This is what happens when the person who actually saw something is not the same person who has the art supplies to illustrate it. They probably never even met, so what you end up with is somewhat akin to the Telephone Game. There are more examples at Buzzfeed. Some drawings may be technically NSFW. Link

The folks over at ComicsAlliance put together this spooky gallery of artworks featuring various monsters, creatures, and things that go bump in the night as envisioned by some of the world’s finest comic book and animation illustrators. Happy Halloween!

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We have a new gallery posted at the Neatorama Art Blog! Randy Bishop is a student illustrator and character designer who presented us with a collection of monsters and other characters from fiction and fantasy that are quite seasonally appropriate. The monster pictured here is part of a poster entitled Happy Halloween! See the rest at the Art Blog. Link

Some of the most popular Halloween costumes are monsters and flappers, so if you are a female that already is a monster, a flapper is a natural costume choice. Artist Jeffery Thomas has a great collection of a variety of monster gals glammed up as flappers and the artwork is simply fantastic.

Link Via BuzzFeed

Little known fact, it was not actually an iceberg, but Godzilla that caused the Titanic to sink.

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While I always though vampires were kind of cool, I find zombies to be a lot scarier. As it turns out, it might just be because I’m a bit liberal. According to this graph, more zombie stories are released when Republicans are in office and more vampire tales come out when Democrats are in power. If you’re wondering why one political viewpoint would fear either creature more than the other, then this Cracked article can fill you in on the psychological aspects.

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Ever wondered about the origin of the Japanese Kirin or the waving Lucky Cat? If so, then this article by Matt Alt will amaze and astound with it’s short yet concise descriptions of 10 of the best known Japanese mythical creatures, some of which you may have seen but never thought you’d understand. This great article sheds light on creatures both strange and strangely familiar, and the accompanying illustrations are a delight! Follow the link, read on and be glad you’ve never spotted one of these critters in your backyard.

Link -via BoingBoing

I know I just shared a Flickr set of alternative histories with pop culture icons, but Etsy seller Matthew Buchholz has an equally notable art series featuring artwork of historical events reimagined to incorporate monsters, aliens and robots.

Link Via Laughing Squid

A lot of people think their boss is a real “monster.” However this list imagines if your boss actually was monster from TV or film.   What monster would your boss be? Or what Monster would you WANT to be your boss.

5) The Jagrafess, from Doctor Who
The Mighty Jagrafess of the Holy Hadrojassic Maxarodenfoe from Doctor Who is a pretty reasonable boss, and its underlings get to help influence public opinion. “I’d get to work at in Broadcasting!” exults Bradley. And to be fair, if you live in the Jagrafess’ world, then you already work for it one way or another. Just make sure you wear a sweater to work.

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Jackie Lewis of the Savannah College of Art and Design created an adorable series of sad monster drawings, including cthulhu, griffons and the mothman. They’re all just precious, so make sure to check out the rest at the link.

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From a one-ton crocodile that may have killed 300 people to a leopard who munched on 250 different victims, this list of man-eating beasts is fascinating although a bit depressing.

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Special effects wizard Ray Harryhausen created cinema monsters and other creatures for decades. In this video, you’ll find every one of them, presented in chronological order. See a list of them at the associated website. Link -via Boing Boing

Very busy artist Mike Bukowski has a project going in which he is illustrating each and every creature found in the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. In many cases, he has only a short description (or sometimes none at all) to work with, but they all seem to be at home in the nightmares those stories can induce. Picture is Deep One, from The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Some images are NSFW. Link -via Laughing Squid

Colin Greenhalgh adds monsters and somewhat-poetic captions to vintage postcards to make them much more interesting.

Meanwhile in Adventure Land, an imp lands a hand, scaring all the guests. Onlookers are captivated in fear, as he emerges from the murk, and lets lose a terrifying burp.

See a variety of such nonsense at his blog Monsters Abroad. Link -Thanks, Amy Dix!

Sharktopus, Mansquito, Frankenfish -the only place you’ll find movie monsters this ridiculous is SyFy! The network has over 200 original creature features. If you’ve missed any, you’ll want to check out this list so you’ll know what to look for. Link -via mental_floss

Instead of reprinting the studio posters, film distributors in some eastern European countries commission new posters for movies, and many are works of art. Monster Brains has a collection of Polish and Czech posters for Japanese monster movies, including this awesome Czech illustration for the film Monster from a Prehistoric Planet (Daikyoü Gappa). Oh yes, there are lots of variations on Godzilla, too! Link -via Pink Tentacle

Pier Francesco Orsini, a 16th-century mercenary and nobleman, built a garden of huge sculpted monsters and other fantasy figures at his estate in Bomarzo, Italy. You’ll find the story of this remarkable project and more pictures at Kuriositas. Link

(Image credit: Flickr user zak mc)

The webcomic Subnormality by Winston Rowntree has a series of pictures illustrating the difference between reality and your perception of reality using monsters. This is only the first one, which is a concept I’m trying to teach my adolescent daughters. Link -via The Daily What

If you look hard enough, even the most outlandish legends have a grain of truth somewhere. Reports from antiquity of sea monsters may be fantastic, but they describe what someone at least thought they saw at one time. Consider the sea monk, described in 1546 (left). It sure looks like someone drew it from their imagination. But then look at the sea creature called a Jenny Haniver (right). Read about this and other monsters that may now be explained scientifically. Link -via Gorilla Mask

See also: Baby Stingray

The Bakemono Zukushi scroll was painted in Japan sometime in the 18-19th centuries by an unknown artist. There are 24 legendary Japanese monsters depicted on the scroll. Pink Tentacle has scans of them, including the Rokurokubi (a long-necked woman) and the Inugami (dog spirit) shown here. Link

You’ve heard of Bigfoot, Nessie, and the Abominable Snowman. Here are a few of their more obscure (but just as fascinating) cousins.

Monster: Sciopod
Where it lived: Ethiopia
Legend: Latin for “shade foot”, these relatively peaceful creatures were first recorded in around A.D. 77 by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder. They were said to live in the wilds of what is now Ethiopia and were described as small, pale, humanlike creatures-but with only one leg and a giant foot. They hopped around on that giant foot, but they also used it as sun shade: Sciopods supposedly spent several hours a day lying on their backs with their giant feet in the air to block the harsh North African sun. Sciopods were extremely powerful, too. They could kill a large game animal (or a human) with a single jumping kick. But never fear-the strange creatures didn’t eat meat. Or plants. Or anything. They existed solely on the aroma of living fruit, with they always carried with them. Sciopods are mentioned in numerous writings over several centuries, ending sometime in the Middle Ages.

(Image credit: Flickr user Miss Cellania)

Monster: Gowrow
Where it lived: Arkansas
Legend: This monster was first heard of in the 1880s, when Arkansas farmers reported being terrorized by a huge lizard. In 1897 Fred Allsopp, a reporter for the Arkansas Gazette, wrote about an encounter with the beast. The monster, which Allsopp named a “gowrow” after the sound it made, had been eating livestock in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest of the state. A local business man named William Miller formed a posse to hunt and kill it. They found its lair, which was littered with animal (and human) bones, and waited for it. It surprised them by emerging from a nearby lake and attacking them-but they were able to kill it with several gunshots. Miller described the gowrow as being 20 feet long, with huge tusks, webbed and clawed feet, a row of horns along its spine, and a knifelike end to a long tail. He said he sent the body to the Smithsonian Institute-but it mysteriously never made it. Allsopp finished the article by saying he believed it was a “great fake”, but sightings of a similar lizardlike creature were reported in the Ozarks for many years.

(Image credit: Flickr user Luciana Christante)

Monster: Encantado
Where it lives: The Amazon River
Legend: Encantado means “enchanted one” in Portuguese and refers to a special kind of boto, or long-beaked river dolphin native to the Amazon-that can take human form. Encantados are curious about humans and are especially attracted to big, noisy festivals, which they often attend as musicians, staying in human form for years. How can you recognize one? Look under its hat: They always have bald spots that are actually disguised blowholes. Encantados are usually friendly, but they occasionally hypnotize and kidnap young women and take them back to the Encante, their underground city. Sometimes the women escape and return…pregnant with an Encantado baby.

Monster: Kappa
Where it lives: Japan
Legend: Kappas are said to inhabit lakes and rivers throughout the Japanese islands. They look like frogs, but with tortoiselike shells on their backs. They can leave the water-carrying their shells with them-because they have shallow depressions in their heads in which they keep a bit of water that not only allows them to walk around on land but also makes them incredibly strong. If you encounter one, bow to it. They’re very polite, so they’ll have to bow back to you…and the water will spill out of their head-bowls, weakening them. Their favorite food: the blood of small children. Their second-favorite: cucumbers. That’s why you can still see people in Japan throwing fresh cucumbers into lakes and rivers-with the names of their children carved into them. This, the legend says, will protect their little ones from the kappa’s clutches.

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The article above is reprinted with permission from Uncle John’s Endlessly Engrossing Bathroom Reader.

Since 1988, the Bathroom Reader Institute had published a series of popular books containing irresistible bits of trivia and obscure yet fascinating facts.

If you like Neatorama, you’ll love the Bathroom Reader Institute’s books – go ahead and check ‘em out!

Dave Devries takes children’s sketches of monsters from their imagination and renders them in paint, while keeping the scary details.

The process is simple. I project a child’s drawing with an opaque projector, faithfully tracing each line. Applying a combination of logic and instinct, I then paint the image as realistically as I can. My medium is mixed—primarily acrylic, airbrush, and colored pencil.

Link – via worldoddities

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by euphoriajoca.

We’d love to say that we can’t blame Dell Comics for trying to cash in on the Batmania of the 1960s by turning Dracula into a superhero, but… Well, it’s Dracula as a superhero. Even worse, it’s a modern-day Count Dracula as a scientist who accidentally swallows some formula that allows him to transform into a bat and then decides to fight crime in a purple jumpsuit. Seriously, in what world is that a good idea?

I thought for sure this list would include Godzilla and The Terminator, but it is limited to classic Halloween-type horror monsters. Link -via Digg

See inside Godzilla, Gamera, and a couple of other movie monsters in poster form. If I could only read Japanese to find out where their weak spots are, then I, too, could save the world! Link -via Digg

Upodate: These are from the book An Anatomical Guide to Monsters by Shoji Otomo with illustrations by Shogo Endo, from 1967. More information can be found at Pink Tentacle, including partial translations. -Thanks, algomeysa!

The richly decorated Carta Marina, from 1539 might seem a little crude by today’s standards but modern satellite imaging revealed that the sea monsters shown in parts of the ocean on the map actually correspond to well known storm fronts, dangerous currents and maritime hazards. This was perhaps just a method of depicting this at the time, as a warning to sailors venturing into these areas

This picture is just a small detail of the Carta Marina. See the full map and many others in a roundup of old maps at Dark Roasted Blend. Link

Len Peralta of Monster by Mail who drew the Neatorama Alien and Neatorama Zombie some years ago has a new project: Summer of the Super-Villain.

For a mere $25, you can custom order your own original villain or as a gift to your loved ones or archenemies. For a little bit extra, he’ll include the "making of" video clip – sadly without the maniacal laugh worthy of a super villain.

Link – via jawboneradio

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by jawboneradio.

Many years ago, monsters walked among us. Don’t believe us? Here are the some photographic proofs from Flickr user Relleno De Mono.

These are absolutely gorgeous renderings …

Link – via woostercollective

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by JKirchartz.

On the Road of Knives is a collaboration website of Zak Smith, Shawn Cheng, and Nicholas Di Genova. The guys took turns drawing successive illustrations of fantastic and gory creatures – the storyline that emerges may be a little difficult to follow, but the art sure is marvelous.

Link | Start at the beginning

Previously on Neatorama: The Superest by Kevin Cornell and Matt Sutter (still going on, though at a slower pace than before)

PS Nicholas Di Genova is featured in blogTO’s gallery of emerging Toronto-based artists. So far they’ve got 50+ artists with their profiles and examples of their work – Thanks Tim!