Hot on the heels of Friday’s Slaughtered Lamb T-Shirt post comes this great find by ArcLight: another excellent American Werewolf in London t-shirt, this time from FEARWERX. It was added to their catalog three days ago and it’s already out of stock, but hopefully it’ll come back soon!

I’m really liking this design, especially Werewolf David and the wonderfully decomposed Jack.

Fangs and Fur is a new documentary by Italian filmmaker and wildlife photographer Michele Cogliati. In the 10-minute made-for-web film, Cogliati discusses the historical link between wolves, werewolves, human serial killers and cannibalism.

“The wolf is a pack hunter and a daylight predator,” Cogliati explains. “The werewolf is a lone hunter and often depicted as a night stalker. I have a few answers to justify these remarkable differencies that I’d like to share.”

The entire documentary is available for free at www.fangsandfur.com, as either streaming video or just the narration audio. I found it an interesting listen– what did you think?

Last Exit to Nowhere is a UK-based t-shirt company that specializes in designs “which are inspired and pay homage to some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20th century fiction.” They’ve got some pretty incredible shirt designs, including one that fans of An American Werewolf in London will recognize:

The holiday shipping deadline for North America has already passed, but if you’re in the UK (or anywhere else and don’t mind waiting), you can snag one of these shirts for £17.50. Alternatively, if you’ve got a great idea for a shirt Last Exit to Nowhere ought to create, let MovieMaker Magazine know and you could win a shirt for free.

The Telegraph is running an article about an 11-year-old boy with hypertrichosis, and the efforts of New York’s Columbia University to find an effective method of treatment for his ailment. Prithviraj Patil is one of an estimated 50 people in the world who have congenital hypertrichosis, or “werewolf syndrome”– a condition that causes heavy hair growth on the face and upper body, and results in a werewolf-like appearance. Despite his condition, Pirthviraj is “healthy, sporty and popular at school”– a regular kid, in other words. Alas, the world being full of judgemental dicks as it is, Pirthviraj suffers at the hands of others for his appearance, and he and his family have tried everything from homeopathy to laser surgery in an effort to make his apperance more conventional.

Enter Doctor Angela Christiano, an associate professor of molecular dermatology and genetics at Columbia University. Doctor Christiano her laboratory focus on the genetics and biology of hair loss. Their recent study of cases like Prithviraj’s have lead them to the first step in an effective treatment for hypertrichosis: injections of testosterone.

If you’re interested in learning more about Pirthviraj and other “wolf children”, check out the unfortunately-titled Discovery Channel documentary “My Shocking Story: Real Wolf Kids“.

Derek Newman-Stille, a senior tutor at Ontario’s Trent University and M.A. graduate in Anthropology, has made monsters and werewolves the subject of his academic research for the past three years. “Studying something like this reveals a lot about how people of the past define themselves because monsters embody everything that is not human,” he said in a recent interview with the Peterborough Examiner. In an article posted on Trent University’s web site, he goes on to explain that people are simultaneously fascinated and repulsed by the idea of the werewolf (and not just its fearsome appearance) because the creature is a mixture of human and animal: “Werewolves are the perfect symbol for liminality – occupying a transitory state and not fixed as either human or wolf but able to fluctuate between the two states.”

I find it extremely encouraging that the pursuit of this sort of research is gaining credibility in the acedemic world. A subject as deeply woven into history and psychology as this ought not to be dismissed simply because it’s fantastic… or frightening.

“When people see monsters we are both repulsed by it and we find it really fascinating,” Newman-Stille tells the Examiner. “The fear response is the same as a pleasure response. People really like things that scare them.”

Today is Election Day in the United States. I’m Canadian, but my significant other is American, so I can still say that we voted for Barack Obama. Aside from being the best candidate for the job, Obama has established a clear pro-lycanthrope record. On the other hand, John McCain has gone out of his way to spite the werewolf community by choosing some kind of a vampire-harpy creature as a running mate.

Among Obama’s werewolf-centric initiatives:

• A minimum of one full moon every week.
• Private transformation booths to be installed at all national and city parks.
• An annual clothing expense rebate of up to $1,000 to cover the cost of clothing ripped, shredded or otherwise destroyed during a transformation. Receipts required.
• A ban on the import or sale of all silver artifacts, with the exception of wolfshead cane toppers.
• A reduction in wages and support infrastructure for dog catchers and animal control workers.

So remember, folks, a vote for Obama is a vote for Werewolf Rights. So get out there and vote!

It’s nearly Halloween, which means it’s time to put some newspapers down on the kitchen table, roll up your sleeves and attack everyone’s favourite squash with your very best Henckel! And what better visage to carve into your pumpkin than a werewolf? If you need a little assistance in choosing the right werewolf design for your pumpkin, perhaps this gallery of werewolf pumpkin-carving designs will help. You’ll find links and credits below.

1. Kathryn J. Hammond
2. PurpleSharpie
3. McGalio, from stock illustration on iStockPhoto.com
4. Pumpkin Wayne
5. John Anderson courtesy of intricateart.com
6. Rick Heinz courtesy of intricateart.com
7. klocean
8. Fleur-de-louis
9. Yano

I’m from Vancouver, BC, so even the tiniest mention of werewolfy activity in my city gets a mention on this site. Local rockers The Town Pants have just returned home from a 4-month tour of the United States, and they had a story for local (awesome) paper The Georgia Straight about a werewolf encounter in New York:

In the moonlight whatever it was was bigger than a dog, or a coyote. It was a large, hairy all over and yellowish. It might have been a wolf but I’ve never seen one up close and they’re not that big. It was as long as as a tall person. I’m certain this was a werewolf. But I didn’t want to get too close.

Get the full story here. It involves science!

If there’s an award for “weirdest post title”, I think I just won it.

Of course, the werewolf was on stilts at the time. Seriously. This was at Six Flags Great America’s Fright Fest, and the werewolf in question was a park employee in a costume that involved stilts. He tripped, possibly while avoiding a vampire on a scooter, and fell through the window of Antoine’s Ice Cream Parlor. According to the park’s public relations manager, Brooke Gabbert, one woman was taken to a local hospital and treated for a minor cut on her cheek, probably from the broken class.

The werewolf was apparently unhurt.

I can’t make this stuff up, folks. This is real life.