granville's early stye of bitter burlesque, has become rare. Indeed, it is known to many of his admirers only through the greatly inferior album of seventy wood-engraved reproductions published by Harvard in 1854…Lust, gluttony, anger, and the other deadly sins are stigmatized, now with the blow of a hammer, now with the thrust of a stiletto; while the foibles and humors of mankind also receive due attention. Throughout the series Grandville's choice of beast-heads is inspired; and the force of his conceptions and the wit of his captions rarely falter. 

 “Occasionally, he produces a design of universal application that calls Goya to mind, as in the bat and owl creatures bewildered by the sunshine of 'The light that hurts them' (no. 12).

Ménagerie

“Perhaps his most terrifying plate is 'Ménagerie (no. 67), which shows four prison cells. In the first are complacent commercial offenders, enjoying all the comforts of home; in the second violent criminals, sly or stupid; in the third murderers, one with a countenance of the utmost ferocity; in the forth, political prisoners, quiet and despondent…

Suppressed plate #1: Famille des scarabées.

“Granville turned to direct political satire in his final plates, but the publication of his onslaughts on church ('Famille des scarabées' no. 72) and state ('Une bête féroce,' no. 73) was not permitted in France" (Ray).

Suppressed plate #2: Une bête féroce.

“The most original and the most remarkable work in Grandville's entire oeuvre" (Charles Blanc)”

It is tempting to wonder how Grandville, were he alive today, would treat the current cultural and political landscape. What beasts would result from his imagination? What animal, fish, or insect would Lady Gaga, Glenn Beck, members of Congress, religious figures, or any other contemporary star in the cultural and political fundament become after metamorphosis? Heads only; horse’s ass is not a choice.
________

GRANDVILLE, J.J. Les Metamorphoses du jour. Paris: Chez Bulla, 1829. 

Oblong folio. One leaf of letterpress with the Preface by Achille Comte, and seventy-three hand-colored lithographed  plates. Lithographed pink wrappers.

Vicaire V, 775-780. Ray, The Art of the French Illustrated Books, 132. Backer 762.

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