Hi folks! Here’s a post about the journey of an ongoing project that doesn’t really have a home yet. It also touches on a wider idea about what projects even are, and it’s about monsters.
Also, my friend Charlene said she wanted a longer post, so this one is extra long - you can blame her if you like.
Monster Myths
I love monster myths, and I have always loved monster myths. The older I get, the more seriously I take them. By 'seriously,' I don't mean like believing in Bigfoot (or do I?), but more like why we invent monsters, the purpose of telling monster stories, and the significance of monsters throughout history.
One particular aspect of monster myths I love is how they are often intertwined with real landscapes or specific places. There is something very magical about the overlay (I'm going to use the word 'overlay' a lot in this post) of the imagined on the real.
I visited Loch Ness last year, and Loch Ness is very much a real place. Yet, the Loch Ness monster very much only exists in people's imaginations (for now). But does that make it any less interesting?
The monster myths that live in our imagination don't just stay there. We write books about them. We make films. We flock to tourist sites. And it's not just pop culture; it is everywhere. Monster myths permeate our lives, from dragons depicted on flags to unicorns appearing on currency... there's no escaping them. Even our language is overlaid with roots in monster myths - the word 'panic' comes from the Greek god Pan, who was associated with the sudden terror of hearing woodland noises.
In this way, our imagination begins to shape our reality, rather than the other way around.
And monster myths seem to play a really important role in that.
A Bestiary…
During the medieval era, bestiaries served as encyclopedias that cataloged both real animals and mythical monsters.
The bestiaries contained information about real animals, except… many people had never seen these animals.
So, what did medieval people think was real vs. imaginary? Why would an elephant seem any less ridiculous than a unicorn if you had never seen either? At least you might have seen a real horse before, so you were most of the way there with unicorns.
Perhaps the distinction between real and imaginary was just less important back then. Or maybe the imaginary was more powerful somehow. Or maybe you really believed that somewhere out there, there might really exist a Catoblepas, a creature with a head so heavy it can only look down (which is a good thing because if it did look you in the eyes, you would instantly die).
So the bestiaries performed a few roles.
They were early encyclopaedias of real animals (which they often got totally wrong).
They were compendiums of imagined monsters (which then proliferated through the culture and people’s imaginations).
But they were also for sharing moral and symbolic stories about those creatures (it’s where we get the stuff about lions being brave and foxes being cunning).
In smushing together the real and the imaginary, the bestiaries did a great job of disseminating mythologies that have lasted through the ages.
Also, as an illustrator, these books are just beautifully illustrated objects, too.
…Of Britain
I live in the UK, and this place is very old. We have a lot of monster myths from prehistory all the way up to the present day.
Some are very well-known: dragons, unicorns, the Loch Ness monster, etc.
Some are sort of well-known (thanks Harry Potter and LOTR): dobby's, grindylows, boggarts, etc.
But most are not very well-known.
So, the project I mentioned at the beginning of this newsletter that doesn't really have a home is... A Bestiary of Britain.
The project is about collating the monster myths of the UK into a book, or a modern bestiary, for kids.
But it is also about the landscape - the geographical one and also our shared imaginary one. How the monster myths have been informed by these weird islands, and how they then inform and change the people who live on them.
I’ve illustrated an A-Z monster myth book before, spanning the whole globe, but this time, I really wanted to focus on something specific to where I live. Partly because it's my home, partly because it hasn't been compiled before, but also because I have a genuine love for these monster stories.
Arts Funding
I wanted to make the book, but I knew I needed a lot of research time. Sometimes, in the world of books, you don't always have the luxury of a lot of research time. I also wanted to travel because...
That’s really fun.
Anything to do with mythology is kind of squirmy and hard to pin down, and the information mostly exists in museums and archives, in talking to people, and sometimes in the landscape itself.
So, I applied for Arts Council funding to do a research trip, which is something I've never done.
I wrote a proposal with a timeline and budget to travel around the UK, spending time in local archives and museums, and visiting the British Library collection. I wanted to do a lot of research, meet people, and also gather textures, drawings, and photographs from the monster myth locations. Unfortunately… I did not get it this time.
Publishing
I put the project down for a while whilst I dried my tears, and then eventually pivoted to see if I could rely on the old faithful ✨books and internet✨ for research.
I used what research I already had from the funding proposal and wrote a pitch for a kid's book: a modern bestiary with double-page images of each of the monster myths. The text would touch upon the historical, geographic, scientific, and cultural relevance of each creature, but do it through a fun and contemporary lens.
Here are some of the pages I worked up for the pitch.
My brilliant agents, Andrea and Aless, sent the pitch out to pretty much all the UK publishers while I was away in Mexico.
Unfortunately, this wasn't a goer either.
Thankfully, it wasn't because no one liked the idea, the artwork, or the writing. I even had lots of enthusiastic meetings about it - it's just that the UK kid's book market relies heavily on foreign translations, and it's not a given that the rest of the world would be interested in a niche book about British monster myths.
It’s a shame, but I get it. It’s just one of those boring-old-money-things.
Where Next
So, what is this project if it isn't Arts Council funded or funded through traditional kid's book channels?
I know from doing this a long time now that things often transform into other things. Finished projects get a new lease of life elsewhere, or unfinished projects suddenly become relevant again. Kind of like monster myths themselves 🤔.
What might this project turn into next? I'm not totally sure. I love the book as a format so much, and kid's books specifically. I don't love the idea of self-publishing, but I am open to other funding models. But what if it wasn't even a book? What does the project look like as an online one? A multimedia one? A collaborative one?
I know that the work I've done so far kind of is the project in a way. I wanted it to be a research project, and that's certainly some of what I've done. I have folders of information about these monster myths, and I love them. It's also part of the project to understand why they interest me so much. Writing this newsletter is part of the project, too.
But where it goes next, I don't know. I would love to know what you think, if you have any ideas, or are an oil tycoon who is interested in letting me work on this for a year!