Written by Jonathan Wojcik

   I've been able to share a couple of artistic milestones this past month, and I'm happy to say that it still isn't all of them! For nearly as long as I've been secretly drawing monsters for Crystal Catacombs, I've spent much of the past year cranking out illustrations for my first-ever book project, teaming up with the esteemed C.M. Kosemen of All Yesterdays and Snaiad fame, who's doing the bulk of the writing, research, and eventual publishing!

  At least a couple dozen undead will be featured from folklore around the world, and as with Crystal Catacombs, I can give you a brief peek at some of the artwork thus far!

   I know there's a chunk of you already itching to make some sort of Attack on Titan comparison here, but I started this one a good six months before it caught on in the English-speaking world, and it's a vampire I've written about on at least two other occasions; once for one of Bogleech.com's very earliest article posts, and once for a Halloween day Cracked article! There are various Haitian vampires sharing this one's name, and while the most common "Loogaroo" takes the form of a glowing, floating sphere, the most adorable Loogaroo is just a skinless woman with turkey wings. A skinless woman with turkey wings who shoots sparks out of her armpits and ass as she flies rocket-like through the night sky, and to feed on blood, she sends a comically long straw through cracks in the walls of thatched huts.

I gave mine the eyes of a potoo, because why the hell not.

   Another one I've briefly written about once before, the Burmese Thaye or Tasei is essentially the wandering spirit of someone too cruel and wicked for a restful afterlife or reincarnation. Normally invisible and intangible to the world of living, its true form is said to be that of a hideously deformed, grey-skinned giant, characterized by its gigantic, flapping ears, curved tusks and an elongated, dangling tongue, which all sounds rather remarkably like a misinterpretation of an elephant, which you can see I ran with.

  Despite how large and frightening they sound, Thaye are actually said to be incredibly weak spirits, commonly blamed for only minor, everyday annoyances. The full extent of their wrath is said to be causing brief, nonlethal illness in babies.

   The third and last preview-vampire is one I never even learned about until after undertaking this project, and I'm going to leave its name for you mythology buffs. Information on this monster is rather sparse, but it's easily up there with the Penanggalan in creepiness, and I can say that it's more or less exactly what it looks like; little more than an empty, bloodsucking sack of skin, in some descriptions behaving precisely like an enormous leech.

  I can't yet offer a release date or even a finalized title for the book, but when I do, those of you who keep up with Bogleech or my godawful tumblr will be the first to know!