From the gilllman of Robert W Chambers’ ‘The Harbour Master’ to the monstrous apes and aquatic dinosaurs of ‘King Kong,’ fiction has informed the cryptozoologists who went out into the dark corners of the earth seeking ‘real’ mystery creatures. Justin Mullis returns to talk us through his article ‘Cryptofiction.’ Get ready for a monster-load of influential stories from writers both familiar and obscure. Talk includes:
-Famous cryptozoologists who were influenced by monster fiction
-The influence of ‘The Lost World’ (of course!)
-Victorians, dinosaurs and ‘real’ dragons
-Victorian stories of surviving dinosaurs and the origin of Mokele-Mbembe
-Arthur Conan Doyle’s non-‘Lost World’ cryptids
-The 1925 Lost World film, King Kong, and novelisations of Kong (with extra dinosaurs!) and connections to Atlantis
-‘The Monster of Partridge Creek’ a fictitious monster that turned up as a ‘true’ story
-Lord Dunsany, the ‘Club Story’ and cryptozoology
-Early fiction featuring Bigfoot-like creatures, including ‘The Cairn’ by HR Wakefield and ‘Rogues In The House’ by Robert E Howard
-Robert W Chambers and ‘In Search Of The Unknown’ – a template for cryptozoology from 1904?
References:
-Cryptofiction, Justin Mullis, 2019
-Justin’s talk on Robert W Chambers for The Last Tuesday Society
-Justin’s writing at Adventures In Poor Taste:
https://aiptcomics.com/author/justinmullis/
-Justin’s academia.edu with links to his writing
https://bgsu.academia.edu/JustinMullis/CurriculumVitae
-Wide Atlantic Weird: Fairy Euhemerism with Justin Mullis
-Lake Monster Traditions, Michel Meurger, 1988
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lake-Monster-Traditions-Cross-cultural-Analysis/dp/1870021002
-Jacques Collin de Plancy, who wrote ‘Voyage To The Centre Of The Earth’
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Collin_de_Plancy
Brontosaurus, A Faded Star Rises Again, Prehisoric Pulp
https://prehistoricpulp.com/2017/08/05/brontosaurus-a-faded-star-rises-again/
Dinomania, Ulrich Merkl
-‘Creatures of Another Age’ edited by Richard Fallon (review by Justin Mullis in AIPT) which features ‘The Dragon of St Paul’s’ which prefigures the climax to The Lost World
https://aiptcomics.com/2022/06/30/creatures-of-another-age-dinosaurs-scifi/
Kong Unmade by John Lemay and others
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kong-Unmade-Films-Skull-Island/dp/179807799X
Kong: An Original Screenplay, Edgar Wallace
https://www.pspublishing.co.uk/kong-an-original-screenplay-hardcover-by-edgar-wallace-5969-p.asp
The Monster of Partridge Creek, Georges Dupoy, 1908.
https://cryptidz.fandom.com/wiki/Partridge_Creek_Monster
‘In Search Of The Unknown,’ Robert W Chambers, 1904