Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The beasts of the "Tall Tales Postcards."

The "Tall Tales Postcards" were the precursors to modern photoshopped memes. It was an artistic trend in the early 20th century which depicted a fantastical, larger-than-life version of Wisconsin through postcards.

These were made by cutting up photographs, collaging them together, and then taking a new photo of the composite image. Basically manually doing what memers do with photoshop today.

A lot of these tall tale postcards feature insanely large produce, boasting at our agricultural prowess. Others depict giant animals. Especially gigantic fish (because of course).

One of my favorite themes in the tall tale postcard is the depiction of Wisconsinite "buck hunts." Except rather than a typical buck hunt, these were referring to "bucks" as in "male rabbits," and showed hunters going up against scores of gigantic bunnies.

My illustration here is a recreation of a tall-tale postcard which depicted "kickers," gigantic frogs which lashed out at unwary hunters with their powerful legs.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Humpdumple.

A legend from Wisconsinite game wardens, the humdumple is a warty, one-eyed, potato-faced dwarf with massive, misshapen feet. He loves nothing more than to ruin new roads and trails, and so whenever a new one is constructed, he emerges by night and stumbles around with his massive, heavy feet, causing potholes to form.

On this day in history March 9th, in the year 1935, Wisconsinite heroes fought a valiant duel for the rights of Wisconsin cheese, and in doing so brought civilization and culture to Iowa! This is the story of the Great Limburger Duel of Dubuque!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRYKYEIEEAI

Ever since I started really diving into State and local history, I've been noticing a lot of crap like this: People performatively want to look like they care about Native Americans, and so they'll post a sign or try to say something about Native American history... without putting in any effort of actually learning the history in question.

They don't actually care, they just want to LOOK like they care about Native American history.

Case in point here, this sign is something I saw in a hotel in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, claiming that the "first inhabitants of the land now known as Oak Creek" were the Potawatomi, followed by a list of basic facts about the Potawatomi that you'd probably be able to find in the first paragraph of their Wikipedia article.

But here's the thing: The main claim on this sign is just wrong.

As far as we can tell, the Ho-Chunk were the first people to live in this area. (There perhaps was someone there even earlier, but the Ho-Chunk are really the earliest that history can confirm.)

The Potawatomi came to Wisconsin itself relatively recently. Originally from what is now southern Michigan, they fled West into Wisconsin when the Iroquois tried to genocide them. They arrived in what is now Door County sometime before the French arrived in Wisconsin, and gradually began moving south along the eastern shores of Wisconsin, coming to what is now Oak Creek before that land was then purchased from them by Yankee colonists.

The Ho-Chunk didn't really like the fact the Potawatomi were occupying their land, but following the Battle of Death's Door (in which a windstorm capsized Ho-Chunk and Potawatomi war canoes and killed many warriors on both sides) they didn't really have the manpower and strength to drive the Potawatomi out.

But because the land was purchased from the Potawatomi, these people who want to appear as if they are knowledgeable in Native American history just assume that they must have always lived here, and that this is like their ancestral homeland spanning back to the dawn of time.

And so stuff like this ends up on signage, spreading misinfo about the history of the land, and obfuscating the actual history.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Double Face.

The double face, or hestovatohkeo'o, was a large, hairy, ogre-like creature found in the folklore of the Dakota Sioux. It belonged to the "man eating giant" archetype found in the folklore of other Native American groups in the area, but was frankly the most bizarre and unique of that group.

The creature had a second face on the back of its head, and it would attempt to get you to look at that face. If you did, you would become paralyzed, and the double face would then stab you to death with his sharp elbows.

Even if you didn't look at its secondary face, the creature might unfurl one of its massive ears which it would use to catch you like a net. Each ear could hold up to three men, and the earwax was acidic, and so anyone caught in the double face's ear would be digested.

Overall, it's a gloriously weird legend.

Exactly the kind of weirdness that makes me love folklore so much.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Weary Road Imps

This is an obscure one, and is just one of many supernatural phenomenon attached to Weary Road in Evansville. In addition to the ghost of old man Weary, the black shucks, and ghost lights seen along the road, there are reports of tiny demon-like imps flying in and out among the trees.

There also aren't really any physical descriptions of what these imps look like and so, since I was given artistic license here... this is also technically Elder Scrolls: Daggerfall fanart. Just because Daggerfall was peak.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Dwendi

Realized I hadn't updated this one yet, which is a bit crazy since it's one of the illustrations that I like the most!

The dwendi are one of Wisconsin's more modern gnome legends, taking the appearance of tiny men with pointed ears and hand-stitched, earth-tone clothing. They have been reported both in the Kettle Moraine in the southeast as well as up north near Eagle River.

They are known for strange ritualistic behavior, including arranging stones in odd patterns, and dancing around small campfires while waving sticks.

I think it's because I'm from a programming background, but now that I've been paying more attention to online art communities I find a lot of the attitudes within online artist circles to be obnoxious.

Like I just want to share my art with people. But a lot of other artists are, like, psychotically controlling over even really low-effort stuff. People will absolutely ruin their art going over-the-board with watermarks trying to make sure that no one can steal an image no one ever would want to steal in the first place.

Meanwhile in the programming community, releasing your work so that other people can use it is just, like, a common practice. There's a mentality of "Sure, take my work and build on to it! That's what it's there for brother!" Meanwhile in artist spaces people will be like "You clearly copied this character's pose from my work, you've STOLEN from me!"

Just completely different mindsets between the two.

"Pinky the Ninja Mosasaurus", made an image based on a character my three-year-old daughter came up with.

Originally she was holding the ninja sword with her flipper, but my daughter said "No that's not right" and explained that obviously the sword should be protruding from the ninja-mosasaurus' back. Also initially asked me to make her blue. Then had me change to red. Then purple. But now, finally, the image is perfect.

Following the whims of a three-year-old's OC design has been fun!

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: Ghost Carriages

Not much to write as way of description on this one: There's been plenty of sightings of ghostly horse-drawn carriages throughout Wisconsin's history. Unsurprisingly it was more common before the invention of the automobile, and in the modern era haunted cars or spectral motorcycles have sort of replaced the phenomenon.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Swamp Augur and ... the other Swamp Augur.

There are two creatures that go by the name "Swamp Augur" in Wisconsin lore, one being a type of fish, and the other a bird.

The Swamp Augur Bird is rather straightforward: A ducklike bird with a corkscrew bill which it uses to dig into the swampy earth looking for food.

The Swamp Augur Fish is a fish with a corkscrew horn which likes to drill through the bottom of boats. If this happened while you were in the boat, you were supposed to sprinkle cayenne pepper down the hole and onto the fish's snout.

This caused the Swamp Augur to violently sneeze. And the Swamp Augur, as something of a freak, actually enjoyed this. And so it would plug the hole with its nose so that you could sprinkle more cayenne pepper on it. As long as you kept indulging in this fish's weird pleasure, it would keep the hole in your boat plugged with its snout long enough for you to get to shore.

Illustrating every legendary creature in Wisconsin folklore: The Magic Horse and the Magic Ox.

These are two legends that I find rather neat, as they were recorded as legends among Wisconsin's Ojibwe, but have clear European influences, and are likely adaptations of legends that the Ojibwe got from the French.

Both the horse and the ox are actually princes who have been cursed (by either a witch or the devil himself), both have a host of magical powers which they use to aid a heroic warrior on a quest. In return for the gifts they offer the hero, they eventually request that the hero decapitate them, which breaks the curse and turns the horse/ox back into a prince.

In essence, they were sort of mythical fusions between the Native American concept of animal spirits and the European concept of a cursed prince.

The horse was capable of disguising itself, of turning a handful of flowers into a garden, and of making a magic sword and armor which a person could use to singlehandedly defeat armies.

The ox had two detachable, magical horns. The left horn could produce a massive feast, and the right horn contained a warhorse and a magical suit of armor. The ox also had the ability to prevent a windigo from reattaching its severed heads, thereby allowing the hero he was helping to permanently slay a windigo to complete his quest.

I really like legends like this where the legends of two very different cultures blend together into something unique.