ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that cryptozoology is largely patterned after “cryptofiction” stories. Emerging in the late 19th century, this sci-fi subgenre inspired a cottage industry of both pulp-fiction stories and movies in the early to mid-20th century, as well as later tales published in men’s adventure magazines during the 1970s. The author will show how such stories were a key component in the formulation of cryptozoology as a lived practice and served as templates for the kind of monsters cryptozoologists would pursue, the kind of theories they would endorse, and how they should conduct themselves as (pseudo-) scientific explorers. It will argue that cryptozoologists long for a comic book–style version of science, one that restores mystery and adventure to a seemingly disenchanted world.
