Hi! I'm Garth Haslam...

...and I've been reading about and drawing monsters since I was very little. I'll have to post some of the drawings I did when I was eight sometime (after I get pass the embarrassment! They're BAD!). These days I have a degree in Anthropology -- which is the study of human cultures and beliefs -- and I've been running a website that studies strange events called Anomalies for many years, so I spend a lot of my time following tales of weird and improbable things.

I've noticed that people can be very strange when they talk about monsters. They'll go to the movies to be frightened by monsters, then assure other people that monsters don't exist, and then run home to see people chasing ghosts, aliens, and bigfoot on TV!

But I've also found that there is usually good reasons people talk about monsters both in the past and the present, and that what is considered a monster is different for different groups of people, places on Earth, and through different times in history (and pre-history!). Often, the story about a monster will change over time, as each new group of people make it into something that makes sense to them personally... and sometimes it can be hard to get to the original monster!

The main thing to remember is that there are reasons that people talk about monsters and why new monsters continue to be reported... and maybe by learning about monsters from all over the world, we can also learn something about the people who reported -- and still report -- these odd beings and creatures!

And Bonus! We can also learn what to do if you should accidentally run into monster... after all, let's be practical!