As the title says, it's a collection of scary stories from each of the 50 states (plus one for Washington, DC), presented in two-page spread, a three-to-five paragraph story on one page, a gorgeous illustration of that story by Kalda on the facing page. Most of these are ghost stories, an aspect of the paranormal which I am not particularly interested in, and that includes the Ohio story (That of a "Racer Boy", a ghost said to appear on the tracks of a roller coaster at Kings Island).
A few of the stories involve cryptids though, a subject which I am quite interested in. What grabbed my attention was the appearance of Mothman in the upper left corner of the cover.
The story of Mothman is the West Virginia's entry in the book. Alexander's five-paragraph retelling includes the first sighting as that of the gravediggers who saw something large with wings and the most famous one, that of the Scarberrys and Mallettes in the TNT area, which lead to the newspaper report that seemingly kicked off the flap of sightings and its media coverage.
The only mistake I noticed was in this sentence: "Some locals wondered if the Mothman was living in the nearby nuclear power plant, but police found no evidence of the creature or anyone there." West Virgina does not actually have any nuclear power plants, nor has it ever. Alexander probably meant the TNT area, a series of World War II-era concrete, igloo-like structures in which explosives were once stored. It is now the McClintic Wildlife Management Area, a locale Alexander mentions when telling the story of the Scarberry/Mallette sighting.
But what we're most interested in here is the image of Mothman. As you can see, Kalda leans on the "moth" in the name, as so many artists do. Note the moth-like wings and the long, fuzzy antennae-like structures on its head. In this, Kalda seems to be following in the footsteps of Frank Franzetta, who painted a moth-man of a Mothman on the cover of High Times, and sculptor Bob Roach, who created the shiny statue of the cryptid that now stands in Point Pleasant.
No witnesses actually reported anything moth-like about Mothman, of course, aside from wings and nocturnal habits. Despite the spots, Kalda does get the creatures two most notorious features into his image: Big, black wings and staring red eyes (I like also the way he depicts Mothman as essentially face-less, no witness ever being able to articulate what its face might have looked like).
I also like how Kalda gives his Mothman such long, creepy fingers...and even long toes. It's a really gorgeous image.
The other handful of crytpids covered, each of which is also beautifully rendered, are Alaska's humanoid otter creatures the Kushtaka (Alexander's clever title? "Otterly Terrifying"), Massachusetts' Pukwudgies, a handful of different lake monsters from Michigan and Missouri's hairy humanoid Momo (who looks a bit like a cross between Chewbacca and Cartoon Network's Brak, I thought).
The Pukwudgie image is particularly potent, and I can imagine it scaring the hell out of me had I encountered it as a little kid, monsters scraping their claws on my bedroom windows being a particularly vivid fear of mine (elicited by the sound of utility wires creaking against the tree branches outside my window).
Perhaps also of note is Iowa's chocolate-eating ghost, star of an urban legend in which, if one leaves a candy bar on a particular bridge at a particular time, the chocolate will disappear, leaving only an empty wrapper. Though presumably a ghost, Kalda's brilliant illustration suggests a sort of red-eyed giant monster...while simultaneously looking like it might just be the shape of the trees and shadows on the bridge.
Anyway, next time you're in the library, do take the time to check this book out. You can see more of Kalda's work on his website and his Instagram account.
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