From the Archives of the Idyll-Beast Research Center

     From time to time we like to poke around in the old archives and dust off a bit of evidence from the more or less distant past. This week's gem reminds us how one Idyllwild old-timer, Ernie Maxwell,  imagined the Beast.

     We could discuss probable height and weight, the length of the arms, the articulation of the knees and hips, all in the name of trying to dismiss the possibility that the cartoon depicts a man in a fur suit. We could present expert opinions as to the state of the art in fur suit making the year the cartoon was published, and the possibility of an Idyllwild resident (perhaps even Maxwell himself) having such a suit.

     But all this misses the point. Emax was a credible artist, and although his cartoons of people were described by one editor as "grotesque," his Idyll-Beast is quite sleek. It's hairstyle correlates well with modern sightings. He seems to have outdone himself with realism, to have pushed the self-imposed limits of the cartoonist's medium to bring the reader face to face with the Beast. And for that we salute him.

Let's Dance!

     The internet is full of mysterious video. Twenty Most Convincing Bigfoot Sightings. Top Ten UFO Cases. Twenty Five Things You Should Never Do If You Are Over Forty. The Greg Jones Band's new video for their song "Milwaukee Step." This last item features a number of Idyllwild locations and residents, including  what appear to be actor Connor O'Farrel and an Idyll-Beast. 

     

      As usual, the evidence leaves a lot to the imagination;  Is that really Connor or is it a costume? What's with that tie?  Did they train him to do that or is it a case of "monkey see, monkey do?" Is Conner getting scale for this?  And as to the Beast,  how did he get involved?  Was the inclusion of these two subjects intentional or did their images just "show up" when the tape was reviewed? The producers of the video have so far declined to comment. The clips do provide an answer to one old question; "can they dance?"

    

      New evidence often illuminates older material.  Greg's toe-tapping ode to leaving behind a bad love may be the missing link cryptozoologists have long sought. After a detailed and exhaustive analysis, I feel confident that we now know what the lumbering, black-furred biped seen in the famous Paterson/Gimlin film was doing....  He (or she) was doing the Milwaukee Step.