In Search of the Jersey Devil

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Remember that show In Search of which ran in the late ’70s? Leonard Nimoy did the voice-over. It was sort of a Chariots of the Gods for syndicated television.

I found some sketches that predated the full figure sketch of the Garden State’s favorite demon that I posted earlier. They were done in technical pen in a sketchbook while debating Dan Platt as to what the legendary beast actually looked like.

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2 Responses to In Search of the Jersey Devil

  1. Dan Platt says:

    Dude – you found ’em! I remember these so very well. Love it Joe, love it!

    Now I’m craving iced tea. -dp

  2. Joe Williams says:

    I knew you’d appreciate this!

    You know, Outside of the occasional Snapple, I haven’t had iced tea in years. Definitely not the mix out of a can. It wouldn’t be the same without the smell of plastilina and foam latex curing in the oven.

    This guy should eventually get his own movie. What is the Jersey Devil? Is he a lesser demon escaped from Hell? Is there a portal to Hell in the Pine Barrens? Do the gates of Hell exist in New Jersey?

    I can see a movie in almost pitch blackness. Maybe moonlight glints off of pine trunks, but it’s seriously scary, what was that sound, my flashlight won’t penetrate darkeness. Maybe our knucklehead’s only source of light is the LCD on his camcorder. Out of this blackness strides the Devil hunched over with the weight of its years but still powerful and huge. It’s teeth chitter cicada-like. Its fetid breath expels in frosty plumes in the chilly Pine Barrens air. Strange sounds roil from the creature’s ancient guts like the purring of several cats stuffed into a sack. Its seemingly sightless eyes transfix our hero seeing deeper than normal eyes, seeming to peer into his very soul, perhaps taking inventory.

    Suddenly, it’s off becoming one with the darkness. He hears a couple of flaps of leathery wings and then complete and utter silence. It’s only then that our hero remembers to breath.

    Cornball, but I came up with it on the spot. It would be nice to do a genuinely scary monster movie. A scariness that people can relate to. What’s out there in the dark? The Jersey Devil?

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