Emile, the creator of A Book Of Creatures and the artist who draws these monsters, told us that he has always been creating imaginary creatures.

“At least as far as 1st grade I used to fill up copybooks with such terrifying beings as crab dragons and snakehead striders. Eventually, I grew fascinated with the creatures our imagination has dreamed up, whether they were misinterpreted real animals or explanations for natural causes or simply flights of fancy,” the artist recounted.

But what really made Emile make A Book Of Creatures was discovering the Caspilly–“a unicorn fish that stabs whales to death–in an old book about the sea, and I went ‘hey, I didn't know about that! Everyone should know about it!’"

That was the origin of the project. “I collected a bunch of creatures over time, and eventually progressed to serious in-depth research to describe and illustrate them.”

Emile believes that there is no end to what our imagination can come up with. “That said, I also want to convey how trends in creatures exist - Europe has so many dangerous water horses, Africa has swallowing monsters... By putting them together I want to make it easier to compare them,” he said.

Moreover, the artist explained that his other mission is to make it clear how important research and going back to original sources is. “There's a lot of poor, surface-level scholarship that's been done on mythical creatures, and I want to help untangle that by citing primary references. That, I think, is the most important thing to me, making sure references are available.”

When Emile started ABC, there was relatively little well-researched and illustrated resources on "real" mythical creatures ("’real’ as in they're actually from folklore and myth, as opposed to created for a literary or fantasy project,” he explained).

But this has been changing. “I would say that followers would be interested in myths, legends, folklore, fantasy - looking for the origins of a creature mentioned in a book, perhaps? But also an interest in science and the natural world is present, after all, a lot of creatures are misidentified animals that would be familiar to us today,” Emile said.

Readers frequently write to him, informing him of creatures he hadn't even heard of. “A huge shout-out to them! I wouldn't be where I am today without my readers, who I greatly appreciate.”

When asked what is his favorite creature, Emile said that it’s a tough question since there's so many of them. “I already mentioned the Caspilly, the idea of a unicorn fish that stabs whales to death is hilarious to me. There's the Boongurunguru, a Solomon Islands wild boar with ferns growing on its head and a hornets' nest under its chin. It hates being called a pig, so if someone mentions that a pig must be around, snakes appear everywhere.”

Moreover, “just about all the Icelandic illhveli ('evil whales') are great, with a shout-out to the raudkembingur which will die of sheer rage and frustration if a boat escapes it. The Swiss Butatsch Cun Ilgs is a giant cow's stomach covered with eyes that spit fire. The Swan Valley Monster of Idaho is just ridiculously outlandish and goofy and I love it,” Emile said.

“And did I mention the Owner of Storms, Qasoǵonaǵa, from Argentinian Toba folklore? It's a rainbow-colored anteater that falls from the sky and needs help getting back up! I could go on like this forever.”

Emile said that in the future, he would love to compile everything he has done and plans to make it into a physical Book of Creatures, “although when and how that will happen remains uncertain.” So make sure to support this wonderful project here on Instagram and Facebook!