Frankenguide Update #1

The last updated version of the Frankenguide is available either at deviantART or at my Personal Webpage.

The new Table of Contents is:

Creature List
Conventions
Alien
Centaur
Dragon
Drider
Mermaid
Other Guides
Creature Categories
Fictional Universes
Glossary
References
Name Index

I'm waiting for the critics and suggestions.

Public Domain Book: Mythical Monsters

While writing the entry for Dragons in the Frankenguide I found a reference to a book named "Mythical Monsters" by Charles Gould. The book is actually from 1886 and is, therefore, released to public domain. You can find it in the Open Library Website in several different formats (my favourite being Djvu, of course).

I have not had the time to read it yet, although I will, but it seems to be a very interesting account of fantasy creatures. Although the author seems to really believe in some of those accounts, which can be inferred by a chapter with the bizarre title "The Deluge not a Myth", the book has a lot of information and cites many sources.

There are actually only four creatures with chapters dedicated for them in the book: the dragon (one chapter for the European dragon, one for the Chinese and one for the Japanese), the sea monster and the Chinese phoenix.

When I finish the book, I'll post a review here. Right now, I just want to leave it registered. It's not always that you can find an interesting monster manual for free.

Driders

Day 6 - Spider Girl by Anna Verhoog

I am working on a commission for a species of a fantasy universe and, while writing about its natural enemies, I discovered that (shamefully) I did not know the name of the type of creature you see in the beautiful illustration at your left.

It's also a shame because I have been writing about it in the entry on "Centaurs" that I am preparing for the Frankenguide.

So, for all of you who also did not know the name of it, the title of this post is suppose to shed some light on it. As you can read, this kind of creature is called a drider.

In fact, a quick search on Google will show you that the name "drider" is not restricted to spiders, but to virtually any other kind of bug. Their relation to centaurs is obvious. While centaurs are usually depicted with a human upper body and a lower body of a quadruped, always with the four legs present, driders are almost the same, but with, let's say in a more scientific way, their lower bodies being of arthropods. 

Well, I'm now officially including driders as an entry in the Frankenguide. It appears that the name "drider" was introduced by D&D as a half-drow/half-spider creature, but then spread through the popular culture as a convenient name to use for all kinds of similar creatures. That's actually what I am considering them to be in the guide.

One more note. I have seen the term written as "dridder" (with a double d) in many places. As the etymology of the name suggests that the "-ider" stem is derived from"spider", I will assume that the correct way to write it is with only one d. 

Creatures from Dreams

To keep the tradition, I'm using the first post to introduce what I intend this blog to be. Everything started with a a Tumblr site, the intention of which was to collect art depicting fantasy creatures, something that I always liked, but could never find a blog dedicated to it. 

The site grew, but as it was only dedicated to illustrations, I wanted to expand it somehow. That was when the Facebook page appeared. On it, I share not only illustrations, but any artwork related to imaginary (and some real) creatures and also news about the artists and events related to it.

Still, I felt that I should somehow find a way to bring the best artists, and the best illustrations, together. As most of them had their pages on deviantArt, I decided to try to create the CfD group in there. It's still in the beginning, but it seems to be working well...

And then I started to create a guide to the creatures on the website. The initial idea was that the guide should be a collaborative work. I would sew pages together, and that was why it was called "The Frankenguide". Well, I'm the only artist collaborating at the moment, but the guide is coming to life and I'm leaving it available here as it grows. But the guide is a literary work, not a graphical one. As it grew, I felt the necessity to share the information I was acquiring as it was being made. That is where this blog enters. 

Here, I expect to share the information I collect about creatures as all the projects above go on. If you have suggestions, (harsh) critics or want to say anything else, I would be glad to listen!

Roberto.