Anyway, since it's my turn to come up with a topic, I thought I would go with something random, fun, and informative.
It also ties in to my plans for blogging this week, and a flash fiction piece I recently wrote. So here's the prompt for this blog chain:
What is your all-time favorite monster? You can take this in any direction you'd like. For example: my most bad-ass monster would easily be a dragon, and it is my favorite in some ways, but you don't have to go with that kind of measurement. Like me, you could go with the most ridiculously hilarious monster you ever heard of, or, like Stephanie Meyer, you could go with the most romantic creature to ever grace the pages of mythology. Or like Carrie Ryan, you could choose the old standby: Zombies. One alone might not be much to handle, but the horde is probably the single most powerful monster force ever invented in gaming, film, literature, or legend. It's up to you: what's your favorite monster?
So I pass this topic along to my blog chain comrades, and instead of writing my own post, I'll send you to a piece of flash fiction that I recently wrote: Cubic. This piece was inspired by Gary Gygax's most ludicrous monster invention: The Gelatinous Cube. Please visit, comment, and let me know what you think, but be aware, the piece was written in a tongue-in-cheek attempt at hyper-camp, because a Gelatinous Cube deserves no less.
Please be sure to visit the next link in the chain: Kate.
41 comments:
You had me at Gygax!
Good piece. Obviously you failed your saving throw...
Ha nice :)
Rather than write my own post on it, I'll answer here: my favorite monster is the Leviathan from the Magic the Gathering card game series.
Argh, guess what I'll be dreaming about?
Nice one.
My favorite is the Alien from "Aliens". No matter how many times I see it, it always scares the crap out of me.
Good question! I loved the old black & white horror movies that were rerun on Sunday afternoons when I was a kid. Boris Karloff's Frankenstein gave me plenty of nightmares!
Nice, Matt. I think I've seen the movie or fought creatures like that in video games.
When I was a little girl, there were a couple monsters that scared the crap out of me. One was from the movie "The Beast with Five Fingers" with Peter Lorie. It was supposed to be someone's severed hand that came and played the piano. The other one (actually a pair) was from a Twilight Zone episode where no one spoke. It showed this poor woman living out in the boonies fighting these two miniature creatures that had landed in a ship on her property. That episode had no speaking parts at all. Seriously creepy as she (Endora from the original Bewitched series) fought those things. Those two miniature evil guys haunted my little girls dreams for years and kept company with the monsters who lived in my closet.
Of course, the irony of that particular show was lost on me at the time. At the end, when she finally goes out and smashes their space ship, you see USAF on it. lol
Oh, I find them all terrifying. I was a devoted Creature Feature fan--Mothra, Godzilla, The Gargantuas, The Thing.
Dolls, though. Dolls and clowns. The Talking Tina episode from the Twilight Zone still gives me the collywobbles.
Yeah a Gelatinous Cube can be pretty scary! I wouldn't want to look behind me and see one coming after me!
liked your piece. I'll have to think about my favorite monster though...
I tried to read it, but couldn't get through it. And why? Because horror scares the beejesus out of me, and your piece was a damn bit too vivid.
I'm not sure if this is an actual creature, but my dad and papa always scared Mini Me with stories about the Wampus Cat creature that lived in the woods surrounding my house in Mississippi. It was part man, part bobcat, and it ate little kids who went outside after dark. It had green eyes that glowed and walked semi-upright. I've been thinking about writing about it. But it still scares me, so...I haven't. :)
You're blogging on a Saturday? That has completely thrown me.
But nevermind, Cubic is Underneath the Juniper Tree. Magic stuff, man. Wow, wow, wow!!
My favorite monster is and ever shall be Cookie Monster.
Now, back to my Asian Pear sake...
This should be a good topic for Halloween!
AWESOME topic, Matt!! I agree that dragons rule. Doesn't get any better than flying and breathing fire.
Off to read your piece!!
Great topic and I loved your tale. Especially the part about being a grave robber. My favorite monster is of course, the werewolf. Nothing cooler to me than changing into a giant beast with fangs and claws. :)
I would have to say Lady Ga Ga
+followed
I like monsters that start out with good intent. Most golem stories follow that line of thinking. Frankenstein is a good example of a typical golem story, complete with creation destroying creator.
Now who decided to put a great big graphic behind your story!??! LOL!! My pc has frozen and refuses to upload the link. oh dear! Will try later!!
Take care
x
ROFL, that pic is great. The Gelatinous Cube... isn't it just The Blob's over-achieving cousin? Sure, it could just ooze and wobble, but it has goals. ;o)
The monster that always freaked me out was from the 1958 version of The Fly. And it wasn't the big fly-headed part. It was the little human-headed one trapped in the spider's web screaming "Help me". :shudder:
Gelatinous Cube must be the offspring of the Blob, but now it has shape...
Where is the other end of that damn tunnel? And why does ooze mesmerize its victims??
'HellBoy' fave monster OR Pitch Black - the invisible monsters that lurked in the dark, not Vin Diesel.
Interesting bit of flash fiction, Matt.
Always partial to dragons (big Anne McCaffrey fan, although her dragons are not monsters) and any creature in Lovecraft's books. I really want a pair of Cthulhu slippers for Christmas.
Long live the Gelatinous Cube.
When I was a little girl, one time somehow I finagled my mom into letting me watch the original Rod Serling Twilight Zone series. One time, they had a story about the monster who lived under the bed. It terrified my little girl heart. And to this day, I'm petrified thinking about it. Every once in a while, in the middle of the night, I'll hear a strange creak and all logic will fly out of my brain, leaving me with that 9-year-old girl's fear that perhaps, there really is a monster under there.
I'm also not a fan of the monster who lives inside my brain who constantly tells me that, yes I do need that Snicker's bar. In fact, he just told me that and sadly, I listened.
And by the way, I have some dear, dear friends who used to live in Cumming. We would visit them a few times a year and I was always enchanted by your town's beauty. They loved living there, but an interesting fact: On their second day in, they had a rock thrown in their driveway, with a piece of paper wrapped around it, inviting them to the local KKK meeting. They didn't go, of course, but I'll never forget that.
The Gelatinous Cube is amazing! It's so funny to think about.
Awesome post for this time of the year :-) I like "mild" horror movies but there are a few that scare a living c**p out of me. One of the monsters that I definitely can't face on the screen is the Pinhead from Hellraiser. Yikes.
So yeah, went over to read Cubic. And that has to be the first time I had pity for a grave robber lol!!
Well, dragons are not monsters. Let's get this straight. They are more like large flame-breathing pets. ;)
First, the Gelatinous Cube brings back great memories of die rolling and miniature figures and yes... Gary Gygax. Ahhhh.
My favorite monster will always be the skeletons from Jason and the Argonauts - the effects done by Harry Haryhausen. That was the first time it had been done and they are still the best stop-motion creatures ever. I swear they look real. I've been fascinated by them ever since.
Now given that I will add that the alien from alien also has a special place in my heart as do all the zombies from night of the living dead and finally... Smaug and the Balrog from the LOTR. I mean the Balrog was cool when it was in my imagination but when they put it on the screen, wow, it was even cooler.
And finally I recently read EJ Patten's The Hunter Chronicles Return to Exile and he introduced me to a slew of new Lovecraftian creatures that really captured my imagination like Wargarous, Shadow Wargs, and Echos. Very creepy and cool.
Now I'm off to read your post...
Eiw. The gelatinous cube is definitely gross. Kind of makes me think of Slimer from Ghostbusters and my children's snotty little noses too!
Oh cool! How blob-esque! Love it.
Nice blog chain topic!
I've always liked the neutrality of the Cube's alignment. It sweeps the underground corridors digesting everything in its wake without thought or care. Kind of terrifying if it were a truly sentient creature.
Mine our vampires of course!
Did I just write our instead of are? WTH? I mean My favorites ARE vampires. It must be Monday. :)
As a child afraid of things in the closet and under the bed. Never,never let you foot hang over the side of the bed.
Currently, the devil and his minions, scariest thing around.
Love this print "Sweet Halloween Dreams" (Google it and you'll see) Paddy, still sleeps by the side of my bed.
Ha! Great topic! I love flipping through the D&D Monster manual. Some of the things in there are ridiculous.
Terrific! I'm always impressed by people who can craft short (and short short) stories.
I loved it. You may be on to something with fast ooze. I don't think I've ever heard of that before. It can be like the fast zombies that have rocked the zombie world in the last decade or so. Turn the genre upside down!
Dragons are the quintessential monster! I love how mythology has treated them so many different ways, from the greedy dragon to the wise, magical dragon, and with so many different looks. Great topic, Matt. Happy Halloween!
ooo so many monsters to choose from :D LOVE dragons...hmmm, this is actually a harder question than it seems LOL I'll have to ponder...
This is a great choice. Not as good as mine, mind you but still good :)
I always did hate running into these things.
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