The other day I finished Cryptozoology Anthology, a book that came out back in April. The book was edited by Robert Deis, David Coleman, and Wyatt Doyle. It is a collection of stories about cryptozoological creatures from old Men's Adventure Magazines (MAMs) from the 1950's to the 1970's.
Most of the stories in Cryptozoology Anthology are just that - stories. But, they are important because they helped cryptids get into popular culture before we had tons of TV shows about them like In Search Of... in the '70's, and Finding Bigfoot, Mountain Monsters, and others that we have today.
Some of the articles reprinted are actually non-fiction and were written by crypto/paranormal investigators like John Keel and Ivan T. Sanderson. Most of the others involve some adventurer who runs into a yeti, giant lizard, reptile man, ape-man, living dinosaur, or something of the sort. Most of the time they are hunting the creatures, who sometimes have kidnapped women, killed animals, etc, and most of the time someone ends up dying. Most of the stories also have some actual facts thrown in, too, the authors' way of trying to make them seem real.
While this book is not really about sightings of cryptids, it is good to have because it shows that cryptids have been in popular culture for a long time.
My favorite story in the book was probably "A Man From Another Age," which is abut some adventurer's quest to find a yeti(and which ultimately ends up in death for one of the creatures, and one of the men as well,) which was written by Mike Flint and originally appeared in Mans Illustrated in November 1958.
You can buy Cryptozoology Anthology on Amazon.
Next book review will be up sometime soon, and will be Bigfoot Encounters in New York and New England by Robert and Paul Bartholomew.
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