Times are tough for families nowadays. It seems like you can’t turn around without bill collectors harassing you or repo men taking that totally banging 72 inch flat screen TV you just bought. What are the best ways to reduce expenditures and start saving money? Use energy more efficiently? Purchase only the food you need? How about feeding your children to creatures that inhabit the space under their beds?
That’s the one.
The boogeyman and monsters under the bed have enjoyed popularity in the nightmarish world of kids’ minds for ages. How a creature would have adapted to living in such conditions is beyond me. I mean, there isn’t a great deal of food available in that rather limited ecosystem, and if your predations are thwarted by your meal simply hiding under a blanket…well, let’s just say you’re not a very effective organism. One would hope that a monster would not be deterred by a cloth shield. These are the issues affecting today’s monsters, I suppose.
I imagine a paneled room with a rather large table surrounded by hideous beasts. They sip their coffee and look over the day’s memos. Bob presents his latest model on how to bypass the incredible defenses used by their prey. The room is silent. Jeremy thinks about the laundry he has to do and the children he has yet to eat.
That’s some potent imagery.
It’s interesting to see the out-right dismissal of childhood monsters by those of us that have left that part of life behind us. I’ve talked about cognitive dissonance before when it comes to the supernatural. There are many among us that truly believe in Sasquatches and Popabawas and all kinds of ridiculous things but when confronted with the concept of a boogeyman, we snicker. Personally, I’m not sure what, exactly, gives credence to a sasquatch and denies the existence of boogeymen. If there’s evidence there, I’d love to hear it.
I guess what I’m saying is that if people want to believe in the supernatural you can’t really believe in one specific thing. It’s fun to think about, but the reality is that belief in the kraken but denial of ghosts or belief in Sasquatches but derision toward psychics seems disingenuous at best. There’s no hard evidence for any of it and while cherry-picking our beliefs is what the majority of us do, it doesn’t make it rational.
I prefer to let these concepts come alive in the world of imagination and metaphor. The natural world is a magnificent place without the existence of the supernatural. Besides, if these things were real they’d become boring after a while anyway.
You’d look under the bed, find yet another boogeyman. You’d let out a long belabored sigh, grab your phone, and call the boogeyman exterminator. He’d take care of the issue and you’d be out a hundred bucks.
Imagination is infinitely more exciting.
It is also a lot cheaper.
You might even make a profit
whoops
http://www.pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF003-Bed_Monster.gif
i disowned my parents when i found out that they had made a deal with the bottom pit of hells demons to haunt both my closet and the space underneath my bed. luckily i had a good lawyer and got quite a bit in damages
theyre stuck with the haunted bedroom…
I don’t believe in the supernatural but my gosh I still get shivers thinking about how afraid I was of the boogeyman as a child! My cousin told me he lived in the strange cupboard in the bedroom we used to sleep in when I stayed with my grandmother. That ruined a lot of good night’s sleeps!
hand drawn font <3
That dad is awesome. Great hair, rad slippers, and a conniving look that brings all the ladies to -his- “haunted bedroom”
PS Panel 4 is amazing. Great work
That’s a sensible hell-beast, making sure he has permission and everything.
Being polite is extremely important in the horrifying underworld these creatures frequent, apparently. haha
If a person believes they saw, for example, a ghost, or have a close friend they trust who claims to have seen one, they should then believe in boogeymen? I’m not sure I’m buying that. You can claim there’s some sort of natural explanation for the ghost they saw, but really they’re being pretty rational – they’re drawing conclusions based on their experiences.
You make a pretty good point. I’m just saying that evidence is key for me. Without evidence, all of these things are sort of on the same level and even seeing something (like a ghost, for instance) is not reliable. When I hear most people tell stories about ghosts, it’s always out of the corner of their eye or in the dark. It’s not wrong to believe in them, I just think it’s often silly when people are so vehemently against certain paranormal things yet they believe in ghosts or something else.
Really what I’m against is hypocrisy. If you believe in ghosts because of personal testimony and accept the fact that someone else believes in Sasquatch because of THEIR experience, then I don’t really see a problem with it.
I love the comics, but I love your ramblings even more! As far as belief goes I think some things are a bit easier to believe than others. Sasquatch? Sure! Ghosts? Definitely! Aunt Mildred who channels the spirits of her dead Canasta buddies? I’d buy it. Psychics that give you love advice for $19.95 a minute? Maybe not so much. I think there are psychic people out there,but there are a lot more people who are good at acting it out.
Thanks for getting the boogeyman song stuck in my head for the next few hours. haha.
I listened to it probably five times while I was drawing the strip, no lie!
I’d rather imagine that some monsters are stronger than others so the weak ones (like Sasquatches) are already dead.
They could had a big tournament with all monsters in the world to decide a king of them. Fact
I’m going to have to use my considerable influence with the monster community to set this sort of thing up!
I don’t think “cherry-picking” beliefs is entirely insincere. I mean, if you look at it from a cultural perspective, there’s a reason a people from South America would believe in Chupacabras, but not Sasquatch, and vice versa. And ghosts are another thing entirely.
What you’re saying there isn’t exactly false but it also isn’t relevant to what I’m saying. You’re talking about what is, essentially, a cultural ignorance and you’re right, if someone doesn’t KNOW about Sasquatches they can’t possibly believe in them. I’m talking more about people that know of and believe in one paranormal subject but choose to deride others.
When I was little the “boogymen” didn’t just stay in my closet they were also trying to get me through the water pipes in the bathroom. There was two of them in the tall/skinny guy that was in charge but stupid, and a short/fat guy who was actually smarter. I didn’t wash my hands for years because I was afraid that they would get me. Then I moved when I was 12 and they didn’t move with me. I was my hands throughly now.
*wash not was in the last sentence….
Did she died?
If nothing else, picking andchoosing your supernatural beliefs means living in a world where Bigfoot can’t battle a chupacabra, werewolves and vampires can’t team up buddy cop movie style/battle, and so on. Limited belief also serves to limit how awesome the world can be when no one’s looking.
too close?
http://www.toonhole.com/2010/08/monster-in-the-closet/
…nah
hahaha Preeeeettyyy different…I find it really funny that they were both posted on the same exact day.
Ironic, as we just finished the 48 Hour Film Festival in Portland, and got horror as our genre. What was the first thing that came to mind? Monsters under the bed. Our monster though ended up being a bit different…
If you click my username above to see the video on youtube (it’s NSFW though, due to gore and language).
I legitimately thought the title was “I’m Your Bridegroom,” and was thus confused.
Hey this reminds me of boxer-hockey. Your character designs are similar.
As for the food source of the monsters beneath the bed… I my studies show that they feed on the nightmares that they cause in children… many of these said monsters have evolved to match what ever currently scares children the most these days… The few monsters I’ve seen that can shape-shift often are the ones that tend to be the most well fed… I deduce that this is due to their ability to closer match what scares the child… also I do believe these few tend to travel between children, most like by way of an alternate dimension… but I have yet to catch one doing so…