Eerie Legends: An Illustrated Exploration of Creepy Creatures, The Paranormal and Foklore Around The World
by: Ricardo Diseno
due 9-3-2024
Chronicle Books
5.0

Frightful and delightful......haunting and strange.
These stories will lurk on the edge of your samity and take you to dark places. Along with the spooky stories of ghosts, monsters, demons, aliens, crytids and other inexplicable curiosities are a full page image of the creature in the story, in neon glow-in-the-dark colors. The vivid illustrations pop, and the pictures borders are amazing.
The illustrations and story merge for a terrifying and fascinating experience.

Loved every page-definite purchase.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Chronicle Books for an advanced copy of this illustrated guide to things that make life interesting and fun, even as they scare us when the lights go out.

Many people, like myself, are comforted by things that go bump in the night. Deserted places, are like doughnuts on a table with a big old free sign, we love to poke around every, chew through every nook and cranny of the place, looking for people standing in corners, or strange noises to come from empty rooms. The undead to us are just friends we haven't had the chance met in life. Spider creatures sound like a fun night out, and sure the spider might leave one with the check, but it will be worth it. Loch Ness, seems less crowded than Crystal Lake, but a lot more interesting, if not magical if one adds Aleister Crowley to the guest list. Like so many others I have loved these kind of stories about the things that live beyond the walls of sanity or belief since I started reading about them in books I took out of the library. Some heard these tales around the fire, some from X-Files. Even podcasts. Books like these are never too much. Especially when the art is so good inside. Eerie Legends: An Illustrated Exploration of Creepy Creatures, the Paranormal, and Folklore from around the World is illustrated by Ricardo Diseño with text by Steve Mockus and is a guide book to the imaginary world, featuring the familiar and the unfamiliar, the spooky, the odd, and the ones we would all love to meet someday.

The book is an alphabetical lists of creatures, places and events with a brief introduction that is fictional, a longer section about a page or two about the subject, discussing dates, notable appearances, disappearances, and maybe even a little bit of violence, if warranted. The entry concludes with a fictional work, bringing together facts, legends and more to round out what is presented. The book not only features cryptids or monsters. The experience of Betty and Barney Hill and their missing time with aliens is an entry. Haunted houses, real and imaginary are looked at with an entry about the famed Winchester House The universal classic monsters werewolf, Vampir, even zombis are looked at, as are the new creatures du jour Slender Man, Mothman, even Krampus who is starting to make inroads. Legends and myths from other lands, Japan, Latin America and others are looked at, along with a creature that seems to only exist on the Internet. Each entry is also wonderfully illustrated in a way that is unique to each one, and can cause a little bit of missing time just because there is so much to admire on the page.

This was a fun book as the illustrations really are wonderful. The entries are interesting and informative, I just wish there was a little bit more entries, and a bit less fiction. Still this is a good guide for those new to the world, and the bibliography is pretty complete and those interested can easily find more if they like. The art is a mix of underground, Latin American influences, with a level of skill that is quite amazing to see. I joked earlier, but one could spend hours looking at these and find something new, or a technique that one missed earlier.

Comic fans will enjoy this as will role players as there are a lot of good ideas for adventures and ways to include some of these creatures in adventures. A lot of fun, and a good gift for someone new to cryptids and the paranormal, but would like to know more.

I enjoyed this collection of common and not-so-common legends, and the art (done thoughtfully and freakishly by Steve Mockus) excels. Eerie Legends functions as both a primer on the creatures that haunt the world and as a collection of scary fireside stories to freak out younger minds. The latter, however, in which the author gives each creature a page-long fictional story (sometimes from their POV), most often serves to bog down the rest of the work rather than support it. Perhaps it would have been better if the author gave more attention to the short fiction sections, or to the explanations of the legends—but neither were given the spotlight completely which served as a weakness to both.

The illustrations are where this work shines through. Mockus's art feels like some blend between fairy tale art in children's literature and the custom prints one might find in a downtown tattoo shop. As a short handbook of sorts on legends, it succeeds in visualizing and telling every nightmarish tale, but it could have been more thorough with sources and avoided the random one-page fiction stories altogether.

I was honestly all set to give this a 4.5 star review because I absolutely adored it but the second to last "Legend" is a culturally significant Indigenous spirit that is not supposed to be said or typed out. It felt extremely disrespectful to include when Indigenous people have asked repeatedly for people to not put it in books or say it. I will need to cleanse since it's part of my cultural practice and honestly now would not only not recommend it but would suggest people not read it. It's disappointing because what was an otherwise fantastic book was ruined by cultural appropriation and disrespect for Indigenous religious beliefs.

This was a decent overview of some common cryptids and legends. I didn't personally like the illustration style, I would have loved to see more realistic (and more in general) drawings depicting more closely what witnesses have described. I also didn't feel like there was enough information on some of them, yet there were unnecessary little story snippets in between. Overall, not a bad book for someone who isn't heavily into the paranormal/supernatural/strange, but those who have a deep fascination and study these more intensely will not like this book.

Huge fan of the art style, the colors are so eye-catching. This book compiles legends, phenomena, and even real life places (like the Paris Catacombs) from different cultures and regions of the world. The expositions are brief, but to the point. I enjoyed the breadth of information here and will probably actually purchase this for my personal collection, particularly for the diversity and the magnificent illustrations.

Love the artwork! Reminds me of vintage horror comics.
I appreciate the inclusion of first hand accounts when possible.
Could have done without the micro- stories.

Another book I finished recently was "Eerie Legends" with art by Ricardo Diseño and writing by Steve Mockus. The book includes old favorite legends and even new spooks like Loab. The art is eye-catching and provocative and the writing is just enough to tickle the imagination.

With beautiful illustrations and a easy to understand writing style, this was a good, short read. Enjoyed learning about the various creepy legends around the world through this particular lens.

Eerie Legends is a mesmerizing exploration into the world of cryptids and other iconic paranormal phenomena. Each entry includes a stunning full-page illustration, two pages of background and origin information, and a one-page micro story starring the character or legend. The original stories are haunting and creatively written, making for a highly immersive read. I thought I knew a fair bit about cryptids, but there were quite a few in here that were brand new to me. I especially loved learning about the Japanese ones!

Diseño's art style is vibrant and trippy, blending surrealism and abstraction with a splash of pulp. His use of bold, dynamic lines and a vivid, shocking color palette create a sense of movement and depth in each of his pieces. I'm truly obsessed with their art now and plan on picking up their Horror Oracle asap.

Thanks to NetGalley & Chronicle Books for the digital ARC!

An interesting and visually stunning collection of folktales, legends, and accounts of the paranormal. This book catalogs monsters, cryptids, unusual locales, and unexplained happenings from throughout history and around the world alongside Richard Diseño’s vibrant and trippy artwork, recognizable in style from his Classic Horror Oracle. Each entry features a short intro to the phenomena, a longer narrative (1-1.5 page) of its history, a full-page multifaceted illustration of the thing in question, and a page-long piece of horror writing (mostly short fiction) based on it. Most interesting to me is the Loab entry and most entertaining is the Krampus spoof of The Night Before Christmas poem. I also enjoyed reading about the Paris Catacombs having visited them myself.

Interesting book. I enjoyed the chupacabra story. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Receiving the book in this matter had no bearing on my thoughts.