MONSTROPEDIA

(Investigator 137, 2010 March)


The website www.monstropedia.org calls itself "the largest encyclopedia about monsters."

With over 2100 articles Monstropedia far surpasses Investigator Magazine’s efforts on monsters which are limited to vampires, werewolves, yowies, fairies, a few alleged land and water monsters, alien intelligence, and some general cryptozoology.

Monstropedia considers monsters under the following main headings:

  • Angels and Demons;
  • Artificial Monsters;
  • Corporeal undead;
  • Cryptids and dinosaurs;
  • Fairy creatures;
  • Human Monsters;
  • Paranormal entities;
  • Fabulous beasts;
  • Shapeshifters;
  • Monstrous art.

Under "Human Monsters" we find 31 articles about various serial killers (Manson, Bundy, Jack the Riper, etc) plus such topics as Satanism, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Porphyria and Necrophilia.

The home page says: "The mission of Monstropedia is to create the ultimate online media library about monsters, gathering information and documents from the earliest myths onwards to the present day, developing a coherent set of methods to analyse each creature and attaching current theories about their existence."
 
Monsters are defined as:
•    A creature, usually legendary or imaginary…that combines parts from various
     animal or human forms.
 •    A creature having a strange or frightening appearance.
 •    An animal, plant, or other organism having structural defects or deformities.
 •    A very large animal.
 •    One who inspires horror or disgust.

Monstropedia estimates that "there are more than 5000 different monsters to be catalogued."