The Truth About Monsters
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- Publication Date: 1981
- Written by: Michael Shulan
- Illustrated by: Al Savitt
- Page count: 64
As I mentioned in my writeup for Bigfoot: Man, Monster, or Myth?, The Truth About Monsters is another small monster book that I read all the time as a kid. Not only did this thing give me more cryptid information, but it also gave me a very small introduction to mythological monsters and famous movie monsters that I was just starting to be exposed to. If the Bigfoot book was my handbook when it came to Sasquatch lore, this was my handbook for everything unknown and scary to me at the time.
What I really enjoyed about this book was that it contained a variety of different creatures and stories. The book is made up of various sections that tackle three to four monsters each. "Classic Monsters" covers mythological monsters such as Medusa and the Harpies. "Real-Life Monsters" covers cryptids such as The Abominable Snowman, Nessie, and even a small section on giant squids. "Monsters to Outwit" is about mythological monsters that had to be defeated by riddle solving or other methods, such as the Sphinx and the Minotaur. Finally, the book ends with "Misunderstood Monsters", tackling Frankenstein's Monster, Werewolves, and King Kong. Each small chapter contains an extremely truncated account of each creature's story. In addition, it talks about their strengths, their weaknesses, and ultimately what would kill them. While very short, it managed to hit all of the high points that made little kid me feel like he was learning a lot.
There are some fun oddities in here, too, such as the chapters on vampires and Frankenstein's Monster. The author of this book obviously based his writings on the famous Universal Studios monster films from the 1930s instead of any literary source. The section on Dracula states that the villagers drove a wooden stake into his heart to kill him, blatantly contradicting Bram Stoker's original novel. The section on Frankenstein's Monster even mentions both the movie ending and the original novel's ending:
"At this point the stories vary. There are many different endings to the tale of Frankenstein's monster. Some people think that the monster went mad and destroyed his creator. Others think that the townspeople trapped the monster in an old mill and burned him to death. Some others think that the monster set the scientist's laboratory on fire then burned himself inside. There are even happy endings to the tale. But however the story ends, Frankenstein's monster was unable to be misunderstood for long."
Obviously, this book was written for children, so clearly they wouldn't expect a child to have read the original novels. I just like being an asshole and pointing out when things are different like that.
My favorite things about this book were the illustrations that accompanied each chapter. The book is full of pencil drawings of each creature in action, and I love how these things are conveyed. A lot of them take up an entire page and half, creating these awesome splash pages to kick off each chapter. I remember opening this book just to look at the pictures at times, or even trying to recreate them myself with some pencils. Sadly, I don't have any of my old drawings to show off here, but I can show a picture or two from the book. As a little kid, it gave me the perfect fix for my monster fascination, and helped me to put a face to these things I was imagining in my head.
Like the Bigfoot book, there's not much more I can say about such a short read, but it's another childhood item that I have a lot of fondness for. Between this book and watching King Kong, Dracula and Frankenstein at such a young age, my love for monsters was sparked by the time I was entering grade school. It's a love that has continued through my entire life, growing and turning me into the massive horror fan that I am today. I owe a lot to these tiny books, and I'd probably be a bit of a different person today if it weren't for them.