Magical Mystery Tour

This has not been a good year so far and, in response to the stress, my wife and I have made plans for a number of little trips. This weekend with the boys was one of them and included no strips clubs and very little drinking! And only one seegar! We were good geezers.

Instead it was a mini-tour of some new England oddities, stuff that fascinates me! Here in still, movie and print is some of what we experienced.




In top photo, author and researcher Loren Colen in his museum. In bottom photo, I meet Big Foot, or a reasonable facsimile. Both photos copyright by Joseph A. Citro and used by permission.

This is what I wrote about the museum. It was a pleasure to speak with Loren Coleman who is a hell of a nice guy, besides researching a topic that is a huge interest of mine.

PORTLAND, MAINE – It may take you a little more than a tank of gas to drive from Western Massachusetts to the International Museum of Cryptozoology and back, but if you are interested in topics such as Big Foot, lake monsters and unknown cats, among other creatures of controversy, the expense is well worth it.

The museum has the ultimate interactive feature: its founder Loren Coleman, a world-renowned expert on cryptozoology, is on hand most of the time to personally answer questions from visitors.

“Cryptozoology” is the study of hidden animals and the proponents of the research point out that such creatures as the giant squid, mountain gorilla and okapi were once thought of as mythical. Coleman has used the coelacanth, the living “fossil fish” long though extinct until a live specimen was caught in 1938, as the symbol of his museum.

Coleman is no wide-eyed fanatic with an aluminum foil hat. He has a graduate degree in psychiatric social work and worked in that field for years. He has written numerous books and has regularly appeared on such television shows as “In search of …” and “Monsterquest,” among many others.

Originally, the prolific author and researcher had the museum in his home, but the demand to see it was so great he decided to move it to its present location in 2009. In turn, the response has been great enough that Coleman will be moving it around the corner from its present location at 661 Congress St. to larger quarters.

The museum is an amazingly dense collection of artifacts that range from original plaster castings of Big Foot footprints to photos of lake monsters and unknown sea creatures to items depicting efforts to defraud the public such as the a reproduction of a Big Foot mask used in 2008 to earn a group of grifters money for the sale of a fake Big Foot carcass.

Where else could you see a sample of hair from a yeti?

There is an amazing undated photo of a group of Marines with a large unidentified sea creature that will leave you wondering just what it was. A digital frame displays a slide show of lake monster photos, including the famous photo of “Champ,” the lake monster of Lake Champlain.

Another digital screen runs a loop of the famous 1967 Patterson-Gimlin film of Big Foot striding through a California forest. Coleman dispute the more recent claims that the much-studied film was faked.

The recent report of a motorist in Connecticut killing a mountain lion – an animal long extinct from New England – is an example of a less exotic “cryptid.” Although there have been reports for years of people spotting mountain lions where they shouldn’t be, Coleman noted the official explanation was that this mountain lion shared DNA with big cats from South Dakota. Rather than say that mountain lions had returned to New England, wildlife officials claimed the animal had walked 1,500 miles.

Mountain lion generally have a range of 100 miles. To admit that mountain lions have returned would trigger their classification as an endangered species, Coleman said which could affect issues such as commercial development.

Coleman explained to Reminder Publications the museum attracts 5,000 visitors a year and that most are curious tourists who have heard about the attraction. About 30 percent are “cryptonuts,” while about 10 percent are skeptics who come to challenge Coleman.

That the museum has plenty of examples of attempted hoaxes is acknowledgment that Coleman applies great scrutiny to reports about unknown animals.

Ironically, in the age of digital technology that should make documenting sightings of unknown animals more plentiful, presenting fake photos and videos have become easier, Coleman said.

He also noted that just because a person’s cell phone has a camera doesn’t mean there would be more photos of Big Foot and big cats. Besides the fear and astonishment a sighting can inspire, it still takes time for a person to take a phone out of a pocket or purse.

But if you do get a good shot of the inexplicable, Coleman might be interested.

For more information on International Museum of Cryptozoology, go here.

Happy New Year!



Me as an angry middle-aged zombie by my good pal Mark Masztal! I frequently feel like the angry walking dead!


My mom informed me today that Mary and I are now at the same age she and my dad were when Mary and I were married 32 years ago.

Our anniversary was Dec. 30.

And my dad was already retired at age 56.

That was the random factoid that got me thinking on the first day of the New Year.

You see 2010 was a rough year. Now “rough” is a relative term. We still have jobs. We can still pay our bills – although a little more dough a month would make things easier. We haven’t lost out home.

There are too many folks who are struggling with just life these days.

We had some events this year that weren’t pleasant as well as some financial surprises that complicated matters.

But what my mom said to me underscored the need to me to get some stuff done.

The problem being a reporter at a newspaper – for me at least – is that you’re not considered a “writer” by many. One of my journalism professors at UMass compared being a reporter to being a potter. We know what goes into a story and we repeat it over and over. Now, if you’re a good reporter, you make those recurring elements better than those who are just going through the motions.

But you’re still throwing the essentially same pot – or a variation of it – over and over. At best you’re an artisan not an artist.

Ah, that was encouraging and that was at the beginning of my career! The beauty of my job is that every day offers something new and different. If I’m a potter, I might be making a plate or a serving bowl or something other than a freaking pot.

As I get older I get tired of having to deal with people who view what I do as some sort of short order cooking. I follow a recipe and the results are perhaps tasty, but ephemeral.

I spend anywhere from 50 to 60 hours a week at my job. It gives me little time to pursue other writing. Yes, I’ve done two books, but they were jobs that I could handle in the time I had.

The book projects sitting on my mind’s shelf require more time. I need to make time for these projects.

I worked on two book proposals this year and made great progress on one of them – the “secret project” I hinted about on Facebook. This project I think could sell but is of a topic that might embarrass my boss or cause someone at work to feel harassed even though I am writing it on my own time. I’ll probably use a pseudonym.

I despise, loathe and hate the hypocritical nature of “political correctness” these days.

I also wrote three comic book stories in 2010 for a proposed project that has just now gone down the tubes. Because they involve characters owned by my friend Steve, I can’t do a thing with them.

So, what’s the agenda for 2011? Write, write, write. Try to sell a book. Try to sell two books.

I’ve reached a critical mass on Tom Tyler material and I want to assemble a book on the guy who was the B-Western star who wanted to act, but I really, really doubt I could find a publisher on that topic. I might put something together for a self-publishing outfit such as Lulu.

I’ll keep you informed. The clock is running.

Working at Tundra was my "degree" in business. I learned so much there that I apply daily to the issues that have confronted me since that time.

Since I was a very little fish at the place I can't reveal as much as Steve Bissette has in numerous interviews, which, by the way, has earned him the permanent stink eye from a fair number of people.

Has I said in my previous post, Tundra was a grand experiment in allowing creators – in this case comic book creators – to control every aspect of the creation, marketing and distribution of a project. In some ways Tundra is the spiritual child of companies such as United Artists.

There were some people who actually said "no" to marketing and public relations efforts, while others wanted everything. Marketing costs were added to the expense of the project and literally could affect the profits. Hopefully marketing would pay for itself and produce more sales.

The shot glass for Steve's book did indeed cause hard feelings as I was an "outsider" who actually came up with a success. That damaged the precious little egos of the in-laws and relative crowd.

My lone creative project was done in collaboration with Bissette and was a calendar for horror fans that featured his art and my research on milestones in horror-dom. We had been toying with the idea about a year previous to Kevin Eastman founding the company. For those who don't know Eastman, he is half of the creative duo behind The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

"The Year in Fear" was an abject failure. We sold about 125 of them to the comic book market and we rescued a bunch of the trash pile, which were then converted to prints that Steve could sell at shows. Others I sold through Fangoria magazine without the assistance of any one at Tundra. I have one in my office at the 'paper as a constant reminder of what NOT to do.

This is what I learned:

If you start out on trying to create a product you have to research it if you no previous experience with it.
I just thought if we come out with it at the right time, it would sell. Silly me. The calendar industry is a beast onto itself with lengthy advance times for the creation and marketing of calendars.

Get everything in writing.
I don't remember a contract that spelled out everyone's involvement. We were all friends, right? Wrong.

Develop a real business plan and stick to it.

Don't trust anyone that they actually know what they are talking about without checking things yourself.
Ah, there was one guy – part of the in-law and friends of Kevin mob – that insisted he could get all of the print run into BJs or Costco. Pure fertilizer.

Look at your product as objectively as possible. Does it meet the conventions of the industry?
Our calendar didn't have a functional grid and it didn't have a hole. It was much larger than most calendars and would have required a "dump" – a cardboard display box. It was a freak – a beautiful freak – and I didn't learn this until I tried to sell it to Spenser's Gifts. A kind but firm buyer told me just how wrong the thing was.

Where and how you sell your product is very important.
The main source for the calendar was initially comic bookstores. When that proved to be the wrong market, the calendars were to be dumped. We took a load of them and I worked out a deal with Fangoria magazine to sell them through them on a fulfillment deal. I moved some more that way without anyone's help at Tundra. We then cut them into prints to sell at conventions. Did we make money on them? No, not really. Tundra, which fronted the money for the printing, didn't make anything either.

Ultimately what I learned is that creators could be a pretty stupid, trusting lot – at least I was and I've tried to be much more savvy about things since that time. When I did licensing work for my friend Richard Gordon (producer of such films as "Fiend Without a Face, "Haunted Strangler" and many more) everything was done in writing and I was much more prepared.

So as I enter any discussion for new ventures I try to ask the necessary questions and realize the potential for being screwed.

© 2008 by Gordon Michael Dobbs