Creature From the Black Lagoon Again
Posted by: Loren Coleman on November 7th, 2006
Boing Boing has a good new posting on the just-released Creature From the Black Lagoon novel.
Cory Doctorow writes: "If you’re looking for a fun little paperback to take you away from your life for a couple hours, you need look no further."
Perhaps we all will need this after the election is over today…
As I’ve mentioned at Cryptomundo before, the original concept for the movie developed from the excitement in the early 1950s that surrounded the Comoros Islands (near Madagascar) discovery of a "living fossil," the coelacanth. After its initial find in 1938, and the eventual acceptance that an animal thought extinct for 65 millions was still alive today, the race was on to find the next specimen. When that second coelacanth was found in 1952, it became a bigger worldwide media event that the capture of the first.
"Creature From the Black Lagoon" was a graphic result of the public’s interest in this grand adventure story, as many at the time felt the coelacanth was only the tip of the iceberg in terms of future "living fossils" to be encountered. Put in context, it is easy to see why Ivan T. Sanderson and Bernard Heuvelmans, in the 1940s and 1950s, would formulate the notion of and coin the word "cryptozoology," then.
I mentioned this novel earlier here on September 9, 2006, noting:
There is a new cryptofiction novel, Creature From The Black Lagoon: Time’s Black Lagoon.
Book Description
In 1954, an expedition found what seemed to be a missing link in the evolutionary chain: an ancient, immensely powerful amphibian creature. Scientists tried to tame it, break its will, and even change its very being with surgery and torture, but the beast rebelled, killing nearly all in its way. But was the creature truly a throwback, a freak survivor of some prehistoric era — or was it something more?
Six decades later, one scientist attempts to find out, using a time machine to journey into the past. What he finds not only shatters his vision of what the Creature might be, but could change the history of the human race forever. Paul Di Filippo reinvents the Creature with a tale of time travel, horror, and mystery that blends Cold War science fiction with today’s cutting edge cyberpunk.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
My favorite movie monster of all time,”The Gill Man” with it’s sequels. The new book sounds interesting.
Ugh, that book still sounds awful.
Loved the first 3, sure hope this one makes it to the silver screen!
The book sounds like a stinker. Ole fish face is still one of my favorites. I turn the local school into a haunted house every year for Halloween. This year we did up one room as a gruesome living room complete with a TV showing old horror films. The kids were piling up in there to watch Creature From the Black Lagoon. I have not seen it in a while but I don’t remember seeing any blood in the original film. I have heard rumors of a remake and you can be sure Hollywood will teach “Gill Man” to use those wicked claws.
Stonelk is right. Hollywood has a tendency to demonize and vilify the unknown. They made Bigfoot kill people, Chupacabras hunt people, nessie overturn boats and the devour the crew. I’d hate to see what they make this poor creature do :(. Even the recent “KING Kong,” film had the gentle giant portrayed as a serial killer in a monkey suit. It’s a shame.
I believe we are going to see a remake of the classic film. Every other classic monster film has been remade, this most likely will be the next.
John Carpenter was suppose to remake it after he made “The Thing”. Ebay was selling a copy of the script. I agree they will probably end up remaking it.
It is unfortunate that these creatures get demonized, but short of a real sasquatch video, who is going to pay money to watch them just cavort about in peace? Who wants to read about the creature from the black lagoon just going about life, minding his own business? This is entertainment and the people who buy this stuff want to see monsters doing what they expect them to do, namely run amok and reak hovoc.
Man I loved that movie. I’ll never forget my dad taking me to see it in 3-D.
“If it ain’t broke, break it!” seems to be the modern treatment of classic monsters. Not only is the Gillman my personal favorite humanoid critter of all time, I am amazed at the story about a co evolution of man from the aspect of fish life. I mean, if this new novel tries to explain this away as though it were a Russian experiment on a human subject, it will destroy the magic of the original 3 movies that have a marvelous continuity, not to mention being absolute artistic perfection in cinema. As well, the fossil Gillman, or Homo Devonius as some fans have tagged him, hand that started the whole trilogy of movies would have to be thrown out the window since the fossil was from Devonian times. In Hollywood and the publishing world, chaos seems to be the rule of the day anymore. *sigh*