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Monster Friday -Kappa (Japanese Yokai)

Welcome back to Monster Friday, today we will be discussing a popular monster from Japan the Kappa. This water spirit, or Yokai, is a creature of mischief. The Kappa have various legends surrounding them, but they are more intelligent than most other creatures. Their legacy can be traced as far back as the Edo era (starting around 1603) and since then they have been blamed for everything from the disappearance of children to the murder of adults near water. It is thought that they would convince men to get in the water drag them under and eat them.

Their general look is similar to an ape except with fish scales and a turtle shell. While being the size of a 6-10 year old child. The indentation in their held holds water it is believed if it is ever spilled, they lose their magical abilities. Many think you can force them to grant you favors if you can make them spill this water. They also believe you can gain their favor by giving them cucumbers or tossing cucumbers into their water to make them happy. I am not sure why something that feeds on humans would love cucumbers so much but weirder things have happened.

Weirdly, I couldn’t find any sort of Kappa festival. Most of these popular creatures have some sort of formal festival or day attached to them in Japan, but the Kappa doesn’t seem to have any widespread formal holiday. Kappa Matsuri is a festival held in some parts of Tokyo, Ushiku, Komaki, and Misawa according to Wikipedia but it didn’t supply any real information so I don’t consider it very reliable. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Doctor Strange: The Flight of Bones

Dr. Stephen Strange has overcome some tremendous feats not only as the Sorcerer Supreme, long-time hero, and renowned surgeon. Despite how much he’s overcome, his hands are failing him. While searching for help in man’s medicine, a new magical threat emerges when people begin spontaneously combusting and one of his dear friends becomes wrapped up in a deadly cult at the cause of the deadly pyres. Just another day for the good doctor, eh, true believers?

Ok, so first I gotta say two things about this book: the story itself is incredibly short and the art is the bizarre beauty I love about Strange’s stories. I was disappointed the Flight of Bones story itself is so short because I was getting pretty invested before it just…ends. There are quite a few other shorts in the book that are mostly good, all with different art styles that are wholly unique and eye-catching. When it comes to Marvel, Strange reliably has some of the coolest artwork and designs, and this book is no exception. Being under Marvel Knights, there is some adult imagery that might scare away the younger kids but many of the stories keep to a darker, bordering on horror edge that I love and I wish the MCU would embrace more with Strange. In the end, while not the best Strange story and not something that will make you fall in love with the Sorcerer Supreme ( I highly recommend Dr Strange & Dr Doom: Triumph and Torment ) it’s still worth checking out for some faster reads. May the gaming gods bring you glory.

Monster Friday:The Phoenix

Bringing back an old tradition of a monster every Friday, a classic is The Phoenix. Lore for the Phoenix goes back well over 500 years to the Greeks and the Egyptians. It varies from culture to culture tho it always agrees it seems that it is a bird. In one such belief it will love exactly 500 years and build a nest where it will die in flames and from those ashes a new baby bird will be born. That will be the one and only Phoenix to exist at any one time.

Other lore thinks that there can be multiple of them and when they die they are simply reborn from the ashes wherever they may be.

Obviously none of these are true but the Phoenix has become a symbol of rebirth and renewal. Many novels and stores also have them at odds with dragons for some reason that I never truly understood myself. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

New Monster Friday: The Loch Ness Monster

Once again we are back with Monster Friday, and this time we are going to talk about The Loch Ness Monster, Nessie. Now before we go any further, I should acknowledge scientist have many times debunked Nessie’s very existence in a variety of ways. In fact aside from the Vox article above here is a clip from the Today Show. This isn’t to say I believe these articles simply they exist and can be used to start your debunking search.

The modern Loch Ness Monster story goes back over 80 years to what is known as “the surgeons photo.” It was published on 1934 when a doctor by the name of R. Kenneth Wilson sold a photo to the Daily Mail that became the face of Nessie for decades to come. It is 100% fake, and you can read an excellent article from PBS for all the small details, but essentially a man named Ian Wetherell convinced Dr. Wilson to help take the photograph and sell it as his own, and since he as a respected doctor nobody would really question it.

One fake photo doesn’t prove the creature doesn’t exist however, even Alastair Boyd the man that managed to find everything that proved this photo was a hoax firmly believes in Nessie.

As for what Nessie is, many think of her as a plesiosaur, others as a giant eel or snake. In 2018 scientist conducted DNA surveys of Loch Ness and didn’t find any sign dinosaurs or giant sea creatures. Eels however are still a possibility as several species do live in the loch.

Seriously why did anyone think this wase real

If you enjoyed this weeks monster, please feel free to check out Friday Monster- Kraken or Monster Friday -Trotterhead/Trotterkopf for more of our Friday monster fun, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Friday Monster- Kraken

Continuing my weekly monster post, last week I bought you something from close to home with the Trotterhead and this week I want to bring you to the open seas by releasing the Kraken.

The history of the Kraken is well established in lore from Scandinavia sailors, to Clash of the Titans where Zeus himself controlled it. It’s worth noting however that in traditional Greek mythology the Kraken itself does not appear. (Sea monsters do exist just not that one specifically)

Known to resemble a giant octopus or giant squid the power of a kraken is so immense that it easily sinks the biggest ships simply by wrapping its testicles around it and squeezing. Why it does this is also under much debate, some say it is simply a dumb creature that mistakes the boats for food,others that it simply is defending its territory.

Interesting enough the Kraken while believed to have been about a mile long with a body that could be mistaken for a body of land, it is the one mythical creature that not only could be based on a real creature, it was also based on a giant version of 2 real creatures that were thought to not exist for a time that later were proven do in fact exist.

While humans have known about octopuses (yes that is the plural of octopus, despite popular belief octopi is not. I’m as shocked as you) there the Giant Pacific octopus wasn’t really known about then.

The record for one of these is 30 feet and 600 pounds

The chances of one of these taking down a ship is obviously pretty small, though I suppose it might take down a row boat. If you have never seen something like this and it climbed up on your boat it would scare the hell out of you and to have it described to you would be pure nightmare fuel.

The second candidate and far more likely however was a creature discovered within the last decade or so and hunts whales. I am of course speaking of the giant squid.

Unfortunately this one probably didn’t live long

The giant squid is a living monster, fully capable of fighting a sperm whale,and winning. The longest giant squid was about 43 feet, while sperm whales are about 60 feet. With a ship in the 1700 and 1800’s only being about 75 feet at the most for big ones, it’s easy to see why catching sight of one of these rare things would cause the scare it has.

This is part of what makes the Kraken so scary especially back then. It wasn’t really far fetched,most people that lived by the sea probably saw an octopus or squid. They also knew fish further out into the sea were much bigger. So why couldn’t there be a massive monster out in the deep sea waiting to rip a ship apart?

The Kraken is easily one of the scariest monsters in history because it is both easy to see where it came from,and that it wasn’t too far off from the truth. I hope you enjoyed this one,best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Monster Friday -Trotterhead/Trotterkopf

Last week I started this new series with Monster Friday Wendigo and this week I wanted to continue with something much lesser known,and from my home state of Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania dutch,who are oddly German, bring us the legend of Trotterhead. (Trotterkopf in German)

Trotterhead is less a creature and more of a spirit but if what it is often debated. Some say it was the spirit of a witch trying to do harm while others say it was actually a spirit sent by a witch for the same reason. Either way you kind of need to upset a witch for this thing to show up and bother you.

As for where this thing would live or what it would eat, obviously one would think they don’t live anywhere but allegedly you could visit 2 of these creatures in Quaker Cemetery on Quaker Church Road in Perryopolis Pennsylvania. I have never been there myself,it’s in western PA and I’m in the North East, but I know the stories of the place. Apparently you disrespect the cemetery they will push you down and do all sorts of scary stuff.

Is this real or just the story of old time religious folk? My guess would be the latter, but they are interesting none the less. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Monster Friday-Wendigo

I have decided to do something a little different and set aside Fridays to sort of look into and discuss a different creature, monster, or supernatural entity. So if you like the series please let me know and enjoy our first entry, the Wendigo.

The story of the Wendigo goes back to the Native Americans and the people of the First Nation in Canada. One of the many stories goes like this. A hunter or group of hunters were out one winter day to get food and became lost, probably in a storm. Due to the weather, they were unable to find food or a way home and eventually became lost, hungry, and cold. Eventually, a hunter succumbed to his hunger and ate another hunter or human. This resulted in a sort of curse that made them constantly hungry and wanting nothing more than human flesh never able to get enough to eat.

How they look varies widely, some myths have them being human-like in appearance others have them being more animalistic but they are almost always much larger between 10-13 feet tall, and despite being almost skeletal in appearance because of them always starving they are much stronger and dangerous than they appear. They also traditionally have an almost demon-like appearance. Some say green skin with no fur, others say they have fur. They always seem to have large teeth and a large head and unparalleled strength, for comic fans try to imagine being a human trying to fight the incredible Hulk.

Their habitat is usually said to be the Atlantic coast and North America, most notably Canada and the upper part of the United States such as North Dakota tho it isn’t uncommon to hear stories in Pennsylvania from Appalachia. If you know, you know. If you don’t stick around and I will eventually get to it being from PA myself or you can check out TikTok, they will happily tell you about how they don’t go out at night, and if you hear voices or cries for help in the trees to definitely ignore them.

Now how do you kill a wendigo? Here is where the fun begins, the lore here is vastly different, and knowing what we do about these huge cannibal bastards none of them would be easy. Some of them are as straight-forward as grab a weapon and beat/stab/shoot them to death. Others state you will require a silver weapon. These are the easiest examples. Another example was that you need to subdue it somehow, cut out its heart and set the heart on fire. This one seems to be the most difficult because a few others I came across also require fire but they simply tell you to use something flaming to burn the heart within the creature or set the thing on fire in general. Either way, we should probably hope these things aren’t real or we at least don’t have to deal with them. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory, and just in case, happy hunting.