The Vampire Fan’s Dilemma

I might be considered a vampire hoarder, if you took a look at my bookshelves, my closets, my home. There are vampire books, vampire comics, vampire t-shirts, vampire games, vampire things of all sorts everywhere. I like to consider myself a huge vampire fan, and some of you are probably a lot like me. Many…

Beware the Vengeful Wood Wives

Ever stand at the forest’s edge, stare into its dark depths and wonder what lurks among the old and aged trees? Perhaps it’s nothing more than a rabbit or a deer, or, maybe it’s something much more sinister, something waiting to drain dry anyone unfortunate enough to get too close. That something just might be…

A Nod to Vampirologists

There is a growing terminology that my word processor never likes and continues to remind me of its dislike with angry red squiggly lines. These words include, but are not limited to ‘vampirology,’ ‘vampirologist,’ ‘werewolfology,’ and ‘werewolfologist.’ It prefers words like Parapsychologist or Cryptozoologist, but those words do not reflect the meaning I am searching…

Vampires: The Nightmare Strangers

Someone asked why I thought vampires remained so popular and intriguing. My answer: Because the undead make such a fluid metaphor. Consider; when they first entered into the Western literature and art–with John Polidori’s “The Vampyre.” For much of the next century, vampires popped up in art and theatre as well as different stories. “Varney…

The Loogaroo Vampire

The Loogaroo vampire is very similar to the Asema vampire, which comes from South America. And the Loogaroo also sounds very much like the “Le Loup Garou“, which is a French Canadian myth that is also heard of throughout Europe. However, the Loogaroo vampire is quite different from both of these, and should not be…

The Kappa: A Most Disgusting Vampire

The Japanese have their many forms of the vampire. But the most disgusting form of one has got to be the Kappa. The Kappa vampire live in water sources around Japan, mostly ponds and streams, and they feed on livestock and animals in the area. They are also known to feed off of young children…

Apotamkin or rather, The Cold One

I’m sure we all clearly remember the scene in Twilight when Bella is beginning to get suspicious that there’s something “special” about Edward and goes home to furiously type things into Google. The camera views of what she pulls up are succinct, yet clear enough to give us the understanding that Bella has come across…

The Asema: The Blue Ball Vampire

There’s not a lot of vampire folklore that comes out of South America. But speak about Asemas in the Republic of Suriname, and you’re sure to get a somewhat volatile reaction. Suriname is a country in South America that’s located just above Brazil, and lies on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. It’s also here…

What the heck is a vampire, anyway?

  All this talk about vampires, but what the heck is a vampire anyway? The definition has changed so much over time, that what once was considered a vampire is now called something else. The original European vampires were more like what we would call zombies today. Vampires have been based on demons and ghoulish…

Vampire Diseases

Porphyria – Porphyria is actually a set of rare diseases; and the rarest forms of the disease cause sensitivity to light, facial deformity, and increased growth of hair on the face. There are also prominent mental symptoms, such as hallucinations, anxiety, mania, and others. It would not be hard for one suffering from the disease…