LOVE AND MONSTERS
We were surprised when chatting recently to cryptozoologist, author and head keeper of FT’s Alien Zoo, Dr Karl Shuker, when he informed us that he had never, in all his years of writing for Fortean Times, been granted the honour of a cover story. Could this really be true? Well, we’re still not 100 per cent certain, but it appeared that this was at least one glaring omission we could finally put right: so, not only does Karl get this month’s prized cover slot, but he also gets to be the cover star, going full Indiana Jones in the process. Dr Shuker here shares his experience of the UK’s Covid lockdowns. As he points out, there were very few upsides to dwell on, but at least he had the opportunity to take a deep dive into his ever-expanding DVD collection of monster movies, some celebrated, some forgotten and some that never made it out of the straight-to-video bargain bin. Obviously, we could only choose a selection of the many titles that Karl has covered on his movie blog – you can visit it for more – but we thoroughly enjoyed revisiting these forgotten (sometimes with good reason) flicks and crypto-cinema obscurities, and even discovered some films quite unknown to us – Terror Birds, anyone?
If neither monsters nor movies are your thing, there’s the usual full complement of assorted weirdness to enjoy elsewhere in this issue. We’re particularly pleased to share a preview of an important new book about the impact of Fort’s work on modern culture. Joshua Blu Buhs’s Think to Other Worldsoffers an ambitiously broad perspective on how thinkers, writers, science fictioneers and sceptics used Fort’s writings to help make sense of the rapidly changing 20th century scene; in this extract, Blu Buhs looks at the response of forteans – particularly
