As you can maybe tell from the cover, Mysterious Monsters (1978) is a monster book aimed at adults. It’s actually a combination of two books, Vampires, Zombies and Monster Men (1976), by Daniel Farson, and Monsters and Mythic Beasts (1975), by Angus Hall, which were both part of the Colin Wilson-edited series The Supernatural. Wilson wrote the unhinged, but extremely fascinating The Occult (1971), which we will cover later this year. That book owes quite a lot to Richard Cavendish’s excellent The Black Arts (1967) and Wilson’s Supernatural series, in turn, seems inspired by Cavendish’s influential Man, Myth & Magic series (1970-1972), which provides a foundation for similar series like The Enchanted World and Mysteries of the Unknown from Time/Life Books.

If you’re familiar with any of those books, you should have a pretty good sense of what this one is like. It’s a robust overview, maybe a little broad (as with the other books so far this week, it contains sections on dinosaurs and movie monsters, and the back half centers largely on cryptid-style monsters — I probably would prefer the earlier incarnation where this was two separate books). It tackles all its subjects thoughtfully, not just cataloging them, but interrogating where they come from and the deeper meanings they hold for us.

As ever, there’s a ton of art. This is one of the nicer looking books I have from the ’70s. It has a spacial layout and a nice selection of art from historical sources. A lot of it is unusual, as is the inclusion of several of Boleslas Biegas’ sexually charged paintings, which feature nude men being assaulted or restrained by a variety of monstrous forms with the heads of human women. There are also some original illustrations. Love that Gino D’Achilo Kraken!