Sometimes the strangest things you hear about in cryptozoology catch up with physical evidence years later. Take, for instance, Killer Kangaroos. No, I’m not talking about the Mystery Kangaroos that punched out the Chicago police in the 1970s. I’m thinking, instead, about the Killer Kangaroo of 1934. This week saw news out of Australia that “killer kangaroos,” “demon ducks of doom,” and eighteen other previously unknown species had been discovered by paleontologists at a dig site in Queensland, northern Australia. The new animals’ tags immediately made me think of the names I’d coined or heard before in cryptozoology. Who couldn’t [...]
Boston Rob Takes on Bigfoot & Mothman
According to a new press release, there is going to be a new, short, television series coming in the fall of 2006. Here’s the release and my commentary. – LC Sci Fi Channel Announces New Program Will Explore Bigfoot, Mothman, and Other “Controversial” Topics Experts Join “Boston Rob” Mariano on “SCI FI Investigates” Team Pasadena, Calif. — July 13, 2006 — SCI FI Investigates is a new SCI FI Channel series that explores the sweeping and eclectic mysteries and legends that pervade our world. Produced in a partnership with NBC News Productions, this six-part, one-hour weekly series is a real-life [...]
Malaysia Media Promotes Web Mania
According to the Malaysia Star of Thursday July 13, 2006′s article, “Big draw for Bigfoot site,” it’s all about the numbers first, and the hominids second. In the piece by Nelson Benjamin of The Star, dateline Johor Baru, the reporter writes: A website dedicated to the Malaysian version of Bigfoot has created a buzz among enthusiasts of the enigmatic creature worldwide. The site (www.johorhominid.org), which has sketches of a ape-like beast and a hairy paw, has attracted some 16,000 hits. Vincent Chow, a Johor branch member of the Malaysian Nature Society, one of the two persons who developed the website, said [...]
Editorial: Release Johor Photos
The drawings by Vincent Chow and Sean Ang, at one level, are to be appreciated. At another level, they have caused further frustration and a growing level of impatience within the general cryptozoological community. Here is Cryptomundo’s Peter Loh drawing of the head of a Johor Hominid (then called Mawas) – the first drawing allegedly based on Chow’s photos – compared to a photograph of the head of an orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus), also called in Indonesia, mawas. As far as can be understood from the new stories being told, we now don’t know where these alleged Johor Hominid photographs were [...]
Luche Libre: Chupacabras
Just a brief note that with the success of Jack Black in the movie Nacho Libre (2006), many North Americans are awakening to the popularity of luche libre ("free-style fighting"). The masked version of Mexican professional wrestling has been around since the 1930s. As a reflection of popular culture, it is not surprising that cryptids pop up as characters, now and then, in luche libre. One luchador ("wrestler") has even dressed himself as a Chupacabras. Do you know others?
New Name Nominee: Johor Hominid
Environmentalist Vincent Chow and palaeoanthropologist Sean Ang, who are both involved in researching the question of unknown hairy hominoids in Malaysia, have created a website to focus their pursuit. The researchers have also, through the mere need to purchase a domain name, coined a phrase for their local Malaysian Bigfoot, capturing the notion they are elusive giant bipeds from a certain area, by terming them, specifically, "Johor Hominid." According to the New Straits Times, the website promotes the fact that the Johor Hominid phenomenon is "probably the most significant and mind-shattering discovery in anthropology." Vincent Chow, above, from an earlier [...]
Vote the Yowie Slate In ‘08
There is finally a political candidate we can all back, totally, and support, unconditionally. Tim the Yowie Man may be running for election in Australia in 2008. According to the media reports out of Australia for June 21, 2006, the threat is a serious one: The wrath of parents may be the least of ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope’s concerns after the announcement the nation’s chief Yowie hunter may fight him at the next election. Tim the Yowie Man has issued a challenge to Mr Stanhope to reverse a string of Budget cuts announced on June 6 or face him [...]
Narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness Dies
Arthur Franz, a character actor whose voice will forever be remembered as the narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness, died at St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, California, of heart failure and emphysema, on June 17, 2006, at the age of 86. The film was a 1976 documentary on the famed Scottish Lake Monsters, Nessie. Franz was earlier best known for his role in Invaders from Mars (1953). Franz, who lived in New Zealand until the last month or so, had been in failing health for some time and wanted to spend his remaining days in California. Franz also played [...]
Storsie To Resurface
The forthcoming Storsjoyran Great Lake Festival on July 27-29, 2006, will have the local “president” Ewert Ljusberg of Jämtland making his annual speech to the region, again marked by a new imaginative and spectacular entrance. According to John Gammon’s June 17, 2006, Pollstar article, the idea is to top last year’s stunt: In 1996 [Ewert Ljusberg] rode in on a seven-ton elephant, which was making a guest appearance while en route from a Spanish to a Swedish circus, but he topped that in ’99, when he tried to float down in a huge air balloon. He missed the main 20,000-capacity [...]
Green Swamp Ape
Speaking in Texas on June 3, 2006, here’s a sneak peek at what I’ll be showing related to the 2004 Jennifer Ward sighting of the Green Swamp Ape. Jennifer Ward’s sighting has been difficult to understand, and place in context. But I think it has a lot to do with how shocking her initial drawing was. Her first attempt to draw the creature was elementary, but especially surprising in one detail: the light patches encircling the eyes. Made bigger and colored by some media, it became the definitive image with the sighting. Cryptozoologist Scott Marlowe, however, brought her together with [...]
Follow CryptoZooNews
Not Found
The resource could not be found.