Book Review: The Cryptid Club by Sarah Andersen

The Cryptid Club
by Sarah Andersen (741.5 And)

Cryptid (definition): an animal (such as Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster) that has been claimed to exist but never proven to exist.

 

Web cartoonist Sarah Anderson (Sarah’s Scribbles, and Fangs) launched a new four-panel web comic The Cryptid Club on Webtoon in September 2021. This little hardback book compiles all of the cartoons from the run of that web comic from the beginning through May 2022. The strip features a rotating/recurring cast of characters, from Bigfoot (Sam) and Nessie to a chupacabra, ghosts, a Kraken, aliens, the Fresno Nightcrawlers, Cthulhu, Mothman, The Flatwoods Monster, the Slender Man, a Jackalope, a Siren and a Sirenhead, and a Sleep Paralysis Demon. But, though many of those might be considered “monsters” in modern pop culture mythology, in this strip, they’re all just “normal” people trying to live “normal” lives.

 

The strip is a cute little “slice of life” from the world of these slightly creepy creatures, and Andersen does an absolutely marvelous job of capturing a mix of both the mundane and the macabre. I felt little hints of Charles Addams classic “The Addams Family” comics in these pages. I’ll have to admit, I occasionally find some of Andersen’s extremely simplistic art a bit off-putting, but in this collection, she’s at her best.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the other cartoon compilations by Sarah Andersen, I particularly recommend Fangs, or The World of Charles Addams by Charles Addams, containing many of the cartoons that inspired various iterations of The Addams Family.)

 

( official Cryptid Club web site ) | ( official Sarah Andersen web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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