Pete Von Sholly’s History of Monsters

Illustrator Von Sholly (Dinosaurs These Days) gathers monsters from mythology, cryptozoology, and popular culture in this thoroughly addictive and beautiful full-color book featuring 18 plates filled with 1,100 creatures from Aztec, Celtic, Norse, Japanese, and many more cultures. A silhouette key provides the name and origin of each monster. According to Von Sholly, a monster must be something unknown and unreal; as soon as it is known, it ceases to be a monster. The book covers mystical creatures throughout history, from classical Greece and Rome (cyclops, Cerberus) and the Dark Ages (Grendel, succubus) through the unnatural creatures created during the Age of Science (Frankenstein, Dracula). Von Sholly excels with his extensive research of monsters from literature (Cthulhu, Nazgûl), film (King Kong, Morlock), and classic television (the Munsters). Readers may be familiar with the minotaur and the troll, but what about the Jewish ziz or the African gbahali? The enthusiastic reader can spend hours cross-referencing the keys with recognizable and obscure monsters. Color illus. (BookLife)