Whilst I read quite a bit, and occasionally write a lot, occasionally I run across authors that completely stun me with the sheer magnitude of their talents. Michael Roukas is one of them. [WARNING: Strong Language]

In a recent article (http://werewolf-news NULL.com/2009/07/ultra-super-lycanthropic-travesty-ii-werewolf-book-covers-of-stupid-x-the-reckoning/) at werewolf-news.com (http://werewolf-news NULL.com/), Roukas writes with an interplay between verbose literature and crass profanity that highlights the dual nature of the subject matter in a way that is simultaneously subtle and fuckin’ blatant.

For reasons that modern Roukasian science has yet to discover, most monster-fans shun lycanthropes in favor of books featuring thin pale guys who sip blood, sparkle, and languish in a dark existential tardzone. Of course, this may prompt me to smoothly remove my box-frame emo glasses as I lounge in my Panera booth-seat and say something like: “Well then what, dear reader, constitutes a monster to begin with? Perhaps his multifacetedness is all too eager to transgress our subjective demarcations of criticism and culture?”

While that’s a legitimate question, fuck it for now. There are tons, tons of werewolf book covers out there that suck royal truckloads of ass, and I have some ideas why.

What did I tell you?

Apparently he had a website once, but it is no longer. It’s probably all for the best, though. Aspiring writers reading through his work would probably become demoralised and take up something easier, like quantum chemistry (http://www NULL.ccc NULL.uga NULL.edu/member_page NULL.php?id=8).

“The very idea of a human being turning into a wolf or wolfish creature is inherently absurd, but so is Einstein’s general relativity. So was the idea of a free republic in 1776. So was a Judeo-Christian God dying on the cross for the sins of humankind.”

So amazing.