Meg Hunt: Erinyes

Ronald Kurniawan: Albastor

Esther Pearl Watson: Aitvaras

Of course if you want to know what this beast is all about you'll have to buy the book...

The Real Bones of the Unknown.

Seeing remains such as these washed up on the beach would hammer home that there are secrets under the ocean tides. And yet these bones of the "Basking Shark" are not uncommon. The pictures you find on the internet are surprisingly plentiful. The shark itself is surprisingly cartoonish: Hollow-bodied maw ribbed with cavernous jaws, jutting fins ending in a simple tail. It looks like an 8-year old's fantasy of an omnipotent submarine base. Like Knight Rider Underseas.


Begs the question of whether you're really quite so sure the unicorn is bunk.

Anders Nilsen: Sianach

Although no one has ever witnessed the Sianach and lived long enough to report it somehow we know that it has the form of a gigantic carnivorous deer. Anders made this deceptively light picture of a mortifying scene, leaving the viewer vibrating between the two poles of innocence and arbitrary cruelty.

Of course, since the perspective is that of an onlooker you can be sure that you, the viewer, are doomed. No one escapes to tell of the Sianach.

Scott Teplin: Loathsome Worm

Sketches and final art. The most useful illustration in the book for the amateur in the field of Beast watching. Visit Scott here.

Comics Love Beasts.

Just a nice image of a nazi tyrannosaurus fighting a giant.

Steven Weissman: Pey

I'm too sick right now to describe this piece. Suffice it to say that Steven knocked it outta the park. He's the only one in the book who told the story of his creature in a strip. The Pey eats the dead and wounded on battlefields.

Jay Ryan: Thunderbeast (Raiju)

Reknowned poster artist, Jay Ryan has always been very generous with me (and everyone he has ever met it seems). He made time to contribute to Beasts! at an incredibly busy time: He delivered the work to me the night his book tour stopped in town.

Raiju the Japanese Thunderbeast tears about the earth when storms brew. The rodent-like creature seeks to take up quarters in people's navels so at times of rain you are advised to keep your bellybutton covered while asleep.

Delayed again. January release.

The forty people who purchased copies of the book at the gallery show have all the books we'll get before the new year. (I only have one copy myself.) Alas, the book is shipped but customs will see the book delayed until its arrival in stores come mid-January. I swear. January. Here's a photo of the book in all its ostentatious, gold capped glory...

Beasts! Show at Belle & Wissell Gallery.

There aren't words for how industrious the Belle & Wissell curators are. Gabe Kean is a master of Experience Design and strives for a collaborative experience with the audience. Jacob McMurray holds down curating duties at the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Mueum for his 'day job.' The two of them have a compulsion for taking on huge projects: All of the planning and execution of this exhibit is theirs.


A shot of the gallery showing original artwork from the book.


Note that world map on the wall. Jacob McMurray hand painted that, then placed indicators for the location (and dates of witness) of all 90 creatures that appear in the book.


Visitors then referenced the map's key and could view the creatures in the book.


And that is the book.


To put a face to this project, that is me signing said book.


An old-school talent in sign-making, Sven Sundbaum wrote out all 90 contributors names and drew the Beasts! icon on the back wall.


Lastly, the mesmerizing interactive piece Gabe coded/constructed just for the show. All of the book's artwork is available to flip through complete with text. The pedastal's knob rotates through them as well as zooms in on work for a more detailed look.

Unfortunately, this show won't tour due to the involved nature of setting it up.... unless, of course, Gabe and Jacob are suitably bribed to do it.

BEASTS! done big.

These are the first photos I have of the BEASTS! book release party and gallery show opening. (Only 40 copies were available and quickly sold out-- the final shipment doesn't arrive until January I hate to say.) Hosted at Seattle's new Belle & Whissel gallery, it was a ridiculously impressive curating job with a multimedia kiosk, original art, a map showing all the creatures' respective homes and dates of witness. Thanks Jacob McMurray and Gabe Kean for doing it up big.

These pictures show images from the book being projected onto the building across the street from the gallery. Thanks Paul Hughes for the cellphone pics.