MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Sasquatch Across America

Another great map by Donald MacCallum, current to 1977 sightings. From John Green's Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, courtesy Hancock House, 2006 (original pub. 1981).

COSMIC DEBRIS: The Maryland Monster Coverup

Illustrations for a bizarre tale of monster shenanigans. From an article by Mark Chorvinsky and Mark Opsanick, "The Maryland Monster Cover-up: Top Secret," featured in Fate, Volume 43 - Number 12, December 1990.

TELECULT POWER by Reese Dubin

Self help drivel with some charming retro illustrations. Author Reese Dubin "is the author of a number of books from Prentice Hall. Rapid Healing Foods, Miracle Medicine Foods, Doctor’s Amazing Sped Reducing Diet, Telecult Power, and Miracle Food Cures from the Bible have sold over 1 million copies combined. Mr. Dubin lives in Northern New Jersey."

Award Books, 1970

MAPS OF THE UNKNOWN: Track of the Skunk Ape

 

Excellent map by Donald MacCallum, current to 1977 sightings. From John Green's Sasquatch: The Apes Among Us, courtesy Hancock House, 2006 (original pub. 1981).

COSMIC DEBRIS: Reflexology Hand Chart

 

Pocket sized palmistry. Printed in Canada by the Pacific Institute of Reflexology.

MONSTER by Jeffrey Konvitz

Boring! This is one turgid, overlong excuse for a "thriller" ... Jeffrey Konvitz was clearly banking on another big budget adaptation like his breakout hit The Sentinel, but this by-the-numbers potboiler didn't catch anyone's eye in Hollywood, and for good reason. From the convoluted setup (oil is discovered beneath Loch Ness, and exploration by the Gemini Company disturbs Nessie) to the following lack of monster action (she gets two "big" scenes that are over far too quickly) this novel just fails to deliver. It doesn't help that it seems like Konvitz tossed his monster research off in an afternoon and fills most of the book with his two-fisted hero's battle against a nasty piece of mercenary trash named Lefebre (that's lah-FAYVE by the way), the security head for Gemini Oil. 

Oh well, at least there's a nice step-back and map.

0/4

Ballantine Books, 1982

THE BERMUDA TRIANGLE CALENDAR: July - September 1975

Those deadly Dero rays did their damnedest, but we've made it back alive with more entries from Lawrence David Kusche's Bermuda Triangle calendar of 1975! Highlights from this three month stretch include the search for the lost USS Scorpion (not found until October of 1968), the sad and bizarre story of Donald Crowhurst's doomed race against time, and some classic Triangle tales of Columbus' spooky sailing to the New World. September features a lovely painting of the Sargasso Sea by one E.S. Hodgson, a semi-obscure figure who benefits from this biographical sketch by researcher Robert J. Kirkpatrick. Here's that piece in color:

The Sargasso Sea makes a handy segue into the resolution of a minor Triangle mystery - the story of the Ellen Austin, an apocryphal entry in Kusche's The Bermuda Triangle Mystery - Solved: 

Fortuitous happenstance has provided a solid answer to this case. The tale of the Ellen Austin and the derelict happens to match beat for beat the first half of a short story titled "The Mystery of the Water-Logged Ship" by classic horror author William Hope Hodgson. The story is a minor one from 1911 and perhaps overshadowed by his other, more fantastic sea stories such as The Boats of the "Glen Carrig" ... for despite the mysterious setup, the second half of the story reveals that perfectly corporeal pirates are to blame, utilizing a hidden chamber on the derelict to ambush victims seeking salvage! The Triangle myth simply drops the clever denouement and leaves the mystery, pregnant with otherworldly menace.

Lawrence David Kusche, 1974