Late to the Game(s) - Retro! Reissued! Remastered! Oh my!

 We used to see a lot of variety in the types of UFOnauts reported. So what happened? And why does everyone see the stereotypical "grey" alien today? by Jeremy D. Wells If you ask most folks to draw an alien, you know what you are going to get. Short guys. Large heads. Big eyes, that are often solid black. Reduced or non-existent nose, lips and ears. Grey skin. This is the common conception of an alien around most of the world. Or at least, it has been for the last 40 years. But that wasn't always the case. In the 1940s and 1950s, and on up through the 60s, the stereotypical alien, at least in the United States, was the "little green man from Mars," typified by his short stature, green skin, and antennae. Think the Great Gazoo from the Flintstones cartoon. But while the little green man dominated cartoon and television depictions of aliens, what those who encountered UFOnauts saw was much different. Beings with some of the features that would be associated with...

By Jeremy D. Wells There are few taboos more universal than that against eating human flesh. Even in societies where ritualistic cannibalism was practiced, it wasn’t common. For instance the   Fore   people sometimes ate their deceased loved ones, finding it more respectful and loving than allowing them to be eaten by insects. Other groups performed rituals that aren’t strictly speaking cannibalism, but still fall under the endocannibalism umbrella, such as the consumption of cremated remains practiced by the   Yanomami .   The other type of ritualistic cannibalism,  exocannibalism , is often seen as a means of terrorizing or expressing dominance over a defeated group. This type of cannibalism also includes the idea of absorbing the prestige or power of a defeated foe by consuming their body. Neither of these, though, describe what Russian cannibal Yegor Komarov engaged in when he confessed to taking a “ nibble ” from a St. Petersburg businessman two years ...

By Jeremy D. Wells Those familiar with Land Between the Lakes, in western Kentucky, have probably heard some creepy tales from the area. Dogman reports, in particular, are especially prevalent in the park. They’re even the subject of an upcoming film from   Small Town Monsters   –   Dogman Territory: Werewolves in the Land Between the Lake. But not everything strange in this national recreation area is a toothy, slavering beast. Some things are much more subtle, and much more terrifying. Writing in to Lon Strickler, at his Phantoms and Monsters website,  one reader recounted a tale  that took place 20 years ago, when they were only 17 years old. The reader had accompanied his father on a bow hunting trip into the park during the early autumn, intent on relaxing, maybe catching up on some reading, and just enjoying the natural beauty of the area. As he walked through the woods that morning, something he had done on many occasions, enjoying the sights and smells o...

  By Jeremy D. Wells Ohio is regarded by many students of Forteana as ground zero for strange and spooky occurrences. But one county in Ohio might just be the weirdest. Nestled between the Ohio River to the south and the rolling farmland of central Ohio to the north, and on the edge of Ohio’s Appalachian foothills, Adams County is probably best known for the Serpent Mound. This massive effigy mound, in the shape of the eponymous serpent, with curled tail and open mouth – according to some interpretations – swallowing an egg, is among the best preserved examples of these ancient earthworks, believed to have been built by the prehistoric Adena culture. The county is also chock-full of geological anomalies, with three different physiographic regions (the Dissected Illinoian Till Plain, the unglaciated Outer Bluegrass Region, and the Shawnee-Mississippian Plateau) represented and numerous exposed rock outcroppings displaying a variety of marine fossils. These include abundant example...

By Jeremy D. Wells Among most folks in the western world, ghosts, UFOs, and cryptids are each a separate type of phenomenon. Hauntings are caused by the spirits of dead people. UFOs are craft from another world. Cryptids, like Bigfoot and sea serpents, represent undocumented wild animals. However in the Islamic world, and places influenced by their cultures, all of these various encounters could be attributed to a single entity – the djinn. In her classic treatise on the subject, Demons, Devils, and Djinn , Olga Hoyt states that the very name, djinn, “means ‘covert’ or ‘darkness.’” The djinn – plural of djinnee, where we get the idea of the genie in a magic lamp – are not angels or demons. They are a separate creation, made by God from smokeless fire, according to various resources. Though usually invisible to human eyes, the djinn are capable of taking on any form they choose, but are especially fond, according to Hoyt, of “those of snakes, lizards, and scorpions.”  Read the rest ...

  Recently the mother of a pair of Arizona teens shared with me this video of a shadow entity they believe they captured on video.  You can read more about their experience in my Coast to Coast AM article, here .  Watch the entire video here .  Or jump to the 1:25 mark, a couple of seconds before the entity appears, here . 

  Is Bit o’ Time Vintage Lake Retreat Haunted? Paranormal group says yes, but others caution vigilance and respect By Jeremy D. Wells Carter County Times Photo by Jeremy D. Wells, Carter County Times Is the Bit O’ Time Vintage Lake Retreat, near the Clifty Creek area of Grayson Lake, a haunted house? The owner of the property, who lived there for years before renting the space out as a vacation and retreat rental, says she never had any definitive experiences during her time living there. But several guests have reported hearing strange sounds – and even seeing apparitions – while staying at the property. One of those apparitions is a lady in white, sometimes accompanied by a smell of mold, who has appeared not only at the Retreat, but at a neighboring property. I’d heard some of this already before coming to the property to meet with the folks from Blue Collar Paranormal. The ghost hunting group had set up a booth at Memory Days where they met the owner of the property. From there...

Exploring Kentucky Bigfoot reports By Jeremy D. Wells We’ve previously discussed some possible local mystery primate sightings and the Ohio Grassman, but our neighbors across the river have had their fair share of Bigfoot sightings too. These tales stretch all the way back to the early exploration and founding of the state, when Daniel Boone reported shooting one of the large, hair covered man-like critters in 1782, along the modern Montgomery and Powell County borders. Boone called the creature he encountered a “Yahoo”, after the uncivilized man-like creatures featured in “Gulliver’s Travels”, one of the explorer’s favorite books. Sightings have continued since, including several reports from the Daniel Boone National Forest, a modern hotspot for Bigfoot sightings in the state. Parts of the forest are, in fact, located within Powell County, near where Boone’s historic sighting took place. Moving closer to home, Carter County has been the location of several reported sightings. Althoug...

Looking for Mr. Sprinkle's silver If the world of numismatists – coin collectors – has a white whale, the Sprinkle dollar could rightfully lay claim to the title. Carter County has a rich history of outlaws and counterfeiters, but Jacob Sprinkle's silver dollars hold a unique spot in that history. Sprinkle's dollars weren't counterfeit in the traditional sense. Most counterfeit coins used base metals in place of precious metals, and they were made to look like legal U.S. tender. Not Sprinkle's coins though. His dollars were not replicas of the silver dollars coming out of the U.S. Mints, but featured their own design. An owl was inscribed on one side of the coin, and a six pointed star on the other. A one drachma coin with an owl. They weren't made from base metals either. They were minted from precious metal. In fact, during the court case against Sprinkle for counterfeiting, which took place in Grayson around 1840, it was found that the purity of the si...

  Sonic the Hedgehog turns 30 this year. If he were human, the eponymous speedster – “born” today, June 23, 1991, when his first game released for Sega Genesis – would be a Millennial. Like his much maligned generation, while you may love him or hate him, there is no denying the speedy blue hedgehog’s cultural significance.  That original Sonic the Hedgehog game has spawned a number of sequel games, in addition to a comic book series published by Archie Comics, at least two animated shows (the original, poorly drawn cartoon featuring the voice of Steve Urkel, Jaleel White, and a later series with higher production value and an anime inspired style), and a live action/CGI movie.  The story told over the course of those games, shows, comics, and film is convoluted, inconsistent, and sometimes downright confusing. The basic premise is that Doctor Robotnik, née Eggman, is an evil genius who wants to take over the world (or the multiverse) and Sonic and friends have to...

From the opening moments of On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey , you get the feeling it’s going to be a little different than the other Small Town Monsters productions.  Over the last several years, Small Town Monsters (STM) have released a number of films, on a variety of subjects from Bigfoot to Mothman to Dogmen and the weirdest of the weird in classic UFO sightings. But it all started with a trilogy of Bigfoot documentaries. Director/Producer Seth Breedlove and his crew have stayed busy since then, pumping out several films a year with the production value and content steadily improving.  But Whitehall, New York, and its Bigfoot sightings, the subject of Breedlove’s second film, the 2016 release Beast of Whitehall , has never really let go of the filmmaker. In his newest release, On the Trail of Bigfoot: The Journey , Breedlove returns to those upstate New York woodlands to explore the history and depth of reports from this region. Along the way he examin...

  The Small Town Monsters (STM) films are among my favorite cryptid and folklore documentaries. Over the years director/producer Seth Breedlove and crew have looked at everything from the Bell Witch to UFOs, and Mothman to Bigfoot. But it’s that last one that got STM started. Breelove’s first three films, Minerva Monster , Beast of Whitehall , and Boggy Creek Monster , all focused on this particular cryptid.  While STM has branched out since then, they’ve come back to Bigfoot type creatures again, with MOMO: The Missouri Monster and their On the Trail Of…Bigfoot mini series.  It’s one they’ll be coming back to again with two new feature films in the On the Trail Of… series, On the Trail Of Bigfoot The Journey , and On the Trail Of Bigfoot The Discovery as the year progresses.  While we have to wait to see what those new films will bring us, those jonesing for some STM Bigfoot content prior to the full public release of The Journey this June (Kicksta...

  It’s free games time again!  Honestly, it’s free games time all the time if you do a little searching – and take advantage of services you might already be paying for like Amazon Prime that include gaming assets and full games. (Seriously, check out gaming.amazon.com if you have a Prime account and get your free games.) This week, though, we’re looking at the Epic Games Store again. Instead of the typical one or two free games, beginning Thursday, Epic will feature three free games to claim and download. There are no catches. No hidden costs. Just create an Epic Games account – you can even log in with your already existing PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo, or social media accounts – and download the games. They are yours to keep forever. The first is the complete collection of the Deponia series. The adventure comedy, with plenty of puzzle elements, is rated M for Mature gamers age 17 and up. So, despite the cartoon like visuals, this isn’t a freebie you...

  Lights in the sky puzzled farm workers and spouses Something atypical was going on in 1922. Local people were seeing strange lights in the sky, according to an article appearing in the Carter County Herald. But what they were, no one could say. The word UFO hadn’t entered the lexicon yet.  The modern UFO era wouldn’t begin for another 25 years after the article in question – almost 25 years exactly, when Kenneth Arnold spotted nine objects flying over Mount Rainier on June 24, 1947 that he described not as saucer shaped, but as moving like “a saucer skipping over the water” inadvertently helping coin the term “flying saucer” – but in July 1922 the Carter County Herald reported on some strange lights spotted on the edge of town by Bennie Gearhart and Willie Sexton. Gearhart and Sexton fetched their wives to see the lights too, which the two couples watched for several minutes as they moved about, merged together, and changed color; behaving for all the world like ...

 Playing collectible card games on the computer I graduated high school in 1993, the same year Magic: The Gathering was released, and I’ve been intrigued by the collectible card game ever since. I bought some of the cards – though I didn’t really have anyone to play with back then – read some of the comics and novels, and really enjoyed the idea behind the concept even if I didn’t really play.  Several years later I’d make a friend who was really into the game. He helped me build useful decks from the random cards I’d collected over the decade since the game launched, gave me some strategy pointers, and really helped me understand how nuanced the game could be.  I’d also play several different video game versions of the game, starting with the PlayStation 3 version of Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers . I found that I actually preferred playing against a computer opponent rather than a flesh and blood opponent. The thing is, there aren’t t...

 Modern old-school RPG free on Epic store this week Obsidian entertainment are hardly neophytes in the gaming industry. The studio has worked on a number of licensed RPG (role-playing game) properties since opening its doors in 2003, including Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II and Neverwinter Nights 2 , both sequels of BioWare games; Fallout: New Vegas , a spin-off of the Bethesda properties released between Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 ; and South Park: The Stick of Truth , an irreverent turn-based RPG title published by Ubisoft.  In 2015, however, the studio was looking at developing its own original IP (intellectual property) and turned to Kickstarter to fund it. The resulting game – Pillars of Eternity – was a smash hit, earning a Metacritic score of 89 and spawning expansions and sequels of its own. The real-time turn based RPG, with its overhead isometric view and gameplay that allows you to pause the action while you issue individual orders to your party,...

  The Small Town Monsters films are all treats. Director, writer and producer Seth Breedlove has made some spectacular films on a wide range of topics, from Bigfoot ( The Minerva Monster , Beast of Whitehall ) to Mothman ( The Mothman of Point Pleasant, the Mothman Legacy ) to crashed and recovered UFOs ( Invasion on Chestnut Ridge, the Flatwoods Monster ) to werewolves ( The Bray Road Beast ). Along the way we’ve been able to watch Breedlove grow as not only a filmmaker, but as a storyteller as well, experimenting with different cinematic techniques and styles. In Momo the Missouri Monste r, for instance, he worked at creating a less documentary style, casting longtime collaborator and narrator Lyle Blackburn as the fictional host of a late night B-movie monster series presenting the dramatized story of the Momo phenomenon, to entertaining but mixed effect.  With his most recent Kickstarter project, featuring the recently released Mothman Legacy and the soon-to-be-released ...

 Big Bone residents share photos of strange lights in the sky (originally published in 2018) Joan (not her real name) claims that something weird is happening on her property near Big Bone in northern Kentucky. The fifty-nine-year-old witness says that, for the last two years, she has been seeing lights in the sky around her home, which borders Big Bone Lick State Park, and she isn't alone. Her husband, nephew, niece, and a neighbor have all seen them too, and they have photos to back up their sightings. It all started with her neighbor. She lives alone, with a large dog, and during the summer of 2016 the dog began going berserk at night. He would bark loudly at something in the dark, but when her neighbor would look out, she saw nothing. A university was conducting digs in the nearby state park, Joan explained, and at first her neighbor thought it might be their activity riling up the dog. To make sure, however, that no one was trespassing on her land, she set up trail cameras on ...