SASQUATCH by M.E. Knerr

DEATH IN THE SNOW ... death that comes on two legs, eight feet tall, with arms of iron and hands that can tear the head off a man and fold his rifle into a pretzel! Author M.E. Knerr presents an all-too-plausible story of what could - no, what will happen, when a gentle forest giant is pushed into a frenzy by the encroachment of our modern world. When that happens, all will fear the name SASQUATCH!

Knerr's story is not quite the over-the-top gonzo thriller like Bogner's Snowman was, with its globetrotting, nuclear bazooka action, instead tracking the violent outbursts that threaten the small town milieu in Lodgepole, CA. Knerr's characters are cleanly drawn and get the job done well enough, and he doesn't waste too much time getting where he's going. Characters are here one minute, dead the next, as they tell each other what they know about the mysterious Sasquatch, argue about if he even exists, and run around on each other between the town's sole, sleazy bar and the ski lodge up the way. It all leads up to a blink-and-you'll-miss-it climax typical of vintage thriller writing. Where Knerr really excels is his sense of place: you can almost hear the snow crunching underfoot as cowboys and coppers skulk around the woods searching for the beast!

NEL's best ...

There's not a lot out there about author Michael Knerr, aside from that he worked under a lot of pseudonyms writing quickie sex and genre titles for cheapie publishers like Monarch and Pinnacle. A guest post by SF author John F. Carr at the Mystery File blog dredges up some biographical detail, including Knerr's relationship with classic SF writer H. Beam Piper ... be sure to read the comments, too!

Knerr's terror tale was originally published by Belmont/Tower Books as Sasquatch: Monster of the Northwest Woods in 1977. This edition goes for ridiculous prices online due to kitsch value, which is why I finally wrangled a copy of the NEL edition from the following year and threw it up on the archive for all to read, absolutely free: here it is in all its scanned glory!

For simple pleasures and knowing glances, Knerr's Sasquatch earns a 3/4 rating.

New English Library, 1978 (original pub. 1977)

JAPAN'S MYTHICAL MARTIAL ARTS MASTERS by John Lindsey

A fantastic surprise lurks in an old issue of Black Belt magazine: Did winged goblins teach the ninja and the samurai? Author John Lindsey traces the martial mythos of the terrible Tengu, spiced with some Ancient Astronaut style pondering which echoes writers like Vaughn M. Greene and W. Raymond Drake:

Said Greene in Astronauts of Ancient Japan:

‘‘Tengu’’ are vampires that rage in the air. Each lives on his own mountain peak. Were they remnants of the old Gods? The giant Tengu “‘So Jo Bo’’ appeared to Ushi-Kawa and taught him the art of writing. These proud beings are divided in two groups. The ‘‘Officers'' wear red robes, have long noses, and long, matted hair. When Admiral Perry first landed in Japan, he was drawn by a Japanese artist like a Tengu. Other Tengu—the ‘‘soldiers’’—have bird heads (space helmets?) and wings. Tengu hold secret conventions in remote mountain valleys, like those the early Jomon inhabited.

Meanwhile, Drake in Gods and Spacemen of the Ancient East had this to say about the Tengu:

The ‘exceedingly long nose’ of the ‘winged creature in human form’ no doubt referred to some headpiece with breathing apparatus, for to some Extra-terrestriala our oxygenated atmosphere may be poisonous; we are reminded of Oannes, a Being with the body of a fish, who according to Berossus taught the Babylonians the arts of civilisation, his likeness to a fish probably denoted the Stranger was wearing a Spacesuit, perhaps one of those Jomon Dogu ‘pressure suits’ reproduced in the various statuettes found all over Japan? Since the long-nosed winged creature gave rise to a superstition it would suggest that his manifestations in the mountains of Japan were not infrequent throughout several centuries showing regular surveillance of the Children of the Sun.

This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Rack 'em!

From Black Belt magazine, Vol. 27 - No. 3, March 1989.

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Bermuda Triangle Deluxe

Click to embiggen

Giant sized map of the deadly Triangle, detailing specific cases within a strictly defined boundary - not always the case for the Triangle legend! They do still manage to sneak in a couple of edge cases though, like the C-124 Globemaster listed in March of 1950, which disappeared in the North Atlantic less than 500 miles west of Ireland ... and they get the date wrong to boot! It was in March of 1951, not 1950. The R7V-1 Super Constellation listed in October 1954 was also nowhere near the Triangle when it disappeared en route to the Azores from Maryland. Hey, them's the breaks for mystery mongering in and around the Triangle!

Too bad the little plane and boat icons aren't keyed to corresponding disappearances ...

From Saga magazine's Bermuda Triangle Special Report 1977, which was chock-a-block full of Triangle updates from luminaries such as Charles Berlitz and Ivan T. Sanderson.

"MONSTER" HUNTING by Ivan T. Sanderson

This piece about North American lake monsters by Ivan T. Sanderson spends a good amount of space on the Loch Ness Monster and Tim Dinsdale, for purposes of context and word count.

Otherwise, Sanderson plucks out some interesting midcentury monster sightings such as the Black River Monster of Lyons Falls, NY (nicknamed Lyonesse, natch), and the (relatively) giant lizard/frog/whatsit of New Hamburg, Ontario, estimated at 50 pounds of unknown ferocity. Big shots like Champ and the Lake Iliamna Monster round out the roster.

Dig the ads for a genuine imported switch blade and a PI badge right next to each other ... if the cops want to hassle you about your pocket knife, just flash your badge at 'em!

Also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Saga magazine, Vol. 33 - No. 4, January 1967.

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: The Fierce Gods of San Agustin

Be careful on the road to San Agustin, traveler. This map is from Frank Volkmann's article "The Fierce Gods of San Agustin," detailing strange statues that you too can visit and see for yourself ... if you're brave enough!

Volkmann's article is available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Fate magazine, Volume 32 - Number 4, April 1979.

ON THE JOB IN THE DEADLY "DEVIL'S TRIANGLE" by Peter Michelmore

Live! Writer Peter Michelmore is on the scene with the Coast Guard as they investigate distress calls in the deadly Bermuda Triangle! Who will they find, and what will be left of them? 

All told, it's a quiet time out there, so Michelmore details superstitions that still bedevil even the Coast Guard's finest, and goes over a couple of close calls that could have become Triangle lore if things had gone a little differently. The spooky highpoint of Michelmore's ride is a sudden drop in oil pressure which inexplicably resets itself ... phew!

Detail of the article's main map, courtesy of Wide World

Michelmore namechecks Charles Berlitz and Lawrence David Kusche as the two extremes of Triangle writing and poopoos both, despite falling very neatly in line with Kusche when he says that the most important factor in the Triangle is "the human element." Some of it comes down to nitpicking over exact wording, as Michelmore wants to get across that the Triangle is a very dangerous place indeed even without any paranormal elements, and he feels that Triangle debunkers may overstate the lack of danger and the hard work that goes into the Coast Guard's patrol of these devilish waters.

And the secondary map, with less detail

This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org.

Courtesy Argosy magazine, Vol. 282 - No. 2, August 1975.

 

DISASTERS IN THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE by Eileen Sperber

Eileen Sperber gives the basic Triangle rundown, including testimony from skin diver and oceanographer Jim Thorne, a quote from Charles Berlitz, and a reference to John Wallace Spencer's "limbo of the lost." This article is also available to read and download at archive dot org. 

Courtesy Front Page Disasters magazine, Vol. 1 - Issue 1, October 1977.