copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman
Toward the outset of The Encyclopedia of Monsters, its author, Jeff Rovin, offers his definition of “monster” as representing a member of an unknown species that “simply by showing up. . . terrifies someone.” He surveys films, novels, and other narrative and dramatic media, including even comic books and videogames, compiling numerous entries in which he summarizes the plots, classifies the type of monsters, describes its powers and abilities, and provides a summary comment. His categories of monsters tend to overlap a little at times, but, in general, comprises these types:
- Artificial humans and cyborgs
- Cavemen
- Computers
- Demons and devils
- Diseased humans
- Dream creatures
- Extraterrestrials (mineral, plant, or humanoid; include are microbes, parasites, rocks, and even intelligent blobs and clouds)
- Giant plants, insects, animals, and humans
- Hybrids (plant-animal, insect-animal, and human-animal)
- Laboratory creations
- Mutants (chemical, genetic, medical, and radioactive)
- Mythological creatures
- Newly evolved life forms
- Optically enlarged honeybee (Apis Melipona)
- Reanimated humans (mummies and zombies)
- Robots
- Sea serpents
- Sentient inanimate objects (clouds, ice, statues)
- Subterranean beings and forces
- Supernatural beings and forces
- Yeti
By surfing the individual entries, the reader or researcher can glean an idea as to how various artists have interpreted the concepts of the monstrous as the stories involving these threats have described them and gain an overview of the many ways by which writers have effected the monster’s release, the rationale (cause, motive, reason, or origin) of the monsters, and the means by which the protagonists destroy the monsters or reverse their effects, as this partial list shows:
Jeff Rovin, The Encyclopedia of Monsters. NY: Facts on File, 1989.
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