King Kong Cartoons

Two series featuring the cryptid King Kong. Both feature the giant gorilla (Gigantopithecus?) as a heroic figure.

The first series, from the 1960s, introduces a recurrent theme when the preternatural is translated into children's culture and follows the now familar motif of a boy and his monster.



The second, a more recent series, also allies Kong with humans and, like the Godzilla cartoon from the 1980s, grants the monstrous hero superpowers.

Starting the Blog

I'm going to start off the blog with a series of video clips (more to follow in the coming weeks) of children's series and other television programs featuring the preternatural. I am basically looking to set a base both for what the prenatural is and how it can used both positively and negatively (and sometimes both) in popular culture.

Michael Torregrossa

Welcome

Welcome to Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture, a new resource sponsored by the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area of the Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association and hosted by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages. I've spent a number of years exploring the monsters of medievalism and have come to the conclusion that, in order to understand the monstrous, one needs to look at the bigger picture and take into account the complete history of preternatural entities, including their origins, evolution over time, and relationship to similar creatures across the globe. As a result, this blog was brought to life in May 2013 in the hopes of providing a place to promote further study and debate of the preternatural where ever and when ever it may appear. 

Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair, Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association
Co-Founder, The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages