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Do You Love Monsters?

Published Sat, 18 Feb 2017 12:00:20 -0600

By Russell Nohelty

I have loved monsters since I was a little child. I've been watching movies like Friday the 13th, Hellraiser, and Nightmare on Elm Street since I was 10. In fact, the first two books that my company, Wannabe Press, released were monster themed, in Ichabod Jones: Monster Hunter and Katrina Hates Dead Shit.

However, an unsettling trend started popping up the more I talked with people at shows and online. It seemed that they immediately and only associated monsters with horror. I would talk with people about my mythological fantasy or absurdist comedy books, with monsters all over the cover, and all they could see was horror, horror, horror, everywhere.

But here's the thing: monsters as so much more than horror.

Monsters are in everything from Adventure Time Monsters, Inc., and from Godzilla to Lord of the Rings. Monsters are the perfect literary device specifically because they can represent anything, whether it be people, places, things, or ideas, in any genre, from horror to fantasy, in any format, from comics to movies.

You can use monsters to tell a dark, brooding tale like Donnie Darko, or a light one like How to Train Your Dragon

That just won't do. I love horror as much as the next person, but what I really love in monsters in all their splendor, which is why I set out to make a glorious ode to all things monster-related.

I enlisted more than 50 of my closest comic book creator friends, and set out to make the monster anthology to end all monster anthologies, the one that would show monsters in all the fantastic awesomeness, and that they are so much more than only horror.

It truly was a labor of love, and at the end of the day we ended up with a 224-page monster anthology filled with 30 stories about monsters called Monsters and Other Scary Shit, which is currently funding on Kickstarter. Check it out by clicking here.

Monsters and Other Scary Shit is a massive, hardcover love letter to monsters, made by monster lovers for monster lovers, and celebrating everything we love about monsters. We launched on Valentine's Day, and it's safe to say the response has been overwhelming. In the first four days we raised almost $10,000 from over 200 backers.

One thing is clear, this book hit a nerve. People really responded to it in a way that I never expected. This has always been a magical project, from the overwhelming submissions process, to the amazing final product, to the initial reaction from creators and fans alike.

I think that's because monsters are magical. I mean I know monsters are magical by definition, but we as humans have a fascination with them that cuts right to our core. I started this project because of my deep love for monsters, and it's incredible to see that I'm not alone; that we all love monsters.

If you love monsters too, head on over and check out our anthology project, Monsters and Other Scary Shit, by clicking here, or going to www.monsteranthologycomic.com

If you back by February 24th, I will send you a free pdf of my most popular book, Katrina Hates Dead Shit #1, for free. All you have to do is message me that you backed the project because you saw it on Bleeding Cool, and the pdf is yours for free once we fund.

Russell Nohelty is a writer, publisher, and consultant. He runs Wannabe Press (www.wannabepress.com), which creates weird books for weird people, and hosts The Business of Art podcast (www.thebusinessofart.us), which helps creatives run better businesses. He really loves monsters.